Genesis 8:22

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”  Genesis 8:22 

 

It doesn’t say how long the earth will last, but we can be sure that as long as it does there will always be the normal days and the varying seasons.

Genesis 8:21

“The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart:  ‘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.’”  Genesis 8:21

God was pleased with the sacrifice.  He decided that even if all of mankind got even worse than they were before the flood, and had every thought, even from their childhood, as only evil, he wouldn’t ever punish all of the animals and creation for man’s transgressions again.

Genesis 8:20

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.”  Genesis 8:20

Just the fact that Noah willing, and without needing a command, sacrificed animals when there was a clearly short supply to God, shows how great his faith in God was.  He didn’t stop and worry that by killing and offering one of these last animals of their kind he might possibly doom that species to extinction.  Instead, he made the offering and trusted that God would provide and keep that species alive and thriving.

When the Bible tells us that God spoke to Noah, it uses the Hebrew “Elohim” while, here in verse 20, it uses the Hebrew “Yahweh”.  Yahweh, or the Great I Am, seems to be the more familiar name of God, while Elohim is more of a descriptive title of what God is.  So in verse 15 it is saying that the almighty, all powerful creator of the universe is speaking to Noah, while in this verse it is the personal deity that Noah has a personal relationship with that he is offering sacrifices to.

It is amazing that any human can have any sort of personal relationship with the most powerful being in existence, the god that created the universe.

Genesis 8:19

“All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on the earth – came out of the ark, one kind after another.”  Genesis 8:19 

 

God told Noah to bring out the animals, but here it sounds like all Noah had to do was open the doors and get out of the way.  Sometimes God asks for us to do difficult things, but sometimes he only asks us to do something simple or to get out of the way for something else.

Genesis 8:18

“So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.”  Genesis 8:18 

 

Again, here is an example of God commanding Noah and him obeying.  When we hear God, we need to listen and obey.

Genesis 8:17

 “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.”  Genesis 8:17

 

It’s not just time for Noah and his family to come out of the ark, but all the animals also.  God told Noah to bring them out so that they could go out into all the world and cover it as they breed and multiply.  There was no command for the animals to multiply here, just a statement of fact that they would.

Genesis 8:16

 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.”  Genesis 8:16

So now that Noah sees the dry ground, God is confirming that it’s time for them to leave the ark behind and come out into the rest of the world.  After we’ve waited on God, we’ve got to have our ears open to hear when he tells us that it’s the right time.