In The Beginning | God Remembered Noah

In The Beginning: (Part IX)

GOD REMEMBERED NOAH

Genesis 8:1-3, 10-12, 21 (ESV)

1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained

10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

Have you ever been forgotten by someone? What about feeling like you’ve been forgotten and neglected in a relationship? Do you ever feel at times that “God has forgotten me”? 

In personal and spiritual storms/floods it’s so easy to feel forgotten or forsaken. Hebrews 13:5 says “I will never leave you or forsake you” We have the promise of eternal life. However it’s the time when we doubt His sovereignty and goodness that we also abandon scripture and rely on our own knowledge and we become more and more distant. But we can attest just like Noah, that in the worst of these torrential downpours, the hope is this, it is going to pass. 

The funny thing I’ve found is that when believers like us get anxious and turn to the Bible we turn to well known chapters like Romans 8 and not Genesis 8. I pray that after today this chapter gives us new hope and encouragement the next time we face a storm. I would also hope that our attitude in worship also changes towards God.  Specifically it’s in the storms of life when you offer worship to God it is so sincere. Not that it isn’t during the easy times. But something is so much more powerful, raw and needed when we offer our worship to God. So let’s take a look at our text.

1. God Remembers the “Forgotten”

A. He Remembers

Verse 1 “But God Remembered Noah” It is not that He ever forgot Noah but that God actually turned his active attention towards him. In other words remembered means, “to fulfill a promise and act on behalf of somebody”. God doesn’t forget anything because He knows beginning to the end.  

Here are a few examples of the term “remembered”. In Hebrews 10:17 it says “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. It means God doesn’t hold our sins against us. He knows what we’ve done but through our faith in Jesus are sins are “forgotten”. The Lord remembers them against us no more. It also means “to act on behalf of somebody” In Gen 19:29 God remembered Abraham and rescued Lot from destruction in Sodom. In Genesis 30:22 and 1 Samuel 1:11,19 we see that God “remembered” Rachel and Hannah allowing them to conceive and give birth to Joseph and Samuel, respectively. The same goes for the Jews in Egypt’s bondage, God “remembered his covenant” (Exodus 2:24) And so we see that “to remember” implies a previous commitment God made and then fulfilling it. 

So here, God remembered Noah and those on the ark. This clearly points to God’s faithfulness. In the Bible there’s nothing written that God spoke to Noah after they were shut in the ark. Don’t you think that someone in the family might have had a fear that God forgot all about them or stopped caring for them? From our point of view, it may seem that God has forgotten them. Perhaps He has been silent for a long while. But He will act on our behalf in His time. He remembers and He is faithful to those who are His.  He not only remembered Noah and his family but also the creatures in the ark! God spared them so they could live and reproduce after their kind. We can be sure that God never forgets or forsakes His people!

B. He Renews 

2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated

Going back to chapter 7:24 the flood reached its peak in 150 days. In this chapter, verses two through five, the rain and the eruptions of water from beneath the earth had both ceased. God caused the water to recede. And so you may ask where did the floodwaters go? It is possible that the flood greatly altered the contours of the land and made new areas for water to fill, both on the surface of the earth and underground. From the last chapter in verse 11 we see that the eruptions from beneath the earth whole continents would have risen and fallen creating huge areas into which the water could spill. The winds that God sent over the earth helped to evaporate the water and also move it to the places God provided. God is powerful enough to cover the earth with water and also wise enough to know what to do with it afterwards.So God continued to remember Noah in all of this, keeping him safe with His plan with the flood.

4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. 6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she 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 her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

Though the ark had rested safely, Noah was waiting for the Lord to tell him what to do. He waited forty days and then sent out a raven and a week after that, a dove. If there was any food outside the ark a raven could survive because it has a broad range of food types it could live off. Just imagine the amount of carcasses from the flood for it to live off of. In contrast a dove which, being a clean bird, is much more selective in its food. The dove’s food would indicate new life beginning to grow and also Noah and his family could survive outside the ark. But since it did not find it returned to the ark. A week later he sent the dove out again and in the evening it came back with an olive leaf indicating that plants were growing and fresh life had appeared on the earth (v10-11). A week later Noah sent out the dove a third time, and it didn’t return so he knew the water had dried up. Now we know Noah sees that ground was dry, but he didn’t make a move until the Lord told him to leave because of his faith and trust in God. 

Imagine in all of these intricacies God kept Noah and all those on the ark in mind. We forget just how the Lord looks out for us in the little and even the most drastic ways! He never forgets or forsakes His own. Let’s remember that.

2. God Rewards Faith 

Noah was a man of faith. He had the faith to walk with God when the people of the world were ignoring and disobeying God. He had the faith to work for God and to witness for God when opposition to His truth was the popular thing to do. And now we see that when the flood was over, he exercises faith to wait on God before leaving the ark. 

13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 

After being confined to the ark for over a year, he and his family must have longed to get back on dry land, but they waited for God’s directions. Based on the circumstances it may have been that the earth looked good to depart from but that wasn’t a guarantee that God wanted them to leave right away and begin their new life. Noah showed obedience in his faith by not leaving until he was instructed by the Lord. 

Something we should take away is Romans 10:17. 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. For us, at first glance it may seem alright to take the first steps into what you want. But have you consulted God? Isn’t He the one who brought you here in the first place? We clearly see how the Lord rewarded Noah for his faith.

But was Noah showing unbelief when he sent out birds or even opened the art to look at the land? No, he was simply using the opportunity to gather information. It’s not wrong to have an understanding of the situation as long as we don’t just “lean on our own understanding”. Obeying the will of God involves not only doing the right thing in the right way for the right motive but it also means doing it at the right time. Psalm 31:15a says, “My times are in Your hands...”. 

5 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out 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 swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

God rewarded Noah’s faith, and the faith of his family, by caring for them in the ark for over a year and then preparing the earth for them so that they could leave the ark. Noah was like a “second Adam” as he made a new beginning for the human race. Noah prepared the ark for the saving of his household and God was faithful in saving them. When it comes to saving faith each of us must trust in Jesus Christ personally. We can’t have a substitute.

The reward of being 'faithful over a few things' is just the same as being 'faithful over many things' ; for the emphasis falls upon the same word; it is the 'faithful' who will enter 'into the joy of their Lord.'

- Ptr. Charles S. Robinson

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Noah continued to show faith in the Lord. After he stepped out of the ark and stood on the renewed earth, Noah was so filled with gratitude that his first act was to lead his family in an act of worship in response to God’s covenant faithfulness in sparing him and his family. He built an altar and offered some of the clean animals as sacrifices to the Lord.  “The Lord smelled a soothing aroma” Of course, the Bible speaks anthropomorphically here. The Lord is so pleased by Noah’s sacrifice to Him and so He accepted it. 

Noah really sets the example of how believers should live. He walked with the Lord in loving communion and enjoyed his presence. He worked for the Lord in building the ark, and he witnessed for the Lord as a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5a). While in the Ark, he waited on the Lord for instructions concerning his leaving, and once he was standing on the earth he worshiped the Lord. He gave God his very best. In him sacrificing a burnt offering he held nothing back because that is what the Lord deserves. Costly sacrifice pleases God, not because God is greedy and wants to get as much from us as He can but because God Himself sacrificed at great cost (Ephesians 5:2 and Hebrews 9:26, 10:12). God wants costly sacrifice from us because it shows we are being conformed into the image of Jesus, who was the greatest display of costly sacrifice. So let’s continue showing faith and be faithful to him as He has always been faithful to us.

3. God Remains Faithful

21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

As he came off the ark, Noah must have had some mixed emotions. On one hand, he was grateful for God’s deliverance. But on the other hand, he must have felt a bit apprehensive. God had wiped out every other person and all other animals on the face of the earth. Noah must have thought, “What if we disobey Him? Will He wipe us out?”

But those whom God saves, He keeps. Our final preservation doesn’t depend on our grip on God, but on God’s strong grip on us. It doesn’t rest on our faith, but on His great faithfulness. In 6:18, God said to Noah, “I will establish My covenant with you.” While this is the dominant theme of chapter 9, God mentions His promise here in 8:21, when He vows never again to curse the ground on account of man’s sinfulness or to destroy every living thing. No more universal floods.Notice that God’s promise isn’t conditional on Noah’s obedience. In fact, God promises to do it in spite of man’s sinfulness. The Hebrew word translated “for” in verse 21 can be translated as “though”. So God is saying, “Even though I see that man’s heart is wicked, I will look ahead to the atoning sacrifice of Messiah and will spare the earth and its inhabitants for Messiah’s sake.” 

The important thing is that God spoke these words in response to Noah’s sacrifice, and that the sacrifice was a picture of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Just imagine God saying, I can show grace to a lost world; I will not send another flood and wipe out the human race. Instead I will offer them My great salvation. 

This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t judge sin today or there won’t be a future judgement of the world. Today God’s judgment is being revealed against sinners right now through the consequences of their sin. There will also be a future judgment one day, not of water but of fire. 2 Peter 3:7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Aren’t you glad that your future deliverance from God’s judgment depends on God’s faithfulness, not yours? While those who truly know and want to know Christ will be growing in obedience, there’s no one who has a perfect record. Satan likes to come to us and say, “You claim to be a Christian? Look at your sins! How can you possibly expect God to save you?” Sometimes we have to say to Satan, “I’m not trusting in my track record to commend me to God. I’m trusting in the faithfulness of the God who has said, ‘Their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more’ (Heb. 10:17). 

I’m trusting in His Word which declares that ‘He who began a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 1:6). Just remember that God is ever so faithful and continues to be faithful to us. These promises at the end of the chapter are consistent evidence that God is on the throne and keeping His promises. When it seems like God has forgotten you, stop and think about the salvation God has granted to you in Jesus Christ. It is not based on anything in you. John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace,” was a drunken sailor and slave trader when God saved him. He wrote a text in bold letters and put it over the mantle of his study, where he couldn’t miss it: “Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”

We can trust His Word, for “Not one word has failed of all his good promise” 1 Kings 8:56

-Rev. Reuben J. Cabrera