Well, we’ve been here in Armenia for a little over 3 weeks now…and we leave in just a few days. Almost the whole time we’ve been here, this has been our view…
Yup, a fabulous view!
We have gotten to look out our kitchen window with a perfect view of Mount Ararat, the place they believe Noah’s ark landed. (Which also means that Turkey is just on the other side of that mountain–wild!)
Every morning it’s just a shock and wonder waking up to this view, we are so blessed.
Today, as Jada, Bre, Mallory and I sat down to eat dinner together at our table, we started talking, laughing and just having a blast. Then we started talking about Noah, about what actually went down when that story took place and we decided we were going to sit, gaze at Mount Ararat and read the story of Noah.
I’m going to just share a few verses that stuck out to me and let you go find the rest of the story to read on your own — Genesis 6-9
Vs. 6 ‘The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain.’
UM WOA. That’s terrifying…his heart was filled with pain because man was so evil. Is his heart filled with pain now because of our wickedness?
Vs. 17 ‘I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.’
I don’t know about you but if God came and told me that, I think I’d stand dead in my tracks and not be able to move for days. And I would wonder how in the heck I had found so much favor with God to literally be one of 8 people that wouldn’t perish?
But then in verse 22 it says that ‘Noah did everything just as God commanded him.’
He was obedient even though it was [I would assume] the most absolutely terrifying [and strange] thing he was ever asked to do.
Ch. 7 Vs. 8 ‘Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.’
God had commanded Noah just verses earlier to have 2 of all living creatures, male and female. 2 of every kind of bird, every kind of animal of every creature. 7 pairs of every clean animal and 2 of every unclean animal. BUT…THEY CAME TO HIM. Yes, Noah was obedient but God brought the animals to him…they came from all over the earth, every type of animal and creature God had created. WOW.
Vs. 17b ‘Then the Lord shut him in.’
I just think it’s so insane that the Lord shut them in…he was protecting them and providing everything they needed.
Vs. 22-23 ‘Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.’
Ch.8 Vs. 1, 4 ‘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…and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.’
First of all, God REMEMBERED Noah. How sweet that God remembers us, He doesn’t forget us or lost sight of us, we are His greatest possession. And then the ark landed on mount Ararat–the mountain we get to look at every morning!!
Vs. 21 ‘The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma (of the offering) and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.’
And then continued in ch. 9 vs. 12-16 ‘And God said, “This is a sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
God made his covenant with Noah so that HE would remember…it’s a symbol that reminds us but God placed the rainbow in the sky so that He would remember His covenant HE made with all creation. That is so sweet to me.
Now let’s look back at vs. 17 of chapter 6…This terrifying moment where everything was going to be destroyed…and now, God has made a covenant with us that He will NEVER destroy the earth with the flood waters again.
This promise and covenant with God is something that I will cling to for my whole life. Being at the base of mount Ararat and reading the story of Noah has allowed me to sit and marvel at the God we serve in a new way.
So, go check out the whole story of Noah…and every time you see a rainbow, remember that GOD REMEMBERS YOU.
