In Genesis 6, God tells Noah that judgement is coming on the Earth because of the depravity of mankind. The earth was filled with violence and the thoughts of man had grown completely wicked. The Bible declares that God regretted that He had even made mankind, but Noah found grace in God’s eyes. This is the first time in the Bible that the word grace is used. He told Noah to build an Ark which would be made out of gopher wood (cypress), consisting of three stories, having a window in the roof and one door in its side. The ark would basically be a rectangular box measuring about one- and one-half football fields in length and standing four stories tall. He told Noah to seal it with pitch inside and out because a destroying flood was coming upon the world and the only things that would survive would be the people and animals inside the ark. Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness, spent 120 years building the ark and warning the people. Only his family listened. Following the flood, on the 17th day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, where its remains can still be seen today!
The Bible tells us that the Old Testament was written for our example. Everything in the Old Testament is a “type” or “shadow” of the reality shown forth in the New Testament. The ark which saved Noah and his family and all the animals is a picture of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. (1 Peter 3) The ark was made of gopher wood or what we call cypress today because like Jesus it is “incorruptible”. God told Noah to pitch the ark, inside and out, so that waters of judgement could not get in. The word pitch in Hebrew is “zepeth” which also means to cover, or to atone! This is the same word the Bible uses to describe the manner in which Jesus covers our sin with his sacrificial atonement. The ark was covered in atonement inside and out. The window in the roof would be under the control of Noah but the door would be controlled by God himself! Jesus declared I am the door, no one comes to the Father except through me. This giant floating ark did not have many things we would expect an expert ship builder to include such as a rudder and a sail because this ark would not be controlled by man in any way, only God would decide its direction. The ark had enough food to supply all the creatures aboard for an entire year. The ark was SECURE and the ark was SUFFICIENT because it is a picture of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says the ark finally rested on Mount Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month. Incredibly this is three days after Passover which means it’s the same day that Jesus walked out of the tomb- finally at rest from the great storm he just endured as Savior of the world! In Jesus final days he made a declaration saying that “As in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” My friends we are seeing a world much like Noah’s today. Get in the ark today!
