This is “And God Remembered Noah.” It is our Torah Reading for this Shabbat that is found in Genesis 8:1-14. And this is the 6^th Parashah or Reading of our 3-Year Torah Reading Cycle.

 

I will, as in the previous 5 discussions, be reading and commenting from the Robert Alter Translation of Torah.

 

And because the reading this week is short, we’ll read the entire parashah in addition to discussion.

 

Let’s get into this. 

 

(1) And Elohim remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And Elohim sent a wind (aka a ruach) over the earth and the waters subsided.

 

The Hebrew term used here for the wind that swept over the waters is “ruach.” Ruach is also used of the Holy Spirit.

 

But we find here in our reading that Yah honors His covenant with Noah at this part of the story through a ruach acting against the chaos of the flood waters.

 

Now, recall similarly in Genesis 1:2, Moshe describes in one of the very first parts of the recreation story, the Spirit or the Ruach of Elohim moving upon the face of the chaotic waters.

 

And then there’s the instance of Yah causes the sea to go back by a strong east wind or ruach that blew all night and ultimately caused the sea to give way to dry land (Exo. 14:21).

 

Yah’s wind—His Ruach brings order out of chaos.

 

There is this centuries’ old debate over whether or not the Great Flood was a regional or a global flood.

 

Scripture suggests, at least to me, that the Great Flood was a global one.

 

Genesis 7:17-24 describes a flood, consisting of rain and the eruption of the fountains of the deep, all prevailing upon the earth some 40-days, covering even the mountain tops and ultimately extinguishing all life on the face of the earth, save Noah and his family.

 

Now, some believe that prior to the Great Flood, the earth’s landmass consisted of just a single piece of land described in some circles as a supercontinent or Pangea. And so when the Great Flood happened, all the disruption and stress caused by it somehow caused the single landmass to cleave into the various continental and island pieces that we sort of see today.

 

We of course have no proof of this actually taking place, but to me, this would certainly support there being a global flood.

 

Also, there is substantial evidence out there around the world that strongly supports the Great Flood was indeed a global phenomenon, with artifacts indigenous in one part of the world being discovered in other parts of the world where the artifacts would not be at all indigenous.

 

There is hardcore evidence of the great canyons of the world being the created by the Great Flood. Geologists have discovered around the world inexplicable layers of contrasting sediments that scream of a universal flood.

 

(2) And the wellsprings of the deep were dammed up (that is, the underground waters stopped flowing), and the casements of the heavens, the rain from the heaven held back (or rather, the torrential rains from the sky were stopped).

 

(3) And the waters receded from the earth little by little, and the waters ebbed.

 

(4) At the end of a hundred and fifty days the ark came to rest, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, on the mountains of Ararat.

 

Evangelical Christian Explorer Ron Wyatt and others claimed to have found the remains of the ark in a region of Eastern Turkey known as Durupinar in the mid 1980’s, although a great many in and outside of Denominationalism challenge the validity of their claim. (I guess that makes sense since for decades, various Christian expeditions have devoted their resources and talents to search for the illusive ark. And if Wyatt’s artifact is indeed Noah’s Ark, then the wellspring of finances for future Noah’s Ark expeditions would completely dry up, wouldn’t it?)

 

Wyatt’s group is supposed to have involved the Turkish government to some extent along with various scientists and multinational archaeological teams to help legitimize and affirm their discovery. The Turkish government went so far as to build an observation platform for tourists to visit and see the site.

 

The Wyatt story in connection to the Ark is a very interesting one that I’ve looked heavily into over the years. And I have to say that I tend to believe that which he and his group found to be the actual Ark, despite the great backlash he and his group have faced over the decades.

 

Mr. Wyatt has long since passed on, but his organization promotes continued research into this finding.

 

 

(5) The waters continued to ebb, until the tenth month, on the first day of the tenth month, the mountaintops appears.

 

(6) And it happened, at the end of forty days (that is, 40-days after the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat), that Noah opened the window of the ark he had made.

 

(7) And he sent out the raven and it went forth to and fro until the waters should dry up from the earth.

 

(8) And he sent out the dove to see whether the waters had abated from the surface of the ground.

 

(9) But the dove found no resting place for its foot and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were over all the earth. And he reached out and took it and brought it back to him into the ark.

 

(10) Then he waited another seven days and again sent the dove out from the ark.

 

(11) And the dove came back to him at eventide and look, a plucked olive leaf was in its bill, and Noah knew that the waters had abated from the earth.

 

(12) Then he waited still another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him again.

 

(13) And it happened in the six hundred and first year (that is, of Noah’s life), in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters dried up from the earth, and Noah took off the covering of the ark and he saw and, look, the surface of the ground was dry.

 

601st year of Noah’s life, on the first day of the first month Noah removes the ark’s covering and witnessed for himself that the ground was dry or drying (the Hebrew for drying being “harev”).

 

 

(14) And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was completely dry.

 

Almost 2 months later, Noah determines that the ground had become completely dry (the Hebrew for completely dry being “yavesh”).

 

The full calendrical timing of the Great Flood has been hotly debated by folks within and outside our faith community. The Genesis account does not seem to align well with the various calendars that our community generally follows. And that’s because the timing put forth in the text is not entirely clear. There’s seems to be a high degree of ambiguity associated with the number of days and months and seasons mentioned here.

 

It is possible that there was a different reckoning of time in Noah’s day that does not jive with the reckoning of time that our community follows today.

 

But I would strongly contend that the timing issues associated with this story are irrelevant to us today, in light of the higher themes that this story greatly underscores and highlights for today’s Berean.

 

I would assert it seems that significant things happened to the earth at the time of the Great Flood:

 

1. Some contend that the earth prior to the Great Flood consisted of a single land mass that cleaved into various pieces/masses when the fountains of the deep erupted; or possibly these eruptions were accompanied by tremendous seismic activity that facilitated the cleaving of the single land mass into the various pieces we see and know of today.

 

2. Human longevity dramatically declined after the flood. No longer were humans living upwards towards a millennium.

 

3. It’s possible that the calendar changed as well. Some knowledgeable and informative individuals within and outside our Faith Communities have suggested that calendars such as the now popular Enochian Calendar, which is primarily a solar-based calendar, was possibly the calendar used in the pre-flood days and that reckoning of time changed concurrently with the flood.

 

The Ancient Book of Jubilees offers an interesting, detailed calendrical accounting of the flood, along with dates and numbers of days the event entailed. But we won’t delve into this here today.

 

Seems to me that Yehovah’s Will and Plan overrode any and all questions and concerns related to a calendrical accounting of the flood story.

 

Yah’s wrath and judgment AND His salvation were accomplished through the Great Flood.

 

I would also assert that the Great Flood served several purposes that supported and promoted the Righteous Will of Yehovah:

 

1. It extinguished all corruption of Yah’s natural creation.

 

2. It reset creation to a place that would be in accordance with and to Yah’s Will and Plans.

 

3. It demonstrated Yah’s power, authority, sovereignty, and most importantly, His righteousness.

 

4. It certified the integrity of the biological line by which Mashiyach would descend and fulfill the crushing of the serpent’s head.

 

5. It served to show that Yah keeps covenant with members of His human creation that are His.

 

From a shadow-picture perspective, Noah’s adventure, along with His ark, points us squarely towards and at Yahoshua. For indeed, Yahoshua is our ark of salvation and the broker of our covenant with Yehovah.

 

Yehovah’s wrath and judgment was leveled against Yahoshua at His crucifixion. Yet Yahoshua’s crucifixion served as our ark, for through Yahoshua’s Passion, we are saved; all according to Yehovah’s perfect Plan of Salvation, Restoration and Reconciliation (Heb. 2:14-15). Praise Yah!

 

Our Parashah this week is a story about redemption in the midst of overwhelming rebellion.

 

 

That overwhelming rebellion of humanity against Yehovah would be shoved aside by the Creator’s sovereignty; His Will; and His Plan of Salvation. Abba’s Will and Plan was to reestablish full communion with His human creation despite humanity’s corruption and wickedness.

 

Thus, Yehovah established a covenant with Noah to facilitate the fulfillment of His Will and Plan (Gen. 6:18). This is actually the very first covenant mentioned in Scripture.

 

And it is through this covenant that He makes with Noah that He commits Himself to keeping His Word, not just to Noah, but to humanity. Thus, the covenant Yah establishes with Noah was essentially a carry-over of the Garden experience where Yah declared to Eve that her seed would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). And so, if Yah were not true to His covenant with Noah, then the declaration He made to Eve in the Garden would become a moot point indeed.

 

 

 

The opening phrase “And Elohim Remembered,” remember in the Hebrew being “zachar,” interestingly enough is an intricate element of ANE covenant language.

 

 

For “zachar” denotes or carries with it the understanding that the parties to whom the covenant is established are to remain steadfastly loyal to that covenant.

 

Now, in our 21st century western mindset, we understand the term verb “remember” to mean one is able to recall or recollect or think of someone or something that one has seen, known or experienced in the past. And indeed, in most incidents where the Hebrew term “zachar” is used, it does in fact carry this common meaning and implication.

 

However, there are a number of passages in the Holy Writ where the term is used in terms of Yehovah remembering or acting in remembrance to individuals or a particular situation as we see here in our parashah today. In our reading Moshe describes Yehovah as having “remembered” (aka “zachar”) Noah.

 

Now, knowing what we know about Yehovah our Elohim, does it seem likely that He was simply too busy running things in the universe that Noah’s situation would slip His mind? Of course not. Yehovah is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent; He never sleeps (Psa. 121:4): He could not nor would not forget Noah, his family or the animals that were holed up in the ark.

 

So, “zachar” in this, and in several other passages I’ll point out to you in just a few, the ANE understanding of the term when applied to Yehovah and when used in connection to covenants has to do with steadfast loyalty to that covenant.

 

Well, where does covenant come in to our reading here today?

 

Recall back to Genesis 6:17-22, which reads:

 

¹⁷ And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. ¹⁸ But with thee will I establish my covenant (the first mention of Yehovah establishing a covenant with any human); and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. ¹⁹ And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. ²⁰ Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. ²¹ And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. ²² Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. (Gen 6:17-22 KJV)

 

And so fast forward to today we have at the very outset of our reading the meaningful phrase:

 

“And Elohim remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark” (Gen. 8:1a).

 

And so, how did an all knowing, never sleeping, all powerful, ever present Elohim “remember” Noah, Noah’s family and the animals in the ark? He remained faithful to the promises He made to Noah back in Genesis 6; He stopped the flood and brought the occupants of the ark to dry land. He saved Noah and his family. He honored the tenets of the covenant He made with Noah.

 

Now, if the passage would have instead stated that Yehovah had “forgotten” Noah, then we would conclude that Yehovah chose not to honor the covenant He established with Noah. But we know that Yehovah is not a covenant breaker. He remains always faithful to every covenant He establishes with His people.

 

There are in fact a number of examples of this concept of remembering being associated with loyalty to a covenant to be found throughout scripture:

 

• Genesis 9:15-16—Yehovah promises to “zachar” the succeeding covenant He establishes with Noah.
• Exodus 20:8—Yehovah commands us to honor and remain true to the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.
• Leviticus 26:42-45—Yehovah affirms that He will “zachar,” honor and be faithful to the covenant He established with Avraham, Yitshaq and Ya’achov if Yisra’el would confess their iniquity and Teshuvah.
• Ezekiel 16:59-61—Yehovah tells Yisra’el that despite their dishonoring of the covenant that was established between He and they, He would be faithful to the everlasting covenant He would established with them.
• Luke 1:72-73—Zechariah the Levitical Priest and father of Yochanan (aka John) the Immerser, prophesies of the Goodness of Yehovah in His remembering—in this case the Greek is “mnaomai” {mnah’-om-ahee}—the holy covenant that He established with the fathers.

 

So, Moshe’s opening statement to this parashah of “And Elohim remembered Noah” simply, but ever so beautifully means that Yehovah acted positively on the covenant that He’d established with Noah. In other words, The Righteousness of Elohim is clearly and brilliantly illustrated in the concept of covenant and remembrance here: Yehovah kept His end of the covenant agreement with Noah by bringing Noah, his family, and the animal creation through the Flood ordeal safely and whole. Yah remaining steadfastly true to His covenant promise, as we see here in this parashah, is a testimony to Yehovah’s Righteousness. When Yah honors His covenant with His people, His people experience and receive a foretaste of His Righteousness.

 

 

We should not overlook the fact that this is all a shadow-picture of the Renewed Covenant as well a lesson about Yehovah’s steadfast faithfulness to His Words.

 

Yahoshua is the mediator of the Renewed Covenant (Heb. 8:6; 12:24). And it was during what is popularly referred to as the “Last Supper,” that He beautifully brought together the elements of covenant and remembrance. Master used the timing and elements of Pesach (aka Passover), Pesach being the basis upon which Yah remembers the covenant He established with the forefathers and His looking forward to the covenant He will establish with Yisra’el in Egypt to deliver them from bondage and establish them as a holy nation of priests); and from that set of covenants Yahoshua beautifully introduces to His disciples the Renewed Covenant that would be established through His Passion and His Resurrection.

 

And so it is through Yahoshua that Yehovah “zachar” or remembers His eternal promise—His eternal covenant.

 

That Renewed Covenant is recorded in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews chapters 8 and 10. It entails Yah writing His Torah on the fleshly tables of His peoples’ hearts and in their minds, and Him remembering their sins no more. No longer would Torah be simply a set of precepts and laws and ordinances inscribed on stone tablets that His people would struggle to keep, often breaking covenant in the process.

 

But under the auspices of the Renewed Covenant, the Ruach haKodesh incorporates Yah’s Word into our very DNA and we are privileged to enter into an obedient, trusting covenant relationship with Him. To be “echad” with Him. And to be eligible to receive and dwell in His eternal Kingdom.

 

And thus, it was during that “Last Supper” that Master ratified this renewed covenant, as common with the establishing of most covenants in the ANE, with a celebratory meal: bread and wine (Luk. 22:14-20; 1 Cor. 11:24-26). And He instructed that we honor Him and the renewed covenant by rehearsing this celebratory meal as often as we are so led to do so.

 

 

And so the essential theme of today’s parashah is “remembrance” which entails honoring; loyalty; and covenant-keeping.

 

Yehovah is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping Elohim. He loves to establish and maintain covenants with His people. But the thing about Yehovah is that He never, ever breaks covenant with His elect ones. It is those who would be His that always break covenant with Him in one form or another.

 

And because humans have a propensity or leaning towards breaking covenant with Yah, He placed within the fabric of His renewed covenant provisions that help us stay in covenant with Him.

 

The primary provision Yah provided is His precious Ruach haKodesh. It is the Holy Spirit that works within the one who would become a child of the Most High. If Yah’s would-be elect allows the Ruach to work within them, and they subordinate their will to that of Yehovah’s, then Yah’s elect will remain in covenant with Yehovah, be saved. Will we from time-to-time falter and break covenant with Yehovah? Yes. That’s inevitable. But as the Holy Spirit works His work in us, the chances of us falling out of covenant with Yehovah lessens as we transform into the image of our Master Yahoshua Messiah.

 

But we never have to worry about Yehovah. He will always remain faithful to His covenant, even when we don’t.

 

Way of Spirit and Truth | Highpursuit (highpursuitministries.com) “The Importance of Being in Covenant with our Father in Heaven from Alef to Tav” (7-Part Series)