The Wonder of Noah and The Holy Spirit

Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?

I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises, but the stars never fall?

Why dry land is never satisfied by water? And why fire never says enough? The wonder of Noah and the Holy Spirit.

It's amazing. I think that clearly God has one of the great sense or the greatest sense of humor ever. And he is particularly good at puns or, you know, double entendre words. So one of those words that is that way in the Scriptures would be the word that is often translated comfort, but is also often translated repented or repenteth. And so it's interesting that if you look in Isaiah 40 Chapter 1 where it says, comfort ye, comfort ye. Ah, there you'll see is this word that in Hebrew is a nun and a het and a mem. And that would indicate that here's this tremendous faith, this seed of faith that is connected through the marriage or the narrow gate of the het in water.

Right? Which is very much connected to Noah in so many different ways, as you know, is connected to baptism. And it's also connected to the Holy Spirit, especially through this word comfort. But it also is the word repent. And so when you look at that word, comfort ye, comfort ye, in the Septuagint in Isaiah Chapter 40, you'll note, and I think it's significant, that it in Greek is the word parakletos.

I think it's how it's pronounced. But the idea of the paraklet, which is what Jesus told us would come right after he left, he would send the comforter. Well, isn't it interesting that in that word comfort is the word repent.

And so, you know, one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit, right, is to convict us of sin, right, which is to see the right way versus the wrong. And obviously this has to do with being comforted in so many different ways. And this, you see the idea of what John the Baptist was doing when he was comforting, comforting. But getting back to our hero, Noah, his name means comfort, okay, which again, it's just such a play in words and such a play with how delightful God is. But Noah's name is just a nun and a het.

And it was said when he was, you know, in Genesis Chapter 5, you know, his father named him Noah because he would comfort his people from how they had essentially created a curse on the ground. And so there's, I could do a whole podcast just on that whole idea, but just staying on the idea of Noah and the Holy Spirit, right, that you can't help but know that Noah's name is the beginning of the word parakletos if you were to translate that. But what's really, really cool, and I think absolutely delightful for whatever reason, I do not know that the rabbis, when they translated the Old Testament into Greek in what is called the Septuagint, when they translated Isaiah 41, which is clearly a nun and a het and a mem, they called it the parakletos.

In other places it's called parakletos in the Old Testament. But there, when it says that Noah would comfort his people, interestingly, he did not parakletos, he aleph'd, which is like a picture of Christ. Not aleph, I should say. I'm getting my Greek mixed up with my Hebrew. He didn't aleph, he alphad.

And so he would alphad his people, which is interesting that that's the way that they translated it there. Then in Genesis 6, it would repent God, it says, and again they're using that same word, that nun and that het and that mem, he repented God. And it's interesting to me that it's Genesis 6, 6, the 6th chapter of Genesis, kind of the number of man. And then on the 6th verse of the 6th chapter, it repented the Lord that he made man, and that word repented again as nun, het, mem. But interestingly, the rabbis didn't even use the parakletos word there, they used another Greek word that kind of means to think on. And so you can see the inconsistencies with the Septuagint as far as the nun, het, mem, because they're trying to, from my standpoint, get God's pun here, which he's using time and again. Because one of the most mysterious things to me in the Scriptures is the Holy Spirit and this idea of, you know, this coming alongside. But what does he do when he comes alongside, just like he did for the prodigal son, right? He came to his senses.

Why? Because then he was comforted, right, by his father, et cetera, et cetera, as a result of being convicted that he had gone in the wrong direction by changing directions. You know, he was eating steak rather than pig pods, and it wouldn't take long, and that is the idea of what all that is. But it's fascinating to me, it's more than fascinating, that Noah's name means comfort, and Noah had the amazing, amazing privilege in Genesis chapter 8 of being the comforter to God. And I've just meditated and meditated on that as I was on vacation and thought about how amazing would it be that in some way or another we could comfort God, because his name, his obvious purpose was to be a comforter, right? And then he would comfort God in Genesis chapter 8. But I, overall, if you climb to 80,000 feet and you look at this whole thing, you'll notice there's a certain pattern that comes from, we see in Noah in baptism, and clearly, you know, the Jews going through baptism in the Red Sea and then taking out into the wilderness, and then obviously Jesus, you know, going through his baptism and then going out into the wilderness, and this idea of being comforted, because again, you know, how could God be comforted, you know, how could God repent?

It's just an interesting challenge just to begin with, but interestingly, that is almost like the Holy Spirit's name comes from that whole idea of the comforter, right? And so, you know, when you put that together, again, I can't tell you that I'm not wondering more than I'm explaining, but I think it's really a beautiful thing to wonder, like, oh my goodness, to be baptized in so many different ways, because we talked about this, I think, in the last episode, that the water is the word and the word is water, and so it's amazing to me that we want to be just immersed in his word when we repent. In other words, when we turn to God, we want to hear his voice. We want to hear from him, and so many people, when you study their salvation experience very shortly thereafter, you're going to find they just had an unbelievable thirst for the word, especially people that were particularly fruitful. If you look at their lives, and I have lots of friends, and I myself would included be, in that I couldn't get enough of the word and I still can't. And that idea of baptism, of going into the water and being just immersed in the word is wonderful.

And then, what do you do? You go out in the wilderness and you're tempted to see if you'll continue to listen for God, and so it was with Noah, right? That interestingly, look at Noah's obedience in Genesis chapter 8. After 600 years, in the first month of the 601st year, the waters were abated, and it says that Noah took the cover off the ark, but then he waited a month and 27 days. He waited in the ark with the cover off of it before God would tell him it was okay to go out there with the animals.

I mean, that's amazing obedience, it just is. And he goes out there with the animals and he builds a famous altar that he would then comfort God with, as we talked about this whole idea. And then, as he goes out in the wilderness, you may be familiar with the wine experience, where he obviously falls into temptation and he ends up cursing one of his sons, and it's just an ugly situation. As, again, when we get out into the wilderness, when we're supposed to be immersed in the word, sometimes we don't stay immersed in it and we find ourselves being tempted.

However, Jesus was a perfect picture of this. And again, you can't help but note the connection of the dove and the word comfort, as the word dove is clearly a nun, it's a yod and a vav and a nun is the idea of a dove. And of course, what descended on Jesus after he was baptized is the comfort of the dove, right? And so the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, you might remember that. Then he went out into the wilderness and was tempted. Well, look at Noah, right?

He sends out the dove and then he goes out in the wilderness and is tempted. And so you can't help but think that, wow, I bet if Noah obviously is a picture of this, what happened to the Israelites is a picture of this, Jesus clearly went through this as an example of what you go through, right? You go through these periods, and I think I go through it all the time actually, like every single morning, I get up, I go immerse myself in the word, right? I repent, so to speak. I decide, gee, I really need to hear from God right now.

I need comfort, right? And so I get in my chair and I get my coffee and I start dipping into the prayer and the word and I get my comfort. And the Holy Spirit does descend on me like a dove and he begins to show me things and comfort me.

And oh, it's amazing. And then not long thereafter, I leave and come to work and it won't be long. And temptation comes my way. And hopefully, you know, today I'll do better than yesterday and I'll stay more immersed in God throughout my day. I don't know yet all the solution to all this thing, but it is wonderful to wonder about. Right. And I can't help but think that, wow, you know, how cool is it that we get a chance to experience this really actually day by day? You know, turn to the comforter, turn to the comforter, you know, immerse ourselves in the word and then go out into the wilderness and be tempted today. Thanks for listening.