Christ: The Ark of Our Salvation

A type is a prophetic word picture under the O.C. (Old Covenant) pointing forward to what will take place under the N.C. (New Covenant) in Christ and His Church. Here we see that the Ark is a picture of Christ as the ‘Ark of our salvation’.

I’m going to pick out certain aspects of this story that will help you and i live out who we are ‘In Christ’.

Noah’s Name: Names in Scripture are descriptive of a persons character or calling. Noah’s  name means ‘REST’, and rest plays an important part in Noah’s life.

When the waters receded off the earth, the ark came to rest on the top of Mt Ararat. (Gen 8;4)

Noah knew when the earth had dried out because he sent out a dove who eventually found a place to rest. (Gen 8:8-12)

Applying these Scriptures to the N.C. we see that Christ is the personification of rest and says to us who are in Christ:

Matt 11:28-30 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (NKJV)

Jesus is inviting us to give all our worries, problems, failures, disappointments, past, present and future to Him and rest in Him. He will then work on our behalf and resolve them ALL for us.

It is our rest in Christ that releases the grace of God in our lives.

Gen 6:8 Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (NKJV)

Knowing that Noah’s name means rest, we could read the above scripture as, ‘rest found grace’. It is when we are at rest in Christ that the grace of God flows into our lives and provides everything  we need. Hence, if we allow fear, worry, anxiety or fretting to control us, it cuts off the flow of grace and makes it difficult for God to help us.

Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest. (KJV)

 

God knows the challenge it is for His people to rest in Christ, and has given us the above scripture to show us how! We have to labour or work to enter rest. This means when we give a problem to Jesus, we have to leave it with Him for Him to work it out in our lives.

Hence, if we take it back off Him and allow worry to control us, we must give it back to Him again and rest in Him. We may have to repeat this procedure 50 times until we can successively leave the problem with Him.

Every time we give our need to Christ and rest in Him, we are developing the muscle of faith. Subsequently our ability to rest becomes easier and we experience a peaceful lifestyle.

Meditation Point: Father, help me to rest in You and release You to work on my behalf.

No tags