Finding the Story of the Cross in Noah’s Ark

When we speak of redemptive historical themes, we’re calling to mind the idea that one way of interpreting the biblical text is to remember that God wants to tell us the story of the Son. That throughout history, when God has revealed Himself through His Word, His intention has been to bring light to the coming of the Word made flesh. So when we read the Old Testament, of paramount importance is our attempt to see the signposts God has planted to prepare the way of the coming savior—first for its original audience (the ancient Hebrews) and next for we New Testament believers, the church upon whom the ends of the age have come.

With this in mind, let’s take a quick glance at the Flood narrative from Genesis. It’s a rich passage containing a lot of fascinating imagery.

Unmaking the World

In Genesis 6:3, we note that God’s spirit will not abide in humankind forever. God had given spirit or breath to man just a couple chapters earlier, yet here He makes plans to revoke that breath—to end humanity’s life on this earth. But why?

Humanity, we find, has corrupted God’s creation. In Genesis 1, God declares His entire creation good. The earth and the sea. The birds and the fish. The plants, the animals, and humankind. All good and all according to their intended purpose. Yet here, six chapters later, God is announcing that humanity, being corrupt, has corrupted the entire world (Gen 6:11-12). So God intends to unmake His world returning it to a state resembling what we see in Genesis 1:2, a place formless, void, and covered with the waters of the deep.

And so as well God determines to unmake man, the corrupting influence that corrupted His creation. And this is not some random petulant pouring out of wrath from a God who had His feelings hurt. In Gen 6:13 when God says He will destroy humankind, the word for destroy is the same term used in verses 11 and 12 for corruption. God in verse 13 is saying that He will corrupt humanity, or better, that He will fulfill the corruption that humankind had already chosen for itself.

“But Noah…”

In the midst of such a dismal, important proclamation, there remains hope. God has not forgotten humanity nor His promise to redeem it. Noah has a name with God even as his distant cousin Lamech has forged a name among men (Genesis 4). While Lamech, a microcosmic precursor to the motivation at Babel, works diligently to make himself known for his mighty works, Noah is already known by the great king of all for what he is (rather than what he strives to be). Noah is perfect. Righteous. He finds favour with God. He pleases God. (As Romans 1 reminds us, “The one who, by faith is righteous, shall live.”) Noah walked with God as did Enoch, and as with Enoch, Noah will be taken out of this corrupt world and delivered into the next.

The Ark

The great ark that God commands be constructed constitutes a second creation in pregnant form. Even as God unmakes creation, He contains temporarily the whole of the new creation in the ark. Animals, seed, people, faith. The ark represents a new creation existing and overlapping with the old, which should sound very familiar to Christians—as it represents the whole new covenant paradigm.

The word here for ark is only used one other place in scripture. And not of the Ark of the Covenant, which is the obvious connection we get through English. The term only ever appears again when Moses describes the basket in which he was placed as a baby, the one in which he floated to safety while all others of his generation perished. The ark, therefore, in the mind of Moses (author of both accounts) is a vehicle for redemption as it passes through the waters of judgment, keeping safe all of its contents. Peter picks up this imagery in his first epistle and makes clear the connection between Christ and His cross to Noah and his ark.

A Second Adam

Noah, as head of this new creation, is a kind of second Adam. As with Adam, God makes a covenant with Noah (the first such event in thousands of years and the first since His covenant with the first Adam). As with Adam, God brings all the animals before Noah. As with Adam, Noah is instructed to fruitfully multiply and fill the earth. While Adam was instructed to take dominion, Noah is flatly granted dominion (though it’s an impoverished, fearful rulership). And importantly, the animals and all this new creation will be saved from judgment because Noah—their representative—is righteous. Further, Noah’s progeny will be saved from judgment because Noah is their representative (even as Adam’s children were cursed because he was their representative). They are saved despite their own weaknesses. The narrative is unconcerned with their merits. They are included in the ark because Noah takes them with him. They are saved because of Noah’s righteousness. Again, a familiar picture to those who remember that believers are spared judgment because they find themselves represented by Christ so that His merits become theirs.

Destruction

Then God begins to unmake the world. “Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.” And of course, God has been doing this all along, revoking the breath of His creatures. Genesis 5 depicts a litany of death, even of the righteous. So-and-so lived so long, fathered a son, live a bit longer, and died. His son lived so long, fathered his own son, lived a bit longer, and died. And so on. God has been killing people all along, so how is this different? This is all at once. This is everyone. This is final. This is the end, the end of the world. Noah is he upon whom the end of the age has come. And Noah, like those who believe, survives and is saved because he is righteous. Not, of course, of his own doing—Romans is too clear for us to believe that—but Noah like anyone is righteous only by faith in the promises of God. Christ is our Noah and the cross is our ark, our basket of salvation.

“But God Remembered Noah…”

In 8:1 we get another reminder of God’s work across ages. “God made a wind to blow over the earth.” Wind and spirit are the same word, used interchangeably by Moses. This wind or spirit blowing over the waters would immediately conjure in the minds of its original Hebrew audience Genesis 1:2, where God’s spirit or wind hovers over the waters. The new creation is coming! As well, the same readers would easily connect the wind blowing over the waters with both the Red Sea and Jordan crossings, where the wind or spirit of God blew to part the waters, delivering God’s chosen people to the safety of dry land. So now at last, the inhabitants of the ark are granted rest (Moses uses the term m’noah, because “Noah” means rest). This is reminiscent of Joshua 21:44, when the author declares that God had given the Israelites everything promised to them and rest on every side. They are at peace and at rest, but we know it’s not the true and lasting rest. This is not the wholesale reversal of Adam’s curse. Noah is a second Adam but not the second Adam. Not the one that matters. And so, God’s people would continue to look for another Noah, a better Noah.

The Better Noah

And thank God that the better Noah came to deliver His people unto the promised rest that would last. Thank God for that. Noah’s faith, patience, and righteousness, are rewarded. Out of Noah’s ark springs forth a new creation. Just so, out of Christ’s cross springs forth The New Creation. That which has condemned the old creation has given life to the new (cf. Hebrews 11:7).