Genesis 8: A New Beginning

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 land—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 humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. -Genesis 8:18-21

God had judged the earth; he now planned to bless it. Through Noah’s family, the earth increased once again under God’s promise to keep the earth free from future global flooding.

Much can be said regarding this chapter, but one insight is clear: blessing followed judgment. God’s wrath is not without mercy. His blessing upon Noah’s life led through much good and bad, but ultimately became the pathway God used to bring us Abraham, the people of Israel, and ultimately Jesus. Without Noah, life would be much different. It all began anew following the flood, as God moved from judgment to blessing.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.