Then God remembered Noah,
and every living thing,
and all the animals
that were with him in the ark.

Genesis 8:1

The distinguishing feature of this passage must surely be the level of detail regarding time. We are told how long the waters decreased, the day the ark rested on the ground, the number of days spent watching for birds, and the nearly three months of waiting after Noah saw the ground was dry.

All of this detail about time came after God remembered Noah. It seems odd to me that God remembered Noah and then did nothing for what must have seemed like forever to those who were on the ark. Personally, I don’t enjoy waiting and waiting for God to act. But waiting seems to be the point of this passage, as if it’s a key part of God’s administration over mankind.

Remember

The first time the Bible mentions God remembering is in Genesis 8. It says that after the floodwaters had raged for 40 days, God remembered Noah and all who were with him on the ark. Remembering is an interesting word to apply to God, since He knows all things and doesn’t forget, like we do. 

Later Bible passages referring to God’s remembering often used the term in connection with a promise or covenant that God had made. From these passages, we can see that His act of remembering is generally followed by some type of divine intervention for the purpose of fulfilling His promise or covenant. 

We could say God’s remembering is when He turns His attention to a given situation with the intent to act. Thus, God’s remembering of Noah indicated He was ready to take action regarding His promise of keeping Noah alive through the flood. In other words, remembering meant God was ready to deliver Noah from the flood.

Since God is all-powerful, we might have expected a spectacular removal of the floodwaters and a quick-dry of the earth. But instead, God made only a very slight move.

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. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. Genesis 8:1-2

God merely started the winds and stopped the rains. The rest of the drying process was a natural progression of the waters receding and the earth drying. Other than stopping the rain, God’s intervention didn’t appear supernatural at all, but appeared to be a natural progression of events. 

To this day, God’s working among the affairs of men is usually quiet and unnoticed by most. Occasionally in history, He has intervened spectacularly, but His normal method of operation has been through natural processes. 

Sometimes, when we have observed no disruption to natural processes, we assume God has forgotten His promises and failed to act. But this is not true. Normal progression of natural processes does not mean God has forgotten or is inactive.

Waiting

On the ark, Noah was evidently watching for signs of the flood waters receding. After forty days, he heard the rain stop. Then, five months after the rain had started, he felt the ark land. Three months later, he began sending the birds on reconnaissance missions to see if the water had receded. Finally, one full year after the flood began, he opened the window on the ark and observed that the ground was dry. 

One year was a long time to be cooped up in the ark. But he had to wait another two months and 27 days before God finally spoke and told him to leave the ark. I suppose those last three months were the longest three months of his stay on the ark. It must have seemed long to wait five months on the ark after it landed, and long to wait another 21 days while sending out the birds. But then they waited an additional 87 long days after they had seen the ground was dry. I can’t imagine that Noah and his family didn’t question where God was during those long weeks.

Noah’s Response

Perhaps surprisingly, Noah showed no resentment or bitterness towards God for his extended stay on the ark. In fact, he showed gratitude. He had at his disposal every kind of created animal, but selected only the best, the clean animals, for sacrifice to God. 

The Scripture doesn’t tell us what produced Noah’s gratitude. It may have arisen from being delivered out of the judgment of the flood. Or perhaps it came from recognizing that God had not abandoned him. We are not told. All we see is that Noah spent a lot of time on the ark and somehow, over the course of the long wait, he arrived at a place of deep gratitude towards God.

Noah isn’t the only one of God’s people who has needed to wait for long periods of time. Over the course of history, God has sent many of His people through long periods of waiting, often with no explanation for the delay. But time and time again, those who have waited on Him come through their wait with the report that God is good. 

God’s Covenant

God’s response to Noah’s sacrifice is nothing short of remarkable. He promised to never destroy the earth with a flood again. God sent the flood because every imagination of men’s hearts was evil. But, because of Noah’s sacrifice, although men’s hearts remained continually wicked, God swore in His heart that He would never destroy the earth with a flood again. Noah’s one act of sacrifice brought an everlasting decree from God that would stand regardless of how wicked man became.

God highly valued Noah’s offering which came after a prolonged period of waiting. It means He is not indifferent to the long periods of time which His people endure, but is intimately aware of each passing moment. It means He does not gloss over their patient waiting on Him, but highly values their trust in Him even when they have seemed abandoned.

Conclusion

In God’s administration over mankind, He does not fulfill His promises with a snap of His fingers, although He could. He created both time and the natural processes, and uses them in His working among His people. His approach requires a good deal of faith from those who trust in Him. But He greatly delights in their enduring faith in His word. Especially when their faith stands firm in the face of contrary circumstances.

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