The Day the Ark Stopped
Some people don’t like Mondays. For me it’s Sunday afternoons.
I like the restfulness, the quiet departure from regular work…. But it’s my least favorite day, because I continually pick apart my delivery of the Sunday School lesson.
I go over in my head what I said that I shouldn’t have, and then I think about all the things I should have said (and intended to say) but didn’t. It drives me nuts!
Yesterday was one of those days!
Times ten
…. I’m glad today is Monday, there’s a day’s distance between us already.
When Saturday rolls around I should be almost completely re-settled.
When I have those big lessons- the ones where there is soooo much info to disseminate …. I usually screw it up. That was yesterday.
We were studying Genesis 10- the Table of Nations.
So much info, such interesting stuff…. Note to self: You can’t cram that much info into 60 minutes! Next time I’ll break it up into smaller digestible chunks.
Facebook and blogs are wonderful in that sense. Here I can make amends for my screw ups. Here I can break it into smaller chunks…. Or you can just stop reading when you get “info saturated”.
You’ll see what I mean when we get to that chapter.
Today, however we are looking at Genesis 8
1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
On the 17th day of the 7th month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat…. Well now.
In our Gentile world we miss the significance of this verse, sadly.
God gives us the exact date of the ark’s grounding, the day when Noah and his family must have realized their hope that they were spared and saved, and things were really going to be all right. A new life was in store for them.
The 17th day of the 7th month.
What month was their 7th month?
In Noah’s day the seventh month was the month of Abib (also called Nisan).
God did something amazing in Exodus 12 and He changed the order on the calendar of the Israelites. The seventh month then became the first month… and the other months followed in order.
The seventh month was the month of Nisan, and the 17th day was going to hold a significant place in Jewish worship from the time of Moses until the Second Coming of Christ. Do you know what it is? Every Jew did. Every Jewish reader of that scripture already understood the importance of the day that Noah’s ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.
We are told in the story of the Exodus that God set in place the Feasts of the LORD which the Jews were to celebrate until the end of time. These Feasts were the ‘storybook’ of what God was doing in the life of man…. Their fulfillment was and will be in Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, much of the Church today is totally ignorant of the magnificent picture of Jesus that is found in these Feasts.
We are the losers.
It is our loss.
It is sad…. and frustrating to say the least.
It is one of my most favorite teaching subjects, and every time I teach them, someone will come up and say “I had no idea” or “Wow, it’s starting to all come together for me”… or the one I hear most often …”How come no one ever told me that before, why don’t we know this?”
God weaves a magnificently detailed plan for us in His Word. It is vivid and inspiring with a treasured piece here and a gem there… and the more we collect the pieces together, the more beautiful and coherent the big picture becomes. God desires to share His plan with us… He doesn’t intend for us to be ignorant of what He’s doing.
The 17th of Nisan to every Jew is the Feast of the First Fruits. In a couple of thousand year’s time (from Noah) it will be the exact day of Jesus’ Resurrection. Hmm. Isn’t God something!
Way back in Genesis He was already showing us His plan for the salvation of mankind. Think of it as a trail of bread crumbs if you will. This reference in Gen 8:4 is the first of a series of clues (bread crumbs) which point us to the coming resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That the ark rests upon the mountain range of Ararat on the exact day of Jesus’ resurrection is very significant.
Paul writes:
“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.”
1 Corinthians 15:20-23
God is very precise and very exact… and dates are very important in the whole scheme of things.
The 17th of Nisan plays an important role – several major ‘foreshadowing’ events occur-
On the 17th of Nisan the Israelites cross the red Sea as they flee Pharaoh.
On the 17th of Nisan the Israelites feast on the new grain in the Promised Land – after the Manna from Heaven stopped on the 16th
On the 17th of Nisan the Jews are spared certain death under the evil plans of Haman, and are saved by Esther’s pleas
When the Hebrews came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh pursuing them to kill them, they came to a place of certain death… instead God intervened and the Hebrews were given New Life on the other side of the Red Sea.
When the Hebrews faced certain death at the hands of the evil Haman, they were granted new life when Esther exposed truth of Haman’s plan to the King.
When the Israelites source of food (manna) stopped, they were given the new grain from the Promised Land… a new life in a new place.
And when Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan, the disciples despaired that it was all over, but when He rose on the 17th they were assured of their (and our!) new life with Him for all eternity.
So we have the same picture in the Ark coming to rest on the mountains on that very significant day, the 17th of Nisan. Noah and his family were the first fruits of a new world. A new life was beginning … a promise was being made…. A bread crumb was being scattered.
I so wish I had a Jewish understanding of the scripture. I am trying to suck up as much knowledge as I can… but I’ve missed 40+ years of Jewish learning already. I don’t mean modern Jewish… I mean Jesus Jewish. Did you know that Jesus wasn’t a Christian? Jesus was a Jew. Jesus is a Jew. A complete Jew.
I know we can understand enough even with our Gentile minds…. But I so desire to see it as it was taught, to understand it as it was written, and to hear it with Jewish cultural ears.
Just a short lesson today … to make up for my long lesson yesterday in Sunday School…. Next lesson will see Noah and his family leave the ark… and we’ll see what they do first and foremost.
Blessings Friends!
Nancy
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