If a friend asks you, how many stories are there from Genesis
to Revelation? What is your answer? You might start to count,
the story of Cain and Abel, the Noah’s Ark, the calling of
Abraham, the testing of Abraham’s faith, Moses leading
people to cross the Red Sea, Joshua conquered Jericho,
King David defeated Goliath etc, etc….. so you might come
out with several hundreds of stories.
But is your answer correct? No. And the correct answer is only
ONE. Yes, there is only ONE story in the sixty-six book of the
Bible. That is the Story of Jesus Christ himself. Why is that so?
All the stories in the Old Testament are only a shadow of the
Reality yet to be revealed. The existence of these stories is
not meant to be a model for us to emulate. Rather they are
God’s way of communicating His Salvation for his Chosen
People. For example, the Noah’s family was saved inside the
Ark. The ark signaled/pointing toward the Church in the New
Testament. Therefore we could boldly say that no one could
be saved outside Christ’ Church. Noah’s family was saved
through the water. And what does the water pointing to? It
symbolizes baptism that now saves us who live in the
21st century. (see I Peter 3:21)
In Noah’s day, he has no chance to see the incarnation of
God’s promise to Adam, that is the coming of Messiah. The
Messiah is also the seed of the woman that shall come to defeat
the works of Satan. He shall come to establish God’s Kingdom
where Adam failed the task. Therefore God is using the Ark
to proclaim Gospel (save from the judgment flood of God,
those outside the Ark shall surely perish) to Noah and his family.
Therefore when Christ starts his public ministry, he
proclaims, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven/God is at
hand” (Matt 4:17) What does it mean? It means that sinners must
not continuing in pursuing this world and live under the
“glory” of this world, rather enter into his Church to
receive the Good News (Gospel) that Son of God come to offer.
To baptized into His name and become the member of a visible church,
and receiving the blessing from the ministry of preaching
and sacraments. (see also Mark 8:36-38)
Even though Noah has not seen the New Testament church,
but the Ark itself is a sign to him. Therefore the story of Noah
and our 21st century story indeed is one story, testifying the
coming of God’s Son to save his chosen people. As a matter of
fact, Jesus himself links the story of Noah to his contemporary
society. In Luke 17:26-27, he says, “Just as it was in the days of
Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were
eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the
day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.”
There is always ONE story, ONE message in the whole Bible. If a
Bible student could not see this ONE story and ONE message,
then he/she should humbly bow before God to ask for mercy. If
there is more than one story in the Bible, then it is no longer
the Bible. (See also Luke 24:25-27)
Posted on February 05, 2007
