"But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark." (Gen.8:1). Those opening words of chap.8 are wonderful. While disorder, and chaos, raged all around them, Almighty God "remembered" Noah, and all of the other inmates of the ark. That word "remembered" is important. When you, or I, "remember" it means that something that we have forgotten has suddenly come to the forefront of our minds.
In this particular context, that would imply that Father God had "forgotten" Noah and the other occupants of the ark, and then suddenly thought "Oh! I've just remembered! Noah, his family, all those creatures. I should do something about them." However, the Hebrew word used has the additional sense of "to mark (so as to be recognised)". So God had not "forgotten" Noah. He had, in fact, taken special; note of him, and the others. He kept them safe and healthy; He gave them resilience not to give up hope. He encouraged them with signs of new life beyond the disaster. The first of these was that "... God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually." (Gen 8:1-3). Then, we read, "... in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat." (v.4). Note, by the way, that in spite of several claims to have found the remains of the ark on the modern Mt Ararat, there is no definitive proof that the modern peak is the same one on which the ark rested. Indeed, the text does not even claim that it rested "on Mt Ararat", but "... upon the mountains of Ararat." - a different scenario! The two other Biblical references to "Ararat" support this - they are found in Isaiah 37:238, and Jeremiah 51:27 where Ararat is described as a "land" and a "kingdom" respectively.
The third encouraging sign that was given to Noah was when "... in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen." (v.5); and the next sign was when a dove that he had sent out for the second time "... came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth." (v.7). It was when he sent the dove out on a third occasion, that "... she did not return to him any more." (v.12).
So, Noah was now free to open the ark, and allow all of its passengers to disembark! Well, that is what many of us would have done. Having been confined in the ark for more than a year, we would be desperate to get back on to dry land. In my youth, I spent a couple of years in the British Merchant Navy. As I recall, the longest stretch at sea was about five days - and we were delighted to be able to be on "terra firma" once again! Noah was not like that! Even after that length of time, he waited - about eight more weeks - until God said: "Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.” So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark." (vs.16-19).
The circumstances, as seen from the window in the ark, looked encouraging. However, Noah knew that that was no guarantee that Almighty God wanted them to leave immediately - and so he waited for a clear direction. Obedience to Father God means doing the right thing, in the right way, and for the right motive. But it also means doing it at the right time! How often I have "run ahead" of my Heavenly Father - and I suspect that many of those reading this will have done the same!
This 8th chapter ends with a glorious promise, that Eternal God "... will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." (vs.21-22). A promise never again to curse and destroy that enables us to look forward, even in our own time, to renewed order out of the chaos in which we currently live; and a guarantee that, as long as the earth endures, the basic rhythms of His creation will continue.
Perhaps you, or someone you love, or know, have/has been going through a period of personal difficulty - even disaster! May I encourage you to look to Almighty God? If He could guide Noah and his family through the Flood, He can guide you, and me, through the worst that the enemy would throw at us. That doesn't mean that He will make the difficulties disappear - but He will "remember" us.
There was a chorus that was popular in my younger day:
"God is still on the throne,
And He will remember His own;
Tho’ trials may press us and burdens distress us,
He never will leave us alone;
God is still on the throne,
He never forsaketh His own;
His promise is true, He will not forget you,
God is still on the throne."
And He will remember His own;
Tho’ trials may press us and burdens distress us,
He never will leave us alone;
God is still on the throne,
He never forsaketh His own;
His promise is true, He will not forget you,
God is still on the throne."
Of course, it is "His own" for whom He cares. Are you His? If not, why not? As I have often stated, the offer is there. You only have to accept. If I can be of any help in a more personal way,. please do not hesitate to contact me using the e-mail address at the top of the blog.
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