Read with Me
Genesis 8:20-22 (HCSB)
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, and day and night
will not cease.”
Listen with Me
Having been preserved from certain death in the flood, and having received a new world to populate, the first thing Noah did after he got off the ark was to offer God a sacrifice. For this, he used one of every kind of clean animal and bird. That didn’t endanger anything, because God had instructed him to take seven pairs of all clean animals on the ark instead of just one pair like the rest of the animals (Genesis 7:2-3).
God accepted this thank offering in the spirit with which it was offered to him. And because this offering was made by someone who walked with Him (Genesis 6:9), God decided to share with Noah what his plan would be going forward. He had given the earth a fresh start, a clean slate by wiping out all living things on it. He would not do that again (at least not until the very end of time when He will use fire instead of water to destroy everything (2 Peter 3:7, 10)).
God made this promise with His eyes wide open. He fully realized that the sin of Adam and Eve had tainted the heart of mankind, turned it in on itself instead of it being fully opened toward Him. He knew that even though Noah walked with him fully, his children’s hearts were more divided in their allegiance. And He knew that that division of heart would once again spawn sin and sorrow that would spread and again corrupt all mankind.
But God’s plan was to not focus His energies on condemning sinful people (although sin would be punished). Instead, His focus going forward would be on saving sinful people, on providing a method of redemption, and ultimately on providing a Redeemer who would make possible the wholesale transformation and recreation of mankind into God’s own image and likeness.
In the meantime, God himself would do the work of preserving the earth. The cycles of light and darkness, of planting and harvesting, of warmth and cold would continue as long as the world itself existed.
Pray with Me
Father, I had never seen this episode in exactly this light before. I, like many others, saw this as saying that Your mind regarding mankind was changed by Noah’s sacrifice. Instead, the change of focus from destruction of evil to its ultimate transformation had been Your plan ever since the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). In fact, it had actually been Your plan since the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-21). Noah’s sacrifice had merely moved You to share that plan, that change of emphasis, with him, so that he could pass on that good news to his children and descendants. Thank You, Lord, for this change of focus that sent Jesus to die for me and to transform my own heart, enabling me to walk with You just as Noah did. Amen.