Walking With Christ

Genesis 6:14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.(ESV)

I spend a lot of time on the Christian side of TikTok. There is a lot of good stuff there. This is from a message I found there on Genesis by Kelly K.

I think we can all agree that the new testament is all about Christ. Many people would also agree that the old testament is also all about Christ. The main character in every story is ultimately Christ. What about the story of the flood? Anyone who has studied the bible for very long at all knows the story of Noah and the flood. What part did Noah actually play? He cut the trees that God provided and assembled the ark in the way he was told. That’s it. He didn’t grow the trees. He didn’t gather the animals. There wasn’t a lot about the story that Noah had to do.

I would put forth that Noah isn’t the main character of that story. The main character would be the ark itself. If the ark is a picture of Jesus then Jesus would be the main character of this story. The ark was made of gopher wood, which we call cypress today, because it doesn’t rot, and it was covered inside and out with pitch or tar. Here’s the thing about that word pitch. This is the only place in the entire bible where the original word used is translated as pitch or tar. Everywhere else in the bible translates that word as atonement.

The water was God’s judgement on the earth and the pitch made sure that not a single drop could come through. After all, what was the purpose of the ark? It was meant to save Noah and his family from the righteous wrath of God because of sin. Sounds a lot like Jesus, no? In Jesus we will never face the judgement of God because we are covered in the blood of Jesus as atonement for our sin. In the old testament, people really did have to worry about the wrath of God. When Jesus was born, the angels started singing “peace on earth and good will towards men”. It’s because of Jesus that we get to experience the love of God without facing the wrath of God. Now that is good news.

Let’s go a bit deeper. In the instructions for building the ark there was a few things missing from what we would call a boat. There was no sail. There were no oars. Noah wasn’t even told to add a rudder. There was absolutely no way for Noah to control any movements of the ark. It was all in God’s hands and Noah had to accept that before going into the ark. This is the picture of what our lives should be like when we hand over complete control to Jesus.

Lastly, the door. There was only one door. There was only one way into the ark and safety. The same can be said of us being saved through the only door there is to heaven. We are saved through our relationship with Jesus and we have to choose to step through that door to be saved. There are a lot of ways to find Jesus, but it is only through Jesus that we find the Father.

There are a lot of way to find Jesus. There were a lot of people who saw the ark. Being close to or familiar with doesn’t save. It’s only by being in the ark that Noah was saved and only by having a relationship with Jesus that we are saved. There will be so many who get close but decide not to step inside. Noah himself couldn’t even close the door. That was something the only God could do.

That door will eventually close. We don’t know when. It’s starting to rain, but there is still time for everyone to get on the ark before the door closes.

Romans 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.(ESV)

Now that is the greatest story ever told.