Genesis 8:10-22

¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark.

¹¹ And the dove came back to him in the evening, and see, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah understood that the waters had subsided from the land.

¹² Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

¹³ In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the land. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and see, the face of the ground was dry.

¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land had dried out. ¹⁵ Then God said to Noah,

¹⁶ “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh- birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the land- that they may swarm on the land, and be fruitful and multiply on the land.”

¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.

¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the land, went in groups from the ark.

²⁰ Then 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.

²¹ And 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. ²² While the land remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

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Worship as a response for deliverance

Noah and his family were rescued from the consequences of their own generation’s sinfulness. Out of gratitude, they worshipped by offering up the sacrifices. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma of the animal flesh burning – (sorry vegetarians). He vowed to let the land continue as long as it lasts. He will never again strike the land with a curse or a devastating flood. If anyone ever asks why God does not intervene when things get really terrifying on this planet, that is why. He has vowed to let this world stay its course. He will enjoy the worship of those he rescues. He will hold back his wrath until the end of the age.

LORD, thank you for your patience with this dark world.