In the past several messages we have mainly covered the history of Noah. In those messages we saw how the ark made by Noah passed through the water and ushered Noah and his family into a new age. According to typology, at that time Noah and his family were living in resurrection, and that kind of living was a shadow of the church life. This shadow of the church life in resurrection reveals how the church people are resurrected with Christ, how they worship God with Christ, and how they resume God's original purpose of expressing God and representing Him. Furthermore, this shadow shows how the church people live under God's covenant. We may call them the covenanted people. Whatever they do is under God's covenant and is full of blessing. We have also seen that, unfortunately, in that shadow of the church life there was a failure, for, in a sense, Noah, God's deputy authority, failed God. Due to that failure certain things were exposed. Some received a blessing and others received a curse.
In this message we must consider an aspect of the church life that is not pleasant. There is a glorious side to church history and there is also a shameful side, an unpleasant side. We need to look at this unpleasant side.
After the flood, Noah and his family had a new beginning. There was a real unity among them. They were one in everything. Firstly, they were one with God. As people in resurrection (in typology the number eight denotes resurrection) these eight people were one with God. They worshipped one God. Secondly, they had only one goal: to express God and represent Him. Their goal was to return to the purpose that God had at the beginning. At the beginning, God purposed that man would express Him with His image and represent Him with His dominion. After the flood, the new race returned to God's original purpose, expressing God and representing Him. Thirdly, these eight people were one in their opinion, language, concept, and understanding. They all spoke the same thing. They were all truly one.
As the days went by, more and more people were produced. The population increased tremendously. The result was division. They were not only divided into families and generations, but also into nations. A nation is a kingdom, an empire in which someone exercises authority as the so-called head. Whenever someone exercises authority over others, that is an empire, a nation. At the beginning of the new age of life in resurrection, there was only one deputy head, Noah, who represented God, the true Head. There was one family with one head. That was a complete unity. Eventually, however, the descendants of Noah were not only divided into families, but also into nations. That was terrible.
As we have pointed out several times in previous messages, Genesis, an all-inclusive book, is a book of seeds. Nearly everything that is revealed in the entire Bible is sown in this book as a seed. The seeds sown in the book of Genesis develop in the remaining books of the Bible, becoming a harvest in the book of Revelation. This is also true of the seed of division. The seed of division is sown in Genesis 10, grows in the New Testament Epistles, and becomes a harvest in the book of Revelation. Now we must take some time to consider this seed of division among God's people.