“God Will Remember You!”(Gen.8:1-12).
A mungaka idiom says in wonderment, “The baby of a crocodile has drowned!” It is indeed strange for the baby of a crocodile to drown! Again, when you send a child on an errand and s/he stays too long, they’ll say, “You have sent a fish to the stream.” Water creatures should be the envy of all other creatures. All water creatures survived the flood because water is their natural habitat.
All land creatures paid dearly for the follies of humanity.
It wasn’t mere folly. “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain”(Gen.6:8). That is when the LORD decided to use water to wipe humans off the face of the earth – except Noah and his wife, his sons, and their wives.
When God destroyed the world with a flood, “only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The water flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days”(Gen.7:1ff).
And now my friend comes the good news:“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…The water receded steadily from the earth…”
For five months, the LORD was engrossed in ensuring that his plan came to pass. He probably paid less concern for Noah because he knew they were safe in the ark.
Then laterly he remembered Noah.
Few theological points of interest here:
- God is the Supreme Power who controls everything. Even the waters obey him. God’s Son has the same power, such that “he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him,” to the amazement of his disciples(Lk.8:22-25).
- Though water is life, water can also be a destructive element.
- By water baptism, we become new creations in the same way that Noah and those in the ark survived the flood (cf. I Pt.3:15-22).
- Lastly, when the storms of life assial us, when despair and frustration become our bedfellows, when life seems to treat us harshly, and when we lose the desire to live, listen to the still inner voice whispering to you, saying, “Cheer up; fix your eyes on Christ, keep faith and hope alive and put your trust in the God of mercy.
God has not forgotten you! God has not given up on you. Don’t give up on him! God will remember you as he remembered Noah.
Sunday prayer: Holy Spirit, strengthen us daily to trust and obey the Lord in the same way the winds and the water obey him. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
02/02/2025.