Summary
Noah’s Ark
Summary
God surveys the situation on the earth and concludes that his creation, both man and the beasts which are all Adam’s legacy, are corrupted by violence. Seth’s holy line has been corrupted either directly by coupling with the worldly and ungodly females from Cain’s line, or by living on the earth with the demon spawn generated by the coupling of fallen angels and Cain’s females. With every passing generation, man’s actions disfigure his likeness to God and take him further from God’s intentions, all the while celebrating their brave aggression against God’s moral order.
God’s plan for the redemption of His creation is to set aside a holy remnant of righteous men and beasts in the ark that Noah will build, and to put every other living thing in the world to death, by sending a magnificent flood to act as a worldwide Holy Baptism. The ark is God’s holy tabernacle. The old creation (except for the remnant) will be sacramentally sacrificed and replaced by grace with the new. The sacramental structure is in three parts: a command that everything in the earth shall die, a covenant that God makes with the remnant, and the promise that the covenant results in rebirth and new life. When Noah begins collecting the animals according to God’s will to fill the ark (tabernacle), he is acting as the Altar Christus because his choosing imparts righteousness to the creatures welcomed into the tabernacle. They are cleansed by God’s covenant and are now fit for rebirth.
The deluge begins in the context of the number 6, the symbol of suffering and the day on which man was formed by God and on which Christ suffered. It is an apocalypse, a revelation of God’s nature, similar to when the sixth seal was opened, scattering worldly men to hide from God’s wrath. During the flood, the worldly men are mercifully drowned in the Lord’s baptism, rather than allowed to continue their free fall into their self-chosen Hell.
After 150 days, the rainfall ceases and the waters begin to recede until the ark comes to rest on a mountain range that separates Kurdistan from Armenia, in Carduchia. This day is calendared as the 17th day of Abib, which coincidentally is the same day that Christ rose from the dead, and when the Israelites passed over the Red Sea. As the waters recede and the mountaintops come into view, Noah eventually releases a raven (symbolizing our carnal instincts) from the ark, which does not return to the ark but is seen flying about presumably feeding on the carrion. He then releases a dove, which finds no place to perch and returns to the ark, where Noah takes it back inside. After 7 days, Noah releases the dove again, which returns with an olive leaf, signifying that the waters had receded from the earth. In 7 more days, the dove is released a third time, and does not return. The olive leaf (branch) and the dove later become symbolic of peace and The Holy Spirit. The peace here referred to is that accomplished by the completion of God’s will on the earth. God further announces that He will remain true to his covenant, and there will never be another apocalyptic flood. The rainbow symbol of God’s covenant symbolizes the readiness of the heavenly to pervade the earthly, proclaims peace between God and man, and its horizon-filling scale demonstrates the all-embracing universality of the covenant of grace.
Bible Study Notes