God Remembers

GETTING STARTED

The last few moments in a Final Four basketball game. The last day of school. Waiting for the “Fasten Seatbelt” sign to be turned off. Sometimes even when we know the plan, and even when we know we are supposed to wait, waiting is hard. But what if we don’t know the plan, and what if all we know is to wait? That’s even harder.

  • Is there something in your life that you are waiting on? 

READ THE WORD: GENESIS 8:1-19 (ESV)

8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm 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 beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. Look over the passage again, and list all mentions of the days and months. It was about a year that Noah and his family remained in the ark (vss. 7:11, 8:14). Forty days of rain were just the tip of the iceberg!
  2. What did Noah do in verse 13? How much time passed between verse 13 and verse 16? Would you have waited that long to leave the ark? Why or why not?
  3. Compare verse 1 with verses 15-18. It seems that God did, indeed, have a plan and remembered Noah and his family. What is your attitude when waiting on God’s plan? How can you trust him even when you have to wait?
  4. With what situations do you need to trust the care and plan of God? What would it look like to trust God in those situations?

RESPOND TO GOD

In the storm and in the still God remembered the animals and Noah’s family. God knew he would end the rain. He knew when the dove would find the olive branch, and yet, he did not let Noah out of the ark until much later. But Noah was faithful and waited until God spoke.

  • Ask God to help you in your waiting.
  • Thank God for having an enduring plan for your life from the beginning.