There are few stories in the Bible that are as well-known as Noah and the flood. You and I learned about the story for the first time when we were still boys and girls in Sunday School. We learned about Noah building the ark, about the animals entering the ark two by two, about the rain falling for 40 days and 40 nights. Then, as adults, we continue to learn more when we read the story as it was written in the Bible. Billy teaches us to slow down and to read the Bible slowly, but when we read the story of Noah starting in Genesis 7, do we quickly read through Genesis 8:1 because we are in a hurry to get to the good part how the story ends? I know I do.
Genesis 8:1 says, ‘But God remembered’. Genesis 8:1 is the turning point, and the hinge, in the story. After the fountains of the great deep burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, the rains pounded the earth, the water prevailed more and more on the earth – but God remembered. Did you catch what the Bible said? What an astonishing thing to say. Why would the Bible say that? What does that even mean?
Some say that when the Bible said, ‘But God remembered’, it meant that God had forgotten about Noah, but now he remembered. God can forget things and forget people too. The opposite of to forget is to remember. God remembered something or someone he had forgotten. Others say that the word, ‘remember’ signaled covenantal language. In Genesis 6:18, God said to Noah, “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” So, when the Bible said God remembered Noah, it meant that God remembered a covenantal promise he made. Sometime in the past, God made a covenant with Noah, and now God remembered he needed to act upon that covenant. He had no choice but to keep his promise, and do what he said he would do. God remembered.
Both of those views are not my view. God does not forget things or forget his people. God does not forget covenantal promises he makes with his people either. In my humble opinion, when the Bible says, “But God remembered Noah”, I think it simply means, “It is time”. We have arrived at the precise time for God to extend his love and mercy to Noah. What did God do after the Bible said he remembered Noah? He acted and caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside. The tension in the story relaxes. It is the hinge in the story. It is time. God remembered.