April 3, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Genesis? Here’s today’s reading:
Genesis 8 (NIV)
1 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. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.……Continue Reading
God stops the rain, water recedes, dry land appears, earth found dry, eight souls depart the ark, all the lineage of righteous Seth. If there be any chance the post diluvial world would thrive as godly people, certainly, this is it.
God won’t curse the earth any more, man’s heart remains corrupt even in the righteous line. I have the good and bad of my walk with Christ, my Spirit indeed is willing, but my flesh is weak. And so it shall be all of my days, yet today, there is the power of Resurrection Sunday, where little gordy -in Christ- was also crucified, buried, and rose again, to walk in newness of life.
We will read Noah’s narrative, while chapter eight rejoices in God’s mercy and preservation of life, yet sin knocks at the door. Don’t open it! -gy
Genesis 8, Matthew 7 and Our Daily Bread reading centered around John 10.3
Jesus is the gate keeper and the good sheep listen to the gatekeeper and do not try to go around or climb through another way. I feel the conviction of that in John 10.3.
Matthew 7 a similar passage is expressed with the narrow gate and the wide gate. The narrow gate being Gods kingdom is something few find or enter where the wide gate is sin and many enter it.
Genesis 8
While the earth remains…..
”While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.“
Genesis 8:22
It is not surprising that Noah’s first recorded act upon being delivered from the ark is to build an alter and offer sacrificial praise and thanksgiving to God! And while Jesus served as our perfect sacrifice for our sins, to bring us to God, we are still able to worship God through sacrifice, but it is through our obedience…how we live our lives, that we offer that sacrifice to God!
Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
And how can we do this? How can we overcome our fallen, sinful flesh and live lives that are acceptable to God? By leaning fully on Christ and asking Him, through the power of His Spirit dwelling within us, to conform us to His image and help us model His example…how did He show that He loved the Father? See John 14:31. So how can we show that we love Jesus? “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2.
Do not be conformed to this world…but rather, be conformed to Christ. That is what God is doing in us, Christian. That is has been His intention since before the foundations of time…”For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Romans 8:29.
Let Him do what He wants.
Sean, you speak the truth in love. Jesus sacrificed Himself. Paul encourages us to do the same. I’d like to think Noah offered sacrifice out of the bottom of his heart, so to speak, without a feeling of debt, or penance before God. What Noah offered really, REALLY PLEASED GOD!
You’re encouraging me to do the same. If you “go limp” before Christ, those chains will fall right off your wrists. Problem is, we don’t want to be a holy sacrifice, we love the world, and we squeeze those sin-holding chains with a death grip.
I think you are telling me, “Let the chains fall.” Sean, you are on the mark! -gy
And you are an encouragement to me, brother Gordon! Along with all others who are participating here in this study…thankful for the opportunity to read and share the Word of God with His people!
Genesis 8; Ephesians 1-6
Yesterday I recall someone mentioning how God sealed Noah and his family in the ark, and today I read Ephesians 4:30: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
I thought these connect in an interesting way.
Noah and his family were in the ark just over a year. Gen. 7: 4, 11 and Gen 8: 14. Noah built an alar to the Lord and offered every clean beast, and of every clean fowl. vs 20. These were a sweet savour to the Lord. Remember when God brought two of each kind but also brought by sevens clean beasts, and unclean beasts two of a kind. Then He brought fowls of the air by sevens all male and female. The kinds that God brought to Noah of the sevens were to be used on the altar as a sweet savour { smell} to the Lord. That is why they were sevens and not just two`s. So the kinds could reproduce after Noah offered the burnt offerings. Noah`s ark rests upon the mountains of Ararat. In other words along that mountain range. Jesus says in Matthew 24: 37 { But as the days of Noe { Noah} were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.} This is stating how evil the people of Noah`s time were and that is how it will be with Christ returns. It doesn`t say that Noah`s ark will be found although some have thought that it would be as a sign. I was one that thought that as a Christian in the 1970`s. Probably because there was a movie that came out about Noah`s ark. Was it called { In Search of Noah`s Ark?} I no longer think that. Besides Noah and his family probably used the wood, etc. from the ark to make new structures both for themselves and for farm animals. All other creatures were set free to reproduce wherever they went. All the time adapting to the conditions after the flood. According to Christian experts; this was the beginning of the ice age. For it caused the right conditions for this to happen. Hot and cold between the waters, earth, and sky. And only some of the earth experienced this ice age. But when God made living things He made it so that they had it in their DNA to have the ability to adapt. But all these living creatures always remained the same kind. Bears always stayed bears but adapted to where they were, etc. Mankind is different from animals for we are made in God`s image. May the Lord bless us.
God stops the rain as easily as He brought it. Noah’s first act of the ark was building an altar and making this sacrifice and I am sure it was out of grattitude for God’s protection, worship for God’s power, but also recognizing that we are sinners, he is a sinner and the sad reality that even with this judgement cleansing the entire earth sin will come again. God acknowledges the state of man as sinful and corrupt but upon Noah’s sacrifice on the altar He promised to never destroy the earth again. Amazing love!
But God remembered Noah….the account here hinges on that and moves from a picture of destruction to a picture of restoration and recovery. And where would we be if He did not remember us as well! But how amazing and humbling it must have been for those on the ark to experience all that was involved here: caring for animals, floating on the water, wondering when the dry land would appear. And God made that come sooner by sending a drying breeze on the earth. And after all that has happened and seeing that they have survived by God’s hand, how fitting for Noah to build an altar and offer sacrifices there. How grateful they would be to be back on dry land again. And God is pleased and recognizes that He will not do this again even though He knows that mankind is evil. He has made a definitive statement of what He thinks about it….but the work of His Son on the cross and the power of the Spirit in our lives will be God’s ultimate answer for forgiving our sin and showing and empowering a better way.