NO PITCH on the
When will children's Bible story book artists start
taking the Word of God seriously, and STOP
making this perpetual mistake? Perhaps you think it doesn't matter, but
wait! The basis for the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ is at stake here! Because
His precious Blood has been shed, there is remission for sins, so do they think
that God said to Moses:
“When I see
the pitch, I will pass over,” in
Exodus 12.13? No.
“When I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be
upon you to destroy you...”
…is the correct translation of this profound Scripture;
the Israelites needed the blood, we need the Blood and Noah and his Family
needed the Blood ! Noah was a sinner just like you and I, and every major
program of Judgment in God's dealings with men involves the acceptance or refusal
of the Blood of Christ.
If the
Flood was not a major judgment over
this world, then the Scripture is not telling the truth; everything on the land and in the air was destroyed by this
colossal disaster which man brought upon himself by his utter wickedness and
vile lifestyle.
God has not
ordained that pitch is the answer to sin; it is precious Blood, as of a Lamb
once slain that alone atones for sin!
Bible story artists need to handle the Word of God with far more reverence and
care; in the last decades of the 20th Century and the early years of
the 21st, they have almost treated the accuracy of Scripture with
disdain: “We don't need to be accurate, the kids will get some idea !”
There had to be Blood
symbolically on the inside and the outside of the Ark.
“How can you make such claims?” you may ask, “What authority exists that warrants such
boldness when hundreds of Bible story books for kids show Noah pouring boiling
tar into buckets for painting on the timbers of the Ark?” The answer is always
so simple: Check every word in the Authorised (“King James”) Version, or which ever version of the bible
you use (* see note), in a
concordance which gives the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek & Latin meanings.
* Note: If a concordance for the
translation you use is not yet available, look up the word in the Authorised (“King James”)
version, then look that up in a concordance. You can
find the AV (KJV) online at various web sites, including: http://bible.lifeway.com/crossmain.asp Strong’s Concordance is available at: http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html
Fine, but
how does that help us in this instance?
The Hebrew
word for PITCH/TAR (Hebrew: zepheth) is simply not in Genesis 6, but the Holy Spirit
did intend to convey the idea of a
“covering” (Hebrew: kaphar: to
cover).
Noah knew
perfectly well that only blood was sufficient in the sight of God for Him to
pass over the
Looking
forward to this great event in world history, God had created an invertebrate
which sucked tree sap and produced a waterproofing waxy secretion: the Lac
insect. To get this exudate, the insect must be scraped off the branches - many
are killed in the process and their blood is mixed with the wax! Many explorers
in the Ararat region have found wooden beams covered with a very hard varnish
type coating which is just what one would expect after all these years of
exposure on the mountain. Today, we call this product “shellac”; the unrefined
liquid is a pale pink but this can be removed by refining to produce a clear
varnish which soon hardens.
How
perfectly every part of Scripture supports every other part so that the
principles of salvation remain intact wherever you look ! Noah did not have to
be told to sacrifice the clean animals
and bird; he knew just what would
delight God, so he built an altar and killed them, to which God replied with
the Promise that “seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and
winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Christian
teachers and pastors need to insist on accurate pictures in the teaching of
children in their fellowship: God's Word is Truth.
Brian W. Grantham-Hill
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