God’s Curious Remark
In Genesis 8:20-22 God makes a very curious remark:
- 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 man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
- 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (NIV)
Why would God say, “even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood”? The Flood is now over. God had destroyed the evil beings from upon the earth, hadn’t He? Apparently not, or He wouldn’t be making this remark in the present tense. Some Bible commentators see this as a contradiction: God contradicting Himself, or the writer and editors contradicting each other. I personally don’t believe there is any contradiction. God expressed what was true before the Flood, and He is expressing what is true now.
Then why did God speak about the evilness of mankind’s heart? And, why did He say this immediately after supposedly accepting the sacrifices from Noah? I believe this is because God doesn’t desire sacrifice. Man, in his pagan ways, desires them as a means of appeasement. God desires obedience, for with obedience there is never any need for repentance or appeasement or sacrifice. Pagan cultures throughout history, even to this very day, sacrifice to their gods (demons) as a way of appeasing them.
Then, since this is true, why does God accept Noah’s sacrifice, and even specify the ritualistic manner in which it is to be performed in the Temple? God seems to have allowed this because of the hardness of man’s heart, which stems from the Fall (Genesis 3).
But God is also a God of grace, and His acceptance of Noah’s sacrifice is part of this extension of His grace. Noah was truly repentant, and the pleasing aroma was not the smell of blood, burnt flesh and fat, but the repentance rising to Him as the smoke. God is not carnal; we are. To me, the very fact that Noah felt it necessary to sacrifice animals is proof that God considered this desire to appease through sacrifice as part of the inherent evil nature then and now present in all of mankind.
I also believe that when God told Noah to bring upon the ark seven of all clean animals, instead of two as with the other animals, (Genesis 7:2-3), He anticipated Noah’s desire to continue to sacrifice, and thus wanted to preserve the various species.
Additionally, we should not forget God’s indictment of Israel for their ritualistic slaughter and sacrifices, and His call for true repentance and Godly living (Isaiah 1:2-23). Of particular interest is the fact that God refers to these people as murderers, which I believe contextually refers to those who kill either people or animals (v. 21).
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Thank you for this blog, it is very helpful – these verses have always perplexed me. I think a lot of Christians are perplexed by them. I have Christian friends that when I *preach* vegetarianism, use these among other verses as back up for their reason to eat meat, *God commanded sacrifice* and *put animals here for us to eat* and so on. This will help in the future if there are further debates.
You’re welcome, and thank you for your comments. This is one of the reasons that we use verses like these in our discussions. We have found that it is far better to talk about compassionate living, as opposed to debating Bible verses. People usually don’t want to admit that they aren’t compassionate, for the killing of animals for human use and consumption can never be compassionate.
Thankyou, Frank. The matter you raise, as to whether or not God wanted or ever wants, animals to be killed to “please” Him, seems so important, especially to those who do not want to kill anything. My impression is that some early leaders of the church (e.g. Nicene Council, Constantinople, 553 A.D)., also had decided that God was a very judgmental, vengeful God, and they, too, would have agreed with sacrifice in order to ‘appease’ this ‘jealous’ God of their own making! Yet the only way for man to make up for his wrong actions, including slaughter etc., is to make every possible effort to live the Ways of God, as taught and demonstrated by Jesus, which includes respect, caring and harmlessness towards all of His Precious Creation – humans, all animals, the earth – soil, air, water. (polluted in our time on earth), – i.e. EVERYTHING of God’s making…