Eight musings, lessons and encouragement from Genesis chapter 8.
1) God remembered Noah. It’s such a simple sentence with a whole lot of meaning. That fact that God remembered Noah despite everything that was happening, shows God truely cares about each individual and that we never need fear He might forget about us.
2) It beautifully echoes the first chapters of Genesis where God creates the earth. I really love the symmetry between these chapters as God restores the earth after the flood.
3) God is restoring & recreating a beautiful place for humans to live. Even after everything which happened, how messed up humans made God’s perfect world, He still puts effort and care into making a place for them to live.
4) Just because something looks ready or we assume the timing is right, doesn’t mean it actually is. God had them in the ark for nearly another two months after the earth appeared to be dry. Even though sometimes we can’t see it or understand it, we have to realise and trust that God’s timing is different and better than ours. He knows the ending so it’s better to trust Him than blunder our way through.
5) always thank God immediately after any huge works (well any works really, who are we to judge big or small?). While this kinda seems self explanatory, when we are caught up in the moment is easy to get distracted. Don’t underestimate the importance of thankfulness.
6) Everything is under God’s command. Also kinda self-explanatory, He did just flood the whole earth… but there is this cool sentence which also says He appoints, day and night, the seasons, harvest and sowing for as long as the earth exists. That’s pretty cool! God even appoints and holds together the basic things which we take for granted everyday, often for our whole lives.
7) Just because God brought great judgement once, doesn’t mean He will do it again, ie, every act of nature is not God’s judgement. While God does deliver judgement through out the rest of the bible, God confirms this both with His promise not to flood the whole world again, as well as later when Jesus reinforced this point, (with the examples of the tower, blind man etc), that the suffering of our current world is a reflection of the sin in this world rather than God’s immediate judgement.
8) Even out of the biggest catastrophe the world has ever seen, God brings new life, healing and refreshment. Look to see what He is doing today.
♡
Musings by Tee 