GENESIS SEVEN AND EIGHT
GENESIS SEVEN AND EIGHT
Chapter 6 presents Noah as the head of a house. The world was utterly corrupt, but “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”. Genesis 6:8. “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God”. Genesis 6:9. God bears testimony to this personal character of Noah. Genesis 7:2. All that follows as to salvation, and the new world of which he became the head, hangs upon what he was personally. Obviously he is a type of Christ in this respect. Christ came under the eye of God as the righteous One as in the midst of an order of things which had become altogether wicked. At the beginning of His ministry the Father bore public testimony to Him and at the close the Lord, as Man, is answered, in the hearing of the crowds, from heaven, John 12:28 - 30. Note that, immediately following upon this, the judgment of this world is announced. The Head of the new world having appeared — His personal qualities being attested and approved of God publicly — the old world (the character of which is fully exposed in its rejection of Him) is condemned. Noah is, therefore, a type of Christ as in the midst of the Jewish system of things: the nation was shown to be altogether reprobate, but a remnant was attached to the Lord, and these answer to Noah’s house; so that what appears here is not the work of atonement,
[p. 274] but rather the Lord as providing for the preservation of His house and the testimonies of God in view of the judgment that had become imminent: although, indeed, apart from His death there could be no basis for the salvation even of the disciples. As lifted up from the earth, which refers to His death, He should draw all unto Him.
Ques Will you say a little about the ark, and what it represents?
Ans. It is that in which things are preserved for God in view of the break-up of the world system in judgment. What this may be in the latter day is, perhaps, more obscure than that which answers to the ark at the present time, In a moral sense the world is judged already “Now is the judgment of this world”, John 12:31. If you take it historically, the world at that moment was a world which had primarily been set up by God; and this, I think, is what emphasises the thought of judgment; that that which God had instituted should have become such that it was necessary for Him to set it aside in judgment. Israel had been the centre of the world that Christ had to do with, and the solemn thing was that it had to come under divine wrath. In connection with that world God’s testimony had been, but the presence of Christ in it brought to light that it was corrupt, and positively hostile to God. Instead of God controlling it, Satan controlled it; therefore there was no protection whatever in that system of things for the testimony of God; and hence there was nothing to do with it, but set it aside. Now it is of moment to understand that this is what has taken place; that the judgment of the world is morally over. Then the question arises: How are the things of God to be preserved at the present time? And I have no doubt at all that the assembly, as maintained by the Spirit, is that in which all is secured in testimony.
[p. 275] Ques Then you take the ark to be a type of the assembly: but would you also allow that it can be looked at as a type of Christ?
Ans. I see Noah as a type of Christ, that, is, as preparing the ark.
Ques Well, is not Noah in the ark a type of the believer in Christ?
Ans. It might be so used, but I do not think this is the significance of the type. We have to take account of the way things are stated: Noah prepared the ark. He was moved with fear and “prepared an ark to the saving of his house”. Hebrews 11:7. I take it to be Christ providing for His disciples in view of the judgment which He knew was about to be poured out on the world.
Ques But did not the ark go through the waters of judgment? I always thought that this was the believer preserved in Christ.
Ans. Yes, but it is not a question of atonement here, but of preservation through the judgment. The believer is preserved in Christ, but this is not the point here. According to this type those who belong to Christ are preserved in what He prepares. We have to take account of things as Scripture presents them.
Rem I quite understand what you say, and I think your thought of Noah preparing an ark for the saving of his house very good; but I cannot see why we should not hold to the old idea as well, that the ark is a type of Christ.
Ans. Noah is a type of Christ; and those who were saved in the ark were saved because of their relationship to him; not because of any righteousness on their part. In preaching to the unsaved, I should not present the ark (or what it typifies), because it was not said to be made for men in general; it was prepared for Noah’s house. Therefore it represents a side of the truth that is specially for those who [p. 276] belong to Christ. If we apprehend the position of Christ as rejected, and the remnant of the Jews with Him, on the one hand, and the consequent judgment of the Jewish system on the other, we shall appreciate the truth set forth in the ark. There were those who should be saved from the overthrow, and these were “added to the church”, Acts 2:47.
Perhaps the more literal application is to the latter days, when the judgments of God are poured out on this world, so that it entirely disappears. Before this the church, like Enoch, will have been taken to heaven, so that the Lord will preserve the remnant of Israel in another way. In dealing with certain lines of truth, Scripture presents things on a large scale, and on a small scale, and as the former covers a protracted and indefinite period of time, and is more moral than literal, it requires more spiritual discernment to apprehend than the latter. Revelation affords examples of this, such as the addresses to the seven churches of Asia. According to John 12, as we have been saying, the world was judged consequent on the rejection of Christ; but this was moral (although it involved the execution of governmental wrath on Israel), and it marks the present time. This is the large, or protracted, scale. But the time is coming when God will deal in a direct, literal way in the execution of His judgment against this world. This will be a brief period, but one of terrible universal suffering, which will result in the present order of things disappearing. But the remnant of Israel will be preserved through it.
Rem It seems to me that you make the assembly the place of safety instead of Christ. A Romanist will tell you that you cannot be safe except in the church.
Ans. Yes; but what is overlooked in his point of view is, that the church as a place of safety was for those who, so to speak, formed Christ’s house. The [p. 277] ark was for the saving of Noah’s house. The Roman Catholic idea is that the church affords salvation for man as he is, which is utterly false; an unregenerate man may come into the church in an outward way, but he is not thereby saved or made acceptable to God. He may become changed externally, and his responsibility is increased, but that is all. The church, as a practical sphere of salvation, is for those who already belong to Christ. Those who benefit by the assembly in this way do not connect the benefit with it, but with Him who prepared it. While Noah’s family were saved in the ark, strictly they owed their salvation to him who built it.
Rome, in its falsity, imitates the truth, and so it may suggest many good ideas; and hence when you say this is close to Rome’s teaching you may be right; it may be close to it, but it is not it. Noah was the head of a house: he built and he preached, but it was his family that he brought through the flood. It is true that he had the ark as an instrument. In this sense Noah is a type of Christ. But Romish teaching transfers salvation from Christ personally, and puts it into the church. What has been said helps to detach our minds from the ark, and attach them to the living Head of the family whom He preserves.