God Remembered Noah
Genesis 8:1-22
In our study of the book of Genesis we are in the middle of the account of the great flood that God brought to destroy life on the earth because of the sinful corruption of the human race. It is a historical account of God’s judgment on sin; God’s grace toward Noah; the salvation God provides; and God’s faithfulness to His promises. Listen to our text for today (Genesis 8:1-22):
1 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. 2 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.”
First, I want you to learn something from the structure of our text. Moses skillfully wrote the Genesis flood account with exacting precision. Allen Ross points out that in literary terms Genesis 6:9-8:22 is a chiasmus. That is, the flood story divides into halves, with the second half being a mirror image of the first, but in reverse order. The first half describes God’s de-creation of the earth by the beginning and rising of the flood. The second half gives the re-creation of the earth by the receding of the floodwaters and drying of the land. Look at how Moses presents it:
After introducing Noah (Gen. 6:9-10) the narrative begins with (A) God resolving to destroy the corrupt human race (Gen. 6:11-13); the story ends with (A’) the Lord resolving not to destroy every living thing again (Gen. 8:21-22). Next, (B) Noah builds the ark according to God’s instructions (Gen. 6:14-22); in it’s counterpoint after the flood (B’) Noah builds an altar (Gen. 8:20). Third, (C) the Lord commands the remnant to enter the ark (Gen. 7:1-9); after the flood (C’) God commands the remnant to leave the ark (Gen. 8:15-19). Fourth, (D) the God opens the windows of heaven and it rains 40 days (Gen. 7:10-16); on the other side (D’) the earth dries and after 40 days Noah opened the window of the ark (Gen. 8:6-14). Finally, (E) the flood prevails 150 days and the mountains are covered (Gen. 7:17-24); but afterwards (E’) the flood recedes 150 days and the mountains are visible (Gen. 8:1b-5).
The center of this mirror-imaged structure is the opening line of Genesis 8, “Then God remembered Noah.” This is the focus of the whole flood narrative. God remembered Noah. Those three words tell us a great deal about the Lord. When the text tells us that God “remembered” Noah, it doesn’t mean that God had forgotten him. It’s not like God got busy with other things and Noah slipped from His mind for a while. Then, something reminded Him and God snapped His fingers and said, “Noah! I forgot all about him down there!”
Rather, in the Bible, when it says “God remembered” it means that God acted on His promises. It means that in the midst of the great flood, God stayed faithful to His promises. He promised to deliver Noah and his family and all those animals, and during the flood, with all its death and destruction, the Lord looked down on the earth, on Noah in the ark, and God acted to fulfill His promise.
When God destroyed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He “remembered Abraham” and “sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow” (Gen. 19:29). When Rachel wanted to bear children, but could not, we read that “Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb” (Gen. 30:22). When Israel was in bondage in Egypt, we read, “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exod. 2:24). When Hannah prayed to have a child “the LORD remembered her” and she “bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, ‘Because I have asked for him from the LORD’” (1 Sam 1:19-20). When Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit, she praised God because “He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy” (Luke 1:54). The penitent thief on the cross asked, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42); Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). In every case, the idea is the same: God remembers by being faithful to act on His promises.
How did God faithfully act on His promises here in Genesis 8? How did the Lord remember Noah during the flood?
I. God Remembered Noah
James Montgomery Boice points out three ways in which the Lord remembered Noah during the flood.
A. God sent a wind.
Genesis 8:1 says “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.” As God controlled the rain to bring the flood, so God controls the wind to dry the earth. As the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep in Genesis 1, God made a “wind” (same Hebrew word as “spirit”) to pass over the waters of the flood. God is beginning the re-creation of the earth. God remembers, God acts, and the water level began to decrease. Genesis 8:2 says, “The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.” Psalm 104:9 says about the waters, “You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, That they may not return to cover the earth.” Every drop of water, every gust of wind, and every icy snowflake comes from the hands of God. Even hurricanes and tornadoes serve His purposes. The storms that batter the earth are fully under His divine control. God turned off the faucet, the heavens dried up, and the water began to evaporate from the surface of the earth because God remembered Noah.
It is significant that the flood waters did not disappear in a day. Genesis 8:3 says, “And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.” Although the judgment of the flood came suddenly, the waters rose slowly and fell slowly. Listen, just because we don’t always see God act quickly (maybe not as quick as we want), it doesn’t mean that God has forgotten. The Lord remembers. God is faithful. He keeps His promises.
So Moses reports in Genesis 8:4, “Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.” Seven months after the rain began to fall the ark came to rest. The waters were still receding, but they had lowered to the point where the ark was sitting on the sea floor on the mountains of Ararat. Finally, Genesis 8:5 tells us, “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.” God made the dry land appear as He had done in the Genesis 1 creation. God is re-creating the earth.
So we see that God remembered Noah by sending a wind to dry the land. Also God remembered Noah when,
B. God gave Noah a sign.
Genesis 8:6 says, “So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.” Noah was looking for signs that the flood was coming to an end. Noah, his family, and the animals had been on that ark, shut up in that big wooden box for almost a year. I’m sure they are all ready to disembark. But Noah needs confirmation that the earth is ready to sustain life again.
“Then he sent out a raven” (Gen. 8:7). Since the raven is a scavenger bird, it no doubt found plenty of rotting flesh to eat on the surface of the ocean and the muddy hilltops. It “kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.” That is, it did not return to the ark. The raven was a sign that there was death. But Noah is looking for signs of life.
So, Noah tries again (Gen. 8:8), “He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.” But the waters had not yet gone down enough (Gen. 8:9), “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.” Noah tries again a week later (Gen. 8:10), “And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark.” This second time the dove brings back a sign of life (Gen. 8:11), “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.” Plants and trees were beginning to grow. Again, a week later Noah does the same (Gen. 8:12), “So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.” The dove must have found plants or seeds to eat and a place to nest. Noah knew then that the end of the flood must be very near.
But why did Noah send the birds in the first place? The answer is simple and perhaps easy to overlook. God had told him when the flood would start but not when it would end. God had spoken to Noah with instructions for building the ark (Gen. 6:13) and He spoke to Noah to tell him to enter the ark (Gen. 7:1). But now it is a year later and we have no record of God speaking to Noah all that time on the ark. God has certainly been faithful in acting on behalf of Noah. By God’s providence the ark and those in it survived the flood. God kept them alive as He had promised to do. But as far as we know, God has been silent.
Listen, the ark was no pleasure cruise. It was salvation for those in the ark, but it was also a trial. It could not have been an easy time for Noah. When we are going through our own trials, we usually want to know: “When will this end?” And the answer is always: “In God’s time, not one day sooner, not one day later.” Nothing can rush, change, or hinder God’s designs for His children. In our doubt and confusion, we can rest on this truth: God can make the dry ground appear when He chooses.
And just as God gave Noah a sign of life, a sign of a future, He still gives signs of His grace today. Often it is a scripture or a song repeated at just the right moment. It might be a phone call or a letter of encouragement from another saint. God reminds us that we are never alone, never forgotten—signs of life in this dark world.
God fulfilled His promise to keep Noah and those with him on the ark alive. Genesis 8:13 confirms it, “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.” What a great birthday present for Noah! He opens the ark’s cover and sees the dry ground. But Noah is not in a hurry. He waits for the command of God. He waits on the Lord for another eight weeks.
God remembered Noah by sending the wind, through the sign of the doves, and then,
C. God spoke to Noah again.
So, Genesis 8:14 says, “And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.” It’s been a year and 10 days since the flood began—over a year since we heard God speak to Noah. What was it like for Noah during that long silent year inside the ark drifting aimlessly on the waters and waiting for the land to dry?
What do you do in the waiting time? You do what Noah did. As Noah watched and waited, he went about his duties. Day after day, Noah had to get up and take care of his responsibilities on the ark. It did not matter if he “felt” like it or not. God had given him a job to do and it must be done. He knew that God had led him this far, and he believed the word of the Lord. While he waited for the Lord to speak again, he did the only thing we could do. He remained faithful. Wait on the Lord. And while you wait, obey as much as you know.
But God is not late. He is always right on time. In Genesis 8:15-17 God speaks to Noah again:
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.”
The long wait is over. God has been faithful to His promise. God remembered Noah. God spoke again and Noah obeys. God repeats His blessing on this new creation as He had on the original creation, “be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” These words are meant to remind us of Genesis 1. God has re-created the earth and blesses His creation to “abound on the earth.” Why? God remembered Noah. The Lord acted to fulfill His promises.
So first we see God’s remembrance of Noah; we also see Noah’s remembrance of God. Since God in faithfulness remembered Noah,
II. Noah Remembers God
Although Genesis 8 is primarily about God remembering Noah, it also contains wonderful truth about how Noah remembered God. How? By obedience to God’s word and by sacrificial worship. First,
A. Noah left the Ark
Genesis 8:18-19, “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.” Think about how much courage it took for Noah to leave the ark. Even though the ark had been crowded and no doubt somewhat smelly, it had been safe. Now they were leaving the known for the unknown. The world they had known was gone forever. Cities gone, roads gone, homes gone, people gone. Geography changed, landmarks all different. Nothing looked the same. Everything was new. Noah was trusting God for a totally unknown future.
We remember the Lord by acting in faith. Faith means taking the next step … and then trusting God with the results. Are you trusting God for your future? Are you willing to take that next step in obedience to Him?
Noah remembered God by leaving the ark in obedience to God’s word. How else did Noah show he remembered the Lord?
B. Noah built an Altar
Genesis 8:20 says, “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.” God tells Noah to leave the ark; he leaves the ark; and the first thing he does after stepping on dry ground is to build an altar to the Lord. His first act was to publicly thank God for his deliverance.
God’s response to Noah’s offering was one of grace (Gen. 8:21-22), “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.”” Though the sinful nature of mankind has not changed, God in His grace promises not to again curse the ground or destroy every living thing. God responded to Noah’s sacrifice with grace to humanity.
Noah recognized that he owed everything to the Lord. It was God who warned him, God who told him to build the ark, God who designed the ark, God who called the animals to the ark two by two, God who shut the door, God who preserved the ark through the flood, God who brought the ark to a safe place, and it was God who told Noah when it was safe to leave the ark. God did it all!
This is an Old Testament picture of salvation by grace. Noah takes no credit. Instead, by his offering he signifies that God has delivered him and his family. His offering is a way of saying, “By rights I should have perished in that flood but God in his mercy delivered me.”
Noah’s sacrifice showed that he still must approach God through shed blood. Noah wasn’t presuming on some new privileged relationship with God since he had survived the flood. He still knew himself to be a sinner, and he offered sacrifices as the only way he could approach a holy God. Noah’s sacrifice was an expression of gratitude for God’s salvation.
In the same way, God wants us to remember Him by coming to Him through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. One of the ways God has ordained for us to do that is through the Lord’s Supper. Jesus said, “do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). In that ordinance, we reflect on His salvation for us in the past; on the present provision He has given us for life and godliness; and on His promised coming and the future salvation we will enjoy. Next week we will remember the Lord in this way and give thanks for His salvation. Plan and prepare to share in the Lord’s Supper with us next Sunday.
God has remembered you by saving you from sin through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. So, let this be your resolve: I will remember the Lord who saved me. I will take time to give thanks. I will build an altar where I will meet the Lord every day. I will pray. I will serve His church. I will give offerings to the Lord. I will speak up for Jesus. I will bless the name of the Lord.
Remember the God who remembers you. He will be your joy and comfort in this life and in the life to come. Amen.
