January 8.—Morning. [Or January 15.] “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.”

Genesis 8

AND God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: (The Lord did not forget the saved ones. He thought on Noah first, and then on those with him, and even thus he remembers his dear Son, and us for his sake.) and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;

² The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; (How readily are all things ordered by the Lord’s providence. Winds and waters move at his bidding, as well for the deliverance of his people as for the destruction of his foes.)

³ And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

⁴ And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

⁵ And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

⁶ ¶ And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

⁷ And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. (This foul bird could light on carrion; just as wicked men find delight in sin.)

⁸ Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

⁹ But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him in the ark. (Even thus our weary souls when renewed by grace find no rest in polluted things, but return unto Jesus their rest; and he graciously draws us in to himself when we are too faint to come.)

¹⁰ And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

¹¹ And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

¹² And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. (In the new and renovated world the dove could live at liberty, as regenerated souls dwell amid holy things.)

¹⁵ ¶ And God spake unto Noah, saying,

¹⁶ Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

¹⁷ Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

¹⁸ And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:

He did not come forth till he was bidden to do so by the same voice which called him into the ark. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

²⁰ ¶ And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. (Before he built a house he built an altar. God must be first worshipped in all things.)

²¹ And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

²² While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Thus Noah’s sacrifice was pleasing to the Lord and the ground of a new covenant; and so the offering of the Lord Jesus is evermore a sweet savour, and for his sake the covenant of grace is made with all the saved ones. Have all of us an interest in it?

O Jesus, Saviour of the lost,

Our ark and hiding place,

By storms of sin and sorrow toss’d,

We seek thy sheltering grace.

Forgive our wandering and our sin,

We wish no more to roam;

Open the ark and take us in,

Our soul’s eternal home.¹

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¹  Spurgeon, C. H. (1964). The Interpreter: Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible (p. 15). Baker Book House.

January 7.—Morning. [Or January 13.] “I give unto my sheep eternal life.”

Genesis 7

AND the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. (When the Lord said, “Come,” it was a gracious intimation that he was already in the ark, and meant to be there with his servant. It is also a type of the gospel invitation, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come.”)

² Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

³ Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. (In Christ, the ark of our salvation, the unclean shall be sheltered as well as the clean. Noah was to bring them in, and such is the privilege of every believer; he is to labour for the saving of the souls of others.)

⁴ For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

⁵ And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.

¶ ^{11, 12, 13, 14} In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. (It was wonderful that all these creatures should willingly enter the ark; and it is even more wonderful that sinners of all kinds should be led-by sovereign grace to find refuge in the Lord Jesus. They must come when grace calls.)

¹⁵ And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

¹⁶ And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in. (What a blessed thing for Noah. Those whom God brings into Christ, he takes care to shut in, so that they shall go no more out. God did not shut Adam in Paradise, and so he threw himself out; and we should every one of us get out of Christ, if the Lord had not in mercy closed the door.)

¹⁷ And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

¹⁸ And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

¹⁹ And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

²⁰ Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. (It was then too late to look to the ark. Dear friends, may we never put off faith in Jesus until it is too late. It will be an awful thing to find ourselves lost in a flood of wrath, with no eye to pity and no arm to save. Yet so it must be if we neglect the great salvation.)

²¹ And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

²³ And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. (As there was no safety out of the ark, so is there no salvation out of Christ. The Lord grant that every member of this family may flee to Jesus at once, and be saved by faith in him.)

Come to the ark, come to the ark,

To Jesus come away:

The floods of wrath are bursting forth,

O haste to Christ, to-day.

Come to the ark, all, all that weep

Beneath the sense of sin:

Without, deep calleth unto deep;

But all is peace within.

Come to the ark, ere yet the flood

Your lingering steps oppose;

Come, for the door which open stood

Is now about to close.¹

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¹  Spurgeon, C. H. (1964). The Interpreter: Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible (p. 13). Baker Book House.

7 JANUARY | Righteous Noah

And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Genesis 7:1

suggested further reading: Romans 3:21–26

Our duty is to hear God speaking to us. We are not through depraved fastidiousness to reject those exercises by which he cherishes or excites or confirms our faith, even though our faith is tender, or languishing, or weak. Nor must we reject those exercises as superfluous. For thee have I seen righteous, God says.

When the Lord says he preserves Noah because he is a righteous man, he seems to attribute salvation to the merit of works. For if Noah is saved because he is righteous, it follows that we should also deserve life because of good works. But here we must cautiously weigh the design of God, which is to save one man, in contrast with the whole world, so that he might condemn the unrighteousness of all men. The punishment that God is about to inflict on the world is just, seeing that one man is left in whom righteousness is cultivated, and for his sake God was propitious to his entire family.

Should anyone object that this passage proves that God respects works in saving men, the response is that this is not repugnant to gratuitous acceptance, since God accepts those gifts which he himself has conferred upon his servants. We must observe, in the first place, that God loves men freely. He finds nothing in them but what is worthy of hatred, since all men are born as children of wrath and are heirs of eternal malediction. But God adopts them to himself in Christ and justifies them by his mere mercy. After he has reconciled them unto himself, he regenerates them by his Spirit to new life and righteousness. Out of this flow good works, which of necessity are pleasing to God himself.

for meditation: Even the most holy saints have only a shred of the obedience required of them by God. No matter how long we have been growing in the Lord, we must stand under the blood of Jesus Christ the righteous and nowhere else. How can we remember this truth more often and more gratefully?¹

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¹  Calvin, J., & Beeke, J. R. (2008). 365 Days with Calvin (p. 25). Day One Publications; Reformation Heritage Books.

January 1 | Walking with God

Scripture Reading: Genesis 6:9–7:1

Key Verse: Genesis 7:1

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.”

A walk is a great way to get alone with someone special and discover more about that person. In today’s Scripture passage, we see that Noah chose to spend his time walking with the most important being in his life: God. Because of this close relationship with the Lord, Scripture describes Noah in a most amazing way: “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).

The complete story of Noah and the great flood in Genesis 6–9 reveals what was involved for this one man to keep in step with his Lord. Noah’s walk with God was notably marked by a steadfast faith and a willingness to trust God even when everyone else mocked him. His walk also set him apart from the wicked men and women of the world, none of whom cared to experience the power of a personal relationship with the Creator.

Most importantly, Noah’s walk with God clearly represented the fellowship he enjoyed with the Lord. In a time when the world experienced its darkest day, the Lord looked to Noah and said, “I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1).

The wonderful news for you today is that God is just as excited about spending time with you as He was to fellowship with Noah. You are precious in His eyes, and He wants to develop a closer relationship with you. He wants to show you His amazing love in new ways. Will you walk with Him?

Lord, guide my feet so that they may not stray from the path that You have created. I want to walk through my life with You at my side.¹

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¹  Stanley, C. F. (2006). Pathways to his presence (p. 2). Thomas Nelson Publishers.

November 15 | Rebuking the World

“By faith Noah … condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Heb. 11:7).

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Your actions and words should rebuke our godless society.

Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Before moving in judgment against the most evil and corrupt society in history, God appointed Noah to build an ark, which became a symbol of life and salvation to all who believed God. For those who disbelieved, it represented impending death and judgment.

Concurrent with constructing the ark, Noah preached about coming judgment. Peter called him “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), and every board he cut and every nail he drove in was a living illustration of the urgency of his message.

God’s warning was stern and His message horrifying, but His patience and mercy prevailed for 120 years. As Peter said, “The patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark” (1 Peter 3:20). The people had ample warning of judgment, but they chose to disregard Noah’s message.

As sad as the account of Noah’s day is, perhaps the greatest tragedy is that man’s attitude toward God hasn’t changed since then. Jesus said, “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:37–39).

Like Noah, you are to proclaim righteousness to an evil and perverse generation by your works and by your life. Be faithful to do so even if people don’t want to listen. After 120 years of diligent work and faithful preaching by Noah, only eight people entered the ark. But God’s purposes were accomplished, and the human race was preserved.

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Suggestions for Prayer: Sometimes you’ll encounter people who scoff at God’s judgment and mock your testimony. Don’t be discouraged. Pray for them, and be available to minister to them whenever possible.

For Further Study: Read 2 Peter 3. What effect should the prospect of future judgment have on your present behavior?¹

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¹  MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 332). Crossway Books.

November 14 | Building a Picture of Salvation

“By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household” (Heb. 11:7).

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The ark is a beautiful picture of salvation by grace through faith.

God called Noah to a gargantuan task. Conservative figures estimate that the ark was about 438 feet long, seventy-three feet wide, and forty-four feet high. That makes it almost one and a half times the length of a football field and more than four stories high. Its three decks totaled almost 96,000 square feet, with a total volume of about 1.3 million cubic feet. Naval engineers concur that its shape and dimensions constitute an incredibly stable ship design.

 But beyond the enormity of its size and the precision of its measurements, the ark is a wonderful illustration of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. For example, Noah was instructed to cover the ark inside and out with pitch (Gen. 6:14). The Hebrew word for pitch has the same root as the word for atonement. The pitch kept the waters of judgment from entering the ark, just as Christ’s atoning blood keeps judgment from the repentant sinner.

The ark was large enough to hold two of each species of animals plus every person who turned to God for safety. Only eight persons chose to be saved on God’s terms, but had more come, surely God would have accommodated them. It is His desire that none perish, but that all “come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Those who perished in the Flood did so because they rejected God’s means of salvation.

Similarly, Jesus’ blood is sufficient to atone for every sinner and every sin since man’s fall in the Garden of Eden. No one who comes to Him will be cast out (John 6:37), and yet so few avail themselves of His gracious provision (Matt. 7:14).

Noah was a man who “walked with God” (Gen. 6:9), and yet he wasn’t without sin. That’s obvious from his drunken and immodest behavior after the Flood (9:20–21). But Noah, like every true believer, was justified by God’s grace, his faith being counted as righteousness. That has always been the basis of salvation (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:5).

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Suggestions for Prayer: Thank God for His amazing grace, by which He saved you and continues to cleanse you from every sin.

For Further Study: Read Romans 4:1–8. ✧ What is the main point of that passage? ✧ Who is the primary example?¹

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¹  MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 331). Crossway Books.

November 13 | Obeying in Faith

“By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Heb. 11:7).

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True faith works.

When James said, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26), he stated a principle that’s consistent throughout Scripture: True faith always produces righteous works.

The people described in Hebrews 11 made their genuine faith known in the things they did. The same applies to us today. Paul said, “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11–12).

Perhaps better than anyone else in history, Noah illustrates the obedience of faith. Scripture characterizes him as “a righteous man, blameless in his time … [who] walked with God” (Gen. 6:9).

I remember a sportscaster interviewing a professional football player and asking him what he thought of his team’s chances of winning the Super Bowl. The player replied, “We believe that if we just do what the coach says, we’ll win.” The team had absolute confidence in their coach, but they realized they had to do their part as well.

That illustrates the quality of faith Noah had in God, whom he trusted absolutely as he pursued a task that seemed utterly foolish and useless from a human perspective. Imagine instantly surrendering all your time and effort to devote 120 years to building something you’d never seen (a vessel the size of an ocean liner or battleship) to protect you from something you’d never experienced (rain and flooding). Yet Noah did it without question.

Noah’s faith is unique in the sheer magnitude and time span of the task God gave him to do. He didn’t argue with God or deviate from his assignment. Is that true of you? Are you pursuing your ministry as faithfully and persistently as Noah did his? Is your faith a faith that works?

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Suggestions for Prayer: Thank God for the ministry to which He has called you. If you sense there’s more you could be doing, ask Him for guidance. ✧ Pray for added faithfulness and tenacity in serving Him.

For Further Study: Read the account of Noah in Genesis 6:1–9:17.¹

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¹  MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 330). Crossway Books.