The Tree of Peace

He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. (Genesis 8:10-12)

July 4, 1776, is the most celebrated date in American history because of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Another congressional resolution that day is easily overlooked. On July 4, 1776, Congress also adopted a resolution to create the Great Seal of the United States. The design of the great seal features a bald eagle at the center. In the eagle’s left talon are 13 arrows. The right talon grasps an olive branch with 13 olives and 13 olive leaves. Together, these objects symbolize the sovereign authority of the 13 colonies to make war and to make peace.

An olive branch is a near-universal symbol of peace. Neil Armstrong placed a gold olive branch on the moon in 1969 as a gesture that the astronauts had come in peace. The olive branch was recognized as a symbol of peace in ancient Rome and ancient Greece, as well as other ancient cultures. 

The symbol of the olive branch can be traced back even further than that. Tertullian, a church father from the early third century, wrote that the dove sent forth by Noah from the ark “announced to the world the assuagement of divine wrath, when she had been sent out of the ark and returned with the olive branch.” The great flood began with gopher wood (cypress) and ended with an olive leaf.

This is the first occurrence in the Bible which specifies an olive tree or its fruit. Olive trees are the most common kind of tree mentioned in both the Old Testament and New Testament. We will be encountering olive trees again in later passages. For now, the olive leaf Noah held in his hand can prompt us to remember that “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Divine judgment has fallen upon Jesus at the cross. The flood has passed over us and we are now at peace with God.

 

The Ark Was Made of…

God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. (Genesis 6:12-15)

As the population of the world increased, evil increased along with it. God’s heart was broken. His indictment upon humanity was that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Mankind’s sin was universal, and God prepared for a universal judgment – a worldwide flood. 

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). God would deliver Noah and his family from the flood through the building of a boat, an ark. We don’t even need to know the story to guess what Noah used to build the ark.

The ark was made from wood. Wood comes from trees, more trees of the Bible. We’re only six chapters into the first book of the Bible and trees have told us most of the story.  These trees in Genesis 6 carried Noah and his family safely through God’s righteous, divine judgment of sin.

God command to Noah was specific. The ark was to be made of cypress wood (Gen. 6:14). Older Bibles (KJV & NASB) used the term “gopher” wood here.

I think the gopher wood came from Minnesota. 

Maybe not. But Noah’s salvation came through trees.

Thousands of years later, our salvation would come through another tree.

But first, trees still have another role to play in the telling of the flood story. We’ll look at that next time.