After the flood, Noah builds an altar (mizbeach) offers ascension offerings (ya’al ‘oloth). It’s the first altar and the first ascension offering in biblical history (Genesis 8:20). Noah is the first king, the first to be given authority to shed human blood, the first to drink wine, the first to send an animal up to Yahweh as a symbol of enthronement.
Every clean animal and bird is included. There is not yet a distinction between sacrificial and non-sacrificial beasts, only between pure and impure. That further distinction is introduced only after Israel is separated as Yahweh’s flock from the nations.
And it’s also the first time the Lord breathes in the smoke and enjoys the soothing aroma. The Hebrew has, vayarach yehvah et-reyach hanniychoach, which includes multiple puns. riyach and reyach (verb and noun for “smell”) recall the ruach-Spirit of the original creation.
And the word for soothing or pacifying (niychoach) is a pun on the name of Noah (noach), whose name means “rest” (Genesis 5:29). Noah is the Sabbath-bringer (appropriately also a vine-dresser), and he brings rest by offering an ascension that delights Yahweh for its Noahroma.
What Yahweh smells when sacrifices ascend is Noah, the “righteous man, blameless in his generation,” who “walks with God” (Genesis 6:9), the Noah who finds favor before Yahweh (6:8). Ultimately, this is fulfilled in the righteous whole-life sacrifice of Jesus, for the Father delights in the scent of the Son.
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