I noticed that in Genesis 8:16 God gives Noah a command following the flood. This command is recorded in the NIV, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. However in the ESV that same verse reads, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
COME out of the ark verses GO out from the ark, and this got me thinking. The “Go” command resembles the great commission in Matthew 28:19 (ESV) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Noah was to GO out into a whole new experience but just as the great commission finishes in Matthew 28:20 with the promise that God will always be with us, the command stated using the word to COME in Genesis 8:16 implies to me that Noah was to come out to where God had ALREADY gone ahead.
For me this translated into the reminder that if I think I’ve received a “Go” command from God I better make sure it sounds like a “Come” because just as Moses stated in Exodus 33:15 (NIV) …“If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.
Isaiah 30:18 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
Matthew 28:20 (NIV) …And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
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