Noah's Ark in Typology Being our Salvation

[Shami]

I heard an amazing message recently about Noah's Ark and I wanted to pass it along.  I put it here in Religious Studies so that we could have an open discussion although I am not necessarily here to 'debate' it.  Actually I hope some enjoy it as much as I did.

In Noah's time God was really frustrated with man and even repented of ever creating man (Gen 6), but Noah found favor with Jehovah.  God gave Noah all of the instructions for how to build the ark.  At that time, it had never rained.  The earth was watered by a mist that came from the ground, so I can imagine that people thought Noah and his family were crazy for spending all of that time building an ark.  The age at that time was dark and the Bible says that people were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.  This is in a negative, sinful way.

But Noah and his family were busy building the ark and thus saved from the crooked and perverted generation. Likewise, Christians can build the body of Christ by having daily experiences of Christ through praying, singing, confessing, fellowshipping with other believers, etc. What a salvation to be occupied with God's building, so that we can be saved from this dark age.

On the one hand, Jesus said, I will build my church.  On the other hand we participate in that building by cooperating with the Lord to pray, to sing, and to enjoy Christ as our real salvation.  Noah was building the ark and Christians are building up the body of Christ in love by having a sweet intimate relationship with Christ, the master builder, and with other believers.

Sometimes people think Christians are crazy, fanatical, extreme, ignorant, weak, or whatever else for giving our whole life to Christ and the church.  Probably Noah was ridiculed for giving his whole life to build the ark when there was no rain.  Eventually Noah and his whole family entered into what they were building and the ark was their salvation.  The ark is Christ!  Likewise, it is a salvation to serve the Lord and enter into this building up of the body of Christ.  Eventually, when the age turns and Christ returns we will enter into our full salvation.

I just thought this was a beautiful type of Christ and how He is our salvation for now and for the future.

I didn't provide many verses, but I would be glad to if someone is interested.

[Bluegoat]

The idea that the ark is the Church has been around for a long time.  In fact, that is why in traditional church architecture the area where the people sit is called the nave.

[Shami]

Yes, i assumed that the typology has been around a long time, but to hear it from this perspective was fresh to me---the ark and the building of the ark being their salvation and Christ and the building of the body of Christ being our salvation.

What does 'nave' mean?  Is that the bench that you sit on or is it the area where you sit?

ETA: nevermind i just reread and you did say that it is the 'area'

[Bluegoat]

Yeah - mostly you see the area the people sit, or stand, facing the altar - that is the nave.  In front of that may be the choir, where a choir would sit, or in a university or monastery the members of the monastery.  The seats there normally face the aisle in the middle.  And then in front of that is the sanctuary where the altar is, usually up a step or two, and often with a rail or rood screen in front of it, or in the East an iconostasis.  Usually the nave is the largest, but in a college or monastery the choir probably is.

There used to be a lot of wooden ship building where I live, and a lot of churches were built by ship's carpenders.  Often when you go into those churches, if you look up at the ceiling of the nave, it is built just like an inverted ship, so looking up is like you are looking down into the hull of the ship.

[zinemama]

Where are you getting this idea that it had never rained and the earth was watered by mist from the ground?

[Shami]

Originally Posted by zinemama 

Where are you getting this idea that it had never rained and the earth was watered by mist from the ground?

It's in Genesis.  Can't remember the chapter, but it is somewhere after the fall and around the account of Noah.  I don't have my Bible to look it up, but I will tonight.

[Shami]

Originally Posted by Shami 

Originally Posted by zinemama 

Where are you getting this idea that it had never rained and the earth was watered by mist from the ground?

It's in Genesis.  Can't remember the chapter, but it is somewhere after the fall and around the account of Noah.  I don't have my Bible to look it up, but I will tonight.

Genesis chapter 2

5 And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up - for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to work the ground,

6 But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground -

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by Shami 

Originally Posted by zinemama 

Where are you getting this idea that it had never rained and the earth was watered by mist from the ground?

It's in Genesis.  Can't remember the chapter, but it is somewhere after the fall and around the account of Noah.  I don't have my Bible to look it up, but I will tonight.

It's Genesis 2:6 (I had to google it), but where does it explicitly say that it had never rained until the flood?

Sorry, crossposted.

[Shami]

Originally Posted by Purple Sage 

Originally Posted by Shami 

Originally Posted by zinemama 

Where are you getting this idea that it had never rained and the earth was watered by mist from the ground?

It's in Genesis.  Can't remember the chapter, but it is somewhere after the fall and around the account of Noah.  I don't have my Bible to look it up, but I will tonight.

It's Genesis 2:6 (I had to google it), but where does it explicitly say that it had never rained until the flood?

Sorry, crossposted.

It's okay, me too.  It does not say explicitly that it didn't rain until the flood.  Gen. 2 describes the mist that waters the whole surface of the ground.  Then the next mention of rain is the flood.  Other than that, the other water source are the rivers, I think 4 of them.

[Purple Sage]

Okay cool.  Thanks
 

Originally Posted by Shami 

Originally Posted by Purple Sage 

Originally Posted by Shami 

Originally Posted by zinemama 

Where are you getting this idea that it had never rained and the earth was watered by mist from the ground?

It's in Genesis.  Can't remember the chapter, but it is somewhere after the fall and around the account of Noah.  I don't have my Bible to look it up, but I will tonight.

It's Genesis 2:6 (I had to google it), but where does it explicitly say that it had never rained until the flood?

Sorry, crossposted.

It's okay, me too.  It does not say explicitly that it didn't rain until the flood.  Gen. 2 describes the mist that waters the whole surface of the ground.  Then the next mention of rain is the flood.  Other than that, the other water source are the rivers, I think 4 of them.