A New Start

And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his son’s wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord’ and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake: for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. Genesis 8:18-21

Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12

God brought Noah, his family, and all of the animals in the ark, safely through the flood. Wickedness had been cleansed from the earth. A new start had been given to mankind. Now they were to go out and repopulate the world, with man and with animals. When Noah got off the boat the first thing he did was to offer sacrifice to God to acknowledge that without God there would be no new start. Noah offered sacrifice of the clean animals only. He offered the one extra animal or bird, so that the three pairs would not be harmed. God accepted the sacrifice and blessed Noah and family.

Prayer for Today: Thank You Lord for giving Noah, and his family, a new start. Thank You for using this story to tell us that You will do that for us as well. We often need a new start to get us going on the right path. Help us to remember that it is You who helped us and not ourselves alone.