Genesis 8: 20-22
If we think about what happens on the earth, we may be astonished at the patience of God. When He created man, sin entered into the world. He drove him out of Paradise and sin multiplied. After having called Abraham, He chose the people of Israel; priesthood, and royalty; all are unfaithful. The way in which man abused everything God did in his favour, and spoiled all that He established, did not hinder God persevering towards him. What has He then in view in persevering and being patient in spite of it all? From the beginning to end the object is Christ. God’s patience bears with His poor creatures, for He can rest in Christ.
Faith answers to those thoughts of God; it grasps them and understands God in His ways. Without doubt the heart suffers in the midst of evil, even if circumstances are difficult, faith is at rest. It waits. It grasps God’s thoughts by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acted so that a Jephthah, a Jonathan and many others were waiting on God, so that He might use them. By the Holy Spirit, faith answers in the heart to God’s thoughts. It embraces their extent from beginning to the end. It knows how to wait and, in a way, it is not less than God Himself. At the same time, it puts us in our place, for it waits on God and is persuaded that God knows what He has to do. It leads to activity, as soon as it is certain that God wants us to act. Then the highest mountain becomes a plain. Moses holds up his rod; Israel enters into the sea. There is no more sea, the obstacle is gone, for faith thinks like God.
God bears with all the evil man can do, for He has Christ’s glory in view, and that that glory will become more glorious after all that seemed to nullify it. It is the same for us: we know that God will glorify Jesus and that all the efforts of Satan will only make Christ’s glory spring up in a brighter way. Joshua and Caleb were faithful in the midst of unfaithful Israel. They bore the consequences of that unfaithfulness of the people, but with the certainty of entering into the land of Canaan, where the others should not enter. It is the same with Elijah, and, at the end, he went up into heaven in a whirlwind. It often happens, in God’s ways, that faith must undergo, even maybe in chastisement, the consequences of man’s sin; but in that faith waits with God, for it knows that God will glorify Himself, and it is satisfied. This can happen to anyone, like Noah or Paul. Faith thinks with God, otherwise it cannot think like God, for God thinks from above and we think from below. It is from above that God presents and manifests His thoughts in Christ. God’s counsel in Christ sustains, if I can so express myself, patience in God. What leads to God bearing and blessing instead of cursing is the sweet odour which comes up from Noah’s sacrifice, a type of Christ’s. It is here (v 20) that we see the altar for the first time.
God repented in His heart that He had made man. He can create and destroy. This has nothing to do with His gifts which are without repentance. There are many things which God created which He does not want to retain. He repented that He had made man and destroys him. But here we find a new thing: the altar. God smelled a sweet odour and said in His heart, “I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of man”, v 21. As long as the earth remains, that sweet savour will have continual efficacy. The order of the earth will not cease whatever man’s sin; that is the heart of God. His affections are occupied with Christ, with the sweet savour of His sacrifice, and He acts towards the world in virtue of that fragrance. He can impose chastisements of various kinds, but nothing will deny the virtue of His Beloved’s sacrifice. He acts towards the earth in virtue of that sweet odour. What a thing for us to know all that moves God’s heart! The Bible reveals it to us. When God’s perfection meets something which answers to Him, He accepts it and it is the perfection of the cross. Faith leans on that, it knows the heart of the One who gave His Son. From the beginning, God had Christ in view, and that is why He bore the sins which were before the cross, Rom 3: 25.
Salvation is in one sense something which is to come, which we do not yet have. To accomplish that salvation God acts towards us, in virtue of the sweet odour of Christ’s sacrifice. If God says, “I will no more henceforth curse”, faith knows on what He bases that upon. It thinks with God as to sin. It knows that all that He will do towards us, despite all our failures, will be in virtue of the satisfaction which He finds in the sacrifice of His Lamb, of the One who was made sin for us, so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.
God is occupied with one thing, with Christ. I know that He must act according to that. I enter by faith into the thoughts of God and this sanctifies me. He does not act only with past sins atoned for, but according to the value of the sacrifice to God. Through all, my faith counts on God and on His heart. I meet difficulties, the church even is in ruin; but, whatsoever happens, we count on God in Christ and our heart goes on, filled with joy and assurance in His communion.
2nd June 1844
Translated from ‘Le Messager Evangélique’