A man
had spent many weeks at sea, but he had seen no land except for a rocky atoll
jutting out of the water. The provisions
on the man's vessel would not last forever.
He had been told that he would reach habitable land, but when? If only he had a sign to renew his hopes, an
indication that land was somewhere ahead....
Another
man was suffering from a terrible illness, wracked with pain and overwhelmed by
depression. Will God really resurrect
the dead to a new life, free from sin and suffering? Such a thing seems impossible. This man also longed for a sign from God, a
guarantee.
The
first man was Noah. Noah had been
preserved through the deluge in an ark and God had promised that dry land would
again emerge, a world cleansed of the terrible violence that prevailed before
the deluge. The ark had finally grounded
on a mountain rock, but all around it the restless waters still rolled. Could Noah have misunderstood?
The
second man was Job. Job knew that all
things are possible with God, but from a human standpoint the resurrection
seems incredible, and all the more so as generations come and go in apparently
endless succession. As Job wondered out
loud about the resurrection a comparison came to his mind:
"At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again and its new shoots will not
fail. Its roots may grow old in the
ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and
put forth shoots like a plant. But man
dies and is laid low...man lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no
more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep" (Job 14:7-12).
Every
human family and each human being is like a tree stump in dry ground--sick,
imperfect and doomed to death from the moment of birth, without any power of
everlasting life. The ancient nation of
Job
reasoned that a dry stump may grow again if it catches “the scent of
water." God likens His life-giving
Spirit to water: “For I will pour water
on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit
on your offspring" (Isa. 44:3). When an angel appeared to the Israelite girl,
Mary, of the family of Jesse and David, he told her that by means of God's
Spirit she would bear a Son who would be the Messiah, the promised Branch (Luke
1:35). Water had touched the stump of
Jesse, and it sprouted by producing the one who is “the Resurrection and the
Life" (John
When
Noah needed an indication that land was emerging somewhere beyond his sight, he
sent out an unclean bird, a raven, a symbol of man's sinful
efforts on his own behalf, and received no sign. The dove, however, which symbolized the
Spirit of God, brought Noah a guarantee in the form of a freshly sprouted olive
leaf. “Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth" (Gen.
9:11). The olive leaf, the Branch which
sprouted from the stump of Jesse, was likewise brought to the human family by
God's Holy Spirit as a guarantee that death will some day be no more and that
beyond our sight a “new heavens and new earth” are waiting (2 Pet. 3:13).
After
bringing the leaf to Noah, the dove flew into the sky and did not return (Gen.
8:12). A dove which had lighted on the
first tree to emerge from floodwaters also lighted on Jesus, the “firstborn of
all creation," when he rose from beneath the waters of baptism (Mt.
The
ark of Noah was not a ship with a bow and stern, but rather a box-like wooden
structure which more than anything else would have resembled a floating
building. Long before habitable land
emerged, the ark came to rest on a rocky mountain top (Gen. 8:4). From this vantage point, in the ark grounded
on a high mountain, Noah waited for the earth to emerge from the floodwaters. A house standing on a rock foundation, safe
even through the most tempestuous storm, is another illustration connected with
the coming of Jesus. “Everyone who hears my words and does them is like a wise
man who built his house on the rock. The
rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that
house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock" (Mt.
The
Genesis flood account and the fourteenth chapter of Job appear to have no
direct connection either to each other or to the various passages about the
promised sprout. And the events of Jesus' life took place many
centuries after all of these Old Testament scriptures were written. Yet once all of them were recorded for us to
compare, they fit together perfectly to form a picture of God's provision of
salvation in Christ. How could such
harmony arise without being orchestrated by God? We come to have faith in Jesus, the olive
sprout, because of
the revelation about him in God's
inspired Word, which is a
manifestation of God's Spirit. The dove continues to bring the olive leaf as a guarantee of eternal
life to those whose hearts are open.
These [signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name" (John
20:31).
D. Barefoot
***************
The Word of God
***************
The Word of God is like a stained-glass window rare,
We stand outside
and gaze, but see no beauty there,
No fair design, naught but confusion we behold;
‘Tis only from within the glory will unfold,
And he who would drink in the rapture of the view
Must climb the winding stair, the portal enter through.
The sacred door of God’s cathedral is most low,
And all who fain would enter there the knee must bow
In deep humility.
But once inside, the rays of light
Stream through and make each color heavenly bright,
The Master’s Great Design we see, our hands we raise
In reverent ecstasy of---
wonder, love and praise!
From Poems of Dawn