Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/98815/gods-covenant-with-noah/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Well, take your Bibles then and open to Genesis chapter 8.

[0:15] And I'm going to go ahead and read from, started with verse 5, and just read all the way to the end of that chapter.

[0:26] That's where we're going tonight. That's how far we're going to get through chapter 8. We've already covered verse 5, but verse 5 really helps us, gives us some important information as we lead on into chapter 6 and following some of them.

[0:45] Start with verse 5. The waters decreased continually or steadily until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

[1:02] And so it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark, which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

[1:17] He also sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot.

[1:28] And she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and drew her into the ark to himself.

[1:38] And he waited yet another seven days. And again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening. And behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth.

[1:52] And Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

[2:03] And it came to pass in the six hundred, in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth.

[2:16] And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

[2:29] Then God spoke to Noah, saying, Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 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.

[2:51] So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

[3:05] Then Jonah built an altar. Jonah, did I say Jonah? Sorry. I've got Jonah on my brain. Then Noah built an ark.

[3:17] An altar, rather. I'll get back with it here, eventually. Built an altar. And Noah did that. And he built it to the Lord. And took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

[3:33] 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.

[3:44] Although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.

[4:01] All right. There's ends with a promise. Okay. Fairly long text, but as is true with quite a lot of the accounts given to us in Genesis, there's a lot of repetition.

[4:17] And I mentioned that that, I think, is for a purpose. Number one, really, is just the writing style, narrative style for historical accounts among Hebrews.

[4:29] So it's not an unusual thing to find that in Hebrew literature. But also, I think it's given so that we understand that this is history. This is not just a story.

[4:41] And certainly not relating some allegory. This is history. And so we've got facts here. All right. Regardless, by the way, of whether those facts really mean anything to us today, at least, at the very least, we can understand that these are facts.

[4:59] All right. So the waters of the flood, as I mentioned last week, are going down really quick. It's not a slow, gradual process. And I really believe that God is at work supernaturally in this process.

[5:14] Otherwise, I can't begin to imagine how long it would take for that much water to go down far enough and for there to be dry ground in a relatively short period of time.

[5:26] So the waters are going down very quickly. And they are escaping into a number of places that God has designed to hold the water. The tops of the mountains are appearing, beginning to appear.

[5:41] And according to the way the earth is configured today, I guess Mount Everest would have been first. It, by all accounts, is the tallest peak on the planet, 29,000 feet.

[5:57] And so at some point, it begins to appear first. I'm not saying that Noah saw that or anybody saw that, but we just would have to assume that it appeared first.

[6:07] And then all the tallest mountains of the Himalayas. And there's a mountain range that runs in China and Pakistan that I cannot pronounce, so forget it.

[6:18] And then there's the Andes. You know, these are kind of familiar to us. And all these tall mountains are starting to appear very quickly. Mount McKinley. We know about that mountain. Pretty tall mountain in Alaska, 20,000 feet.

[6:31] It appears. And eventually, all the tall mountains appear. And eventually, the ark comes to rest. The Bible has already told us. Rest on the top of Mount Ararat.

[6:44] Ararat today is about 17,000 feet. All right. So the water is going down really quick. And yet, clearly, it's not yet safe for Noah and his family and all the animals to come out of the ark because the planet is not yet livable.

[7:03] It can't sustain life, human life or animal life. So it's not yet time to disembark from the ark. And so, verse 6 then tells us, so it came to pass at the end of 40 days.

[7:19] And by the way, it's interesting that the word 40 keeps popping up in Scripture. And I think I did mention that 40 quite often associated with some act of judgment, God's judgment.

[7:35] I don't know if that's the case here, but it is interesting. 40 days still. And Noah, it says, opened the window. This is how it's worded in the English.

[7:46] Opened the window. There's no the in the Hebrew. So, I don't know if we're talking about an actual window that was already there.

[7:57] I'll explain here in just a minute. The Bible says he opened the window of the ark which he had made. And we can all picture that, can't we? You know. And we see the shutters opening and there's Noah, you know, prop there and he's letting a bird out.

[8:12] We've got all those images in our mind. And it may have looked just like that. I don't have any idea. Except for the fact that you might remember that back in chapter 6, we looked at, oh, well, there the Bible talks about the instructions that God gave Noah in building the ark, constructing the ark, and how it was all to be done.

[8:35] And there, God instructed Noah to make a window for the ark. Do you remember that? We talked about that quite a bit. And he even gives the specifications for this, quote, window.

[8:48] That's how it's translated in the English. He says, finish it a cubit from above. And I mentioned that that's a very difficult translate. It's hard to know exactly what it's talking about there.

[9:01] And I have settled on this explanation. And I mentioned this that time, a few weeks ago. I explained that this was likely an opening, somewhat an opening that, or we might even call it a vent.

[9:18] If we were to look at it today, we might say, well, that's not a window. That's, say, a vent or somewhere where oxygen and air can flow in and out.

[9:29] And believe me, on the ark, you would have needed some air circulation in that place, don't you think? And very likely just a vent about a cubit in height below the edge of the roof.

[9:45] The roof probably hung out a little ways. And then extended the circumference of the top of the ark. And there are reasons why many scholars have come to that conclusion.

[9:56] Reasons that pertain to the very word that was used there in the text to begin with. All right, so the Bible speaks of a window there. And now here in chapter 8 and verse 6, we have the word window again.

[10:11] And yet, though it's the same word in English, it's not the same word in the Hebrew text. Different word. And it is a word that means literally to pierce or bore through.

[10:24] All right? That's what the word means. Kelon, if you want to put that down. The idea being really at what we can say for sure is just simply an opening in a wall.

[10:39] That's been pierced through or borne through. And so, it is in that sense an actual window. At least it serves in that sense.

[10:50] And not, as before, some kind of air vent or something for air circulation. This is actually for purposes of looking out.

[11:01] And as we're going to see, letting something go out. All right? So, it's a window. But since we don't have any mention of a window, God giving instructions to build this particular window, because it's a different word, then I think we might be safe in concluding that Noah is just now making this window.

[11:27] Opening something so that he can do some investigation. He needs to find out how things are progressing outside. He knows the rain has stopped.

[11:37] He knows now that the ark has rested on something. But he can't see what it is. And yet, I think we'll find out that even though he makes a window, or there was a window there before, even then he could not see.

[11:56] Because it's not until later that he actually sees. He opens up something else and actually sees the ground.

[12:06] So, he can't see what's going on. And that's why he's going to eventually send out a bird to do some investigation. Not that he could talk to the bird. The bird could talk to him. But he's going to find out something through these messengers.

[12:21] All right. These birds. All right. So, it's just an opening that he may have opened for himself. Maybe cut something out of the wall. Or maybe even the roof. And so, he does that here.

[12:35] And why did he need the window? Well, I've already mentioned that. We've already read the text, so you already know. He needed the window so that he could send out a bird on an ark.

[12:46] And so, verses 7 through 9 explain that. And the ultimate reason is to determine the drying up of the earth. And therefore, to determine when it would be safe to exit the ark.

[13:03] Though we're going to find out that Noah is not going to leave the ark until God says so. He at least is going to discover some things here. All right. And how does he do it? He uses birds to do it.

[13:15] Birds to determine this. First, Noah sent out a raven. Okay. That's what the Bible says. Verse 7. Then he sent out a raven. And which kept, the Bible says, kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

[13:33] Now, the idea there is that when he let the raven out, it stayed out. And kept flying. Kept flying to and fro. In fact, the phrase is really, literally, going and returning.

[13:48] Now, so he lets the raven out. And the raven flies and searching. And it comes back, but it doesn't come back in the ark.

[14:00] Probably just rests on the top somewhere. It just keeps flying. And from there on, the raven is living outside the ark for quite a number of days until, it says here, until the earth dried up.

[14:14] Now, so don't get the idea that this first bird Noah sent out couldn't find any place, and so it just died out there somewhere. I've heard someone speculate, well, poor little raven.

[14:28] You know, the water hadn't gone down yet. And so he lets the raven out. And the raven just dies out there somewhere. Well, that's not the case. You know why we know it didn't die?

[14:41] We still have ravens today. And also, but we also need to understand that the raven never did again come back to Noah and come back into the ark.

[14:55] Never did do that. Because it clearly says it kept flying to and fro. That is, going and returning, going and returning, going and returning, but never coming back to Noah.

[15:07] All right? Now, the meaning, well, let's just, let me mention this. Why a raven? Can you think of any reason why a raven?

[15:23] Have you been angry with his diet? Yes. Yes, very much so. He sent out a raven because, well, number one, a raven is very durable, very strong, strong bird.

[15:37] Can fly great distances. And it's a carrion bird. I know we don't really want to think about this. But, you know, there were a lot of carcasses, animals, and people floating on the water.

[15:53] And would have provided, that's why this raven could leave the ark. It could never have to come back, inside that is, for food because it could survive out there. And so, number one, he sent a raven because it's durable.

[16:06] And also, I think I would add to that, that the raven was expendable. Now, I know, I said a moment ago, and Mike confirmed it, and he's a Bible scholar, too.

[16:23] But, you know, that if the raven had died, we wouldn't have any more ravens. But it would not have been a great loss to not have ravens.

[16:36] And I'll tell you why. Because the raven, we know, according to Leviticus 11, 15, and Deuteronomy 14, 14, that the raven was an unclean animal. And we know why, because it was a carrion bird.

[16:50] It would eat dead flesh. And nothing that ate dead flesh would be considered a clean animal. And so, it was of no value for sacrifice.

[17:02] It was an unclean animal. And according to God's laws, it was an unclean animal that had no value for food, either. And so, they sent out a raven, because it's a very strong bird, can fly, and fly, and fly, and had plenty of food out there to survive.

[17:19] And if it didn't make it, well, no big loss. Raven's not any good for food, not any good for sacrifice. And so, that's why maybe he sent a raven.

[17:31] I can't say that, you know, for sure. The Bible doesn't tell us. But, then he sends, second, he sends out a dove.

[17:42] Now, this is a little different. Verse 8, he also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.

[17:54] But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, sent out a female. And she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So, he put out his hand and took her and drew her into the ark to himself.

[18:09] Now, that's something different than what was said about the raven. All right. So, the raven never did come back, but the dove did. And he took the dove to himself and brought her back in. All right.

[18:21] So, now, unlike the raven, the dove is a clean animal. In fact, later, when Noah and his family do come out of the ark and they build an altar and sacrifice, the Bible says, from all of the clean animals, it may have been this very dove that he sacrificed.

[18:44] But it certainly was of the doves. Because he sacrificed some of every one of the clean animals. All right. So, the dove is a clean animal. And we also know from Scripture that the dove is symbolic of purity.

[19:00] Of purity. Matthew 10, 16 is an example. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents. And in the New King James, it says harmless as doves.

[19:14] But the word there means unmixed or pure. Pure as doves. And so, doves have, from time immemorial, been considered symbolic of purity.

[19:34] And so, the spiritual application, I think, is pretty interesting. I think pretty clear. Here's the ark. And it is a symbol of Jesus Christ.

[19:46] Our salvation. And here's Noah and his family. And they are his favored ones. And they're inside the ark. Safe and secure inside Christ. The raven is unclean and is allowed to depart the ark.

[20:02] The dove is clean and pure. And is a welcome resident in the ark. And it's just a picture, I think, of the believer's life.

[20:14] Because that's where we are. We're in Christ. We're inside the ark. Not temporarily. But eternally. In Christ. And we want our lives to be filled with purity.

[20:30] And not impurity. Alright. So, he then sends out the dove. And then third, Noah sent out the dove a second time. Alright.

[20:40] So, he sent the raven out. And then he waited a period of time. As we're going to see. I think he waited seven days. So, it doesn't mention that in verse 8. It's implied there.

[20:52] And then he sends the dove out again. Second time. Verse 10. And he waited yet seven days. That is, another seven days. That's why I say he waited seven days between the raven and the first expedition for the dove.

[21:06] The dove comes back. He waits another seven days. Sends the dove out a second time. And this time, verse 11. Then the dove came to him in the evening. And behold, a fresh plucked olive leaf was in her mouth.

[21:21] And Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. That informed him that things were improving greatly on the earth.

[21:33] Alright. So, here we have the dove going out again. And this time, it returns with an olive leaf in its mouth. And this indicates a couple of things. One, very practical.

[21:44] Very materially. But also, spiritually. And the second one, certainly a spiritual indication here.

[21:56] Here are the two things. It indicates, the dove coming back with the olive leaf or branch in its mouth indicates, number one, God's assurance of life.

[22:07] Of life. His assurance of life. The water has receded. The vegetation. Vegetation is now beginning to grow. And the earth, very soon, it will be able to support life.

[22:23] Man and beast. It is an assurance. And you can imagine if you were Noah. And you've been cooped up in that ark. And you know, because you can certainly hear, but you also know what has happened outside this ark.

[22:39] And you're wondering, will this earth ever be able to support life again? Are we going to be able to live here? Because everything has been destroyed.

[22:51] Well, clearly, God is giving him assurance. Assurance of life. And vegetation is growing. And continue to grow.

[23:02] And they will be able to live. But there's a second thing. It is an assurance of peace. Peace with God. Of the two, I think this is the most significant.

[23:17] And certainly the most spiritual aspect of this. God's wrath. This is what the dove with the olive branch in its mouth assured Noah.

[23:29] That God's wrath had now been spent. Been spent. His judgment. His judgment. Has now been satisfied. Life is coming back.

[23:42] New life has now been granted. For Noah. And for his family. And all the animals that were brought with them onto the ark. And so the dove bearing an olive branch has become that universal symbol.

[23:55] Has it? A universal symbol of peace. Peace. Now, that doesn't mean that everybody who uses that symbol knows where it came from.

[24:05] Interesting, isn't it? Things that people will say. And symbols that people will use. I mean, even the pagan world. And you've got to know that most of them don't have a clue.

[24:17] Don't even realize that these things come from the Bible. So, you know, bearing the olive branch. I mean, that's, you know, we're talking about peace.

[24:29] And the very picture of that dove. That white dove. We don't know if it was a white dove or not or what kind of dove it was. But bearing that olive leaf, that branch, is a symbol of peace.

[24:40] And what kind of peace? Peace between God and man. That God has vented his anger and his judgment on sin. And has spent all his judgment.

[24:54] And now, here, Noah is the recipient of his grace, his mercy. He now has peace. Finally, Noah sent out the dove for a third time.

[25:06] Because, of course, the dove came back the second time bearing the olive branch. But still, the earth is not yet dry enough. And, really, God has not allowed them to leave the ark yet.

[25:19] So, he lets the dove out a third time. Verse 12. So, he waited yet another seven days. Here's another seven days. And he sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

[25:32] Poor little dove. It's dead. No, it's not. So, I guess what I said a while ago, he didn't sacrifice this dove, did he? All right. All right. I have to correct myself there.

[25:44] But it is interesting, I think, to note the repetition of the seven days. Seven days in these verses. It's implied in verse 8.

[25:56] I mentioned that. You don't find it there in verse 8. But because of what the Bible says in verse 10, yet another seven days. It's implied that seven days transpired between the raven and the first trip for the dove.

[26:13] The first time. So, it's implied in verse 8. But it's explicitly stated clearly in the text in verses 10 and 12. All right. So, three times we have seven days.

[26:25] Seven days. Seven days. And so, why? I don't know. Seven, of course, you have probably heard, and I think it's correct to say, that seven generally in the Bible is symbolic of purity, of completeness, perfection.

[26:44] And, but I don't think that that necessarily applies here. The seven could just simply be the, you know, the seven-day division of a week, which God set at the creation.

[26:57] He created everything in six days and rested on the seventh. And so, we have then established seven days of a week. And this might just simply be, you know, speaking to that division.

[27:12] So, Noah is just waiting a week, and then waits another week, and then he waits another week. It could be that this is a pre-Mosaic law reference or allusion to the Sabbath.

[27:28] The Sabbath. You know that Moses, when God gives the law to Moses, there on the top of Mount Sinai, that one of our Ten Commandments, one of the commandments is to keep the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

[27:42] And this could be an allusion to that. And it could very well be that Noah, God's patriarch, and those who would descend from him, those who continued to worship Yahweh God, were already, had already established, in some sense, the Sabbath.

[28:08] The Sabbath. The day God rested. And they may have already established that. And then, at Mount Sinai, it is, well, literally etched in stone, isn't it?

[28:20] On the Sabbath and keeping the Sabbath day holy. So, it's connected there. All right, then verses 13 and 14 are, again, an example of God providing some dates for us.

[28:35] An official dating of the drying up of the earth. Not that, again, in regard to any calendar that we could necessarily mark it down and say, well, this is when it happened.

[28:48] But he gives it to us nevertheless. Verse 13, And it came to pass in the 601st year. And in the first month, the first day of the month, we have the repetition of the word first.

[29:06] That's something you should always do, by the way, when you are studying Scripture. Among a number of other things, you ought to pay attention to words that are repeated, or phrases repeated, or concepts repeated.

[29:21] And repetition is there for a reason. And here we have first, first, first, three times. And what he is doing, I believe the Bible writer, Moses, is through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is establishing and emphasizing the first day of the new world.

[29:46] In fact, we could say it's day one of month one. Of year one. Of the new creation.

[29:59] This new world. That God is, in a sense, creating or recreating for man. For man to live in. And Noah, verse 13, it says, Removed the covering of the ark.

[30:15] And looked. And indeed, the surface of the ground was dry. Dry. All right. Whatever this covering was.

[30:28] And I'm going to tell you, we don't know what it is. In some translations, I think it was the New English Bible, not necessarily a translation I would recommend, but it says he opened the hatch.

[30:40] You know, that's stretching it. We don't know what this covering is. I will tell you that the word covering is used a number of other places in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Old Testament.

[30:51] And one significant place it's mentioned in regard to the tabernacle. The covering of the tabernacle. And so it mentions it there.

[31:03] But, of course, this is not the tabernacle. And we can't make any connections there, any spiritualizations there at all. Though preachers love to do that.

[31:14] Even when it's not right. But anyway, not this preacher. You understand. I hope. But I probably have been guilty of it. But whatever the covering is, we don't know what it was.

[31:26] Part of the roof. Could have been just part of the roof. Could be similar to what he did with the window. He just tore a hole in it. So that he could get a better look.

[31:38] You know, probably in the side of the wall. So that this time he could actually see the ground. Because the implication, I mean, it's clear from the text, that this is the first opportunity that Noah has had to actually see the ground.

[31:53] So wherever the window was located, where he let the birds go out, he wasn't able to see down. But this time he can.

[32:03] So whatever it was, he removed it. And then he was able to actually see the ground. And when he looked at the ground, the Bible says here, he saw that it was dry. Encourage him.

[32:15] I'm sure. To him. The word dry here. Well, I'll get to that here in a minute. Let me go on and then I'll put all this together. Verse 14. And in the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dried.

[32:31] There's the word dry again. And so, you know, Noah looked out of the Arkansas. Heard that joke.

[32:45] Actually, that's not in the text. I thought I'd just throw that in there. Seriously, Noah did not see Arkansas. All right. Though it's a beautiful place.

[32:56] Might have looked very much like Arkansas. At least, you know, part of it. But seriously, Noah looked out for the first time and he saw the surface of the ground.

[33:07] It says here. The surface of the ground. He saw the surface of the ground was dry. And the word is karab. Karab. And it means absent of water.

[33:21] In the sense of no floodwaters. It doesn't mean that the ground was wet, soggy, swampy. Might have been some puddles.

[33:32] But the idea is that and it's a little confusing according to the way it's translated. It just means that he looked out and there weren't floodwaters. He saw that it was dry in that sense.

[33:44] All right. But he waited. And he needed to. Not only because God hadn't given him permission to leave yet. But he needed to because it still it wasn't good to get out. You wouldn't want to get out of the ark you know saving the condition that the earth was in.

[33:59] So he waited 57 more days. That's a pretty good period of time. 57 more days before exiting the ark. And then the Bible says until the earth was dried.

[34:12] There's the word again but it's a different word. Yabesh. And it means completely dry. All right. Completely dry. And then they could get out.

[34:26] But they're not going to get out yet because Noah is not acting on his own. Noah's waiting on God. And he's going to follow God's guidance and so in verse 15 then God spoke to Noah.

[34:40] And here's I think the third time that God actually directly speaks to Noah saying go out of the ark. I think it is the third time. he told him to build an ark and then he told him to get in the ark come in the ark and now he says go out of the ark.

[34:57] And by the way the word is go. Go out. Not come out. And see I have maintained all along that scriptures were written in such a way not that God could be confined in any particular space but it's written in such a way so that the symbol of the ark the symbol of salvation is made stronger for us because God told Noah and his family to come into the ark that means God was in the ark.

[35:29] He's not telling him to go he says come in the fellowship of God and God's still in there with him and he says go now out of the ark not come out but go out anyway and he says go out of the ark you and your wife and your sons and your sons wives with you 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 and he's actually commanding not only that the animals do that but also Noah and his family and this was God's mandate from the very beginning with his first Adam and Eve and this is in a sense the second Adam and Eve in some sense alright so Noah need to understand that Noah did not just simply open the door and shoo the animals out you know chase them out you know this this this something very orderly and we know that because

[36:37] God instructed Noah to bring them out not shoo them out or let them out but bring them out with you he says bring with you every living thing alright so it's clear from scripture that that there was an orderly entrance into the ark and go back to chapter 7 verses 5 to 9 and see that very orderly Noah and his family first and then the animals came in with them two by two you know you can picture that and and then here they are also there's also an orderly departure from the ark God is very orderly God and he's God order now this was not chaotic you know stampede of elephants and I mean we can't imagine that that might have happened naturally you know they'd been cooped up in that ark for a year

[37:38] I sure wouldn't get out of there verses 18 19 again the repetition summarize for us the emptying of the ark so Noah went out and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him every animal and so forth so forth so you have kind of repetition of that to kind of sum it all up alright now we come to really the most important part I think of this chapter though we don't really need to spend a lot of time on it and that is we come to the first very first worship service in the new world and so worship was Noah's first act after coming out of the ark and there would not be anything more natural than that more spiritual certainly I mean you've just been saved and the first act of a newborn believer is to worship worship the

[38:44] Lord and in a myriad of different ways that we worship we worship with our life and with our voice and with our prayers and corporate worship and so many ways that worship is manifested and acted out in our lives and the most natural thing to do after coming out of the ark is for Noah to worship alright so verse 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 this is an altar of burnt offerings that Noah has constructed here and he did not have tools so he could cut nice bricks didn't make bricks it was manufactured it was unhewn stones that were piled up to make this altar and that's significant to understand when you consider that this is the first time in scripture that we have anything said about an altar erected for purposes of burnt off for sacrifice first time it's mentioned now you're going to want to go back and think well what about Cain and Abel remember

[39:58] Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to the Lord and you know that story but nothing is mentioned there about an altar it's very specifically mentioned here and it's the word altar that is used a number of times here on out in scripture very significantly to refer to the altar of burnt sacrifice that is constructed for first the tabernacle and then eventually for the temple and it's the same same word and so even though it's not going to be for some time yet with the Mosaic law when it's given not going to be for a long time yet that God is going to give specific instructions about the altar of burnt sacrifice burnt offering with the horns that are on it that they would use to hold the animals down for the sacrifice and so forth and so but this is the first time it's mentioned so Cain and Abel offered sacrifice but not necessarily on an altar not in this sense we have worship already taking place of course this is not the first worship among man we remember

[41:11] Seth and the Bible saying from then on men began to call upon the name of the Lord so worship had already started but this is the first time we have anything about an altar now it's not the last time as I've already said you can go a little further and find Genesis 12 7 we're not going to turn to it but there we have Abraham building an altar and it's out of unhewn stone by the way when God gives the instruction for the altar in the tabernacle it is not manufactured of tooled stone but unhewn stone very same I think it was Noah that God inspired to be the first one to build such an altar and it's what God wanted him to do but we have it happening after that Abraham in Genesis 12 7 again 13 in verse 18 and then we have Moses even before the law is given Moses is doing it after Israel's victory over the

[42:12] Amalekites in Exodus 17 and then Israel of course after receiving the law at Sinai in Exodus 20 and following we have that altar being used all the way up until Christ comes and then when the temple is destroyed then there's no more altar after that alright so why did Noah what what rather did Noah sacrifice of every clean animal and of every clean bird he sacrificed what that done or again some of all of them he didn't sacrifice all the clean animals if he did if he had done that we wouldn't have any today and so of them he sacrificed and what was God's response verse 21 and the Lord and this is an interesting kind of well not really a metaphor it is what the Bible does quite often with God to give him human kind of features and characteristics it's anthropomorphism is the long $50 word but here we have the

[43:22] Lord smelling he smells it this sacrifice and he smells and it's a soothing aroma I think some translations have a sweet sweet aroma very soothing aroma so God smells the sacrifice the smoke the sacrifice and but really it is you know it's a metaphor for God accepting Noah Noah's worship and that's what this is it's worship God doesn't care so much about the animals being burned and so forth what he cares about is the heart and he cares about obedience and so this is symbolic of God accepting Noah's worship his worship of thanksgiving and sacrifice for his sinfulness and all that and God accepts that and so the

[44:23] Lord smelled a soothing aroma and the Lord said in his heart that is he's about to make a very solemn and this is the promise I will never again curse the ground for man's sake now that's not a reference to the curse that was given in Genesis 3 that curse is still intact the curse that was given because of Adam and Eve's sin the curse that's been passed on to every one of us the curse that can only be answered remedied by Christ and our faith in him that's not the curse he's talking about of course you know he's talking about the flood never again is he going to destroy the earth with water in fact the promise is repeated by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 54 9 where it says for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth never again is God going to destroy the earth with a global flood now there will be localized floods but you can just be sure take heart that that's just local you know if God didn't give this promise you know every time it rained we'd have a heart attack

[45:31] I think well it's going to happen again well it's not going to happen again ever happen again God has promised that and so God promised 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 now what is he saying here for man's sake well he's saying that mankind all of man has inherited this propensity this tendency toward evil and he inherited that of course from Adam and Eve but he inherited that through physical birth and the point is by mentioning this here the point is that judgment this kind of judgment a flood or whatever manifestation it might take will not change mankind it's not the remedy only though he doesn't mention it here we understand through redemptive history that only a new birth will bring about a change in man's nature so God is never again going to destroy his creation because of sin rather from now on he's going to move mankind toward the only real remedy and that is his son Jesus one scholar put it this way instead of smiting man with punitive destruction there's been plenty of opportunities for God to do that

[47:00] God rather would visit him with compassion a compassionate mercy or forbearance that's going to be God's plan well there's plan all along but that's what he's saying in this verse and then God set the order of the times he concludes the chapter with the setting the order of times and seasons for the remaining history of the world verse 22 while the earth remains seed time and harvest that means spring planting and fall harvest because prior to the flood I think plants were ever bearing I don't think they had seasons in that sense prior to the flood so he's setting the time this is what it's going to be like now from now on cold and heat winter and summer that is hot and cold seasons of the year I think prior to the flood it was all the same season all mild all perfect and day and night shall not cease the sun will always rise in the morning you can be sure about that it will always rise in the morning and it will always set at night and it will continue to do so until the end of the age until

[48:10]  Jesus comes