This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see
what’s happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his Gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Noah and his family
are still in the ark.

The rains have been
pounding the earth for 40 days.

But now the time has come
for the rains to stop,

and for Noah and his family to leave
the ark and come back to dry ground.

After leaving the ark, God gives Noah’s
family the same command he gave to Adam

and Eve back in the beginning of
Genesis - be fruitful and multiply.

Along with this command, God makes a
covenant with Noah and his descendants.

He promises to never again
wipe out all of humanity with a flood.

God seals this promise with a sign, a rainbow.

Now the bow in the sky was
meant to be seen as a warrior’s bow.

But if the arch of the rainbow
formed the arch of the bow,

the arrow would fly
right into heaven.

And that is the point God is making.

He is saying a time will come when
punishment won’t come down upon the earth

but will fall upon God himself
in a supreme act of mercy.

Then right after God gives this
promise, we see something similar.

As there was a division between Adam
and Eve’s children in the garden of Eden,

there is a division between
Noah’s children after the flood.

Ham is cursed because he sees
his father’s nakedness.

Now exactly what happened is hard to tell.

It at least involved Ham
seeing his father naked

and spreading his father’s shame
outside the tent by telling his brothers.

But at most, it could be a euphemism
for a sexual act of incest.

Whatever the reason, for his actions,
a curse comes upon Ham.

By contrast, however, a blessing is given
to one of his brothers, a guy named Shem.

Which means the remnant God
had promised would come through Shem.

This blessing proves to
have  been sovereignly placed.

Because, in the Gospel of Luke, in the New
Testament, we read the genealogy of Jesus.

And whose name do we see?
Shem, the son of Noah.

Jesus is the one who fulfills
the blessing Noah gave to his sons.

Jesus completes the mission given
to Noah and his family after the flood.

They were suppose to fill the earth
with the image of God.

But sin continued to spread instead.

However, when Jesus saves an
individual, he makes them into his image.

Through his Christians and his Church,
Jesus is covering the world with God’s image.

Jesus is also the fulfillment
of the promise made with the rainbow.

On the cross, the punishment we
deserved fell upon Jesus instead of us.

The bow turned toward heaven.

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your
eyes to see God as the one who has always

been making a way to keep a remnant
of undeserving people for himself.

And that you would see Jesus as the one who
makes the saving of undeserving people possible

by turning our punishment
into a promise on the cross.