Second Acceptable Offering

Second Acceptable Offering

Genesis 8: ²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

 

²² “While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

 

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Eight generations after Abel, Noah followed in his footsteps. Abel saw the Garden of Eden and heard about the LORD’s grace when HE made clothing to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. Abel took the best, friendliest animal and sacrificed it to the LORD. No one else had sacrificed anything to the LORD until Noah.

 

Erecting an altar, Noah took some of the precious few animals and sacrificed them to the LORD. HE smelled the “soothing aroma” and made a covenant with humans because of Noah.

 

My Observations:

• GOD’s relationship with Noah changed when HE closed the door of the ark.
• GOD would speak to Noah, but would no longer show up and walk with him.
• Noah wanted to continue his relationship with GOD, so he sacrificed his best animals, burning them up in hopes that at least the smoke would reach GOD.

 

Abel and Noah voluntarily sacrificed to the LORD. Nowhere in this section of the Bible was there a command from GOD to provide a sacrifice. They simply wanted to give something to GOD that had meaning. Abel may have wanted to mimic GOD by sacrificing an animal. Perhaps Noah wanted to show thanks, so he sacrificed animals of prey that could have been eaten.

 

This second sacrifice was acceptable. GOD made a promise that even though humans continued in their evil thoughts, HE would not curse the ground any more than it was cursed. GOD would not “flood” the earth to destroy mankind.

 

Challenge

• Can you see GOD’s heart as HE explains to Moses how endearing Noah’s actions were?
• Has GOD brought you through a difficult time before?
• Without killing animals or humans, what sacrifice can you do that would be acceptable to GOD today?