"THE REST OF GOD"
“THE REST OF GOD”
Genesis 5:28,29; Genesis 8:20-22; Genesis 9:1; Genesis 9:8-17
My thought in reading these passages is to seek to call attention to Christ as the One who brings in the rest of God. It appears to me that the thought of the rest of God should be continually maintained in the affections of the saints, and what encourages me in that thought is that God, in establishing His covenant with Israel, made it a specific provision that there should be the recognition of the sabbath. He assigned two reasons why the sabbath should be kept: the first in Exodus 31:17, and the second in Deuteronomy 5:15. In the book of Exodus it is that on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed; whereas in the book of Deuteronomy — the point of which book is God’s love for His people — you get the sabbath connected with the deliverance of the people out of Egypt. So that there are two distinct reasons why the saints of God should maintain in their affections the thought of His rest. The first, as I suggested, is that the earth upon which we live, the heavens over us with all their beneficent influence upon us, were created by God; and, having created all, “he rested, and was refreshed”. Exodus 31:17. The second is, that God in His love to us came down in Christ to where we were, as steeped in the depths of iniquity, and in bondage to the god of this world, and effected our deliverance. So that there is every incentive to the people of God to recognise His sabbath. Now notice, it is not man’s sabbath; although the Lord in the gospels tells us that the sabbath was made for man, in the types the sabbath is God’s sabbath. “My sabbath”, He says, and what I think it points to is Christ.
The sabbath was to be a sign. “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever”, Exodus 31:17. Now what is the sign of God’s rest to us? You will [p. 253] remember that in Leviticus 23, where Jehovah institutes His feasts, the sabbath stands at the head of the list, and, as I said, I think it points to Christ. When Christ was here the Father took occasion to intimate that His soul rested in that Man, and as He appears under the eye of God, His soul is refreshed! That is a sign to us, and a sign perpetually, that God will rest universally, so that in our souls we cling to the sabbath, to Christ, as the One in whom God rests and is refreshed. Therefore I think it should be a matter of profound interest to us that God has His rest; so that, although we share in it, the point in the types is that it is God’s rest, “my sabbath”. Thus in cherishing Christ in our souls in that light, it is that He is God’s rest, and in result both God and His people will rest; indeed, the whole moral system will rest perpetually in Christ.
Now I am encouraged to take account of Noah as foreshadowing Christ in this light. His name signifies (as the margin reads) rest or comfort. Noah prefigures Christ in other respects, but He prefigures Him as the One who will introduce that in which God will rest. You will notice what his parents say. We read, “Lamech ... called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed”, Genesis 5:29. Now I desire that each believer should get a glimpse of Christ in this light, for it was what Lamech saw in Noah. He saw Christ dimly in his son. I wonder if you see Christ in that light. In order to have a full and right view of Christ you have to see Him in all the characters which represent Him in the Old Testament. No one character could fully set forth Christ. Noah only sets forth one phase of the blessed Person of Christ. You require to have them all if you wish to have a full understanding of the Lord.
Now take Abel. I think that he represents Christ [p. 254] as the righteous One here upon earth. Abel was not only a type of Christ; Adam was a type and only a type; he was “a figure of him that was to come” Romans 5:14; he was not the substance, so to speak, but a type or figure; Abel was a substance. That is to say, he was not only Christ figuratively, he was Christ in that phase of Christ which he sets forth; he was the righteous one, not only figuratively righteous, but personally righteous, so that he represents Christ as the righteous One when man became lawless. God brings in testimony to righteousness directly lawlessness obtains in the world. Righteousness is the antidote to lawlessness, and Abel is morally Christ viewed as the righteous One; he sets forth Christ here alone as the righteous One on earth when all else is lawless.
Enoch is another figure of Christ; not only a figure, but Christ in a substantive way. Enoch walked with God, and he had this testimony — What testimony did he have? - “that he pleased God”. Hebrews 11:5. That is another view of Christ, but not only a type or figure but a substance, for there was that which was positively to God’s pleasure in Enoch. He was here on earth under the eye of God as Christ was, pleasing to Him. I take it that Enoch is typically Christ during the thirty years of His life, not under man’s eye, but under God’s eye. Abel was under man’s eye as a testimony to righteousness, and he came to grief. He suffered and died for his testimony. Enoch did not suffer. We are not told that he suffered. The testimony in regard to Enoch is this: “Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him” Genesis 5:24. That is another phase of Christ. It is the person of Christ here upon earth under the eye of God to God’s infinite pleasure. That man must go to heaven. That man is not for earth. He does not figure here on earth. He is not enrolled in the registers of men. He figures not amongst them. He is unknown in the world’s history. That man is for God’s pleasure. That was what Christ was in that particular character, so that at the end of His private life the Father expresses His delight in Him and what the Father finds His delight in, the Father will take to heaven. So we are told of Enoch, “he was not for God took him”. Genesis 5:24. That means that he had no public history. Men could give no account of him and God took him. I take it that Enoch is Christ in relation to the heavenly family. It is a life of obscurity in the world, but for God’s pleasure, and a place in heaven. That is Enoch.
But Noah is “a preacher of righteousness”. 2 Peter 2:5. That is what Christ was. He “preached righteousness in the great congregation”, Psalm 40:9. Noah walked with God too, but he was not taken to heaven. Therefore I think that Noah is Christ in relation to the Jewish remnant. He preaches righteousness and goes through the judgment, I am speaking of him now in the order in which he is presented in Scripture, and I want to show you that the scriptures have to be read in the light of Christ, and that you cannot have a right understanding of Christ unless you read them. This refers not only to the New Testament, but to the Old also. The Old Testament testifies of Christ, and each of these men of faith represents Christ in some particular way.
Abraham follows upon Noah. He is Christ as separating himself from the world and becoming the depository of the counsels of God; and Isaac is Christ risen. Jacob is Christ going through all the vicissitudes of God’s earthly people; and Joseph is Christ, rejected among his brethren, but finally glorified among the Gentiles. And Moses is Christ, as setting in order and maintaining the house of God. Moses was faithful in all God’s house. And so in all these figures, God gives, as it were, every phase of Christ, so that our souls should be acquainted with [p. 256] Him in His blessed Person. But as I said, they were not only figures; each one of them expressed personally some trait of Christ.
Now, as I was saying, Noah is Christ, not only as a preacher of righteousness (for that is in chapter 6 where he is taken account of again, as you may notice, and his genealogy is given to us), but as the one who brings in God’s rest. In chapter 5 we have Lamech’s account of him. We have the light in which Lamech saw Christ. He says, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed”, Genesis 6:29. Are we sufficiently sensible of the toil that is consequent upon sin? No one having the Spirit of God can fail to realise what a sorrowful state of things prevails and why? Because of sin. Sin entailed a curse but see what Lamech says “This same shall comfort us”. It is Christ. He “shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed”. We have had the thought of the rest of God before us, but what gives rise to it? It is toil. I am not now speaking of toil in the way in which men take account of it, but the toil we take account of by the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus Christ toiled here. He says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. John 5:17. The Father toiled. We must take account of the Father’s toil, and the toil of the Son, and the toil of the saints. All this is the result of the presence of sin here in this world. But here is a babe born into the world who was to be a comfort in regard to toil.
When you come to the end of chapter 8 you see how it is brought to pass. The waters of the flood had covered the earth. They had swept it clean. I hope you understand the flood in that light. It was really a flood of cleansing, a flood of purification. But then the purification of the earth alone does not involve that it is to God’s pleasure. A purified [p. 257] scene in itself cannot be the scene of God’s rest. The sphere of God’s rest could not be other than purified, but the purification alone does not constitute the earth the sphere of God’s rest. We are told “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour”. Genesis 8:20,21. There was no such savour in chapter 6. It was into the midst of that state of things that Noah was born. He was born into a corrupt world, a world that we are told grieved the heart of God continually. What light arises when a Man is introduced who shall bring in rest. Chapter 6 describes that which caused grief to the heart of God; “the wickedness of man was great on the earth”. We read, “it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”, Genesis 6:6. Did you ever think of that expression? Did you ever think of what a heart God has? Ah; He felt for man. It repented Him that He made man on the earth. He repents because judgment has to be executed. Repentance on God’s part has always that side in view. But the man of comfort had come in. The man of rest had come in, and God says, as it were, ‘Inasmuch as he has appeared, the world of corruption and toil must go. I have no pleasure in this world’, It is a cause of grief to my heart. But the man of comfort has appeared. It is Christ upon earth as Man. God finds a resting place for His affections in that Man, and all the world of sorrow has to go. It shall go in the end, but it is all gone now morally. “Now”, the Lord says, “is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out”, John 12:31. God, as it were, can afford to remove one world when He has the Head of another world already before Him. It would not be according to God to bring in a world and remove it,
[p. 258] and so leave a void. No. When the man of comfort appears, then God can afford to let the other world go. There is no void. The Lord said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be east out. And I, if I he lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”, John 12:31,32. Does the world disappear, leaving a void? No, indeed. It is a world of death that is wiped out of existence, and a world of life is introduced in the Person of Christ. One who has power in His person to attract all to Him, and when all are attracted to Christ what will He do with them? He does not leave them a disorganised mass. The Lord orders His people. You will recall how in John 1, when the disciples of the Baptist followed Jesus He took them home. But then He gave Peter his name afterwards, indicating that He would use him in a certain connection. This applies to all Christians, for each one is designed to fill a certain place in the divine system. The Lord would bring to pass a world of perfect order, but it is a world of life.
Now that Noah has appeared, the man of comfort, the flood comes. The flood appears and it washes away the world of pollution, and afterwards you get that which is for God’s pleasure. That is the burnt offering. Noah offered a burnt offering, and “the Lord smelled a sweet savour”, Genesis 8:21. And what then? He says, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake”. You get that here. The curse is removed. God rests in the burnt offering, in all the fragrance of that offering, for, as you know, when you come to the types, the burnt offering was offered of a man’s voluntary will. It is Christ offering Himself without spot to God. It is upon that that the new world is founded. God smelled a sweet savour. Now that sweet savour went up from Him who is the Head of the new world, and that is what Christ is. I am perfectly [p. 259] certain that you will never get a right understanding of the truth if you do not see that in becoming Man Christ is the Head of the new world; and this new world comes under the eye of God according to what Christ is. The smell of the burnt offering goes up to the heart of God, and what does He say? “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake”, Genesis 8:21. So that for God and for faith the curse is removed and God is complacent. This marks the present moment.
Now what follows upon that is the covenant. All that is foreshadowed here has not as yet come in literally, but it exists for faith. The Christian is in the light of Christ as the burnt offering, and he knows that on the ground of this all will be established publicly for God’s pleasure. Everything will be brought under the eye of God to His pleasure. The covenant is made on this ground.
Now I wish to say a word about the covenant, and then I shall close. In Genesis 9:9 - 14 we read, “And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud”. Now you must connect the covenant with the burnt offering. In other words, that which is typified in the burnt offering has come [p. 260] to pass in the death of Christ, and in consequence of this God has made a covenant. It is not here a covenant with Israel, but with the Man who is the head of the creation and with the creation itself.
Now I desire to say a few words about “the bow”. The bow is the sign or token of the covenant. A sign in Scripture is very interesting. It is often introduced in the New Testament. Sometimes there are tokens of blessing, sometimes tokens of judgment. You will remember how it was said to the shepherds, “this shall he a sign unto you”. What? “Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger”, Luke 2:12. What a sign! That was a sign to the shepherds. It was a sign of what? “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”, Luke 2:11. What is the sign? A Babe. On the other hand, the leaders of Israel asked for a sign, and the Lord said there should be no sign given to them save the sign of Jonas the prophet “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”, Matthew 12:40. This was a terrible sign, pointing to God’s judgment on man. Here the bow is a token, and I take account of it as Christ in the heavens. He is the sign of God’s covenant to the creation. Can we have any doubt as to the ultimate accomplishment of God’s design to bring all into blessing? Not in the least. He says, “it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud”, Genesis 9:14. Have you ever discerned the bow in the cloud? The fact is this, I have no doubt that when clouds come over any of us personally, the bow is discernible there. Did you ever come under a cloud of sorrow? You may depend upon it, if you have your eyes open, you will see the [p. 261] bow. The bow is the token of God’s covenant with you. What can baffle you if God has entered into a covenant of blessing with you? Directly the cloud comes, do not look at the cloud, but look at the bow. The bow is the token of the blessing, the token of the covenant. So He says, “when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be soon in the cloud”; and He adds, “I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh”. Genesis 9:14,15. I think that is a wonderful thing, and I would again say to my brethren, that when the cloud comes (clouds of sorrow come to us all), the bow is there. It is a certainty. You will discern the bow, and what is it? It is the sign of the covenant, He says, “I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you”. Genesis 9:15. Are we in intimacy with God in that way? He says, “between me and you”. Draw near to God. It is just possible for you to get so near to God that you hear Him say, as it were, “between me and you”. As passing through the cloud of sorrow, you will hear God say to you, “These things are all between me and you”. And what do they mean? The bow tells us. They mean blessing. Christ will be found in the cloud, and this is the sure token to our souls that blessing will be the result. I only give you the outline of what I see here, that whatever may occur in the history of the earth, or in your history, the bow is always in the cloud, and it is the token on God’s part to bring in blessing — universal blessing.
Now all that comes to pass through Noah. In other words it all comes to pass through Christ, as He who is the comfort in regard to the work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. So that in result, you reach the rest of God. That is when God establishes what He has covenanted with His people to do. When God establishes that which means blessing universally,
then He rests, It says, “he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing”, Zephaniah 3:17. How could God rest in His love unless He brought in the blessing which His love devised? It is when He brings in the blessing which His love has devised that He rests, and the bow in the cloud is the token of it. So that when God accomplishes the purposes of His love through Christ, then He rests, for God could not rest where there is death and suffering and sorrow, But where the blessing which God in love has devised is established, He will rest in His love.
May the Lord keep before our hearts the thought of God’s sabbath. That is what the types present to us. We are to keep His sabbath because “on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed”, Exodus 31:17. That is the incentive. Everyone who loves God, and is in sympathy with Him, keeps the sabbath because it is His rest. We enter into it now as to our souls; very soon we shall enjoy it as to our bodies as well. May God bless these thoughts to us at this time!
[p. 263] Page 263 to 308, Readings in Genesis, New York, 1908, (reprinted from Vols. I and II “Mutual Comfort”, 1908/9).