Some of my favorite promises in the Bible begin with “God remembered.”
These anthropomorphic statements don’t imply that the Lord has forgotten. They remind us that the Lord NEVER forgets His promises.
Today, we turn the page to Genesis 8. The overall theme of Genesis 8 is renewal. More than simply God’s “mopping up” after the flood, there is a real renewing of the earth and God’s creation.
We read in Genesis 8:1-14:
1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
Genesis 8:1-14, New International Version
According to Genesis 7:24, the Flood lasted 150 days. The rain and eruptions of the water from beneath had stopped.
The waters were receding at God’s command during the next five months (another 150 days). The flood’s tumultuous upheaval of the earth created some of the mountain ranges, valleys, and canyons we now see. These new spaces gave this water somewhere to go as they were receding. If God can figure out how to flood the earth, He is wise enough to send the water away!
Verse 4 tells us that mountain peaks became visible on the 1st day of the 10th month. Forty days after that, Noah opened the window (sunroof?) he had built and sent out a raven (verses 6-7). Why a raven? The text doesn’t specifically say, but it makes more sense when you look at what a raven eats. Ravens eat dead things, and dead things are what the Earth had a lot of. Since it was stronger and could find food among the carcasses, it could have stayed in flight much longer. Also, the ravens were expendable since they were unfit for consumption or sacrifice.
Verses 8-9 tell us Noah sent a dove to check the water levels, but there was no place to land, so the dove returned. The dove was a clean animal (fit for sacrifice or eating) and could not fly as far.
In verses 10-11, we learn Noah waited seven days (the number of completeness or the number of God) and sent out another dove. What did it return with? An olive leaf! That means the water had receded, and plants were starting to grow.
After another seven days, Noah sent the dove out, but it did not return (verse 12). The water receded, and the dove had found a home! The constant attention to chronological detail indicates the importance of the event.
The words that begin this section are “God remembered…”. He remembered His desire to cleanse the earth. He remembered His promise to spare them. He remembered His faithful servant, Noah.
The pollution of sin was gone from the earth. For now, it was similar to the Garden of Eden. The earth was ready to start over with Noah, his family, and the animals. God remembered.
God has not stopped remembering His promises. The earth will be renewed again. One day, it will be put right and stay right. God will remember His promise.
Life Meets Theology 