The Dove In The Bible

There is something in the Bible that I think deserves more attention.

As the waters of the great flood were receding, Noah sent out a dove from the ark. The first time, the dove could find nowhere to perch and it returned to the ark. Seven days later, Noah sent it out again and it returned with an olive leaf, so Noah knew that the flood waters must be receding. Seven days after that, Noah sent out the dove again and it did not return.

Far in the future, Jesus was being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit suddenly appeared in the sky, in the form of a dove, and the voice of God proclaimed Jesus as His Son.

I see it as the same dove coming back. Both instances involved water and sin. The first instance was the wicked world of the antediluvians being destroyed by the flood. The second instance was the baptism of Jesus, who came to pay the price for sin, in water.

The first time, the flood, it was the sinners themselves that were drowned. The second time, the Baptism of Jesus, it was just the sin nature that was symbolically drowned by Jesus' baptism so that the sinners themselves could be saved.

The ark, made of wood, saved chosen people from the flood. The cross, on which Jesus was crucified, made of wood, opened the possibility of permanent salvation from sin.

Baptism was a new ceremony and the baptism of Jesus opened the door to a new and better era, when people could be permanently saved from sin, instead of sinners being drowned in the flood. I find it significant that John the Baptist was from a priestly family, representing the old era, while Jesus wasn't, which represented the new era.

Notice how the Temple Mount, on which the Temple had been built that stood at the time of Jesus, resembled a great ship in form. The Temple thus represented the long-ago Noah's Ark. The Temple was where sacrifices were made for sin. The religious establishment of the time resented Jesus, his criticism and his popularity, and got him crucified.

But that was all a part of God's plan and Jesus became the permanent sacrifice to pay the price for sin. The dove that had left the ark had returned to Him, with the ark now being the Temple Mount. The dove had returned to the ark the second time with an olive leaf. The Mount of Olives, where Jesus and the Apostles spent so much time, was just across the Kidron Valley from the Temple Mount.

We have visited the Temple Mount in the posting on this blog, "Esau And The Temple Mount", February 2016.

We have seen my conclusion that the metal band around the wooden stump of a tree, in the Book of Daniel, was a prophecy of the Temple Mount being preserved after the Temple would be destroyed, in the compound posting on this blog "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy" October 2016, section 2) THE TREE STUMP AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT. and the tree having been made out of wood is a link with the wooden ark.