Today we begin our study of Genesis Chapter 8.
For the complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
“God remembered Noah, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down.”-Genesis 8:1
The statement that “God remembered Noah” marks the turning point of the whole flood narrative.
This phrase appears several times in the Scriptures and normally symbolizes the triumph of mercy over judgement.
For example,
-God remembered Abraham and then saved his Nephew Lot from death in Sodom.
-God remembered both Sarah and Rachel and rescued them from their infertility.
And the most important thing that God remembers is the eternal covenants He has made with Israel.
Notice also that God did not just remember Noah but his remembrance also extended to the creatures in the ark.
Never forget that although man has been created above the animals, God still loves all of His creation.
It pained God greatly that He had to kill an animal to provide coverings for Adam and Eve and it pained Him that a huge portion of his creation had to die in the flood.
It will grieve Him even more when many millions of His beloved creation will have to be killed daily to atone for man’s sins under the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Law.
It is important to remember (pun intended) that the many concepts and principles that we think are unique to the New Testament actually have their origin in the “Old” Testament.
Ideas such as “living water”, “the grace of God”, and of course “the coming of the Messiah” are first introduced in the “Old” Testament.
In the story of Noah and his ark, we are also introduced to a principle that I bet most Christians thought originated in the New Testament.
I am talking about water baptism.
Yes!
The flood represents the water baptism of salvation that Noah and his family went through.
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The flood definitely symbolizes baptism. cp 1Pe 3:20 “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
Aote they where saved by water, not the ark… athough not alitraly baptised, it clearly represents it. next verse, v21 “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us…”
Another example of this is 1Cor.10:1-2 “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”