The Days of Noah Part 6: The Aftermath of the Flood

Genesis 7:24 - 8:1-5

In the previous posts, we looked at the historicity of the flood, it was a real event, Noah was a real person, a man of God.  We have looked at Noah's world, a sinful, pleasure-seeking world.  We have looked at the ark and the heart of God that provided a way of salvation from judgment and we have looked at the world-wide catastrophic terrible reality of the flood.  Today we look at the aftermath.  

The Long Long Time.  7:12 "And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights."  V24 "And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days."  8:3 "And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated."  It was a very long time, 40 days of rain, a further 110 days of the water deepening, and then 150 days as the water receded.  It was over a year before Noah and his family got off the ark.  It was a long time.  During that whole year there was no further word from God.  God had not spoken to Noah since he closed the door (of the ark)  A year of silence from God.  Noah's family must have asked him every day "Is there any word from God? Is it nearly over?" and Noah didn't know because he had no word from God.  It was a long time.  

Many of the great men in scripture ask the question "has God forgotten me" and perhaps Noah asked the same thing, "has God forgotten me?"   And you don't know the answer.  But in Genesis 8:1 "And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged" God remembered Noah.  Remembered means Noah was in the mind of God, God hadn't forgotten Noah, and Noah was a man of faith and in that long time and those long dark days of judgment when there was no apparent communication from God, Noah had only one thing to cling to, the sheer faithfulness of God.  The integrity of God.  God had been faithful in instructing him thus far.  Trust in that.