When Jesus explained to his disciples everything that was written about him in the Torah, the Neviim, and the Kethuviim (Luke 24:44), you do not get the impression that he was only referring to those passages which we tend to deem Messianic (e.g. 2 Sam 7, Psalm 2, Isaiah 53, etc.); rather, he seems to be assuming the entire Hebrew Bible is a book about the Messiah. Likewise, this seems to be the assumption of the author of Hebrews when he says "for to which of the angels [contra the Christ] does it say..." and proceeds to list passage after passage without questioning the assumption that these are indeed Messianic passages. The reason for this assumption is much easier to understand if one assumes that the entire Hebrew Bible is a book searching for the coming Messiah, the one who would restore paradise (i.e. the "seed" (Gen 3:15)).
The Hebrew Bible searches through genealogies and comes to a screeching halt at characters such as Noah. Noah's father Lamech says "this is the one who will give us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands." There is a certain brightness and optimism to the story of Noah. The author goes well out of his way to make sure the reader knows that Noah "did all that Yahweh commanded him." And Noah does indeed bring about a sort of salvation, a sort of re-creation. But soon afterwards Noah gets drunk; the story ends so disappointingly. The proceeding chapters show mankind's failure to obey Yahweh, and they build a tower to heaven.
But there is a bittersweetness to the end of the story of Noah. The sweetness is the fact that he is not the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah. And this is sweetness indeed. Noah must be put in his proper place in Genesis 9 as only a type of Christ, as one who gives the reader a picture of Christ and his salvation, but who is not himself actually the Christ.
Everything in life is like Noah.
Food sustains us and nourishes us. It is savoring just like Christ is. That is why "man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (i.e. the Word, Christ). But food is not actually Christ, and it will disappoint us just like Noah, even though it - like Noah - offers us a bright and optimistic sort of salvation when we are hungry and see a plate of Pad Thai in front of us.
Every season has a bright optimism to it, and a subsequent disappointment: The snow covers the ground like Jesus covers our sin, but ends in a messy pile of slush. The sunshine of summer brings the hope of redemption, but ends in drought. The rain is an image of his providence in a dry and weary land, but Portlanders know well the misery of rainfall.
How often do we make our romantic relationships out to be functional saviors. We see in that other person the same sort of bright and optimistic hope that the reader of Genesis sees in Noah, yet they too will let us down. This is because Jesus is the Bridegroom who will marry his Bride, and earthly marriage is only a type which proclaims this reality of Christ.
Pornography steals the image of intimacy which proceeds from this divine marriage, and leads many into such a false hope.
Drunkenness is a rush like the filling of the Holy Spirit.
They are cheap imitations.
Evil does indeed wear a mask. It can only wear a mask, because creation is built out of images of Christ. Evil must use pictures of Jesus in order to exist.
Everything in life is like Noah.
Water satisfies like Jesus, but it also drowns. Movies are stories just like the great meta-narrative of Jesus, but they waste our time. Music has harmony just like the Triune God of love who is imaged in Jesus, but it's frustrating when songs get stuck in your head. Fire keeps us warm like the Spirit of Christ, but burns us if we get too close. Fathers are dear just like Jesus' Father, but every earthly father has let his children down in one way or another. Smoking brings us a sort of peace and comfort like breathing in the Spirit of Christ, the great comforter, but it also gives us cancer.
What is this universal failure and letdown of all things but a proclamation that there is still another one to come? These things do not satisfy: only Jesus.
"It was a beautiful letdown the day I knew /
That all the riches this world had to offer me would never do"
Jesus is the truth.
Life searches for the Messiah just like the Hebrew Bible does.
Nothing exists that is not an image of Christ. This is a messianic world, and human beings have forgotten about Jesus. We have worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. We have believed that earthly things can satisfy us in themselves without being received in worship and thanksgiving.
We are like the Jews, who thought that John the Baptist was the Christ. We are like the crowds at Lystra, who wished to make Peter and Barnabas into Zeus and Hermes. We make creation itself out to be God. Yet creation declares with John the Baptist, "Behold the lamb, who takes away the sins of the world," and declares with Peter and Barnabas, "...we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them."
Everything in creation - like John, Peter, and Barnabas - make up images of Christ and point away from themselves to "a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them." Yes, creation looks like Jesus - like a savior, like something which can satisfy, like something which will bring us true pleasure, joy, hope, peace - but creation also points away from itself: "Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" It is when we fail to hear this proclamation that we become idolatrous, and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen.
"All things with which we deal, preach to us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The ground and goal of the entire cosmos means Jesus Christ." - Karl Barth
"[Creation] is as full of images of divine things as a language is full of words." - Jonathan Edwards
