10
At naghintay pa ng muling pitong araw; at muling pinalipad ang kalapati sa labas ng sasakyan;
Genesis 8:10
Arcana Coelestia # 905
905. 'Going out of the ark' means freedom. This is clear from what has been stated already and from the point reached in the train of thought. Noah's time in the ark surrounded by the flood-waters meant that he was in bondage, that is, he was tossed about by evils and falsities, or what amounts to the same, by evil spirits responsible for the conflict that accompanies temptation. From this it follows that 'going out of the ark' means freedom. The Lord's presence entails freedom; one follows the other. The more the Lord is present the more free a person becomes, that is, insofar as love of good and truth is in him he acts in freedom. Such is the Lord's influx by way of angels. On the other hand, the influx of hell by way of evil spirits brings with it a force and impulsion to dominate. Their whole intention is to subjugate a person to the point of making him nothing and themselves everything. When they are everything a person is one of them. Yet he is scarcely one of them but in their eyes a veritable nobody. Consequently when the Lord is freeing a person from their yoke and dominion, conflict arises. But once he has been set free, that is, been regenerated, he is led by the Lord through angels so gently that no yoke or dominion exists at all, for he is being led by what is joyful and pleasing, he is being loved, and he is being shown respect. This is what the Lord teaches in Matthew,
My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. Matthew 11:30.
It is quite the reverse with evil spirits. With them, as has been stated, a person is reckoned as nothing, and if they could they would be tormenting him from one moment to the next. This I have been given to know from considerable experience, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be presented later on.
Genesis 8
1
God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
2
The deep's fountains and the sky's windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
3
The waters receded from the earth continually. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased.
4
The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat's mountains.
5
The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6
It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,
7
and he sent forth a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.
8
He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,
9
but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.
10
He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ship.
11
The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.
12
He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she didn't return to him any more.
13
It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.
14
In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
16
"Go out of the ship, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
17
Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth."
18
Noah went forth, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
19
Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.
20
Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21
Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.
22
While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
