God Remembered Noah

Never Forgotten

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Noah spent more than a year inside the ark. For months there was nothing to see but water and sky. Then Genesis 8:1 says, “Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark.”

Did God forget? No. God never forgets anything. In the Bible, when God remembers someone, it means He turns toward them with love and acts to help them.

God kept His word. Before the flood God told Noah, “But I will establish My covenant with you” (Genesis 6:18). A covenant is a promise God makes and keeps. Remembering Noah was God keeping that promise.

God went to work. Right after God remembered, “God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided” (8:1). Subsided means went down. God's remembering was not just a thought. It was action.

Every living thing. God remembered the animals too, from the biggest cattle to the smallest bird. Nothing God made is too small for Him to care about.

The same God later. Hundreds of years later God's people were slaves in Egypt. “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24). Then He sent Moses to set them free.

Why would God remember us? King David looked up at the night sky and asked, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4). Mindful means keeping someone in mind. David was amazed that the God of the whole sky thinks about people.

Better than a mother. God says, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15).

Written on His hands. God adds, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands” (Isaiah 49:16). Inscribed means written or carved. Many Christians think of the nail scars in Jesus' hands when they read this.

He never sleeps. “Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). While Noah slept in the ark, God was awake and watching.

Feeling forgotten. Sometimes we feel as if God has forgotten us. Feeling forgotten and being forgotten are not the same. God was holding the ark on the days when nothing seemed to change.

What we learn. God does not forget His people. When He remembers you, He is already working for you, even before you can see it.

What to do. Tonight, before you go to sleep, thank God that He remembers you by name. Tell Him one thing you need help with.

Before Genesis 8:1 the waters rose; after it they went down. The change began with God remembering, and it shows us how God treats the people who belong to Him.

Zakar. The Hebrew word zakar (say: zah-KAR) means to remember, but in the Bible it is much more than recalling a fact. When God remembers, He acts in faithfulness toward someone He has bound Himself to.

Covenant memory. God had said, “But I will establish My covenant with you” (6:18). In 8:1 we see Him keeping that word. God's remembering is tied to His promises, so we can count on it.

The pattern repeats. “God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24), and the rescue from Egypt began. God remembers, and then God rescues.

Psalm 8:4. “What is man that You are mindful of him?” Mindful is zakar again. David is not asking whether God remembers people. He is amazed that He does. The Maker of the moon and stars keeps small people in mind.

Every living thing (8:1). God remembered “every living thing, and all the animals.” His care reaches the whole creation, not only people. In 9:10 God includes every living creature in His covenant.

Isaiah 49:15-16. A nursing mother is the strongest picture of human remembering, and God says even she may forget, “Yet I will not forget you.” Then He adds, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.” Many Christians connect this with the wounds Jesus still carried in His hands after He rose (John 20:27).

Psalm 121:4. “Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.” God's remembering never takes a break. He kept the ark through every night of the flood.

Feeling forgotten. Feeling forgotten is not the same as being forgotten. Noah's year in the ark had long stretches when nothing seemed to change, yet God was holding the ark the whole time. Hannah felt forgotten while she prayed year after year for a child, and the Bible says the Lord remembered her (1 Samuel 1:19).

Remembering God. Because God remembers us, His people are told again and again to remember Him and what He has done (Psalm 103:2). Faith grows when we recall His faithfulness.

Application. Write down one way God has helped you before. Keep it somewhere you will see it, and thank Him for it the next time you feel forgotten.

Remember Me

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God remembered Noah after many long months. He also remembers us while we wait, He remembers everyone who calls out to Jesus, and He lets go of the sins He forgives.

A long wait. Noah went into the ark in the second month of one year and came out in the second month of the next year (7:11; 8:14). Waiting that long is hard.

How long? David once prayed, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1). It is okay to tell God how you really feel.

Trusting while waiting. David ended the same prayer, “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation” (Psalm 13:5). His trouble had not gone away yet, but his heart was trusting God.

Be brave and wait. “Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart” (Psalm 27:14). Noah waited until God said, “Go out of the ark” (Genesis 8:16).

Remember me. When Jesus was dying on the cross, a criminal beside Him asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom (Luke 23:42).

Jesus' answer. Jesus promised the man that he would be with Him in Paradise that very day (Luke 23:43). Paradise means being with Jesus in heaven. The man had nothing to give, but Jesus remembered him.

What God forgets. God also makes a surprising promise: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). Iniquity means sin. When God forgives, He does not keep bringing it back up.

Far away. “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Transgressions are the times we break God's law.

Into the sea. “You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). In Noah's day the deep waters covered the earth. Now God's mercy covers our sin.

How He can forget. God can let go of our sin because Jesus carried it. “And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

We remember Him. At the Last Supper Jesus said, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). God remembers us, and we remember what Jesus did for us.

What to do. If you have trusted Jesus, thank Him today for remembering you and for forgetting your forgiven sins. Then tell Him about anything you are waiting for.

In the Bible, God's memory works two ways. He remembers His people for good, and He refuses to remember their forgiven sins. Both meet at the cross.

The waiting year. Noah entered the ark in the six hundredth year, second month, seventeenth day (7:11), and the earth was dry on the twenty-seventh day of the second month of the next year (8:14). God remembered Noah in 8:1, but months of waiting still lay ahead.

Lament. Psalm 13 begins, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?” A lament (say: luh-MENT) is an honest prayer of sorrow. God put such prayers in the Bible to teach us to bring our feelings to Him instead of hiding them.

The turn. The same psalm ends, “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation” (13:5). Nothing outside David had changed yet, but his trust had.

Luke 23:42-43. The criminal's request, remember me, uses the language of the Psalms. Jesus answered with a promise for that very day: the man would be with Him in Paradise. He was saved without a single good work, only by turning to Jesus.

Jeremiah 31:34. In the new covenant God promises, “their sin I will remember no more.” This does not mean God cannot recall facts. It means He will never hold forgiven sin against His people.

Hebrews 8:12. The New Testament quotes that promise and applies it to the new covenant Jesus made: “their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Why it is fair. God does not simply ignore sin. “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus took the penalty, so God can forgive and still be just.

Micah 7:19. “You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.” In Noah's day the deep waters brought judgment on sin. In Micah, God buries forgiven sin in them.

Remembrance (Luke 22:19). Jesus told His disciples, “do this in remembrance of Me.” At the Lord's Supper the church remembers His body given and His blood shed until He comes again. Paul says that as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, “you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

Application. When guilt over a sin you have confessed comes back, answer it with God's promise: He has chosen to remember it no more (1 John 1:9). Then use your memory to remember Him.

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Complete all sections to finish!

Read each section and answer the questions correctly.