While the earth remains
Genesis 8 · Vern Peterman · Mar 30, 2008
Genesis, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926057344362

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be venturing into this passage that Wayne read the introduction for here. Before we do that, we have a few valuable and important preliminaries. We're going to be moving back into Genesis here for just this Sunday after taking Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday to touch on those subjects. Next month we're taking a break from Genesis to look at four passages that address the body of Christ and we think is particularly appropriate for where our church body is right now. Also, just to make you aware, we have three supplemental handouts out there, and we'll talk about two of them here and one a little bit later.

One of those is a legal-sized color printout that has the history of the Bible starting from the very first chapters of Genesis all the way to the end of the New Testament. And that's, I think, a valuable study piece. One of the things that you'll notice, this is the portion of the time in the Bible. that is covered by the book of Genesis. Isn't this amazing? You're basically looking at the book of Genesis covering over half of the time that the Bible covers, those many centuries. So the book of Genesis in terms of time is huge.

And if you look at that book specifically, Creation to the flood is about two-thirds of that time. So we, in covering the flood, we're there now in the midst of it in our study, is two-thirds of the book of Genesis. So we've gone through a very large sweep of time here in this study. Anyway, feel free to take advantage of that supplemental handout. And also, as you exit to the right here is another handout.

What this does is chart some key flood legends throughout the world. And why would we do that? We would do that because the persistence of the flood legends as you go throughout the world and the consistency with major portions of what you find in the scripture and the passages that we're studying is actual confirmation of a global flood, is confirmation of the details of the flood. I would sum it up this way, the Bible describes the true event These various legends that you'll see summarized in this chart describe various corruptions of that original true account that we're reading here in Genesis.

So you may find that interesting. Now, this is a slide that we showed a few weeks ago when we were going through the passage, and it says, "...and the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah." That's from 1 Peter 3.20. We might do it this way. The patience of the people kept waiting in the days of Vern.

1st Peterman 1.1. So let's get on with it, shall we? You have on the top of your handout, you've got a two-page handout here, you have on the top of your handout, top half, a chart that looks like this.

This was provided in our study just a couple or three weeks ago when we were studying the prior chapter in Genesis, in chapter 7. And just to go over that quickly, we saw in chapter 7 that says Noah entered the ark. And so that was portrayed pictorially here as Noah and the animals came upon the ark. And you can imagine Noah kind of giving people a last chance.

Here it is. I'm telling you, the world's going to flood. And here's the place, you've got to be in this arc. The door's still open. You're still welcome to come. So he continued that invitation. The flood begins with 40 days of rain, was another thing we saw in that account. And boy, the rain came down for 40 days and 40 nights. I don't think we've had anything quite like that here in Denver for a while. Maybe not since this. And so there was the subsequent flooding of the entire earth. The ark surviving this tumultuous and unparalleled time.

The fountains of the deep breaking up. This is a detail that scripture provides and We saw that briefly in an illustration like this, where there were deep subterranean stores of water that came up. And that's even continued today as you see volcanoes, oftentimes not just spewing out ash, but also a lot of steam and water content coming up as well.

Now, there was 40 days of rain that ended. And so that's marked there in scripture. And the fountains of the deep also ceased breaking up. So that 40-day period was 40 days of rain and 40 days of the fountains of the deep breaking up. So two water sources. The earth was covered with water as far as anyone could see.

And there were only eight people to see, right? Now, this is something, you'll have to excuse me here, a little bit of patience on your part. Now, being a former engineer, it's just hard to get that out of my mindset. So here's an engineering analysis of the stability of the ark, okay? And an engineering analysis shows that the ark that God had Noah build, and he gave him the dimensions, right, was very stable, extremely stable. Even this arc would have been stable to 60 degrees of tilt. And it would have come back to normal.

Can you imagine that? Now that's got to be uncomfortable. Can you imagine all these animals at 60 degrees of tilt? That's a little rough. And imagine a little rough on the Hebrew Scrabble games too. Okay. That would really mess it up. But nonetheless, the arc would stabilize itself even with that degree of tilt. And if that sounds interesting to you, and if you're not asleep yet, there is a handout that actually summarizes that. So feel free. Okay. Now, on with this.

What we find as we venture into Chapter 8 is these things here on more or less the right half of the chart, starting from the middle there. And as we begin Chapter 8, one of the things that comes forth is this A verse that Wayne read for us. It starts with, but God remembered Noah. So we've got a question to ask here.

Did God forget about Noah? Is that what this remembering is about? Oh my heavens! Ah! A Mamma Mia moment. I forgot about Noah. Ah! Is that what God was doing? Is that what it means by God remembered? In a word, the answer is no. That's not what God meant. For God to remember Noah was not one of those Mamma Mia moments, not slap the forehead, you know, but rather it is a Hebrew figure of speech that means this.

It means that God focused special attention upon a person. We're going to see this God remembered and even God promising, I will remember in the book of Genesis repeatedly. It's a Hebrew figure of speech that comes out very prominently. This is the first time it shows up, and we're going to see it again and again. For God to remember is not, oh I've forgotten, I just brought it to mind. But for God to remember is to look specially upon a person, and this is the key. to show his great mercy and faithfulness.

Great mercy and faithfulness. One of the things that we have seen in the past looking at Ephesians chapter 2, his wealth of mercy, the riches of his mercy. His mercy is not skimpy, not just barely sufficient. It is great. There is a wealth of mercy in our Lord.

And that is what this remembered means. It is special attention. It is God showing the character of his mercy and his faithfulness. That's what God remembered means. So God remembered Noah and all the beasts and the cattle that were with him in the ark. He was focusing his special attention on them in order to show and reveal and demonstrate his mercy and his faithfulness.

That's what it's about. If we were to put this, and some of you have been here for a time and are familiar with this, in an expanded and explained form, a little bit wordy, but carrying the idea. It would come out like this, but God expressed his mercy and faithfulness to Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And one expression of that mercy and faithfulness was that God caused the wind to pass over the earth and the water subsided in order to prepare the earth for the survival and proliferation of the offspring of Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. It is for the purpose of God showing forth his character of faithfulness and mercy. That's why God remembered. Next, the ark lands on Mount Ararat and the waters recede. It's the next thing we see there.

Here's an artist's depiction of what that might have been like. There might be a couple of exceptions I would take with it. One, it might not have landed right on the top of the mountain. It may have been, for example, on the side. Another feature is this one, you may or may not be able to see it, but it shows the animals wandering around on the ark. I think that's probably not the case, not quite yet.

This is Mount Ararat as it is now, a very interesting shot because it has this kind of mushroom top cloud over it, but still a beautiful view. We have a little bit of a sampling of what Mount Ararat looks like and we've got these 14ers around Colorado. There's more than 50 of them. This is a 17er if you want to give it some comparison. A few thousand feet higher than our tallest of the tall here in Colorado.

And so that would be one picture. Here would be another one with just a few clouds and give you a sampling of Now, there is one caveat or possible qualification, and that is that the text, and you may have noticed this, doesn't actually say Mount Ararat, but it says, plural, the mountains of Ararat, and so it leaves open the possibility that it may be other mountains that are referred to here and not specifically Mount Ararat. And one of the reasons we would say that Ararat, or in the ancient terminology Urartu, was actually a political region. So mountains in that ancient political region could have been some of these other mountains possibly. All right, now the tops of the mountains appear.

So you can imagine here's Noah. He's been looking at water for a long time. And finally, He looks and now finally the arc is settled. Now, I don't want to underestimate the impact of that. Imagine being in this arc and just having this be your horizon for weeks and months and months, finally having it settle down. Hopefully it wasn't too crooked, okay? Having it settle down must have been somewhat assuring and stomach settling, okay? And then after that, to be able to look and start to see some other mountain peaks nearby. Ah, OK.

This is starting to subside here. Now, the next thing that you see there, there's four items. The first one is God sends, excuse me, Noah sends, and I'm sure the Lord made provision for this, a raven. And then four events here of ascending of a dove. Now, as you look at that, I've got it sort of expanded on the screen so you can see those items.

I've been pondering this thing. Imagine, here's Noah, and he's sending out a raven, and sending out a dove, and sending out a dove, and sending out a dove. There's something about it I haven't quite been able to figure out. It seems to me like maybe Noah didn't pick the most efficient way to do this. I mean, I look at it. Here's a cross-section of the ark, and we've shown this illustration before.

It's beyond me why Noah didn't just plunk down some cash and get himself a dish, you know? All right? Well, anyway, OK. One of the things we want to point out here, and you have it on page one of your handout, is that Genesis 8, verses 6 through 12 is for the birds. And what do we mean by that?

There was a real purpose in sending each one of the birds. And one of the things, I think, as we go through this that you'll find interesting is the fact that for Noah to send out the birds wasn't just a, hey, I think I'll send out a bird and see what happens. He sent out a specific bird at a specific time because he knew the character of each one of those birds and knew how they would respond to certain circumstances and whether they came back and what they came back with would be for him an indication of how are things going out there. Because in fact, he didn't have a satellite dish, right? And so when he goes through those sequence of letting certain birds go, it's with purpose.

A raven, and you notice he sent the raven once and it didn't come back, and that's the one sending of a raven. A raven by its character would land on floating carcasses that might have been there out in the waters, and the raven would not return to Noah if it found carcasses because that would be sufficient for it to eat. And so here the raven is sent and it doesn't return and ravens are not mentioned again in this account. A raven is an omnivore, it'll eat both plant and animal matter.

It prefers animal matter and in fact will even eat dead carcasses. The consulting firm that I work for in Carson City, as a matter of fact, did a study that involved looking at ravens eating the endangered desert tortoise. And they will go after animal meat and they don't mind if it's alive or dead. They must have some special sauce or something, I don't know.

Now, the next thing here is the dove, and now notice he let go a dove three times. A dove would return bypassing the floating carcasses because that's not of interest to a dove. And even if it found floating plant material, it would not stay there if that's all there was. Why? The dove would not return if it found a safe place to nest and food to eat. In other words, if it found habitat, it would stay there.

Okay? So what do we see happening here? The dove is sent the first time and it returns. Nothing in its beak. What does that say? There is no habitat and there's not even anything starting to grow yet. Okay? Nothing has given any message that there's habitat, at least nothing nearby. Finally, the dove sent. brings back a leaf. That's the second indication. And so we have the dove coming back. And this has interestingly become an international symbol of peace. But the dove comes back with what?

A little olive branch in its beak. An indication that there's something growing. And by the way, olive branches will sprout and grow even if you just have the the branch just sitting in the water. That's sufficient for it to start sending up sprouts.

That's likely what the dove brought back in its beak. The dove sent the last time does not come back. And why? Now there's sufficient habitat. The bird has a start at a place to nest and a place to gather food. Noah's getting a signal. Okay, this flood receding is getting to a place where things are actually improving for being able to have animal habitat here. And so we see at that point, why did the dove not come back? Because it found a place to nest and to get food. Finally, Noah removes the ark's covering.

And I can imagine they must have been really relieved at that, you know? Taking the top off so you get some ventilation and get some sunlight. Besides that, boy, those baboons, whew, okay? So it was great just to get that off and get that open, get some fresh air, get some sunlight in there.

Took the covering off the top of the ark. So he took that off. Now, the last part, Noah and the rest leave the ark. About 377 days for this time in the ark. Can you imagine that? That's a lot of Hebrew scrabble. So here they are, they're all getting out of the ark and you can imagine some of their thoughts. As good as it was to have this ark to be in and for everybody to be maintained safe, I am certain that cabin fever set in and getting out of that thing was just a wonderful relief.

So, you might be asking the question, Why aren't verses 18 and 19 just a repetition of verses 15 through 17? Verses 18 and 19, if you read through it, will simply confirm that Noah did, along with the other creatures, Noah did precisely what God told him. Now, why would he just repeat that? Why didn't he just kind of assume it? Well, that might be entering your mind. And in that case, we're going to take a look at that.

You will recall back in chapter 7, Verses 1 through 5, God told Noah to enter the ark, taking these people, that is, his wife and three sons and their wives, so the eight of them, and all the animals as well. So the Lord did that. Verse 5 confirms that Noah did what God asked of him. That's the pattern that we see there in chapter 7. It's not just an assumption that they did, but it confirms.

Noah did, in fact, do what God asked of him. Now, think about this. Was Noah given all the details that we went through and all these steps about here's how it happened and all that? Noah was not, from any record we have, given all the details about how this was going to play out.

As you look at the account, he was given information. Here's how to build the ark. He was told certain items about what was going to happen. But so far as we know, he wasn't told everything. He was just told, do this and I'll handle the rest. Do this and I'll handle the rest. Trust me on that.

Verses 18 and 19 also confirm that Noah did what God asked of him in faith. Remember one of the things we pointed out from prior passages is that Noah walked with God. One of the things that we saw from Hebrews chapter 11 is Noah did what he did by faith. He trusted God In doing what God asked of him, knowing that for the things he didn't have the details for, he could trust the Lord's character. He could trust the Lord's word. He could trust that the Lord would deal with it and be faithful. God remembered Noah special attention and showed his faithfulness and his mercy.

Now, we also see something here, be fruitful and multiply. It has nothing to do with these things, but that's the analogy. What does he mean by that? Be fruitful and multiply was what God said in his creation of the animals way back in Genesis chapter 1, verse 22. That was the creation of the animals.

He also separately said that to the first human beings, Adam and Eve. and told them separately to be fruitful and multiply. One of the things we're going to find as we look at this passage here is the time right after the flood was also a fresh start for these eight people and for these animals that had survived this time in the ark. After the flood, be fruitful and multiply was given separately, animals first, then people. And so what do we find out here?

In 8.17, the be fruitful and multiply command was given to the animals. Then we're going to find the next chapter, chapter 9, verses 1 and 7, be fruitful and multiply is given to the people.

Same sequence, same thing after the flood with this fresh start. Something else we're going to notice as we go through the book of Genesis is there is a pattern of similarity between Noah and Abraham. Isn't that interesting? Let's take a look at that. You have that on page 2 of your handout there.

Noah went forth as God told him. We see that in verses 18 and 19. Those are the ones that confirm that Noah did what God said. And we find that Abraham went forth as God had told him as well. Abraham also went forth from Ur, just as God had told him. Exactly.

Noah built an altar to sacrifice. That's in verse 20 here of chapter 8. He built an altar there to sacrifice as soon as they got off the ark. And Abraham also built an altar. We'll see that as we get into chapter 12, where Abraham steps into the scene. And we see the Lord's interactions with Abraham.

And finally, God declared that he would establish a covenant with Noah. We saw that initially back in chapter 6, and we'll see it again as we step into chapter 9. So here is something where the Lord says, I will make a covenant with you, and I will remember. It's another pattern that we're going to see here. God declared that he would establish a covenant with Abraham as well. And so we'll see a pattern here.

The Lord dealt similarly with both of these men. And one of the things that we'll see is the Lord said some of what he was going to do and left a part of what he is going to do yet to be seen. Here is what, Noah, you ought to do. And for the rest of it, trust me. Here is what I want you to do, Abraham. And for the rest of it, trust me.

Sacrifices, as we see here in this passage, had been established well before the Law of Moses. We tend to think of the sacrifices that took place in the temple, and that's fine. But these sacrifices were established early. Here's Abel, gave a valid offering by faith.

And that was by faith established in Hebrews 11.4 there. It was by faith that Abel offered a sacrifice to the Lord. Noah gave an offering as well, as we see here in verse 20 of chapter 8. Noah gave an offering to the Lord, just similar to what Abel had done. And Abraham, and we'll see this in chapters not too far ahead of us, would also give an offering. And so here's a pattern that you see established long before, centuries before, the whole sacrificial system was given to the Jews.

Now, why would they do that? We're not told exactly all the details of what Abel and Noah and Abraham understood. But, one of the things we do know, and it is revealed in scripture, is we know that they had a righteousness which was by faith. A righteousness that was by faith. They relied by faith in God's provision. by faith in God's provision for their righteousness, not their own righteousness.

Job is a book, and this is not a slide you have in your handout. Job is a book that was written about the same time as Abraham. So if you want to put a kind of a clock on it, when we get to Genesis chapter 12, Job is about that same period of time. And Job, in chapter 19, verses 23 through 27, wrote this. And what's amazing is, certainly it gets confirmed, O that my words were written. Guess what? They are. O that they were inscribed in a book, and with an iron stylus and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. Guess what? They were. You're reading them.

In verse 25, this is amazing. Here's a guy, 4,000 years ago, who says, as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. Who is his Redeemer? Christ. Why does he know he lives? He redeemed him, that is, he paid the price to buy him. He redeemed him. Why does he know he lives? He believes in Christ's resurrection. He knows that his Redeemer lives, and then this last part of verse 25 to the end, he's talking about the second coming. It hasn't even happened yet. He believes that. He knows it. Look at what he says, and at the last he will take his stand on the earth, that's My Redeemer, Christ, who will take His stand on the earth.

That's the second coming. Even after my skin is destroyed, so here's Job saying, even after this flesh here, this body is all come apart, yet from my flesh, my new body, I shall see God, whom I myself shall behold, whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart fades within me. He looked forward in verses 25, 26, and 27 to Christ's first and second coming.

So they perhaps knew a lot more than we may give them credit for. Here is Abel. Here is Noah getting off the ark. Here is Abraham. Here is the Jews at the Passover where they put the blood on the top and the sides of the doorways. Here are the sacrifices in the temple.

All those point to God's once and for all sacrifice in Christ. They were looking forward, looking forward to God's provision of a sacrifice. For God so loved the world that He gave. He gave His only Son, that sacrifice. In Ephesians 5 where Paul writes to the believers at Ephesus there, he urges them, he says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

All the elements that we see in this passage and will continue to see as we go through the book of Genesis. They looked forward. We have the privilege of looking back. But all people of all time who have put their trust in the Lord and depended on Him for salvation are either looking forward, as Noah here, or looking back, as we are privileged to do, upon the once-for-all sacrifice through Christ.

All these sacrifices of Old Testament times pointed to Christ as the once-for-all sacrifice, God's sacrifice. Christ gave himself not as a victim of Roman injustice, not as a victim of Jewish pressure, but as an offering, willingly as a sacrifice, as an aroma, totally and once-for-all satisfying the demands of God's character, His holiness, His righteousness, and His justice. We, on our side, look at Christ dying on the cross and see, ah, grace, ah, mercy. And indeed, that's what it is. But God's holiness, righteousness, and justice had to be satisfied entirely. The sacrifice of the Old Testament, we're pointing forward to that sacrifice of Christ, that once for all.

God promises here, and He will continue to do so actually again, and with a confirming symbol in chapter 9, God promised no more global floods in chapter 8, verse 21. He'll do so again in chapter 9, verse 11. The promise that He gave here, and that He'll give again as we'll see in chapter 9, was not made because God was forced or coerced into making that promise.

Noah did not twist God's arm and God said, well, okay, alright. The Lord, out of His mercy, out of His character, said, I will never do that again. He gave the promise not even being asked from anything we can tell. It was out of His character of mercy, His great mercy, that He gave that promise. He gave the promise not with any conditions.

Did you notice that? It wasn't, Noah, if you'll be really, really good, I'll make a promise for you. Or I won't flood anymore as long as people don't do bad things. He gave a unilateral promise. No conditions at all. I will never again, under any circumstances, with no exceptions, flood the earth. A promise out of his mercy.

It was as good for as long as this present heavens and earth lasts. It was good for that long. What the Lord said here is this would continue, even laying it out, the seasons. Winter, spring, summer, fall. All the seasons would continue until the end of this present earth. Day and night will continue even into the end of this present heavens and earth.

God was the one, do you notice, who determined and declared this to be. He said, that's the way it is going to be. Not just, boy, I hope so. It might be nice. Or, if you're really good, I'll keep doing this. No, he says, that's the way it's going to be from here on out until this present heavens and earth is done.

One of the reasons why this is a big distinction from pagan religions and even carried over into our own day, there are those who will deify the earth. We see that in religions that are expressed now. New Age. in some of the pagan religions that are out there. We even see it creeping into our society in various expressions.

April 22nd is going to be Earth Day, and I'm certainly for being good stewards of the Earth. But it is not a day to deify the Earth. The Lord is in charge. The Lord is the one who is deity. The Earth is not. Even to call this Mother Earth or Mother Nature, guess what? That doesn't fit. The Lord is the one who is in charge. He is the one who declares the seasons. The God of the Bible governs the earth from the very beginning when he said, let there be light, and let there be, and let there be, and gave the commands and made things from the very beginning all the way to its very end.

In 2 Peter 3, verses 10-13, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. This earth, all you see around you, all be gone. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God? because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning. This heavens and earth, all that we see, whoosh, gone. And the elements will melt with intense heat.

But according to his promise, we are looking for a new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. See, this earth here isn't forever. And the heavens that we see, not forever. But a new one that he will yet make, founded upon the new creation, the new creation in Christ.

One of the things that this means to us as we look at it, you might say, well that's just nice things for him to say to Noah. No, this has tremendous significance for us. Why? If we look at it, from this huge cataclysm that came upon the earth, a global flood, to dealing with the masses of evil people, all the way down to the details of Noah, I remember you. I am going to show my mercy and show my faithfulness to you.

The preservation of those eight people on the ark and the preservation of those animals and the reestablishment of both the human and animal populations. God's intents and purposes were carried out at every scale. Every scale. Remember as Wayne started off for us, but God remembered Noah and all the beasts. God expressed his mercy and he expressed his faithfulness. We can count on God to be faithful and this is the key. We can count upon God to be faithful whatever befalls our life. God has a purpose for every joy and for every trial in our lives. God does not go, oops!

Even the things that we look at and say, boy, that hurt, the Lord has purpose in it. Even for the things we look at and say, boy, I wish that hadn't happened, the Lord has purpose in it. Even when we don't know the final outcome, Ever seen that in people or maybe even felt it in yourself? Boy, I wish I knew how this was going to turn out. Boy, there's an awful lot that we really don't understand and a lot that we don't know how it's going to turn out.

But we can count upon Him. He's the one who has determined how things will continue and how they will end with this present heavens and earth. Can we count on Him? Yes. That's exactly what this passage is telling us. He is the one who has determined these things.

Been through some disappointments lately? Maybe right in the middle of them? Been through some things that have been a little tough to take to heart? Tough to get out of your heart? Some things that are hard to look at? One of the things that this passage does is it tells us that for situations that are really tumultuous, and boy being canned up inside that ark must have been. And even thinking of, think of all those tragedies outside this ark.

People I knew, people I lived next to, people I maybe even loved. But Noah could trust God through the middle of that. In our own situation, we can look to the Lord to be faithful and to show His mercy. And as we saw very early, and we continue to see in this book of Genesis, we are created for relationship with the Lord.

That's what it's about. We are created for relationship with Him. And He is not going to do anything to change that. Nothing will happen in our lives that will change that. Basic fact. You have been created, each one of us, for relationship and fellowship with Him.

But God remembered. God took special notice of, paid special attention to, to express His mercy and His faithfulness. And you know what? Even though we don't see around the corner in all the things in life, even if the future looks a little foggy, God will indeed remember. What do we mean by that? He will remember you personally.

God doesn't see just a mass of faces. Each and every single one of us. Just like personally with Noah. God personally cares and puts special focus of attention on you out of His faithfulness and His mercy. His character we can count on. Romans 8, 28, 29. I'll read the first half of 29 here for our purposes. Thinking through the various things, we can count upon God to carry things out.

There are ultimately no accidents. Everything that happens in our lives, God has a good purpose for, even if we look at it and say, that wasn't a good thing that happened. For we know that God causes all things to work together for good. It's not saying everything is basically something to look at and say, boy, that was good. But all things to work together for good for those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of the sun. Notice this is not mechanical predestination of your every move. This is predestination to conformity. You as a believer, regardless of what happens in your life, regardless of what things in your body stop working, regardless of what things befall you, regardless, you are predestined to be conformed to the image of the sun.

We can count on it. by the same God who says the seasons will continue. Everything will go on until the end of this present heavens and earth. Beyond this present heavens and earth, you will be conformed to the image of the sun. Once we step through heaven's gates, that's forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage. You showed your faithfulness to Noah.

He didn't have all the answers. He didn't know and understand a great many things. And I'm sure there were things he had questions about. There were pieces of information he didn't have and he sent out birds to gain them. And yet, and yet, he knew that he could trust you. And Lord, we know even today, this day, that we can trust you and count upon you for the things that we don't understand and for the things that we don't know about how they're going to turn out because you're faithful, because you're merciful, because you are who you are and we know who we are in you. We thank you and give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.