A STUDY IN GENESIS
Last week we talked about how twenty-four verses changed an age, but did you know that the next chapter of the Genesis is only twenty-two verses? I cannot help but chuckle about there being twenty-four hours in a day and it can take only a day for your life can change. Yet, all God needs is a moment to save you. I think this is one small reason chapter eight is twenty-two verses and not more. Minor, yes, but I do think it is significant for us to recognize.
Now chapter eight of Genesis has a list that could go for weeks regarding the scientific, the philosophical, and theological declarations made. However, I want to stick to one all and most important statement made, verse one.
Genesis 8:1-22 “Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that [were] with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.”
You see when things are going bad for your life, we need to remember that God remembers us. This should be sobering to both good and evil. Good that Jesus loves us, that He cares for us and will not forget us. It is why we can say that the rapture must happen because Jesus will not forget us. Look at John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if [it were] not [so,] I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, [there] you may be also.”
It is why Israel still has a purpose and God has a plan to send Jesus the Messiah to Israel again. God has made too many promises that He must fulfill, for His name sake, Malachi 3:6 “For I [am] the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” Because God is good and those who are saved are His and are made good only through His righteousness, we can hold fast that He remembers us. He remembered Noah, He will do that with us.
But those who are evil should be somber as well, for He remembers their wickedness. He will remember those who have rejected the Messiah and His righteousness, who are attempting to prove they are good enough by their own righteousness. This will ultimately end with an event described in Revelation 20:11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is [the Book] of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
You see, when Genesis 8:1 says, “God remembered” it is a declaration that is eternally significant. Verses two through twenty-two each have their own significance and should be carefully studied. Like last week I challenge you to take the time and ask the Lord Jesus to share with you the scientific depth and theological truth behind chapter eight and see just how earth changing this event was.
Genesis 8:2-22 “The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth [month,] on the first [day] of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. 6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters [were] on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf [was] in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore. 13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month,] the first [day] of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. 15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 “Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that [is] with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, [and] whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart [is] evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. 22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming,
JL