God Said: "I Have Plans"

Genesis 17: 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 

Like with Noah, God had earlier told Abram to "Go", and he did. Now that Abram had been going for a while, God says "I have plans for you and your descendants." It is often after we have been walking and talking with God for a while, learning to listen to His leading, that He begins to show and tell us what His plans are, so we know where we are heading and why we are going there. Our relationship with God is for the long haul - not just to bail us out when things are bad, or we have really messed up. Let us learn to listen as He directs, then the bigger picture will eventually become a little clearer.

God says "Fill"

 

Genesis 9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 

There are only a handful of covenants made by God in Scripture.  This is the first of them. At the beginning of this chapter, God told Noah and his sons to go out and fill the earth.  That did not mean they were on their own; God would maintain a relationship with them. They would not have to live in fear of such a great flood of judgment again.  In the proceeding verses, He also promised that human life would be sacred, unlike the time before the flood when wicked men were given to violence.   Along with His promise to watch over them was a new standard they were to live by before Him, being good stewards of the renewed creation He was entrusting to them.  The rainbow reminds us of God's faithfulness.

God Says "Go Out"

Genesis 8:15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

We have seen the past two days that God told Noah to build the ark, then when to go into it. Noah did all God commanded. Now He told Him to go out. The residents of the ark may well have been claustrophobic after a year together there, but there may also have been a sense of comfort and security as they looked out onto a whole new world.  Things were different than when and where they left them.  Often missionaries have a hard time coming back to Western culture and all the changes that have taken place. The point is that we need to continue to listen to God instruct us for when to go in, out, to, or from. He has much more for us than we could ever imagine. 

God says "Go"

Genesis 7:1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

Yesterday we saw that God said "Do", and Noah obeyed, following His directions for building the ark. Now it is time for Noah to go into it, taking all these animals with him.  It sounds overwhelming - even getting them all collected and inside. It's a study in itself look at all the people to whom God said "Go." Obviously, God provides help when He calls us to do or go, but it is pointed out that Noah did all the Lord commanded.  How often do we only go part way, doing only some of what God has instructed us?