Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. [i] God revealed truth to him and provided a way to avoid his perishing. Despite it had never rained before, God told Noah that it would rain. Noah believed God and trusted His Word as Truth. That is how Noah found grace!
Of course, due to the curse on Adam, Adam’s kind
would all die: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment.” [ii] Noah
was God’s kind!
Noah was destined to die one time. “Judgment” is not physical
death but the second death, or if people have found grace; the second life!
Noah, so to speak, got his life back.
What about the second death? Oh, that is too terrible to be
talked about. Grace is all about eternal life. That is joyful and those who
have found grace should be full of glee! But Noah was not. He found grace but
no one else had. There was no joy in “Noahville” that day or any of the days on
the Ark. Most certainly the eight people aboard the ark were thankful, but the
ark was not a party vessel! They found hope, but Noah found grace and grace was
given because he built the Ark, not only for himself but any who would come
aboard.
God knew who would board the Ark. The animals would come
aboard freely; and so would Noah, but Noah wanted that none should perish. As
patriarch, his family would board, not because they honored God so much, but because
they honored their father. Again, that reminds of the Fifth Commandment; to
honor thy father and mother… and what? “Thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” [iii]
God would put that command to test. It had yet to be written down, but it was
in God’s Mind all along.
How about all the others? God wanted that none should perish
[iv]
so the door remained open for seven days for all who would enter. [v] This time “days” (yowm) means twenty-four-hour
periods, but eschatologically, it means periods of time, as is written, “One
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” [vi]
Thus, seven “days” is antithetical to seven-thousand years
in eschatology. Although the lifespan was reduced from one “day” (nearly one-thousand
years for Noah, per sacred literature) to 120 years for those in Noah’s time, all
Adam’s kind would be limited to seven-thousand years longevity on Earth.
God would continue His work for six more “days” (6000 years)
then rest on the seventh “day” (the millennial reign). Perhaps God prodded those
who had not found grace for six days and rested on the seventh to see all would
come in of their own volition. God would provide grace to them, because His
grace is boundless and abundant. However, none but Noah found grace. For two sons:
Shem and Japheth, they would find grace as well, and on dry land as Noah had! [vii]
Sin took a foothold on Earth as Ham, albeit God kept him safe, found no grace
on the waters.
People take for granted, that once safely on the “Ark”
of God (The Cross) that they have been saved. Ham had safety for forty
days and nights, but in the end, he became a slave. [viii]
How about Noah? He was much like Adam. “Noah began to be an
husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine” (Gen 9:2). God
gave Noah a new nature for the work, safety for the voyage, and a new world
where he would be king! But what did Noah do? He began to be a “husbandman.” He
played God but Jesus was God Himself: “I am (Jesus) the true vine, and my
Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1).
Jesus had revealed Himself. “I AM” is “EGO EIMI” in
the Greek. Jesus had identified Himself as JHWH (as God) but He IS JHWH! Noah
was not. Wine represents the “blood” of Jesus which Jesus shed for the
remission of sins. [ix] Noah
sublimely took the credit for saving mankind.
God had not told him to plant a vineyard or to dress and
keep it as He had Adam. Noah assumed the vocation of husbandman. Then Noah
drank the wine. Like Adam, he partook of the fruit belonging to God and used it
for pleasure. Satan had beguiled Noah without even getting his woman involved!
Once that all who would go in had gone in, things began to happen, to wit:
16 The Lord shut him in… 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark (Gen 7:16. 22-23)… 18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him. (Gen 8:18)
“The Lord shut him in.” That says so much! Not only did God shut Noah in
the Ark but He closed the door to all others. They had been limited to seven
days of decision-making. God and Noah were able to persuade them to enter… “It
is going to rain and come a flood!” Noah surely ascertained. But none were wise
enough to get out of the rain. Like them, mankind — Noah’s seed — have seven “days”
of mercy and the time is nearer than it seems.
That applies to modern times. In Anno Mundi 5783 (2021 AD) the door
is open. It is the sixth “day” from Adam to now. The sixth day is upon Adam’s
kind and most still do not fear the rain of fire enough to depend on the Cross.
Those dead in Christ, even Noah and Japheth, are under the “tent” of God. [x]
They are safe from the rain, but Shem still stands in the rain, as Jews left
the safety of God’s Big Tent that He has enlarged enough for Jews and Gentiles.
They are now more like the lost who have not sense enough to get under the
large “tent” (The Temple that God built — Jesus Christ!)
For them, God will wait another day. He will reign on the seventh “day”
for one-thousand years and give more grace to the Jews. 144,000 will find grace
during the last day before judgment. [xi]
Before God seals the door for the Jews, they will have that one last day before
He closes the door to safety.
All those shut out perished. Only Noah and those on board with him did not
perish; they remained alive: but the end had not come, but a new beginning.
They were about to enter a new world and God, them willing, would provide a new
nature for them.
Noah took on Adam’s nature, and “now all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God” (Rom 3:23) again. After a second creation — a rebirth — those born
again failed God immediately. He had grace on Shem and Japheth because they honored
their father, but disgrace on Ham whose son Canaan was made a slave to sin.
Because one is “born again” does provide safety and security, but it is
dependent whether the Father is honored or not. Canaan was cast out because he had
the nature of Ham. The DNA of the Beast was concealed on the Ark with Ham. As
before, by one man sin entered into the world [xii]
and by one man sin reentered the world. Noah sinned but he had grace covering
him. He was the new “Adam,” but Ham was the new Cain. Is it coincidence that
his son was named Canaan? That name means “purple die” (Abarim Publications)
and Canaan receive a mark of the curse. (Qyn is Hebrew from which “Cain”
is derived. Qanan is the verb form of that same name. Qanan means
“spearing” and Qyn “spear;” ibid). It should be obvious, therefore, that
Cain and Canaan are closely related and “spearing” clearly describes the
Canaanites.
On a sidenote, tattoos are forbidden in scripture. [xiii]
Why would God do that? Because that is what pagans do: “Thus saith the Lord, ‘Learn
not the way of the heathen’” (Jer 10:2). Perhaps that is because the “heathen”
are spiritual Canaanites. Also, since men are likened unto trees, tattoos are
adorning the “trees” and not the Tree of Life. Perhaps the mark of Canaan, the “Beast”
in the New World, is a tattoo on either the right hand or forehead. Jeremiah
added, “For the customs of the people are vain” (Jer 10:3). Taking marks is
vanity. No one can argue that.
On a personal note, I am not judging because I once tattooed myself. It
was an exercise in vanity, but lo and behold, the mark of Canaan did not take.
Rather than a mark, I had found grace. Although I decorated my body, it is not
there. Rather, I have the mark of God on my heart and forehead the same as
Noah.
God closed the door so that the unrighteous could not enter into the Ark.
Just like in the Garden, God allowed one “devil” in. Ham, like Cain before, was
of the Wicked One and his son the seed of the Wicked One who would be planted
in the New Garden wherein there had been no tares. Soon that one tare smothered
many good seed, and here we are today.
The ship found land. God floated hope to them. He landed them somewhere in
the Ararat Mountain range. Thereon, Noah took on the role of God. He
planted a Garden himself. That was a presumptuous sin; the same type of sin of
which Jesus was accused when He claimed to be the “Husbandman.” Jesus was… Noah
was not. He presumed “to be” God.
Sin, from ancient Danish is es, meaning “to be.” (Etymology Online).
Like Adam, Noah did the forbidden sin, and like Adam, God covered Noah. His
righteous sons did the covering on behalf of God: “Shem and Japheth took a
garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered
the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not
their father's nakedness.” (Gen 9:23).
You might ask, “From whence came the garment?” A guess is from an animal
that God provided on the Ark. Well, when Noah built an altar, he “took of every
clean beast.” [xiv]
The best guess is that the cleanest of the “clean beasts” were lambs. Again,
God covered Noah with a “coat of skin” likely from a lamb in both cases, as He
had for Adam. [xv]
God had closed the door to keep any others from the “Way to the Tree of
Life” as He had with the Garden. [xvi]
Perhaps God closed the door with cherubim as His “Hands” or perhaps it was the
Hand of God Himself (aka, Jesus). Or perhaps, as the Nephilim years
later, maybe the cherubim were preventing their new kind from entering the
Ark… the Way to the Tree of Life.
But Noah did something without God: “Noah went forth, and his sons, and
his wife, and his sons' wives with him” out of the Ark. God did not open the
door. Noah did so by his own hands. Surely his sons helped with the door
without waiting on God to open it.
The lesson there is that God closes the door to preservation, but men are
free to open the door and leave safety. There was no sin on the Ark, but when
Noah and family left the Ark, although they were on the Holy Mountain, sin
found them… even Noah who had found grace.
If only they had waited until God opened the door, Ham would have been
cleansed from sin. They left the security of the Ark, on their own, without God
pushing them away. He would never leave nor forsake them, but they immediately
forsook God; except two: Shem and Japheth. It was their “tent” that would be enlarged,
and the Gentiles from Japheth finally entered the tents of Shem when the Holy
Ghost came on all but the Canaanites.
The latter (Palestinians) still have the spirit of Satan in them, they
intermarried with Jews and Gentiles, and to this day, all have sinned because
of Ham’s spirit of Satan who sneaked onto the boat… by another way than the Way
to the door of the Ark!
Few endured to the end. When is the end? When Jesus comes for Shem on the
seventh “day.” Japheth endured the safety in the turbulence of the sea. He
continued in safety in the tents of Shem after the “not so Great
Tribulation!” Ham endured while safe but when he re-entered the world, he was
in sin again. To be safe again, God would need to provide another “Ark.” He did
that with the Cross. Hope floats to this day. The door is open, and all that
will can get in!
The door to heaven is reached by Jacob’s Ladder. It is symbolic of the
Cross. Perhaps the animals had a gangplank, but the others a ladder of some
sort. I can just see Noah and his family climbing a cross to get on board? But
I can see Ham entering the way of the beasts! That would not work as it was
soon revealed.
Once out of the Ark, they again had to endure the world. Noah was not
there to see God face to Face at the Transfiguration. Neither was Adam. However,
Moses and Elijah were there. Moses finally saw the face of God. Noah, perhaps,
already had. Elijah had gone to Heaven carried by a Whirlwind (aka, the
Holy Spirit). Noah was carried by the Cross. He need not see Jesus until the
General Resurrection because Noah had been with Jesus on the Ark. Scripture
does not say so, but they were safe on the Ark because the Spirit of God was on
board as well. If not, they would not have been safe.
Throughout the exodus from Egypt God appeared to the Hebrews as a cloud by
day and a fire by night. [xvii]
Elijah was taken up by God in a whirlwind. [xviii]
At Pentecost God came with the sound
as of rushing mighty wind again [xix]
and cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. [xx]
With Noah, God showed Himself brilliantly — as a peaceful rainbow: [xxi]
Right now, God sits on His throne in Paradise and there is a rainbow about the
throne. [xxii]
Many have seen God in many ways, but the humblest way of all is as Flesh
with the Name called “Jesus.” To be safe requires on thing, and the Greeks said
it best to Philip, “Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21). Noah found grace; he
saw Jesus. Then Jesus, full of grace, preserved those who would be saved.
The colors of the bows are there all the time, but it takes rain and the
sun to manifest them. Likewise, Jesus is there all the time, and all that is necessary
is to be willing to see Jesus.
The psalmist saw Jesus, and at an early age, I did as well. I could have written this psalm myself: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him” (Psalm 8:3-4)? Then when I understood more fully, God visited me, and I found grace.
(picture credit: 123RF; "Marine Sunset with Rainbow Over Water")
[i]
Gen 6:8
[ii]
Heb 9:27
[iii]
Exod 20:12)
[iv]
John 3:16
[v]
Gen 7:4
[vi] 2
Pet 3:8
[vii]
Gen 9:23, 27
[viii]
Gen 9:26
[ix]
Mat 27:28
[x]
Gen 9:27
[xi]
Rev 7
[xii]
Rom 5:12
[xiii]
Lev 19:28
[xiv]
Gen 8:20
[xv]
Gen 3:21
[xvi]
Gen 3:24
[xvii]
Exod 13:21
[xviii]
2 Kings 2:1
[xix]
Acts 2:2
[xx]
Acts 2:3
[xxi]
Gen 9:13
[xxii]
Rev 4:3
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