Open up your Bible or open up the link above to read God's Word today.
In the story of Noah, we've seen God grieved. We've seen His grace toward Noah, whom He favored. We saw His wrath poured out and Noah remembered. Today, we see Him soothed by the aroma of sacrificial worship.
Don't miss the magnitude of the sacrifice Noah placed on the altar he built to the Lord, after disembarking the ark.
All the animals of the earth were destroyed. The only living land animals remaining were in the ark. As an act of worship, Noah took from his limited supply of clean animals and clean birds and sacrificed a portion to God.
Do you give sacrificially to God? Or is your worship limited by a spirit of scarcity? a fear of not enough?
What Noah offered to God could not be readily replaced, he had all there was. Wouldn't it have made more sense for Noah to wait a few months... years... before killing the clean animals? Assuring an ample supply, just in case?
No. Noah had some serious personal experience with God's provision. Trusting Him over the years of building the ark, the gathering of animals and supplies, the flood, the waiting and wondering. Noah knew God would never leave him without enough; he had first-hand knowledge of His faithfulness. He deserved to be worshiped wholeheartedly!
And God's response to the sacrificial worship, an offering poured out from a heart of trust:
The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself,
"I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent
of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again
destroy every living thing, as I have done. ..."
Genesis 8:21 NASB
Wonder at that for a moment...
One man's sacrificial heart of worship, soothed the wrath of God, who still knew the hearts of man were evil, yet moved Him to make a covenant, a promise, with all of mankind.
Just imagine if those who called themselves followers of Jesus practiced, embraced, sacrificial worship. What kind of blessing would we be to God? How might the world, as evil and dark as it is, be changed?
Take a lesson from Noah.
Trust the Lord with all your heart.
Bless Him with sacrificial, fear-less, worship.
Lord, remind me with each raindrop and every rainbow
of Noah's act of sacrificial worship which soothed Your heart,
and blessed all of mankind. Bless me with the faith of Noah.
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