Christ’s Resurrection Foreshadowed by the Receding Floodwaters
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
6/26 Reading Portions: Deuteronomy 31; Psalm 119:97-120; Isaiah 58; Matthew 6
Genesis 8:2-4
The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
RESTED
The rain came down from heaven for only the first forty days and nights (Gen 7:12); but at the same time, the skin of the earth erupted by God’s just judgment and waters poured up from the ground. Now at the end of 150 days, the waters abated. In other words, they became decreasingly prevalent on the earth. Now, when the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat at the end of 150 days, the waters still prevailed upon the earth (Gen 7:24). That’s why Noah, his family, and the animals stayed in the ark beyond the 150 days. And it came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month.
Now, at the time of Noah, the first month on the lunar calendar was the September-October timeframe on our modern solar calendar. Moses wrote this record after the fact, and in Moses’s day, the observance of the calendar was changed so that the seventh month became the first month of the Hebrew calendar, the month Aviv, or Abib, which coincided with the first Passover, as it is written:
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” Exodus 12:1-2
Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month (Ex 12:6). This prophetic foreshadow, again, speaks of a Wednesday crucifixion, just as the Lord Jesus said,
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:39-40
Jesus gave up His spirit, dying between three and four in the afternoon, coinciding with the last paschal lamb slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month (seventh month on Noah’s calendar), because He is the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). He was in the tomb on the fifteenth, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a Thursday, and a Sabbath (Lev 23:6-7). Jesus lay in the tomb on the sixteenth, a Friday, when the chief priests asked for a guard from Pilate to watch the tomb (Matt 27:62-66); and the women bought spices on that day to anoint their crucified Lord (Mark 16:1). Then Jesus rose on the seventeenth, the evening of Saturday at the end of the weekly Sabbath.[1]
The receding of the flood waters and the resting of the ark on the mountains of Ararat also foreshadow our resurrection in Christ. Though the flood of God’s judgment must still abate and recede, we must grow in grace and be strengthened in faith when once we are saved, rejoicing more day by day in our salvation in Christ. Its magnificence doesn’t come all at once. It comes in direct proportion to our increasing intimacy to Christ, through our increasing submission to the Holy Spirit. As Christ increases in our lives, the floodwaters of judgment decrease in our lives, which might be another take on what John stated about the Messiah:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Moreover, we rest in our salvation through the power of Christ’s resurrection. We are resurrected in Him (Rom 6:4) and also seated together with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, spiritually speaking (Eph 2:6), but one day we will see Jesus as He is because we will be like Him (1 Jn 3:2), just as Noah and his family must wait for a day and time when they could leave the ark.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
[1] See my Devotional Thought for Genesis 1:14-19, by clicking here. You can also read my article, “Understanding Israel from Scripture, Part Two” by clicking here. You can also read about “The Sign of Jonah” in my FREE eBook, The Simple Gospel, available on Amazon.com, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Everand, Fable, Kobo, Smashwords, Thalia, and Vivlio.