God of the lop-sided covenant

What did we do to get this amazing response?

“And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to Himself, ‘I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of a man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done.'”  Genesis 8:21.

Noah had expressed thanksgiving by a sacrificing one of the few remaining animals to God. This touched God’s heart and led to a great covenant: (1) the first appearance of a rainbow as a sign of the covenant, (2) a guarantee of no more catastrophic floods, and (3) predictable seasons “as long as the earth remains.” From a strictly business point of view, God got the proverbial “short end of the stick.”

In fact, if we analyze all of God’s covenants, we find that He always gives much more than He receives.  What had Noah done, really? It was a small thing to remember God, the One who had protected him and his family from destruction and preserved them in the ark.  It probably did not require much effort on Noah’s part to build a stone altar and sacrifice an animal.  God is pleased nonetheless, and He makes a vow and voluntarily binds Himself in covenant.

Yet, this is God’s way of doing things.  Every covenant He has  ever made with humanity has been lop‑sided in our favor.  Take the New Covenant. We accept Christ.  We are only doing what we should. We are admitting the truth, our sin and our need of Him. Our part is very small. God, on the other hand, did not even spare His only Son but gave Him up for us all.  We get an eternal home in Heaven with love, joy, and peace forever. And God gets…us.

He remembers

God remembered us! YES!!!

“But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that  were with him in the ark.”  Genesis 8:1

God “remembered.”  We must be careful not to interpret this statement in human terms.  It does not mean that He was busy doing  something and suddenly “remembered” Noah, having completely forgotten him.  It means rather that God never forgot Noah. Despite all that Noah was going through, God never left him or forgot about him.  In fact, the word implies that God remembered Noah with an intent to act, to change Noah’s situation. Imagine yourself, if you can, in that ark with all those animals for months and months.  No windows.  Tossed about by the waves of the sea.  To know that God is about to do something to change your situation is great news.

In this fast‑moving and frantic world, it is easy to  feel lonely and forgotten.  Many believe that the world is forgotten of God.  If God were like a man, this might be possible.  Men forget all sorts of things, especially the needs of others. Even Christians sometimes forget about the God Who thinks about them  constantly.  It is a wonderful thing to know that God remembers me.  In the storms of life, He has not forgotten me.  His memory is flawless.  Though I sometimes doubt it, the Bible teaches that He is always thinking about everything that concerns me. It is a frightening thing to consider that He knows and remembers sins, but thank God that He has chosen to forget mine.