God Never Forgets His People
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. Genesis 8:1
Noah was six hundred years old when God told him to build an ark. God said he was sending a flood because wickedness had become great on the earth (Genesis 6:5-7).
Noah believed God’s warning even though he’d never seen rain or a flood because up to this time a mist had watered the earth (Genesis
2:5-6). God brought a menagerie of creatures to Noah when the ark had been built according to instructions. Noah, his family, and the creatures entered and God shut them in.
The ark had no motor, sails, or rudder. Noah and his family had to trust God to guide the ark and keep it afloat. Rain fell for forty days and forty nights. They heard the waters raging outside.
Every living creature on dry land died: people, the creatures that moved along the ground, and the birds. Only Noah was left and those with him in the ark.
Would God forget this vessel and its inhabitants? Even though they had brought plenty of food, would they have enough? They faithfully continued to care for the creatures and waited for God to say they could come out.
“But God remembered Noah and those with him in the ark” (Genesis 8:1). God hadn’t forgotten them—but like a reminder note we put on our calendars, God noted that the time had come to end the flood. He sent a wind over the earth. He closed the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens. The waters receded.
Not a single person or creature on the ark died (Genesis 8:17-19). When God said it was safe to come out, he promised to never again destroy the earth because of wickedness. He sealed his promise with a beautiful rainbow, the first ever.
The earth is still full of wickedness and evil, but God remembers his people—all those who trust him.
Are you faithfully doing what God gave you to do, trusting him to guide and keep you?
DIG DEEPER:
Read Genesis 9:20-23. Several years after Noah descended Mt. Ararat and returned to ordinary life, what was the consequence of his yielding to temptation? Can you describe a test you failed, especially one that came after a “mountaintop experience”?
Another But-God moment: after Noah sinned, what did God say would happen as Noah’s family repopulated the earth in Genesis 9:24-27 and its fulfillment in Luke 3:36?
How are the days before the Second coming of the Son of Man like the days of Noah, according to Mathew 24:1-39? What are the warnings for us?
See Noah, another devotion on finding favor with God amid a world full of unbelievers.
Nancy J. Baker
This devotion is part of a series on the But-God statements in the Bible.