Our reading for January 3, 2013: Genesis 6:1-9:17 Click here to open
My selection: Genesis 8:20-22 (ESV)
20 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. 21 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. 22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
My reflections: Noah apparently could not wait to show his gratitude to God for preserving him, his family and the animals through the flood. His first recorded act is to build an altar and make offerings to the Lord that were pleasing to Him.
God graciously made a covenant with Noah in response to this act of worship. But God’s graciousness was not and never is based on any worthiness in man nor any illusion by God that man is upright in himself. God was pleased with the sacrifice of Noah but was not deceived that man would or could be perfectly holy. In fact, part of this covenant included a provision that has been seen as the basis for human government and capital punishment in the case of murder (9:5-6). God anticipated continuing murder after the flood. God knew man’s heart and He knows your heart and mine.
Have you seen how the Lord shows you grace and mercy despite your persistent sin? If you are trusting in Jesus Christ, give thanks for God’s undeserved salvation through His Son, a salvation even more precious and enduring than the temporary preservation of life from drowning in a flood, a salvation of complete forgiveness and deliverance from eternal destruction.
Our reading for January 4, 2013 Genesis 9:18-12:9 Click here to open
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