Chuck Larsen

In Genesis 6:16 we learn that there was only one door: “…and set the door of the ark in its side.” I’ve been on many Navy ships and can tell you they are full of doors: fore and aft, amidships, athwart ship, and on every deck. The Ark was constructed with three decks, yet it appears that the ark only had a door on one deck. I’d guess it was the middle deck. Aircraft carriers have their main door on the deck below the flight deck and when you see it, it’s perfectly obvious that that’s the perfect place for it.  Now, getting back to the ark and Noah, there were two groups of people during the time of the flood – those who survived and those who didn’t. The ark was the only means of salvation. Those who survived walked into the ark through the one door.

One author writes, “Although it isn’t a popular teaching there are two types of people in God’s eyes – those who will be judged and those who are forgiven. Jesus is the only means of salvation and the only door into heaven. ‘I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.’ (John 10:9) Is there another way to heaven? The Bible answers clearly: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6) “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

Another observation about the one door is that it was secured by God Himself. Genesis 7:16 says, “And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.” There are two things we must know about this closed door. Once we come into “Christ” by faith as Noah came into the ark, God secures our salvation.  As the “door” of the sheepfold, Jesus protects His sheep. When the sheep in Jesus’ day entered the sheepfold, there was only one way in, but it usually didn’t have a door. The Shepherd would lie across the opening. No one could come in or go out except over His body. We are safe in Christ! Secondly, once God closes the door judgment fall on all those outside. This was what Christ meant in Luke 13:25: “When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’”  Don’t be like the older brother of the prodigal son, who refused to go in and celebrate his brother’s return. Luke 15:28 says, “But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him…” I hear that as “please come in, please come in…” We’re safe and secure from all harms!

I’ve been harping a lot lately about how the entire bible is really HIS story (history), referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus said so himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and to a larger group of disciples in the upper room before he ascended into heaven. He referred to all written in “the law, the prophets, and the writings.” That’s the summary of the entire Old Testament. Those under the law looked for redemption and forgiveness through their bloody sacrificial system. Throughout the Bible Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. The author of Hebrews 10:7 quotes Jesus; “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.’  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” The entire “Scroll of the Book” is about Jesus.

One place we find Jesus in the Old Testament is in “type.” A type is an example or illustration that points to a person or an event. Finding Jesus hidden in type is a most exciting and rewarding study. As it says in Proverbs 25:2: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” Where’s Jesus in the story of Noah? Everywhere! He’s absolutely everywhere!

Noah is a “type” of Jesus and we can find Him throughout the story.  I’m really enjoying all the things that I’ve discovered by comparing Jesus with Noah. The first and essential thing is that salvation for Noah was not by works, but by Grace.  Before the flood came God was the one who provided the way of escape from judgment. This is seen clearly in Genesis 6:8 where it says, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” I’ve often heard that God chose Noah because he was “righteous.” If we are going to be saved from the coming judgment like Noah, we too must be righteous. But that’s not the lesson! It’s not righteous first then grace, it’s grace first which declares us righteous.  Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches us that it’s “by grace we have been saved, through faith, it’s not of works so that no man can boast. It is a gift of God.” Salvation for Noah was a gift from God, and so too is our salvation. Noah believed God! That’s what made him righteous. It’s the same for us today, believing God about Jesus Christ is what saves us, not works. Thus, God’s immense love for the whole world is offered to everyone. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done. Through faith in Christ, he declares us righteous also. God doesn’t want anyone to perish. He wants us all to be saved.  God says in Ezekiel 33:11, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”

Cain’s life is marked by God’s grace everywhere you look. Even though he offered an inferior sacrifice to God, God did not abandon him. That’s grace. God approached Cain in a fatherly manner giving advice and counsel concerning Cain’s attitude. That’s grace. God exhorted Cain to resist temptation and live honorably in His presence. That’s grace. After he murdered Abel, the Lord confronted him of his sin and offered an opportunity to repent. That’s grace. Cain resisted God’s grace and failed to repent. Even so, God placed a sign on Cain that would protect him throughout his natural life (Genesis 4:15). Now that’s amazing Grace.

What that mark was has been the subject of debate for millenniums. Some argue that it’s a tattoo of some kind. There’s a website www.bodyart.com which has a blog on “Cain’s Mark.” Some suggest it was a unique hairstyle. That’s funny. Others have suggested it was his color, i.e., he was made black.  An Eastern Christian writing says “the Lord was wroth with Cain. . . He beat Cain’s face with hail, which blackened like coal, and thus he remained with a black face.” Until recently the Mormons taught this and refused admittance of any black man to the priesthood. (How strange is that?) It’s not possible. One ancient Rabbi suggests that God gave Cain a dog that went with him everywhere he was and protected him. I can imagine a huge Doberman with a spiked collar and a surly disposition. Some renaissance painters put a horn in the middle of Cain’s head. I don’t think so! Some argue that the word “mark” should be translated as “sign.” God gave Cain a sign that assured him of his protection from vengeance. Maybe! Who knows?

But whatever the mark was, it is undoubtedly an indication of God’s grace for one of his created beings, even a murderer. God offered Cain His Amazing Grace of forgiveness and restoration. But Cain refused. He offers all of us sinners the same thing. And like Cain, we all need it. Horatius Bonar wrote in 1861:

Not what these hands have done. Can save this guilty soul.

Not what this toiling flesh has borne, Can make me whole.

Thy Grace alone, O God; To me can pardon speak;

Thy power alone, O Son of God, Can this sore bondage break.

Between the fall and the flood, there are three passages that reveal to us the actual anticipation of the fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 3:15 regarding the coming of the seed of the woman that would save them from their sin and be victorious over the serpent. First, it’s in Eve’s exclamation at the birth of her first son. Most translations say something like, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” But most of that phrase is added by translators. As Arnold Fruchtenbaum points out, the literal rendering of the Hebrew phrase should be “I have gotten a man: Jehovah” (Genesis 4:1). She was expecting Cain to be their deliverer.  Imagine her disappointment in her son!

In Genesis 5:21, the Righteous Enoch (the one who walked with God) named his son Methuselah. The name has been understood to mean that when he dies, “it” will refer to the flood. But it appears that a few generations later, Lamech, the father of Noah, misunderstood the prophecy to refer to his son Noah. Fruchtenbaum argues, “Lamech hopes that Noah, meaning ‘comfort,’ will be the longed-for Messiah. From the ages and years given in Genesis 5, Lamech was 56 years old when Adam died. Lamech would therefore have been given a clear firsthand account of all that happened in the Garden of Eden and all the words that God had spoken.” Lamech’s words at Noah’s birth make this clear: “(Lamech) called his name Noah, saying, ‘Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and the painful toil of our hands” (Genesis 5:29). He expected Noah to be the great deliverer. Like Eve. He was wrong.

In Genesis 6:1-4, we read about “sons of God” cohabitating with women and producing the Nephilim creatures. I believe they are fallen, angels. Peter and Jesus’ brother Jude both refer to them during the time of Noah as angels who left their domains. The prophecy talks to us of the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Satan. Let me rest on the comments of Arnold Fruchtenbaum (a Messianic Jew). Arnold writes, “In order to try to corrupt the Seed of the Woman, at Satan’s command, fallen evil angels, ‘the sons of God,’ intermarry with human women, foreshadowing the supernatural conception of the Antichrist… The results of these marriages were grotesque creatures—the Nephilim. It was the appearance of these diabolic creatures which brought the judgment of the flood upon the earth. By means of this flood God destroyed all the Nephilim and preserved a line through which Messiah would be born.”