PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY (2)
[p. 335] PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY (2)
Genesis 8: 15 - 22; Genesis 9: 17; Revelation 4: 3
By connecting the passage in the Revelation with the one read in Genesis 9, we may see the full result of the divine movement in Noah. The rainbow links the two passages unmistakably; the colour suggested is “emerald”, indicating the mind of God by a living order of things. God smelled an odour of rest in the burnt-offering, in death — the rainbow goes beyond that. Genesis 9 shows that the principles of government (found in chapter 8) had taken effective form, “I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living soul”, with the result that there are four living creatures in Revelation 4, what is universal, answering to the mind of God in intelligence, strength, rapidity and firmness, and recognising God as, “Holy, holy, holy ... who was, and who is, and who is to come”. The elders, who are in the priestly understanding of the mind of God, continue, saying, “For thy will they were, and they have been created”; this is the full result of what is begun in this section.
Genesis 6: 9 introduces a new chapter in the divine ways. Genesis 5 gives the history of Adam, and his generation and now another head comes in. There are no loose ends with God. He gives the thing from the inception; we get the things from start to finish.
God takes account of each of our histories. He begins with us with what is definite, and His end is to correspond with that. As with Mark, God does not hold things against us. Mark was entrusted with important communications. Also the Lord took Peter up for a purpose, and He saw that the end corresponded with the beginning. Also Jonah, the fact that he wrote the book, and gave his own [p. 336] history, shows that he appreciated in his own soul the end that God had in view.
The living creatures say, “who was, and who is, and who is to come”; the beginning, the middle and the finish; He is the same to the end.
The Lord’s way is to bring us through death. Jonah had to go that way. Paul in dealing with the Corinthians had to go that way himself, in order to be a help to them. You cannot be a help to the saints unless you go that way yourself. You see that which hinders, and as having gone through death, you know how to deal with it, “God ... who has delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver”, 2 Corinthians 1: 10. Paul had great conflict in Asia in establishing the testimony. There was a supreme effort of the devil against him, and his ministry at Ephesus. The combat was very severe; but the apostle had the sentence of death in himself, and trusted “in God who raises the dead”, and “the word of the Lord increased and prevailed”, Acts 19: 20. The whole world-power crumbled there. In Jonah’s case, the second commission was altered. In chapter 1 it simply is, “Arise, go to Nineveh, ... and cry against it”; but after Jonah’s experience of death, it reads in chapter 3: 2, “Preach unto it the preaching that I shall bid thee”. There is to be a definite preaching now that Jonah is qualified through death.
The end of all flesh has come before God; now it is a question of bringing through what is of God. We learn here something of God’s way of bringing us through on the ground of death and resurrection. The apostle had gone that way, and he was intent on bringing through what was of God at Corinth. This is the great principle in Noah. There were elements at Corinth that were of the devil, and Paul must be cautious because there was something to bring through; the Lord said, “I have much people in this city”. The Revelation shows that God will bring creation through in life.
The Lord Jesus is in touch with all that is of God in this world; one side of the seal is, “The Lord knows those that are his”. We do not know, and we move in relation to the other side of the seal, and “withdraw from iniquity”; that is the moral position we occupy.
God began with Noah at his strongest point, his family; but God had greater thoughts than Noah’s immediate family. If one is true to his own house, God will take him up in a greater way. God begins with what He can approve in us. The point is, to find out what is of God. How will we get on together, if we do not make allowances for the weak brother? “All the weights of the bag are his work”. We are to make great allowances, and all that is of God must be saved and brought through — as Noah brought things through in the ark. We must find out what is of God and see that it is preserved.
In order to understand the kingdom, you must understand the King. How did the King deal with the little ones? He took them in His arms and blessed them. Do not stumble the little ones: “Their angels in the heavens continually behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens” (Matthew 18: 10); that is how the King cares for the little ones. The weak brother has something in him of God to be carried through. You find some mark of God in the soul, and you need wisdom to bring that through. The Lord will make him stand. You feel that you have to do with God’s property. If you can take account of what is of God in a brother, you have a basis to work on; only what is of God is to be worked on; working on the flesh is lost time.
The birth of Noah brought in hope (Genesis 5: 29): “This one shall comfort us concerning our work and concerning the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed”. There is a recognition of the curse, and that Noah would be a comfort concerning the work of their hands. There was light there as to the curse; Cain did not recognise the curse. Noah brings in a state of things that enables God to go on, not on the ground of the curse but of blessing. That is the ground on which God is dealing with us. God has found another principle on which to deal with us, and has been going on that line ever since. Whatever the natural conditions God goes on, on the principle of blessing. God never changes His mind; the end to be reached is what pleases God. The great recovery today is for God. Ephesians is strictly the beginning of christianity, and we are to be brought to this.
The second letter to the Corinthians brings in new creation and reconciliation. God intended to bring the Corinthians in for His pleasure. The covenant indicates what God is to the creation; Revelation is the answer. We see there (chapter 4), a great array of power to bring about that result; but all is based on the sacrifice of Christ. There is nothing greater than that!
“Noah found favour in the eyes of Jehovah”. We read nothing of the communications that passed between God and Enoch; but in Noah we do. Enoch was not a head, but Noah was. Enoch was a most beautiful finish of what was in the mind of God at the outset. In Noah, there is a new beginning in grace, and the fruit of it is seen in Revelation 4, “Noah found favour in the eyes of Jehovah ... was a just man, perfect amongst his generations”, Genesis 6: 8, 9. One would covet a record like that! A model amongst them. David served his own generation. There is not only being a model, but serving; there should be an exercise as to serving our own generation.
Noah had remarkable knowledge of God, and it is [p. 339] what we know of God that has an effect upon us. Noah passed through discipline, and we learn from these men about God’s disciplinary ways with us. Job is the great standing witness of God’s ways in discipline with us, and we see how God carries us through.
Enoch means “disciplined”; he was a disciplined man, “Shall two walk together except they be agreed?”, Amos 3: 3. God says, as it were, ‘If you walk with Me, the flesh must be curbed’; a walk with God for three hundred years signifies that Noah would know something about Enoch, and be affected by it. Enoch was a family man, as was Noah. Such a man would be a model. All this teaching culminates in Abraham, who is the great father.
Noah would be put to the test in having a wife, three sons and three daughters-in-law, in close quarters with him in the ark. Where we are put to the test is in the local meeting. We hear of no quarrels in the ark; the long confinement would be a test of patience. The ark was an enclosure full of varied life. There would be great opportunity for studying the varied expressions of life in the ark. It was a testing place, yet a position that was invulnerable; death was all around, but all inside were secure.
It was “by faith, Noah ... prepared an ark for the saving of his house”, Hebrews 11: 7, and he preached as he laboured. One wonders that he could endure it to have so little result. The question was asked, ‘If the preaching of Noah may have produced something’. Peter indicates that all, except those saved in the ark, are now in prison (1 Peter 3: 19, 20).
Building was a concrete testimony, and preaching went with it. But Noah had an influence on his own house; Noah saved his house. Lot did not, “God ... spared not the old world, but preserved Noe, the eighth, a preacher of righteousness”, 2 Peter 2: 4, 5; it was an ungodly world; their spirits are in prison.
Noah was “a preacher of righteousness”; he preached of what God would do; he preached for one hundred and twenty years; “The long-suffering of God waited ... while the ark was preparing”. There was the principle of grace, but also sovereignty; the time was limited.
Then, “God remembered Noah, and all the animals, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark” (chapter 8: 1). It is God’s consideration for what is living, not for the vegetation, but animate things; God loves what is living; in Revelation 4, in the “living creatures”, we have it secured now in four, who continually say, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty”.
Each variety of life was, no doubt, kept in its own sphere, but all would come under the eye of Noah as head. It presents our own position, in close quarters. The millennium is extended; but our own position is in view here. We are set in localities in nearness to each other. One is to live together with the brethren in unity. In the vessel which Peter saw come down from heaven all the creatures were together.
Reconciliation is distance removed between God and man, and man and man. We are set together spiritually; the Lord groups us together. The sons of Noah and their wives may have felt the close quarters of the ark; they may not have liked to see a bear come in; but he came, and they had to live with him. Do not move from your meeting. The question is, Are they all living? The voice said to Peter, “What God has cleansed ...” If God has been at work, it is for us to accept the result. He is to determine who is to be in His house.
The animals came to Noah; he was head; this is very suggestive. The ark period is a type of our present circumstances; what is of God has to be carried through. The ark was a limited sphere: “My children are with me in bed”, Luke 11: 7. The children were well cared for.
God shut Noah in, and then, “God remembered Noah, and all the animals ... with him in the ark”. “And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. All the animals ... went out of the ark”. All the living creatures are seen moving out; a wonderful spectacle of the movements of life!
Noah considered for God, and God smelled a sweet odour in the burnt-offering and Jehovah said in His heart, “I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of Man ... all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease”. Now we have a fixed order of things, blessed be God; the relationship of man with Jehovah. It is an order of things established in blessing.
This is in contrast to earlier times, when it had been hard to find something to live on because of the curse. Lemech had said, “This one shall comfort us concerning our work and concerning the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed”.
God must have come in in great mercy after the flood, having smelled the sweet odour of the burnt-offering. The cattle too were given to Noah for his food. Government was placed in his hands, and no doubt stronger food was needed than men had earlier. Spiritually this is so at any rate. Death had to occur so that Adam and Eve should be clothed; now it should take place that men might have the needed food.
There is no way of securing things except through government. The state of man is recognised as evil in the book of Proverbs, and the great truth of kingship comes out. In Revelation 4 the throne is the [p. 342] embodiment of all this. The subject of government is great; how it subserves divine thoughts.
In all that is before us, God uses the assembly to carry things through. In Peter (1 Peter 3: 20, 21), it says that the water saved them, as baptism saves us now.