We have seen that God’s intention is to have a group of people built up as a spiritual building to express God and to represent God by dealing with His enemy and recovering this lost earth. But before God could accomplish this goal, the evil one, Satan, intervened.
It is a principle that Satan always does something beforehand as a counterfeit of the thing God intends to do. He knew that it was God’s intention to have a building, so he preceded God to build a counterfeit. God has to wait, but Satan never waits. In the garden of Eden he damaged the man whom God had made for the purpose of His building. Eventually, from that damaged man, Satan’s counterfeit was brought into being. Before God’s building, the New Jerusalem, could come into existence, Satan’s counterfeit cities were built.
“And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch” (Gen. 4:16, 17). It was not long after man had fallen that Cain left the presence of the Lord to dwell in a land called Nod. Nod means “floating” or “wandering.” Cain was in a state of wandering, for he had gone out from the presence of the Lord. As such he built a city apart from God’s presence and named it, not after God, but after his son Enoch. Chapters 4 through 6 of Genesis reveal that the city of Enoch was the center of the first civilization instituted by the fallen human race. It was a city in opposition to God, a city full of sin, a city to make a name for man. All manner of human inventions were initiated in this city.
This city was Satan’s first counterfeit building. He knew God’s intention of building up human beings as one person to express God; and he was well aware of God’s intention to deal with him in order to regain the lost earth. So he took over. He built up the fallen people for his purpose, to express himself and to oppose God. This was why God judged that city and that dispensation with the flood.
But before God judged the wicked city of Enoch by a flood, He called a righteous man who walked in His presence and appointed him to undertake a building in opposition to Satan’s counterfeit city. God commanded Noah: “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it” (Gen. 6:14-16).
The details of the ark built by Noah are exceedingly significant. It was of gopher wood and overspread within and without with pitch. In the Hebrew language, pitch is the same as the word used for atonement. The entire ark was pitched with atonement. Every dimension and specification is full of meaning. Its length was three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Thus the dimensions were either one hundred times three, ten times five, or ten times three. In addition, the ark was three stories high. This was the fashion of God’s first building.
What is the real meaning of the ark? It is an over-all type of Christ. But in this ark, in this Christ, are the three persons of the Godhead. The Triune God is in Christ, mingled together with the human nature. This is typified by the ark’s three stories-the lower, the second, and the third stories. Christ in the human nature is typified by the wood used in the ark’s construction. Wood, we know, is a type of humanity.
In the dimensions of the ark the numbers three and five appear repeatedly. In Scripture the number three signifies the Triune God. To see the significance of the number five we must consider its constituents-four plus one. Four signifies creation, as testified by the four living creatures mentioned in Revelation and the four winds of the earth, etc. One signifies the one, unique God. Thus, creation plus God give us the significance of number five. The ten commandments were divided into two groups of five. Five is also mentioned many times in the building of the tabernacle. And in the New Testament the ten virgins were divided into two groups of five. Five signifies the mingling of God with man; it means that man with God mingled with him must take responsibility.
The ark, as we have seen, typifies Christ in human nature with the three persons of the Godhead-God mingled with His creation. The ark built by Noah contained all the basic principles of God’s design for His building throughout eternity. God’s building is a building of Christ in human nature with the three persons of the Godhead; that is, divinity mingled with humanity. We will see the full development of these vital principles in the final New Jerusalem in later chapters.
We must all be in this ark, in Christ. All our activities, all our daily walk, whatever we do, must be in these principles of Christ in human nature, containing the three persons of the Godhead-God mingled with humanity. We must preach the Gospel in these principles and we must practice the church life in these principles.
In the beginning of Scripture we have a contrast of the first building of the fallen human race, a city called Enoch, and the first building of God, an ark constructed according to His design.
We must realize that since the time of Noah, there have always been on this earth only two kinds of buildings-one of God and the other of Satan. One kind is in the hand of the human race and is much utilized by the enemy as a counterfeit to damage God’s building; the other kind, God’s building, is completely apart from man’s building, even as the ark of Noah. These two kinds of buildings are proceeding on the earth even at this present time. To which do you belong? Praise the Lord, in God’s building we have a place as a refuge.
Noah had a share in this building, and after the flood he knew what he must continue to do. “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord...and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen. 8:20). Later we read that Noah and his sons dwelt in tents (Gen. 9:21, 27). After living in an ark, Noah’s life involved an altar and a tent. We will see later that the tabernacle of God consisted of a tent with an altar. Noah’s tent was not only his dwelling place, but must also have been the dwelling place of God, where Noah was living in the presence of God; where Noah was, there was God. Noah’s tent with the altar was a miniature of the coming tabernacle with the burnt-offering altar.
We have clearly seen a definite contrast-the building of the human race and the building of God. Cain’s building is a product of the fallen human race, a city called Enoch. But God chose Noah to build an absolutely different structure-an ark, according to God’s specifications. And, when Noah disembarked after the flood, he did not build another city, but erected an altar along with a tent for his dwelling. This is the first contrast: a city versus an ark, an altar and a tent.
Home | First | Prev | Next