Living in the shadow of salvation.
A thousand years or so after Adam and Eve had been banished from the garden of Eden the “LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”[1] The LORD determined that He would wipe mankind from the face of the earth with a great flood. “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD”.[2] The LORD instructed Noah to build an ark in which Noah, his family, and two of every kind of animal would be saved.
For 120 years Noah and his sons labored to build the ark as the LORD had instructed them. Year after year the wicked people of the earth saw the structure rise from the ground; an ever-increasing warning of their impending doom and destruction, yet they did not heed the warning. The ship was massive. When completed she was the length of 1 ½ football fields, she was as tall as a five-story building, and she had the cargo capacity of 450 semi-trailers. Noah was instructed to fill the massive ship with 2 of every kind of animal, 7 pairs of every kind of clean animal, and every kind of food that Noah, his family, and the animals would need to eat.
When the ark was finished and the animals and provisions had been loaded, the LORD instructed Noah and his family to go into the ark and the LORD shut them in. For seven days nothing happened. But on the seventh day “the springs of the deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.”[3] I imagine Noah and his family were terrified. I imagine the screams of the wicked filled their ears as the water rose higher and higher eventually wrenching the ark from the earth and tossing the family back and forth on the waves. For 40 days rain fell on the earth and then, nothing. Nothing but the sound of water lapping against the hull of the ship.
Day after day, week after week, Noah, his family, and the animals floated on the surface of the deep. Then after months of being adrift, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Anxiously Noah and his family waited for the flood waters to recede from the surface of the ground. For months they waited. Finally, more than a year after Noah, his family, and the animals entered the ark the LORD said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.”
Can you imagine the nervous excitement they must have felt as the doors of the ark were opened and they looked out into a world that no doubt had been drastically transformed from the one they knew? Can you imagine they euphoric joy that filled these castaways as they took their first steps on dry ground? Can you imagine how refreshing it must have been for these zookeepers to fill their lungs with fresh air?
What do you think you would do first? Considering the ordeal you would have been through perhaps you would seek out a quit and comfortable place to take a nap? The adventurous among us might be eager to explore the new land that stretched out before them. The pragmatic among us might start assessing damages, take an inventory of resources, and make plans for the future. I am not sure what I would do. Probably I would be eager to do all of those things. But I would like to think that before I did any of that, I would do what Noah did. As soon as Noah, his family, and all the animals were off the ark 20“Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.”
There are three things that I find fascinating about the offering that Noah gives. The first is Noah’s willingness to give this offering. “Noah built an altar to the LORD”. Up until this point we are not told that Noah did anything without the express command of the LORD. He built the ark as the LORD commanded. He supplied the ark as the LORD commanded. He entered the ark as the LORD commanded. He came out of the ark as the LORD commanded. It is striking, is it not, that there is no command of the LORD given to give an offering, and yet that is what Noah does. Noah is not forced, he is not coerced, he is not under any obligation to give his offering. Rather, he, of his own free will and desire decides giving an offering is something he wants to do.
We have the opportunity to do the same. The LORD our God does not command us to put money in the offering plate. He does not command us to spend our time in volunteer service here at the church. There is no command of the LORD given to give such offerings. We are not forced, coerced, or obligated to do such things. That means whatever you decide to put in the pate and whatever time you spend in service to the church will have to be given of your own free will and desire. Like Noah, your offerings will have to be given willingly.
The second thing I find fascinating about Noah’s offering is how generously it is given. Noah sacrificed “some of all the clean animals and clean birds” to the LORD. For we who are familiar with the Old Testament and have read about great kings like David and Solomon sacrificing tens of thousands of animals to the LORD we might be tempted to read these words with little to no thought. Noah’s offering was nowhere near the size of the great kings but consider the value of what he gave. In all the world there are only 7 pairs of each clean animal. To put that in perspective, in 2016 a 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $3.12 million because there are less than 60 cards thought to exist. Recently a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for $70 million because there were only 36 cars of that model ever made. Can you imagine the value of a lamb when there are only 7 of them in existence? The offering that Noah gives to the LORD is worth far more than the offerings of the great kings. The thing that makes Noah’s offering so generous is not that he gives a lot out of his abundance but that he gives a little out of his scarcity.
Again, we have the opportunity to do the same. Those of us who have been entrusted with the wealth of kings and queens can give like kings and queens. But it is not only the kings and queens among us who can give generously. Regardless of the quantity of wealth the LORD has entrusted to your care, you, like Noah, have the ability to give generously. Now, the amount of money you put in the plate may not be as much as the person sitting two rows in front of you, the amount of time you donate for the work of the church might not be as much as the person sitting two rows behind you. Frankly, you might not have a much money or as much time as they have. But that does not mean you cannot give just as generously as they give. When you give out of the small amount of money you have been entrusted with or out of the precious little time you have available, you give like Noah, you give generously.
The third thing I find fascinating about Noah’s offering is the confidence he displays in the giving of his offering. Noah sacrificed burnt offerings. This is the first reference in Scripture to such an offering, but it would be familiar to the reader of Genesis. The burnt offering was an offering in which the entire animal was burnt up, that is none of it was reserved or left over for the giver to eat. The burnt offering was a total and complete offering; a giving of all to the LORD. What makes this such a dramatic display of trust on Noah’s part is, well Noah did not have a great deal to work. He had recently been turned out into a cold and desolate world. There were no friends or family to bail him out if he fell on hard times. Should something happen; say his crops fail to grow or his cattle become sick, Noah has no emergency fund to fall back on, there are no contingency plans that he can put into place. Noah is, I think we would all agree, in a very, very vulnerable position. Yet Noah gives an offering that demonstrates his complete confidence in the LORD to take care of him and provide for him.
Yet again, we have the opportunity to do the same. As we set our budgets for the week or month or year, we can demonstrate our confidence in the LORD to take care of us and provide for us. We can do that by making our offerings the first line in our expense column. Before we determine how much we will spend on vacations or going out to eat, before we fund our 401Ks and IRAs, before we even calculate the cost of mortgage and insurances, we can look at the resources that the LORD has given us and determine first what we will give back to Him. Not recklessly. Noah was not reckless is his giving. But intentionally and thoughtfully we can first determine to give an offering to the LORD that demonstrates we have complete confidence in Him to take care of us and provide for us.
We have the opportunity to give like Noah gave. Yet sadly we do not always make the most of the opportunities we have been given. Sinfully, we think of our offerings like bills we are obligated to pay or debts we are forced to settle. Sinfully, when it comes to our offerings, we are stingy with our abundance and miserly with scarcity. Sinfully, our offerings are often an afterthought that demonstrate a lack of confidence in the LORD to take care of us and provide for us. We have the opportunity to give like Noah gave and yet, sinfully, we don’t.
Perhaps it would help if we take a step back from Noah’s offering and look again at the context in which it was given. You see Noah was just as sinful as we are. He also struggled to give an offering that was willingly, generously, and confidently given. It’s just that, well there was that big boat that was sitting there. The shadow of the massive vessel stretched out before him. Everywhere Noah look he saw the results of sin in the devastation of the land. As a descendant of Adam and Eve whose heart had been inclined toward evil from childhood, Noah understood that he deserved to be destroyed alongside all the wicked men and women of the earth who were drown in the waters of the flood. But when Noah looked at the ark, he saw an instrument of salvation from that destruction. He understood how fortunate, no, how blessed, how loved he was. He understood how gracious and merciful the LORD had been to him. For, in addition to Noah, his family, and the animals the ark carried the LORD’s promise to save mankind from sin. There in the shadow of the ark; in the shadow of salvation, Noah found the motivation, reason, and desire to give his offering willingly, generously, and confidently.
In the shadow of the ark Noah gave his offering to the LORD. In the shadow of the cross we do the same. All around us we see the results of sin in our land. What is worse we see the results of sin in our own lives. The evil inclinations of our hearts are revealed in the thoughts we think, the words we speak, and the actions we take. We deserve to be destroyed alongside the wicked men and women of this earth. But as the ark was to Noah so the cross is to us. We look at the cross and see the instrument of our salvation. For on it, the LORD’s promise to save mankind from sin was fulfilled. There the LORD’s wrath was satisfied as God’s one and only Son, our savior Jesus, was sacrificed as payment for the evil inclinations of our hearts. There we see how blessed and loved we are. There we see how gracious and merciful the LORD has been to us. There, in the shadow of the cross; in the shadow of salvation, we find what Noah found. We find the motivation, reason, and desire to give our offerings willingly, generously, and confidently.
Noah’s offering was a pleasing aroma to the LORD. In His heart the LORD said, 21“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” And the LORD placed a rainbow in the sky as a reminder to Noah and the generations of believers that followed that we are living in the shadow of salvation. Amen.
[1] Genesis 6:5-6
[2] Genesis 6:8
[3] Genesis 7:11