They Went Out by Families

A Devotional Series from Genesis

Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)

7/4 Reading Portions: Joshua 6:6-27; Psalms 135-136; Isaiah 66; Matthew 14

Genesis 8:18-19

So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

FAITH

In yesterday’s verses, we considered a wonderful aspect of our faith toward God in Christ. Today’s verses present to us another dimension of this wonderful grace of faith bestowed upon Christ’s redeemed. Faith goes forth with both reliance and responsibility. First, let us recall that yesterday we considered that they did not leave the ark until God commanded them to leave. That’s reliance upon Christ, depending upon Him through His holy Word to give us instruction for daily living. When God commanded Noah and his family to leave the ark and to bring all the animals with them, he closed His command by telling them to “be fruitful and multiply on the earth” (Gen 8:17). Did you take note of this? That they went out from the ark by families. They took on the responsibility of obedience to God’s Word. They were prepared to honor God, not only to keep His command to leave the ark, but also to keep His command to be fruitful and multiply. And as a side note, this confirms to us that the raven did, in fact, return to the ark, because there was only a pair of them (and having lived in Alaska for years, ravens have been quite fruitful indeed).

Noah and his family were not faithless hearers who were not doers of the word (Jas 1:22). The gospel changed their lives and they behaved accordingly. My pastor used this illustration last week, but I’ve heard it from others before:

“If you believed a bear is chasing you, whether one is or not, your actions would indicate that you truly believed; you’d run.”

We don’t labor to be saved; however, works unto God’s glory in Christ is the result of a life truly saved by grace.

Now, Noah and his family were prepared to keep the command of fruitfulness and multiplying on the earth, but what did they do first? They worshiped God, as we will see tomorrow. True faith, filled with reliance upon God and responsibility toward God, removes us from self-reliance, self-satisfaction, self-exaltation, and selfish ambition, and sets us to worship God in Christ, as it is written,

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

Hallelujah! What a Savior!