Genesis 8

Genesis 8 – January 17

Yesterday’s focus landed heavily upon the sobering reality of God’s wrath. Today we will consider the incredible nature of God’s love. It begins with the very first line of chapter 8. “But God remembered Noah…” 

What does it mean that God remembered? When we remember something, we are calling to mind something that had been forgotten or sent to the far recesses of our memory. Because we have a limited capacity for thought, we cannot focus on all things at one time. God is not like us. God is capable of simultaneously focusing on every event of all time. When the Bible speaks of God remembering, it is speaking about the fact that God is actively fulfilling a promise that was made. He is “remembering” the specific details of the covenant and bringing them to fulfillment.

God had made a promise to Noah. “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.” (Gen. 6”18-19) God was carrying out this promise. His eye did not depart from Noah. God warned Noah. God gave him the blueprints to build the ark. God closed the door of the ark when the waters rose. God was the admiral that navigated the floating zoo safely. God remembered Noah.

After ensuring that the water had abated, Noah exited the ark. The very first thing that he did when beginning this new stage of the global order was to offer a sacrifice of “some of EVERY clean animal and of EVERY clean bird.” (Gen. 8:20) Think of how costly that sacrifice would have been to Noah. He had seven of each clean animal. If they all died out, that kind of animal was extinct forever. Yet, Noah took the most valuable thing that he had and laid it down as an offering of thanksgiving to the Lord. In a very similar way, we who have been saved from the judgment should freely give to the One who saved us.

At the close of chapter 8, there is a surprising declaration that the Lord makes. “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.” (Gen. 8:21) God’s logic is interesting. The reason that He provides for displaying patience and longsuffering is that He knows that evil has not been eradicated. He knows that it is present in the heart of everyone from their youth. The flood did not eliminate sin or wickedness. In order for God to destroy sin, He would have to kill everyone. Even so, God entered into a covenant with all of creation that He would never again send a global catastrophe in the form of a flood as a way to judge the earth.

 

 

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