" CHOSEN in Christ before the foundation of the world," tells us of God's thought about the work of His Son, ages before the cross was borne by Simon the Cyrenian, on which the Son of Man was lifted up.
As time went on, and events took place on the earth when peopled by Adam's race, we have clear evidence that the sacrifice of His Son, though future in fact, was ever present to God's eye. For, living as we do after the cross and the descent of the Holy Ghost, who guides into all the truth, distinct shadows of Him that was to come, and the work He was to accomplish, are found to have been cast at different times across the page of man's brief history. Before the flood and after, during the patriarchal era, in the history of Israel in the wilderness and in the land, we have frequent illustrations of this in the lives of several of God's saints. There are what may be called historic parallels as well as types. We may trace a parallel in certain portions of the life of a child of God between him and the Lord Jesus as He appeared on earth; and we may find this same servant of God filling a position which is a figure of that afterward occupied by Him who was to come. But in all typical personages of the Old Testament who shadowed forth the Lord, we have two sides as it were of a picture presented to us which must never be confounded. We see the man as he is a child of Adam needing a Savior, and we see him portraying some character which the Savior was afterward to fill. Thus, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, &c., were types of the Lord as they occupied positions similar to any He has, or will yet be found in. Joseph was a type when rejected by his brethren he became their preserver in the land of Egypt; but he was not a type of Christ when regarded as the prime minister of the Egyptian monarch.a Moses and Aaron were types of the Lord when, as king and priest, they came out of the Sanctuary and blessed the people on the eighth day of Aaron's consecration; but they sustained no typical character when they mutually shared in the efficacy of the blood shed on the great day of atonement. So with others, and with Noah, to whom the reader's attention is now to be directed. Noah was a type of the Lord, as is sought to be pointed out, before he entered the ark, as well as after he came out of it; but he was not a type of Him when looked at as inside it. Before he entered, as after, he filled positions which correspond to. those the Lord has consented to be in: when safe inside. the ark, with the door securely closed by the Lord, we see him as a Unless it were as Head of the Gentiles.-ED. a man indebted to God's salvation for deliverance from God's wrath.
Between the history of Noah and that of the Lord we may likewise trace parallels. With the first mention of Noah in the genealogy of Adam's descendants we have something peculiar-prophecy burst forth afresh at his birth. Enoch had years before prophesied of the Lord coming in judgment with ten thousand of His saints; but no fresh prophecy is recorded till Lamech predicted a new era for man on earth, as he called his son's name Noah (i.e., rest). " This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed" (Gen. 5:2929And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. (Genesis 5:29)). The sterile earth would be fruitful. The very ground would share in the blessings to be expected in connection with this new-born babe. Man and earth were both interested in the son of Lamech. Centuries passed away before another was born in whom both man and earth had a special and common interest. At His birth as at Noah's, prophecy, silent for ages, again was heard. Lamech's prophecy was fulfilled; but the blessings to earth from the Lord's birth have yet to be displayed. Noah was a husbandman, and under him, in the then new world, men enjoyed the fruits of. the trees, which after Adam's sin had been withdrawn from him and his descendants. In Eden he had the herb bearing seed for meat, and every tree in the which was the fruit of a tree yielding seed. After the fall he was to eat the herb of the field, and the ground, then cursed, was to yield thorns and thistles. After the flood there was a lightening of the curse, and the earth does yield in some degree her increase. But its fullness is yet withheld, though not forever. It will surely be one day given to man, as set forth in the glowing descriptions of the future in the prophecy of Isaiah. To Adam it yielded thorns and thistles; to men of another epoch it will yield useful produce. " Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree" (Is. 55. 13). Where cultivation has been scanty and vegetable life has not flourished, the face of nature will be changed, and barrenness give way to _luxuriant growth; for "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with' joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon "(Isai. 35. 1, 2). Under Noah there was partial relief; under the Second Man there will be full deliverance. In this creation is directly interested as well as man. It groans and travails in pain, made subject to vanity not willingly; but the incubus will be lifted up, the curse removed, and earth with man rejoice in the liberty of the glory of the children of God. Lamech looked forward to the future under Noah; we, in this respect similarly situated, look forward to the future under the Lord. But judgment came ere Lamech's prophecy was fulfilled, and judgment must come before Isaiah's predictions can be made good.
About 480 years rolled by before anything fresh is told us of the patriarch. All had been going on on the earth as usual, except that the wickedness of man, we may well believe, had increased, and even the sons of God had been seduced into alliances with the daughters of men, taking wives of all that they chose. Left to themselves, unfettered by any law, unrestrained by a power which enforced obedience whether man liked it or not, they acted as they chose. Such is the inspired record of the acts of the sons of God of the antediluvian world. Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and took them all away, is the Lord's description of that age, manifesting its unconcern and unbelief of its impending doom, little thinking in the midst of their giddy round of pleasure that One was weighing them in the balance, and pronouncing them as He did the King of Babylon at a later day, " weighed and found wanting." " God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." How extensive and yet how minute was this scrutiny. It took in the life, character, and thoughts of man. The general habit of man as man, and the particular characteristics of individuals of the race passed under the all-seeing eye of God; the thought concealed, perhaps, from the bosom-friend,
was read accurately by Him, and every imagination (or formation) of the thoughts of man's heart was found to be only evil continually. It was one vast scene of moral ruin, degradation, and lawlessness. Once, when He surveyed man as He had formed him, His eye rested with delight on all that He saw, and He pronounced it very good. Now, surveying man as he had degraded himself, a fallen being getting deeper and deeper into the mire, " He repented that he had made him on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." " The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence" tells a further tale, and attests the polluting power of sin. Man was a corrupt and a corrupting being. " God looked on the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." Contact with man was defilement; his very touch was pollution. Is there a germ of goodness in man? It had surely time as well as occasion to show itself. Upwards of 500 years had passed between Enoch's translation, and consequently, since his prophecy of judgment and God's inspection of man on the earth, and yet there was no improvement manifested. The fear of judgment had not wrought a change him; the mysterious disappearance of Enoch had not permanently affected him. What he had been in Enoch's day, that he was in Noah's. And what we read of is not some extraordinary display of Satanic power sweeping everything before it, though surely Satan was actively at work (the great display of his power is reserved for a yet future epoch); but it was man left, as we might say, to himself, showing the natural bent of his corrupt heart. "All flesh had corrupted his way on the earth." Corruption and lawlessness characterized the period.
In the midst of this picture of wide-spread and deeply rooted ungodliness, one man, and one man only, is brought before us with whom God had communion: "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord;" "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God"; just the opposite to those around in. his walk, and in the desires of his soul. To him God communicates His mind and announces the coming judgment; yet not all His mind, for He did not tell him at first when that judgment would come. Man had corrupted his way on the earth, and the earth was corrupt; so man, every living thing on the earth, and the earth itself must be destroyed. " The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth were the words which told Noah of God's determination to put an end to that for which there was no remedy. Noah thus learned the end would come; but knew not, that we read of, what God had said to Himself ( 6. 3). This is God's manner of acting. There are times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power (Acts 1). The day or the hour of the coming and announced judgment" knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father " (Mark 13, 32). So with Noah. He warned him of the coming destruction, told him what to do to escape it, but did not communicate to him the exact time of its approach till the ark was ready, and the last week of the old world was commencing. " They knew not until the flood came." During that day of long suffering, a period of 120 years, Noah was a preacher of righteousness, with what success the number saved in the ark testifies-seven souls beside himself preserved for the new world. Need we wonder at this small result? Another one could say, " I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation, I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation ' (Psa. 40:9,109I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. 10I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation. (Psalm 40:9‑10)). And after all He had to turn and say,, as regards Israel, " I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain" (Isa. 49:44Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. (Isaiah 49:4)). Little wonder is it then that the first preacher of righteousness should be accompanied into the ark by his own immediate family only. Where were his brethren and sisters? Had he to feel, like One greater than himself, that even his brethren refused to give credence to his message? "Ye would not" was the Lord's charge against Jerusalem (Matt. 23:3737O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37)), and her present desolation is the consequence. His testimony was rejected. So Noah entered the ark in the midst of a scene of life and gaiety, and passed out, as it were of the sphere of his labors before his predictions were verified, shut in by the Lord, separated from all he had preached to, with his family only around him, a rejected messenger of the Lord Jehovah.
But not only does the history of our patriarch furnish parallels between his own and the Lord's history while on earth; he is also a type of the Lord both before and after the flood: before the flood a type of Him as a Savior, after it of Him as a ruler, thus preserving the historical order.
All flesh had corrupted its way on the earth, so all flesh deserved to die. " I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them " (Gen. 6:77And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. (Genesis 6:7)). Thus man as a race was under sentence of death, and justly so. How could the race be preserved alive? All hopes hung, humanly speaking, on one man, Noah. Because of him the race was not exterminated. " Everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." On how slender a thread all then hung. Had lie failed where would man have been? Had he been found like the rest what would his family have done? The human race was preserved through him, and the living creatures of earth and air were saved from utter destruction likewise. Creation found itself interested in this one. Judgment must take it course, for corruption pervaded all flesh and the earth; but God's handiworks in creation could righteously be rescued from complete extermination. To outward eyes, probably, there was little to interest a stranger in this man. His conduct condemned the practices of those around him; his words must have disturbed and broken in on the composure of many a soul desiring only to go on unchecked and unreproved in its wild career of lawlessness, as he preached righteousness to his contemporaries. Many, probably, hated him; some, perhaps, could not make him out; others doubtless thought him a visionary, building a big ship on dry land and talking of a judgment to fall on the world, whilst none but his immediate family followed him into the ark. Such might he have appeared to men; but what was he before God? All turned on this. Man's judgment of him would avail nothing in the matter of the preservation of the human race. Had they raised him to a pinnacle of greatness unequaled by any one before or since-had they proclaimed him a perfect man fit for the presence of God-if God had not accepted him no living creature would have been saved for the new world. " But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." So he appears here as a type, may we not say, of Him-that one corn of wheat, on which all really then, and all manifestly afterward, hung. But Noah was only a type, for he found grace in the eyes of the Lord; whereas He, who likened Himself to the corn of wheat, was full of.grace in Himself; not filled with it, but full of it. And in His case, as in Noah's, all depended on what He was before God. The world's conception of Him had no bearing on the final destiny of man and the earth. Rejecting Him, condemning Him, they rejected their own mercies and sealed their own condemnation, as did the antediluvian world. In Noah was seen the one God had accepted; in Christ the one in whom the Father was well pleased.
Perusing still further Noah's history, we reach the day, when he entered the ark with his family and the different pairs of animals as previously appointed. Now he learns the exact time of the flood, and the period of its duration; for the times, previously hidden, are disclosed. As righteous in God's sight he enters the ark, but his family enter with him. They were not righteous that we read of. No approval of any of them is recorded in the word; yet they entered, and were saved. Noah inside the ark was but a pattern of all who are saved; but in taking in his family with him, we see him a type of another. "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." Not a word, not a hint have we of what Shem was-not a syllable of approbation of Japheth. They were saved, preserved from the common destruction because Noah was righteous, and there in that ark they were living exemplifications of what it is to be saved by the righteousness of another. And how complete the salvation was, for all who went in came out. None were lost inside, but all died who were outside. Secure, because God shut Noah in, his family were saved through the flood, and saved with him. But here we must mark a difference between the type and the antitype. They were saved with, but not in Noah; they were preserved because of, but not by Noah. He was in the ark with them enjoying the same salvation; he was there as righteous himself; they, as exemplifying the obedience of faith, were inside because of the righteousness of another -their father Noah. We learn what they learned; the possibility, the certainty, the security of salvation through the righteousness of another-for us the Lord Jesus Christ; and we experience what Noah experienced, preservation as in the ark from the waters of judgment. He was not the ark, he was inside it; and we are in Christ. Thus, we can distinguish in Noah between the man as he was, and the typical character he sustained. All saved by grace will learn like him what it is to be in the ark, brought through death, the judgment deserved because of sin; but he stands forth as the righteous one because of whom others are saved. In this surely he is a type of Him that was to come.
Another feature in this history should be taken notice of-the prominence given to Noah, and the little notice of his sons. When the animals entered the ark, they went in, two and two, unto Noah, the one because of whom they were preserved. When the Lord closed the door on the living freight which the ark carried, we read, " the Lord shut him (i.e. Noah) in." When all around outside were dead, we read, "Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." God's eye rested on him throughout the flood, and God thought of him after it, for we read, " God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark" ( 8. 1). In all this Shem, Ham, and Japheth are, as it were, unseen. They are mentioned as entering the ark; but on Noah God's eye rested, and to him His thoughts were directed. He is-remembered, and the rest came in remembrance only because with him. For forty days the flood increased. At the expiration of five months the ark first touched the ground, a symptom that the waters were diminishing. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be discerned, and a hope of ere long emerging from the ark could arise in the hearts of its inhabitants. To keep seed alive on the face of all the earth was the reason of the living creatures being preserved. Noah knew he would come out of the ark, but now he might learn that the time of exit was approaching, for the tops of the mountains appeared above the hitherto unbroken surface of the waters. For forty days did he wait, and then sent forth a raven through the window, and after the raven a dove. The raven would tell when the waters were dried up from off the earth; the dove would teach him when the face of the ground was dry. The raven went to and fro, but the dove sought for re-admittance into the ark, and found it. The raven returned, it would seem, to it, indicating that the waters were not yet dried up from off the earth, but needed not re-admittance within. It could feed on what it found; the dove could not feed without till vegetation had recommenced. A week after the dove's first return the welcome tidings were received, as she re-entered in the evening with an olive leaf plucked off in her mouth. Vegetation had revived; this little leaf showed it. How welcome that little harbinger of the future must have been! Another week of patient waiting was passed, when the dove went forth for the third time, to return no more. She had found a home in the new world. Her non-return this time was as expressive as her previous returns had been; and Noah, interpreting aright her absence, uncovered the covering of the ark, and beheld, for the first time, the new world he and his children were to people. The face of the ground was dry, but the earth was not ready for his reception. Two months longer nearly had he to wait in the ark till God, who shut him in, gave him leave to come out. The face of the ground was dry on the first day of the first month; but he would not trust to appearances: he waited for permission to come out, as he had entered, at the express command of God. God knew the times and seasons, which Noah did not: He knew when he must enter, and He knew when he should come out. The sight of his eyes could not make Noah forsake the ark, nor the desire of his heart make him cross the threshold of the door, till God commanded him. To God's will he submitted, and to God's guidance he committed himself. Had he left the ark when the dove did, he would have left it too soon: the face of the ground was dry, but he must wait till the earth was dried. In all this he shows himself perfect. He was really, he would be practically, dependent on God, like Him who allowed neither the sight of His eyes, nor the natural desire for food, to draw Him aside from the path of unconditional, constant dependence on the Lord His God.
As in the ark he had manifested perfect confidence in God, so, as soon as ever he leaves it, his first thought is for God, and he takes the first opportunity of ascribing all the glory of their deliverance to Him. With a thankful heart surely it was he built an altar, and took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, and offered on it burnt offerings. It was no grudging service. He did not take one animal and one bird, but one of each class of the birds and fowls which were clean. He discriminated between the clean and unclean of the animals and the birds, because he knew that the One to whom he was about to offer them was holy, and could accept nothing that was not clean; and he disowned for himself and family all thought of offering what they chose, like Cain, as he drew near with that which God could accept like Abel. How often has this discrimination shown by Noah been overlooked, as men have thought of approaching God with something of their own, to be accepted without reference to God's estimate of it. Noah, from whom all on earth are lineally descended, acted otherwise. Would that our father Noah's example and principle were more widely accepted and conformed to! But to return. By this act he owned he needed a Savior, that life must be given up for his life. In this lie took the place of a sinner, but a saved sinner, brought through death into resurrection. There is, however, another character in which he here appears; he leads the worship of others after the deliverance from God's judgment is accomplished. Does he not in this seem to typify Him who leads the praises of the redeemed? And, if we cannot call it. a type, we may observe the striking parallel, and mark also- the contrast. " In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee," is the language of the Psalm ( 22. 22), speaking of the Lord after His resurrection, which is especially applied to Him in the Hebrews ( 2. 12), as pointing out the association of the redeemed with Him. So Noah, foreshadowing this, builds the altar in the midst of his family, subjects with himself of God's salvation. In their worship that day Noah took the initiative, as the Lord does and will (Psa. 22:2525My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. (Psalm 22:25)) in the company of the redeemed; Noah, because sharing with them the deliverance-the Lord, because raised up from death. Others well know full salvation by His blood.
To that sacrifice there is an immediate response. It could not be otherwise. God saw in it what, perhaps, Noah did not, and the fragrance of a richer sacrifice, which it foreshadowed, rose up before Him. He smelled a sweet savor (the first occasion on which this term is used), yet we read not of incense offered up with it. It needed nothing to sweeten it; the sacrifice itself was, and we can say is, a sweet savor before Him, for its pleasantness, its acceptableness, will never fade away. And now we are introduced to what followed from it. God held converse with Himself. The Godhead had counseled about creating man (Gen. 1:2626And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26)): God had held converse with Himself about destroying all flesh (Gen. 6:33And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3)). The Father and the Son, too, we read, held converse about the work the Lord was to undertake (Psa. 40:6,76Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, (Psalm 40:6‑7)); and here God speaks to Himself: " The Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. While the earth remained), seed time and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." He knew what man was, still unchanged in heart. What he was before the flood, that he was after it; and, when none were alive in the new world but Noah and his family, God thus speaks to Himself about him. Punishment could not change him. Could he earn the favor of God? Impossible. Could he preserve the world from a second flood, and the ground from being again cursed because of his sin? No: but what man could not do God could, because of the sacrifice. Now, all rests on the virtue of the sacrifice. No flood shall again desolate the earth, nor, whilst the earth lasts, shall the order of the seasons be interrupted. Stability on earth, where fallen man is concerned, can only be secured by sacrifice, and God can righteously deal with man in a new way by virtue of it.
And now a fresh subject comes before us. As creation had been visited by a deluge because of man, but was promised immunity from its recurrence because of the sacrifice, man, too, whose sin brought down the judgment, should reap benefits from the sacrifice. " And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." God speaks again to Noah, but He speaks to his sons likewise; to them for the first time. Till they had come through the flood they had, as it were, no place before Him. He communicated his mind to Noah, and to him only. Now they have a standing before God, as it were, and He speaks to them, but with Noah. Apart from Noah they had no place; but when speaking to him now He speaks to them likewise, and in language to which men, since the fall, had been strangers. " God blessed Noah and his sons." At creation He blessed the moving creatures of the waters, and the fowls of the air: on the sixth day He blessed man; and on the seventh, the Sabbath day. The fall took place, after which God blessing anything was language unheard of. Now a change takes place: what induced the change? The burnt offering, which rose up a sweet savor to God. On that ground He could, He has blessed, sinful creatures." To be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth," had been part of God's blessing in Eden; "to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth," is His blessing after the flood. His purpose does not change. He created man for this object, and He would have him fulfill it. The flood seemed to have put an end to it; but His counsel shall stand, and here it comes out. Time cannot alter it, nor the malicious machinations of the enemy frustrate it. He sent Noah and His sons abroad on the earth to fulfill His purpose, by replenishing it. Yet there is a difference, and a marked one. To Adam God added: " and to subdue it, and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:2828And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:28)). The Son of Man will exercise this sovereignty when He reigns (Psa. 8). To Noah and his sons God promises to put the fear of them on all the animals on land and water. All should feel fallen man's superiority, though he had not the commission to subdue them. To the first Adam was that given; by the last Adam will it be carried out; for such a commission is not entrusted to a fallen creature.
And here, in connection with the sacrifice, God conveys to man a grant of every living creature: Into your hand are they delivered; every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." All the resources of the earth are thus placed at his disposal, both what it produced and what it carried on its surface-a vast change from the language in which God addressed Adam after the fall, and a fuller grant than that which He bestowed on him in Paradise. After the fall, He took from man the fruits which he had so misused, and sent him forth from Eden to eat the herb of the field; now He gives him to eat of everything. By sin man lost; in virtue of the sacrifice, God could be a bounteous giver. But it is not merely recovery; it is more. In Eden they could eat the fruits of the ground; in the new world they could eat of everything-an illustration of the truth conveyed in the lines,
"In Him the tribes of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost."
Further on, in the history of the world, when Israel stood before God on the ground of their responsibility, to be blessed if obedient, a restriction in the articles of food took place; a distinction was made between the clean and the unclean, and the former only were allowed them. But when the sacrifice had been really offered up and accepted, and God began again to deal with man on the ground of the sweet savor which ascended up, all curtailment of the articles of food is removed, for " whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof" (1 Cor. 10:25,2625Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: 26For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. (1 Corinthians 10:25‑26)). " Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. 4:4,54For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:4‑5))-God's word to Noah, setting it apart for our use, and our prayer to Him. What a difference there is between dealing with man according to what he is or deserves, and acting towards him according to the acceptableness of the sacrifice! Noah and his sons now experience the latter, as Adam, and all before the flood, had proved the former.
Unrestricted as they were in the articles of food, this comprehensive grant had one condition annexed, " Flesh with the blood thereof, which is the life thereof, shall ye not eat." Life belonged to God, and man was to own it; he could not, therefore, feed on it. Man's life, however, was precious in God's sight, and He here gives clear evidence of it: If a beast took man's life, God would require the blood of the life at the hand of that beast; and, if a man took a fellow-creature's life, "at the hand of every man's brother will I," He said, " require the life of man." As Creator, He will require from any living creature the life of man. The animals prey on each other, and man might kill of all kinds for his use; but man's life was precious in God's sight, " for in the image of God made he man." As God's representative on earth, to take. man's life unlawfully is to disturb the order of creation. Who has power over a representative but the one whom he represents? Any infraction, then, of this principle, God would take cognizance of. To enforce this, government on earth in the hands of man, a new thing since the fall, is next introduced. " Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man." The sword of justice is here, for the first time placed in man's hand, to be used in righteousness, without mercy. Cain was especially preserved from death by man; here death is enjoined. Before the flood, what a scene it must have been of lawlessness: now, order is introduced, and a strictly righteous rule is established, with death as the penalty of its infraction. And one day this will be fully carried out, when the Son of Man, of whom Noah is here a type, shall re-establish God's authority on earth, and death be the sinner's portion (Psa. 75:33The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah. (Psalm 75:3); Isa. 65:2020There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. (Isaiah 65:20); Psa. 101:88I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. (Psalm 101:8)), after the era of disorder and lawlessness, which Scripture speaks of (2 Thess. 2), shall pass away in the overflowing of divine judgment and public execution of sinners (Rev. 19:20,2120And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:20‑21)).
Throughout this history, side by side with man, we have creation introduced as deeply interested, because especially affected, by man's sin. God makes a covenant with Noah and his sons, and every living creature, that no flood should again destroy the earth. He had said it in His heart, but He would have them to be acquainted with His mind; He here proclaims it, and gives a token of the covenant between Him and the earth. He would look on the bow, and remember the everlasting covenant. How God delighted in Noah's sacrifice! and, delighting in it, would have all to know it. Blessings descended on man, and with him on all that had breath. He makes a covenant, binding on Himself, never again to destroy the earth by a flood. He had said to Noah, before the deluge, " with thee will I establish my covenant:" now He enters into one, not with Noah only, but with all that moves on the earth. The announcement in Eden of the woman's seed depended on the preservation of the human race from destruction. With Noah, therefore, He would establish His covenant. But after the flood God binds Himself to all the living creatures; so all share in the results of Noah's sacrifice, as all will share in the result of that sacrifice already offered up, and ever had in remembrance before God. Great, however, is the difference. All were assured of preservation from catastrophe such as had taken place; but creation know, not merely immunity from a second flood, I the full enjoyment which the Lord's presence will secure, when He reigns in power. It was after the flood creation learned that God would enter thus into covenant. It will be after the long night of weeping that the day will dawn full of brightness and joy (Psa. 96-98)
But Noah here also was only a type, for he made wine, drank of it, and was drunk. He who should have exercised government on earth is found uncovered in his tent. How soon man fails! Aaron, Moses, David Solomon, tell the same tale of unfitness for that place ( which man should, but the Son of man alone will, fill without failing. All, therefore, point to Him; and as each failure is recorded, the mind travels onward to Him that is to come, taking in by the way, from each type some thought of the offices and glory that will be sustained in perfection by none but the woman's seed.
One more remark before closing. To many of God's saints promises about their seed were given; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David received them. To Noah we read of none being given. This is surely fit, for all God does is right. But can we not discern the fitness?
In Noah we have in type the coming One actually on earth in millennial power, as we see man having government committed into his hand, to rule in righteousness. Beyond this, as far as earth is concerned, nothing can go. So to Noah and to Solomon-types of the Lord as Lord and Christ-God gave no promise about their seed. They shadowed forth Him as He will be, when there will be nothing more here to be desired. For what, as we read their histories, we see is wanted is, not one to fill a place different in character to that they respectively filled, but the One, who will sustain in righteousness and in continuance that authority and rule they in measure exercised, under which alone this groaning creation can be set free, and be at rest forever. For that One we, too, wait. C. E. S.