Foreshadowing Jesus: Noah's Sacrifice and God's Covenant

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Welcome to the Bible Guys. There you go. My name is Chris. Episode four to twenty six. Is it really? It is? That's what I says. We're here on the show notes. Oh wow, that's a big one. Never even looked at that, I know. I'm so excited about it. I can't hardly stand it. That's gotta be some kind of what's so special about four twenty six. I don't know it's more than four twenty five. That's true. Wow, we're so grateful for every day at this point, four hundred and twenty six in I'm just delirious. How about that? Hey, I talked to my father yesterday, who was eighty five and U and he said, he goes, I woke up and I have another day. And he goes, and I think to myself, oh, oh good, another day. He goes, Lord, just keep them coming, that's what he said, Keep them coming, Keep them coming, Lord, all right? So and hey, that's what it is. Episode four twenty six. Oh Lord, thank you for four twenty six. Our listeners are like there's another one. That's what that's hard listen. Yes, well, I would hope our listeners who love us say yay, there's another one. Yeah, I kind of have it in my you know, my mind, they hate listen. Just what yeah, what you ever do that? Like, like you just tune into like hate watch a football game? No, watch football games against people you hate? You hate those teams? Do you hate watch a baseball game? I do not know. Sometimes sometimes you know there's nothing else on, the Tigers on on or whatever, and I decide, Okay, I'm going to see how terrible this is Cleveland's doing or whatever. I'm gonna watch women's basketball. No, no, no, no, that's not it. I'm talking about, like you hate the team so bad, you watch and see how bad they're doing, Like the Lakers. I'll do that with the Lakers, Like I can't stand Lebron James. But why would you do that? Sometimes sometimes I'll watch it. I don't know. I'm just saying, Oh, I hate Chris and Jeff. Yeah, yeah, they're up to today. There was more. So that's what I'm saying. Well, Jeff, we're going to get into a segment called stump the pastor and this is written by Chris s. Hi. Chris s yes, And here's what Chris s reads. And I'm assuming it's a guy, but it could be a grow It could be either. But Chris says, when Jesus was on the cross, why do you think he gave John, his cousin, the responsibility of caring for Mary, his mother, rather than one of his brothers or sisters. It's a good question. Well, Chris, it's none of your business. It's family stuff, and Jesus knows best the end give you have the right choice, because it was the right choice. So I think I know who Chris is. By the way, So you don't think that's funny. Anyways, here's my take on it. I don't think that what he did was take his mother away from his brothers. Yes, okay, from now I'm mom. You're not allowed to talk to Jude and James. You can only talk to John, right right. And so it was more like John was there and it doesn't mention his brothers. He mentions his mother was there, but it doesn't mention his brothers. So while he's on the cross, go oh hey, John, take care of mom for me. Yeah? Is I think really what's happening there. I don't think that now all of a sudden, He's severed ties with the family for mom and gave her only today, right, right, And he also knows that John at this point in time is a fully devoted follower of Christ. That's right, he is, he is. He is a guy who and again Peter's not there. Peter, Peter denied Christ, and Peter, you know, is ashamed, and Peter's wondering about his future. At this point, the other disciples scattered. John had an inn. We we we talked about that before in the last series. John was there and uh. And so John is with Jesus to the very end. So Jesus knows that that John has fully devoted to him. So somebody who cares a lot about Jesus would then care a lot about his dying wish. I can remember when I was early in ministry, my pastor we had a young man die in the church and he was newly married. And the family of the young widow wasn't from that town. They were quite a ways away. They were, you know, within an hour or two, but still quite aways a way. And I can remember that pastor hugging the dad of the widow and shaking his hands and looked him in they and say, hey, listen, I just want you know, our churches got her. We're going to take care of her. Right, And that didn't mean, hey, you don't have any responsibilities as a dad. It just meant, hey, we're leaning into this too. And I really, I really read that passage as if Jesus is saying, hey, lean in, you know, take care of my family, take care of excuse me, take care of my mom. And I think that that's probably a lot of it. And then, you know, we don't know at this point John's situation either, right, So John might have been we know he was the youngest of the disciples. He could have been he could have still been a teenager at this point. And maybe Jesus was looking maybe John was an orphan at that point. I don't know, And so it could have just been hey, you mutually can help each other. But I don't think he's dismissing his brothers. Yeah, And then it's worse talking about just for a second that a lot of theologians do believe that John perhaps was Jesus' cousin. So James and John because because of the Uh. Yeah, and we've talked about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because because it says the sister of Mary was at the cross, and you know, just piecing those pieces of information appears to be yeah, the the the wife of James, and John's mom or dad. Yeah, yeah, so that's interesting. So yeah, good question, Chris suh. And I think it was more about making sure that John was included in Mary's family as much as it was. I don't think he was taking her away from her son. But as always, great question, but as always I stumped. The pastor question ultimately ends with we don't. We don't know. We don't because nobody really knows. But if we'd known, we would have said it in the episode, right right, and none of that, but it would have been told to us. It would have said it said he, It would have said behold thy mother, and then it would have said, now he did this because of this reason, right right? That would be that that would be the only way to know, you know, it's it's it's most difficult to answer the questions why, you know, why did Jesus do that? Well, how can you speak into his motivation? Right? And sometimes you know you can connect the dots where it says he did the miracles so that they would know he's the son of God. So you can connect those dots. But but oftentimes, you know, people ask the questions why, and you're like, well you could, you could, you give your best guess. So sometimes the other thing you can do talking about connecting dots is the preponderance of evidence. It doesn't have to say he did it. Because of this reason. Sometimes you can piece together these three things together that there's there's they're very clearly there's a line of action happening, and then you can put two and two together from that. Right, So that's how most court cases are solved is through a preponderance of evidence. It's not usually one thing, it's a whole bunch of things stacked up that go it sure looks like that guy's guilty. Or it's the same thing with regard to the resurrection. Anything you ever read least Strobels books, the first book, The Case for Christ did That's one of his things, right as he talks about the preponderance of evidence. So it's when you build a case, it's you keep stacking evidences on top of each other. So sometimes it doesn't have to be direct. Sometimes it can just be the evidence points that direction. But in this case that there's no evidence one way or the other, I don't think at all. It just right. Yeah, so great question, Chris, good thinking. All right, we're going to jump into finishing, well, not finishing, but almost finishing the story of Noah in the flood because Noah at this point, if you remember last week, if you were following by day, Noah was still in the boat. That's correct. And the floods are still you know, over the wall, over the earth yep. And every once in a while somebody will say, wow, you believe in the story of Noah. And I'm like, I only believe in the story of Noah because Jesus did, right, So I believe Jesus I do, and he quotes many times. So here we go at Genesis chapter eight, verse one. It says, but God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped, so the flood waters gradually receded from the earth after one hundred and fifty days, exactly five months from the time the flood began. The boat came to rest on the mountains of air at two and a half months later. As the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible. Another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. He released a raven. The bird flew back and forth until the flood waters on the earth had dried up. He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry a dry ground, But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground, so it returned to the boat. Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside. After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again. This time, the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone. He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back. Noah was now six hundred and one years old. On the first day of the new year, ten and a half months after the flood began, the flood waters had almost dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. Two more months went by, and at last the earth was dry. Then God said that Noah leave the boat, all of you, You and your wife, and your sons and their wives. Release all the animals, the birds, the live stock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground, so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth. So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat, and all of the large the small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed his burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of this sacrifice, and said to himself, I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine as bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. There it is. And by the way, that still happens today, yes, yes, yes, because he says, as long as there is remains, there'll be these things, that's right. Yeah, and uh and of course there are those things. Thank you. That was deep Well, you know what, Jim, I am so glad I tuned in for that one. That little nugget you're bringing it today. By the way, we're about to see. Tomorrow's episode is one of my favorite episodes because because it's the origin of the rainbow and everything else that's really cool. It's the covenant. It's the covenant that God makes with Noah, and and that's also a connection point that we still see today. Yes, so so that's really why my brain went there. My brain went there, like God declares this shall be, and then from that day to this it still is okay. And so anyway, so he's on the boat for about what seven and a half months, it seems like right, because it says he was well longer than that. It was ten and half, ten and a half plus another couple of months. What it said five months after five months? Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't think you were listening no, it says after one hundred fifty days, exactly five months from the time the flood began, it came to rest. Let's go to thirteen. Noah was now six hundred one years on the first day of the new year, ten and a half months after the flood began. And then and then it's two more months went by in verse fourteen. Oh, so you're you're thinking it's five plus ten. That's twelve and a half months. And then he sends a bird out, it comes back. He waits seven more days. Uh, seven more days, he sends it out, it comes back. He waits seven more days, and then he waits what two more weeks, two more months, two more months. Yeah, so so either way, so now it's over a year. Yeah yeah, he's yeah, misttle piece of information. That's the biggest gap, which is ten months. It's okay, so so, holy cow, imagine being in that boat for one year. Holy Christmas. Well just you and your it was ripe. I bet in the in the in the windows were eighteen inches all the way the way round. But holy cow, that that is that is something there. But he lived. Keep it clean, keep it cleaning, You'll be okay, right, so so Noah is uh, you know, it reminds me that song as a kid. It goes, then Noah sent a bird out to take a peaky peaky. Noah send a bird out to take a peaky peaky came back with twig in his peaky peeky Children of the Lord, So rise and shine, ye give God the glory, glory ye. So anyway, it reminds me of that every single time, because you know, he sends out a dove and a dove comes out with with with a twig, and you know what, the twig is a very hopeful moment, isn't that It is? So it's can you imagine being in the arc for a year? We can't imagine that. And he sends the bird out and then you know, the first raven, it doesn't even say that it came back and said it just flew back and forth, and then the then the dove came back and you could imagine, like I was just waiting for that ray of hope, like it's around the corner. It's it's, it's you know, it's there's the light at the end of the tunnel. And it sort of reminds me of you know, the storms that we go through, right, and we just we wonder when it's going to end, and would it have been better had God told Noah, Okay, you're going to be in the boat exactly this many days. And then Noah had been like, Okay, I'm going to brace for that. I'm gonna mentally prepare for that. I'm gonna have a calendar with a countdown. You know, it's like, oh, right, I can survive because I know it's just gonna be three more months, right, But when we're in the storm, we don't know what it's gonna end. And sometimes in our lives, we're in these seasons and sometimes you know, we're just like you're hoping for a better day, you know, Like I I I had a you know, I have a son who you know, struggles with his health and and he's and he's doing so well right now, but you know, it's it's been quite a while and had to you know, rewind seven years ago. And had you told me it was going to be seven years until he, you know, felt this good I was, I would have I would have been discouraged, but at least would have prepared for it. Yeah, but you know, you sort of you sort of just say, maybe it's going to get better tomorrow, and uh, you know, there's a dependence on God, you know factor there where it's like you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, and so you just you know, lean on God every single day, not knowing when the storm is actually going to end. Yeah, So it doesn't mention here that Noah was upset about it, or even that he was frustrated or just yeah. I would always think it's funny when we say wouldn't it be better if God had done something as opposed to you know, like God's like, oh shoot, I should have thought of that, right man? If only I had Zaraba up here advising me on the decisions I make. That's that's like that George Burns movie Oh God, Remember the book too, where she says, she goes, why did you make the drafts next hotel? And God says to eat the leaves off, to eat the leaves off the trees, and she goes, why didn't you just make the tree shorter? And he looks down and goes, where were you what I needed you? As? If we can inform that just helping him out, I think I think we helped God out a lot by the way, we tell him exactly what we need and how we need it. So yeah, I really do think there's a dependency there on the other side of it as bad. So Noah believed God when there had never been rained and you know, there's no evidence. I mean, he's building an inland boat at this point, there's no evidence that there were boats up to that point, certainly not boats that were a football in the field, a football field and a half long four and fifty foot long boats. I'm guaranteeing you he'd never seen an ocean liner before, right, And yet he started building a boat and it took him over one hundred years, and people are mocking him, and he did whatever he needed to do because he trusted God. And then then the storm does come and everything happens exactly the way God said it would happen. So at that point, I think you probably kind of lean to go. Okay, after one hundred years of me following God, everything happened exactly the way God said it would happen. You know, I can wait another year. Dude was six hundred years old when this started, so I'm guessing he can wait one more one more year. It's like it's like a couple of weeks for you, years or nothing. Nothing, It's only fourteen fifteen months. Whereas my dad, who's eighty five, would say that was one eighty fifth of my life. Yeah, there was one six hundredth of his. So yeah, yeah, what's one six hundredth of an eighty five year old person's life. It's a lot. It's a little eighty five if ide have buy six hundred point one four point one four oh wow? So what would that be like a month and a half, two months? Wow? Look at you something like that, making all sorts of calculations something like that. Wow. So you know, for a guy who's lived six hundred years waiting another years? Not right? Although I don't know, you know, when I'm in Florida? Have you ever noticed you've ford comedians talk about drivers in Florida? Why do they drive so slow? Wouldn't you think they'd be driving fast? Right? Right? I mean, you don't have much time left. You should be hurrying everywhere you go at that point, when you're six hundred years old, one more year is a little long. It seems like, come on, I don't want to die in the boat. Hey, My thinking is a day is still a day, right, it's still twenty four hours. It's a long time to be with animals, and right, yeah, no, I do think it's funny when I read this just now. I never thought of it before. Verse twenty sis. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that have been approved for that purpose. Yeah, he couldn't from the very beginning. Yeah, but he couldn't have sacrificed all of the sheep and all of the doves, or we would have had no sheep and no doves, right right, that's a full blown extinction event right there, because they're only seven sheep and seven. Yeah. Well, remember though, when they boarded the arc, the very first thing that God said was load the sacrificial animals first, and then besides that grab but I'm guessing the sacrifice was only limited the five and not seven, right, because you need to in order to have the rest of them. Well, I understand, Wait a minute, My understanding is that he had he had additional animals besides, so in other words, like let's just say seven sheep, he would have had seven sheep plus all the offerings too, yeah, yeah, or how many there were, because because when when he was instructing Noah to gather the animals, like I said, the very first thing that he said was grab these animals that are approved for sacrifice, and then he listed the other animals twos and by twos and sevens. All right, I'm going to permit that. I'll allow it. I'm not sure I believe it, but well, you're going to make me look it up now I know, all right, it's in the Bible somewhere. Well, you you talk for a minute, I'm gonna look at it. I'll talk. Yeah, that's the reason why you assigned me to talk. I can talk about thinking like right now, I'm not I don't have a thought in my head. Words or just Kevin about nothing nothing. It's about Jerry Seinfeld's show. It's a show about nothing. Yeah, this could be the show. You don't have it? Okay, Hey, we're just going to concede that to you. I'm going to give that one to you and say, okay, fine, that seems that you think extra. I'll look it up and I'll mention that next podcast. So you think he brought extras. That's right, okay, So so yeah, so in the end, what you know, this is a sort of obscure passage. You don't hear a sermon just about Noah sending out a bird and then and then and then coming out, But but you do hear sermons about the gratitude of of of people building altars. Right, so that's probably the most significant portion of this passage, right exactly. So, So so God comes or Noah comes out, and he gives an offering to the Lord, and it's in a cinn aroma, which mean it was the there's only one kind of sacrifice, uh that that was actually uh that gave an aroma. And and I don't know if you remember this. We we included this on our Palm Sunday message just recently. We talked about how Jesus was connected to that type of sacrifice where the Book of Hebrew says that when Jesus offered his life, it was a pleasing aroma to God. Right, and so but there, but there's only one sacrifice that represents the sins of the world. And and and in the temple, when Jesus came in and he offered his life during the passover. There's all sorts of different types of sacrifices, but only one is representative of the sins of the community, and that was the one that had the aroma, the sacrifice, the burnt sacrifice. It was called something I'm trying to remember, but there's a name for it. Uh, it's a it's a Hebrew name. But anyway, the the point is is that this is also symbolic. So a lot of times in the Old Testament, you know, when when God for instance, killed uh the animals to cover the sins for Adam and Eve, that was a that was that was a foreshadowing of Jesus. Right, So you know this you could argue and say that this was a foreshadowing of Jesus. You know, there's a there's a sacrifice given in thanks for salvation within aroma, right and this be course, this is a physical salvation. So it's it's much like you know, for instance, remember the plagues that we're about to talk about with Moses. Uh, you know the past the actual passover plague that was a physical rescue. Uh. You know, the passing over of a physical death. Uh. And you know, representing Jesus, the passover for spiritual rescue. So yeah, so I would I would argue and say that that there's a foreshadowing sermon that you can slip in here as well. Absolutely absolutely, So you know, ultimately it comes down to this idea right here that I will never again curse the ground because of the human race. And then this is funny for all the new moms out there looking at your darlings, God says, and though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood, right right, He's not saying it used to be that way. He's saying right now, after the flood, it's still that way, right yeah, And and and so you know it's combatsmen. He's such a good boy. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. We're all little sinners from the very beginning we're born. We're born in the sin from the day that we are born, and we need a savior, right, That's what that's all about. So all right, well, hey, I think we've pulled out of that passage just about everything we can today today. Yeah, so we will pick up tomorrow with God's Covenant. So hopefully we'll see you next time on the Bible. Guys,