Summary of passage: Noah built an altar after he left the ark and sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord. The Lord said he would never again curse the ground because of man even though his heart is evil from childhood and destroy living creatures.
Questions:
3a) Personal Question. My answer: It was the first thing Noah did after more than a year aboard the Ark. He gave God thanks through worship for all God’s goodness to him. He also sacrificed animals (a BIG deal since there weren’t really any to spare). This one act brought about God’s resolve to never destroy the earth again–because there is goodness in man despite the evil inclinations of the heart.
b) Personal Question. My answer: Great question because I really don’t have a daily time of worship with my family. It’s something we’ve fallen out of and it ends up being usually on Sundays only. Something to work on and pray about!
c) It’s hard to say since details on sacrifices to God from Adam to Noah are not recorded. We know Abel killed animals for God and these were accepted. I believe burnt (animal) offerings were around since Abel’s time and that Noah had probably done them before. In this case after the Ark, however, I believe God did not order Noah to sacrifice to him and He was pleasantly surprised by Noah’s act of sacrifice–hence, God’s determination to never destroy man or the earth again.
Since Noah walked with God (Genesis 6:9) I believe he knew how to please and praise our Lord. Hence, I believe Noah offered this sacrifice to God of his own free will, knowing the cleansing power of blood over sin.
4a) Psalm 27:6: Sacrifice with shouts of joy; sing and make music to the Lord
Psalm 51:17: A broken spirit, a broken and contrite (penitent) heart–come with a penitent heart, truly sorry for sins
Romans 12:1: Your bodies
Ephesians 5:2: Live a life of love like Jesus
Philippians 4:18: Gifts to others in this case Paul is speaking of monetary aid
Hebrews 13:15-17: Praise to God, do good and share with others; obey your leaders
1 Peter 2:5: Spiritual sacrifices (ourselves) to God
b) Personal Question. My answer: All in a sense because 1) I need to work on all and 2) because they all cost me something like God sacrificed Jesus at such a high cost.
Conclusions: Great lesson on how we can and should sacrifice to God and how we are even if we don’t recognize it as such. My take-away was the daily time as a family with God. I do my lesson alone in the wee hours of the morning. I need to model this for my kids so they see what I do. I do help them with their lesson but we do it Sunday night.
We had a daily time with God during homeschool but we have gotten away from that due to the busyness of our lives. Been convicted of that one.
Great lesson sister, this came at a time where I’m finally learning to sacrifice to God in a daily manner; more fruitful manner. I discovered this through the healing way of playing with an instrument in the Holy Spirit. I trust that He will keep showing us. Let it be that He fills us as we are empty vessels for Him. Amen, God bless you sister.