Don’t Forget that God Remembers
By Michael Kelley
Genesis 8:1 contains only three words, but they are three words that should bring us great encouragement:
God remembered Noah.
Let’s not miss what has happened up to this point. God had found Noah to be righteous in the midst of a generation of wickedness. So wicked, in fact, that God decided to judge the earth through a cataclysmic flood. Noah and his family, however, would be saved through the building of a great ark.
So Noah took God at His word and went to work. He built and shaped and fashioned and after the ark was completed, God told Noah to get on board because in seven days the rain would start. Once again Noah obeyed. They boarded the vessel and there they stayed. For quite a while.
The Bible does not tell us exactly how long Noah and his family were on the ark. But it does get us close, so let’s do a little math here. Genesis 7:6 says that Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters began. The flood waters receded enough for the ark to run aground on Mt. Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month (Genesis 8:3-4), and the mountain tops became visible above the water on first day of the tenth month (Genesis 8:5). After that, Noah waited forty days and then began to send out birds to see if the earth could sustain life. That process took another three weeks (Genesis 8:7-12).
Genesis 8:13 tells us that Noah had turned 601 years old by the time the earth was dry. After observing dry ground, he exited the ark the next month. So, Noah entered the ark on Month 2, Day 17, of one year and exited the ark on Month 2, Day 27 of the next year. So it’s reasonable to think that Noah was on that ark for about a calendar year as we know it.
A year.
And what was that year like? What was it like to not go outside? What it like to not have the sunshine? What was it like to smell the smell of the animals every day, and to only be around the same people in the same confined space during that time?
Was it possible, during that time, that Noah felt forgotten?
Do you? It’s a terrible thing to feel that way. I had a conversation last week with who is facing major health concerns. And this is not a new thing - it’s been a chronic issue that has had daily effects not just for months, but actually for years. He has handled most of those effects privately, but these symptoms have recently gotten worse, and he is now reckoning with the fact that they will not likely ever get better. And when I talked to him, he was at work. Interacting with people. People who have their own issues. And people who are completely oblivious to what he has been walking through for so long. And it seemed to me that he just felt… forgotten.
We can drift in and out of periods of sadness; we can walk through seasons of anger; we can experience the pain of regret; but there is something unique about feeling forgotten. See, as bad as those other emotions and experiences might be, you can still feel validated as a person inside of them. But to feel forgotten? That’s a bit different because when you feel forgotten, your self worth is called into question. To be forgotten means, at least in the mind of the one forgotten, that you are not worth remembering. It’s worse in some ways than feeling sad; it’s as if you don’t exist. Because you don’t really matter.
But God remembered Noah. Now that phrase - “God remembered…” in Scripture does not mean that God forgot and then suddenly recalled. To remember, in the biblical sense, means God turned His attention toward someone in faithful action—to intervene, deliver, bless, or fulfill a promise.
God remembered Abraham and rescued his nephew Lot from Sodom.
God remembered Rachel and opened her womb to conceive Joseph.
God remembered Israel and raised up Moses to deliver them from their bondage.
God remembered Hannah and gave her the gift of a son, Samuel.
And here, God remembered Noah.
Noah was not forgotten, even though he might have felt like he was. And neither are you.
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
