Year One, January 15

Return, O My Soul, to Your Rest1

Genesis 8:1-12, 15-22

1But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. (The Lord did not forget the ones saved in the ark. First, he remembered Noah, and then those who were with him. The Lord remembers his dear Son, and then us because of him.) And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, (How easily are all things arranged by the Lord’s providence.2 Winds and waters move at his command, whether for the deliverance of his people or for the destruction of his foes.) 3and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. (This disgusting bird delighted in the decaying flesh of dead animals it found floating in the water, just as wicked people find delight in sin.) 8Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. (The dove is like our worn out souls. After being saved by grace, they find no contentment in polluted things, but return to Jesus, who is their peace. He graciously draws us to himself when we are too weak to come on our own.)

10He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. (Surrounded by the new and restored world the dove could live at liberty. In much the same way, born again souls flourish when they are surrounded by holy things.)

15Then God said to Noah, 16“Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh--birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth--that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. (He did not come out of the ark until he was instructed to do so by the same voice that called him into it. “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way.”3) 19Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

20Then 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. (Before he built a house he built an altar. God must be worshipped first in all things.) 21And 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. 22While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Noah’s sacrifice was pleasing to the Lord and the beginning of a new covenant.4 The offering of the Lord Jesus on the cross will always be “a pleasing aroma,” and for his sake the covenant of grace is made with all those who are saved. Are all of us a part of the covenant of grace?

_______________

¹ Psalm 116:7

² Providence  - Usually, when used with a capital “P” it refers to God; when used with a lower case “p”, it refers to God’s will, his divine intervention, and his predetermination (predestination).

³ Psalm 37:23

⁴ covenant - A promise, guarantee, pledge