Worthy of Worship-Gen. 8:20-22

The significance of this week and the coming months is not lost on me. Many pundits are correct to accentuate the severe implications that will inevitably come as a result of the decision that will be made this Tuesday. Given the current political climate, many concerns are no doubt racing through your mind as they are my own. However, in the tornado that is this campaign season, it is easy to become so preoccupied with what is next/unknown that we as Christians fail to remember what is most important and what graces have already been made available.

Thankfully, for such a time as this, God has led us to an important passage that may offer a necessary word of correction to those who, like myself, find themselves forgetful of who is in control and who will ultimately save the day. The elements involved in Noah’s response to God’s grace in his life (presented in Gen. 8:20-22) provide an inspiring example that we must choose to follow in spite of what may or may not transpire around us.  

1. Noah’s Expression of Worship-8:20

In response to all that God had done in the life of Noah and his family, the new Adam “built an altar to the Lord” (8:20a). This activity reminds the reader that even from the very beginning, sin requires sacrifice. The wrath of God must be appeased. Although worship through sacrifice has already been witnessed in Genesis (see Gen. 4) this is the first time that an altar has been erected for this purpose. Therefore, this worshipful expression establishes a tradition that Abraham would follow (Gen. 12:7-8; 13:18) and Moses would perpetuate later (see Ex. 17:15; 24:4; 20:24-25).

Notice, this is the first thing that Noah does on dry ground. Before tending to his responsibilities, before procuring food and shelter for his family, before exploring what this new world had to offer, Noah determines to worship God. This indicates that he understood what God had done on his behalf through this whole experience. God had called Noah, had warned Noah, had instructed Noah, made promise to Noah, and saved Noah. How could he not respond in worship?

There on this altar of worship, Noah “took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offering on the altar,…”(8:20b). This burnt offering foreshadows the more formal practices that characterized the daily offerings presented each morning and evening in the tabernacle. There, clean animals and clean birds were voluntarily offered for sin and as an act of thanksgiving in worship. These animals were placed on the altar, sacrificed, and then burned completely, indicating one’s complete devotion to the Lord. Those reading this account in the wilderness would have been able to appreciate Noah’s worshipful expression. Here, Noah freely offered these animals out of thanksgiving to God and as a demonstration of his total dependence on the Lord for everything. His “spontaneous celebration, the result of salvation experienced, is just as much a part of the necessary life of worship as the permanent, regularly organized service” (Westermann, 453).

Such a sacrifice meant even more here as there was a very limited number of animals from which to choose for this offering. Though as already indicated earlier (Gen. 7:3ff), more clean animals were spared for offerings like these, there were no doubt, only a few available for such an act. Noah could have very easily decided against a sacrificial expression of worship in an effort to conserve these animals for breeding and later use. However, his willingness to go through with this suggests that he was unwilling to hold anything back from God in his worship—even if it meant sacrificing something especially precious. After all, God had saved his family from death in a miraculous way. Why should he hold anything back?

2. God’s Response-8:21-22

The second activity in this passage involves God’s response. Pleased with Noah’s worshipful sacrifice, God first makes two promises, but not before he enjoys the pleasing aroma this sacrifice produces—“The Lord smelled the soothing aroma;…” (8:21a). This is the first of many times God is described as reacting to sacrifices in this way in the writings of Moses. “Pleasing aroma” is repeated several times in connection with sacrifices in Leviticus (17 times) and Numbers (18 times). In these contexts, a refusal to “smell” the offering provided means God’s rejection of the worshiper. However, here, Noah’s worship is said to be “soothing” to God.

Though this is an anthropomorphism (inasmuch as a perfect God is not in any real need of being consoled), this image helps the reader understand how pleasing Noah’s actions were. If one continues the anthropomorphism further, one might say that God’s heart, previously injured by man’s sin and wickedness (6:6) was soothed by Noah’s decision to worship God, staving off the Lord’s acute wrath. Interestingly “Noah” and the Hebrew word for soothing (“nihoah”) and the word for “rest” (“nuah”) are audibly parallel, connecting the theme of soothing rest to Noah and what he has accomplished through God’s grace. Though God was angry earlier, here, the sacrifice following Noah’s obedience, appeases His wrath, leading to a new era with new promises.

”… and the Lord said to Himself, ‘I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s hearth is evil from his youth;…” (8:21a). Here, the reader is taken into the mind of God to learn how He will relate to the earth from here on out. First, He will never again curse the ground. Though some might be tempted to connect this reference to the Edenic curse issued to Adam, it is more appropriate to connect this verse to 6:5b and the deluge. In other words, God is not reversing the curse of the ground issued in Eden. Instead, He is promising that the kind of affliction launched on the ground in this flood will never happen again.

God’s reasoning is simple, “for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;…” (8:21). In other words, though all mankind is stained with sin and deserving of all kinds of curses, God decides to extend common graces instead of issuing recurring global curses on a consistent basis. What a promise! Man is going to be evil, but I am going to withhold these kinds of curses and keep them from taking place over and over again anyway.

Psalm 103:8-10-“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.”

Secondly, God states, “I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done,…”(8:21b). Though God would continue to judge certain peoples and even judge the world in the eschaton, God will never destroy all of the inhabitants of the world as he had here. This promise indicates that the global flood of Genesis 6-7 was, is, and will be the greatest disaster to ever hit planet earth. Even the coming tribulation, apocalypse, and battle of Armageddon do not compare to the Flood of Noah’s day, for, in the coming disasters outlined in Revelation, a remnant is spared and many will live on into the millennium.

These promises, confirmed in the mind of God, will eventually be made explicit to Noah as the narrative unfolds. For now, Moses allows the reader a sneak peek into what God is planning before He makes it known to the characters in the story.

Instead of wrath and destruction, for a time, God decides to establish order in the postdiluvian world that will lend itself to meaningful cycles—“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease…” (8:22). Rather than receiving God’s wrath, the earth would be blessed with the “regularity of predictable environmental patterns that are undergirded by [His] directive hand” (Matthews, 396).

These patterns continue to be expressed each and every year. Why, just outside, we see God’s hand of direction guiding each leaf down to the earth, having been already been painted in rich red, yellow, and orange hues. The cycle of life brought on by the seasons we witness are evidence of the incredible grace of God—grace that provides growing and harvesting seasons and beautiful spectacles of blooms in the spring and icicles in the winter. This cyclical performance fascinates and blesses all who see, touch, taste, smell, and feel, even though all deserve none of the beautiful sensations these seasons create.

Here, in Genesis 8:22, God sees fit to reestablish the order and boundaries that were introduced at the beginning of creation (1:14). Though the promise infers that planet earth receives God’s special care and blessing, it also suggests that the present world will someday cease—“While the earth remains.” This means that even at this early junction, God had a plan that would involve the end of the world as we know it. In other words, the common grace that pervades this passage, would sustain the order of planet earth and, to an extent, the inhabitants in this world, until the end.

So What?

Even as we meet here today, we are enjoying the common graces of God and are living within His ordered universe. Fallen though it is, God continues to sustain the earth in ways we do not deserve and will continue to do so for as long as He determines. Notice, I did not say, “depending on who takes office this January, or which Supreme Court Justices are appointed, or which laws are repealed.” This is God’s universe and (Praise God) we are His people! Like Noah, we have been give certain promises and have every reason to hope (no matter how grim or empty the world looks around us).

As a result, like Noah, we have every reason to worship the Lord. Each of us could testify to various storms through which God has allowed safe passage. However, too often many of us, including myself, are too preoccupied with what is next, what is mine, or what is unknown that we fail to respond to these graces as Noah did –cheerfully sacrificing in praise and adoration. Instead of demonstrating our dependency on God, we depend on ourselves and what we can do, horde, collect, or obtain. This does not produce a fragrant aroma before the Lord. Worship does! Therefore, regardless of what is next, what is known, what takes place, let us never forget make worship of our Lord primary and not allow any other concern take precedent.