Genesis

Genesis 8:20-22

Right response to God’s salvation is worship, and God responds with sustaining mercy despite human sin.

Genesis 8:20-22 (WEB)

20 Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Central Idea

Right response to God’s salvation is worship, and God responds with sustaining mercy despite human sin.

Authorial Intent

To record Noah’s act of worship through sacrifice after leaving the ark and God’s merciful commitment to sustain the created order despite human sinfulness.

Chapter: Genesis 8

God Remembers Noah, Causes the Waters to Recede, and Reestablishes Life After Judgment

After judging the world by the flood, God remembers Noah, restores habitable creation, receives Noah’s worship, and commits Himself to the preservation of earth’s ordered rhythms despite persistent human sinfulness.