Genesis 8

      Verse 1: God remembered Noah. The word “remember” here doesn’t mean that God forgot about His faithful servant during the six months of the Flood. Quite the opposite, in fact. It means that God paid special attention to Noah and his family. The same way that He remembered Abraham (Genesis 19:29, Psalm 105:42), the nation of Israel (Exodus 2:24), Samson (Judges 16:28), Hannah (1 Samuel 1:11, 19), and the repentant thief on the cross (Luke 23:42-43). Many of David’s prayers contained the phrase, “Remember me, O Lord.” (Psalm 106:4) Part of the awesomeness and majesty of God is that He is so omniscient and omnipotent as to keep the vast and unknowable universe running like clockwork, yet He never forgets His children. He knows every hair on our head (Luke 12:6-7), sees every action we do, knows every thought and intent of our heart (Psalm 139:1-4), and He cares about our every burden and need (Matthew 11:28). Of the many promises and assurances found in God’s word, I believe the phrase “God remembered” to be among the sweetest.
         God called upon Noah, gave Him a specific mission and a task to complete, provided him and his family guidance and direction every step of the way, spared them from His wrath and judgment upon the wicked, and then remembered them afterwards, sending a strong wind to rapidly evaporate the waters, and, finally, guiding the ark to a suitable resting place among the peaks of Mount Ararat. God was with Noah and his family and all the animals in the ark the whole time. He never forgot about them, and His mighty hand covered that ark the entire journey, guiding it safely over the waters and keeping it afloat.
        There is such a mighty lesson in all of this for us today. God does not call us to salvation, redeem us the moment we accept His free gift as well as lordship over our lives, and then just send us on our merry way. Instead, He puts His hand upon us, guides us and protects us, gives us a specific task and/or calling, provides the desire within us and the external means for us to fulfill that calling, and then brings us safely through all the storms and the rains of life to our final rest at home with Him. If we are humble, faithful and obedient like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, David, and all the others throughout history that knew and trusted God, He will always bring us safely through whatever trials and testing and storms He sees fit to cross our paths.
 
       Verses 2-14: these verses describe the slow process of the waters receding and Noah sending out a raven and a dove to test whether there was yet any dry land. The flood itself lasted for 150 days, and it was another 74 days after that before the water had abated enough to allow Noah and his family to exit the ark. Something interesting I find in these verses is that, rather than just ask God if it was time to leave the ark, Noah sent out first a raven and then a dove. Neither found any dry land on their first two excursions. The dove did bring back a freshly plucked olive leaf on her second trip, and then on her third time leaving she never returned, which meant that she had found a suitable tree in which to build a nest and make a new home. Only then does it say in verse 15 that God tells Moses it’s time to leave the ark.
        The application for me that I find in these verses is that God does not always speak directly to us. Sometimes He wants us to test the waters, so to speak, to send out proverbial doves and ravens of our own when we are trying to decide on a path or course in this life. It’s ok for us to ask God to show us a sign, the same way Gideon did with his fleece. (Judges 6:37-40) God had instructed Noah to take aboard the ark a dove and a raven, among other fowl, for this specific purpose. In much the same way, God provides us different means in our daily lives by which we can accurately determine the steps He has laid out for us: His word, for example; or a trusted brother or sister in Christ; or our pastor. This is much the same principle as the old saying that says, “God helps them that help themselves.” In other words, we shouldn’t be sitting like bumps on a log, just waiting passively for a word from God. Noah actively searched for signs of the flood abating by sending out the raven and the dove rather than just sitting and waiting to hear from God. We should be just as diligent in our daily lives while we wait upon God and look for a sign from Him.
 
       Verses 15-22: God told Noah it was time to leave the ark. The first thing that Noah did was to build an altar and offer a sacrifice unto God. This is what the clean beasts and the clean fowl were for. (Genesis 7:2-3) And God accepted the sacrifice. Verse 21 says it was a “…sweet savour…” (Exodus 29:18, 25, Leviticus 1:9, Ezekiel 20:41, 2 Corinthians 2:15, Ephesians 5:2) God then promised that, as long as this earth remains, the cycles of the seasons and years will not cease. He would not judge mankind in this same manner ever again. (This promise and covenant is further expounded upon in chapter 9.) Verse 22 is a clear argument against the modern environmental movement that says the human race is doomed if we do not do everything we can to halt global warming and “climate change”. Scientists and activists are always crying about how mankind is destroying the planet, and that we should be recycling more, and switching to electric cars, and stop having children, and stop eating meat because it’s cruel to the animals, yadda, yadda, yadda.
        All of that is hogwash. God made it clear in verse 22 that He will allow the planting and harvest, the summer and winter, and the day and the night for as long as this earth remains. Therefore, climate change is not real. Global warming is not a big deal. This planet will continue to be hospitable to the human race until the end of the millennial reign of Christ after the seven years of tribulation, which comes after the rapture of the New Testament church. Therefore, if I do not recycle my plastic water bottles and instead choose to throw them in the trash with everything else, it doesn’t matter one rat’s whisker in the long run. Now does that means I should be careless and throw my trash wherever I want or dump my used engine oil in the gutter or chop down all the forests without replanting just because I feel like it? No, not at all. God instructed Adam and Eve – and, later, Noah and his family in chapter 9 – to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. That means that we should be good stewards of what God has given us, and we should set an example for the unsaved. But neither should we fall into the trap of idolatry by worshiping the created instead of the Creator.
       In the long run, God will not allow man’s selfish actions to irrevocably harm or destroy this planet until He decides it’s time to wipe away the old heaven and old earth.