In addition to the firstlings of the flock, Abel offered the fat of the sheep to God (Gen. 4:4). The fat he offered was altogether for God’s satisfaction. The fat is the sweetness of the sheep; it is a type of the tender merits of Christ offered to God for His satisfaction.
Abel was accepted by God and lived before God by offering the firstlings of the sheep and the fat of the sheep, which were types of Christ, according to God’s way of redemption. This indicates that we sinners who have been redeemed by Christ should live before God by such a Christ. When we live Him through our union with Him, we are altogether unto God and live for God so that, like Him, we may be accepted by God and may satisfy God.
Noah inherited the God-given spiritual blessings from his forefathers, such as Adam, Abel, Enosh, and Enoch. Furthermore, by faith he became one whom God considered righteous (Heb. 11:7), and he walked with God in the midst of an adulterous and corrupt generation. He received the revelation from God, and he believed and obeyed this revelation. He worked together with God to build the ark, which signifies God’s salvation, so that he was not only delivered through the ark from God’s judgment but also saved through water from the old age of corruption into the new age of restoration.
After Noah came out of the ark, recognizing that the redemption and the living experienced by his forefathers was acceptable to God, he built an altar and offered different kinds of clean cattle and birds as burnt offerings to be a sweet-smelling savor to God. By this he satisfied God’s heart so that the earth could remain before God (Gen. 8:20-22).
The altar is a type of the cross of Christ. The burnt offering is a type of the perfect Christ, signifying that those who have been redeemed by Him and who live by Him may become a sweet-smelling savor for God’s satisfaction. Ephesians 5:2 says that Christ “gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.” Christ, as One who is perfect and without blemish and who lives absolutely for God, gave Himself up for us as a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. When we experience Christ in His experience and offer the Christ whom we have experienced, presenting Him to God as our burnt offering according to our experience of Him, we also will become a sweet-smelling savor before God for God’s satisfaction.
Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices as burnt offerings, which gave a sweet-smelling savor that satisfied God’s desire and, at the same time, made it possible for the earth to remain before God. That the earth might remain before God signifies that the earth might minister to God that He might carry out on the earth His eternal plan, which He purposed in Christ, that is, to produce a group of people who can make God’s heart feel sweet and become the church for His satisfaction, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as His full expression on the new earth for eternity.