Tawa Baptist

Living in Hope

Scripture: Genesis 40

Video Link: https://youtu.be/4goHi0qKgzg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Living in hope
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

The American poet, Emily Dickinson, once wrote…

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tunes without words and never stops at all.

Hope is the enduring belief that something better waits for us in the future. Hope gives our soul wings. It makes the present, with all its trials and difficulties, easier to bear.

Today we continue our sermon series in the life of Joseph, focusing on Genesis chapter 40. We see hope woven through this passage. Joseph is living in hope, even while in prison. From Genesis 40, verse 1, we read…

Sometime later the king of Egypt’s wine steward and his chief baker offended the king. 2 He was angry with these two officials 3 and put them in prison in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same place where Joseph was being kept. 4 They spent a long time in prison, and the captain assigned Joseph as their servant. 5 One night there in prison the wine steward and the chief baker each had a dream, and the dreams had different meanings. 6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were upset. 7 He asked them, “Why do you look so worried today?”  8 

They answered, “Each of us had a dream, and there is no one here to explain what the dreams mean.”

“It is God who gives the ability to interpret dreams,” Joseph said. “Tell me your dreams.”

9 So the wine steward said, “In my dream there was a grapevine in front of me 10 with three branches on it. As soon as the leaves came out, the blossoms appeared, and the grapes ripened. 11 I was holding the king’s cup; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into the cup and gave it to him.”

12 Joseph said, “This is what it means: the three branches are three days. 13 In three days the king will release you, pardon you, and restore you to your position. You will give him his cup as you did before when you were his wine steward. 14 But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to the king and help me get out of this prison. 15 After all, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here in Egypt I didn’t do anything to deserve being put in prison.”

16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation of the wine steward’s dream was favourable, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream too; I was carrying three breadbaskets on my head. 17 In the top basket there were all kinds of baked goods for the king, and the birds were eating them.”

18 Joseph answered, “This is what it means: the three baskets are three days. 19 In three days the king will release you—and have your head cut off! Then he will hang your body on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh.”

20 On his birthday three days later the king gave a banquet for all his officials; he released his wine steward and his chief baker and brought them before his officials.

21 He restored the wine steward to his former position, 22 but he executed the chief baker. It all happened just as Joseph had said. 23 But the wine steward never gave Joseph another thought—he forgot all about him.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Living in hope:

Robert Schuller once said…

Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.

This is about not looking back in bitterness but instead imagining a better future. Not as easy as it sounds. It’s not like you can flick a switch to turn off our hurts and turn on our hope.

Some hurts run deep and long. Some hurts need to be faced and disarmed, like a bomb. Other hurts are smaller though and can be brushed off before they settle in the mind and take root in the soul.

Letting your hopes, and not your hurts, shape your future requires a renewing of the mind. A change of thinking.

Just as you grow a plant by watering it so too you grow an idea by thinking about it. The more you consider your hurts, the bigger your resentment grows and the more turned in on yourself you become.

Likewise, the more you think about your hopes and the good coming your way, the deeper your feelings of gratitude and the more outward looking you are.       

Joseph had suffered some significant hurts. Hated by his brothers. Sold into slavery. Falsely accused and put in prison. The temptation for Joseph was to look back in anger. To feed his hurt with fantasies of revenge.

But Joseph does not water his hurts. He refuses to let bitterness take hold. Joseph chooses to look forward in hope. God has given Joseph a dream, even if to some it seems like a nightmare.

Despite his present circumstances, Joseph believes the good God has promised will come true. Joseph let’s hope shape his future.

What hurts do you need to brush off or disarm?

What hopes do you need to water?

Genesis 40 begins by telling us the king’s wine steward and chief baker had offended the king of Egypt, so Pharaoh threw them both in prison to await investigation.    

The wine steward and chief baker had special roles in protecting the king’s food and hiring reliable staff. They were men Pharaoh trusted with his life. When the text says that these men offended the king, it probably means that one of them behaved in a way that put Pharaoh’s life at risk.

Because of the power and position he held Pharaoh had to be constantly on his guard against those who might try to kill him. It is no small irony that powerful people cannot afford to live in hope. More often powerful people live defensively, viewing others with suspicion.

Joseph does not live in suspicion though. Unlike the king, he has nothing to lose. Being assigned to look after these court officials raises Joseph’s hope.

After some time in prison, the cup bearer and the baker both had a different dream on the same night. They woke up the next day visibly upset.

Contemporary psychology says that most dreams are about the person’s past, not their future. But in the ancient world people were inclined to view their dreams as an omen from the gods; a prediction of things to come. Hence the wine steward and baker’s anxiety. Are their dreams heralding good news or bad news?   

Joseph notices something is wrong and asks why they look so worried. Hopeful people (like Joseph) tend to be outward looking. Hopeful people are not so focused on themselves that they miss the cues other people give. Hopeful people are inclined to show empathy and to offer help.

The two court officials were worried because they had dreams about their future and no way to interpret them.

But Joseph lives in hope and replies, “It is God who gives the ability to interpret dreams, so why don’t you tell me your dreams”.

In this verse we see that God is the basis for Joseph’s hope.

Hope doesn’t just happen by itself. Joseph has cultivated hope in God. He has taken care of his relationship with God. We know this because Joseph’s default setting, his instinctive reaction, is to reach out to God for help. Joseph is confident God will answer him.   

And God does answer Joseph. After listening carefully Joseph explains the symbolism of the dream, reassuring the wine steward that in three days he will be restored and all will be well. Now the wine steward is living in hope too.

Believing in a better future for himself, Joseph sees an opportunity to give his future a helping hand, saying…

But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to the king and help me get out of this prison…”

The word translated as kindness, in verse 14, is Ḥeseḏ in the original Hebrew. Joseph is asking the wine steward to show him Ḥeseḏ.

You may remember from last week that Ḥeseḏ is a word loaded with meaning and history. Ḥeseḏ is an action essential to the survival or the basic wellbeing of the recipient. Given the circumstances no one else can do it. And Ḥeseḏ takes place in the context of an existing relationship.

Ḥeseḏ is pregnant with hope. If someone promises to do Ḥeseḏ for you, then you have a basis for believing the future will be better.  

Some commentators criticize Joseph for asking the wine steward for help. They think he should not have sought to gain from the situation. Perhaps those commentators have never been in a tight spot like Joseph was.

There’s nothing wrong with asking for help when you cannot help yourself. Joseph did not leverage the wine steward. He did not try to coerce or manipulate anyone. Joseph did not say, ‘I will only interpret your dream if you promise to help me first’. No, Joseph helped the wine steward freely, in hope that the good he did would return to him.

By asking for help Joseph shows humility and trust. Giving is often easier than receiving. It takes a certain kind of grace to accept help.

Hope is infectious. If you spend time with hopeful people, their hope tends to rub off on you. In verse 16 we read…

“When the chief baker saw that the interpretation of the wine steward’s dream was favourable, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream too…”

This might betray a guilty conscience on the baker’s behalf. The wine steward told his dream first, without fear, indicating a clear conscience – nothing to hide.

But the baker holds back sharing his dream until he hears a favourable response. Perhaps the baker knows he is to blame for their predicament and is somehow hoping to get off the hook.

Whatever the case, the baker’s hope is misplaced. Hope can be a dangerous thing if it is not fulfilled. After listening carefully to the baker’s dream, Joseph gives the interpretation.

In three days the king will release you—and have your head cut off! Then he will hang your body on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh.

Joseph speaks the difficult truth. The flip side of hope is judgment.

The oppressed are not set free unless the oppressor is removed.

The righteous cannot prosper unless the wicked are stopped.

We cannot expect the future to be better if those who do evil are allowed to continue. We cannot have hope without judgment.

The trick is being on the right side of hope. Jesus came to save us from judgement. Jesus came to give us a future with hope. Receive Jesus, trust in his righteousness, and you will have hope for eternal life.

If you confess with your mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved.      

Three days later, on the king’s birthday, everything happened just as Joseph said it would. The king restored the wine steward and he had the baker executed.

23 But the wine steward never gave Joseph another thought— he forgot all about him.

It would be two more years before Joseph was remembered. God does things in his own way and his own time. The text does not tell us how Joseph felt to be forgotten. We don’t really hear much about Joseph’s feelings until the end of his story.

But, from our own experience, we know that feeling of darkness which settles in the heart when we realize the help we had hoped for is less and less likely to come through.

Francis Bacon once said…

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Perhaps what he meant was, hope that remains unfulfilled is not good.

It is helpful to start with hope. Hope sustains you through the morning and afternoon of life. But if, by the end of the day, your hope has come to nothing, you are left feeling emptier than ever.

Sometimes as Christians we pray earnestly and sincerely for someone or something, fully believing that God will answer our prayer as we wish. But, despite our faith, the good we had asked for does not happen and our hope is dealt a savage blow.

We may feel disappointed and angry with God or at least confused and questioning. There is risk with hope, just as there is mystery with prayer. Sometimes God answers our prayers with a yes. Other times with a no. And quite often with wait. Yet we cannot understand why.

We don’t always get what we want in this life. This life is not always fair, but this life is not all there is. God raised Jesus from the dead and so the hope we have in Christ transcends death. God has a way of making things right, if not in this life, then in the next. God’s timing is not always our timing.

The beatitudes of Jesus are statements of hope. Jesus says…

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.   

When we put our hope in Jesus we get some comfort, some filling and some knowledge of God in this life, but our hope is not fully realized until Jesus returns in glory. In the meantime, like Joseph, we eat the breakfast of hope.

The early Christian author, Tertullian, once wrote…

Hope is patience with the lamp lit.

Hope is not always invigorating or vibrant or strong. Sometimes hope is muted and fragile, a quiet waiting in the dark, comforting yourself with the warm thought that things will change for the better, even if you cannot imagine how.    

Whatever disappointment Joseph may have felt, he did not abandon his hope. Joseph kept believing in the dream God had given him. He kept waiting to be remembered.   

Sometimes we are like Joseph, feeling forgotten as we wait in the dark of not knowing. Hang in there. Don’t let the lamp of your hope go out. Ask for help if you need it. Be patient and remember, God’s timing is not always our timing.

Other times we are more like the wine steward, forgetting those who have helped us. Remember with thanks those who have been there for you when you were anxious or sad. Do they need your help now?

How can you pay their kindness forward? Who can you light the lamp of hope for?   

Conclusion:

Today, because it is the first Sunday of the month, we are sharing communion. Interesting that this reading, featuring a server of wine and a baker of bread, just happened to fall on a communion Sunday. I did not plan it that way. Was it God’s providence? Maybe.

Communion is a time to remember Jesus.

To remember someone, in Christian thought, means more than simply recalling that person to mind. It’s more than merely thinking, ‘Oh Jesus, yea I remember him. He was that guy who died on a cross 2000 years ago, right?’

For believers, to remember is to make good on a commitment.

To remember someone is to show kindness to them.

To remember Jesus is put into practice his teaching in our daily lives.

We don’t just remember Jesus while eating the bread and drinking from the cup. We remember Jesus by loving God and by loving our neighbour as we love ourselves.

Remembering is both personal and practical. Yes, remembering is meant to happen in church on a Sunday, but we also need to remember throughout the rest of our lives, Monday to Saturday.    

The problem with human beings is that we tend to forget. We get caught up in our own stuff and stuck in our heads. We forget our purpose and we get a bit lost. We need to be reminded of who we are and why we are. That’s what communion is about.

May God’s Ḥeseḏ for us, in Christ, be a lamp of hope for all, through the long dark night of waiting. Amen.   

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What is hope? How does hope help us?
  • How might we let go of our hurts and give more attention to our hopes? What hurts do you need to brush off or disarm? What hopes do you need to water?
  • Why is it harder for powerful people to live in hope? When has hope been most real in your life?
  • Discuss / reflect on the relationship between judgement and hope? How can we get on the right side of hope?
  • Who has been there for you? How can you remember them? How can you pay their kindness forward? Who can you light a lamp of hope for?   
  • What does it mean to remember Christ? How do we (you) remember Jesus?
Tawa Baptist

God Remembers

Scripture: Genesis 8:1-19

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God remembers
  • Noah waits
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can anyone tell me, what is the word we use to describe the point at which a seesaw balances? I’ll give you a couple of seconds. [Wait]

That’s right, the point at which a seesaw balances, is called a fulcrum  

We find fulcrums everywhere. The hinge in a door is a fulcrum. Likewise, your hip, knee and shoulder joints act as fulcrums for your bones. A fulcrum allows movement and change.

The word ‘fulcrum’ can also be used metaphorically to refer to a person or thing that plays an essential (or pivotal) role in an activity or situation. For example, a teacher may be described as a fulcrum for a student’s learning or a common love of fishing might be the fulcrum for a friendship. This microphone is a fulcrum for my voice.  

Today we continue our series on the story of Noah and the great flood.

Last Sunday we heard how God instructed Noah to enter the ark, with the animals, and then the flood came.  This morning’s passage (Genesis 8) is a fulcrum passage – the rain stops and the flood waters recede. Everything pivots on God remembering Noah.

From Genesis chapter 8, verses 1-19, we read…

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. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavenshad been closed, and the rainhad stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty daysthe water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh monththe ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven,and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second monththe earth was completely dry.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us

There are two things I want to highlight from this morning’s Bible reading: God’s remembering and Noah’s waiting. First let’s consider God’s remembering. God’s remembering is the fulcrum which changes things for the better.

God remembers:

There’s a programme on TV 1 called The Repair Shop. In this programme people bring along a family heirloom or some other beloved belonging that has seen better days and leave it with a group of craftspeople who restore the old item to something close to its former glory.

It might be an antique bicycle or a teddy bear or a doll or a clock and the workers at the repair shop re-member it – they literally put it back together the way it used to be. The show normally ends with the grateful owner looking at their treasured object, with tears in their eyes, amazed at the wonderful work that has been done in restoring it.

When reading the Bible, we need to keep in mind that the words we read (in English) are a translation and something of the meaning is often lost in the process of translation. The word remember is a classic example.

We tend to equate remembering with recalling a thought we had previously forgotten. For us, remembering is generally a mental exercise and nothing more. But for the ancient Hebrew people (who wrote the Old Testament) remembering was far more than recalling something in your head. Remembering involved actually doing something practical. Remembering may start in your mind but it’s supposed to find expression in your hands and feet.

In the Old Testament remembering is more akin to repairing, restoring, regathering, repenting and renewing. Putting things back together again, the way they are supposed to be – sort of like they do in The Repair Shop.

To use another example, if you cut your finger off, then you literally re-member your finger by having a surgeon sew it back on your hand.

When God gave Moses the 10 commandments, the Lord framed the fourth commandment by saying: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…”

Remembering here doesn’t just mean recalling something in your head. Remembering is an act of obedience; ceasing work to allow your body, soul and relationships to be restored or repaired. The Sabbath is a kind of Repair Shop for the human soul. On the Sabbath, we re-member what’s important. We put our perspective and priorities and relationships back together in the right place.

The Old Testament concept of remembering isn’t totally foreign to us though. To some extent we still remember in the way the ancients used to.

If someone in your family has a birthday, you remember them by buying them a present or baking them a cake.

Or if one of your friends ends up in hospital, you remember them by visiting and cheering them up.

Or you might remember the poor by sponsoring a child through World Vision or donating to a food bank.

We remember the environment by recycling and reducing our carbon footprint.

And you remember your marriage vows by staying faithful to your partner in marriage.

The establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 was one way the NZ government sought to practically remember the Treaty; by providing a means for Maori to find resolution for Treaty grievances.

During lockdown we remembered our neighbours by observing physical distancing and phoning people to check up on them.        

Later in the service today we will share communion together. When Jesus instituted communion he said, ‘Do this to remember me’. By remember me he didn’t just mean, ‘think about me in your head’. He meant re-member my body, the church. As in, come back together (regather) as a community of faith. The fact that we actually do something physical when we share communion (like eating and drinking) shows that Biblical remembering is more than just a mental exercise.  

Communion is the sign of the new covenant with God, established by Jesus. Therefore, to remember Jesus is to keep the new covenant. It is to maintain our obedience of faith in Jesus. And where we have messed up, remembering means repenting and putting things right. To remember Jesus is to ensure he remains in his proper place as Lord of our lives.

Genesis 8, verse 1, is the fulcrum verse in the account of Noah and the flood.

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.

This is the pivotal verse. It is God’s remembering that changes the situation. From this point onwards the destruction of God’s judgement swings the other way toward renewal and a fresh start for creation.

It’s not that God had forgotten about Noah and the animals in the ark. God was mindful of them the whole time. As Derek Kidner observes, God’s remembering combines the ideas of faithful love and timely intervention. [1]

God’s remembering of Noah is expressed in a real and physical way by his stopping the rain and sending a wind to dry up the waters. Those of you who are familiar with the creation account in Genesis 1 will recognise the parallels. Verse 2 of Genesis 1 tells us that in the beginning, the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit (or wind) of God was hovering over the waters. The flood waters represent chaos. God’s remembering of his creation restores order to the chaos. Noah is the new Adam. 

There are other parallels with Genesis 1 as well, but I’ll let you figure those out for yourself. 

One of the things we notice about God’s remembering here is that it is a process. God’s remembering doesn’t necessarily produce instantaneous results. It’s not like God clicked his fingers and, voila, the water instantly disappeared. No. It took months for the water to steadily recede, for the land to dry out and the vegetation to regrow. In the meantime, Noah had to wait.

Noah waits:

What we notice about Noah’s waiting is that it is purposeful and not passive. Noah isn’t just sitting there in the ark, with the animals, twiddling his thumbs. He’s not just waiting for the water to go down. Noah is waiting for God to give him the green light to leave. Noah’s waiting is purposeful, not passive.

You may have heard of the marshmallow experiments, conducted by Stanford University in the 1970’s. In these experiments a child was put in a room with a marshmallow in front of them and told that if they waited until the grown up came back they could have a second marshmallow. So, it was either one now or two later.

Subsequent marshmallow studies showed that trust was one of the main reasons children would wait for a second marshmallow. If the child was led to mistrust the adult doing the experiment, they would grab the marshmallow sooner. But if they were led to trust the adult they were more likely to wait. 

Noah may have been like one of those kids who could wait long enough for the extra marshmallow. Noah was able to wait because he trusted God. He knew God was reliable and would deliver.    

Noah’s waiting was purposeful, not passive. It was resourceful, not resentful. He demonstrated patience and meekness in waiting. His heart is to trust and obey God.

I’ve spoken about meekness before. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is power under control. In fact, meekness requires great strength of character as it combines gentleness with self-control. And we know what Jesus said about the meek: they shall inherit the earth. In other words, they get the marshmallow in the end. Noah certainly inherited the earth.

Although Noah had many opportunities to leave the ark, he waited until God said it was okay to leave.

When the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, in the Lake Van region of Eastern Turkey, Noah had been on board for about 150 days, which is around 5 months. That’s a long time to wait in cramped and smelly conditions. As the water receded and land became visible, it would have been tempting for Noah to get out for some fresh air and to stretch his legs but he doesn’t. Instead Noah waits for God, for another 150 days.

Like I keep saying, Noah’s waiting was not passive. Noah’s waiting was purposeful and active. Noah looked forward in hope and anticipation to the time when God would set the captives free from the darkness of the ark.

We see Noah’s hopeful anticipation in what he does while he waits. Noah does three things: he opens a window, he sends out birds to test the waters and he takes the roof off.

Studies have shown how prisoners, with a window in their cell, tend to maintain better mental health than prisoners who have no window.    

Verse 6 of Genesis 8 tells how Noah opens the window he had made in the ark. Sometimes we might feel like God has forgotten us. Sometimes the winter of our discontent seems to drag on and on. Sometimes our prayers seem to go unanswered and our faithfulness unrewarded. We may feel like God is absent and we are in the dark. When it feels like that, open a window. Let some light in so you can see. Let some air flow through so you can breathe. Slow down. Let yourself look at the mountain tops. Dream a little. Recover a sense of the bigger picture. Let your perspective return.    

Verses 7-11 describe how Noah sends out first a raven and then a dove to do some recon-nascence for him. The raven doesn’t bring him any good news, so he sends out a dove. In verse 9 we read: But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.

That last sentence there shows us something of Noah’s gentleness with the dove; reaching out his hand to bring the dove back into the ark. It provides a beautiful picture of a man who cares about God’s creatures in a personal way. Noah is a greeny – perhaps a bit like the character Cooch, in Murray Ball’s cartoon Footrot Flats.

Seven days later Noah sends the dove out a second time. This time it returns with an olive leaf in its beak. Olive trees are very hardy – they are difficult to kill. They are the kind of tree that survives a flood. The fresh foliage is a sign that the vegetation is recovering, so the animals will have something to eat.

A week later when Noah sent the dove out it did not return, which showed that God’s renewal of the land was almost complete. But still Noah waits for God’s word.

The dove over the flood waters reminds us of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus over the waters of the Jordan river, after Jesus’ baptism. [2] Just as Noah’s dove proves itself sensitive and discerning, a guide to those waiting for God’s new creation, so too the Holy Spirit is like a dove to us; sensitive and discerning, gently guiding us as we wait for the new creation Jesus brings.

The third thing Noah does, as he waits in hopeful expectation of God’s renewal, is he removes the covering of the ark. He takes the roof off in other words. This is a quiet act of courageous faith on Noah’s part. To remove the covering is to take a risk and make oneself vulnerable. What if the rain started again? Removing the roof is a statement that Noah believes the storm will not return.

Taking off the roof also allows Noah to get a broader view of the situation than his little window afforded him. Even though Noah could see the ground was dry, he still does not disembark. Noah continues to wait for the word of the Lord and finally God says to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark and let the animals out too…’ and Noah obeyed God.

Conclusion:

You know, in some ways, our experience of lockdown was similar to Noah’s experience as he waited in the ark. Like Noah, our waiting was purposeful, not passive. We weren’t as restricted as Noah was of course, but we did have our wings clipped. Our recent experience gives us some understanding for Noah’s situation and his waiting.

While I don’t want to talk too soon, it seems that God has remembered us here in New Zealand. Relative to the rest of the world we have much to be thankful for.

Globally though, the world is still in a time of waiting for the ‘flood’ of new COVID cases to recede. We pray for the fulcrum of God’s mercy.     

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

What does the Bible mean by remembering? How is this different from the way we (today) tend to think of remembering?

What happened as a result of God remembering Noah and the animals in the ark?   

What parallels do we notice between the account of creation in Genesis 1 and the renewal of creation in Genesis 8?

How do you feel about waiting? Is it something you find easy or hard? Why is that do you think?

What helped Noah in his waiting? (What did he do?) What might help us in our waiting? For example; when we feel trapped in a dark place, how might we open a window to the let the light and air in?

In what ways does Noah’s dove point to the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism?

Is there someone or something you need to remember, in the Biblical sense of that word? What might this mean you need to do?

[1] Refer Derek Kidner’s commentary on Genesis, page 92. 

[2] Refer to Luke 3:22 for an account of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism.