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.” (Genesis 8:20-21)
Noah’s faith and heart for God is incredible. The first thing that Noah did after he got off the ark was build an altar and worship God. It takes a faithful person who trusts God with their whole heart to praise God after being on an ark for forty days and nights, having no control over which way the ark drifted to and fro. Instead of finding a small corner of earth to spend some “me” time, or to enjoy the new landscape after being confined for weeks on end, Noah looks to the God who created it all and spends his first moments praising and acknowledging His goodness. Even in the most difficult seasons and experiences, this moment reminds us to take the time to first rest in prayer or sing to our God for what he has done and is doing in our lives.
While Noah’s faith is great, it is shadowed by the greater faithfulness of God. Noah had a faithful God who he could listen to, trust, and obey. Before the flood, God told Noah exactly what was going to happen, and it did. Then, God smelled the pleasing aroma of Noah’s offerings—his heart for God—and promised that He will never strike down every creature again. This only adds to the other promises that we can trust He will keep. It is easy to forget that He is the sovereign God who fulfills His promises. The greatest promise that He has for us is in Jesus who became a man and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for us so that we, in all our filth, would be pleasing to our father in Heaven through Him. As Paul says in Romans 12:1, we worship God by presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. We can be confident in going to God first and continue to worship Him in all that we do, because He is trustworthy and loves us more than we can fathom.