Noah built an altar

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. … – Genesis 8v20-21

It had been a year since God closed the door of the ark. They had been through a whole year of living with and tending the animals, never going outside, and dealing with the unknown.

Then finally the rains stopped, the waters subsided, the sun came out, and the land dried up. Finally, God spoke and said, “go outside Noah.’

Noah did, with his family and all of the animals.

‘The Noah built an altar to the Lord…and the Lord smelled a soothing aroma.’ Noah’s first act on leaving the ark was to build an altar to worship the Lord. The sacrifice on that altar pleased God and was soothing to Him.

Noah knew that the right thing to do after his deliverance was to offer thanks. That thanks pleased God. This is the first recorded instance of man giving thanks to God for what He had done.

Noah knew something that we too often forget. He knew that an attitude of gratitude was vital to our walk with God.

How often do we depend on God through the crisis and lean on him, but then as soon as we get through it we go on our happy way. I know we don’t ‘do sacrifice’ any more, but I think we can learn from Noah’s example. We don’t need to offer up sacrifices of animals like he did, but we do have our own sacrifice that we can perform.

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. – Hebrews 13v15