Author: Beth Duncan

Genesis 9:4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 

The daily devo that I read each morning featured Psalm 118:24 this morning: “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” This is a verse that has been on my mind and my heart quite a lot lately as it is one that I sometimes have a hard time embracing.

Genesis 9:5 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.

I think outwardly, I’m rather an optimist, typically looking on the bright side. But at my core, unfortunately, I have found that there is a lugubrious Eeyore at the gate, who is always a little down, a little negative. I don’t like that side of myself. I would much rather rejoice in this day that the Lord has made.

Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.

Precious Savior, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Thank You. Help me to either make peace with my inner Eeyore or to root out that side of myself so that I can rejoice in each day that You have made. Help me, Jesus. Amen.

Genesis 9:7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 

I don’t know how I missed the similarity between God’s words to Adam and Eve in the garden and God’s words to Noah when he was exiting the boat, but I absolutely did. Until commentary pointed out the almost identical words, it never even occurred to me.

Genesis 9:2 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. 

And now I’m left wondering what to do with that information, what does it mean exactly. Noah is the new Adam? That doesn’t sit well somehow. God’s going to try again, using exactly the same words to Noah as to Adam? Take 2? That doesn’t seem logical. What am I missing?

Genesis 9:3a Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. 

Precious Savior, Thank You for the sense of questioning, sense of wonder with which I am approaching Your word as I read it this time. Thank You that words I’ve been familiar with since childhood can bring me new questions and curiosities. Help me to sit with Your word, to question and seek, to draw closer to You with each breath. Amen.

Genesis 9:3b Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 

The first thing Noah does after he gets off the boat is sacrificed an offering to God, an offering that pleased the Lord. I’m going to speculate that it was an offering of praise and thanksgiving.

Genesis 8:21a The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. 

I can learn a lot from that because I know that in every trial there is hope, there are things to be thankful for because God is with us in every trail, and that fact, His presence with us, is absolutely worth celebrating.

Genesis 8:21b And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 

Precious Savior, I feel like my words of encouragement sound trite, and I don’t mean for them to. I have been in valleys where Your presence is the only light I see. I have held on to Your hope with both hands. Help me, help us all, to see You, to praise You, to hold on to Your hope, no matter our circumstances. Amen.

Genesis 8:22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 8:17a Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground— 

I wonder what Noah’s default reaction was when he stepped off the ark. Was he thankful? Grateful? Frustrated? Angry? Bitter? Did he focus on what he lost or what he still had?

Genesis 8:17b …so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

This is the season of thanksgiving, giving thanks, being thankful. But I know, for me, it is all too easy to be negative, to gripe and complain and focus on what’s not as it “should be.” It’s a matter of perspective, and choosing joy is something I have to be diligent about.

Genesis 8:18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 

Precious Savior, Thank You for the reminder that perspective is important, that giving thanks is important, that choosing joy—joy in You, not in my circumstances—is important. Help me to root myself deeply in Your love, mercy, grace. Help me to shine Your light always. Amen.

Genesis 8:19 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.

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 8:13a By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth.  

By our standards, at 601, Noah was ancient. However, he still had another 350 years to go before he died. I wonder, though, whether he balked at starting over at his age. Did he think that he had done all the changing he needed to do, that he was just cruising into old age? Is that a modern idea? Probably.

Genesis 8:13b Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

Was Noah excited about the possibilities when he saw the ground was now dry and so very, very changed? Was he grumbly about all that he had lost? Was he just focused on what needed to be done to inhabit this new landscape? Was he terrified of the unknown that he faced?

Genesis 8:14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

Precious Savior, Change can be hard. It can also be exciting. Help us to *try* to embrace the changes we face, knowing that You go before us and behind us, that You are with us always, even through upheaval and change. Help us to root ourselves so deeply in You that change loses its sting. Amen.

Genesis 8:15-16 Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.   

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 8:1 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. 

What must it have been like on the ark? Wild animals. Livestock. People. The smells, the noise, must have been overwhelming. Did the humans at least have perspective, thinking, “Well, at least we aren’t drowning like everyone else”?

Genesis 8:2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 

Did the animals have any clue what was going on? Were they afraid? Angry? Did they feel trapped? Did they have any concept of the fact that the only reason they were still alive was because they were stuck on that boat with all those other animals and people? Did they have any way to gain perspective in this situation?

Genesis 8:3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 

Precious Savior, Forgive me when I lose perspective on a situation, when I gripe and grumble, not realizing that where You have led me is protecting me from something worse. Help me to seek You and see You in every day, in every situation, in every circumstance. Draw me closer to You. Amen.

Genesis 8:4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.  

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.  

I always wonder what was going on on the earth that God thought His best course of action was utter destruction of land, wildlife, and people. I don’t think He took this course of action lightly, and He promised to never do it again after it was done, so I think this widespread destruction took a toll on Him, but what brought Him to this precipice in the first place?

Genesis 7:23a Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth.

God’s divine, not human, so it’s not like He sent the flood and then realized He’d been a bit hasty. But He never chooses widespread destruction and starting over again. He chooses compassion later in Genesis when Abraham “convinces” Him to spare Sodom if He finds even five righteous people. He chooses compassion when He sends Jesus for our sins in the New Testament. So why now and why never again?

Genesis 7:23b Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

Precious Savior, I know that Your thoughts are nothing like my thoughts, and Your ways are far beyond anything I can imagine (Is 55:8). Thank You for the ability to question when I don’t understand. Thank You for the ability to draw closer to You, even when my questions have no answers. Thank You that You are sovereign, You are in control, You are loving and compassionate and merciful. Thank You that I don’t have to understand life to understand these truths. Amen.

Genesis 7:24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. 

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 7:18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 

Again, today, I am thinking about Hurricane Helene and the destruction wrought in Western North Carolina by the storm. I want to make it clear that I do NOT think that what happened in WNC was in any way “God’s Wrath”. I am sure there are those who do, but I do not.

Genesis 7:19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered

However, because of the flooding, death, and destruction that so recently ripped through WNC, today’s scripture hits entirely differently. Waters rising with no end in sight, covering everything, destroying so much in its path? I’ve seen those pictures. Humans and animals swept away by the storm? I’ve heard those stories. Horrifying. Unfathomable.

Genesis 7:20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 

Precious Savior, I sit with today’s scripture unsure of how to process death and destruction on this scale–a scale that hits so close to home, given the recent destruction in the mountains. Help me to hold on to You, hold on to hope, when life throws unfathomable destruction into the world. Help me cling to You as I try to make sense of the senselessness. Help me. Amen.

Genesis 7:21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 

Have a blessed day.