In the last message we saw something concerning God’s dispensing in the book of Genesis. That part of God’s dispensing was from Adam through Joseph. Let us spend some time to see how the divine dispensing progressed in Genesis. In Adam there was just a little of the dispensing. There was the receiving of the promise of the gospel related to the seed of woman (3:15). Then Adam was covered by the skin of the sacrifice (3:21). That indicates that Adam participated a little bit in Christ’s redemption. From Adam God’s dispensing progressed to Abel. In Abel we can see more of the dispensing of God. After being redeemed he was brought back to God and into the divine fellowship with God (4:4), and he suffered martyrdom for God’s testimony (4:5-8). The dispensing continued with Enosh who began to call upon the name of the Lord, the Eternal One (4:26). He enjoyed the very sustaining life of the eternal life. He began to live, not by his fragile nature, but by the eternally existing One.
From Enosh the dispensing of God went on to Enoch. Based upon all the dispensing into the past three persons, Enoch began to walk and to live with and in the Triune God (5:22), so that he was taken away from death (5:24). After Enoch came Noah, who not only walked and lived with God (6:9), but also worked together with God (6:14). He had both his living and his working in common with God. He worked with God and for God. What he worked on and entered into was just God’s salvation, the ark (7:7). The ark was a type of the practical and present Christ. Many Christians only know a historical and distant Christ. But according to the picture we can see with Noah, we should have a present and practical Christ that we can enter into, not just a historical Christ nor a Christ of distance. And we should work together with God on Christ. Christ is our ark, and in the local churches we are building up this ark. It may sound strange to you to hear we should build up Christ. But look at Noah. He was building up the ark, and as today’s Noahs, we also should build up Christ.
Today we are saved. But we still need to work on Christ. Noah also was saved before he began working on the ark. If he were not saved, how could he have been charged to work together with God? By the time God came and charged Noah to build the ark, he was already walking with God and in the eyes of God was a righteous man in that age (6:9). This indicates he was saved even before he began to build the ark. Since he was already saved, why did he need to build the ark? He needed further salvation from the corrupted world. Have you been saved? Do you realize that you need further salvation?
Paul told us in Philippians 2:12 that we need to be obedient and to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Although we have been saved, we still need to work out our salvation. God’s salvation is not so short or so brief or so simple. God’s salvation has a long span. We have to enter into God’s salvation and to go through from one end of God’s salvation to the other end. Today we are in the passage of God’s salvation. We have entered into this passage. Now we are going through this passage, and our going through is our working. While Noah was working to make the ark, he was passing through. The more he built the ark, the more he passed through God’s salvation. Eventually he entered into what he worked out (7:7). Dear saints, the very Christ you are building up will become your future salvation. One day under God’s sovereignty you will enter into the very Christ whom you have built up.
We can see other points in Noah also. We can see that the ark is Christ. Christ, of course, is the embodiment of the Triune God. When Noah entered into the ark, he entered into the embodiment of the Triune God. Not only did he enjoy God, but he also entered into the Triune God. In principle the children of Israel did the same thing. Noah built the ark, and the children of Israel built the tabernacle. Noah entered into what he had built, and the children of Israel also entered into the tabernacle they built. Just to have God as your enjoyment is not adequate. You must have God as your ark or as your tabernacle into which you can enter. This is why the New Testament tells us that we should abide in Christ (John 15:4-5). When Noah entered into the ark, he abode there; he dwelt there. When the children of Israel entered into the tabernacle, they also dwelt there.
If you work together with the Lord in your daily experience you surely build up something of Christ, and eventually you get into what you have built up, and you dwell in this Christ as your enjoyment. Then you abide in Christ. Many Christians realize that John 15 speaks of abiding in Christ, but not many know what it means to abide in Christ. First you need to build up Christ. If you don’t build up Christ, you have no Christ to abide in. Doctrinally this may sound strange, but experientially it is right. You have Christ, but do you abide in Christ? We may have Christ in doctrine and yet have no Christ in experience to abide in. Just to have Christ in doctrine means nothing. You need to have Christ in your experience. Just to believe in Christ is sufficient for you to have Him. But to abide in Christ needs some building up. You have to build up Christ for you to abide in Him. What does it mean to build up Christ? By your experience you know. You have to love Him. You have to talk to Him by calling on His name. You have to live by Him. You have to pass through all the experiences of Adam and Abel and Enosh and Enoch, and then you have to come to be Noah. Then you will have something built up.
If you spend from Monday through Saturday loving the Lord, fellowshipping with Him, living by Him, and walking together with Him, surely on the Lord’s Day you would have the deep sensation that you are in Christ. You would have a practical and present Christ for you to abide in. But if, on the other hand, you spent from Monday through Saturday not loving the Lord and not fellowshipping with Him, not living in Him, and not walking with Him, even if you wanted to abide in Him today, you would feel that He is absent. In your experience He is not with you. You have Him in doctrine, but you don’t have Him in experience. Although you might desire to abide in Him, it seems you don’t know where He is. This would mean that for the past week you did not build Christ. You did not work on the ark. So when the flood came, you had no ark to enter into. But when you love Him and fellowship with Him and live by Him and walk with Him day after day and hour after hour, you build Him up in your experience. You build up a Christ in your experience for you to enter into as your salvation. We all need to build up Christ.
With Noah, God’s dispensing reached a certain high point. But it was still not sufficient. So God went on from Noah to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Joseph. When God’s dispensing came to this complete person, God could get a house. The vessel came into view. This complete man could be transformed into a prince of God, a person absolutely one with God (Gen. 32:28). This complete person was able to express God. He could bear the name of God, and he could reign for God on this earth (Gen. 41:40-41). So at the end of Genesis there was a person who was one with God, bearing God’s name, expressing God, and reigning with God and for God. Up to this point God had surely dispensed Himself a lot into His chosen people. This is wonderful. But at the end of Genesis, there was only an individual to contain and express God; there was no house of God. God had only gained one complete person.
God desired a corporate person, a house. So after Genesis there is Exodus. In Exodus God gained a house. At the end of Genesis God gained a complete person expressing Himself, but at the end of Exodus God gained a tabernacle representing a corporate people expressing God. At the end of Genesis is an individual Israel, but at the end of Exodus is a corporate Israel. There is a collective people of Israel to be God’s tabernacle. This tabernacle was Bethel, the house of God. By that time God had infused Himself into His people to make them His dwelling. Up to that point God was in the tabernacle because He had infused Himself into His people in a more complete way.