Genesis 8:15-22
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.
God’s Covenant with Creation
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.”
Noah and his family exited the ark of deliverance and led out all the living animals, reptiles, and birds, causing everything that had breath to praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6) for their salvation from death and destruction. This is the pattern for us to follow who have been delivered and are being delivered (2 Corinthians 1:9-10) from so great a death of eternal judgment in Christ, our ark of salvation from the wrath of judgment to fall on this world corrupted by sin! Noah led the way out into freedom and all followed in their families from the ark to the earth washed clean as a type of baptism; in contrast to this, our baptism in Christ secures our deliverance for all eternity out of the judgment by fire to come. How much more should we be praising the LORD for His grace of deliverance! Noah was,so,thankful and moved with praise that he sacrificed burnt offerings to express his gratitude as we should become living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) to serve Him who has delivered us from the penalty of sin, a deliverance which cannot ever be lost, abandoned, or taken from us. We are safe and secure in His mighty hands (John 10:28-29, Ephesians 1:13-14) of grace and love, sealed as His forever by His unshakable promise in His Son. When Noah sacrificed mere animals whose lifeblood temporarily atoned for his and his family’s sin, God answered with a promise to never curse the ground again and wipe the evil of mankind off by a flood. He would not repeat that judgment, leaving the final judgment after much long suffering over our evil thoughts and imaginations to be purged by fire (2 Peter 3:10, 12-13) in the end. We therefore look forward to a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells in Christ. We know that until that time predetermined and known only to God that all will continue as it is now, seasons and days with their nights, and food enough to eat. He will provide for us until His coming to deliver us from sin’s corruption on the earth as a promise we can utterly rely upon. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Ark of the New Covenant of our salvation and worship, is Himself our promised deliverance. He alone guarantees our promised deliverance from judgment in Himself, just as pictured here by Noah and his family with the ark of deliverance. We can look forward to that no matter what the new year brings!
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