Gen 8: the abatement of the flood and Noah stepping onto dry ground once more

The flood returns the world to its state of being formless and empty (Gen 1:2), but Noah and the animals provide a link with the old while starting something new.

• v1: "but God remembered Noah and all the wild animals...". This is an act of God's grace: his mercy (Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God - Luke 12:6) and wrath/justice (Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted - Ezek 5:3, KJV). The demands of divine justice was answered by the destruction and complete extinguishing of sin, and God hence remembered mercy in wrath.
• v3-5: In the beginning, it took God a moment of time to separate land from water. This time, He sent a wind to blow and cause the water to recede slowly and steadily rather than all at once. In the same way, do not be impatient when you feel that your circumstances aren't changing miraculously in an instant. God may have chosen to work deliverance for your life gradually, so that we shall not "despise the day of small things" (Zec 4:10)
• v4: God caused the ark to rest on a mountain, rather than at sea level, giving us the only clear picture of exactly how deep the flood was. The ark was tossed in the waters, but rested on a mountain so that it might encounter firm ground sooner than if it had come to ground at sea level, and that they might feel ground before they saw land. How deep is your faith rooted? Can you feel/sense/know that breakthrough even before you see it come to pass?
• v6-12: God told Noah when the flood would come, yet he did not tell him when it would go away. When God gives us revelation, it is always because He deems it necessary/edifying. For Noah, knowledge of the timing of the flood was necessary for him to prepare and settle himself in the ark. but revealing the latter would serve only to gratify his curiosity. Concealing it would exercise Noah's faith and patience. Noah, by his own knowledge, would never have been able to have forseen the flood, but he might, through his own means, discover whether the flood had receded. In other words, God isn't gonna spoonfeed you answers which you're supposed to find out yourself!
• The raven flew back and forth, returning to the ark for rest. Probably unsatisfied, Noah sent out a dove, which returned twice into the ark. The Son of Man, the dove, finds no rest for his feet, no peace in this world. The olive branch, an emblem of peace, was not brought by the raven, a bird of prey, but by a humble dove. It is humility, not pride, that brings rest and joy. The law was first sent forth like a raven (savage, bird of prey), but brought nothing from the waters of God's wrath, with which the entire world was deluged, but in the fullness of time, the Gospel was sent forth like a dove, and this presents us with an olive-branch and message of peace, hope and new life.
• Seven day intervals between sending the dove: Sabbath days?
• v13-15: Dry ground, a new beginning, appeared on the first day of the first month. God's power can make dry ground appear even where it seems like you have been deluged by a flood and torrents of circumstances and challenges. Although Noah saw the ground dry on the first day of the first month and would very likely have wanted to get out of the ark on his first opportunity, God made him wait for the right time and told him to go out only until the twenty-seventh day of the second month.
• v15: Noah followed a command to go into the ark, likewise, he did not move out until God told him to. In all our ways acknowledge God, and set Him before us in all our decisions.
• v17: God repeats His blessing for all creation - to be fruitful and multiply
• v20: The first thing Noah did was to give thanks to God, in completing the mercy of His deliverance. He was set loose upon an empty world, where his first material need would have been to build a shelter for himself. Yet he began with serving God, sacrificing only the clean animals. He brought a clean sacrifice that was appointed by God with whatever little he had left, rather than waiting for the animals to multiply first.
• v21: While Noah's offering was small, it was according to his ability, and God, who loves a cheerful giver, accepted it. God, looking forward to Christ sacrifice of Himself as a "fragrant offering" (Eph 5:2), promised never to repeat this judgement.
• Man is inherently wicked (every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood), yet God does not say "therefore that guilty race shall be wholly extinguished, and I will make a full end". He instead shows mercy.
• v22: The continuation of the course of nature.