-
†. Gen 8:20a . .Then Noah built an altar to the Lord
This is the very first mention of an altar in the Bible. I don't really know if
anyone else constructed one before this. Abel and some of the others may
have, but it's very difficult to be certain. At any rate, Noah's altar was
dedicated to Yhvh rather than to one of the heathen deities people
worshipped prior to the Flood-- and according to Rom 1:22-23 there were
many.
The tree of the knowledge of good and bad was supposed to make Man
wise; or so Eve was led to believe. But in eating it, Man became a jackass
who eventually abandoned the only true god and went on to invent his own.
The ancient Egyptian elite, who were otherwise a very bright and well
educated people, regarded Scarab beetles as sacred and somehow
associated with resurrection and immortality. Their chief deity was Ra; who
was nothing more than our solar system's primary source of light: the Sun.
There's just no excuse for that kind of nonsense.
†. Gen 8:20 . . and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean
bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
This is the very first mention of the burnt offering. The Hebrew word is 'olah
(o-law') which means: a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending); or a
holocaust (as going up in smoke).
The burnt offering was the very first sacrifice of any kind involving worship
in the new world; and it set the tone for Yhvh's future association with
mankind in the years to come. How Noah knew about the 'olah can only be
attributed to revelation. But what's odd about the 'olah is that the word itself
doesn't show up in Scripture again until the Akedah scene in the 22nd
chapter. (the Akedah is the traditional title of Abraham's offering of his son
Isaac)
Although 'olah can indicate a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending); it's
improper to construct an altar with stairs (Ex 20:24-26) so that the
ziggurats that man eventually constructed were of course offensive to God
not just because ritual murders were conducted on them but also because
they were essentially stairways to heaven.
Killing and burning an animal may seem a strange way to worship God, but
the ritual did in fact have spiritual significance. It instructed the offerer that
were it not for his offering going up in smoke: he himself would be. In other
words: an 'olah sufficed to ransom a soul from the wrath of God. A ransom
of that nature is of course limited in scope. It actually only purchased the
worshipper a reprieve; which Webster's defines as: a delay and/or a
postponement; viz: temporary respite.
†. Gen 8:21a . .The Lord smelled a pleasant odor,
Anyone who has ever been in the kitchen when something is burning on the
stove knows that overcooked meat does not give off a pleasant odor. A
scented candle smells a whole lot better. But the chemical odor of the burnt
offering really has little to do with it. The expression "a pleasant odor" is a
biblical colloquialism that means just the opposite of something that's
objectionable; for example: "I hate that woman's opinions about men. They
stink."
Because of the extraordinary large number of 'olahs Noah offered, I think it's
safe to assume that Noah not only offered them for himself and his family,
but also to dedicate the new world to God in a manner similar to that which
Solomon dedicated Israel's fresh, new Temple as per 1Kgs 8:62-64.
†. Gen 8:21b . .Then the Lord said in His heart: I will never again
curse the ground for man's sake,
True, Yhvh never again cursed the ground; but neither did He lift the original
curse that was pronounced in the third chapter. The first curse remains, but
at least God hasn't put additional burdens on the soil. According to Rev
22:3, the first curse is slated to be removed once and for all.
†. Gen 8:21c . . although the imagination of man's heart is evil from
his youth;
Had God encumbered the ground with additional curses He would have been
entirely justified in doing so because the Flood did nothing to rectify the
intrinsically evil condition of the post-Eden human heart. So we can all thank
grandpa Noah for those 'olahs because they're all that's standing between us
and world-wide starvation; at least for the time being.
However, 'olahs only obtain a reprieve; never an acquittal (cf. Ex 34:6-7 and
Heb 10:4). There are a number of passages in the Old Testament saying
that certain peoples' sins were forgiven, but David put it best by saying they
were actually covered; viz: hidden. (Ps 32:1)
So what happened to Old Testament sins if they weren't actually absolved by
'olah's? They were lain upon the servant depicted in the 53rd chapter of
Isaiah and justice was satisfied there. In other words: 'olahs don't satisfy
justice; in point of fact, they're little more than posting bail.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
†. Gen 8:20a . .Then Noah built an altar to the Lord
This is the very first mention of an altar in the Bible. I don't really know if
anyone else constructed one before this. Abel and some of the others may
have, but it's very difficult to be certain. At any rate, Noah's altar was
dedicated to Yhvh rather than to one of the heathen deities people
worshipped prior to the Flood-- and according to Rom 1:22-23 there were
many.
The tree of the knowledge of good and bad was supposed to make Man
wise; or so Eve was led to believe. But in eating it, Man became a jackass
who eventually abandoned the only true god and went on to invent his own.
The ancient Egyptian elite, who were otherwise a very bright and well
educated people, regarded Scarab beetles as sacred and somehow
associated with resurrection and immortality. Their chief deity was Ra; who
was nothing more than our solar system's primary source of light: the Sun.
There's just no excuse for that kind of nonsense.
†. Gen 8:20 . . and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean
bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
This is the very first mention of the burnt offering. The Hebrew word is 'olah
(o-law') which means: a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending); or a
holocaust (as going up in smoke).
The burnt offering was the very first sacrifice of any kind involving worship
in the new world; and it set the tone for Yhvh's future association with
mankind in the years to come. How Noah knew about the 'olah can only be
attributed to revelation. But what's odd about the 'olah is that the word itself
doesn't show up in Scripture again until the Akedah scene in the 22nd
chapter. (the Akedah is the traditional title of Abraham's offering of his son
Isaac)
Although 'olah can indicate a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending); it's
improper to construct an altar with stairs (Ex 20:24-26) so that the
ziggurats that man eventually constructed were of course offensive to God
not just because ritual murders were conducted on them but also because
they were essentially stairways to heaven.
Killing and burning an animal may seem a strange way to worship God, but
the ritual did in fact have spiritual significance. It instructed the offerer that
were it not for his offering going up in smoke: he himself would be. In other
words: an 'olah sufficed to ransom a soul from the wrath of God. A ransom
of that nature is of course limited in scope. It actually only purchased the
worshipper a reprieve; which Webster's defines as: a delay and/or a
postponement; viz: temporary respite.
†. Gen 8:21a . .The Lord smelled a pleasant odor,
Anyone who has ever been in the kitchen when something is burning on the
stove knows that overcooked meat does not give off a pleasant odor. A
scented candle smells a whole lot better. But the chemical odor of the burnt
offering really has little to do with it. The expression "a pleasant odor" is a
biblical colloquialism that means just the opposite of something that's
objectionable; for example: "I hate that woman's opinions about men. They
stink."
Because of the extraordinary large number of 'olahs Noah offered, I think it's
safe to assume that Noah not only offered them for himself and his family,
but also to dedicate the new world to God in a manner similar to that which
Solomon dedicated Israel's fresh, new Temple as per 1Kgs 8:62-64.
†. Gen 8:21b . .Then the Lord said in His heart: I will never again
curse the ground for man's sake,
True, Yhvh never again cursed the ground; but neither did He lift the original
curse that was pronounced in the third chapter. The first curse remains, but
at least God hasn't put additional burdens on the soil. According to Rev
22:3, the first curse is slated to be removed once and for all.
†. Gen 8:21c . . although the imagination of man's heart is evil from
his youth;
Had God encumbered the ground with additional curses He would have been
entirely justified in doing so because the Flood did nothing to rectify the
intrinsically evil condition of the post-Eden human heart. So we can all thank
grandpa Noah for those 'olahs because they're all that's standing between us
and world-wide starvation; at least for the time being.
However, 'olahs only obtain a reprieve; never an acquittal (cf. Ex 34:6-7 and
Heb 10:4). There are a number of passages in the Old Testament saying
that certain peoples' sins were forgiven, but David put it best by saying they
were actually covered; viz: hidden. (Ps 32:1)
So what happened to Old Testament sins if they weren't actually absolved by
'olah's? They were lain upon the servant depicted in the 53rd chapter of
Isaiah and justice was satisfied there. In other words: 'olahs don't satisfy
justice; in point of fact, they're little more than posting bail.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=