When the Lord has delivered you, what’s your first response?
I know the “Sunday school” answer. But when the Lord has brought you through and delivered you, what’s your real first response? That answer reveals a lot about our relationship with the Lord. In the section of Genesis we’re in, we’re focusing on Noah’s relationship with the Lord.
We ended the flood itself and began to see how Noah and his family made those first steps back onto the Earth. We continue this journey in Genesis 8:20-22.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Genesis 8:20-22, New International Version
After Noah was told to come out of the Ark, his first order of business was worship. He had witnessed the destruction of everything on Earth and his salvation from the flood.
Imagine looking around at what amounted to a brand-new earth. The landscape was different. Can you imagine the smell after it rains? All these sensations must have been overwhelming and awe-inspiring. Noah responds by sacrificing to the Lord, the One who spared him and his family.
Walking with the Lord in sweet fellowship, he worked for the Lord building the Ark, and 2 Peter 2:5 reminds us he preached righteousness while he was building it. While in the ark, he waited on the Lord for instructions concerning his leaving. Once he was standing on the earth again, he worshiped the Lord.
Like Abel in Genesis 4, Noah brought God his very best. The true worship of the Lord had been restored on the earth.
Saying “the Lord smelled” is an anthropomorphic way of saying that God accepted Noah’s offering. Verse 21 is meant to remind us of Genesis 6:5.
The entire earth was punished because of humanity’s sinfulness. The Lord declared that the ground would not fall under curse again because of humanity—even though “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21)
This promise of “never again” is spoken twice in this short account (it is expanded in the next chapter). There is no reversal of Adam’s sin and its consequences. The Lord did not make the ground like it was before the fall. There is no “new age” following this curse. The language of Genesis 8:21 is tied to Genesis 6:5 and not back to Genesis 3:17.
But the Lord makes His promise. This promise is given because of God’s goodness, not humanity’s. Those who survived the flood knew of the destructive power of fallen creation. In saying what He does in verse 22, God comforts them that He has again subdued the Earth, and they can rest in the regularity of nature.
Today, we enjoy this same seasonality. We know spring gives way to summer. Summer will eventually give way to Fall and Winter. We remember God’s provision. We have an opportunity to remember His promise.
God has subdued the world, which runs as He established it. No wonder Noah worshipped God! Do you?
Life Meets Theology 