We have seen that God’s purpose and intention in creation was to have a group of people as the center of His creation. God intended to have the corporate man to express Him and to represent Him by dealing with His enemy, thus recovering the lost earth. But Satan intervened and damaged man. Satan captured man and carried him away from God’s purpose, then utilized him to raise up a counterfeit of God’s intention. This issued firstly in the city of Enoch, a counterfeit of God’s building. It was God’s purpose to transform man by the flowing of His life into precious materials for His building. But Satan crept into the garden of Eden and stole this man, usurping him to build a city in opposition to God, a counterfeit of God’s building.
Most of us today do not realize the real meaning of the fall of man. The enemy’s goal in causing man’s fall was to utilize the fallen race to construct a counterfeit in opposition to God’s purpose. God intended to build man into a corporate expression of Himself, but Satan kidnapped this man and utilized him as material for a counterfeit city. Thus immediately following the fall of man in Genesis 3, the city of Enoch was built by the fallen race in Genesis 4. All sinful things were invented there. The city of Enoch was the source of all the evil occupations of the human race-warring, pleasure, amusement, polygamy, and all fleshly enjoyments. How much corruption and sinfulness have come out of that city! The city of Enoch was the very center of the first civilization; it was the first culture invented by the fallen race. God could not tolerate that; so He sent a flood to judge that generation. But before destroying the city, God asked Noah, a righteous man who walked continually with God, to build a structure absolutely different from Satan’s counterfeit (Gen. 6).
Fallen man built Satan’s city, but Noah built an ark according to God’s specifications. It was entirely different from the city both in material and in purpose. It was a full type of Christ in human nature mingled with the Godhead. The ark included His redemption. (The Hebrew word for pitch, which covered the ark, is the same as the word atonement.) Thus the ark portrays Christ with His redemption.
Following the flood, Noah did not attempt to build a city. Rather, he lived in a tent and erected an altar to serve God (Gen. 9:21; 8:20). This was a miniature of the coming tabernacle which God was seeking.
Not long after the flood, Noah’s descendants fell into Satan’s hands. They were formed as one body and utilized by Satan to build the second city (Gen. 11:1-9). Babel was Satan’s second counterfeit of God’s building. God completely frustrated and judged Babel.
Out from the fallen people of Babel, God called and separated Abraham (Gen. 11:29-12:5) and brought him to an elevated place called the land of Canaan. There God asked him to build an altar. Abraham also lived in a tent, while he served God through the altar (Gen. 12:7-8). This is an example of that which God is seeking. However, Abraham’s companion, Lot, drifted away from this position into another city. Lot was separated from Babel, the city of idols, but he drifted into Sodom, the city of sin (Gen. 13:12-13). He is typical of many Christians today. On the one hand there is the danger of living in the city of idols, and on the other hand the danger of drifting into sin. From an elevated position, Lot could either fall into Babel on his right hand or drift into Sodom on his left. A man standing on a plain, though he falls to the right or the left, is relatively safe; but in an elevated place he must exercise care. If I am standing on a table, I must be careful. From an elevated position, the danger of a fall is increased. Lot drifted from this position into Sodom, a city full of sin. But Abraham was kept from falling; he lived in a tent with an altar. His son Isaac (Gen. 26:25) and his grandson Jacob (Gen. 33:18-20; 35:7, 21) did the same.
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