The sacrifice that Noah offered when they disembarked from the ark was part of the covenant process. This devotional reading looks at the promise made by God.
Nuggets
- Noah immediately worshiped God after he disembarked from the ark.
- The goal of the burnt offering was to create a pleasing aroma for God.
- God promised to never again flood the earth.
- When the Day of the Lord comes, the earth will pass away; but until then, it will remain.
- God promised Noah as soon as he got off the ark that life will be sustained while the earth remains.
Noah was obedient in offering the sacrifice to God. It was now up to God to accept it or reject it. If He accepted it, it would lead into the responsibility part of the covenant.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Creating Everything theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the Creation’s Do-Over series
The Sacrifice Accepted
“And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, 'I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things’” (Gen. 8: 21 NLT)
The Pleasing Aroma
The goal of the burnt offering was to create a pleasing aroma for God.
What is described here is the olah – or burnt – offering. Olah is one of those Hebrew words that doesn’t have a good translation. The functional definition tells us it means ascend, go up, or bring-near.
The offering is burnt so that the smoke ascends to God to bring Him near to the one offering the sacrifice.
We know that if we say that God smells the offering, we would be attributing to him human characteristics that He doesn’t have.
Bradford took a stab at describing how the aroma affected God. He wrote, “It would not be incorrect to say that the smoke of the sacrifice soothed God and this allowed God to have a more favorable attitude toward that man who was making the ‘olah.’”
Resource
I can see that – a type of aromatherapy.
God accepted Noah sacrifice and gave him a promise for the future. The promise was more than just verse 22. It was that He would accept the sacrifice of Jesus’ blood as atonement for our sins.
Law talked about God’s truth also having an aroma. While the Gospel offers salvation, the sweet aroma, it will be a bitter aroma for those who choose not to accept the gift of salvation.
Resource
We want to be in a position where we have accepted His salvation.
The Promise
God promised to never again flood the earth.
Way back in Genesis 3, God cursed the ground because of humankind’s sin. “And to the man he said, ‘Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you …’” (Gen. 3: 17 NLT).
Here, God is saying that He will no longer curse it.
Spurgeon also pointed out what seems like a contradiction.
- “And the Lord said, ‘I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them’” (Gen. 6: 7 NLT).
- “And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done’” (Gen. 8: 21 NLT).
Resource
Yes or no? Is God going to destroy humankind or not?
Well, not now because He smelled the aroma from Noah’s sacrifice and was soothed.
Will that soothed spirit last forever? No. Eventually, God will destroy the earth and condemn non-believers to eternity in hell. That will happen when mankind becomes as wicked as they were then.
- “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. … And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 11, 15 NLT).
- “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. … Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.’” (Mt. 25: 31-33, 41 NLT).
- “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day” (Mt. 24: 37 NLT).
Man’s Evil Heart
God knows us, our very hearts.
Unfortunately, God knows our hearts are evil. Arnold had it right. He wrote,
“There is so much more bad than good in us that we should certainly go wrong if left to ourselves, and the bias of our nature to evil is so strong that it can only be corrected by changing the very nature itself; or, in the words of Scripture, by being born again of the Spirit.”
Resource
This is why we can’t save ourselves. Bad moral character doesn’t change into good moral character without God’s intervention.
We can’t enter Heaven unless we have been washed by the blood of the Lamb.
God will meet us where we are, but we cannot stay there. We have to be sanctified so we become more like Him.
Seasons Will Remain for a While
“As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night” (Gen. 8: 22 NLT)
While the Earth Remains
When the Day of the Lord comes, the earth will pass away; but until then, it will remain.
Some might see verses 21 and 22 a promise that life as we know it will never end. They would be wrong.
The determining factor is “While the earth remains …” (Gen. 8: 22 NLT). It doesn’t say how long the while is going to last.
In a way, while has the same definition as soon – according to God’s Will.
This is a definition statement, though, that the earth isn’t going to always remain. “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide” (Rev. 20: 11 ESV).
Noah got off the ark, and we think everything was back to Garden of Eden pristine.
Wrong.
Mankind is still made in Adam’s image (Gen. 5: 3). Noah and his family weren’t automatically cleansed by the flood.
Blood cleanses us, not water.
We do not get a free ride just because we are the creation of God. We are still held accountable for when we sin.
Each person is accountable for individual behavior.
There is a good reason why we aren’t told the exact time of the Day of the Lord. We are to put our faith and obedience in God. We are to watch.
What are we to do while we watch?
- “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mt. 4: 17 ESV emphasis added).
- “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away” (Ac. 3: 19 NLT emphasis added).
- “Peter replied, ‘Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Ac. 2: 38 NLT emphasis added).
It is a progression, isn’t it? God sends the Holy Spirit to convict us. He regenerates us. “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Eph. 2: 8-9 NLT).
Pastor Steve put it this way. He said, “God gave us regeneration to give us a new spiritual life.”
Resource
God gives us regeneration so that we can approach Him so He can give us salvation. Yeah, it probably happens in a nanosecond and is all part of a mysterious process.
We don’t need to figure it out. We need to believe in God.
Once we believe, we are to turn from our sinful ways. One way we do that is follow His in obedience – symbolized first by baptism.
No, there are many who will not repent. They may repent but won’t turn from their sins. They won’t be obedient.
That in no way, shape, or form effects God’s promise. He will do what He has promised.
Seasons Will Remain
God promised Noah as soon as he got off the ark that life will be sustained while the earth remains.
Spurgeon said it this way. He wrote, “It is a promise concerning temporal things, but yet it breathes a spiritual air, and hath about it the smell of a field that the Lord hath blessed.”
Resource
God is most concerned about our spiritual condition. He will, though, provide for our physical condition by providing temporal things.
God has kept all His promises. Spurgeon made a good point. If non-believers can believe in the promise of the seasons, why can’t they believe His other promises?
But Spurgeon makes another important observation. Things around us will change.
No, God doesn’t change, but we change as He grows us. He grows us by revealing Himself to us slowly.
God does things in an orderly fashion. As I am writing this, corn is beginning to tassel, which gives way to the ear being formed on the stalk.
The ear can’t show up on a knee-high corn stalk. The stalk wouldn’t be able to support the growth. It has to show up after the stalk has matured.
Sometimes, we have to go through the same testing to get to where God wants us to be. But there is order to that, also.
Is that a blast of reassurance or what?!? We can hold fast to God and His promises.
All that said, winter will come. It follows autumn every year.
But doesn’t autumn have its own form of death? The corn stalk dies before the ear is harvested.
Endings will come. Our trials will cease.
Sometimes, good things cease when God calls us to a different mission field. I didn’t get to stay in Springfield and take care of my Springfield Mom like I always thought I would. God had different plans.
We have to remember that Revelation talks about the harvest of the earth. “Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, ‘Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe.’ So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested” (Rev. 14: 14-16 NLT).
Isn’t harvest the culmination of the seasons? Isn’t it a time of joy and abundance?
Making the Connections #1
Ooo, baby. I need to process this.
Mungeain was talking about God’s faithfulness. He wrote, “‘But,’ you will say perhaps, ‘it is not God’s faithfulness I question — I doubt His mercy.[’] The Word of the Lord, that shall stand; but ‘His mercy is in the heavens.’ It reacheth not to me.’” And why not? What but mercy, infinite mercy, so prevailed with the Almighty that He should promise ‘seed time and harvest’ so long as the earth endureth!”
- We have to be very careful doubting God. He does allow us to question Him, but we cannot question His sovereignty.
- We just tell ourselves that God’s mercy is only in Heaven. But then, our doubts can block God’s mercy from falling upon us.
Look what David wrote. “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings” (Ps. 36: 5-7 NLT emphasis added).
If God’s faithfulness reaches us, so does His mercy. It can because it reaches beyond the clouds. Plus, we are right there with God in the shadow of His wings.
Clissold reminded us that God does not give judgment without mercy. He is not an unjust God.
Resource
We wouldn’t have the promise of seasons without God’s mercy and justice.
Making the Connections #2
Mackennal said something way cool. He wrote, “Spiritual winter is an ordination of God. The true spiritual analogue of winter is not spiritual death, not even feeble spiritual life. There is an orderly change in the soul.”
Resource
How many times do we bite on ourselves because we’re going through our spiritual seasons and come to spiritual winter? We think everything within us is dead.
It may come after a time of intense testing. We may feel like God is nowhere to be found.
But just as the soil is dormant in the winter, our souls need the respite. It doesn’t mean God has banished us to eternal damnation. It doesn’t mean we are weak.
It hurts to be harvested, but that confirms and strengthens our faith.
“He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams” (Ps. 23: 2 NLT). In our winter, God is letting us rest.
How Do We Apply This?
- Hold fast to God and His promises.
- Believe in God’s wise providence.
- Know God has a purpose for us and fulfill that purpose.
- Work knowing life is short.
- Constantly walk with God to keep our souls focused on Him.
- Remember what nature does in winter and allow God to do that in our hearts.
Resource
Father God. Thank You for allowing us to worship You. Lord, we want to worship You in the way You want. We want to always be obedient to Your covenant with us. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.