Genesis 8 -- God's Promises

This chapter starts with, “But God remembered Noah.”  It’s important to understand what it’s not saying.  This doesn’t mean that God forgot Noah and suddenly remembered what He’d forgotten.  Noah didn’t slip God’s mind for awhile while He was busy with other things.  My commentary says, “Rather, it means ‘to pay attention to, to fulfill a promise and act on behalf of somebody,’ and it ‘implies a previous commitment made by God and announces the fulfillment of that commitment.’”

Once the ark came to rest on a mountain, Noah did not open the door.  He waited on God and trusted His timing.  They’d been in the ark exactly a year when Noah removed the covering and surveyed the world around him.  It was twenty-six days later before God gave the order to disembark.

It’s important to remember that Noah didn’t just put one pair of the clean animals used for sacrifices on board.  He put seven pair.  And he sacrificed some of those clean animals in thanks and worship to God for His watchcare.  Those animals were saved from the flood to be sacrificed to God.

God had cursed the ground after Adam’s sin and again after Cain’s sin.  But here God says that He will not add to those curses anymore.  He guaranteed that the natural cycles would continue, including the proper orbits around the sun and the earth’s rotation on its axis, “as long as the earth continues,” which should mean until the new earth is given.

Father, thank You for being sovereign over every part of our existence.  Thank You for keeping it all together.  What would we do without Your unfailing promises?

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford