When Ark Became Altar Noah Pleased the Lord
Genesis 8:14-22 shows us that "When Ark Became Altar, Noah Pleased the Lord." While the magnitude of the flood boggles the mind, it is outmatched by the inconceivable reaches of God's mercy that focus on Noah and his family, as well as the future of humankind. November 25, 2010.
Some details about the flood you should know.
- The size of the ark was about one and a half football fields long and a little higher than the ceiling in our church; 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.
- The Bible describes Noah as “a righteous man … [who] walked with God” (Genesis 6:9) but in a lapse of judgment following the flood he got drunk and embarrassed his family. The New Testament evaluates Noah based on God’s mercy that forgives and forgets the sins of the repentant, stating that he “became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:9) in his own future descendant, Jesus.
While the magnitude of the flood boggles the mind, it is outmatched by the inconceivable reaches of God’s mercy that focus on Noah and his family, as well as the future of humankind.
The stress in Noah’s life pressuring him to prepare 120 years for the flood and then perform daily responsibilities during the 1 year and 10 days on the ark surrounded by his family and a zoo of animals hoping to survive had to make him ready to collapse or explode or run away on the day he stepped foot on dry ground. But 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.
She thinks her business partner is stealing from the company and she confronts him, but he denies it. She patiently prays for wisdom from God that can sort fact from fiction, and for the fortitude to make the right decisions for the right reasons at the right time in the right way, neither poisoned by unstable emotions nor naively tolerant of corrupt behavior. A couple just got engaged and faces the expense of a wedding. Friends advise them that rather than paying for two apartments they should move in together. Their checking accounts and hormones both nod eagerly in agreement but their faith respects sex and marriage as God’s gifts. This keeps them committed to God as well as each other while living apart until after the wedding. Patient obedience pleases the Lord.
“The waters began to recede. Noah and his family watched and listened from the safety of the ark … The relentless drumming of water on the roof gave way to quiet peace … Blue sky appeared as clouds disappeared … The air was cool and fresh, a welcomed venting of the ark’s odd mixture of smells … Noah sensed the endless days of patient and fearful waiting were nearing an end. He watched the horizon each day … The bottom of the ark scraped the hard earth. The endless bobbing up and down on the waves finally ceased.”1 2 ½ months later Noah could see the tops of mountains. 6 weeks after that he released a raven that found a place to land and didn’t return. 1 week later he released a dove that returned, another week later he released a dove that returned with a live olive leaf, another week later he released a dove that found a home and didn’t return. 1 month later he removed a protective covering from the ark, and 2 months later “God said to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark.’” 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 that look first to the Lord result in patient obedience that pleases the Lord. When the Lord told young Solomon he could have anything he wanted and Solomon asked for wisdom, “the Lord was pleased that Solomon asked for this” (1 Kings 3:10). 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.
Strapped with school debts and staying on top of monthly bills, he doesn’t see much of his paycheck. This daily grind isn’t the glamorous career he dreamed about in college, but glamour is no longer his dream. He understands engineering and makes it make sense to others in a gratifying job that both challenges and fulfills him, because he is using his gifts. Acting as God’s agent serving others in your areas of strength pleases the Lord.
“Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you,” God commanded Noah as he exited the ark. 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. As a man of faith Noah seized God-given opportunities in his life to help him grow and to use his personal gifts as God’s agent like he had never imagined. When speaking of every person gifted by God and called to use our gifts in a capacity that serves from our strengths, the Bible asks God, “Bless all [their] skills, and be pleased with the work of [their] hands” (Deuteronomy 33:11). 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 vocation serving others.
The economy hasn’t come close to recovering, money is still tight, and financial futures are scary. One family understands this, but also believes that God’s promises and principles about money trump it all. That’s making a difference for them this year. Today they are inviting to their Thanksgiving meal two neighbors who have lost their jobs, and they are making twice a much food as normal so that they can deliver leftover meals to a few homeless families they’ve adopted. Tomorrow they are setting a budget for Christmas shopping to avoid the overspending and credit card debt of the past, and to allow them to fund a charity that provides clean water to African villagers. In 2011 they are eating out half as much and contributing what they would have spent to their church offerings. “Noah and his family paused for prayer before they left the mountaintop. Noah gathered stones to build an altar … then he drew his family close to the altar. Their gratitude moved them to worship God with prayers of thanks. From the abundance of the best animals in the ark, they offered burnt offerings. The smoke from these offerings stretched beyond the outstretched hands of Noah, riding the wind high into the sky and into the heart of God.”2 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. Sacrificial giving for his glory pleases 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. He would rather die to his selfish, sinful impulses and their possible world of new pleasures and instead live to the glory of God. He would rather sacrifice what his head tells him is more valuable to keep for himself because his heart tells him nothing less would be appropriate to offer thanks to his Savior God. Let your complete dedication to the Lord be reflected in generous church offerings and charities. Be all in! “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God … Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1,2). For giving you more than you’ll ever need, and for offering you his complete dedicated that sacrificed his only Son, thank the Lord by sacrificial giving.
It had to be more than a little scary for Noah to step foot on this transformed planet. Where was he? Will the animals transition from a domesticated ark where food was supplied to the wild where they need to find food on their own? What if people become wicked again? Where should he park for the next time it rains? In answer to such fears we and Noah have God’s reassurance, “Never again will I destroy all living creatures … As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” With such regularity and rhythm we sometimes overlook the routine nature of this promise like not noticing the tick of a clock or our own heart. God binds himself in a day-after-day covenant promise with the human race. The sun rises and sets each day, because God says so. The seasons cycle from hot to cold from summer to winter, because God says so. Grass grows and glaciers melt, because God says so. And God will always say so. God will always provide, so that we will always have everything we need for patient obedience, for using our gifts in vocation, and for sacrificial giving that in turn please the Lord. God will always, according to his promise, “equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him” (Hebrews 13:21).
Here’s one fact about Thanksgiving we all know, and we take time out today to remember. Blessed by the Lord each day in many ways, thanksgiving for us is more than a moment in time that pleases us; it is a manner of life that pleases the Lord. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on November 25, 2010
1,2John A. Braun, Noah: Obedient Builder, Northwestern Publishing House: Milwaukee, WI, 2004.
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