How the flood foreshadows Jesus (Genesis 8-9 reflection)
I am listening through my audio Bible chronologically this year and today I listened to Genesis 8 and 9. What stood out to me were the words of God after Noah and crew are on dry land after the flood and how the story of Jesus is so foreshadowed in what He says.
Sin grieves God so much. He cannot leave the world in the fallen, dark state it has become. He must bring renewal. Here it is I the form of the flood, after the Sons of God (rebellious spiritual beings) have children with human women sinfulness spreads even more. (Whether this is literal or not is one for another day maybe! But it’s key to the story)
The flood wipes the slate clean again. God restores the humans to their original purpose, to multiply His image over the earth and rule over it in partnership with Him.
He makes an everlasting covenant, a promise, that he will not destroy the earth or the creatures that live on it again.
This comes after Noah offers a sacrifice. The aroma pleases the Lord and then He speaks these things:
‘Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
And you,be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”’ (Genesis 8:20-9:17, ESV)
There’s so much of Jesus foreshadowed in this. Here’s some that blew me away:
In the same way the flood provides a clean start, washing away sin…
…so does Jesus’ blood.
In the same way God chooses to step in and intervene in a really dark, twisted, sinful world to bring his renewal…
…so Jesus comes himself right into the middle of humanity. Despite their hearts being inclined to evil from childhood (8:21) his grace and mercy compel Him to enter in.
In the same way that a sacrifice leads to a covenant…
…Jesus sacrifice of himself defeats any claim of death, takes the burden of our sins from us and makes a way for us to enter into the New Covenant.
In the same way the sacrifice is a pleasing aroma to God…
…the sacrifice of our own lives pleases Him. (Romans 12:1) Choosing to deny ourselves and follow Jesus.
The same covenant God made that He would never destroy the earth still stands...
…Jesus is the one who brings the beginnings of the new Kingdom of God on earth which will end, not with destruction, but with the final renewal of all creation, heaven and earth together.
In the same way God extends the commission of humanity back to the humans before him…
…in Jesus we are invited to be part of building his new Kingdom, multiplying His image over the earth and ruling in partnership with Him.
I love how the guys at The Bible Project put it in their tagline ‘the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus’, you can so clearly see that here. The difference is, what Jesus did is once and for all. Hallelujah!
