Hallowe’en is now over, and we’re already onto the next big thing. The adverts have already started, and soon you won’t be able to escape it. Now, I’m not talking about Christmas - I’m talking about I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! As I was thinking about Noah and his ark this week, I was reminded of how it’s a bit like I’m a Celebrity. Being cooped up in a confined space with a whole variety of creatures and critters - were there ever moments when Mr Noah thought to himself: get me out of here?
You might empathise if you’ve ever had an experience of cabin fever. You know if you’re stuck inside for a few days because you’re sick, or when the snow comes, and you just want to get out of the house and do something different? Imagine how Noah felt - not so much cabin fever as ark fever. After all, he wasn’t in the ark with the animals for a few minutes like on I’m a Celebrity, or for a few days like our snowed in days. He was in the ark - well, how long was he in the ark?
Last week we heard about the forty days and forty nights of rain. But he was in the ark longer than that. And at the end of chapter 7 we see that the water flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. But he was in the ark longer than that. A hundred and fifty days would be about five months, less than half a year. In total, though, Noah was in the ark for over a year.
Last week, we saw how God gave Noah some instructions - build the ark (all that hard work, over a long period of time, with the neighbours questioning and mocking the whole time); then go into the ark (with all the animals, two by two); then stay in the ark (the only place of safety and refuge as the flood judgement came on the whole earth and everyone else perished). This morning, we’ll see how Noah came out of the ark, and hear the first of the promises God makes to him, and to us in the world after the flood.
When chapter 8 begins, though, Noah is still inside the ark. He’s counted off the 150th day of his lark in the ark, and perhaps by now he’s getting narky in the arky. Verse 1 is the turning point, the high water mark. Do you see how it begins? ‘But God remembered Noah...’
Now that doesn’t mean that up until this point, God had forgotten all about Noah. God isn’t forgetful like that, or like we can be. Have you had those moments when you suddenly remember something you were meant to do, and it puts you into a panic? Or you remember you were meant to see somebody, and you’re all flustered? God is not like that. He has perfect knowledge of everything all of the time.
What it’s saying here is that God remembered in order to act on Noah’s behalf. So, at the start of Exodus, God remembers the Israelites who are slaves in Egypt - and his remembering them is his rescuing of them. So also here, God remembers Noah (and the animals) in order to rescue him from his confinement, to bring him out into a spacious new world.
You can see that as the sentence continues: ‘But God remembered Noah... and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.’ (1) God remembers in order to rescue, and for Noah to get out of the ark, he needs the waters to recede. But it doesn’t happen immediately, and all of a sudden. Rather, it takes time.
Through the chapter you get the various time markers - the ark resting on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh month (4); the tops of the mountains becoming visible in the tenth month. (5) Another forty days and Noah sends out the first of the birds on a wing and a prayer. The raven, which doesn’t come back, and the dove which comes back because the water is still over all the surface of the earth.
Another week, and then the dove is sent out again and returns this time with a freshly plucked olive leaf! (11) To us, the olive leaf / branch speaks of peace, but for Noah it was a sign of new life, that the water had receded from the earth. (12) A week later, and the dove doesn’t return when it’s sent out.
And yet, still Noah is in the ark. He’s watched the year change, and sung auld lang syne, and he’s still inside his now not floating zoo. Noah has taken the covering off and sees that the surface of the ground is dry, and over a month later, the earth was completely dry. Look back to 2:11 - it was the seventeenth day of the second month when the rain started. And it’s now the twenty-seventh day of the second month, just over a year later. Each of the family have celebrated at least one birthday inside the ark, but now the moment has come, the moment they were waiting for for so long - the day when they could leave the ark and walk on dry ground in a whole new world.
‘Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 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 upon it.’ (15-17)
Have you ever seen animals leaping as they are released from their winter confines? I’m sure it was quite a sight to see the aardvarks and zebras and everything in between enjoying their freedom after a year in the ark. And never mind the animals, I’m sure that the humans were glad to get out into the fresh air and the open space. No matter how good your family relationships might be, and no matter how close you may be to your nearest and dearest, you might be glad of a bit of space for once after a year in close quarters!
But what is the first thing that Noah did when he came out of the ark? He didn’t go exploring, or hill walking, or anything else like that. No, the first thing he did when he came out of the ark was to build something else. An altar, a place of sacrifice.
Now, last week, I asked how many of each animal did Noah take into the ark. We sang that the animals went in two by two, and then (at least some of us) were surprised to find that in 7:2 Noah took seven (footnote: seven pairs) of every kind of clean animal and two of every kind of unclean animal. I said you’d have to wait until today to find out why. Well, here’s the answer in 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.’ (20)
If Noah had only had two sheep in the ark, and he’d then sacrificed them when he came out, then we wouldn’t have any sheep now! So the extra clean animals were for this sacrifice of thanksgiving. Noah was recognising that he and his family had been rescued even though they too were guilty and under the same sentence as everyone who had perished. And so he offers to God this sacrifice of burnt animals, their life for his, in thanks and praise.
God accepts his sacrifice. He smells the pleasing aroma, and makes a promise - a promise that he has kept right up to today, over all those many years since the days of Noah: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’ (21-22)
Our hearts are still evil - just as they were before the flood - but now God has promised never to destroy the earth in another flood. Rather, he has pledged that life will continue, in those opposites that sit together and define our days: ‘seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.’ As we go to sleep tonight, we can be sure that another day will roll around; as the cold comes in, we can be assured that some day it’ll warm up again and summer will come again - so long as the earth endures, until the Lord returns.
The Lord is remembering this promise he made long ago in the days of Noah. Because God doesn’t forget. We can depend on him because he is faithful. And just as he remembered Noah, confined in the ark, and acted for his rescue, so we can trust that the Lord remembers us as well.
Perhaps it seems as if you’ve been waiting for a long time, too long maybe. You’re confined in your circumstances - even in the place that God has led you. And sometimes it can be dirty, or smelly, or unpleasant. And you might even wonder if God has forgotten all about you. Take heart today! God doesn’t forget. He has remembered you - and is acting to rescue you.
The Lord Jesus is our perfect sacrifice - the pleasing sacrifice that takes away our sin. And as Jesus was dying on the cross, one of the two thieves who were crucified with him cried out to him: ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ (Lk 23:42) And how did Jesus reply? ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’
The Lord remembers his people, and has acted to rescue us by way of the cross. As we trust him, our future is secure, no matter what we’re going through in the meantime. And today, the Lord calls us to himself, and to his table, to do this in remembrance of him. We remember the Lord who remembers us.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 3rd November 2019.
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