A Work in Progress….

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.

Genesis 7:15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.

I would imagine Noah and his crew had to endure a lot of waiting during this time. I figure that most people are pretty bad at waiting. I know I am.

Genesis 7:16a The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah.

As I type this, I am waiting for the start of a race in which I am running. Waiting, for me at least, is not easy. There is usually a lot of fretting involved. But what if I use that time to draw closer to God?

Genesis 7:16b Then the Lord shut him in.

Precious Savior, There is a lot of waiting involved in this life. Forgive me when I squander that time with useless fretting. Help me to use the waiting to draw closer to You. Amen.

Genesis 7:17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.

Have a blessed day. 

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 

With the memory of the flooding and devastation from Hurricane Helene so fresh in my mind, the story of Noah and the flood carries a different weight for me today. I cannot imagine the fear and anguish of those watching the rain for forty days from outside the ark, but I’ve seen pictures and footage of destruction that must have been similar. Heartbreaking and terrifying.

Genesis 7:12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

This scene also brings to mind Abraham and God in conversation about the righteous and the wicked in Sodom. God had plans to destroy the city, but Abraham asked if God would destroy it if there were even ten righteous people there–only ten. With the rainbow, God promised not to destroy the world by flood again. For Abraham, He is willing not to destroy Sodom if there are even ten righteous people there. Both acts, to me, speak of hope.

Genesis 7:13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 

Precious Savior, Thank You for Your hope, for the ability to live with the consequences of our actions (often its own form of punishment), for the ability to turn back to You when we realize we have lost our way. Thank You for being a God of repentance and redemption instead of a God who destroys. I’ve got a lot of complicated emotions swirling this morning. Thank You for sitting with me as I process. Thank You for drawing me closer. Thank You for giving me hope. Amen.

Genesis 7:14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 7:5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

In the span of 10 verses in Genesis 7, the number 7 is mentioned four times.  Noah is told to take seven pairs of clean animals, seven pairs of birds, this will happen in seven days, with a reminder that it was seven days before the rains started. That seems a lot to me.

Genesis 7:6-7 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 

The number 7 is seen as meaning completion and perfection in the Bible. But sometimes it’s just a number. Were the repetitive sevens in Genesis 7 a message to Noah? A sign of hope for him and his family? A message to us that God was going to right what he saw as a “cosmic wrong” with humanity and all would be well? Is it just a coincidence that so many 7s appear in this section?

Genesis 7:8-9 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 

Precious Savior, Sometimes the number 7 serves as a reminder from You of perfection and completeness, that You are sovereign and in control. Sometimes it’s just a number. Regardless of how it is used in this passage, thank You for using it to draw us closer to You through study and prayer. Help us seek to draw closer to You daily. Amen.

Genesis 7:10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

Have a blessed day.