Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Noah and Baptism?

The Noahic Covenant is extremely important to Christians. We just need to think about it! The destruction of the earth by water is a picture of a New Covenant to come; a Covenant of Grace!  As with all the Old Testament, I ask myself "What's this got to do with Jesus?" I'll summarize by outline the story of Noah and the flood:

We know the story of Noah from Genesis Chapter 6 through 9:
(Preparations for the flood)
Verse  5: Man was wicked and was evil continually
Verse 6: The Lord was grieved
Verse 7: The Lord, being sorry he made them, said he would blot out man and the animals from the face of the earth.
Verse 8: Noah found favor with the Lord
Verse 9: Noah was blameless and walked with God. He was faithful.
Verse 10:  Shem, Japheth and Ham were his three sons.
Verse 11: The earth was filled with violence.
Verse 12: The earth and the flesh upon it were corrupt and violent.
Verse 13: God will destroy the earth because of the violence of man.
Verse 14-16: How the ark was to be constructed.
Verse 17: He will  bring the flood waters on the earth and everything thereon will die..
Verse 18: God established a covenant with Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives (8 in all).
Verse 19-21: Animals and provisions are put on the ark
Verse 22: Noah did all that God commanded of him.

Chapter 7: (The flood)
Verse 1: Because he was righteous God told Noah to enter the ark.
Verse 2-3: The ark was loaded.
Verse 4: Seven days warning" There will be deluge for 40 days destroying all.
Verse 5: Noah did all that God commanded.
Verse 6: Noah was 600 years old when the flood came.
Verse 7: Noah's family of 8 entered the ark.
Verse 8-9: Two of every kind of land animals entered the ark.
Verse 10: In seven days the water came. (The seven day warning was up).
Verse 11: The heavens and the earth burst forth their waters when Noah was 600 years old. (This is the first mention of what's now known as a Tsunami).
Verse 12: It rained for 40 days and 40 nights.
Verse 13: A reminder that Noah's family had also entered the ark.
Verse 14-16. A reminder that all the animals had entered the arc and God shut the door.
Verse 17: The waters rose above the earth in forty days.
Verse 18: The arc floated as the water rose.
Verse 19: All the high mountains were covered in water.
Verse 20: The water rose 15 cubits above the highest mountains. (22'-6")
Verse 21-22: All land animals which were air breathing died as did swarming animals. (This really limits the number of animals species which were on the ark).
Verse 23: Only the 8 included Noah were left of those kinds destroyed.
Verse 24: The waters crested 150 days.

Chapter 8: (The flood subsides)
Verse 1: God fulfilled the covenant by making the waters sub-side.
Verse 2-3: The rains stopped and the waters subsided.
Verse 4: The arc came to rest on Mt. Ararat.
Verse 5: The water receded for 10 months and the mountain tops were exposed.
Verse 6: The windows to the ark were opened.
Verse 7: After 40 days Noah sent out a raven and it flew until the waters subsided.
Verse 8-9: Noah sent out a dove to find dryland, but it returned finding no dry land.
Verse 10: Noah waited 7 days and sent out another dove.
Verse 11: The dove came back in the evening with a fresh twig. The waters had receded.
Verse 12: Noah waited another 7 days and sent out a dove. It never returned.
Verse 13: The covering of the ark was removed and there was dry ground.
Verse 14: The earth had dried out.
Verse 15: God spoke to Noah.
Verse 16: Noah was instructed to leave the ark with his family.
Verse 17-18: Noah was told to remove  his family and all the animals left the ark and all were to mulitply.
Verse 19:  Noah removed all.
Verse 20: Noah built and altar and offered a clean animal and clean bird.
Verse 21: The Lord smelled the aroma of the ofering. God pledged to never again to curse the ground because man's heart is by nature evil. Neither will he ever strike down the animals. (Promise of grace).
Verse 22: God says that life will go on!

Chapter 9:  (After the flood):
Verse 1: God blesses the earth and tells them to fill the earth..
Verse 2-3: Everthing is given to man for his use.
Verse 4: Flesh with blood is forbidden to be eaten.
Verse 5-6: Man is forbidden not to kill beasts nor man.
Verse 7:  God repeats to multiply and fill the earth.
Verse 8: God speaks.
Verse 9: God established a covenant with Noah.
Verse 10-12: The covenant described. Never again will the earth be destroyed by water.
Verse 13: The rainbow set as the sign of the covenant.
Verse 14-16. With the rainbow God will remember the everlasting covenant never to destroy man or the earth with water.
Verse 17: God speaks again. This is the sign of the covenant.

Now you know the story. Let's see what that has to do with Jesus! Firstly, let's examine what Peter says about Noah:                 

1 Peter 3:20 (NIV) "to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God."

Peter says that the Noahic Covenant is a "symbol of baptism". (I should have thought of that!) As Noah and his family by faith were saved "baptism that now saves you also"! (I won't go into the efficacy of baptism here. There is much controversy whether baptism is a sacrament or an ordinance).

Looking at the chain-of-events from above, here's tha analogy to the New Testament:


We're evil as in the days of Noah. Nothing has really changed except that each day mankind grows more evil and violent! (chapter 6 verses 5, 11, and 13 corresponds with our spiritual condition today.) It's going to get worse!
  1. Matthew 24:37 (ESV) "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."
  2. Matthew 24:38" (ESV) For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark..."
How bad were things in the days of Noah? The world was a violent and wicked place and evil was continual. Likewise, in the time of Christ, little had changed. Man was still evil. After Jesus came evil continues! The "Lord was grieved" (Gen 6:6) then, he was grieved in the time of Christ, and he'll still be grieved when Jesus comes again because man is still evil and rebellious.

Ephesians 4:29 (ESV) "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."
 
Today and in the time of Jesus we know:
 
Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."
 
Noah represents those who are saved. Their faith is what saved them. They are a picture of the believing Christian! Noah was so faithful that he spent years building an ark. Nowhere in the Bible does it say how long it took to build the ark. By calculation of birth dates of children and Noah's age, etc. some have estimated that it took 55-75 years to build the ark. (For calculations see http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2010/06/01/long-to-build-the-ark). 
 
Just as with Noah and his family, we too are saved through faith in Gen 6:7 :
 
Ephesians 2:8 (ESV) "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God..."

If you look at the situation, it wasn't the ark that saved Noah. It was his faith in God and his grace which brought Noah to do something about his life. He could have died too, but he turned to God! It wasn't easy. It looked so foolish, building a boat on dry land! The fools were those whose heart was darkened by the pleasures of the flesh! Salvation by grace for us is a gift just as salvation by the ark was God's gift to faithful mankind.
 
Noah was blameless because of his belief, Gen 6:9. Likewise, today those who turn to Christ are blameless:
 
Philippians 2:15 (ESV) "that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world..."
 
Those today who seek not the salvation of God are just as foolish as in the days of Noah:
 
Romans 1:21 "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
 
God tells us of our destruction just as he did in Verse 6:13 above:
 
Romans 6:23 (ESV) "For the wages of sin is death..."
 
Just as the punishment for unbelief in Noah's time was death by destruction, nothing has changed for today except the method of destruction. Whereas in Noah's time they were punished and died by water, in the end we'll die by fire!
 
Genesis 6:14-16 tells how the ark shall be constructed. That's God telling Noah what he must do to be saved. The ark was built rigidly and securely.
 
1 Corinthians 3:14 "If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward."
 
That foundation; that ark is Jesus! He's the stone on which the church was built. The cornerstone. The church was built on solid rock in contrast to the ark afloat on water, with little foundation. However, that ark was built  solid to take the troubled waters for Noah. Likewise, Jesus is a solid rock that never let's us sink!
 
As you can tell, the ark was the foundation built which was to save mankind. God told him how to build the ship which was the device for salvation. It was to keep Noah and his family safe. The ark represents Christ. God sent Christ to save us, the same as he sent the ark. The ark Noah built had a certain size. It would have been great if all mankind had a place on the ark by being "good", but that just wasn't the case. God designed the ark to accomodate just a few! Salvation is for all, but most fail to accept it:
 
Matthew 7:14 "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
 
Just as in the time of Noah when it was "work" to be saved, that work was just too hard for most. Today we're saved by the "work of faith". Those in Noah's time had too little faith to join in the task of being saved! Now is just as it was then; the "way is hard that leads to life". "Those who find it are few!" The narrow gate we have today is just as the narrow door on the ark Gen 7:14-16. Few entered it! They could have, but they didn't. They could have helped Noah and got saved. They were of no faith! Earth was reprobate. They were damned.  Likewise, those who fail to listen to the message of Christ are reprobate!
 
God established a covenant with Noah Gen 6:18. It was a covenant of salvation! God had no intention of killing off all mankind so he saved Noah and his family! It was a covenant of grace, much like the Covenant of Grace because of Jesus' death for us. The Covenant of Grace was a "covenant of blood":
 
Matthew 26:28 (ESV) "for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
 
The New Testament was a "covenant of blood". The grace was in the sacrificial blood of Jesus. The Noahic Covenant was by water. Man was destroyed by water, but the earth was saved by water! By destroyimg evil, salvation was provided to the faithful.
 
In Gen 7:1-10. A seven-day notice was given that destruction was coming. We now have the same warning:
 
Matthew 24:37-39 ( ESV) "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. "
 
We, like Noah, need to be prepared for the coming of Jesus. His faithful will be caught up in the air (as with Noah being caught up in the water), but most will be lost. They fail to heed the warning made here just as God gave a seven-day warning to mankind before the flood.
 
Noah was told to board. Then the ark was loaded with animals and and Noah's family. (Gen 7:1-16). These were the few to be saved and animals were on board that life may continue. There were animals enough for multiplying, for food and for sacrifice. Then in seven days the water came. It's now time to close the door to the ark.  In Gen 7:11-12 the rain came for forty days and forty nights. Man was confronted with water for the same period that Jesus was confronted with temptation. With Jesus it was in the desert. With man it was the water.
 
Water came from beneath the earth.  Water flowed profusely. Moving water here destroyed, but at the same time, those on the water were saved. "Living waters" is an important theme in New Testament times:
 
John 7:38 (ESV) "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
 
The depth of the water is important! Now for the key point! The flood is a picture of Christian Baptism. For the earth to be cleansed, the water covered all. The earth was completely submerged!  Gen 7:19 says that the water stood about 23 feet above the highest mountain. Nothing was left unexposed. For this reason I believe complete immersion is the acceptable means of baptism and ideally it should be in moving or living water. Likewise, baptism is described as:
 
Romans 6:3 "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
 
By being "buried with him" means just that! Not partially submerged, but totally buried. Immersed!
 
With Noah the dirty earth, the old earth, was totally cleansed by water. Out of that water a new earth arose! God cleansed the earth of evil and made a new earth. That's just as baptized Christians. We "walk in newness of life". After the old person is buried in the water, the water cleanses and a new clean person arises from the water. That's the way the earth was. Noah wasn't baptized by the water, but the entire earth was! Not because the earth was saved. On the contrary, those dying in the water never came up, but a new generation of man arose out of the flood and started life anew!
 
God fulfilled the covenant.  The ark landed on Mt. Ararat. As mankind was saved on top of a mountain, man was saved on Mount Calvary. Whereas, water was at the foot of the ark, Jesus' blood was mingled with water at the foot of the cross:
 
1 John 5:6 (ESBV) This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood."
 
When Jesus's side was pierced, out flowed that living water... and blood. Salvation was by the blood and water was how we were cleansed.
 
In Gen 7:7 God sent out a raven and it didn't return. The raven is symbolic of uncleanliness. What was dirty was symbolically disposed of. Likewise, when man arises from the water of baptism, he's a new man and the uncleanliness is gone, never to return. However, Noah next sent out a dove! The dove is a symbol of purity and when Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit was likened to a dove. Hence, when the entire earth was baptized, the dove represented cleanliness. The earth had been purified. When we're saved and baptized we become pure and receive the Holy Spirit; the dove. The second dove returned with a live twig in it's beak. That twig represents life! When we're born again and baptized we indeed are a new creature with a new life. As the dove stayed with Noah, likewise, we shall have eternal life!
 
The reader should be understanding not only the signficance of the Noahic Covenant, but it's symbolism as a picture of salvation and baptism. I leave it to the reader to examine the remainder of the outline above and draw parallels which seem fitting.  However, Gen 9:15 mentions the rainbow as a symbol that God will never destroy life again by water.  Water will no longer be destroying, but "saving". It is inexplicably linked with Christian baptism. When the water subsided man was saved and the rainbow appeared out of the clouds. The rainbow, for the Christian, is symbolic of God's grace. Hence, when we see the rainbow we should think of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, our own salvation and baptism. In other words we are to think of God when we see that rainbow:
 
Revelation 4:3 "And he who sat there (God) had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald."
 
Isn't God all-knowing? He had our own salvation in mind when he saved the earth from it's own destruction. When he cleansed the earth, he had us in mind. It was a symbol of our cleansing. When the waters receded and the earth was again dry (Gen 8:14) we had a new earth. It had been resurrected! Likewise, when we die we too shall be resurrected. Some day there will be a new heaven and a new earth. The sinful earth will be destroyed by fire next go around. From the ashes will come a New Earth! That is likened to our own resurrection. As we receive the Holy Ghost as by fire, the next time earth will be baptized by by fire and will be resurrected.
 
Man, in his primitivity, communed with God. Few did. However, those with wisdom listened. That would be Noah. He and his household were saved!  Sound familiar? Look at what Luke wrote:
 
Acts 11:14 (ESV) "he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’"
 
The message to Noah was "build an ark on dry land". It was a curious, but saving message. Likewise, God's message for us is that Jesus is the way and the only way to be saved! He's our ark! His ark is afloat and holds the Covenant of Grace. Jesus is our message. He is the Way!
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 





 



 



Colossians 2:10 "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

 

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