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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 8:20 - 8:22
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The Promise of God
v. 20. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Noah's first act after leaving the ark of deliverance was an act of worship. He built an altar, a place of slaying the sacrificial victim, and brought a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. That is a proof of true faith, of true piety, if men wait for the help of the Lord in all patience, even when deliverance seems long in coming, and finally give all praise and thanks to God for the revelation of His goodness in sending help.
v. 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. When Noah made his offering, the Lord smelled the smell of pleasure, of satisfaction, that is, He accepted the prayers and the disposition of mind which was revealed in this sacrifice in mercy. Therefore He said to Himself, to His heart, He thought within Himself, a conclusion which He afterward revealed to Noah, that He would never again bring such a judgment of total destruction upon the earth within the period which He had fixed for its existence; for the earth will not stand forever, will not last throughout eternity. A day is coming when the almighty Lord will bring upon the world His wrath and the fire of His jealousy to consume the corrupt world. Meanwhile it is His mercy and long-suffering that causes Him to abstain from smiting every living thing. For that which the human heart and mind shapes within itself, what it imagines, what it thinks, what it plans, is evil from the earliest days of youth. Since the Fall all men are naturally depraved and corrupted, inclined only to that which is evil. There is only one way of effecting deliverance from this inherited disposition toward everything that is evil, namely, through the obedience and merit of Jesus Christ the Savior. As for the earth:
v. 22. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. That is the promise, that is the order of God, who fixes the laws of nature and, according to circumstances, changes or suspends them as He finds best. The human race, but not the great Creator, is dependent upon the order and upon the laws of nature. The consideration of the goodness and of the patience of God, therefore, should be an earnest incentive to us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.