Though Noah had evidence that indicated that the waters had subsided, we find that in Genesis 8 he still waits on God to give the instruction to leave the ark. Once God’s command comes to do so, Noah, his family, and all the animals carried on the ark disembarked. Immediately after that, we see in verse 20 that Noah builds an altar and worships God. In response, God gives us an incredible promise.
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.”
Genesis 8:20-22, ESV
God knew that even though Noah found favor in His sight, that man would still tend towards wickedness. Even Noah would fall prey to sin. Yet, despite that sin, despite that wickedness, God would never level punishment out like He did with the flood. In reality, when God brought the flood, it was a deserved punishment. Yet God chose to save all the rest of mankind through one man: Noah. Sound familiar?
It is often said that there’s a scarlet thread which runs through all the books of the Bible, at least the 66 books that make up the Bible without a particular denomination’s extra books, their Apocrypha. In Genesis we see a prophecy of Christ at the fall, when God tells Even that her offspring will crush the skull of the serpent as it strikes at the heel. Here, we see a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do. Paul wrote eloquently in Romans 5:18-21 how righteousness and salvation comes through one man, Christ Jesus. How God deal with humanity through Noah serves to point us towards Jesus. It reminds us that God can and will save us through the action of the Son of Man, that Jesus is sufficient and up to the task. That is why the Protestant reformation and subsequently Reformed theology insists on solus Christus, Christ alone, as one of the solas as the foundation of our belief.
The promise made through Noah goes beyond the promise not to destroy all life. It goes beyond the promise not to change the earth so that what we understand about the seasons, about day and night, shall not go away. He will not cause this to happen again, and that’s something to rejoice, yes. But of even greater reason to praise God is the foreshadowing, the pointing to Jesus, that He gave us through Noah. Jesus alone is all that’s necessary to save us from our sins. Jesus alone is the only one who can restore us and allow us to be clothed in His righteousness so that we may have eternal life. Jesus alone is enough for us to make it each day in this life. Jesus alone!
Be Encouraged Devotionals 