July 9th, 2004 The Spirit as a dove
In Jesus’ baptism by John, the Spirit descends on Jesus as a dove (Matthew 3:13-17 [+/-]Matthew 3:13-17
[13]Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John,
to be baptized by him. [14]John would have prevented him,
saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to
me?" [15]But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for
thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."
Then he consented. [16]And when Jesus was baptized,
immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the
heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17]and
behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am well pleased." (ESV)
). Why a dove?
In the past, I’ve correlated the description of Jesus’ baptism with the description of Noah’s ark (Genesis 7-8 [+/-]Genesis 7-8
[7:1]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 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.
[17]The flood continued forty days on the earth. The
waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high
above the earth. [18]The waters prevailed and increased
greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of
the waters. [19]And the waters prevailed so mightily on the
earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven
were covered. [20]The waters prevailed above the mountains,
covering them fifteen cubits deep. [21]And all flesh died
that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all
swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all
mankind. [22]Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils
was the breath of life died. [23]He blotted out every
living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and
animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They
were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and
those who were with him in the ark. [24]And the waters
prevailed on the earth 150 days.
[8:1]But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all
the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a
wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. [2]The
fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were
closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, [3]and
the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end
of 150 days the waters had abated, [4]and in the seventh
month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to
rest on the mountains of Ararat. [5]And the waters
continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth
month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the
mountains were seen.
[6]At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of
the ark that he had made [7]and sent forth a raven. It went
to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.
[8]Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters
had subsided from the face of the ground. [9]But the dove
found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to
the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole
earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her
into the ark with him. [10]He waited another seven days,
and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. [11]And
the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in
her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew
that the waters had subsided from the earth. [12]Then he
waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she
did not return to him anymore.
[13]In the six hundred and first year, in the first
month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried
from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the
ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
[14]In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the
month, the earth had dried out. [15]Then God said to Noah,
[16]"Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons
and your sons' wives with you. [17]Bring out with you every
living thing that is with you of all flesh--birds and
animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth--
that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and
multiply on the earth." [18]So Noah went out, and his sons
and his wife and his sons' wives with him. [19]Every beast,
every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves
on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
[20]Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some
of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and
offered burnt offerings on the altar. [21]And when the LORD
smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I
will never again curse the ground because of man, for the
intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither
will I ever again strike down every living creature as I
have done. [22]While the earth remains, seedtime and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease." (ESV)), with the rough picture being the Spirit hovering over the waters (which also ties into Genesis 1 [+/-]Genesis 1
[1:1]In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. [2]The earth was without form and void, and darkness
was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.
[3]And God said, "Let there be light," and there was
light. [4]And God saw that the light was good. And God
separated the light from the darkness. [5]God called the
light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was
evening and there was morning, the first day.
[6]And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst
of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the
waters." [7]And God made the expanse and separated the
waters that were under the expanse from the waters that
were above the expanse. And it was so. [8]And God called
the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was
morning, the second day.
[9]And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be
gathered together into one place, and let the dry land
appear." And it was so. [10]God called the dry land Earth,
and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas.
And God saw that it was good.
[11]And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation,
plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in
which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the
earth." And it was so. [12]The earth brought forth
vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own
kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each
according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
[13]And there was evening and there was morning, the third
day.
[14]And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of
the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let
them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,
[15]and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to
give light upon the earth." And it was so. [16]And God made
the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and
the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. [17]And
God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on
the earth, [18]to rule over the day and over the night, and
to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that
it was good. [19]And there was evening and there was
morning, the fourth day.
[20]And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of
living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across
the expanse of the heavens." [21]So God created the great
sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with
which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every
winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was
good. [22]And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds
multiply on the earth." [23]And there was evening and there
was morning, the fifth day.
[24]And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living
creatures according to their kinds--livestock and creeping
things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds."
And it was so. [25]And God made the beasts of the earth
according to their kinds and the livestock according to
their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground
according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
[26]Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the
livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping
thing that creeps on the earth."
[27]So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
[28]And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and
have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds
of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on
the earth." [29]And God said, "Behold, I have given you
every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the
earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall
have them for food. [30]And to every beast of the earth and
to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps
on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I
have given every green plant for food." And it was so.
[31]And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it
was very good. And there was evening and there was morning,
the sixth day. (ESV)). These are instances of a new creation theme, and the apostle Peter confirms the theme in the Noah account (2 Peter 3:5-7 [+/-]2 Peter 3:5-7
[5]For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the
heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of
water and through water by the word of God, [6]and that by
means of these the world that then existed was deluged with
water and perished. [7]But by the same word the heavens and
earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept
until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
(ESV)).
Today, as I was reading the account of the baptism, it suddenly hit me that the dove fit perfectly and confirmed the correlation between the Noah story and Jesus baptism, putting Jesus in the place of the new heavens and new earth. As the waters receded, Noah sent out a raven, and it returned. Then he sent out a dove, and it returned. He sent the dove again, and it brought back an olive leaf. He sent the dove out a third time, and it did not return. One can picture the new earth breaking through the water and the dove alighting on it.
Jesus “went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.” The dove found purchase, for the waters had receded from the new creation.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 [+/-]2 Corinthians 5:17
[17]Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has
come. (ESV))
July 10th, 2004 at 10:37 am
Cool. This is what turned me into a real Jordanite.
August 17th, 2004 at 11:48 pm
Neat exposition. Any chance this also indicated the suitability of Christ as a sacrifice for the people?