The Importance of Pitch

Pitch is very important. No, I’m not talking about hitting the right note with your voice or instrument. And no, I’m not talking about the person on the mound trying to get a fastball past a batter. I’m talking about the asphalt-like substance found in the Bible. 

Pitch is found in connection to Noah’s ark. In Genesis 6:14 God instructed Noah this way: “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.” The word pitch in Hebrew literally means to cover, specifically with bitumen. Bitumen was an ancient asphalt used by many different people groups in the Middle East similar to our cement and mortar. Since the word meant to cover, it was used figuratively for covering a debt, as in forgiveness or appeasement. 

The same Hebrew word translated as pitch in Genesis 6:14 is translated as atone or atonement throughout the Old Testament. This is incredible. The reason the ark was covered in pitch was to ensure that water did not come in the cracks and spoil the vessel. Remember, the floodwaters were part of God’s judgment on man’s sin, so the pitch, or atonement, kept Noah and his seven relatives safe from God’s judgment. In a similar way, Moses’ mother used pitch to cover the basket that she placed her young son in (Exodus 2:3). 

That bitumen used as pitch covered Noah and his family from God’s wrath, and animal sacrifices were later made for the same reason. Leviticus 17:11 says blood makes atonement for the soul. In the Old Testament atonement was made to cover sins, but sin could not be forgiven because the blood of goats and bulls is not sufficient for that task. In this regard God’s wrath was appeased, but a better covering was needed. 

In the New Testament atonement carries the idea of man being reconciled to God, but that is only possible because of the death of Jesus. Pitch—whether covering a boat, a basket, or a believer—was only a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do once and for all at Calvary. Moses and Noah were covered; so were all who trusted in God’s sacrificial system. The only question now is, have you been covered by the blood of Jesus?   

A Curse and a Promise

It is no well-kept secret that the rainbow was created as a promise from God that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. This promise came after Noah and his family got off the ark (Genesis 9:13); there had never been a rainbow before because it had never rained before; Genesis 2:5-6 tells us that God used a mist to give the earth the water that it needed. But this rainbow promise is not the only promise associated with Noah’s life.

The second promise hinges on a curse. It is also no secret that God cursed the earth after Adam and Eve chose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:17-19 records that God cursed the ground, and that all of mankind would have to work hard and sweat instead of simply enjoying the beautiful perfect creation that God had given as a gift. But that is not all: physical death was born that day. Adam and Eve were perfect and would have lived forever. The earth was also perfect and would have endured forever. But sin came and brought death, and the curse came and brought deterioration. Neither was an instant death, but a slow wearing out process.

That is where the second promise to Noah comes into play. Unlike the others, this one has been kept in the dark. But read the words from God to Noah in Genesis 8:21-22: “I will not again curse the ground any more…while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

The ground already had been cursed; God was not undoing the curse but promising that there would not be another one. But the promise is that as long as there is an earth, we will not cease to have everything that we need—hot and cold, all the seasons, harvest, and the natural rotations with the sun and moon.

What does that mean? It means that the 2012 hysteria can’t pan out; it means that global warming won’t leave us with all summer and no spring; it means there is no climate change, just varying temperatures that have always occurred throughout earth’s recorded history.

But if you do look around and come to the conclusion that this planet is wearing out, attribute it to the soon-coming rapture of the church. This planet won’t last forever, but God isn’t going to leave us on it when it finally wears out. After we are in New Jerusalem God will destroy this planet and create a new, uncursed, eternal one.