Consider the Ravens and Doves (Part 1)

Scripture — Genesis 8:6-12 (NRSV)

At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven, and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark, and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him any more.

Devotion

A few times in my life I have come to an impasse—where you are sheltering from trouble arising either from self-infliction or a broken world. Those moments usually lead to two options. One is to stay inside safely and in the same rhythm. The other is to step out into possibilities.

Noah and the rest of humanity were in the ark, protected from God’s destruction and renewing process. They could try to stay there, or be courageous and step out into whatever was coming next. Author Joe Rigney calls courage “the willingness to risk comfort, safety, and even life for the sake of what is good, true, and beautiful.” Stepping out of the ark when you know you are part of the humanity that caused the need for God’s wrath would be difficult. Perhaps seeing the good, true, and beautiful can be difficult also.

God’s providence—God’s use of everything to redeem all of creation—includes even the birds in the plan. Jesus taught his disciples to consider the value of a sparrow in Matthew 10:26-31 to help his disciples understand their own value. Noah, the Old Testament saint, was a follower and learner of a providential God who demonstrated repeatedly that the birds were of great value.

When we consider the ravens we see Noah and the rest of humanity looking for hope.  But ravens are carrion-eating unclean animals. They are familiar with chaos. They tend to lean to what is wrong…or dead. It might have been that the raven was sent because of its wingspan and ability to fly long distances. Regardless of the motivation, the result is interesting: “It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.”

Some of life’s experiences of hope and courage occur when the carrion, life-eating things are sent away. Between managing employer workforce development and pastoring toward a Monday-focused church we often default to the ark of protection from the wrath outside. The language sounds oddly familiar to employers. “That’s not the way people are admitted.” “We want people who come in the door trained.” “People don’t want to work like they used to.” We could default to staying the course in the waves of uncertainty instead of sending the ravenous thinking away and walking out of the ark to whatever is next. Noah sent a raven out and it did not return. Courage must send away ravenous thinking and instead choose to look for what is good, true, and beautiful.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: God Calls Noah and Creates a New World (Genesis 6:9-8:19).