Noah's Life of Thanksgiving
For Noah, godly thanksgiving was more than a moment in time.
Some facts about Noah’s ark you should know.
- The size of the ark was about one and a half football fields long and its internal volume of over 1.5 million cubic feet is roughly the size of 550 standard railroad boxcars.
- Only air-breathing animals boarded the ark, and all the different varieties of animals within each species may not have been represented (for example, every type of dog was likely not on the ark, but one or a few pair of dogs with DNA that has provided for the variety we see today). Since the majority of animals are smaller than an average housecat, experts estimate that anywhere from 15,000 to 75,000 animals made the journey with plenty of room for food and supplies.
- The span of time from God’s first forecast to the wicked world about the coming flood to the first raindrop that triggered it was 120 years. More than enough time to repent and make reservations on the ark. And although it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, Noah actually spent 1 year and 10 days aboard the ark in flood conditions.
And then…Noah exited the ark at God’s command, stepped onto dry ground, and “built an altar to the Lord…and sacrificed burnt offerings on it” (Genesis 8:20). The thanksgiving of Noah we observe at that moment of transition from ark to altar is no different than how he had always lived and worked and followed God. For Noah, godly thanksgiving was more than a moment in time. It was a manner of life.
When he disembarked after the flood, Noah remembered how expertly God had given the command for him, his family, and the animals to enter the ark before the flood came. With patient obedience Noah allowed God to determine when exactly they would exit the ark. Decisions whichlook first to the Lord result in patient obedience that pleases the Lord. For guiding you in life, for protecting you in storms, for rescuing you from the world’s wickedness and your own sins, thank the Lord with patient obedience.
As a farmer, Noah was a cultivator, a provider and a team builder with patience and a respect for God’s creation. Presumably untrained in the skills of veterinary medicine, seamanship, zoology, or hotel management he guided the ark successfully using the gifts God gave him. For giving you your unique gifts, strengths, and personality as a member of the body of Christ, thank the Lord by acting as his agent in your various callings that serveothers.
God had guided seven of each of the clean animals (as defined in later laws of the Israelites) to enter the ark. The purpose of at least some of these animals was to glorify God not by reproducing life in the new world but by dying a sacrificial death before entering it—when Noah offered them up on the altar he built for the Lord.Of the four Israelite animal sacrifices eventually described and demanded by God, the only one that completely consumed the animal in flames was the burnt offering. It indicated complete dedication to God, “I’m all in!” No wonder the Bible describes Noah’s offerings as burnt offerings. Noah was a believer who offered his complete dedication to the Lord. For giving you more than you’ll ever need, and for offering you his complete dedicationthat sacrificed his only Son, thank the Lord by sacrificial giving.
Thanksgiving is the perfect transition for Christians into the Advent season, because it adjusts the focus of our gaze from the gifts of God to the Gift of God—Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: We live with thanks, O generous God. We look with hope, O coming Christ. As Noah prepared for the certain coming of the flood, just as you promised, flood our hearts with anticipation of the coming Christ. Keep us patient and faithful. Accept our obedience and our sacrifice. And use our lives, our faith, and our work as witness to the saving truth. Amen.