Pictures of Jesus in Genesis Page 8

Last week we talked about the picture of Jesus in the story of Noah. I know there are masses of people who don’t believe the story of Noah, the ark or even Jesus. But I do. I’ll tell you why. Because I believe Jesus is the Son of God and He spoke the truth.

If you happen to be one of those people who believe Jesus was a good man or a great teacher but not the Son of God, I respect your opinion but I’m sad to say, that just doesn’t add up. Good men don’t claim to be God. If they do they’re called lunatics. Good teachers don’t stand in front of a crowd and say ‘…as in the days of Noah” if it is only a fable. That’s like standing up and saying “As in the days of the Easter Bunny.” How foolish would that be?  Or  “…as in the days of the tooth fairy.”  Who would take a man like that seriously? No one. And he certainly could not have had faithful followers if he had been that foolish.

So you see, it may sound generous to say Jesus is a good man or great teacher, but when you add it all up…it just doesn’t work. Period.  So let’s continue looking at all these old photos of God’s plan for the salvation of Man. So far all the pictures revealed from the beginning pages of the Bible are all pictures of Jesus.

This week we will continue with a few more pictures of the Ark and the symbolism found there. Starting with the door. Notice there was no instruction of how big to make the door. Whatever  the size,  it was big enough for anyone and everyone to enter. There was no size limit. And did you notice that there is only one door in the whole ark?  One door!  No other way to be saved. Imagine that. Further explaining God’s plan as one way. And something else. There was not a whole fleet of ships. “Choose your own ship”, was not an option. There was only one way for people to be saved from the flood and that was God’s way.  It was God’s doing. Noah did what God expects of all  of us. He listened  to God’s ‘Word’ and by faith, he obeyed. God did the rest.

When God said for Noah to “Come hither into the ark,  you and your house’ it was the first time the word “Come’ was used in the Bible.  It is a foretelling of the scripture in the New Testament  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved AND thy household.”  And when they entered the ark, it was God who shut the door. It was God who maneuvered the ark. There was only one window. It was on the very top,  so all Noah and his family could do was to look to God during the whole episode.  Noah’s family was not to be concerned about the tribulations going on all around them. Their security is found in the Lord and He has them ‘covered’, as we will shortly see. ‘”Lift up your eyes…” is commanded over and over in the Bible.

There is even more symbolism of Jesus and God’s plan for mankind found in the ark.  The ark was built from gopher wood and Noah was instructed to “pitch it within and without with pitch.” Inside and out. The word used for pitch in the old testament is “zepheth.” It is consistently used throughout the Bible meaning what we know as pitch, or some sort of tar. But in the story of the ark ~and only in the story of the ark~ the word used is not zepheth but kaphar or kopher. This word is used over 70 times elsewhere in the Bible. Each and every time it translates to be “atonement,” meaning a ‘covering.’

Already we have seen how God himself made a covering for Adam and Eve to ‘cover their sin’ so they could escape judgement. And here again we see God telling Noah to ‘cover’ the ark and by doing so they ultimately were saved from the judgement of the flood. This also looks forward to the Passover when blood was applied to the doors of the houses and the whole household was saved from the death angel. It was God’s plan of salvation for Noah and his whole family. It’s God’s plan of salvation for us today.

I don’t know about you, but I am always amazed at how picture perfect God is and has been and how stubborn we are to want to do it our way, rather than His.