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“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.”
Matthew 24:37 NASB
God testified in the Torah passage נֹחַ Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32) that Noah was “righteous in his generation,” and God called Noach to save his family and a remnant of mankind from the Flood.
Yeshua (Jesus) had a similar mission 4,000-plus years later. How are Noach and Yeshua similar? Here are five main similarities.
1. Walking with God
We see a few examples of walking with God in Torah, including, Enoch. We read in the last Torah portion that God walked with Enoch and beause of that close relationship, God took Enoch away from his people. We can infer that by Enoch’s time, there were very few people who had an intimate relationship with God. Noach, just as his great-grandfather, was, in a different way, taken away from his people.
2. Intercession for others
Unlike Noach, Job and Daniel, Yeshua’s intercession was successful not just for Himself or His immediate circle of influence but for all of mankind who would accept Him.
“And a word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, if a land sins against me so that transgression occurs, I will also stretch out my hand against it and will shatter its support of bread, and I will send out famine upon it and will take away human and cattle from it. Even if these three men were in its midst, Noe and Daniel and Iob, they shall be saved by their righteousness, says the Lord.” (Ezekiel 14:12–14 NETS)
Daniel is famous for his prayers to HaShem for his intercession on behalf of his people. He also prayed for their repentance. He considered others valuable and worthy of prayer. Job was known for the same thing. He interceded for his children and also his friends. Noach physically interceded on behalf of his family as well as all the animals God made. All three of them cared more about others than themselves.
Ezekiel 14 shows us what kind of generation Noach lived in. They were evil on the inside and out. History repeats itself. God is the one who cleaned up the mess, not Noach. We also see that even as the righteousness of Noach, Job and Daniel was so great, but they were able to save some of those for whom they interceded but not all of them. Job’s intercessions saved his friends but not his children, Noach saved his immediate family and the animals but he was not able to save his siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews, etc.
“Even if I bring harmful animals against the land, I shall also take vengeance on it, and it shall be as an annihilation, and there shall not be one who passes through from before the animals, even if these three men were in its midst, I live, says the Lord, if sons or daughters shall be saved! But they alone would be saved, while the land would be for annihilation. Or again, if I bring a sword upon that land and say, “Let a sword pass through the land” and I will take away human and cattle from it and these three men be in its midst, I live, says the Lord, they shall rescue neither sons nor daughters. They alone shall be saved. Or again, if I send out death upon that land and I pour out my wrath upon it with blood so as utterly to destroy human and cattle from it and Noe and Daniel and Iob shall be in its midst, I live, says the Lord, if sons or daughters should be left behind! They shall rescue their souls by their righteousness.” (Ezekiel 14:15–20 NETS)
Why Job, Noach and Daniel were declared righteous by HaShem was their attempt to intercede. They are righteous because they tried to save everyone, not because they succeeded in their intercession.
3. Sealed and set apart
The second passover was established by God for those who were not able to attend the first passover due to exposure to some sort of uncleanness, such as taking care of a dead body, or if they were too far away from home to celebrate it in time.
Noach was told by God to start his final preparations for closure of the ark on the 10th day of the second month. This day, on God’s holiday calendar, is the lamb selection day for the second-chance passover, which occurs in the second month. Noach lived in a very corrupt environment, exposed to a lot of unrighteousness. God inspected Noach and found him righteous and worthy of saving his family from the Flood.
God baptized the earth and cleansed it, as He baptized the children of Israel who crossed the Red Sea.
4. Dwelling with God
On the 17th day, God closed Noach and his family in the ark. No one else could enter the ark from that time on. Once God sealed Noach up, that was the final witness to the people that Noach’s message was true and that they had ignored God’s message to their destruction. No one who wasn’t already in the ark could enter after that. The call to repentance and acceptance has an end at some point.
“Then He said again to them, ‘I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.’” (John 8:21, NASB)
Yeshua gave a similar warning in John that there would come a time when you would not be able to follow Messiah, because He was going to heaven and flesh and blood can’t enter heaven.
5. Entering a new world
The 27th day of the second month is the day Noach left the ark but is also the same day Yeshua left the earth and went to heaven, 40 days after His resurrection. God decided when the ark would land on Mt. Ararat. God is the one who decided the timing of Yeshua’s birth, His death, His resurrection and His ascension and connects Yeshua to Noach.
When someone saves you, that savior is greater than you. The animals were not able to make the ark for themselves. The animals could not collect the food necessary to take care of them on the ark during the entire Flood. Noach was greater than them, he was their savior. They owed their lives to Noach.
In the same way, Yeshua is our savior. We were not able to save ourselves. We owe our lives to Him.
As we ready, Luke 17:20-37, note the phrase “the Kingdom of God is at hand” means it’s right in front of you. Yeshua is not speaking in future tense. We think of the Kingdom of God as being the time when God is living on the earth and ruling the earth. But if you live as though the Kingdom of God is at hand, you understand that your primary citizenship and allegiance is to God, not to the President of the United States or the governor of the state you live in. You follow their rules, only insofar as they follow the rules of your King.
We are living in the prelude, or the precursor to the Messianic Age and the time when the dwelling place of God will be with mankind. All of these mileposts are a part of the Kingdom of God being at hand in our midst, in our time.
Submitting to one’s King means that you follow His rules, but many submit to the nations laws, even if they contradict God’s laws. The nations laws change, but God’s laws do not.
Noach’s legacy
“Curse of Ham”
In Ezekiel, God tells us that he does not punish sons for the sins of their fathers or fathers for the sins of their sons.
The descendants of Shem and Japeth may have used Noach’s curse on Ham and Canaan as a justification or legal precedent to enslave and abuse the descendants of Canaan, but this is not how God treats people.
We also do not know exactly what happened between Ham (or Canaan) and Noach in the tent. If God had thought it was relevant, He would have recorded but truthfully, it is not relevant to the story. In our sinful flesh, we are very curious about what might have happened and there are several theories, many of them very salacious, about what happened, but God doesn’t traffic in tawdry gossip and we shouldn’t either.
A heart of intercession
After God cleansed the earth of the wickedness and Noach and his family given the task of starting over. How long did that last? Five years? That’s about how long it takes for grape vines to produce grapes and then wine.
Even with that, God had promised He would never Flood the earth again to cleanse the earth. It doesn’t mean that God will never have to destroy the earth again, simply that He would not use a Flood to do so.
Within a few generations, Nimrod had become the earthly king over all the descendants of Noach. Nimrod used that power for evil. He invaded the territory of Japheth to do so.
If you want to be righteous, intimate those God tells us are righteous. He tells us that the righteous intercede in prayer for their families and their neighbors. They are not judged righteous because their intercessions are successful but because they try and persevere.
The world doesn’t know who their King us. If they did, they would make better life choices in their own lives and would also make better choices regarding their leadership.
Summary: Tammy