Lent Day 11
by Cameron Hepola
Genesis 9:8-17, “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.
Psalm 25:3-9
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long. Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord! Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
1 Peter 3:18-22, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
Mark 1:9-13 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
In his introductory book to the Old Testament, Harvard Divinity School professor Michael David Coogan writes that in the Hebrew Bible, the number forty is often used for time periods which “separate two distinct epochs.” Whether it is the forty days and forty nights of Noah’s family on the ark, the forty years of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, or Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan for forty days, the number seems to have a particular significance in the Christian Scriptures. However, according to Coogan, the use of the number forty as a span of time separates events into a “before” and an “after.” Therefore, the forty days and nights spent on the ark separates the before of the profound wickedness of mankind from the after of the rebooting of creation with Noah, the new Adam. The forty years of the wilderness wanderings separates the before of the Israelites languishing in slavery in Egypt from the after of the new generation entering the Promised Land. Lastly, the forty days that Jesus spends in the wilderness being tempted by Satan separates the before of His baptism in the Jordan from the after of His ministry.
Similarly, the forty days of Lent separate the prior epoch of humanity’s enslavement to the powers of Sin and Death to the subsequent epoch of the liberating work of Christ in His cross and resurrection. Moreover, Peter writes that baptism, symbolized by the ark of Noah, corresponds to this passing from one period of time into another. To use Pauline language, baptism is the event that separates the before of the old self from the after of walking in newness of life.
Let us be reminded as we journey through this forty day season that not only do angels minister to us as they did to the Lord Christ but those angels, as Peter says, are subjected to Him as He sits at the right hand of God interceding for us. Let us be reminded that God the Father rescued us from the domain of darkness (the before) and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (the after). Let us be reminded of the Spirit who descended in the form of a dove upon Christ and, like the dove Noah sent out, is a sign of the promise that we have passed from the old age into the new age.
Cameron Hepola is a Bible teacher at First Presbyterian Academy in Greenville, SC. A member of Village since January 2020, Cameron can be found enjoying coffee or wine, reading a theology book, or watching sports when not teaching.