Genesis 404
Lesson Six

Gen 8:20   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. 
Gen 8:21  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. 
Gen 8:22  While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

If you remember back a few lessons ago, we showed you from Scripture how Noah was instructed to bring two of everything onto the ark that breathed air, but of the clean animals...those that they were allowed to eat... they were to bring Seven.   I also mentioned that this was because they would eat some of the clean animals to stay alive for that year on the ark, they would need at least a male and a female once they got off the ark to replenish the earth, and thirdly, they would need some of the clean animals to offer sacrifices and offerings unto the Lord.  Here we see the last of those reasons being fulfilled.

Noah's first recorded act after leaving the ark is one of worship. He builds an altar to the Lord and offers animal offerings on it. This is the first time Scripture refers to building an altar to God. In the previous chapter, God sent seven pairs each of every kind of clean bird and animal. That was the first hint that God regards some animals as clean and others as unclean. Only clean animals could be used as sacrifices and offerings to God (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14).

Noah's act here corresponds with the most common form of offering to God, which Israel would later practice while following God's Law. In that offering, the whole animal is burned and fully consumed by fire on the altar. This offering would have been a truly faith-based offering, even if it was commanded directly by God. So few of each kind of animal existed in the world that to purposely kill any of them, even the more plentiful clean animals, was very costly to Noah and his family. It was clearly an act of faith in God's ability to provide.

This act of worship to God reveals that Noah continued to be faithful to God, even after the flood. Noah proves that he is motivated by allegiance to God. As far as Noah was concerned, this new world remade by the flood would be built on a foundation of obedience and submission to the Creator.

Now God responds to this humble act of worship. We're told that God smells the pleasing or soothing aroma of the sacrifice and, apparently greatly pleased, makes a new commitment. This is the only time Scripture shows God explicitly smelling the aroma from a sacrifice, though that is the direct intention of many sacrifices described later in the Bible. This is not meant to be read as if God is literally inhaling smoke. Rather, the reference to smoke, and its scent, is a common Scriptural metaphor involving prayer, and how our sacrifices are received by God.

God's commitment is to never again curse the ground or the earth as He has done through the flood. This should not be read as God lifting the original curse on the ground in response to Adam's sin. The curse of weeds and frustrating toil and the work required to bring crops from the ground remains to this day. Instead, God's commitment here should be seen as a decision not to annihilate life on the ground as He did with the flood. The flood brought destruction on the whole earth, on all the ground. God is declaring that He won't do that again with water.

God seems to make this commitment while acknowledging that human nature has not been changed by the flood. Human beings will continue to harbor evil intentions from youth and throughout their lives. God knows this and decides not to respond to human sinfulness in the same way again by cursing the earth with a flood. In addition, God promises to never again strike down every living thing. He will not wipe out humanity and animal-kind with a global and fully life-ending catastrophe as He has done with the flood.       However 2 Peter 3:10 does tell us that God is going to destroy the earth again in the near future, but this time, it will be by fire......

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

After the previous verse revealed God's commitment to never again curse the earth as He had through the flood or to wipe out humanity and animal-kind in that way, this verse completes God's promise. From this point, throughout the planet's history, the patterns of nature will remain as God has created them. The cycles will continue. Day will follow night. One season will follow another. The world will continue to function predictably according to God's design. This is the grace of God upon all His creation.

It is important to notice that this promise begins with "while the earth remains." God doesn't guarantee that the planet in its current form will exist eternally. In fact, at some point in the future, God will re-make the heavens and the earth (Revelation 21:1). But while it does, those who live on earth will enjoy the goodness of the repetition of the days and seasons by God's great mercy on sinful humanity.