Remember Me!: Never Forgotten… Never Written Off

By Vivian Cynthia

Have you ever felt like you are a nobody in the world of so many somebodies? Have you ever felt as if life is passing you by, felt rejected, lonely, discouraged, forgotten, or overlooked? Well don’t worry, or feel small because this book is for you! You are the Somebody that God ‘Remembers” and wants to use.
What do we do when the future seems ominous in these uncertain times? When you are uncertain even about your dream, and the promise of God, what should you do? Know this - Life is a journey and never an event. In this journey of life it is a great reassurance to know that ‘God Remembers’. He remembers you. You are never forgotten... People may forget about you, write you off, but not God. God will remember you in your trials, troubles, sorrows, loneliness, and in the perplexes of life! Our God is awesome, you can trust Him. He never breaks His word. He is a promise keeping God; truly a man of His Word. Human beings make promises and forget. Unlike men He does NOT lie! He is a covenant keeping God!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Dec 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781543762143

Vivian Cynthia

Vivian Cynthia is a mother of a beautiful daughter, has been through many life challenges; and through the endless love of God she has bounced back and is living the life that God destined for her. She is an inspirational speaker, preacher, guest in various TV and radio programs. Facilitator of various seminars and camps. She is a seasoned therapist, has counselled people with life issues, ranging from emotional to spiritual issues for almost two decades.

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Copyright © 2020 by Vivian Cynthia.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

You are never forgotten, abandoned, or

overlooked! You are Remembered!

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Chapter 1     God Remembers – He Remembered Noah

Chapter 2     God Remembers His Promise In Times of our Uncertainty

Chapter 3     God Remembers Us – In our Waiting Period

Chapter 4     God Remembers You In Dissapointment

Chapter 5     God Remembered Zaccheus – Self-Esteem Issues

Chapter 6     Remember Me Oh! Lord – Never too Late; There is Always Hope

Chapter 7     God Has Engraved You In the Palm of His Hand

Chapter 8     Remembered In Rejection - Nursing Mother Never Forgets

Chapter 9     Barreness to Fruitfulness – Not Forgotten

Chapter 10   In Delay, Doubt, and Disbelief - God Remembers

Chapter 11   You are Not Written Off - Samson’s Fatal Attraction

Chapter 12   The Book of Remembrance - In Hopelessness

Chapter 13   God Remebers the Overlooked and Forgotten

Chapter 14   Remembering Tough Promises – Covenant Keeping God

Chapter 15   Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Thank you Lord for Remembering me! I appreciate you so much. You are the reason why I wrote this book in the middle of a pandemic. The year 2020 has been a very different and difficult year BUT you Lord has been a good God. You are so amazing. You are my life and you are the reason why I wake up each morning. I am forever indebted to you!

To my family; Mama thank you for your love even when you did not understand the rush and two books – ngiyakuthanda. Kwani, Balu AKA Sphume, and Boysie wamaMomdala your love is the air under my wings; Sesi kuphushekile siyabonga. Reitu, the apple of my eye, thank you for walking with me this journey. You believe in me, even when I sometimes don’t, I love you nana.

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To my late father, Bra Mzi, I know you would be proud. You always believed in me. Uyakhumbuleka…

To the late Thami Magwaza, You will always remain an inspiration to me. Thank you sir, for impacting my life. Ngiyakukhumbula…

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To my spiritual family and friends izandla zedlula ikhanda, thank you for always lifting me up in prayer and checking up on me. Thank you for understanding when I was not available sometimes on the phone, and even on social media. Working tirelessly on this book made me a bit scarce, I know. I basically did not have time for myself and anyone else except to finish writing this book. This made me to even miss out on some of the important milestones in your lives – ngiyaxolisa, ngiyanithanda niyazazi angithi… I really honour and love all of you. Advocate Mkondwane your support has been invaluable sir, ngiyabonga!

To the Bounce Back family, great things are yet to come! This Gospel of Hope must be preached! Together we are bringing hope to the hopeless… "Ithemba alibulali!

Prologue

Today as I start writing this book - it is a cloudy chilled Saturday morning of the 11th April 2020 and yesterday was the beginning of the Passover long weekend, the Good Friday. During the Passover weekend we as Christians are supposed to attend Easter Conferences in different locations as we celebrate our Passover Lamb Jesus Christ who was crucified, however this weekend is different. Instead of worshipping with other Christians in different locations, we are locked up in our homes in this chilly weather, there is a lockdown, a state of disaster has been declared.

Not only my family or neighbours are indoors but the whole city is quiet, the streets are empty; we are all indoors. Not only the city but the province, and the whole country has come to an abrupt standstill. Actually the whole continent is on lockdown, it is the whole world that is locked down, and life as we know it has paused. There is a travel ban, no one is allowed to visit neighbouring countries, towns, not even socializing with relatives is allowed. Our ‘normal’ has been tampered with and a new ‘normal’ has been introduced.

Social and physical distancing is preached throughout the different media platforms and the message has to reach everyone. Presently, it is no longer safe to touch or hug another person, we have to keep our distance. If you have to go out, you should take precautionary measures to protect yourself from a new invisible enemy that is attacking the human race. This enemy is called the corona virus disease, widely known as COVID-19. It attacks the respiratory system within days of infection and people die in large numbers. Especially the vulnerable groups of the population who already might have a compromised immune system and particularly the elderly. There is no cure or a vaccine for this pandemic at the moment, it is vicious and spreads fast.

Most of the time these days when I’m asleep at night, I forget about the plight facing the world. This is because after my evening devotions, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding just engulfs me. But when I wake up in the morning the truth of the pandemic dawns on me. We are still faced with an enemy lurking outside and the number of those infected and of those dying is rising daily. The devil may sometimes whisper that the situation seems to be getting worse and God might have forgotten about us and our world. I then quickly woke up to the assurance that the God that we serve promised never to leave nor forsake us. We need to get a revelation of who God is even in the middle of this pandemic. Believing the simple truth that our God will never leave us without support and that He is a kind of friend that sticks closer than any brother; will open our eyes to the fact that God is not a man that He should lie - He is a promise keeper! From eternity past, now and forever, He is a man of His word. We are never forgotten and never forsaken. He is a God who REMEMBERS!

As I woke up this morning still under lockdown, which feels like being incarcerated in your own home, but my spirit is free and liberated. I am inspired to write this book which I believe will be a source of inspiration to many, even beyond the corona virus era; as we continue to soldier on in this journey of life. I am extremely inspired by the truth that God Remembers.

During this period of lockdown no one is allowed to congregate, church services are not held. Christians are sharing the message of the gospel through different media platforms. I was approached by my mother to assist her in preparing a short message on the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross that she was planning to share through a voice note to her church group. She specifically wanted to share on the second saying found in Luke 23:43-44. This is where we find the famous words uttered by one of the thieves that were crucified with Christ saying "Lord Jesus, Remember me…!" These words actually inspired even the title of this book.

In the process of studying this passage of scripture, preparing my mom’s voice note, then in my spirit; the idea of writing this book entitled "Remember Me…!" was birthed. God revealed so much more to me. It was as if I am hearing a voice in my spirit nudging me to write, an urgent message of God’s remembrance was immediately downloaded to my spirit. So much more was revealed to me at that moment, more than the two minutes my mom needed to fit into her voice note. Inspiration overload! I then decided to share this on the pages of this book. I said within myself, it would be a crime to keep this treasure all to myself. It can’t be just for me. There is somebody who needs to know this truth too. That you are not forgotten… and it is never too late to make a request to a crucified Saviour to remember you! Thus, the decision to pen down every word on these pages.

The Holy Spirit ministered to me in the solitude of my room in the middle of the despair that is caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our God is not on lockdown. The reality of the love of our Saviour hit me so hard, such that I wrote part of these truths with tears literally streaming down my face. God is a good God, believe it!

Christians are continuing to pray without ceasing despite the lockdown. Messages of hope continue to be shared on different media platforms, believers are encouraging one another to pray. But the thick despair in the air could still be felt, in the despondency we are persuaded to hold on to hope – Hope does not disappoint! It keeps us going, it keeps us alive. The way life ‘was’ has been interrupted by a tiny virus, and the looming uncertainty creates fear. Fear does not stand a chance against the unmatched love that our heavenly Father has for humanity. The same love that propelled Him to give His only begotten son to be crucified for the sin of the world, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. So, how can He forget us?

Life is a journey and never an event. In this journey of life it is a great reassurance to appreciate that ‘God Remembers’. He remembers you. You are never forgotten. He never breaks His word. He is a promise keeping God; truly a man of His Word. People may write you off, and because of circumstance you may even write yourself off, but not God. People may forget about you but God will not. He has not forgotten you in your trials. He has not forgotten you in your troubles. He has not forgotten you in the perplexes of life. He has not forgotten you in your sorrows. He has not forgotten you in your loneliness! We have an awesome God who is not like any other. Human beings make promises and forget. Unlike men who may not fulfil all of their promises, God is not man He keeps all of His promises; He does NOT lie.

We serve a God who cares about everything that concerns us. Not only is He aware of our distress but He is a God who contemplates our conversations and chronicles our commitments. In our daily lives we encounter various circumstances, some easy and pleasant. But some very difficult and distressing that are often beyond our control. As a result these adversities of life may have unintended consequences which may or may not lead us to allow our natural self to take over our feelings and thoughts, which result in us being concerned for our wellbeing. It is good however when we go through those emotions to be cognizance of the fact that our wonderful heavenly Father is also concerned about us. Let us look at the word of God, take on board what it says, be encouraged, challenged and built up in faith. How good it is to know that God remembers!

The stillness of lockdown brought fear to many, and the enemy whispered lies that the Lord might have forgotten about us. But as I go through the scripture in the book of Luke; this verse encouraged me that He remembers us and will never leave us nor forsake us. In the stillness it may feel like we are all alone, forgotten or even abandoned by the Lord but there is so much peace in the knowledge that He is ever present in times of trouble. The world may be silent, even the pulpit or men of God may be a bit silent during this difficult time that the whole world is going through. But not God. He works in silences behind the scenes. He has not stopped working it all for our good even in our despair and fear. Because, unlike ordinary man, He is a promise keeper who never breaks His word. Nothing takes Him by surprise, He is not on panic mode, pacing heaven, overwhelmed or confused. Because He never forgets, we can confidently approach Him and utter these words: "Dear Lord Jesus, Remember Me… !

I hope and pray that you will be inspired as you read this book!

Vivian Cynthia

Chapter One

God Remembers – He

Remembered Noah

Have you ever felt forgotten by God? Once in a while you hear a heart-wrenching story of a child who has been abandoned by his parents. Well, thankfully, God never abandons His children. But probably you might have felt forgotten by God at times. You prayed, but God didn’t answer. You read the Bible, but it didn’t speak to you. The trials in your life made you think that God went on vacation and forgot about you and your problems. Have you ever been forgotten or abandoned? Remember how upset this made you?

I am reminded of a day that Qiniso, my beloved son came back home feeling upset because he had to walk the longest distance that he may ever walked in his short 11 years of life. Saddened because he felt forgotten and abandoned (he felt no one cared) by the very people he was relying on, to fetch him from attending a master mathematics extra class. A class that he attends every Friday afternoon. On this afternoon he was dropped at the class by Sphume, who after dropping him assumed that dad would fetch him. Older sis could not wait for him until the class was over because she was rushing to an appointment she had with Tumi at the mall. Kwani on the other hand could not fetch him because he was still in a meeting, and assumed Sphume will pick him up. Sesi knocked off early that day but assumed that Qiniso was already back from class and was out playing with friends. Meanwhile he was waiting outside the class, still at the venue for over an hour without anyone coming to fetching him. He was all alone, feeling upset, forgotten and thinking that nobody cares. He then started walking home alone in the scorching sun. He arrived home in tears and very upset. I was on the phone with Sesi, but the way he was feeling, he did not even want to speak to me. I felt for my boy. Surely this is not a good space to be in.

Thankfully, God never forgets or abandons His children. However, you probably have felt forgotten by God at times. You pray and pray, but God doesn’t answer. You read the Bible, but God keeps quiet. You attend church, but you get nothing out of it. You try to walk with God, but you don’t feel His presence. Problem after problem shows up in your life and God doesn’t seem to care. It seems as if God has forgotten about you. As a result you may feel upset and all alone just as Qiniso felt on that afternoon, when he walk back from class alone.

Do you think Noah felt this way? Do you think Noah felt like God had forgotten him? God told Noah He was going to send a flood (Genesis 6:17). God told Noah to build an ark (Genesis 6:14). So Noah built and Noah waited; for fifty or seventy or maybe even ninety years. Noah preached all this time (2 Peter 2:5) and, as far as we can tell, his only converts were his own family. Did Noah ever think to himself: When is the flood coming? When will my neighbours see that I am preaching the truth? Has God forgotten me? It may seem as if God has forgotten, but He never forgets. We often forget because we are human, but God never forgets about us.

Have you ever said to someone you would call them, and didn’t? Has someone come to your mind and you have failed to make contact with them? Has someone done something for you and you thought you would send them a ‘thank you’ note, and you failed to put pen to paper? Have you ever wondered why someone has failed to make contact with you? You expected it, but it never happened? Maybe, you have heard the line, Oh, I was just about to… Let’s face it we are all guilty of operating on the level of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. We have good intentions, though they just don’t happen! The ready excuse or apology comes, Sorry I forgot. Human frailty says that we have forgotten to ‘do’ and ‘say’ more times than we care to remember.

Then God spoke again. Noah was told to come into the ark because of the coming flood. When the flood came, this was not some gentle spring shower. We are told that the springs of the great deep burst forth and the floodgates of the heavens were opened (Genesis 7:11-12). No, the flood was not some gentle rain. Instead, think storm. Think thunder and lightning. Think hurricane. Think massive walls of water rushing down the hills and high-places. Think flash-flood. Think large, dangerous whirlpools. Think waves and wind. Think the ark being violently rocked back and forth. Everyone and everything on the ark must have feared for their lives. As this went on for forty days and forty nights, do you think Noah wondered, My God, My God, My God why have you forsaken me?

Finally the flood stopped. Everything on the earth was covered by water and every living thing on the face of the earth perished (Genesis 7:20-21). At this point, Noah must have expected God to speak to him again. Yet, day followed day and month followed month with no communication from God. Six months passed. A year passed. Still no sound from God. Do you think Noah wondered about God’s silence? Has God forgotten me? How much longer will we be in the ark? Maybe you need assurance that God hasn’t forgotten you. That is the point of Genesis 8. Listen to verse 1: ‘But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.’ (Genesis 8:1)

And God remembered Noah is a phrase we should remember when we are going through a storm because that is a time when it is easy to feel forsaken. Feeling forsaken is a normal human emotion that most of us have experienced, whether we admit it or not. Paul confessed that his troubles in Asia had been so severe that he almost gave up on life (2 Corinthians 1.8); and Jesus, who experienced all our human trials, spoke from the cross, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’ (Matthew 27:46). Feeling desolate, deserted, abandoned, or forsaken is nothing new for the people of God.

God did not just remember Noah, but the animals too. We can certainly draw comfort from this. If His eye is on the sparrow, then His eye is certainly on you as well because you are worth more. This does not mean that God had forgotten Noah and all the animals, and now all of a sudden… God says ‘Eish!… I forgot… The ark… Noah… The animals!’ This does not imply that God got so busy with other things that Noah was out of sight and out of mind. This does not mean that God suddenly slapped His forehead and said, Oh yeah, Noah! I forgot all about him and the animals, I forgot the ark! Had God forgotten them? No! God remembered Noah does not infer that God had previously forgotten him. Rather it is an expression indicating that after their confinement comes liberty; that after the judgement comes deliverance.

So, the word remembered in Genesis 8:1 does not mean to recall something that may have been forgotten. God can’t forget anything because He knows the end from the beginning. Instead, it means, to pay attention to, to fulfil a promise and act on behalf of somebody. For example, God’s promise, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more (Hebrew 10.17) means that God doesn’t hold our sins against us and treat us as sinners. Certainly, God knows what we have done, but because of our faith in Jesus Christ our sins are forgotten. God deals with us as if our sins had never been committed! The Lord remembers them against us no more. To remember implies a previous commitment made by God and announces the fulfilment of that commitment.

When the word remember is used in the Bible in connection with God, it usually implies God’s merciful and saving action, that God is keeping His promises. So, when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, He remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the two cities (Genesis 19:29). When Rachel cried and prayed for children, God remembered Rachel and opened her womb (Genesis 30:22). When the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they groaned and cried out for help; God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob (Exodus 2:24; 6:5). When Hannah was unable to get pregnant she also cried and prayed for children and the Lord remembered her (1 Samuel 1:19). When Mary became pregnant with Jesus through the operation of the Spirit, she sang a song to the Lord; she rejoiced that God has been "mindful {not the same as remember but very close} of the humble state of His servant (Luke 1:48); and, she praised God for remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever (Luke 1:54-55). The penitent thief on the cross said, Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom" (Luke 23:42). In every case it is the same thing, when God remembers – usually in response to a prayer for help – God takes action on His promises.

So in Genesis 8, God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark. Remember points to God’s faithfulness. From Noah’s point-of-view, it may seem that God has forgotten. Perhaps God has been silent for a long, long time. But God will act in His time. He remembers. He doesn’t forget. He is faithful. He is faithful to His promises. He is faithful to His people. He is faithful to the works of His hands.

Noah may have felt forgotten, or even abandoned after being on the ark for a while. The whole world had been destroyed by the flood. The rain had beat down in torrents and downpours upon that lonely ark for 40 days and nights. Finally, the rain stopped and the only sound was that of the water splashing against the sides of the ark. Noah probably expected to hear from the Lord at that time. But if God spoke to Noah, the Bible doesn’t report it. When God finally speaks to Noah again, telling him to come off the ark (Genesis 8:15), the impression you get is that He hadn’t spoken since the last time recorded in the text, over a year before, when He told Noah to get on board (Genesis 7:1).

When the floods came, Noah and his family probably felt relief and safety. One wonders how they felt as time passed by. Noah, his family, and the animals had been together for over a year, which is a lot of togetherness. Did they ever get impatient with each other or with the animals? There is no record that God ever spoke to them after He had shut them into the ark, so perhaps somebody in the family experienced an occasional fleeting fear that maybe God didn’t care for them anymore.

While there is no explicit verse that tells us exactly the total length of the time that they were all in the ark, you can put together all the details in two different ways:

a) Using the number of days: 150 (Genesis 8:3) +74 (Genesis 8:5) +40 (Genesis 8:6) +7 (Genesis 8:10) +7 (Genesis 8:12) +28 (Genesis 8:13) +56 (Genesis 8:14) = 362 days [My high school Maths is coming in handy here]

b) Using the dates of Noah’s life: from 17th day of 2nd month of Noah’s 600th year to 27th day of 2ndmonth of Noah’s 601st year = 370 days.

It seems to me that this second calculation is probably the accurate one as there is one period of time (Genesis 8:13) when the number of days is not mentioned and you have to calculate it from Noah’s age anyway.

So, on the 1st day of the 1st month in Noah’s 601st year (New Year’s Day!), Noah removed the covering of the ark (I guess the ark was the first convertible!). Amongst many other things, the record of the flood and the period of time that Noah and his family spent in the ark should teach us that redeemed people wait patiently for God’s deliverance. Dealing with such an extended period of confinement in the ark must have required enormous patience – patience with inter-personal relationships in the family, patience with physical confinement, patience with the animals etc.

So, from the time they entered the ark until the time they came out was just over one year. I wonder how they coped during that time. How did they wash themselves and prepare food? How did they tend to all those animals? As I write this in the year 2020, due to COVID-19 we are confined to our homes as the public health officials struggle to bring this corona virus crisis under control. Already after only a couple of weeks, many people are beginning to get cabin fever. What must it have felt like for Noah and his family to have been confined to the ark for over a year? Particularly, what must it have felt like during the extended period of time after the rain stopped? Would they ever be free to disembark and walk outside again? That year inside the ark must have seemed like forever.

We can be sure that God never forgets or forsakes His people, not only because of His promises, but also because of His character. God is love, and where there is love there is faithfulness. He can never deny Himself or His Word because He is the faithful God; and He can never change, because He is unalterable. Because He is perfect, He can’t change for the better; and because He is holy, He can’t change for the worse. We can depend on Him no matter what our circumstances or no matter how we feel. According to Genesis 7:24 the Flood reached its peak in 150 days. The torrential rain and the eruptions of water beneath the earth had both ceased (verse 2), and during the next five months, God caused the water to recede and leave the dry ground behind. During these days, Noah had to continue to be patient, and the last days of waiting were probably the hardest.

On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark rested on a peak in the mountains of Ararat, located in modern Turkey. This was some satisfaction to Noah, to feel that he was on firm ground, and no longer moving. It arrived there by the gracious providence of God since there was no provision made for steering the vessel. We don’t know which peak it was; explorers searching for the remains of the ark can’t find much biblical data to help them. In later years, the seventh month was very special to the Jews, since that was the month they ushered in the new year with the Feast of Trumpets and celebrated the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23.23-44).

It is interesting that God told Noah when the flood would come (Genesis 7:4). However, He never gave him a particular account by revelation of when the water would go away and how it would be accomplished. The knowledge of the former was necessary for the preparation of the ark, but the knowledge of the later would serve only to gratify his curiosity, but concealing it from him would test his faith and patience. The Hebrew text says that the ark came to rest, reminding us that Noah’s name means rest and that his father Lamech had hoped that his son would bring rest to a weary world (Genesis 5.28, 29). Though the ark had rested safely, Noah was waiting for the Lord to tell him what to do. He waited forty days and then sent out the raven, and being an unclean carcass eating bird (Leviticus 11:13-15), it felt right at home among the floating carcasses and it did not come back. Ravens survive on a broad range of food types. If any food was available outside the ark, the raven could survive.

Noah waited a week and then sent out a dove. Why a dove? In contrast to the raven, a dove is much more selective in its food choices. The doves choice of food would indicate that new life had begun to grow, therefore, Noah and his family could also survive outside the ark. A dove being a clean bird, found no place to land; so it returned to the ark (verses 8, 9). This was probably disappointing for Noah; the raven vanished, and when the dove returned to the shelter of the ark he knew that it meant the waters were too deep for her to find rest for the sole of her foot. It’s interesting that doves feed on the ground. While most birds feed on a birdfeeder, but the doves always feed on the ground. I observed this while growing up at home, our neighbour had a lot of doves and the doves are still there. It is interesting to observe that doves prefer to eat from the ground. Perhaps that was why the dove returned to Noah in the ark while there was still water on the ground.

A week later Noah sent out a dove again, and when it returned with a fresh olive leaf, Noah knew that the plants were growing and fresh life had appeared on the earth (verses 10, 11). A dove bearing an olive branch is a familiar symbol of peace around the world. A week later, when Noah sent out a dove for the third time, it didn’t return. Then he knew the water had dried up. That must have been a thrilling day for Noah and his family. At last they could enjoy freedom, fresh air, fresh food, and peace and quiet. Can you imagine what it must have been like with elephants trumpeting and baboons screaming all that time?

Noah had built a window (hatch) in the upper deck of the ark (verse 9), and he opened it so that he could survey the world around him. This was on the day the passengers had been on the ark for a full year. Noah saw that the ground was indeed dry, but he didn’t make a move out of the ark until the Lord told him to leave. Twenty-six days later, that order came and he obeyed it (Genesis 8:15-18). Observe, though Noah saw that the ground was dry on the first day of the first month, God would not allow him to go out of the ark until the twenty-seventh day of the second month. God is concerned for what is best for us, not our desires. Because He knows what is best for us better than we do ourselves. God’s covenant with Noah brought provision and protection in the midst of severe judgment. The remnant was preserved and God initiated steps toward re-establishing the created order on earth.

During that time of the flood, every air breathing creature outside the ark died. Those who may have tried to escape to the tops of the mountains died. Everyone who refused to heed Noah’s warning and to accept God’s offer of safe refuge in the ark died. By the time Noah stepped out of the ark, the world was devoid of humans and animals. It had been expunged of everything that God hated like the ‘wickedness of man’ (Genesis 6:5) and ‘violence and corruption’ (Genesis 6: 12-13). As was the order of the day in Noah’s generation. God’s faithfulness in keeping His word - He kept His word to Noah, He will keep it to you too.

God remembers in the sense of taking action on His promises. God remembered Noah and those on the ark. It points to God’s faithfulness. From our point of view, it may seem that God has forgotten. Perhaps He has been silent for a long while.