WEDNESDAY May 14th
Genesis 8:20-22
‘Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”’
The first thing that we read that Noah did on leaving the ark was to build an altar and make a sacrifice to God. Imagine it for yourself as if you had built the ark, herded all the animals and creatures onto it and then watched as the earth was flooded and everything outside of the ark destroyed and then suddenly dry ground appears, and you walk out as one of a few who had been saved from the devastation. What would have been the first thing you would have done?
Well, God has saved us from the devasting curse and punishment of sin, he has given us a new start and a hope that is eternal, and our number one priority should be to give God thanks, and we do so by building an altar and laying our lives upon it in total surrender to him. He should and must be our number one priority as we allow him to not only be our Saviour but Lord in our lives.
Before Noah entered the ark he was told to take on board seven pairs of the clean animals and the birds of the heavens, they may easily have produced young while in the ark, but whatever, God had ensured that there would be sufficient numbers of them so that when they left the ark some could be used for sacrifice and then the remaining ones for reproducing and replenishing the earth.
I want to stretch our imaginations a little, God has given us the gift of time, and he has given us sufficient time of which we must use it wisely. Our time is like the clean animals and birds, as Noah ensured that sacrifice came first we must use our time FIRST for the glory of God, and the rest we can use for those things that are pertinent to our being godly men and women who go about doing that which is necessary for life to continue, family, work and pleasure.
In the Noah account, it says that the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma—does God smell a pleasing aroma because of the way in which we order our lives?
A couple of scriptures:
Romans 12:1-2
‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’
Ephesians 5:15-17
‘Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.’