And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried.
A date opens this verse: the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year. After ten and a half months shut inside, he lifts the covering, looks out, and sees dry ground — yet he does not step out.
The verse gives an exact date. One writer explains why the ground can look dry here while the whole earth is not dry for another two months:
Ten and a half months had now passed since Noah entered the ark. He removed the covering of the ark and found the face of the ground dry (v. 13). Of course it would be dry on the higher ground where the ark was. The lower areas needed more time for the waters to drain away. So verse 14 tells us that it was about two months later that the earth was dried. The total time comes to one year and ten days.
Noah had no clear view until the covering came off. One writer finds the reason in where the ark's openings were:
The door of the ark was in the side, but the window above. It is no new thing to say that this is faith's outlook. The passengers in that wonderfully guided and protected vessel did not need their eyes for steering. They were not to look out on the solemn scenes of judgment taking effect around them. Meanwhile the waters, which were the grave of the world, floated them above its mountain tops up to the blue heavens, growing calmer as they rose.
What Noah sees is more than the end of a storm. The dove had not come back. One writer reads Noah's uncovering of the ark as the act of a man who has understood why:
Beautiful mystery! The earth was redeemed from the curse now, and in its new-creation state the dove can delight. All of it is her native air. It is now the land of the turtledove and the olive, and Noah understands why this clean creature is absent. He at once removes the covering from the ark and looks out. The God of glory soon lets him out, as the God of all grace had before shut him in.
Noah sees dry ground, but the verse records no exit. He waits until God speaks. One commentator makes that restraint the heart of the verse:
His faith had been tested more than a little, but the prospect was comforting even from the first. "The face of the ground" was dry when he looked. After nearly two months more "the earth was dry." But even with this comfort, he still waited on God's word to go out, as he had gone in at His word. He will not rush ahead in the impulsiveness of nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. The word came in due time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
The ark carried its passengers safely through the judgment. But the dry ground shows God's purpose ran further than survival:
Meanwhile it was never God's mind that there should be life only, but liberty. Life out of death leads into liberty. Christ not only gives life and shelter, but does so as a preparation for the freedom of grace... now there is life. Death and judgment have done their worst on Him who is risen out of both. So there is liberty also for those given new life.
The same writer sets this drying against the world's future:
The waters of Noah did go over the earth, as surely as they shall go over it no more. A still more terrible destruction awaits it, however long the delay seems. By His word the heavens and earth that now exist are kept in store. They are reserved for fire on a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. The one is as certain as the other. But we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
- Judgment — the waters that buried a world lifted the ark above its mountain tops. The flood carried Noah; it did not threaten him.
- Sight — the window was above, the door in the side. Only when the covering came off could Noah see the ground. Faith's outlook is upward before it is outward.
- Word — dry ground was not the signal to leave. Noah went in at God's word and waited to go out at God's word, refusing the impulsiveness of nature.
- Liberty — God never intended life alone, but liberty. Shelter in the ark prepared the way for freedom on a cleansed earth.
- Promise — water will never cover the earth again. The present heavens and earth are kept for fire on a day of judgment. The believer looks for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
A single date closes the flood: the earth is dry at last, more than a year after the waters broke loose. Yet Noah is still inside the ark. If the ground is dry, why has he not stepped out?
The verse is the last entry in a careful log. One writer lays out every date in the account, from the first rain to this verse:
The account of the flood itself (Genesis 7:11 — Genesis 8:14) is very clear about how long it lasted and how far it reached. The tremendous rain lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The waters prevailed from the 17th day of the 2nd month to the 17th day of the 7th month, when the ark grounded on the mountains of Ararat. On the 1st day of the 10th month the tops of the mountains appeared. On the 1st day of the 1st month of a new year the waters had vanished from the face of the earth. On the 27th day of the 2nd month the earth was dry enough for those in the ark to go out — one year and 10 days after it all began.
Verse 13 already said the ground was dry. This verse says it again, and the difference is height and time:
Ten and a half months had now passed since Noah entered the ark. He removed the covering of the ark and found the face of the ground dry (v. 13). Of course, the high ground where the ark rested would be dry first. Lower areas needed more time for the waters to drain away. So verse 14 tells us that the earth was dry about two months later.
Noah could see the change with his own eyes, and it comforted him. Still he did not move:
His faith had been tested hard, but the prospect was comforting even from the first. "The face of the ground" was dry when he looked. Nearly two months later "the earth had dried out." He was rightly stirred and comforted by this. Even so, he still waited for God's word before going out, just as he went in at His word. He will not rush ahead with the rashness and self-confidence of nature. He depends on God and obeys His word. The word came at the right time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
The same writer notes how long Noah had already waited:
But it is beautiful to note how Noah can wait. Many days had passed before he opened the window of the ark. Many more passed while he tested the state of the renewed earth by the messengers he sent out again and again — and not in vain.
Waiting inside a dry world is its own test. One writer suggests Noah felt it once the ark had done its work:
After years of discipline and toil, Noah is in the ark. Very often the quality we are best known for, the one we have gained most from, deserts us, and we suffer much. Noah, no doubt, became impatient to leave the ark after it had accomplished its purpose. Nothing exposes our impatience and self-will like this… He worked for many a year to build the ark. Now he is impatient to abandon it, as soon as it has given him salvation… It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than even to reach it.
The dried earth is a new earth. One writer reads it as a picture of coming through death into life:
The flood swept away the ungodly. It brought judgment and death on the world. The ark rode above the waters and rested at last on the cleansed earth. It taught the lesson of life for the people of God, once they had passed through judgment and death. The new earth came up out of the waters of death. Noah and his family set their feet on the dry land as people saved through those waters, as people raised from the dead.
Dry ground is not the end. God's purpose goes beyond bare survival:
Meanwhile it never was the mind of God that there should be life only, but liberty. Life out of death ushers into liberty. Christ not only gives life and shelter, but this as a preparation for the freedom of grace.
- Dated. The flood is a record with exact markers, closing here at one year and ten days from the day the waters began.
- Dried. Verse 13 shows the high ground dry. Verse 14, two months later, shows the whole earth dry — the same drying, finished.
- Delayed. The earth was ready before Noah moved; he entered at God's word and would leave only at God's word.
- Disciplined. The hardest test came after the ark had done its work — staying in the place of blessing is harder than reaching it.
- Delivered. Dry land is resurrection ground, and God's aim there is not bare life but liberty.