Daily Devotions
Genesis
"Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, for they are from of old." Psalm 25:6
Text: Genesis 8:1-22
GOD TAKES NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF THE WICKED
The deluge that God sent was devastating in its power. The quietness in the tone of the Biblical text underscores the fact that God takes no delight even in the death of the wicked. We are reminded of a word that the Lord recorded in the Book of Ezekiel.
” ‘ Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?”
says the Lord God, ‘and not that he should turn from his ways
and live?’ ”EZEKIEL 18:23
“THEN GOD REMEMBERED NOAH”
The word “remember” has a very special theological significance. How should we understand it?
1. It is not an “after thought”
The word “remember” does not tell us that God suffers from a lapse of memory from time to time. Neither did He forget Noah willfully! It is certainly not a reference to an “after thought”.
2. It is a tender and conscious calling to mind Covenantal Promises
God was the One who warned Noah about the Flood that would cover the earth. He was the One who gave instructions concerning the building of the Ark. Of course He did not, could not have forgotten about Noah! The word “remember” suggests a tender and conscious application of the Covenant Promise that God made and gave to Noah.
“But I will establish My covenant with you…”
GENESIS 6:18
3. It signals the commencement of God’s action to honour His Covenantal Promise
God had promised that He would establish a covenant with Noah. He had already begun to keep His promise, when He preserved the lives of all those who belonged to the immediate family of Noah.
THE END OF THE FLOOD
It must have been tough for Noah and his small family to sit out the Flood. The Scriptures record that the Flood prevailed for a hundred and fifty days (Genesis 7:24). It was time now to bring to an end the judgment meted out.
“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.”GENESIS 8:1
How should we respond after reading this solemn account of the judgment of the world? The Scriptures have always been most consistent in teaching and urging men to “fear the Lord” (Psalm 34:9; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). May we learn how to fear the Lord.