5. Noah's Ark

 5. Noah's Ark

 

Genesis 6:14 『Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.』The flood symbolizes God's judgment. It symbolizes death for sin. In 1 Peter 3:21, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” Baptism means dying on the cross with Jesus. In Romans 6:3, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” It means that all the people in the world are those who drowned.

God told Noah to build an ark out of gopher wood. Therefore, the Hebrew word gopher (גֹ֔פֶר) becomes ark. 『rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.』The pitch is made by mixing bitumen from the gopher tree. 『The pitch of the gopher tree』 symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ. In Genesis 19:24, “The Lord rained brimstone and fire from the sky, even from the Lord, on Sodom and Gomorrah.” The Hebrew word translated as sulfur here is “Gophyrt” (pitch of the Gopher tree). The essence of the gopher tree represents the blood shed by Jesus Christ in his atoning death.

Therefore, the fact that Noah and his family entered the ark means that they were baptized in water and baptized in fire. The old man (sin) has already died in the water, and the soul (old clothes) has been burned by the fire of the Holy Spirit. And they become resurrected men as new creatures. So the ark simultaneously represents Jesus' death on the cross and Christ's resurrection. Those who enter the ark are those who were died with Jesus by the law, and those who come out of the ark are those who were resurrected with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. So the ark symbolizes Jesus Christ.

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