Our topic today is:

Noah Builds An Altar And Offers Sacrifice Discussion

Noah's first action after leaving the ark is to build an altar to God. This is the first recorded altar in Scripture. Noah used it to offer sacrifices to God from the clean animals. Apparently, this was the purpose God had in mind for Noah to take extra pairs of the clean animals (Genesis 7:2).

Using a common metaphor, this passage says that God "smells" the aroma of the offering, and He is pleased. He makes a commitment to never again curse the earth through a flood (Genesis 8:21). He also commits to never wipe out all the living creatures on the planet again, though He recognizes that humanity will continue to carry evil intentions in their heart.

Though human nature has not changed, God shows a measure of common grace and mercy on all life on the planet. God commits to continuing the cycles of life according to His original design. Day will follow night, one season will follow another, as long as the earth remains (Genesis 8:22).

In the previous chapter, God sent seven pairs each of every kind of clean bird and animal. That was the first hint that God regards some animals as clean and others as unclean. Only clean animals could be used as sacrificial offerings to God (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14).

Noah's act here corresponds with the most common form of offering to God, which Israel would later practice while following God's Law. In that offering, the whole animal is burned and fully consumed by fire on the altar. This offering would have been a truly faith-based sacrifice, even if it was commanded directly by God.

So few of each kind of animal existed in the world that to purposely kill any of them, even the more plentiful clean animals, was very costly to Noah and his family. It was clearly an act of faith in God's ability to provide.

This act of worship to God reveals that Noah continued to be faithful to God, even after the flood. Noah proves that he is motivated by allegiance to God. As far as Noah was concerned, this new world remade by the flood would be built on a foundation of obedience and submission to the Creator.


The previous verse recorded Noah's first act after leaving the ark: to build an altar and offer animal sacrifices to God. Now God responds to this humble act of worship. We're told that God smells the pleasing or soothing aroma of the sacrifice and, apparently greatly pleased, makes a new commitment.

This is the only time Scripture shows God explicitly smelling the aroma from a sacrifice, though that is the direct intention of many sacrifices described later in the Bible. This is not meant to be read as if God is literally inhaling smoke.

Rather, the reference to smoke, and its scent, is a common Scriptural metaphor involving prayer, and how our sacrifices are received by God. God's commitment is to never again curse the ground or the earth as He has done through the flood.

This should not be read as God lifting the original curse on the ground in response to Adam's sin. The curse of weeds and frustrating toil and the work required to bring crops from the ground remains to this day. Instead, God's commitment here should be seen as a decision not to annihilate life on the ground as He did with the flood.

The flood brought destruction on the whole earth, on all the ground. God is declaring that He won't do that again. God seems to make this commitment while acknowledging that human nature has not been changed by the flood.

Human beings will continue to harbor evil intentions from youth and throughout their lives. God knows this and decides not to respond to human sinfulness in the same way again by cursing the earth with a flood.

In addition, God promises to never again to strike down every living thing. He will not wipe out humanity and animal-kind with a global and fully life-ending catastrophe as He has done with the flood. We are meant to be comforted by these promises and to be intrigued about how God might respond to human sinfulness, instead.

The world will continue to function predictably according to God's design. This is the grace of God upon all His creation. It is important to notice that this promise begins with "while the earth remains."

God doesn't guarantee that the planet in its current form will exist eternally. In fact, at some point in the future, God will re-make the heavens and the earth (Revelation 21:1). But while it does, those who live on earth will enjoy the goodness of the repetition of the days and seasons by God's great mercy on sinful humanity.