THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (8)
[p. 121] THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (8)
Genesis 5: 28 - 32; Genesis 6:1-3; Genesis 6:9-14; Genesis 7: 6 - 10
JT At our last meeting we looked at certain passages in Genesis, beginning with chapter 3 and going on to chapter 5, with the thought of considering life in the antediluvian world and it is thought now that we should look further into that section of Scripture, especially to see how the energy of life appears at the end of that dispensation. The hope is that we may see in these chapters the strenuousness of the experience of Noah and others, as the dispensation at that time was ending; the belief being that there is a correspondence in all the closings of dispensations. They are usually marked by remnants, and a remnant involves weakness; the very weakness, however, occasioning dependence on God, which He never fails to answer to. The present moment corresponds in regard of this dispensation. We have come to an extraordinary part of it — toward the end. It is requiring great energy — on the part of the nations and correspondingly on the part of those that are of the assembly — to keep up with its exigencies. There is usually something that corresponds, between current history among the nations and what God is doing in the assembly.
We dwelt on chapter 5 last time in relation to Enoch, who represents the heavenly side of the truth. Energy is not stressed in him especially, but discipline; the result of discipline and education; so that he becomes fitted for translation. But Noah’s position and service contemplate the need of energy. Great things outwardly are to be done; great difficulties are to be overcome. So that it is thought that thus we may see life in him and others with him, operating in a strenuous way as meeting existing conditions.
[p. 122] These conditions were made plain by God to him. Noah was taken up by God as righteous and was honoured by Him; and God entered into covenant with him because He had confidence in him, and all the divine requirements were met in every instance. It is a question first of all of obedience and the strength needed for that, which God supplies.
ABP Is there a link between Noah and Enoch in that both are said to have walked with God?
JT Yes; you might say they graduated from the same school, one leading heavenward and the other through the judgment.
CAM As far as we are concerned are these two lines going on concurrently?
JT Yes; qualifications for translation, and then the need of meeting current conditions. These two great thoughts run together.
ANW Is your thought tonight life in the energy of it?
JT Yes; in the energy of it at the end of a dispensation. It will be noted that Noah’s father was Lemech, whose name indicates violence, corresponding with the line of Cain in which there was also a Lemech who killed a man. He was violent according to his name and practised polygamy, in connection with whom it is first mentioned. But he acknowledged his fault and spoke of vengeance both on account of Cain and on account of himself, pointing to the Jews who are to be avenged, although themselves wild and wandering. At the present time they are cruelly interfered with, but this will be avenged on their persecutors. Whereas the Lemech of the life line — that is, the line of Seth — whilst energetic and violent, would be so in a spiritual sense, because he had peace and rest in his mind, not disturbance. He was a son of peace, so that he calls his son’s name Noah, and gives the reason: “This one shall [p. 124] comfort us concerning our work and concerning the toil of our hands,
[p. 123] because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed”, Genesis 5: 29. Clearly he is spiritual, but evidently violent, if necessary, against evil, to bring about a state of rest.
AR Perhaps he had in mind a little of the idea of the millennium — the thought of repose.
JT Yes; and “the ground”; he had the ground in his mind: “... because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed”. The millennium would answer to this. It is a dispensational thought in this respect. The same thing applies now, because we are at the end of the dispensation, as Lemech was. He died before the flood came. He was intelligent, looking on to another and more glorious time when the curse would be removed, so that he names his son in view of this. The others in the line of Seth are not always mentioned in that way, as being formally named, but Noah is formally named by his father and the reason for it given, showing he had the right thought; the thoughts of God were in his mind.
JS Does the flood come in as a necessity?
JT Quite so; it purged the earth. Lemech had the ground in his mind, and God also had it in His mind, that there should be seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night while the earth remained; Genesis 8: 22.
FSC Noah lived in two dispensations. How do you regard his life in the second dispensation?
JT He is the head of another world; he goes through; he is a type of Christ as the Head of another world; not the one he was primarily in. According to what God says of him he is already head morally. We get his history; his is one of the ten histories mentioned in Genesis, showing how important he is. The word ‘history’ here means origin; what he developed out of.
RWS Does the thought of personality enter into Lemech’s naming of Noah? “This one shall comfort us concerning our work and concerning the toil of our hands”. There were so few in the presence of myriads of ungodly persons. Is it what God can do with one man?
JT That is a good way to put it. The demonstrative pronoun points to one that is outstanding, and he fulfils the prophetic suggestion accurately: “He shall comfort us”. The “us” is the remnant. There were very few of them. The word ‘few’ is applied to them by Peter.
CN Does the name Noah show that God takes account of the exigencies which the remnant must yet pass through and provides beforehand for it?
JT This scripture provides for them, and they will value it as they begin to get light. The word ‘comfort’ comes down to us, too. God is said to be the God of comfort. So that there is provision, and it is in the midst of remnant conditions, because we are told immediately that the enemy had found an open door amongst men through their daughters. Chapter 6 stresses this terrible fact. There is very little made of the feminine side in this section. We get no examples of anything good. Noah’s wife and three daughters-in-law are mentioned, of course, but nothing special is said of them. The requirements of the position are most onerous because the vessel which had to be constructed was relatively very large.
AAT Are the sons of God, mentioned in chapter 6, angels?
JT Yes; I suppose the designation would not mean anything more than that they had that status at one time, but morally lost it; they still retained it, as many now retain the name ‘christian’ and yet are unreal; so that it would be satanic work.
CAM Do you not think it is remarkable that God is clarifying the idea of sonship at the end of the time?
JT Yes; I think God allows things at times [p. 125] to get into wrong hands so as to stress and clarify them in recovering them. The designation amongst men is first used by Cain and then we have its use here applied to these fallen beings. Today God is enlarging on this great thought, which belongs to His counsels. “Having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself”, Ephesians 1: 5. It had been used among men, but its fulness awaited the incarnation of Christ. In Him it appears gloriously enhanced in every way as expressed in a divine Person.
JS God magnified it as He brought Israel out of Egypt. “Let my son go”.
JT Just so. The negative side in Egypt is that Pharaoh’s son is to be killed. God said to Pharaoh, “Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill thy son, thy firstborn”, Exodus 4: 23. God did kill Pharaoh’s son, but Israel was let go.
JTJr Is Cain’s world seen in chapter 6?
JT I should think the whole population of the ancient world were corrupted. This chapter says so “And Jehovah repented that he had made Man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. And Jehovah said, I will destroy Man, whom I have created, from the earth — from man to cattle, to creeping things, and to fowl of the heavens; for I repent that I have made them” (verse 6). The whole earth was affected. “And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was full of violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth” (verse 11). Practically all were affected, but the man that God was going to use is of the line of Seth.
HGH Is the question there that the energy of true life cannot belong to this world at all?
JT That is the thing to learn. Enoch set the pace in walking with God three hundred years. That [p. 126] was a good long time as a testimony, and incidentally, he prophesied. We are not told in the Old Testament that he did so, but we are in the New. He prophesied of wicked men, but also of the “holy myriads”; so that Enoch’s walk and testimony generally were practical and effective. “He has the testimony that he pleased God”. Our testimony is largely a question of our walk with God.
AR Is the idea that one man walked with God and then he was translated? Do you think that Lemech and Noah would be affected by Enoch’s walk so that Noah goes into another world through death?
JT Just so; it is expressly stated in the New Testament that Enoch did not see death. It does not, however, say that here.
RWS Are mixed marriages in principle like the early part of chapter 6, and are not such marriages serious matters of concern in our times?
JT They are one of the most difficult problems we have to cope with. Some are quite defiant about it, so that we have to be “violent” like Lemech in dealing with them; violent spiritually. There are things that unspiritual people become urgent about and they ridicule you if you object; and among these are marriages not “in the Lord”. The testimony of Lemech helps us in meeting this evil; his name, which, as we have said, suggests violence in a spiritual sense, combined with his pronouncement as to Noah, affords effective material for such conflict.
JTJr Would the years of his life be suggestive? The number contains three sevens — seven hundred and seventy-seven.
JT Yes. He died five years before his father. It is important to know that he died before the flood; so did Methushelah; God saw to that. They were not translated to heaven, but they were taken out of the way. Of some it is recorded later that they were taken out of the way to escape the terribleness of [p. 127] coming conditions. Noah and his house were taken through the deluge. But for all others it was such a death! Such an appalling magnitude of horror! A whole world of persons overwhelmed and destroyed irretrievably! And Noah had to face all this as with God. With the exercises and responsibility of a man who walked with God and with whom God had entered into covenant relation, charging him to prepare the ark of salvation, what a burden he must have carried!
AAT If the Spirit were not present, would we not have the same condition today?
JT Yes; as soon as the Spirit, involving the assembly, leaves, conditions will rapidly become dreadful. The Lord’s own discourse to His disciples indicates a terrible time.
ANW He definitely likens it to the days of Noah before the flood; Luke 17: 26, 27.
JT To the day that Noah entered into the ark these things went on.
ABP When you refer to the strenuousness of the times and the great energy that is needed, do you have in mind the building of the ark accompanied by Noah’s ministry?
JT I do; I was just remarking as to what an undertaking it was. They are building ships rapidly now, but as a rule big ships take a long time to build, but think of what Noah had to contend with! There had not been the like even suggested as far as we know. Here is a vessel about four hundred and fifty feet long and about seventy-five feet wide and about forty-five feet high. Well, where is Noah going to get all these materials? Who are his helpers? Are they sympathetic? Peter comments, “While the ark was preparing”. It was a protracted and arduous matter; and that is where the longsuffering of God shone. Noah was suffering, but God was longsuffering!
ABP What do you have in mind that corresponds today?
[p. 128] JT Especially the building; it is a question whether we are building. In all the dispensations you get the idea of building; even in the beginning of creation, the woman was built. God leads in that, so that God gives Noah the dimensions. But did he have any draftsmen who did the work? Think of all that he had to think of in this respect! And besides, the solemn anticipation of a whole dispensation of persons about to be destroyed under the judgment of God would always be before him. Besides all this there was the testimony to be rendered through preaching, for he was a preacher of righteousness; 2 Peter 2: 5. In all this we may see how much was to be done, requiring energy; and so today the energy of life is needed. To some of us, time is one of the scarcest things, and it is a question whether we are redeeming it so as to fulfil the responsibilities resting upon us. Collectively, much is left undone, many failing to accept responsibility. There is a great need for eldership and there are hardly any workers in that line. Work requiring gift is readily, indeed eagerly, accepted, whereas care for the saints in the sense of eldership, on which the stability and growth of the assembly largely depend, is much neglected. We are to care “with genuine feeling” as to how the saints get on. Thus the energy of life seen in Noah is most suggestive and appealing.
CAM “His days shall be a hundred and twenty years”. How do you apply that?
JT I would say it shows extension of time. The judgment should have fallen immediately but God kept it back in mercy. “When the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing”, 1 Peter 3: 20. And then only eight souls were saved. That is the serious situation — the results were so small, in quantity. But clearly Noah was not discouraged; he went on and on and on until the divine requirements [p. 129] were met.
JHE Would that be the great point in Paul’s letter to Timothy exhorting him as to the work of eldership?
JT Just so; Timothy and Titus were with Paul in the inner circle of workmanship, and the apostle would direct and stimulate them so that the needs amongst the saints should be supplied. It was a great matter that Paul had such men — men that he could trust and to whom he could point out what was to be done. “For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou mightest go on to set right what remained unordered, and establish elders in each city”, Titus 1: 5.
RWS What was the secret of Noah’s energy?
JT It must have extended back many years. We do not usually get such details of God’s servants. We get a life-size history of Moses, and that is exceptional. In most servants character and results are the outcome of secret history with God. As to Noah, I would say that his roots are in chapter 5, in relation to “the seventh from Adam”. He would learn from his predecessors, especially Enoch who walked with God. Enoch would learn from God, and Noah is said to have walked with God. How long did he walk? We are not told. After his father’s statement in naming him there is nothing said until he was five hundred years old. “And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham and Japheth”, Genesis 5: 32. He thus had long experience, and it would be the making experience. God knew His man when He addressed him as recorded in chapter 6: 13, etc.
Ques Did Noah build the ark by pattern or by specification?
JT There is nothing said about pattern. Specifications are given. Whether he worked out any pattern we have to leave; whether the three sons and he worked together, we are not told. No doubt [p. 130] they did, and perhaps hired men, but it was properly done; there was nothing omitted. David had a pattern, and Moses had a pattern, but it does not say that Noah had a pattern, but he had specifications.
ABP Could you tell us a little more specifically what the counterpart of building the ark today would be, and what the prime features are? The ark was to go through judgment into another world.
JT It is the assembly now. The apostle Paul could say, “I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it. But let each see how he builds”, 1 Corinthians 3: 10. That goes on down to the end. The question is whether we are really engaged in it, because it is love that edifies. It works out in our localities, as the assembly is maintained in the way things are done; as love exists and is active: that in the presence of such appalling conditions that we have to do with now, including so many young people being drafted away into corrupting conditions, the work of God goes on.
JTJr Would the reason why the apostle called over the elders to Miletus be the terrible conditions that were prevalent at Ephesus and would arise?
JT Quite so; it is a word for us, too. “The Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God”, Acts 20: 28. Take heed to the work to be done. It is a love chapter, and it would look as if eldership was essential to the maintenance of the conditions of love. That is the point at the present time, I believe.
AC-r Nehemiah’s name signifies “the comfort of Jehovah”. Is the comfort of Jehovah seen in the songs in Nehemiah 12? Is the fruit of the comfort of Jehovah seen in all the strenuous things he went through?
JT It was on the wall they sang in two processions and both choirs stood in the house of God. The building of the wall had already taken place.
[p. 131] That is the point to note: the building, and then the singing; getting our feet on sure ground. The dedication of the wall implies appreciation of the principle of separation. There were two choirs and they met together in the house. “And that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy ... And the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off”, Nehemiah 12: 43. What you may observe is that certain positions the choirs pass bring out spiritual sentimental suggestions. These would associate the singing with David and others specially honoured of God.
But to return to Noah as building the ark, he should be well considered at the present time, because the difficulties are so great and the work to be done so great. The work was great in Nehemiah’s time, too, and the difficulties were also great, but he succeeded by God’s help, wonderfully.
AAT I would suppose the element of faith came into Noah’s responsibility, because it was a financial problem as well as a blueprint problem.
JT Well, all these things were there. We must recognise they were there; we must be practical about it, because there is nothing more practical than christianity. Much is made of finance, too, in christianity. The importance attached to it is remarkable.
ANW What can be said of him is, “Noah did it; according to all that God had commanded him, so did he”, Genesis 6: 22. He obeyed what God told him.
JT Yes; and thus there was great promise in the whole position, as indicated in the light on the top — notice, it is translated light in the New Translation, not ‘window’. The original word for window in chapter 8: 6 is different. The idea is light, its root being noon. There was a great light, as it were, shining through the structure. Those walking in heavenly light are not acting in the dark, in despondency [p. 132] or discouragement. They are sons of light. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice”, Philippians 4: 4. There is such light shining in upon us as to encourage us to rejoice whatever the difficulties.
JTJr Does the idea of building begin with the believer’s house? Noah built the ark for the saving of his house.
JT That is important, because what is nearest one’s heart ought to be his house. God recognises that in the gospel. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house”, Acts 16: 31. The man is recognised as having one; he loves his wife and children and they are to be saved. That would be an inner thought with Noah; he was a practical man and he feared God in connection with his house. He was moved with fear, having children. He affords a needful example for us; the dangers for children are so great, and salvation has its roots in piety. Noah was moved with fear for the saving of his house.
CAM Referring to what was said about Ephesus and the building in the local setting, I suppose if we really proved it in that way householdly and locally, we would understand better what the building is in a universal way. For the Ephesians seem to have been made intelligent as to it. “In whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, Ephesians 2: 22. I suppose light of the vastness of the structure had come into their souls.
JT Quite so; and you have your family and your children in mind. God respects that. He knows you are not selfish. He would say, I know you are fearing Me about your children, and if you knew Me better you would fear Me more — because parents should be the best judges of their children. God knows them and would remind parents of their tendencies [p. 133] and dangers.
TM Would the pitch be the preserving element?
JT Yes; death does not get in. The ark was constituted to go right through.
FSC Why was it needful to carry through all the living flesh?
JT That is the next thing. What was needed for the new order of things was carried through. The living creatures represented the thoughts of God. While the world that then was perished, the divine thoughts did not perish. They were preserved for the new world.
AR I would like help in regard to working. How is it done? Is it in the gospel or addresses to the saints?
JT In this type God would draw us into the vastness of what is in His mind. One world is to be destroyed and another is to take its place. Think of the immensity of this! And Noah was divinely brought into the undertaking according to its moral and physical exigencies. “Noah found favour in the eyes of Jehovah”. Thus we have his history — the word in chapter 6: 9 is ‘generations’. There are two words for generation in this verse: the first refers to Noah’s origin or history, the second to his circle of acquaintances, children, etc. Noah, in his personal history and character, is presented in this chapter in a very striking way. As regards materials, in the antitype the process is mainly through the gospel; but we must calculate as to what is needed: for the ark, the kind of wood needed was gopher; for the tabernacle, acacia; for the temple, cedar and olive. Anti-typically, each represents a specific quality or character and this must be kept in mind in the means employed to secure it.
ANW “The Lord working with them”, Mark 16: 20. How would that show itself?
JT However humiliating circumstances may be, the Lord has His own way of showing that He is with [p. 134] us, and if He is with us, we are confident that all is well; and the results desired in our service will be reached.
APf Would you say something about the Spirit’s comment in Hebrews on Noah? He was oracularly warned concerning things not yet seen.
JT Quite so; God warning him, gave him light and he was moved with fear by it, which was a great matter.
AR “By which”, it says, “he condemned the world”, and every one of us, as in the circle of the saints, in our actions and walk should condemn the world.
JT That is the thing. By the building he did that. “By which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”, Hebrews 11: 7.
ANW Did he preach besides, or was his work preaching?
JT He was a “preacher of righteousness”, Peter says; 2 Peter 2: 5. “In which also going he preached to the spirits which are in prison, heretofore disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing, into which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water”, 1 Peter 3: 19, 20. The Lord did that. It was by His Spirit in Noah. The Spirit went, anticipating that He would be a Man. It was the Spirit of Christ that operated in Noah, but the Lord Himself acted.
JTJr He stands out therefore as a preacher — a preacher of righteousness. That gives character to the preaching as to what is said.
JT All this stresses our subject — the energy of life. It is the energy of life in such a time, the end of the dispensation; and we are at the end of the dispensation. It is a question of maintaining, in principle, the thing in its entirety.
WR Noah must have been in the good of what he ministered. “Noah was a just man, perfect amongst his generations”, Genesis 6: 9.
JT Just so; the Spirit of God lays great stress on what the man is, and that is a word for the saints in all times.
JTJr Does he really set out the kind of wood that is here, in that way? It is gopher wood. Is that an allusion to Noah and does it not really exemplify what the wood was?
JT No doubt there was correspondence — the wood would be equal to the pressure, as he was. It was what was needed, and was God’s own provision. It was pitched within and without. And yet there was no water in sight. What jeering there must have been! Where is the water? How is this building going to be floated?
ANW “Going he preached”; do you think he went about and preached?
JT Possibly. Going refers to Christ, of course. There would be great activity. Whether he hired accommodations we are not told, but it is remarkable how it is stated formally that Noah was a preacher of righteousness; also that it is stated that Christ also preached.
RWS The public side was not affected at all. Do we read of him getting any converts in the wicked world?
JT Not one. The Lord Himself expressly says that in Noah’s days they ate and drank, married and were given in marriage — all largely on the social side. It was “until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them”, Luke 17: 27. In a few words such an event is described!
ES Noah was better than some; he got his whole house.
JT There were no children; I mean there were no grand-children. The grand-children are the difficult [p. 136] ones! They were all grown-ups; in fact all the cattle were grown up. It is a perfect state of things, in that sense. That is another point to keep before us.
APT Chapter 7: 23 is remarkable, “And Noah alone remained, and what was with him in the ark”. Does that stress what you were speaking of, the personality of Noah himself throughout?
JT Yes. Typically he is “everything and in all”.
APT As you were saying at the outset, it is the immensity of what is exemplified in one person.
JT Until the judgment is over, all the directions and commandments were to him; not a word to the sons or the wives. So that it is Noah. It is the supremacy of Christ, typically. There is nothing remiss at all. Everything is perfect.
AR From what you say, this narrative would suggest the idea that in the assembly there should be no babes.
JT No; they are all taken up on the ground of full age. This would apply also to the lower creatures.
CAM The number eight has a place in all this.
JT Eight would mean a going over from what was set out in Enoch. You have Enoch’s experience, but this is something beyond, and strenuousness is involved; Noah is a man that can do things. Besides having a family and walking with God, there is nothing said of Enoch doing anything particular. Walking with God is, of course, a great thing morally, but look at the magnitude of the work done by Noah, who also walked with God! It is to impress us that much work is needed now, and that we should be engaged in it strenuously, each doing his part.
WR Did the Lord Jesus carry that forward? He says, “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” Luke 2: 49.
JT He had the whole idea in His mind and finished it. Now as to our brother’s question as to these creatures: after the specifications of the ark,
God says, “For I, behold, I bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh under the heavens in which is the breath of life: everything that is on the earth shall expire. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee” (verses 17 - 19). And then verse 21: “And take thou of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee, that it may be for food for thee and for them. And Noah did it; according to all that God had commanded him, so did he”. We have to consider the vastness of all this. And then as to these creatures: how did they come? How did Noah influence them? Thus we may enquire as to what influence we have in this sense. For us, of course, it would be persons needing influence. Here, the creatures moved to Noah. What a marvellous thing!
JS Is the thought that Noah offset the breakdown in Adam?
JT Just so. But the matter of Adam’s naming of the creatures must come into that; that is the line of the truth here. Evidently Noah knew the creatures and they knew him. That is very suggestive. How could it be without God? That is the thing to apprehend; that God was with Noah.
JTJr Would that be John’s line? “No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him”, John 6: 44.
JT Just so. It is a question of life and influence over life; how we influence people in a good sense.
FNW John says, speaking of the Lord “... that he should also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad”, John 11: 52.
AR Is there anything in the fact that [p. 138] Noah goes in first into the ark and then the others follow?
JT That is what we get. There are additions in the verses read in chapter 7. They all bring out the vastness of the work to be done. “And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female. Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth. For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days ... . And Noah did according to all that Jehovah commanded him”, Genesis 7: 1 - 5. And then the verses we read, “And Noah was six hundred years old” — (the man is still before us; we have had him already as five hundred years old, and his sons — now he is six hundred years old) “when the flood of waters was on the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowl, and of everything that creeps on the ground, there came two and two unto Noah into the ark” (they came to him) “male and female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth” (verses 6 - 10). Now think of all that is involved — all those creatures, seven of a kind; fourteen really, I suppose, of the clean ones and two pairs of the unclean!
AR Does that suggest headship?
JT Yes; and influence, attractive power, “And I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”, John 12: 32. It is that sort of thing. That raises the question of how attractive one is in one’s service. It is not only what I am able to do or say but what I [p. 139] am.
DP How is it they were not biting and devouring each other?
JT That is a good question. You might as well enquire. How is it that we sometimes are biting and devouring our brethren. They are not doing this here. There is not a discrepancy. It is wonderful. It is the acme of perfection wrought out in creature circumstances, set before us for our example.
JS The creatures, going to Noah, would be the energy of life.
JT Quite so; that is the idea; the energy of life overcoming obstacles. That is the present lesson for the saints.
ABP Do you have an example of that in the two disciples of John who followed Jesus after John had referred to Him as the Lamb of God? They went into the house with Him.
JT That would bring out what has been suggested as to John’s ministry. It is life; the Lord says, “He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8: 12. It is a question of life. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1: 4.
CN Viewing the ark as a type of the assembly, as we have done, greatly enhances its typical value, because every element of life that is preserved is preserved through it.
JT Quite so; it shows what a wonderful structure the assembly is and how it comes out in the coming world with everything infinitely intact — the heavenly city — not a discrepancy at all, and that is what John presents to us. “Having the glory of God” would imply that every thought of His is livingly there.
JAP What about the food? Food was to be taken into the ark. Does that maintain life?
JT Yes; and there must have been all kinds [p. 140] of food; for men, cattle, fowls and creeping things — what a variety!
JS We see the apostle Paul in the end of the Acts preaching and receiving all who came to him.
JT Quite so; they came to him, and it was a matter of test because he said of one that he sought him out very diligently, and found him; 2 Timothy 1: 17. He is worth finding out and being with. And the angel said earlier, to Paul, “God has granted to thee all those that sail with thee”, Acts 27: 24. That is a principle running through these scriptures in Genesis.
APT Does the assembly contemplate certain gradations in life?
JT I think that is what is meant in what is before us — the different gradations of life; and we have to see what a creature is, what his disposition is, and make allowances for that. If he has a different taste from others, we must make provision for it. In Matthew 24 the Lord greatly honours one who provides food for His household.
AR Would the ark represent the assembly as the depository of every divine thought, that everything is carried forward?
JT Yes; that is the idea; all is seen in heaven first. “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Corinthians 15: 48. Whatever the creatures in the “sheet” may appear to be to Peter, they will become heavenly.
JAP In John 6 the Lord asks Philip, trying him, “Whence shall we buy loaves that these may eat?” Is that a question for us as to what we have for men?
JT Just so; hence the importance of what the Lord says to Peter, “Feed my lambs ... Shepherd my sheep ... Feed my sheep”. The food in the ark must have taken up considerable space — for all these persons, cattle, fowls and creeping things during all these [p. 141] days.
ANW The apostle would not send his letter to Ephesus to Corinth.
JT I am sure that is right. He sent a letter to Colosse and one to Laodicea and they were to be interchanged, but the one to Colosse was to be read by the Colossians first before they showed it to Laodicea; the suggestion, among other things, is food in “season”.
ABP There were three stories referred to at Troas, and there are three stories referred to here. Is there any connection?
JT There is. The ascending principle expressed in the idea of one, two, three runs through all the divine structures. It is a question of gradation; it is seen in “the third heaven”.
ABP I suppose a wrong application of gradation would be seen in James 2: 3 when the rich man coming in is told “Sit here well” and the poor, “Stand there, or sit here under my footstool”.
JT Quite so. What is before us is a most important matter, because we may see in the position that is depicted here a terrible time, involving great demands and very little time to fulfil them; but the testimony in these chapters is that everything required was done. So Paul says, “... having accomplished all things to stand”; and that is not simply all you can do. It is what is required — see note in the New Translation on Ephesians 6: 13. Therefore you cannot have a good conscience if needed things are not done.
ES The word to Joshua was to be strong and very courageous.
JT Quite so; that is exemplified in Noah, I am sure. The matters that national leaders of today have on hand are great indeed, but God had informed and warned Noah that the whole world was about to be destroyed by a flood and placed on him responsibility of which we have been speaking. And this [p. 142] great work had to be carried through in the midst of unsympathetic and perhaps hostile surroundings. The immensity of the burden, morally and physically, placed by God on one man is surely intended to stimulate us all on going through, by His help, the pressure which our God in His government is causing His people to experience in our times.