Noah’s Sacrifice
Noah’s Sacrifice
Noah’s first act upon leaving the Ark was to build an altar and offer sacrifices of some clean animals and birds as part of this act of worship.
Noah built an altar to worship God for the first time ever in Scripture, setting a precedent that would later be followed in Israel’s Law regarding animal sacrifices.
Early Life and Education
After emerging from the Ark, Noah and his family took immediate steps to construct an altar to the Lord and offer up clean animals as sacrifice. According to biblical accounts, when God detected its pleasing aroma He made a covenant not to curse the ground again and destroy life as He did during the Flood.
In patriarchal societies, family heads often played the role of priest to their clan. According to Jewish and Targumic traditions, Noah served in this capacity until the Flood came.
2 Enoch’s polemic against Noachimism sees some peculiar details from Noah’s tale transferred to Melchisedek and foreshadows some things which would eventually come about, including freewill offerings of clean animals on altars that would become codified into Mosaic law almost 1000 years later.
Professional Career
The Bible describes Noah as a man of faith and righteousness (Hebrews 11:7). He is often revered for his role in protecting life during the Great Flood – including ours – thus becoming an embodiment of faith for generations to come. Additionally, we share his DNA.
After the flood waters receded, Noah built an altar and sacrificed one of every clean animal and bird as an act of thanksgiving to God. God was delighted by this offering and decided not to destroy life on Earth due to human greed ever again.
Noah took only one action of his own initiative outside of building an Ark; he was completely ignorant to all the suffering and destruction taking place outside.
Achievement and Honors
After surviving the flood, Noah built an altar and sacrificed animals as a form of thanksgiving and thanksgiving to God for providing protection and preservation to his family and his flock. This marks the first recorded act of animal sacrifice performed by humans in biblical history and serves as an act of worship that expresses his thanks for God’s intervention on their behalf.
Mosaic law codified this type of offering as a freewill offering – an act of voluntary sacrifice meant to commemorate God’s holy days or express our appreciation for some specific blessing.
Noah can also be found in Targumic and Rabbinical sources such as Jubilees, Sirach and 2 Enoch, where his narrative features prominently as one of several antiNoachic polemics in which Shem plays an important part.
Personal Life
Noah was a man who followed God’s instructions exactly, building the ark without cutting corners (otherwise it might not have survived), and taking on board all kinds of animals that needed shelter from destruction.
As soon as he had left the ark, Noah made it his priority to construct an altar and worship God by offering up some of the few clean animals available for sacrifice.
Noah understood this was one way he could give thanks for God saving him from the flood. Since this was before Moses’ Law was given, offering animal sacrifices was quite significant for Noah. Satan may try and convince us we don’t have time for worshiping Him, but Noah knew God is worthy of our devotion and worshipping him was well worth our while.
Net Worth
God gave Noah the responsibility of populating Earth with animal life and multiplying and filling the globe (Gen. 1:18-21). God established that rainbow would serve as a universal sign that He wouldn’t flood again (Genesis 9). Furthermore, He established that any one who took another life will be held accountable (21-22).
After more than a year in the ark, Noah sent out a dove to search for dry land. When God confirmed its safety for disembarking (20), the first thing Noah did on land was build an altar and offer sacrifices of animals clean enough to the Lord (22). These early sacrifices provided a blueprint for later Jewish ritual sacrifices pointing toward Christ as our ultimate and perfect sacrifice (22).