Daily Devotions
Genesis
"May He (God) remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice" Psalm 20:3
Text: Genesis 8:1-22
THE WORSHIP OF GOD
The worship that Noah offered to God was quite revealing. He must have known the Lord quite well to give Him the worship that He obviously delighted in. What were some of the elements of his worship that pleased God so much? Let us look at two elements.
1. The Building of an Altar
This worship of God was certainly not routine! He had to build an altar. It may have been a simple structure, but still he would need to look into every detail of this worship he was going to offer the Lord. This kind of focus and concentration in worship pleases the Lord!
2. The Careful Selection of Appropriate Offerings
Noah had to carefully select the animals that he would offer as a sacrifice to the Lord. Of course, he did not offer unclean animals. If he did that, he would have shown great disrespect for God.
He kept the clean animals carefully, so that he could offer them to the Lord as his sacrifice. He would have to look after them carefully. He would have to forgo eating them if they were to be presented to the Lord as an offering. When a person makes such personal sacrifices, he truly pleases the Lord.
LAYING A NEW FOUNDATION FOR THE NOAHIC COVENANT
God accepted Noah’s worship! His delight in being honoured through correct worship was well recorded in the following text.
“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.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”GENESIS 8:21-22
What wonderful words of promise we have here in this text! Three things stand out:-
- “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake”
- “Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done”
- “Winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease”
With these words, God laid a new foundation for the Covenant that He would establish with Noah (He received the covenant on behalf of all mankind and every living creature on earth).