Noah built the ark for God at God’s command and according to God’s revelation. This shows that in order for God to work on the earth according to His economy, He must gain some who will walk and live with Him and who will cooperate, coordinate, and work with Him on the earth. As the mighty God (Isa. 9:6), He alone completed the work of creation, for He spoke, and it was done, and He commanded, and it stood fast (Psa. 33:9). However, for the carrying out of the work of building, He must gain some who will work with Him.
The principle is the same in God’s building of the tabernacle, in His building of the temple, and in His recovering of the temple. In building the tabernacle, God found Moses to cooperate with Him (Exo. 25:1, 8-9); in building the temple, He found David and Solomon to coordinate with Him (1 Chron. 28:2; 2 Chron. 3:1-2); and in recovering the temple, He found Zerubbabel and Jeshua to work with Him (Ezra 3:8). In the New Testament age, it is the same with the building of the church. God must find those who will walk and live with Him, such as the apostles, to coordinate and work with Him (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1). It is only in this way that His divine building can be accomplished. Therefore, Noah too is a model in God’s way of life. He represents all those who walk and live with God, who are found by God to work with Him on the earth, and through whom God may carry out the salvation that will accomplish His economy.
After the flood God made a covenant with Noah, promising that He would never again destroy the earth by a flood, that the earth would remain to supply man’s need, and that Noah’s whole family would live on the earth peacefully (Gen. 8:20—9:17). Noah experienced great success and became the leader on the new land and the father of all mankind. Under such a blessing from God, Noah was at ease and became loose. He began to be a farmer and planted a vineyard (Gen. 9:20) to produce grapes, from which he would make wine. Then, because of his drunkenness he became naked within his tent (Gen. 9:21) and lost his covering in the eyes of God. His son Ham saw this and told his two brothers outside (Gen. 9:22). Because Ham exposed the failure of the head of the family and the leader of mankind, he and his descendants received the curse (Gen. 9:24-25, cf. v. 18). Out of Ham’s cursed descendants men like Nimrod were produced (Gen. 10:6-9). The tragic result was that they fell into all kinds of evil, such as rebellion against God, opposition to God, and the bringing in of idols.
This matter is a negative model, signifying that throughout the ages those who seek after God and take God’s way often become loose and thereby fall into evil after receiving God’s blessing. What Solomon did in his old age is a strong example of this. When he was young, he was the wisest of all men, he built the temple, and he had great honor and glory. Yet in his old age he succumbed to the temptations of his Gentile wives to such an extent that he followed after other gods and built high places, provoking God to anger. This eventually created the tragedy of division and confusion among God’s people and led to the fall of their nation and to their captivity in a Gentile land.
Before He destroyed the entire human race, which was corrupted to the uttermost in the godless culture invented by Cain and his descendants, God gave a revelation to Noah. In that revelation He told Noah to build an ark for Him so that He might carry out His salvation for the preserving of mankind and all the living things that He intended to keep.