In this study, we’ll take a
look at Noah’s life after the flood and see how he was a great portrait of
Jesus Christ in several aspects of God’s atonement program. Even in his widely
perceived sin of drunkenness in the twilight of his life—the only blot,
sinfully speaking, on his record from a human perspective—Noah was still a
great portrait of the Savior.
We can make this comparison
of Noah with Jesus Christ and the atonement plan of God because the volume of
the Bible is about Christ and the atonement that He came to delightfully
fulfill at His Father’s edict:
Ps 40: 7-8
“Then said I [Jesus Christ], Lo, I come: in the volume of the
book [the Bible] it is written of me, I delight to do thy
[God, the Father’s] will, O my God [the Father]:
yea, thy law is within my heart.” {within…:
Heb. in the midst of my bowels}
And again, the Bible
depicts Jesus Christ from cover to cover:
Lu 24:27 “And
beginning at Moses [Genesis—the first book of Moses] and all the
prophets, he [Jesus] expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
We will depend totally and
solely on the Holy Spirit to be our teacher as we compare Noah spiritually with
Christ as the Holy Spirit leads us:
1Co 2:13 “Which
things [i.e., things pertaining to God’s atonement] also we
speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but
which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things
with spiritual.”
Now, let us move to our
study.
We will start with God’s directive to leave the ark in
Genesis 8:15-19:
“And God spake unto Noah, saying, go forth of the ark, thou, and
thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with
thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of
fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be
fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his
sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every
creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth
upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.” {kinds: Heb. families}
These verses have in view the beginning of time as
Noah and his family go forth from the ark with all the creatures with the
command to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth (see also Gen 9:1) which was
the same command given by God to Adam and Eve at the very beginning of time and
which command spiritually parallels the command given to Jesus Christ (the last
Adam, 1Cor 15:45-47) to raise up spiritual seed for His brother, the first
Adam:
Gen 1:27-28 “So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [fill] the earth,
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon
the earth.” {moveth: Heb.
creepeth}
De 25:5-6 “If brethren dwell
together, and one of them die (the first
Adam died spiritually after sinning), and have no child (elects), the wife (the eternal church) of the dead shall not marry without unto a
stranger: her husband’s brother (Jesus
Christ—the last Adam) shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife,
and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her. And it shall be, that the firstborn (the elects) which she beareth shall
succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not
put out of
Lu 20:28 “Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any
man’s (Jesus Christ—the last Adam) brother die (the first Adam died spiritually after sinning), having a wife, and
he die without children (elects),
that his brother (Jesus Christ—the last
Adam) should take his wife (the eternal church), and raise up seed unto his
brother (the first Adam).”
Ge 38:8-10 And
Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife,
and marry her, and raise up seed (elects) to thy
brother. And Onan knew that
the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his
brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should
give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the LORD:
wherefore he slew him also.” {displeased…: Heb. was evil in the eyes of the
Lord}
Ge 38:13-18
“And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his
sheep. And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is
by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.
When
Ge
38:27 “And it came to pass in the time
of her travail, that, behold, twins (portraying
elects) were in her womb.”
Getting back to Noah and the aftermath of the flood,
the beginning of time in a new world is also in view after the cataclysmic
changes caused by the flood which caused God to compare the old world and the
new world in this manner:
2Pet 3:5-7 “For
this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were
of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the
world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and
the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
Additionally, God telling Noah to go forth out of the
ark is also depicting the fullness of time when God, the Father, sent His Son
into this world to fulfill in time that which He accomplished as the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world:
Gal 4:4-5 “But
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
After coming out of the ark, God tells us that Noah
played the role of priest, mediator, and intercessor:
Ge 8:20 “And Noah
builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every
clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings [spiritually
depicts intercessory prayers—Isa 56:7] on the
altar.”
Again, Noah was only
foreshadowing Christ as we read of Christ:
Heb 2:17 “Wherefore in all things it behoved him [Jesus] to be made like unto his
brethren [the elect], that he [Jesus] might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people [the elect].”
Heb 9:11-12 “But Christ being come an high priest
of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with
hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and
calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us.”
Heb 7:24 “But this man, because he [Jesus]
continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.” {an…:
or, which passeth not from one to another}
1Ti 2:5 “For there is one God, and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
Isa 53:12
“Therefore will I [God] divide him [Jesus] a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he [Jesus]
was numbered with the transgressors; and he [Jesus] bare the sin
of many [the elect], and made intercession for the
transgressors [the elect].”
Heb 7:25 “Wherefore he [Jesus] is able
also to save them [the elect] to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them.” {to the…: or, evermore}
Before the flood, Noah
was a preacher of the gospel to his generation:
2Pe 2:5 “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah
the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the
flood upon the world of the ungodly;”
And, as Noah preached, it was Jesus Christ, through the
Holy Spirit, who was actually preaching:
1Pe 3:18-20 “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the
spirits in prison [See Isa 61:1, Ps 142:7, and Isa 42:7 for an understanding that before anyone is saved
his or her soul and spirit are in Satan’s prison]; 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.”
However, only eight souls were saved in Noah’s
distinguished ministry! Well, it was not much better in Christ’s earthly
ministry: After preaching perfectly and doing countless miracles (including
miraculously feeding several thousands on different occasions) for three and a
half years from his baptism in 29 A.D. to his crucifixion in 33 A.D. (See Biblical Calendar, Page 26) only a range
from 120 to above 500 persons were truly saved:
Ac 1:15 “And in those days Peter stood up in the
midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an
hundred and twenty,)”
1Co 15:6 “After that, he [Jesus] was seen
of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto
this present, but some are fallen asleep.”
In His own words,
Jesus attested to the low number of true believers in his time:
Mt 7:14 “Because strait is the gate, and narrow
is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it. {Because: or, How}”
Why was there no significant fruits to either Jesus’
or Noah’s ministry, especially when both were faithful preachers in themselves and
had the Holy Spirit within them and so the gospel was clear and readily
available? The answer is that God sent a spiritual famine of the hearing
of the gospel amongst the hearers:
Am 8:11 “Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of
bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:”
God made their audiences who could hear (physically)
dull of hearing, spiritually:
Mt 13:15 “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their
ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any
time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I
should heal them.”
This verse is taken by Jesus from Isaiah
where God takes the responsibility for making their hearts wax gross, making
their ears dull of hearing, and closing of their eyes:
Isa 6:
9-10 “And he [God] said,
Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye
indeed, but perceive not. {indeed, but understand: or, without ceasing, etc:
Heb. in hearing, etc} Make the heart of this people fat, and make their
ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”
And, as we have seen earlier, for anyone to be saved
God must do the work of causing that person to believe (John 6:29) by giving
him or her the faith that is in Jesus Christ by grace (Eph 2:8):
Heb 4:2 “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well
as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with
faith in them that heard it.” {the word…: Gr. the word of hearing}
{not being…: or, because they were not united by faith to}
So, once more, we see just how perfect a typology Noah
is of Jesus Christ, even in the results of the immediate fruits of his
ministry.
Now let us consider the phrase “saved by water” in
1Peter 3:20 quoted above. How can God say that the waters of judgment saved
Noah’s family? How is this possible? In the historical circumstances, as the
water of the flood rose, it bore up the ark (wherein was Noah’s family) on the
surface of the water but to those outside the ark, the same water became a
deluge of death pressing down on them more and more as the height of the water
rose adding more weight on top of their bodies and thereby caused fossilization
in the rocks of the skeleton of animals with larger bone structures (hence we
find fossilized dinosaur skeletons, etc. today). However, that was the natural
phenomenon. There is also the spiritual reality: The water of the flood is a
portrait of the gospel (Eph 5:26, Joh 4:14) and the
gospel is a two-edged sword (Heb 4:12). And as the gospel is preached, it is
the savor of life unto life to those who are being saved and the savor of death
unto death to those who are perishing (2Cor 2:15-17). So on the one hand the
gospel imparts eternal life from Jesus Christ and increasing growth in grace
from His word (life unto life), typified by the ark rising more and more on the
surface of the water and moving closer and closer to heaven. And, on the other
hand, the gospel imparts spiritual death unto increasing condemnation in the
lake of fire forever, the second death (death unto death), typified by the
ungodly world of Noah’s generation being buried deeper and deeper by the
pressure of the rising water. So now we can see from the natural and spiritual
realms why God stated that Noah’s family was saved by water that also caused
the death of the whole creation that had the breath of life.
Now let us continue with Noah’s life after the flood.
We see God blesses Noah and his sons and establishes the rainbow as a sign of
His everlasting covenant as God indicates below:
Ge 9:1 “And God
blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth.”
Ge
9:13-17 “I [God] do set my
bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the
earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the
bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is
between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall
no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud;
and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the
earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which
I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
Well, God also blessed
Jesus Christ and His sons (the elect):
Mt 21:9 “And the multitudes that went before, and
that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is
he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
Eph 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us [the elect] with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: {places:
or, things}
1Ti 6:15 “Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate,
the King of kings, and Lord of lords;”
Furthermore, God also uses Noah’s rainbow covenant as
a portrait of the eternal covenant of peace that He has made with Jesus and His
people:
Isa 54:1
“Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are
the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.”
And verse 9 establishes
the eternal covenant of peace with the barren woman:
Isa 54:9 “For this
is as the waters of Noah unto me [God]: for as I
have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth;
so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.”
God gives us the identity of this barren woman: she is
the eternal church,
Gal
4:26-27 “But
Ps 137:6 “If I do not remember thee, let my tongue
cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not
Heb 13:20 “Now the God of peace, that brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep [the
eternal church—Psa 79:13, Joh
10:11], through the blood of the everlasting covenant,” {covenant:
or, testament}
This
Re 21:2 “And I John saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband.”
Re 21:10 “And he carried me away in the spirit to a
great and high mountain, and shewed me that great
city, the holy
Heb 12:22 “But ye are come unto
Thus, once more, Noah is a
perfect typology of Jesus Christ in the blessing he receives and the covenant
God established with him, God having done the same with Jesus.
Now, all who have lived on this earth since the flood
of Noah descended from Noah:
Ge 9:19 “These are
the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.”
And, just as Noah is the father of all that are alive today
in the new heaven and earth , after the flood
destroyed the former earth, so it is that Jesus Christ is the father of all the
living in the new heavens and the new earth to be created at the very end of
time:
Isa 66:22 “For as
the new heavens and the new earth, which I [God, the Father] will
make, shall remain before me [God, the Father], saith the LORD, so shall your seed [Christ’s people
begotten forth of His loins-1Pet 1:3, 1Cor 4:15] and your [Christ,
Himself] name remain.”
The picture here is the same as we have seen all
along: Noah is a perfect type of Jesus Christ in the atonement.
Now we have come to what most people in the
theological world would call the “dark days” of Noah’s life when he fell into the
sins of drunkenness and nakedness. As we will see, this widespread
misconception is really the most glorious time spiritually in Noah’s life and
also, spiritually, the most glorious time for the world of believers. The
historical account of this time in Noah’s life is given below:
Ge 9:20-24 “And
Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank
of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham,
the father of
Firstly, we see Noah as a husbandman planting a
vineyard. Jesus says His father is the husbandman and He, Jesus, is the vine
that His Father planted in the vineyard and the disciples are the branches of
the vine as we read:
Joh 15:1
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”
Joh
15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the
branches:”
So, Noah by becoming a husbandman and planting a
vineyard is once again depicting the roles of God, the Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ in the saving of the elect of God depicted by the branches.
Secondly, we are told that
Noah drank the wine from this vineyard and drank so much that he became drunk
(deep sleep, unconsciousness). Here, Noah becomes a monumental portrait of the
Lord Jesus who drank the wine of God’s wrath that put him to death (pictured by
sleeping):
Ps 78:65 “ Then the Lord (Jesus)
awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man (Jesus)
that shouteth by reason of wine.”
The same judgment that the wicked suffers at the end
of the world is the same judgment Christ suffered for His wicked people that he
came to save by going to the cross and paying for their sins:
Ps 75:8 “For in the hand of the LORD there is
a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth
out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring
them out, and drink them.”
In suffering this judgment, Christ was treading the
winepress (God’s wrath) that God built in the vineyard (Isa
5:1-2, Mat 21:33) all by Himself:
Isa 63:3 “I [Jesus] have trodden the
winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will
tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.”
Re 19:15 "And out of
his [Jesus] mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the
nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth
the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."
Thus, once more, we see Noah is a great picture of
Jesus Christ by him drinking the wine he made from his vineyard, having had to
build a winepress to extract the juice from the grapes.
Now lets deal with Noah’s state of drunkenness, the
so-called dark moment of his life. Yes, drunkenness is a gross sin (Ga 5:21, 1Co 5:11):
De
21:20-23 “And they shall say unto the
elders of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not
obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the
men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all
But, as we should be able to see from the portion of
the passage that is bolded, Noah’s drunkenness is being used by God as a
picture of the Son of God (Jesus Christ) who at the time of the cross (crucifixion
on the tree) when He took the sins of the elect, who were stubborn, rebellious,
gluttons, and drunkards in God’s eyes, He himself became what the elect were
before God (i.e., accursed of God) and the elect became what Jesus Christ was
(righteous and holy) before God (2Cor 5:21, Rom 15:3, 1Pet 2:24). This is why
God allowed the Jews to falsely accuse Jesus in the manner below to satisfy
Deuteronomy 21:20-23:
Mt 11:19 “The Son of man [Jesus]
came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a
winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom [Jesus
Christ-1Cor 1:30] is justified of her children [the elect].”
And, we see the fulfillment of this false accusation
according to De 21:20-23:
Ac 5:30 “The God of our
fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.”
Ac 10:39 “And we are
witnesses of all things which he [Jesus] did both in the land of the Jews, and
in
Ga 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us [the elect]
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,
cursed is every one that hangeth
on a tree:”
And, even the fulfillment of the portion of De
21:20-23 that Jesus’ body would not remain all night (i.e., Friday night before
the Sabbath) upon the tree was also carried out (we covered this earlier with
Joshua’s hanging of the King of Ai in Joshua 8:29):
Joh 19:31 “The Jews therefore, because it was the
preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath
day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that
they might be taken away.”
Can we see how even in his drunkenness (so gross a sin
that its just punishment was stoning to death which is equivalent to being
accursed of God by hanging from a tree), that even then, Noah was a great
picture of the Savior in the atonement? Amen.
After this, we see Noah was uncovered (Ge 9:21). To be uncovered spiritually depicts that one’s
nakedness (i.e., open sins, as shown later on) is being uncovered (i.e.,
exposed, discovered) upon God’s altar of judgment:
Ex 20:26 “Neither shalt thou
go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered [uncovered—same
Hebrew word as used in Ge 9:21] thereon.”
But Jesus was also
similarly uncovered upon the altar of God’s judgment:
Joh 19:23” Then the soldiers, when they had crucified
Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a
part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the
top throughout.” {woven: or, wrought}
God, gives us the understanding of the significance of
Jesus’ uncovering in Isaiah:
Isa
53:4-5 “Surely he [Jesus] hath borne our [the elect--the
sheep] griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
healed.” {wounded: or, tormented} {stripes: Heb. bruise}
So, even Noah’s uncovering is a reflection of God’s
uncovering of Jesus Christ upon the cross for the sins of the elect.
Next we see that Noah’s uncovering was inside his tent
(Ge 9:21). The tent is sometimes a picture of the
eternal church:
Isa 33:20 “Look
upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes
shall see Jerusalem [the eternal church—Gal 4:26, Ps 137:6 ] a
quiet habitation, a tabernacle [tent-- same Hebrew word as used in
Ge 9:21] that shall not be taken
down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of
the cords thereof be broken.”
What a tremendous comfort for the elect to know that
this tent (the eternal church to which they belong) shall not be taken down and
not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed nor shall any of its cords
be broken (Mt 16:18)! No, this eternal tabernacle is vastly different from the
one that Moses erected and which pulled down and moved all over the wilderness
for 39 years!
So then, Noah’s uncovering within his tent mirrors
perfectly Christ’s uncovering for the sins of His eternal church, as is given
to us below:
Eph 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that
he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish [even
as Christ, the Passover Lamb].”
The next two verses of Genesis 9 (22 and 23) speak of
the nakedness of Noah in his tent. And to be openly naked is also gross
transgression as God shows in the story of King Ahaz
who made
2Ch 28:19 “For the LORD brought
These gross transgressions, pictured by being naked,
is tantamount to being in hell under the wrath of God without a covering:
Job 26:6 “Hell is naked before him [God],
and destruction hath no covering.”
Just as Noah was naked
(picturing being in gross transgressions under the judgment of God), so was
Jesus Christ in the atonement, as His naked soul in hell was under the wrath of
God for the gross transgressions of the elect:
Ac 2:27 “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption.”
Ac 2:31 “He seeing this before spake
of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his
flesh did see corruption.”
So Noah, by his
nakedness, again reflects Christ in His atonement.
Now verses 22 and 23 of Genesis 9 also tell us that Ham
saw the nakedness of his father, Noah, but did nothing about it himself, but
told his brothers (Shem and Japheth) who respectfully took a garment and
covered their father without looking upon him.
The garment spiritually depicts the covering of
Christ’s righteousness for sins to prevent God’s judgment for being naked:
Ex 28:42-43 “And thou shalt
make them linen breeches [Christ’s righteousness, see Rev 19:7-8 below]
to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:
{their…: Heb. flesh of their nakedness} {reach: Heb. be} And they
shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle
of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the
holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die: it shall be a
statute for ever unto him and his seed after him.”
Rev 19:7-8 “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour
to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself
ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” {white:
or, bright}
Isa
61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the
LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom [Christ] decketh
himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth
herself with her jewels.” {decketh:
Heb. decketh as a priest}
Notice the phrase “bridegroom decketh”
should have been translated from the Hebrew as “bridegroom decketh
as a priest” thereby tying Christ’s activity in Isa
61:10 to that of Aaron and his sons (who were priests) in the earlier Exodus 28
passage. How beautiful does the Word of God unveils and corroborates itself to
the child of God (a threefold cord is not quickly broken—Ecc
4:12)!
Thus, again we see, like all the earlier typologies,
that the garment covering Noah is a portrait of Christ’s robe of righteousness that
covers not only Christ but also His bride who is in Him.
Continuing to verse 24 of Genesis 9, we see that Noah
awoke from his wine depicting the Lord Jesus Christ resurrecting gloriously
from being in hell under the wrath of God:
Ac 2:31 “He seeing this before spake
of the resurrection of Christ, that his [Christ’s] soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.”
1Pe 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us [the
elect] again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead,” {abundant: Gr. much}
Ps 78:65 “Then the Lord [Jesus] awaked
[resurrected] as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man [Jesus]
that shouteth by reason of wine.”
The last verse shows Christ’s shout of jubilation as
he resurrects out of sleep (a picture of death, 1Thes 4:14, Joh
11:13) from having drunk the wine from the cup of God’s wrath and this
exuberant joy is shown in the following passages:
Heb 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher
of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God.” {author: or, beginner}
The whole creation is jubilant
as well for the resurrection of Christ:
Isa 44:23 “Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it:
shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O
forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified
himself in
Again, Noah awaking from wine is a great analogy of
Jesus’ resurrection from death.
Now, in the historical account, Noah awakes from his drunkenness
and learns that Ham saw him naked and did not cover him but his covering was
done respectfully by Shem and Japheth. Noah then cursed
Jos 9:23 “Now
therefore ye [the Gibeonites] are
cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen [servants—same
Hebrew word used in Genesis 19:25], and hewers of wood and drawers of
water for the house of my God.” {none…: Heb. not be cut off from you}
Jos 9:27 “And Joshua made them [the Gibeonites] that day
hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation [Israelites-descendants
of Shem], and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, in the
place which he should choose.” {made: Heb. gave, or, delivered to be}
In
fact, the proper translation of Genesis 9:26 as shown in italics below brings
out this truth that
“And he said, blessed be
the LORD God of Shem; and
Now, just as Noah awoke and cursed
Ac 17:31 “Because he [God] hath
appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man [Jesus Christ] whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him [Jesus
Christ] from the dead.” {hath given…: or, offered faith}
Wow! Even when Noah awakes (resurrects) and curses his
own grandson, in so doing, he is portraying Christ sealing the curse of God
upon the ungodly world by His resurrection.
In Gen 9:26, Noah’s blessing of the Lord God of Shem
after awaking from his drunkenness is establishing Shem as a portrait of Christ
as he, Shem, would be the next Patriarch taking over at the now impending death
of Noah, and mirrors the blessing of God, the Father, in the raising of Jesus
Christ:
1Pe 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again
unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” {abundant:
Gr. much}
After Noah’s blessing
in verse 26 we read in the next verse:
Ge 9:27 “God shall
enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and
As we can see from the words in italics, “enlarge”
should be translated persuade and Noah is saying that God will persuade Japheth
and Japheth (i.e. his descendants) shall dwell in the tents (the eternal
church, as shown earlier) of Shem (the Lord Jesus Christ). Japheth’s
descendants were the Gentiles as we read:
Gen 10:5 “By these [Japheth’s
descendants] were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their
lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.”
And the Gentiles did
and will become a part of the eternal church:
Eph 3:6 “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his
promise in Christ by the gospel:”
Ga 3:14 “That the
blessing of Abraham [Shem’s descendant] might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith.”
Isa 49:6 “And he [God]
said, It is a light thing that thou [Jesus Christ] shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob [Shem’s
descendants], and to restore the preserved of
As a result of Christ drinking the cup of God’s wrath,
dying, and then being resurrected, He becomes Lord (Master, typified by Shem)
of His brethren (typified by Japheth) and over His enemies (typified by
Mat 23:8 “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is
your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.”
1Cor 15:25 “For he [Jesus] must reign,
till he hath put all enemies under his feet.”
Next God records the final historical event in Noah’s
earthly life:
Ge 9: 28-29 “And Noah lived
after the flood three hundred and fifty years. And all the days of Noah were
nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.”
Above, God divided Noah’s life into two parts—1. Six
hundred years before the start of the flood (Ge
7:6,11), and 2.Three hundred and fifty years after the year the flood started.
Remarkably, that is the way we have looked at Noah’s life in this study: 1. Before the flood (600 years), 2. During the flood (1 year),
and 3. After the flood (349 years) and these time divisions portray the
atonement (from the foundation of the earth and in time after the sin of Adam).
Noah’s life span was used by God to maintain the early calendar of the Bible
and he was the 10th patriarch used. But it doesn’t end here, because
Jesus is our Calendar Patriarch, and His patriarchal period is also divided
similarly into two time periods by God and mankind in earth’s present universal
calendar—1. For instance, the year 2007 A.D. (Anno Domini—Latin terminology for “in the year of our Lord”)
assumes that Christ was born 2007 years earlier, and 2. Before this period, we
had the B.C. (“Before Christ”) years of the Gregorian/Julian Calendar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar)
prior to the birth of Christ stretching back for 11,013 years to the time when
Adam fell into sin according to the Biblical
Calendar-Page 9. Additionally, God bears this fact out in the following
passages:
Re 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to
come, the Almighty.
Re 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha
and Omega, the
first and the last:
Re 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end.
Re 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, the first and the last.
These verses span earth’s
history from the beginning (Alpha, “Which was”) with the first Adam (Adam
in the Garden of Eden—Julian/Gregorian Calendar time in B.C.) to the last Adam
(Jesus Christ--Gregorian Calendar time in A.D., “Which is”) running all the way
through the ending of time (Omega, “Which is to come” –Jesus Christ’s return to
the earth very shortly that will end time as we know it!).
Finally, there is that most important third
period—Jesus Christ’s existence in eternity before the creation as eternal God
(Joh 1:1-2, 20:28, Mat 1:23, Isa
9:6) being the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth (Rev 13:8). So, even
in the separate time periods in his life, Noah is a perfect typology of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the atonement.
Finally, God attests to Noah’s righteousness by placing
him first in the company of Daniel and Job who were outstanding pictures of
Jesus Christ in their earthly pilgrimage:
Eze 14:14 “Though
these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but
their own souls by their righteousness, saith the
Lord GOD.”
Oh Noah! What a great
typology of the Lord Jesus Christ was he in the atonement from the foundation
of the earth and the atonement in time after Adam’s sin. Are you, like Noah,
clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness? If you are reading this study,
it is not too late—it is still the day of salvation:
2Co 6:2 “(For he [God] saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day
of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is
the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”
Having gone through this
study and having had God’s magnificent atonement plan revealed so clearly to
you, you are no longer ignorant:
Acts 17:30-31
“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent” Because he
hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he
hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him
from the dead.” {hath given…: or, offered faith}
That appointed day is fast approaching, as we are in
the very sun rising of that day:
Rom 13:11-12
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of
sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The
night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works
of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”
Therefore, study the Bible to see if you are approved
by God and possess the faith:
2Ti 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth.”
Ro 10:17 “So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
If you
neglect this responsibility you shall not escape:
Heb 2:3 “How
shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation; which at the
first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that
heard him;”
And you will share the same fate with those to whom
Noah preached before the flood!
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