Jesus, our Ark grounded on no-curse ground
Genesis 6:14: “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.” (NKJV)
When God chose Noah to build an ark, He was very specific in how it should be build and what it should be made of. God left no detail unattended as there was a deeper meaning for us in His instructions to Noah.
God told Noah that he must “cover it inside and outside with pitch”. This was to make it watertight. The Hebrew word for “cover” is kaphar, which means “to make atonement”. The Hebrew word for “pitch” is kopher which means “ransom” or “redemption price”. Do these meanings carry any significance to you?
The ark and the protection that was applied to it is a picture of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, who gave His life as a ransom for all.
Matthew 20:28 says, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (NKJV)
Jesus is our ark and we have a watertight salvation in Him.
1 Corinthians 1:30: “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” (NKJV)
Today, we are shut securely in Christ because we are in Him. We are shut into His safety. We are shut into His preservation. We are shut into God’s grace and favor. When the storms and floods come, through loss, death, destruction and danger, we can expect safety, provision, favor and peace because the Lord Himself has shut us in Him.
We are not left to our own means, but to everything we have in Him. It is His pride and desire to protect us and to keep us safely hidden in Him so that anything that crosses our paths must go through Him to get to us.
If we continue a little further into Genesis, we come across another nugget of gold surrounding the ark and its resemblance to Jesus.
Genesis 8:4 “Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.” (NKJV)
After the 40 days and nights, the rain came to an end. The Bible tells us that the whole world perished, except for Noah and those who were with him in the ark. When the rain stopped and the waters began to subside, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. In Hebrew, “Ararat” means “the curse is reversed”. So the ark came to rest on new ground where the curse was reversed. This happened on the 17th day of the seventh month on the Feast of Firstfruits—the exact date that Jesus rose from the dead 4000 years later! When Christ rose from dead, we were raised together with Him (Colossians 2:12).
Today we are in Christ, Who is our true ark who stand on resurrection ground where the curse has been reversed (Galatians 3:13), where diseases, poverty and failures have no standing or right to operate. We are walking on no-curse ground, wherever we go. Because of the no-curse ground, we are forgiven and free as we are shut in with Christ. As you awaken to this truth, your entire life can be turned for His glory.
Maretha Retief
Illustration by Jeanne de Villiers