Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 8.
“And God remembered Noah….” (Genesis 8:1).
“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD….” (Genesis 8:20).
Genesis 8 describes how the LORD both maintained
Noah and those in the ark throughout the flood (vv. 1-14) and directed him
after the flood (vv. 15-22).
The ark might well have served as Noah’s coffin (a large,
three-story coffin, made of gopher wood!), but instead God made it his
life-boat.
This chapter speaks to the preserving grace of God, beginning
with the statement, “And God remembered Noah….” (v. 1). God did not leave Noah alone in the midst of the
flood and its aftermath.
Near the
end of the chapter, we have another statement of spiritual significance, noting
the first recorded action of Noah when he departed from the ark, “And Noah
builded an altar to the LORD….” (v. 20).
Noah did
not first build a shelter, a business, a statehouse, a school, a hospital, or a library. But he first built an
altar, a church, a chapel where he worshipped the God who had miraculously saved him.
Noah’s response to his salvation was indeed worship.
That altar was a place of sacrifice. Every sacrifice in the Old Testament is a
type of the once for all sacrifice that Christ will offer on the cross. That
sacrifice was a sweet-smelling savor before the Father (v. 21).
God remembered Noah, and, we might say, that Noah
remembered the LORD in worship. This is why we come to worship. All true
worship is gratitude. He remembered us, and we remember him.
What did Christ say when he instituted the Lord’s
Supper? “This do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).
Let us then be worshippers of our God in spirit
and in truth, offering to him the sacrifice of praise. Let us remember him,
because he first remembered us.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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