Amazing Ways that Noah Points Us to Jesus
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You may have heard of Noah and the flood a million times in Sunday school growing up, sung songs about the ark, or even watched as scientists study the history of the world flood. Today I want to dive deeper into some incredible parallels that point us to Jesus from the story of Noah.
The symbol of the dove represents the Holy Spirit. It is incredible how Noah sends out a dove when the ark is ascended on the mountain in Genesis 8:7-14. This is after the flood is over and they are rescued. When Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God is described as, “Descending like a dove” (Matthew 3:6 and Mark 1:10). After Jesus’ resurrection, He sends out His Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) after He ascends to the Father.
These similarities teach us that the Lord not only brings us through destruction, He leads us after we have made it through. He is relational and cares for us.
In Genesis 8:20-22 Noah builds an altar to the Lord and sacrifices every clean animal as a burnt offering. God said that He would never again curse the ground for man’s sake or destroy every living thing. Jesus’ sacrifice of His life on our behalf gave us the eternal promise of salvation if we believe in Him. Hebrews 10:10 shares, “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Both of these promises were made and will be kept for all of time. There is such a great comfort in knowing that we serve God who always holds true to His covenants with us.
Noah is mentioned in the New Testament as an example of how the end of times will be as evil as in Noah’s days (Matthew 24:37-38, Luke 17:26-27). It is shared that just like the people then were going about their daily lives when the flood came unexpectedly, Jesus will come back when no one expects it.
Noah is in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:7. He is mentioned in 1 Peter 3:18-22 as a comparison of the ark going through the water with eight souls who are saved through the water, just like we who are saved by Jesus are baptized.
Noah is mentioned lastly as a warning to the doom awaiting false prophets like the people in the time of Noah. 2 Peter 2:4-11 tells of the seriousness of misleading others away from the truth of Christ.
There are many connections between the account of Noah and of Christ Jesus. It is valuable as we look at Scripture as a whole to see how each chapter is pointing towards the salvation which we have through Jesus.
We are no better than those wicked people killed in the flood. However, the Lord has shown us great mercy by sending His Son and rescuing us from our sin. May the history of Noah remind us of the great grace that Jesus has given to us as children of God. I think about Romans 5:8-9, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
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