Previously, I explained the choice for the title of this blog, “The Landing,” as my personal confirmation of God’s almighty hand in declaring redemption and newness in my own life. My revelation came when I realized the Bible states that Noah’s Ark landed on the mountain of Ararat on the same day as the month and day of my birthday, according to how it is stated in Genesis.
I can barely wrap my head around the further information I just discovered about this date in a commentary by Bible teacher Robert D. Johnston in his book Numbers in the Bible:
“What then, is the significance of that simple statement in Genesis 8:4: ‘The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat’? Just this. As the ark, bearing Noah and his family, passed in perfect safety through those judgment waters, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month touched the new world; so our Ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed forever, passed through the floods of the wrath of God at the place which is called Calvary, and came forth into a new world, the resurrection life, on the anniversary of that very day.”
How is this possible?
According to Johnston’s explanation, in Exodus chapter 12 verse 2, God speaks to Moses and Aaron and literally says that the month that they are in (which was the seventh month at the time) is now to be known as the first month of the year. And to make this even more remarkable, this was the very first Passover. So for the first Passover, God changed what was formerly the seventh month into the first month. Fast forward many years, and we find that our sacrificial Lamb is sacrificed on the 14th day during the month of the Feast of the Passover. And He is risen, three days later, on what would have been the seventeenth day. Jesus Christ resurrected on the anniversary of the same exact day that Noah’s Ark came to land on the Mountain of Ararat to begin new life.
I’m going to leave this right there. There isn’t much more I’m going to add to make this more remarkable or clarify God’s unbelievable plan and purpose in the details for His people. But be assured, every detail, every word, every part of His plan is with purpose and without coincidence. Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).
My friends, The Landing was never about me. It was about us all.
