Genesis 8:7 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up.
“The only things I believe the Bible says we should hate are the very things God hates,” Franklin Graham.
The raven got very busy once Noah opened the window of the ark. It made frequent trips out of the ark until the water dried up. Ravens are scavenger birds and they feed on garbage and carrion. After the flood when the waters still covered the earth, the dead and decaying flesh of humans and animals were still floating in the flood water. The raven that tasted the decaying flesh could not stop going back until the land was completely dry. The Kosher Diet, (Leviticus 11), prohibits eating the meat of ravens as it is full of toxins that are harmful for humans.
On the contrary, the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth (Genesis 8:8).
The sinful nature of a man is like a raven but the redeemed godly nature is like that of a dove. Sinful nature will go back to the dead deeds. Like a raven that went back and forth from the ark to the decaying flesh, the sinful nature will entice and excite a person to go back to gorge on the shameful sins. The association with the rebellious and affinity to reprehensible habits will corrupt the soul and tarnish the character. Whereas, like the dove, the obedient will neither feed on the dead deeds nor will they fly back to the destructive addictions.
Dove or Raven?
1. Feed: Doves feed on grains, seeds, greens, berries, fruits, and will occasionally eat insects, snails and earthworms. “What you eat is what you are”. The food we feed our mind with is who we will become. Entertaining futile thoughts and engaging with foul relationships is like feeding on the carcass. Feed on the Word of God.
2. Foster: Doves foster lifetime relationships. Doves mate for life with one companion bird. Build godly relationships and foster goodly associations.
3. Fly: Doves have the capacity to find their way home even hundreds or even thousands of miles away. We can fly back home to the ark of salvation however far we wander away. I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest (Psalm 55:6). Eternity is in the heart of every man. Those who seek the truth will find it in the Living God. The resting home for our fluttering souls is in God’s presence; fly back to God’s presence.
Association with godly and goodly will nourish us but corrupt relationships will ruin our character.
Affinity to the world is hostility towards God. Love what God loves and hate what he hates.
Matthew 10:16b So be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves [have no self-serving agenda].
Prayer: Dearest Lord Jesus, take away the nature of the raven in me that lusts after dirty desires and give me a heart like a dove that is selfless and innocent. Amen.
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