What does a raven, a dove, and a freshly picked olive leaf have to do with your life right now?

More than you think.

In this lesson from Genesis 8 we look at one of the most overlooked passages in the flood narrative and discover that it is not just a story about birds.

The raven that went out and never returned is a picture that Ambrose and Augustine both identified as a portrait of a specific spiritual condition. Someone present in the faith community but still feeding on the things of the old, dead world.

The dove that came back exhausted with nowhere to land is a picture that Chrysostom connected to the God who reaches out His hand to receive the weary and draw them back in.

And the olive branch the dove returned with in her beak is the origin of one of the most universal symbols in human culture. The United Nations uses it. The United States Great Seal carries it. Every diplomat who has ever extended an olive branch is quoting Genesis 8 without knowing it.

But the deepest part of this lesson is what Noah does after the dove stops returning.

He can see the dry ground. He removed the covering of the ark and looked with his own eyes. He could have stepped out the door.

He waited. Two more months. For the word of God before he moved.

That kind of faith - the kind that trusts God’s word over what your own eyes tell you is safe - is exactly what the last few years have been teaching many of us we need.

We go deep into the Hebrew, into the ancient Near Eastern background, into the Church Fathers, and all the way to the resurrection morning when another voice said come out and a dead man walked out of a tomb.

This is verse by verse Genesis study the way it was meant to be taught. Things most Christians have never heard. Connections that will change how you read your Bible.

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