Genesis Chapter 8
Have you ever been ill or gone through a long period of difficulty in your life and wondered where God had gone? Have you ever thought he might have forgotten you? Or forsaken you? Like Psalm 22 : "My God, my God why have you abandoned me? I have cried desperately for help but still it does not come!"
Noah must have felt like that. Locked up in the ARK. In a ship that could only float. There was no ability to sail the ARK. It bounced and rocked and floated at the will of the waters. He must have wondered if God had forgotten him. Which is why the chapter begins "God had not forgotten Noah." The Lord never forgets us or our situation. It may well be that we can think that. it may well be that the timescale is not to our liking. It may well be that we don't fully understand what is going on anyway. But the important lesson for us to learn and remember is that the Lord does not abandon his faithful servants.
Now let's move on to verse 15 and look at one of the most important points about Noah. Let's read it again. "God said to Noah, "GO out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives." Now think about that for a moment and you will see what is important here. It doesn't read, "Noah saw that the ground was dry and left the ARK." It doesn't read, "Noah said to his family come let us leave the ARK." It says rather, "God said to Noah, "Go out of the ARK."
And that is what is important here. Noah waited upon God. Noah waited and did nothing until God made it plain to him what he was to do. Now he may have asked God every minute of the day if they could leave. He may have even nagged God a little. But the important thing is that until he knew it was the Lord's will he stayed put. Is that how it is with us? In your life - do you wait on the Lord and only act in accordance with his will for your life? For is this not what is means to walk with God? Let me be specific and give some I hope helpful examples. For I have known some poor folk who thought it necessary to discuss with God the dinner menu. We do have to use common sense in this - I don't think the Lord requires us to ask him for guidance to choose between sausages and steak or whether to get a perm or not!
So what kind of areas must we discuss things with God? I couldn't possible give you and exhaustive list. But for example before changing jobs or moving house we ought to seek the Lord's will on the matter. If we are involved with another person then we ought to be asking God if this person is the right person for us. After all we should not contemplate Christian marriage unless we have done this. We shouldn't start or stop a work in the Church unless the Lord clearly says to us to do it. We must be faithful and obedient and listening people.
There is another point in this that could so easily escape us the verse begins, "God said to Noah, "GO out....". DO you see that...."Go out". Not "Come out". The Lord was with him. Standing right beside him. Helping him through the days of tribulation. And then from within telling him to go out. Even although we can sometimes forget this, even although God can seem far away from us we should try at all times to realise that God is with us. Beside us. Our friend.
Now let's move on to verse 20. Let's re read this verse. "Noah built an altar to the Lord; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird and burnt them whole as a sacrifice on the altar."
Putting to one side the distaste with which we view such sacrifice today, let us rather understand the significance of this event. What is the first thing that Noah does when he leaves the ARK? Does he gather materials to build a shelter for his family? Do they start building a house? Do they have a feast? A party? No indeed they do not. The very first thing that Noah does is offer a thanksgiving to the Lord - his first act is one of prayer. You see Noah has it all sorted out into the right priorities. God first everything else second. He waits for God, he doesn't act without God and he remembers to say thankyou. Sometimes remembering to say thank you is the hardest task of all.
At verse 21 we read: "The odour of the sacrifice pleased the Lord......". Now what does that mean? Does God like the smell of smoking entrails? Is that what we are supposed to bring him in WORSHIP. Not at all. As the teaching in the Scriptures makes quite clear, what pleased God was the intention, was the act of faith. Noah had remembered to say thank you. He had stepped off the ARK and given thanks to God - his first act had been to worship the Lord. This is what pleased the Lord.
And then there is the promise. The promise that the Lord will not destroy the earth gain until the time comes for the world to end. But do you see what the Lord says about us. "I know that from the time he is young his thoughts are evil." From the earliest age as we begin to think our lives move away from God. Our thoughts are not Godly thoughts. Our secret desires our not of the Lord. How important it is from an early age that child should be surrounded by the things of God. How important it is for us as adults or teenagers to be careful about what we see, hear or read. For we can so easily feed our minds on a diet of junk food, or evil things, or dark things. We may be entertained by all this BUT we are doing ourselves no good spiritually. We all know what we can do to our bodies by eating junk food. Report after report warns us of the consequences of our actions. Well, we should also be aware that our spiritual lives are also much affected by what we see hear and do and much of that is voluntary.
So once again as we study Noah we see what it takes to be a fine and godly person. Listen and obey, that's our key phrase. Listen and obey.