City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. ² Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, ³ and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing^[c] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ⁵ And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. ¹⁵ They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. ¹⁶ And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

Genesis 7:1-16 (ESV)

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Matthew 4:1-11 (ESV)

Commentary

What I love about a good movie is the ability of the filmmaker to weave together an entertaining story with a good message, supported by symbolism and other devices to convey that message. One of my favorite movies is Get Out, Jordan Peele’s dark comedy about racism in America. Early in the movie, as the protagonist, Chris, and his white girlfriend, Rose, are traveling to meet Rose’s parents, they hit a deer in the road. Rose’s parents later say there are so many deer they are practically taking over and they should be killed. 

Later, Chris is strapped to a chair and something horrible is getting ready to happen to him at the hands of his girlfriend’s parents. He looks up on the wall and prominently displayed is a trophy deer mount. The message is unmistakable: Chris is the vulnerable deer; his is the group Rose’s parents fears are taking over. It is a clever indictment against racism in America and pounds the message home on a different level than the mere narrative could.

We read in Genesis the Lord caused it to rain 40 days and 40 nights.  The 40 days is mentioned three times in this passage of Scripture in case you were tempted to dismiss it as insignificant. See Genesis 7:4, 12, 17. So, why 40 days and nights? Why not 39? Or 42? And then consider that Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai (Genesis 34:28), and the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness after the Exodus (Numbers 14:34), and Jesus was tempted for 40 days by Satan before He began His ministry (Matthew 4:1-11).

God, the Great Auteur, who is sovereign over history, has wedded into these historical events a thread of symbolism so we don’t miss what is happening. In all these historical events, the use of the number 40 is not coincidence or random; it is symbolic of a time of trial and testing. 

If you are a movie buff or love literature, you also know that rain is often used as a symbol for cleansing and redemption. God could have judged the earth with a drought or a global pandemic that destroyed everyone but Noah and his family. Instead, the Lord chose water.

Application

Now you get it. God used 40 days of rain to bring about a global reset to convey that it was a time of testing for humanity that was ultimately redemptive. Of course, you knew that by reading the narrative, but these symbolic elements orchestrated by the Author of history add an additional layer of communication that make the message even clearer.

So, next time you read a story in the Bible, don’t just the read the narrative; look for the symbols God chose to weave into the story of history.

Prayer

Lord, help me to more fully understand all You have communicated when I read Your Word. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.