God Remembered

.....No life is so hedged about with difficulties as that of faith. 
This was the life lived by Noah and his sons, whom we see
absolutely depending upon the heavens for support.  The earth
was covered with water.  There was no bottom on which
to stand.  It was the word of promise that upheld them, as
they drifted in this welter of waters.
     The difficulty besetting Noah is hinted at in the words,
"God remembered."  Moses thus intimates that Noah had been
tossed on the water so long that God seemed to have forgotten
him entirely.  They who pass through such mental strain, when
the rays of divine grace are gone and they sit in darkness or are
forgotten by God, find by experience that it is far more difficult
to live in the Word or by faith alone than to be a hermit or a
monk.  Hence it is not a meaningless expression when the Holy
Spirit says that "God remembered Noah."  He means that from
the day that Noah entered the ark, no word was spoken, nothing
was revealed to him; that he saw no ray of divine grace
shining, but merely clung to the promise which he had accepted,
while the waters and waves raged as if God had certainly forgotten
him.
     The word "remembered" indicates that great sadness beset both
man and beast during the entire time of the flood.  It must have been
by dint of great patience and extraordinary courage that Noah and
the others bore this lapse from God's memory, which is simply
unbearable to the flesh without the spirit, even in slight trials.  True,
God always remembers his own, even when he seems to have
forgotten them; but Moses indicates that he remembered his people
here in a visible way, by a sign, and by openly fulfilling what he
had previously promised through the Word and the Spirit.  This
story sets before us an example of faith, of endurance and patience.    
                              Martin Luther