Twofold Christian Testimony
In the sixth and seventh chapters of Genesis, we find Noah in two positions. In chapter 6 he is building the ark, and in chapter 7 he is in the ark.
In the first position, he was surrounded by a hostile, unbelieving world, to which he was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2), while in his own personal walk, which was also a testimony to it of approaching judgment, he was building an ark. All his expectations and hopes were centered in this ark. The world had corrupted itself, and the end of all flesh in God’s sight had come. Noah waited for the judgment of the world. The world’s iniquity had long since come to the full, and nothing now remained but the most dire, awful judgment, when the moment had arrived in the counsels of God.
In the second position, he was shut in by the Lord’s own hand (Gen. 7:1616And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in. (Genesis 7:16)) and seated in the ark which floated securely over the waters of judgment. For a whole year, there he was securely floating over the waves and billows of judgment, shut into the ark. Not a drop of the mighty waters reached him in this secure place, which was pitched within and without with pitch. Ruin and death were all around and under him; the only place where there was life and sustenance of life was in the ark.
Building the Ark
All this speaks to the Christian, with this difference, that he is in a figure in both positions at the same time; his testimony is defective when he does not witness to this. In Philippians 3, the Christian is building the ark, and thus condemning the world which runs on to judgment; Christ is his only object and hope. Everything which does not serve his purpose in the “one thing” which occupies him is “dross and dung.” It is set aside as worthless, as it had the flavor of human life and pride, all of which is about to be engulfed in the mighty waters of judgment. Or it is dropped as a hindrance to the testimony of the Christian workman towards a world which is rejecting God in Christ. The world around is hostile and unbelieving — speaking of progress and improvement, adornment and beauty; confident in its own powers to repair the distance between it and God. To remove the sentence of judgment under which it lies, by plucking up its “thorns and thistles” and in “buying and selling, planting and building,” it is ignoring the tide of judgment which has flowed over it at the cross.
Living in the Ark
The ark is the Christian’s object; to “know Him” (Christ) is his aim. Human righteousness is cast aside as worthless, confidence in self ignored, “what things” seem to be gain are counted loss for the ark. “All things” have got their own value, but they are as “dross and dung” to the soul who is thus building an ark and by his walk condemning those “whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly ... who mind earthly things” (Phil. 3:1919Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) (Philippians 3:19)). All his expectations, his hopes and his prospects are centered in Christ and in the desire to know Him in the glory and the power of His resurrection, which works in him to bring him there. He desires fellowship with His sufferings, and conformity to His death, if by whatever means it may be, he might attain to the resurrection from among the dead. Fellowship of His sufferings and conformity to His death are courted and desired, as helping to build the ark, as it were, in which all his expectations are centered. All that cannot be brought into the ark is set aside as a weight; all that can be brought in is cultivated and prized.
But while the Christian is thus building an ark, he is also shut in to Christ, and by His resurrection and that power that wrought in Him, he is raised up together with Christ and seated together in heavenly places in Him (Eph. 2). While the world is shrouded in the waters of a mightier judgment than ever it was in the flood, he is in the secure place. Not a drop of its waters can reach him for the entire period, till the judgment is removed. He has only to float over it all, enjoying the food and life which is in the ark. He possesses “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1). He is above all the ruin and death here below, in Christ, and he finds it is infinite gain.
Living for Christ
Do you suppose Noah lost anything by being shut into the ark? Do you suppose he was sorry that he had surrendered all his earthly possessions? They were of but little value when they were sunk beneath the waters of death, while that which was his expectation and hope was riding triumphantly on the waves! Not a single living blessing was wanting in the ark with him; not a single nourishing thing of “all food that is eaten” was absent. People talk as if they would lose a great deal if they were thus shut up to Christ. Every beautiful living object was shut into the ark with Noah, while every deathful thing was shut out of it in the flood of waters. People are afraid to drop the things which hinder their enjoying Christ, fearing that after all they would not be recompensed an hundredfold if they did so. People talk of judgment which is hanging over the world as a thundercloud, and at the same time they are often like Lot who said true things, but who “seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law” (Gen. 19). You see such persons perhaps preaching and teaching, and at the same time in the world, of the world, and ministering, by their position, rank, or such things, to its moral state. What business have such to preach like Lot of judgment, and at the same time be as he, sitting in the gate of this world?
Can we say honestly, “I do want to be shut up to Christ. I want to feed on all the sustenance and life that is there. I want not only to build the ark, but to be in the ark — shut into Him, and in Him realizing that all that is not in Him savors of death and judgment”? If the Christian has any object before his soul other than seeking to win Christ, he is not in his true place; he is not building the ark and condemning the world. On the other hand, if he is not plainly showing that he has accepted the fact that the end of all flesh (his own flesh, too) has come in God’s sight and that he is shut in to Christ, riding triumphantly over the judgment with which the world is shrouded, he is not witnessing and walking in the power of that which he has professed. His testimony is defective and comparatively worthless.
May the Lord give this condition of soul to His much-loved people, and may they, on the other hand, desire such a condition of soul.
F. G. Patterson, Words of Truth, Vol. 2 (adapted)