Christianity-A Religion of Hope

God Remembered

(Genesis 8:1-19, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, August 10, 2014)

[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.

The Lord has the right to judge His creatures, but He will not forget His eternal plan. God had promised that He would bring victory over evil. That's why the waters of judgment receded.

[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.

God used a raven, a dove, and an olive branch to communicate to Noah that the waters had subsided from the earth. With the passage of an appointed amount of time, a new world began.

[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.

God called Noah and His family out of the ark. The day of destruction was over. The time had come for God's creatures to go out by families and to be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

Put the Word to Work: The only reason that there can be any communal peace or family joy upon the earth is that God remembers that His eternal purpose will surely be accomplished through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to live out the important connection between God's love for the elect (special grace) and His goodness to all (common grace.) We are an aroma of life to all who can sense the joy that comes in the morning.

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 122:1 – I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”

Gospel Reading—Matthew 13:36-43 – The parable of the weeds explained