While Earth Remains

At this time of the year, people are acutely aware of the rhythm God built into the part of His creation we call earth. Especially people living in agricultural areas. Whether or not they respond to God, farmers plants their crops based on God’s promise to Noah: While earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. (Gen. 8:22 RSV)

God gave Noah and his family a rainbow as a sign—as promise to His creation on earth. And although everything from their former life was gone when they left the ark, the face of the ground was dry. (Gen. 8:13b)

It was a time of devastation and a time beginnings, but God gave them the promise of a future. While earth remains, they could enjoy and participate in God’s rhythm.

Originally published April 2, 1982.
Picture: Bleeding hearts, Patty's garden, 2009. Photo by Solveig.

A Picture of Salvation

The people of Noah’s time were wicked. So wicked the Bible says, the Lord was sorry that He made men on the earth. . . . (Gen 6:6a NKJV)

There was an exception. One man, the fellow named Noah, found grace . . . Noah walked with God. (Gen. 6:8a,9b) His story, found in the book of Genesis, provides an illustration of God’s salvation and protection.

Because Noah found grace, God provided a way of escape for him and his family. God directed Noah to build a houseboat of sorts, an ark that would be a place of refuge during a huge flood. And because Noah believed and obeyed God, he and his family were safe while the rest of the world experienced God’s judgment.

The family spent many days waiting inside the ark while it rained and then waiting inside even longer while the earth slowly dried. After the flood, when they finally emerged, Noah built an altar to the Lord. And God promised, I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake. . . . (Gen. 8:21b)

Originally published April 12, 1991.

God Remembered Noah

When God told Noah to do something, Noah obeyed. He built a huge ark. Some believe he worked on it for 120 years.

Even so, he must have felt queasy when he entered with his family and the animals—and when God shut the door behind them as they left behind the only world they knew. Then, the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifth days. (Gen. 7:24 NKJV) Until, finally, God remembered Noah.”(8:1)

Aren’t you glad God remembered? Promises can be a problem. Noah was familiar with people, and nothing is totally guaranteed when dealing with people. People are prone to forget or be irresponsible. But Noah knew God, too; God is faithful and He keeps His Word. Noah trusted God, and we can count on Him as well.

If we think God forgets promises it’s because we’re prone to forget promises ourselves. But God is not man, and He didn’t forsake Noah. When the water subsided, 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. (8:20)

Based on Thoughts originally published January 12, 1988, and February 26, 1993.