When God instructed Noah to make a boat called the “ark”, He said, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” (Genesis 6:14)
Pitch was a black, sticky, tar-like substance that repelled water. In Genesis 6:14, the Hebrew word used for pitch is “kaphar’. Kaphar is the same word translated “atonement” in other places in the Old Testament. It means “covering”.
In Leviticus 17:11 it says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an ATONEMENT for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
The pitch was a covering for the Ark, and the blood that was shed in animal sacrifices was a covering for the soul. Pitch gave assuring physical deliverance from the flood. The blood gave spiritual salvation. However, in Old Testament times, the blood that was shed by animal sacrifices only COVERED the sins of men. It was not until the New Testament when Jesus Christ shed His pure blood on Calvary that God accepted it as a holy offering good enough to not just cover the sins of men, but to totally eliminate them forever!
Fast-forward to Genesis 7:15, “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and THE LORD SHUT HIM IN.
I like the following statement from the Days of Praise Devotional:
“Matthew 24 draws a parallel between the judgment of Noah’s day and the impending Second Coming of Christ: “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (vv.38-39). We live in a day when the door is still open. Revelation 3:8 records, “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” In John 10:7, “Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door. . . .” But the day will come when God Himself will divinely shut that door (Revelation 3:7).
R U Ready?