Genesis 8:1
And God remembered Noah and every living thing.
For further study - Genesis 8:1-22
I realized my mis-understanding of what the passage says in verse 1 where it records that “God remembered” as I thought about the attribute of God that says He is “all knowing”. How could the Lord “forget” and then have to “remember”?
Then I decided to look at the Lexicon and find out the Hebrew for the word “remembered” in verse 1. The word is “zakar” which does translate “remembered” but it also translates “call to mind”. The Lord called to mind Noah, his wife, their three sons and the three daughters-in-law, plus all other living creatures that were in the Ark.
God had a plan for these eight souls and the animal life that had survived the worldwide flood. The plan was to “re-people” the Earth, Genesis 9:1, which is what Noah and his family would begin to do in obedience to the Lord.
Therefore, God “called to mind” the ones He wanted involved in His plan and went about instructing them in the way He would lead them. The very first action for Noah and his family would be to wait until the water had gone down and the Earth would dry up.
That done, which would take 70 days, the Lord would lead them out of the Ark, verses 15-19. Speaking of “days”, if you do the numbers you come up with the fact that Noah and his family were in the Ark 377 days from beginning to end. God called for the animals and Noah’s family to “breed abundantly in the Earth, be fruitful, and multiply upon the Earth”, verse 17.
Noah would then build an altar unto the Lord and offer a sacrifice, in thanksgiving for the protection and provision for his family and the animal world that had been in the Ark. The offering was a “sweet smelling savour” to the Lord.
There is a very important promise that God made to Noah and all of mankind after the offering. Verse 21 records the promise that the Lord would never again smite everything living on the Earth.
The last verse in our devotional reading for today is a major source of information for students of the scriptures. The verse, verse 22, states for the very first time in the history of this new world that there would be “summer and winter”. There had never been “seasons” in the first 1,500 years or so from Creation to the Flood.
Notice that the Lord also promised that there would be “cold and heat”. This cold and heat would last as long as the “Earth remaineth” and it “would not cease”. The evidence that this is still in play is that the verse also states that “day and night shall not cease”, which is the case right now.
Just a side note, this is a real problem for the so-called “global warming” the political world is trying to push on us today. If you couple this verse, verse 22, with Colossians 1:16-17, where it states that Jesus Christ created the heavens and earth and all that is in them, verse 16, and holds His creation together, verse 17, there is no way for “global warming”, or “climate change” if you prefer, to ever happen.
This brings to mind the verses in II Peter 3 that says in the “last days” there will be those who deny the coming of the Lord as they also deny the Flood and the Creation, the way God did it, verses 3-7.
II Peter 3:9 is assurance that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise to come again to the Earth, but He is not willing that any should perish, He wants all humankind to get saved.
Verse 12 of Peter’s letter says that we can hasten the Second Coming of Jesus by winning people to Jesus. What a way to await the Lord’s return, winning people to Him. We must get to work today even as we look for Him to come.
PRAYER THOT: Lord, thank you for your promise to never destroy all of humankind again, that you will preserve all that come to you for salvation. Help me to be about the task of introducing you to them as the Savior.