The Days of Noah: After the Flood, a Changed World

Genesis 8:14-22

On the 20th of July in 1969 the Eagle lunar landing module touched down upon the moon.  The spacecraft landed on th Sea of Tranquility.  Neil Armstrong stepped out and said "that is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.  This environment was strange to him, never before were any humans there.  There was just an eerie silence.

When Noah stepped out of the ark, after a year of judgment upon this earth, it was a different earth than what he had known before.  Once it had teemed with wildlife and people, once it had been abundantly rich with trees and vegetation.  But now it was an hostile environment.  Deeper oceans, higher mountains, harsher climate, cooler and stronger winds.  High on the sides of Mt. Ararat, Noah and his family surveyed their new home, but God spoke to Noah.  He and his family were not alone. God said to go forth, spread out, you and the animals replenish the earth.  Noah disembarked and the first thing he did was:

A sacrifice.  The first thing that Noah did was to build an altar, a place where man can meet God on God's terms of course.  Noah's first purpose was to renew fellowship with God.  Noah is giving visible evidence that he is putting God first.  Isn't it always a question of priorities?  Do we put God first?   The Lord Jesus said you are to love the LORD your God with all your mind, with all your strength, your heart, your soul, and your neighbour as yourself.  Put God first.  God is the Number 1 priority in our life or should be.  Noah put God's altar first because that was important to him.  But it also showed his gratitude to God.  God by grace had saved him.

Noah had a God-centered life.  He really trusted in God.  The secret of a good home lies in putting the Lord first.  God must come first before anybody else.  Is the place where you meet God most important?  We also notice that Noah offered a burnt sacrifice on the altar.  It wasn't an altar for show, it was for real worship not for formality.  It was for real worship.  Noah offered burnt offerings of the clean animals.  7 of every kind of clean animal came on board the ark.  This is the first reference in scripture where we read of the building of an altar, and also the first sacrifice.  The animal was totally consumed.  It was an offering for sin.  Noah not only knew the difference between clean and unclean, but he knew that the fellowship between  holy God and sinful man was only possible  through a propitiating sacrifice.  Blood had to be shed for sinful humans to have fellowship with a holy God.  Abel knew this, so did Noah.  God's law has always existed from the beginning in the hearts of the people of God.    The only way for us to have fellowhip with God is through sacrifice.  All of the old testament sacrifice pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only sacrifice that God requires.