9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. 6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind. 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

This first recorded covenant is extraordinary in so many ways.

Having restored his world after the disastrous destruction brought on it by sin, God begins with a blessing like the one that he first spoke over his creation in Genesis 1:22, 28. He again gives fruitfulness. He again gives us all plants as food. He extends this gift to include animals, but pairs it with a gift to the animals of fear of people. Like all his covenants, he gives far more than he asks.

It’s extraordinary for its breadth: it’s not just a covenant with Noah and his family – it covers all living things. All God’s covenants include the whole world but work through particular groups of people, including you and me. All living things are placed “into Noah’s hand” (translated here as “control”). This is a phrase that is used elsewhere to describe God’s care for his creation as well as his authority over it. We are given an extraordinary role caring for God’s world together with him.

Yet it also reaffirms our unique place in God’s world: uniquely made in God’s image. The word translated here as “likeness” also has includes his intention that we should represent him to his world. All the life he gives is to be respected, but God himself holds all living things accountable for the life he gives us.

Father, it’s so extraordinary that you establish relationship with us. It’s so extraordinary, Jesus, that you gave your life to save ours. It’s so extraordinary that you give us the role of working with you to care for your world, and to speak for you into your world.

Written by David Cornell

8 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. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

“But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark.”

Have you ever thought God has forgotten you?  You have prayed for days, weeks, months even years for a particular change in circumstances, perhaps for your healing, or a relationship or financial freedom.  Let me assure you, you’re not alone in feeling like you are forgotten.

In our digital age, when everything must happen in the instant and to our satisfaction, we can get impatient, insistent with God and try to take things into our own hands.  Alternately we become passive, not active in our believing for God to actually breakthrough undermining our prayerfulness and faith.

We read here that God ‘remembered’ Noah and the animals.  Clearly, God was aware of what was happening for Noah, the earth and the animals.  But a process of time needed to be completed.  This passing of time can be the difficult to navigate as we so often do not know what is happening, which may be as natural a process as was happening here with the flood.  But we should not think God has forgotten us.  He has not forgotten us, He is awaiting the opportune time.

Father, help me to be expectantly patient, full of faith in the waits that I am currently experiencing prior to the deliverance You alone can bring.

Written by Ps. Richard Botta

7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

For those of us who grew up going to church, the story of Noah is so very familiar. Trying to read it with fresh eyes, I can see how this narrative may seem hard to believe for some.

But at its heart, Noah’s story is a picture of faith. In Hebrews 11:7 we read,

“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”

The verse in Hebrews 11:6, just prior to this, tells us that “he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him”.

We walk by faith and not by sight. If I try to base my life on what I can see and understand, I will be severely hampered by my own limited abilities to see.

Faith in God has guided my life for as long as I can remember. Of course I do not have all of the answers to life’s big questions (and many of the small ones for that matter), but faith in God has given me a solid foundation, deep meaning and purpose and hope for the future.

The benefits of faith have been immense and far too many to recount here, but I can absolutely testify of the rewards of a life of seeking God, and I am so very grateful.

Written by Shelley Witt

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

How interesting that Noah was the only human on the earth that God was pleased with. I can understand how God could look at the world then (and now) and be so grieved by the capacity humans have for cruelty, manipulation & selfishness. Yet what was it about Noah that made him stand out? There’s no way he was sinless – his humanity would have discounted him from perfection for sure. However verses 8-9 tell us that Noah indeed found favour and that he walked faithfully with God.

The idea of favour from God is based on His unmerited grace, which Noah received because he was faithful to God in the day to day. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for Noah to stay on a godly path when everyone else around him was not living righteously, yet he chose to live a life that was pleasing to God.

How important faithfulness is to God; it was the redeeming factor that saved Noah, and in the same way it is what God is searching for in you and I as He looks upon us. He knows we will never achieve perfection aside from through salvation in Christ. Yet He seeks for us to live in a way that honours Him in the choices we make.

God, help me to have the same faithfulness to you that Noah had. Help me to cling to who you are and to how you want me to live, despite what the world around me may look like. Thank you for your continual unmerited grace. Amen.

Written by Ps Madelaine Tarasenko

25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah[a] and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Have you ever wondered about your family genealogy? Wondered what your distant relatives were like? Wondered how they lived and what life might have been like for them?

Well this passage is an old genealogy where we get a glimpse of life for Lamech. We hear his prayer and the naming of his son Noah.  Lamech chose this name as “Noah” sounded like the word for relief or comfort. Lamech had plans for Noah: he needed a son to help with their hard work of farming.

However, while Lamech had a purpose in having a son, God’s plans and purposes for Noah were much broader. In the coming passages, we see that God had a bigger purpose for “relief” (salvation?) through Noah’s life.

As I read this passage, I am reminded that God’s plans and purposes for my life go way beyond what I see or imagine and that my life plays a part in God’s great story. I am reminded that I am created on purpose which goes way beyond my plan, my parents plan, and even the enemy’s plan. God’s plan for me is beyond the here and now, and beyond what I can see.

I wonder how many of my prayers are small and limited to my immediate situation?

Father, help me to live beyond the realm of here and now, beyond my situation and to trust Your plans and purposes instead. May I not try to make You fit into my life, but remember that I play a part in Your plans and purposes.

Written by Gab Martin