God Remembers

“But God remembered Noah.” (Genesis 8:1)

Many of us share a familiar experience. Several times, I have walked in the door to my sweet wife asking, “Did you remember to grab some milk?” You know what comes next. “I forgot! I didn’t remember.” Our memory often fails use, but God does not have this problem. The God who knows all things, made all things, and keeps all things forgets nothing.

In Genesis 8, the waters are raging, and the wrath of God covers the expanse as far as the eye can see. In every direction Noah looked, the winds and waves of God’s righteous wrath would be roaring with immeasurable fury. You must know how Noah felt. We sit in a doctor’s office alone for fifteen minutes and ask, “Did the doctor forget about me?” The same question must have traversed Noah’s mind in the same way it did David: “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” (Ps. 13:1-2) Yet, in wrath God remembers mercy. He is not a God who flies off the hand, allowing His wrath to blindly wash away the righteous with the wicked. No, He remembers Noah! Our God begins to send the winds in and the waters away that Noah may enjoy the salvation promised Him. Our God keeps His promises.

Do we not see this same faithfulness elsewhere? When Israel was groaning under their affliction in Egypt, “God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” We all know what happens next. In a few chapters and several plagues, the winds came in and the waters went out while Israel crossed the Red Sea and the Egyptians drowned. In Nehemiah’s prayer, he asks God to do one thing – remember (1:8). With that one request began the bringing home of God’s people to the Promised Land. When the Final Judgment draws near and evil rises to its highest pitch, when violence covers the earth as in the days of Noah, what does Jesus promise us? “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” (Matt. 24:21-22) Even at the end of days, God will remember His people.

Now, let me ask. Each of us are going through our own trials and tribulations. You may be facing them with the same grim demeanor of a Noah or a David, but let me ask you something. Do you see God’s mercy? You are in something far better than an ark; you are in Christ. Mercy. Your afflictions, though they are great, they are tempered by His mercy (Lam. 3:22-24). Do not forgot the Lord’s mercies in your afflictions, for He has not forgotten you.