In the previous post, we looked at the account of the flood as the consequence of human violence. Now we consider the last few verses of Genesis 8, which tell us what Noah did upon coming out of the ark and tell us God’s response to Noah’s actions.

Hebrew text:

20 וַיִּ֥בֶן נֹ֛חַ מִזְבֵּ֖חַ לַֽיהוָ֑ה וַיִּקַּ֞ח מִכֹּ֣ל׀ הַבְּהֵמָ֣ה הַטְּהוֹרָ֗ה וּמִכֹּל֙ הָע֣וֹף הַטָּהֹ֔ר וַיַּ֥עַל עֹלֹ֖ת בַּמִּזְבֵּֽחַ׃

21 וַיָּ֣רַח יְהוָה֮ אֶת־רֵ֣יחַ הַנִּיחֹחַ֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֶל־לִבּ֗וֹ לֹֽא־אֹ֠סִף לְקַלֵּ֨ל ע֤וֹד אֶת־הָֽאֲדָמָה֙ בַּעֲב֣וּר הָֽאָדָ֔ם כִּ֠י יֵ֣צֶר לֵ֧ב הָאָדָ֛ם רַ֖ע מִנְּעֻרָ֑יו וְלֹֽא־אֹסִ֥ף ע֛וֹד לְהַכּ֥וֹת אֶת־כָּל־חַ֖י כַּֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשִֽׂיתִי׃

22 עֹ֖ד כָּל־יְמֵ֣י הָאָ֑רֶץ זֶ֡רַע וְ֠קָצִיר וְקֹ֨ר וָחֹ֜ם וְקַ֧יִץ וָחֹ֛רֶף וְי֥וֹם וָלַ֖יְלָה לֹ֥א יִשְׁבֹּֽתוּ׃

Transliteration:

20 way·yi·ḇen  nō·aḥ miz·bê·aḥ  Yah·weh; way·yiq·qaḥ  mik·kōl hab·bə·hê·māh haṭ·ṭə·hō·w·rāh,  ū·mik·kōl hā·‘ō·wp̄ haṭ·ṭā·hōr, way·ya·‘al  ‘ō·lōṯ bam·miz·bê·aḥ. 

21 way·yā·raḥ  Yah·weh ’eṯ- rê·aḥ  han·nî·ḥō·aḥ way·yō·mer  Yah·weh ’el- lib·bōw, lō-  ’ō·sip̄ lə·qal·lêl ‘ō·wḏ ’eṯ-  hā·’ă·ḏā·māh ba·‘ă·ḇūr hā·’ā·ḏām,  kî yê·ṣer lêḇ hā·’ā·ḏām ra‘ min·nə·‘u·rāw;  wə·lō- ’ō·sip̄ ‘ō·wḏ lə·hak·kō·wṯ ’eṯ- kāl- ḥay  ka·’ă·šer ‘ā·śî·ṯî.  

22 ‘ōḏ  kāl- yə·mê  hā·’ā·reṣ; ze·ra‘  wə·qā·ṣîr wə·qōr wā·ḥōm  wə·qa·yiṣ wā·ḥō·rep̄ wə·yō·wm  wā·lay·lāh lō yiš·bō·ṯū. 

NIV:

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 

21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Study:

Once the flood waters had receded, the animals disembarked from the ark. Finally, Noah and his family also left the ark. Noah’s first recorded action was to build an altar and sacrifice some animals on it. The word מִזְבֵּ֖חַ (miz-bê-ach), normally translated as ‘altar’ derives from the verb זָבַח (zaw-bakh’), which means ‘to slaughter for sacrifice’. So מִזְבֵּ֖חַ (miz-bê-ach) could be seen as a place where slaughtering for sacrifice is done. Therefore, it seems that the primary purpose of an altar should be seen as providing a place for slaughtering animals for sacrifice.

Noah takes a big step of faith, not surprising given his track record, by sacrificing some of the animals. From the preceding section of the narrative we know that seven pairs of each clean animal had entered the ark. These were the only ones now existing to populate the earth after the flood. For Noah to sacrifice some of them meant that he believed God would still be able to populate the earth.

Through an anthropomorphism the text tells us that God was pleased with Noah’s sacrifice. We are told that God was pleased with the aroma. Does this mean that God likes the smell of burning meat? Such a literalistic interpretation of the text should be far from our minds by now in these studies. We need to look deeper and beyond the face value of the words to discover what is being said. Since this claim comes right after the mention of the sacrifices made by Noah, we can conclude that the test is telling us that what was represented by the sacrifices, namely Noah’s utter trust that God would once again fill the earth with life, is what was pleasing to God.

God then decides that he will never again afflict the earth with such widespread destruction. We will get to this shortly. While declaring that he will not afflict the earth in a manner similar to the flood, God also declares that his decision is not made because humans have suddenly turned over a new leaf. Rather, in a damning declaration God says that “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.” Almost the identical claim is made in Genesis 6.5, just after the narrative introduces the ‘sons of God’ and the Nephilim.

So what God recognizes is that, while the worldwide catastrophe had destroyed all the violent people mentioned in Genesis 6, namely, the ‘sons of God’ and the Nephilim, nothing really had been done to transform the human heart. And so the descent into evil and violence would happen again and again. In other words, worldwide catastrophes were not the solution to the problem of the evil in the human heart.

This brings up a curious issue. Did God not know that simply wiping out all the evil and violent people actually did nothing to transform the human heart? Was God so ignorant that he could not even see something that is so evident to any careful reader? Of course he did! If that were the case, then what was the purpose of the flood? If God knew that the flood would not transform the human heart, then why did he send the flood? 

I believe that the reason for the flood was not to transform the human heart but to demonstrate the truth of the claim. According to the narrative, Noah took a few decades to build the ark.¹ During this time he would have been constantly explaining why he was doing this, perhaps incurring the ridicule of his contemporaries. Once the ark was built, according to the narrative, the animals began coming to the ark in an orderly manner. This would have been a heretofore unprecedented occurrence. Despite these clearly strange occurrences Noah’s contemporaries did not once pause to ask after why they were happening. Despite these clear indications that something unique was about to happen and Noah’s proclamation about what that unique thing was, people continued with their evil and violent ways. 

I believe that, if any of Noah’s contemporaries had come to their senses and asked to board the ark, God would have graciously allowed that just as he permitted Egyptians who believed to benefit from the Exodus (Exodus 12.48). However, none of them were convinced that anything was going to happen. So convinced were they that their violent ways were not offensive to God that they refused to believe Noah when he announced that God was soon going to purge the earth of human violence.

In v. 22 God then reinstates the cycles that he had put in place in Genesis 1. All the cycles needed for the land to be fruitful and for the inhabitants of the earth to flourish are once again reinstated. But this time it is done so with covenantal language. God promises that he will not send any catastrophe that will disrupt the cycles that are necessary for life on this planet. This is important to keep in mind for almost always when there is some natural calamity, some Christian leader or the other announces that this is a sign of God’s judgment. However, such a claim goes against the clear teaching of Genesis 8.21-22 in which God promises never again to punish human sinfulness by the means of natural calamities.The covenant God makes here is with all of creation. God promises to be patient in the face of human sin, violence and depravity. And therein lies our hope.

Prayer:

Our gracious, loving Father. Enable us to have a clear picture of how wayward our hearts are. Enable us to recognize that, were it not for the grace we receive through your Spirit, we would simply spiral downward in a cesspool of sin and violence. But enable us to remember that we do have your Spirit to empower and guide us. Lead us in the path of peace and wholeness. Make us the messengers of your grace in this world that so desperately needs it. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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^{1. Bodie Hodge. How Long Did It Take for Noah to Build the Ark? (Accessed on 20 October 2019) argues that it is somewhere between 50 and 75 years.↩}