Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Noah's Flood - Part II

Catch this, do you know what biblical typology is? Simply put typology is an interpretive practice of taking a person, thing or an event and defining it as symbolically representative of something yet future. So we can look at people, things or events in the Old Testament and see that they are prophetically symbolic of people, things or events fulfilled in the New Testament, or even in our future.

A classic example of this can be found in John 3:14 where Jesus says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” In this case we see that the serpent that was lifted up foreshadowed the healing that would come to all those who, through faith, look upon the God-man that was lifted up on the cross.

We also have a type of Christ in the Flood account. It probably is pretty clear but for the sake of making my point I will go ahead and lay it out. The flood waters represent God’s justice and wrath and the ark of Noah represents salvation in Christ. Here is the cool part that I want to point out; in Genesis 6:14-16 God gives Noah the blueprints for constructing the Ark. Let’s look just at verse 14, and we will look at it in the KJV because the translation is more precise. “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch."
Now I just want to focus in on the two words in this passage that are translated “pitch”. The word translated “and shalt pitch” is kaphar and the word “pitch” is kopher. Pitch was used in the construction of this boat for two reasons; first, to act as a preservative so the timbers would not rot and secondly, to act as a sealing agent, to prevent water from coming in. Now I will let the Hebrew speak for itself:“and shalt pitch” (kaphar) - to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch“pitch” (kaphor) - price of a life, ransom, bribe, asphalt, pitch (as a covering)

Isn’t that amazing? The sealing and preservative agent of Jesus Christ, the antitype of the Ark, is His blood. Remember, you were not redeemed or ransomed by corruptible things like silver and gold but by the precious blood of the one who came to give His life a ransom for many.

AMEN!

2 comments:

Sam said...

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

ExPatMatt said...

Yes. This story has some pretty powerful metaphors that very cleverly tell the story that was intended to be learned from it. The Flood doesn't need to be a literal event for this metaphor to work.

Can you not see this?