It was noted that the Holy Spirit’s activity, in the book of Genesis, is not explicitly seen in the interval between the flood and His obvious reappearance in the life of Joseph, but that this should not be construed as His absence. The characteristic features of the Spirit of God’s activity are seen – lived out figuratively by His creatures.
Fittingly, the first figure of the Spirit is that of a bird – a dove. The Spirit of God is introduced on the pages of Scripture hovering over a formless, empty earth (Genesis 1:2). Similarly, after the division between the waters above and the waters below is removed (cp. Genesis 1:6; 7:11; 8:2), resulting in the deluge of the flood, a wind (same word as is translated spirit) begins to blow (Genesis 8:1) over this water-covered earth, this “uncreated” world. Noah, inside the ark, has no way of knowing what is going on outside. It is the dove he releases that provides him with a sense of the progress of the “recreation” going on outside the ark.
Unlike the raven, an unclean bird (Leviticus 11:15), the dove returns initially to the ark. There was no place for it to rest on the water-covered earth. Later, it returned with an olive leaf indicating the growth of vegetation. Finally, it didn’t return, bearing witness to the fact that the earth was ready to be inhabited again (Genesis 8:9-12).
The baptism of Jesus provides credence to viewing the activity of the dove in this “recreation” as analogous to the work of the Spirit of God. The baptismal narratives (Matthew 3; Luke 3) borrow flood imagery. The water covers the baptized, the heavens are opened, and explicitly, the Spirit of God descends on Jesus in the form of a dove. Paul, in Romans 6, emphasizes that when one comes through baptism, they are raised to walk in newness of life – a recreated life.
The fact that the Spirit of God was willing to rest on Jesus, attests, by way of analogy with the flood narrative, to the sinless life of Christ in the silent years before His public ministry. The Dove had finally found a Man upon whom it could rest without corruption. The fact that the Holy Spirit can rest upon us as believers (Acts 2; Ephesians 1:13-14) testifies to the value of Christ’s work in cleansing us as a result of His sacrifice on the cross.
Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus in John 3 is also instructive along these lines. As He emphasized to Nicodemus the importance of being born again – being born from above – and being born of the Spirit, He was teaching him that the way to become a child of God was by the regenerative work of the Spirit.
God’s judgement is ever mixed with grace. Noah found grace in the aftermath of God’s pronouncement of judgement (cp. Genesis 6). The “recreation” after the flood is overseen by a dove flitting about in the wind (spirit). Jesus is marked out as a qualified Saviour by the Dove’s descent. You and I are sealed, as children of God, by the regenerative, life-giving activity of the Spirit of God, thus extending to us the olive branch and speaking peace to our souls.
The Dove may be shy – but He is certainly present!
