Knowing The Word in Genesis 8:20-22, Sacrifice and Promise

20 Then Noah built an altar [the first] to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. [Noah acts in accordance with later Israelite sacrificial requirements.] 21 And when the Lord smelled [only record of God smelling] 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 earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” [God’s anger at mankind is appeased by the sacrifice, putting God at rest. The sacrifice brings atonement with mankind while expressing the total dedication of Noah, the true worshipper, to God. Here Noah prefigures the work of the later priests. God’s response is not to remove the curse from the ground but not to add to it either. The flood was over and above the curse of 3:17. There is a similarity between the flood and Sinai, between Noah and Moses. In its infancy, the world sins and brings God’s judgment upon itself. In their infancy as a freed people, the Israelites rebel against God and bring judgment on themselves at Sinai. But because of God’s mercy, he gives them instructions for sacrifice and a hope of reconciliation. “This mercy is shown through a man who is chosen by God and whose right response to God, whether through sacrifice or prayer, constitutes the necessary medium through which this mercy is shown (Moberly).” This, of course, also points to Jesus.]