Noah: A Man of the Soil

Genesis 9:20 "Noah became a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard."

Wherever men live, they are men of the soil. So few of us exist the way we were intended, but we always find a way of bringing green back into our lives. We plant grass around our houses, hang plants from our apartment ceilings, put flowers in our windows, or grow vegetables in our back yards. Somehow, someway, we manage to maintain our connection to the soil. Only in the most dysfunctional and unhappy societies is everything consumed by brick and concrete.

Update October 10, 2007: Yesterday I was reading on someone else's blog about the parallels between Noah's ark and Moses' ark. I don't remember him mentioning this one. Noah's ark was to be pitched inside and out. The Hebrew word used for "pitch" is kopher, which means to cover something. The Ark of the Covenant was topped by the mercy seat. The Hebrew word translated as "mercy seat" is kapporeth, which comes from kopher and means "lid or cover." (I have no idea why it was translated as "mercy seat.") The pitch on Noah's ark kept its inhabitants from drowning in the water that was the result of a world of sin. Without that pitch, the boat would have leaked and eventually sunk. The cover on the Ark of the Covenant represents the Messiah seated between two angels. Without him, the spiritual death that results from our world of sin would overwhelm us. It is only by the pitch of his blood, inside and out, that we are saved from ultimate destruction.