January 5, 2022 – “To Extend an Olive Branch”  (Genesis 8:6-12) 

“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 from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.” Genesis 8:6-12 

“To Extend an Olive Branch”  

As I may have suggested earlier in these devotions, many “Western” idioms come straight from the Bible. Extending an Olive Branch is just one of those idioms. Referencing the text of Noah and the Ark, this Bible story and this idiom remains one of the most popular and easily recognizable. When Noah allegedly sent a dove to check for dry land, she (the dove) eventually returned with a sprig from an olive tree. The association with the dove as a symbol of peace (and later the presence of the Holy Spirit) and the olive branch as well has remained in our Western vernacular.  

Once Noah’s Ark landed on dry ground, the first thing Noah did was make a sacrifice to G-d. Genesis 8:21-22 says: “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans…though every inclination of the human heart is evil.” 

The olive branch may have come to symbolize a gesture of peace, but the dove has come to symbolize the coming of the Holy Spirit – which is our source of peace, and the genesis of our faith. Look around the church nave for the presence of the dove – for the symbol of peace – for the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is a reason we pray “Come Holy Spirit” – because we need her presence every day.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to be with me today and every day. Your Spirit is a guiding, sustaining, and loving Spirit that gives me strength and helps to grow my faith. Amen.

Pastor Dave