Throughout time there is a cycle: blessing > temptation > sin > grace > testing > judgment > reward or punishment. Creation was a blessing; the Tree of Knowledge with Satan in it, temptation; eating of the fruit, sin; life itself, grace; tribulation, testing; Great Tribulation, judgment; and then Heaven or Hell.
Up to this time, with my commentaries, Great Tribulation has
ended with the deluge and the “assuage of the waters.” [i] Assuage
means that God is appeased (Strong’s Dictionary) — justice had been done. What
had God done to this point? Completion the cycle. That cycle was finished.
He judged the righteous and the sinners; then punished the
sinners ad rewarded the righteous. He would do that time after time, to wit: with
Sodom and Gomorrah, with the exodus from Egypt, with the “time of trouble” with
Israel, with the lives of all people, and in the end; with another Great
Tribulation.
Note that at the first “great tribulation” the righteous
were not judged. The time before that tribulation (the flood), for eight
people it was a period peace. They were focused on God and the Ark despite all
the sin around them. They ignored the “Great Reset” and looked to God for
deliverance. “The Great Reset” of Noah’s time was that things were about to
change… for the better that time, I might add!
God would wash the world clean and depose its arrogant
people. God fought the “revolution” against evolution (mutation from righteous
to unrighteous) on behalf of Noah and his family. All they needed to do is look
at the boat that they were building and see Jesus on that Ark!
An “ark” is thought of as a boat. In general, and “ark” is a
vessel for transporting. The Ark of the Covenant is also an “ark.” It
too is a box that carried several things: “The ark of the covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant” (Heb 9:4). What was on the Ark
of the Covenant is imperative: “Over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the
mercyseat” (Heb 9:5).
Cherubim were over the Mercyseat of God. Note that there
were not several mercy seats, but only one, and translated as one word out of
respect for God’s three “Substances” in one in homeostasis. That is in stable equilibrium
between the states, or substances, of God. In other words, The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit sat on the Mercyseat, just as on the throne in Paradise!
Cherubim, if you remember, guarded the Way to the Tree of
Life in the Garden of Eden. [ii]
With that background, the Ark of the Covenant was a vessel that carried the
Godhead, two guardian angels, the “Bread of Life,” Aaron’s rod, the Law, and gold
overlain on the vessel.
Aaron’s rod was a symbol of authority. Wherever the Hebrews
would go, God was in charge. It had budded. It represents most certainly a new
life in “The Land of Milk and Honey.” Paradise is described that way, specifically
as olive oil, wine, milk, and honey; represented by the four rivers flowing
through the Garden Paradise. That is evidence that the Kingdom of David — all
of Israel — is where physical Paradise once existed.
What is so important about the Ark of the Covenant? It represents
Noah’s Vessel. First off, both are vessels! The implication is that Noah’s Ark
also carried the Covenant. The deck of that Ark would be much like the “deck”
of the Ark of the Covenant. Now here is something remarkable: God appeared to
the Hebrews as a cloud by day and a fire by night. He appeared to Jacob as a
man, and to the world as THE GOD-MAN, Jesus. Well, after the voyage, God
revealed himself to the new persons… as a Rainbow.[iii]
Noah’s Ark was the Ark of the Noahic Covenant. That Covenant
is that God would no longer use water to punish. The cycle of life had been
completed from the blessing on Adam when God breathed life unto him, to Noah’s
finding grace, God having mercy, then reward and punishment. Of course, never
should anyone omit the tribulation in the world that those on the Ark would
overcome to board the Vessel.
So, God was on the Ark! He was on the Holy Mount Hermon
before, then He boarded the Vessel as He closed the door. He surely did not
close the door outside the vessel but from the Mercyseat on deck. He
guided the way from above the Ark. The unseen “Rainbow” was there all the time.
When it was revealed, the unveiling of God is God manifested, or Jesus!
Jump ahead to the Holy Cross. It was the Vessel that transported
Jesus to Paradise. He took with Him “that day” the repentant thief on the
Cross. That day, Jesus and Dismas — the thief to His right — were transported
safely to Paradise. That was where Noah was heading as well as Moses.
The veil was rent in two when Jesus died. No longer was God
invisible behind the curtains of the Temple in the Holy of Holies, but He was
on the Holy Cross — the Vessel that would carry all of mankind to heaven, if
and only if they would take up the Cross and follow Him. [iv]
The “Rainbow” was revealed on the Cross as God all the time!
Even the one (Longinus) that last “tribulated” Him as He died admitted, “Truly
this was the Son of God.” [v]
Noah did that too as he built an altar to God on a new Holy Mountain in a new
world.
God had transported the few righteous ones to another world
because the one before was not their home. As the saying goes, “The world is not
my home, I am just passing through.” The same goes for the Vessel that the
Hebrews carried and the Vessel that Jesus carried to His death!
The Cross transported, along with God, all who would enter Paradise.
The “door” to Paradise remains open and the stairway to Heaven is still there.
Noah took a longer passage than most. To climb Jacob’s
ladder to Paradise in another realm will have angels ascending and descending
the Vessel of Jacob’s ladder. [vi]
You see, God uses several different types of Vessels to carry His people to
safety. The final Vessel was the Cross. Perhaps it is the “cup” that Jesus spoke
about when He said, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:
nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Mat 26:39). “Cup” therein is
directly translated “vessel” (ibid). People still look for a silver chalice
when it was Jesus on the Cross all the time!
Cherubim were on the Ark of the Covenant still guarding the
Way to the Tree of Life. Manna from Heaven was in the Ark of the Covenant.
Jesus is the “Bread of Life.” [vii]
God was aloft on the Ark of the Covenant and on Noah’s Ark, but in both cases,
Jesus was in the Vessel. Jesus was stowed on board the Ark of the Covenant but
was there whenever they would eat of His Body. [viii]
God’s other Substance was in the Ark of the Covenant as well
— in Aaron’s Rod. That Rod had the Power to work miracles, and the water of the
Deluge was indeed a miracle in that there had never been rain before!
What may have been in the Ark of the Covenant? The pole with
the brazen serpent on it. If it was carried there, for Moses retrieved it from somewhere,
then Hezekiah would destroy it. It would no longer be carried in any Ark. When
Moses picked up the brazen serpent on its tree, he was implying that it was not
worth carrying! Somehow, the Serpent was on the Ark of Noah? Could Noah have carried
a piece of the Tree of Knowledge of the Ark unawares that the alive Serpent was
still in his “tree?” Is that how sin made it through the voyage to a new start?
Thus, Judas with Satan in him served no purpose and the Vessel of Jesus would not
be him.
The Ark of the Covenant was about God’s Covenant with Moses.
It seems that the Mosaic Covenant was the Noahic Covenant as well, and the Covenant
of Grace. The Arks of both ages were about the “Vessel” that Jesus asked His
Father to pass to another. In the case of Moses, God passed the vessel to Pharoah’s
son, but when Jesus finished the Covenants, the Judas Tree would not be the
vessel to anywhere. It crashed and the intestines of Judas fell to the ground, just
as with Lucifer, who had fallen so long before. [ix]
What did Noah and his family eat on board? There is no evidence
of them eating anything, and they certainly did not eat meat! They lived on the
Bread of Life. The Good Ship “Yahweh” carried the Bread of Life in its
hold.
The Tablets of Stone were on the Ark of the Covenant. Some theologians
claim that Mount Moriah is located in many different places, but God’s Holy Mountain
is wherever He is. It is known that Noah built an altar of stone immediately upon
arriving safely to Holy Mount Ararat. “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and
took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings
on the altar” (Gen 8:20).
Of course, Noah could have grabbed any stones that he could
find and build the altar. It makes sense that He would take his altar from the
Holy Mount Hermon, carried it to the plain of Tabor, then put it on the Ark. Why
do all that? Because the altar is also an Ark of God. Just as the Vessel of the
Covenant was carried wherever the Hebrews went, righteous Noah who had “found
grace” [x]
would not have thrown the grace that he found away! He too would carry God
wherever he went — on the Holy Mountain, on the plain, on the Ark, and back
again to another Holy Mountain. God would go, and Noah would follow.
The point is that the altar, if not the stone on which the Finger
of God wrote the Mosaic Covenant, would be representative of it. Perhaps those
stones, uncut as God always dictated, would someday have printed on them the
Ten Prescriptions for eternal life.
Why would righteous men be forbidden to hew the stones for
any of the altars? Because they were early vessels to carry God. Later, God
would cut the stones Himself — lively stones (Christians). Mankind was to never
seek God by the works of their own hands!
This commentary is about cycles. Several have been named.
However, the death of Jesus stopped the cycles and recycles. That was the Covenant
all along! Jesus completed it; and He said so: “When Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave
up the ghost” (John 19:3). The vinegar that mocked Jesus would have been sour wine.
The same beverage that caused Noah to be mocked by his son, Ham.
Cain had mocked God by murdering Abel. Blind Lamech had mocked
God by murdering, and now, Ham mocked God by diminishing Noah. The liquid wine
is a mocker. Depending on a beverage is mockery. Depending on water mocks God. “Living
Water” (The Holy Ghost) transported Noah to safety, but the water was treacherous.
The vessel is what saved Noah and his kind, and the Vessel of the Cross that
saved Adam’s kind… but only if they enter through the door!
The cycle is broken. The final reward is as if in hand. Paul
called it a “prize,” to wit, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).
Soon, the Ark carried Jesus and His “Ghost Ship” carries all
that that will enter in. The Ark, or the “Vessel,” was the Purpose of Jesus all
the time. Jesus finished it all.
Now God has broken the tablets of stone a second time, as in
the days of Moses. Now all we need is Jesus, and it turns out that He is the
Vessel all the time! Jesus is the Ark that carries righteous men to Paradise as
now even the Cross is broken but the bones of Jesus were not, “For we are
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (Ephes 5:30). Jesus
carries us in His Body. He remains the only “Vessel” that can save.
Oh, by the way, the key verse for all this commentary is, “God
blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth’” (Gen 9:1). Jesus blessed all of Adam’s kind, and He said
unto all of them: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mat 28:19). Why
would God ordain Noah and his sons in that manner? So that all of Noah’s kind could
replenish the Earth with children of God!
Did those on Noah's Ark go forty days without food? I suspect so because with Jesus all things are possible. With the Bread of Life on board, like Jesus, they too could fast for forty days to overcome Satan!
(picture credit: Pizza Ranch; "Bones of Jesus")
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