Thursday, April 15, 2021

WATER CHOKES-AIR PROVIDES LIFE

  Continuing with the story of the flood, it is to the point where all flesh perished save Noah and seven members of his family. God used water to destroy, and wood to save. Trees saved mankind. Trees were God’s creation. They all have a purpose. In this case, hope floated. Likewise, because of one tree much later, hope floated again. That “tree” is the cross! [i]

  Of course, trees have no spirit. God never breathed life unto trees at all, but they support life. Trees “breathe” in carbon dioxide and “breathe” out oxygen. Oxygen is vital to mankind but “waste” to trees. “Photosynthesis” is the process whereby trees convert light into energy. In the process, oxygen is breathed out by trees and other vegetation. That compound, in turn, supports life.

  Some trees supported the life of Noah and his family. One specific tree supported life for mankind. Jesus was “supported” by a tree. That action saved mankind from perishing, and floated hope. Just as in Noah’s time, there remains a “door” to life, but not all shall go in. Perhaps the door to Paradise is Jacob’s ladder. [ii] It was to the north of the gate to death.

  Lucifer has a plan: “I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isa 14:13-14).

  Jacob saw angels ascending and descending into the heavens. Lucifer desires to ascend into the heavens and be God, perhaps on Jacob’s ladder. Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives in present-day Bethany, “the place of Lazarus,” where Lazarus with no breath of life was raised from the dead.

  Since Lazarus died, his soul would have “climbed” Jacob’s ladder, and when Jesus restored him whole, Lazarus would have descended Jacob’s ladder. With Bethany as the door to heaven, the Mount of Olives would be a great place to be buried! For over three-thousand years prominent Jews have been laid to rest in the Mount of Olives Cemetery at Bethany. They were first buried in caves such as Lazarus was. Surely, Bethany is the “stairway to heaven” that Jacob saw as a ladder.

  Just what is Bethany “north of?” The Dead sea — the place that mankind perished in Sodom and Gomorrah. If Bethany is the “door” to heaven, then the Dead Sea would be the stoker to the “furnace” of Hell!

  The point is that Jacob’s ladder was seen in a dream, but that wooden ladder would be to the door of heaven. Likewise, the Cross, also made of wood, would be the base of the ladder. Jesus died there, but he arose at the Mount of Olives. Jesus took the fastest way to Paradise, for at the end of the day, He said to the thief on his tree, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43)

  Those who believe in the efficacy of baptism for salvation, believe that immersion in water saves. It is not soterial, though, and not like the breath of God but His tears! Water is used to destroy. The baptism of John, just as the Earth in Noah’s day, takes the old creation and causes it to perish. When arising from the water, a new creature comes forth but is kept safe in the air.

  Scripture amplifies it well: “And (God) spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” (2 Pet 2:5-6). Therein, water is made a tool of destruction and it is compared to the fire and brimstone of Sodom’s and Gomorrah’s destruction.

  God saved the Hebrews by an exodus on dry land between the waters. God saved eight of the household of Noah by raising them from the turbulent and deep waters. It was not the water that saved mankind so often but dry rock and often, wood!

  The staff of Moses, a “tree” in the hand of Moses, parted the Red Sea, produced water from dry rock and turned the water of the Nile into blood. (Called “Aaron’s rod” there). It budded! God gave life through a tree, not water!

  Now for the key verse:

KEY VERSE: God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. (Gen 8:1)

  God remembered Noah because Noah lived righteously. [iii] He and his household would be saved, just as in apostolic times. The wife, sons, and daughters of Noah were preserved because they were of the “household of God.” [iv]

  God was on Noah’s Ark. Hope floated on the Ark as well as eight people. Unfortunately, also the spirit of Cain (Qayin). From The Legends of the Jews, Cain is the fruit of a union between Eve and Satan. Perhaps it was carnal knowledge because Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness.

  How did Satan get aboard the Ark? Perhaps the same way he entered the Garden. By the “door” to Paradise, and by the door of the Ark. He entered unrecognized, likely through Ham’s wife, Naḥlab or Na'eltama'uk. Another alternative is Noah’s own wife, Naamah, the daughter of Tubal-Cain (Tū́ḇal Qáyin), a descendent of Cain. If so, then Satan may have entered the new world through Ham, who like Cain, would have Satan in him since he would be of the seed of the Wicked One and Eve.

  Perhaps Canaan (Knʿn in the Hebrew) is a derivative of Qáyin (Cain). Perhaps a linguist could consider that because the Wicked One was in both Cain and his seed, Canaan.

  Sin and Holiness would both be on the Ark just as both sinful Judas and Holy Jesus were both on the “Foundation of Peace” (Jerusalem) on the day that Jesus was crucified. The Holy Ghost would depart from the Flesh of God, and the “unholy ghost” from the flesh of Judas.

  Once the Ark was on the rock of the holy mountain where it rested, Shem went to “Paradise” by the way of Abraham, and Ham’s seed was planted in Africa. Much later, perhaps in the days of Peleg, Canaan, of the Wicked One, squatted on God’s Land. He returned to Paradise, so to speak but it was no longer a garden paradise.

  Canaan was useful — Canaanites preserved the land and ultimately became servants to Shem by keeping the garden paradise of Israel safe. (He did what Adam was assigned to do — “dress and keep the Garden”).

  Sons of God (Nephilim) even guarded the way to the Land of Milk and Honey to keep the unworthy Jews from coming [v] the way to the Tree of Life. [vi] God cursed Canaan by making his seed a servant to Shem’s seed. [vii] They are a curse to this day! But that is background information to what is important, to wit: “God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.”

  Waters strangle; they cause air to be displaced by water in the lungs of breathing mammals. Air, pneuma in the Greek, is the breath of life. Pneuma is “spirit” and the King James version also translates it as “Ghost.” [viii] The difference is whether the Christian has experienced death or not. Jesus is “Spirit” up until His glorification, then He is “Ghost;” the only difference that death transformed Him.

  Waters displace air, or pneuma. The violent sons of the Wicked One drowned because water displaced the Spirit of God, what little that was remaining, from them and they died. Those upon whom God had grace, breathed the breath of life above the water. (God again separated the waters from the waters; [ix] real water from spiritual waters.)

   The “Breath of God” kept them alive or rather preserved them for a new nature. Some would retain the old nature, although God had kept them safe. The cunning Serpent made it through the flood and was still breathing death.

  Review again, “God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.” God breathed life back into the Earth. The world was regenerated the same in which it was generated. Adam’s kind were regenerated but apparently not Lucifer’s kind for Ham still sinned. Even Noah had recessive genes for he too sinned unaware of the spirits in wine! Like Eve, his “mother,” Noah was deceived and again Adam’s kind had been mocked by the fruit of the vine — wine! [x]

  The primary definition of “ruwach” (from Strong’s Dictionary) is not “wind” but “breath.” God breathed life back into the earth, and the waters assuaged, or abated. God had displaced, by then, unclean waters from the renewed Earth and displaced them with “Living Waters” from His “belly” so to speak (i.e., His lungs within). Water destroyed and God’s breath provided life again.

  That is the difference between water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water when contrasted with baptism by the Holy Spirit is much the same: ““God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.” Water baptism “drowns” the old sinner, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit assuages the water and displaces it with God’s “Breath” that provides life. The water would perish the old creature, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit would be the “wind” of God abating the “dirty water;” then “dirty” by the washing away of sin; just what God did with the waters in Noah’s day.

  The lesson to be learned is that water did not save Noah nor his household. Wood provided the safety until God would breathe life back unto them. The “wind” that God breathed was the same pneuma (spirit) that God breathed onto the Earth when Jesus exhaled the Holy Spirit when He gave up the Ghost. Life is not from water at all but by “Living Water” from the belly of the Savior, just as Jesus told the woman at the well! [xi] And on top of that, it was always that way!

(picture credit: pathlighter blog; “Breath of God”)

 



[i] Acts 5:30

[ii] Gen 28:12

[iii] Gen 7:1

[iv] Ephes 2:9

[v] Num 13:33

[vi] Gen 3:24

[vii] Gen 9:27

[viii] John 7:39

[ix] Gen 1:6

[x] Prov 20:1

[xi] John 7:38




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