Genesis 8 - Ezra 8- Matthew 8- Acts 8

Genesis 8
- Flood began "February 17th" during Noah's 600th year. The rains ceased after 40 days and that is when he sent the raven, so around "March 29th". He sent the dove seven days later and got confirmation of land seven days after the first attempt, so around "April 12th". The flood lasted 150 days. On "July 17th", the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat (that's three months after he sent the dove and knew there was land). He could see the tops of other mountains on "October 1st". "January 1st" the lands were dry, but Noah did not actually leave the ark until "February 27th" God told Noah he could leave the ark. Noah was on the ark for 1 year and 10 days. (These dates are based on our calendar not Noah's)
What calendar would they have used in Noah's day and age?
- Noah sent out the raven but it never returned.
- He sent out the dove three times and on the second time it returned with an olive branch. The third time it too never came back. This branch told Noah that the flood waters were receding.
- Noah sacrificed some of "every clean animal and clean bird" meaning that either the animals had had babies on board or that some of the original 7 pairs put onto the ark were not used to repopulate the earth.
-Man is evil from youth because of sin, but God promised never to wipe out every living creature again.

Ezra 8
- There were a little over 2,200 men who came into the temple at this time but none were Levites (God's chosen line to be priests)
-Ezra chose 11 wise men (three of whom were named Elnathan) to go find a son of Levi.
- Sherebiah and Hashabiah were descendants of Levi and they brought with them 38 kinsmen.
- They were bringing great wealth of gold and silver into the temple which had been built and Ezra had the people fast for 3 days and humble themselves before God.
- Ezra did not ask the king for protection because he wanted to show God's power and faithfulness to protect them. Ezra's trust in the Lord and God's sovereignty was demonstrated to the Persians.
-They offered 12 bulls as burnt offerings for all of Israel. That is one bull for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. The 12 goats were a sin offering.
- Why the strange numbers of rams an sheep being sacrificed? 96 and 77
- They also delivered the commission to the Persian official. They were first loyal to God and honored Him, but also acknowledged the Persian officials and kept their word of not rebelling against the Persians who had sent them to rebuild the temple.

Matthew 8
- Faith is a big part of this chapter. The beggar asked to be healed and he was. The Centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant, but he told Jesus to simply say the word and he had faith Jesus could heal his servant without going to his house. Jesus marveled at the centurion's faith. He was not God's chosen people, but his faith was stronger than anyone's in Israel. The fact that Jesus marveled shows that this type of faith is NOT the typical response.
- Jesus healing the sick fulfilled another Scripture in Isaiah.
-Why didn't Jesus want the man to bury his dead father?
- How could the disciples not have faith or not know who Jesus was when they had seen so many miracles done by Him?
- 2 men possessed by demons both knew that Jesus was the Son of God before he said anything. They must know there will be a time when they will be "tormented", but they asked to be put into the herd of pigs until that time. The pigs then ran into the water and drown. The people responded in fear and asked Jesus to leave their town.
- Wouldn't this mean that the demons died there?
- How do demons possess people and animals and what are some ways we see this today?

Acts 8
- (v.37) is omitted from the text except for it being in a footnote
- Saul (later Paul) approved of Stephen's stoning and he led a mission to scatter the new church.
- Why and how were the apostles not scattered like the rest of the church?
- Unlike Christ demon depossession in Matthew 8, when Philip casts out demons in Samaria there is great joy.
- Simon, a magician in Samaria, believed and was amazed by the Gospel. He later tried to buy the Holy Spirit's power with money, for which he had to repent after being rebuked by Peter.
- Why were the people not filled with the Holy Spirit when they were baptized?
- Peter and John went down and prayed for them that they would receive the Holy Spirit.
- God told Philip to talk to an Ethiopian official who happened to be reading Isaiah. Philip's response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit was to "run to the man" and share the Gospel. (I wish I were this responsive to the Spirit's prompting.)
- The Spirit "took Philip away" and he started preaching in other towns he came to.
- How did Philip go away by the Holy Spirit? Did he just disappear and reappear somewhere else?