Read Genesis 8
1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 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. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 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. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 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. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
Go Deeper
If you’ve ever experienced a thunderstorm or flood, you’re familiar with the quiet and calm of the aftermath. It’s almost eerie, the silence. We don’t like to sit there very long, waiting for signs of life and waiting to go assess the damage. Waiting for the game plan to pick up the remnants of life, put it all back together, and start again.
Whether it’s a metaphorical or literal storm of life that we’ve experienced, we often ask ourselves, “God, have you forgotten me? Are you here? Are you paying attention?”
Genesis 8 offers a merciful answer to our questions. In the calm after the storm, “God remembered Noah” (vs. 1). In the original language, the word for “remember” is more complex than our English definition. The original Hebrew verb means “to remember,” but it also means “to bring someone to mind and then act upon that person’s behalf.” The Hebrew idea of remembering always includes acting on behalf of the one brought to mind. So, in other words, God remembered Noah and turned His attention to Noah and acted on Noah’s behalf.
After the destruction, devastation, and desolation, God remembered and He acted. He carried out a plan to help, restore, and rebuild when Noah couldn’t help himself. It is the miracle of God woven throughout Scripture and woven throughout our lives—He gives us new beginnings, fresh starts. He rebuilds our lives. He saves us when we cannot save ourselves.
God has not forgotten you. You may be in a season that is brutally painful and you have no idea how anything can be remade or rebuilt, but God sees. He knows. He is paying attention. God was in control when the water and rain started. He was in control when they stopped. And He is in control today. He is a good God. He is a good Creator. He can be trusted.
Questions
Noah’s first act after leaving the ark was to build an altar and offer a sacrifice. Why do you think he did that?
Noah waited to hear instruction from the Lord before he exited the ark. Where do you need to listen more for God’s instruction before moving to action?
Knowing that the Hebrew idea for remembering always includes acting on behalf of the one brought to mind, how does it change your perspective?
Did You Know?
In verse 20, we see Noah build an altar to the Lord on which to make sacrifices. This is the first time we see an altar in Scripture, and Noah uses it to sacrifice the ceremonially clean animals from the ark. Later, in verses 21-22, we see that God is pleased with this sacrifice and vows to never again curse the ground as a result of man’s sin.
7 thoughts on “Genesis 8”
20 “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord”
Yes, it is telling that Noah’s first act was to build an altar. I need to be more purposeful to build altars in my life journey to recognize times when God has done great things!
New beginnings. I love the definition of the remember in the Hebrew. “To pay attention to, to fulfill a promise and act on behalf of somebody.” God knows what we have done, but because of our faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are “forgotten”, He remembers them no more. To remember with God, is that He made a commiment and will fulfill it. God is LOVE, hesed, He is faithful. God will not forget nor forsake His people. I talk about and pray about these minutes of this day, because we do not know what tommorow will bring.
James 4:13-15 ESV Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Give us this day our DAILY bread. We need to live in these minutes of this day as a new beginning, trusting God and praying without ceasing as we go.
God thank You again for a new day, a new beginning. Thank You that I do not take these minutes of this day for granted. Thank You for wisdom, knowledge and understanding to do Your will today. Give me eyes to see, an ear to hear, and a heart to love. God You are so gracious full of mercy, please help me to know in my knower that this is not something to be taken lightly. God I give You praise, honor and all my worship today in these minutes. God help me to love the lost, be helpful to my fellow believers, and to be a light in a dark place, today in these minutes in Jesus name amen.
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These words captured my attention “but God remembered” right away. I’m comforted that even on our hardest days God sees and attends to his own. As our very present help in time of need, he is near, not removed or distant, but as close as our very next breath. What great love!
Noah, the ark and the flood is one of those accounts I’m grateful I get to hear about on this side of the story. I marvel at Noah’s patient obedience, doubting I could ever even come close.
If I had been on that boat, I would’ve rocked back-and-forth between feeling safe… and feeling STUCK.
What strikes me in this chapter is that Noah and Co. were restored back to earth in stages: first this (the rains stopped) … then that (the waters dried up) … until … this time (the dove did not return). This passage concludes with the all-important, “then God said.”
Weeks of storms. Months at sea. Endless days of watching and waiting … and listening. How did they all endure it?
In my own recent storms, I have felt much more stuck than safe.I’m desperate for the storm to end and the rains to stop so I can step off the boat, into the sunshine and back to life on dry land. Like an impatient child on a long trip, I keep asking “are we there yet?“
“How long, oh, Lord, how long?”
“What’s next, O Lord – what’s NEXT?”
When Noah boarded the ark, perhaps he didn’t know “how long?” or “what’s next?” … but he did know GOD. He followed God (Gen. 6:9.), listened to God, obeyed God and waited for God.
Oh, Lord, may I wait patiently on you, trusting you always, with the faith that allows me to rise above, through and beyond any storm!
When God causes me to remember someone. I believe that is His Holy Spirit wanting to use me to act in their behalf as an instrument of Gods grace!
Yes! I’ve been trying to be more purposeful to pray for people (old friends, et al) when they come to mind and reach out to them to see how they’re doing. This has led to some very meaningful connections.
God is faithful. I praise God for His faithfulness and remember that He never forgets us. He is the God of new beginnings. God remains faithful to His promise and to His people.