A Pleasing Aroma

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

A PLEASING AROMA

Gen 8:15-22

15 Then God 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." 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 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. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 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.

22 "As long as the earth endures,   seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

NIV

The ordeal of the flood and the time of Noah and his family being within the ark had come to its conclusion. God told Noah it was time to come out of the ark. We can imagine how grateful Noah was that he and his family had survived, that he had found favor in the eyes of the LORD, and that he had been instructed exactly how to build that ark of safety. Noah saw, firsthand, the mighty power and salvation of the LORD. Was it any wonder that Noah built an altar and made a thanksgiving offering to the LORD? We are told the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, then made that promise of never cursing the ground again because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. This is where we must come to grips with our imperfection as mankind. From birth, we are born with our hearts bent toward evil. We cannot simply evolve into righteousness, for we never had it and will never have it unless we choose to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior; then he becomes our righteousness. That must come at some point in our lives. For some, it may not happen until later in life, as a full-grown adult, while some can choose early in life, as a child, maybe one living with believing parents. Either way, we each must take that step, first into the ark of safety, the cross of Jesus; then we must follow Jesus through the path he has laid out for us, as Noah did. Although Noah sacrificed some of the clean animals, we must be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the LORD.  Our lives should be a sweet-smelling aroma, pleasing to God. What does that look like in the practical sense? Although the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we become pleasing to God, we must then proceed with our daily lives, doing all that life requires. It is how that plays out that matters: how we follow the Lord's instructions, his guidance, influence on our hearts, walking the path he has laid out for us, all the while doing what is needed to live, to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, all the while being a sweet aroma to the LORD. The other truth is in his promise: as long as the earth endures, which is the key truth, for he is the one who sustains the earth until his designated time for the end and the beginning of all things. In the meantime, let us live as a pleasing aroma to God.