The Patriarchs Part 4

But there is resource in G.o.d, as well as judgment with Him. If man, the work of His _hand_, have "grieved" Him, still, drawing from Himself, He will (may I say?) go deeper, and find His joy in the counsels of His _heart_.

"Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Man, as a sinner, shall become the object of electing, pardoning, justifying love--he shall engage the _heart_ now, as of old, at creation, he engaged the _hand_ of the Lord.

Thus from Himself the Lord draws, but from Himself in a deeper sense and way than before. This was to be no more repairing of the creature--such a thing would have been no fit work for G.o.d. As to man, G.o.d had to repent that He had made him on the earth; and as to the scene around him, the mind of G.o.d was changed--changed unalterably, and for ever.

Man, as a thing formed of the dust, was never to be the divine delight again--mere man. But grace can make a new thing--not repairing the work marred on the wheel, but making it another vessel, as it seem good to the potter to make it. In its old estate it was ruined, but in its ruins grace will take it up to make it a goodly and a pleasant vessel of richest treasures and all-desirable beauty.

We admire a ruin; and some, as they have thought of this, have suspected the _moral_ of such a sentiment, and been ready to condemn the heart and eye that could linger with pleasure over what was the witness of decay and death, and the entrance of the power of sin. But I would venture to embolden such, and to tell them that they may still admire a ruin, and do so without fear or self-judgment. The redeemed thing is a vast, and precious, and beautiful ruin; it will bespeak the power of sin and death for ever, while displaying the boundless, glorious victory of death's Destroyer. And the thoughts of the Spirit of G.o.d, the mind of Christ, as well as heaven itself and all its hosts, will linger over that ruin for a happy eternity. It will be the ornament and the delight of the creation of G.o.d. "Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it! Shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob!" And again, "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety-and-nine just persons which need no repentance."

This is heaven's admiration of a beautiful ruin; and these are the ways of G.o.d. The operations of His hands were, of old, His delight, and the counsels of His grace are now His delight, and the attending angels have their music, and their dancing in the house of the prodigal's Father.

Noah, having thus found grace in the eyes of the Lord, becomes the subject of divine teaching. An elect vessel is always the vessel for the handiwork of G.o.d, through the Spirit. The Lord communicates His mind to him; He tells him that the judgment of an evil world, which had now filled up its measure, was marked before Him, but that for him and his house there was safety, and a great deliverance.

This communication has a very precious character in it--_it is strictly according to the previous counsel of His own bosom_. This is very much to be prized. G.o.d tells His elect one, that the end of all flesh was come before Him--as, in His own secret counsels He had already said, "My spirit shall not _always_ strive with man;" He tells him of the sense and judgment He had of the _moral_ condition of the earth--just such as He had uttered in secret before; and, further, He tells him to get ready an ark for the saving of his house, as, in the counsels of His electing love and sovereign purpose, Noah had already found grace in His eyes.

It is very establis.h.i.+ng to the heart to notice this. It lets us understand how _exactly_ the revelation made to us puts us into possession of the divine mind, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" says the Lord, on another occasion, when He was, as here, speaking to Himself. And a _fulness_, as well as exactness, I may say, distinguishes these revelations. Jesus says to His disciples, "_All_ things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you"--with, however, one exception. The Lord G.o.d had fixed 120 years as the term of His longsuffering. Noah's preaching, as well as ark-building, was to be for that period. Such was the purpose of G.o.d. But Noah was told nothing of this predestinated interval. The Lord kept back all mention of the 120 years. Noah knew, indeed, that the waters could not prevail till he and his were safe in the ark, but how long that might be preparing, or whether or not, after it was finished, any time should pa.s.s ere the waters should begin to rise, he knew not. This part of the divine counsel the Father kept in His own power; this was the exception to the fulness of the communication. Events were to take place, signs were to precede "the day of the Lord"--such, at least, as the finis.h.i.+ng and filling of the ark. In the language of the prophet, the bud was to become tender, and to put forth its leaves. Had any one talked to Noah about the waters rising ere the ark was ready, Noah would not have been shaken in mind, or in anywise troubled. That could not be. "The time draweth nigh" would have been deceit then, as it will be by-and-by, when the earthly remnant, or election, are, like Noah, waiting for redemption. Luke xxi. 8. But still, the period itself, the term of the divine longsuffering, was put in the Father's power, and no one knew the day nor the hour. So rich and full are those harmonies in earlier and latter days, in typical and closing actions of G.o.d's hand. Noah was at this time an _earthly_ man--that is an elect one destined for inheritance in the earth, as the nation of Israel, by-and-by, will be; and both of them, in their several days, are provided, by divine instructions, against the deceits which might alarm them, or the promises which might seduce them; but the day and hour of their deliverance are not told.

The ark, in the size, fas.h.i.+on, and material of it, is entirely the prescription of G.o.d. Noah has but to make it--the Lord plans it as well as appoints it. The making of it is only the trial and the proof of faith--"by faith Noah, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." Israel fas.h.i.+oning the sanctuary, in after days, was a like act of faith. They had to make it, and make it they did, with willing hearts and ready service, yielding their bra.s.s, and their silver, and their gold, their fine linen, badgers' skins, s.h.i.+ttim-wood, oil, spices, and precious stones. But all this was only the obedience of faith to the way of deliverance and peace, which G.o.d Himself had planned and revealed. They made the sanctuary as Noah made the ark; but neither was his act nor their act anything more than faith in the provisions of G.o.d.

And what is the gospel, and faith in the gospel, to this hour, but such a revelation of the provisions of grace, and such obedience to that revelation? The religion of the elect has ever been the same--"It is of faith, that it might be by grace." Faith in G.o.d's sovereign provisions was Adam's religion at the beginning, then it was Noah's, afterwards it was the religion of Abraham, and of every true Israelite; and so at this day it is ours. We all, as well as Adam, come forth from our shame, and fear, and confusion of conscience, at the tidings of the bruised and bruising Seed of the woman. We all, as well as Noah, prepare an ark for salvation, and become heirs of the righteousness which is by faith; we all as well as Israel, betake us from the fiery hill to the sanctuary of enthroned mercy--and Jesus, Jesus, is the name borne along the line, from one end of it to the other, of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and saints, Gentile and Jewish, small and great, in the deep-toned melody that is to charm the eternity of heaven.

It is not merely mercy. Heaven knows no such thought. Neither is it simple, naked promise. It is _propitiation_ and victory, and _purchased_ as well as promised blessings.

Inspect the sanctuary of G.o.d and you will find that it is not mere mercy that is there. It is enthroned mercy, mercy on the ark of the covenant, mercy sustained by the work and on the person of the Son of G.o.d. And faith has respect only to such a mystery as that. Faith never talks of mere mercy. It could not. It could no more talk of mere mercy in G.o.d than it could of moral righteousness in man. The gospel does not know such ideas, and therefore faith cannot apprehend them. The gospel reveals One who is just, while justifying the unG.o.dly. Mercy and truth have met together. It is glory to G.o.d in the highest while it is peace and good will to men. This is the way of the gospel.

Abraham is in the faith of this, as we see in Genesis xv. The Lord had said to him, "I will give thee this land to inherit it." This was a promise, the promise too of One that could not lie. It was an immutable thing. And Abraham rightly listened to this. As a sinner, who knew full well and full justly, that promises to such an one must have foundations and warranty, he listened to it; therefore he at once says, "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" Is this a challenge of the promise? Is this a question of the divine truthfulness? No, indeed. It is only faith letting G.o.d know, that it was a conscious sinner who was listening to His promise, which needed therefore some warranty, or consideration, to carry it with certainty to the heart. And the Lord was well pleased with this. Faith always pleases Him, as without it nothing does. And at once He prepares to let Abraham know that _sacrifice sustained the promise_.

Our patriarch, before Abraham, was in the like faith. And walking in the steps of the same faith he takes an advanced character. He attains righteousness. "Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation," is now the word of G.o.d to him. "By faith Noah, being warned of G.o.d of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, _and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith_."

Love, and faith, and the patience of hope were, however, each to animate his soul, and form his life, for that solemn interval of 120 years.

While the ark was preparing, the Spirit, in Noah's preaching, was striving with that generation. Nothing can be more beautifully replete with meaning than all this. Noah was in the work of faith, the labour of love, and the patience of hope--a true Thessalonian saint. He was preparing the ark in that faith which had received the divine warning--in love he was telling his generation of righteousness. 2 Peter ii. 5. Just like a saint of this day. His own safety is settled and sure--_that_ he knows; but he is careful that his neighbours should share it with him. The Spirit then strove in the testimony as now He strives; but every stroke of Noah's hammer day by day told that He would not _always_ strive.

At the close of this predestinated but undisclosed period, Noah enters the ark. This was the great salvation in a mystery. It was as the night of Egypt's doom and Israel's rescue. Nothing less than safety and deliverance under the fullest securities and dearest t.i.tle in an hour of most solemn judgment, was now the story of Noah. And this is the salvation of the gospel. In Egypt afterwards, the very hand which carried the sword of destruction along the land had appointed the sheltering blood. Could the sword strike? Impossible! And now it was He, who took counsel with Himself about the judgment of the world, who had also counselled His elect about the way of escape. It was the hand which was about to let the waters out which was now shutting Noah in. Could they then prevail against him! Just, in like manner, impossible!

"The voice that speaks in thunder Says, 'Sinner, I am thine.'"

The One to whom vengeance belongs has settled all the plan of safety. He that is bearing the sword into the land has appointed the scarlet line in the window. But a solemn scene of judgment accompanies all this. The sun was risen on the earth, as, after this, Lot entered into Zoar. And yet that sunny hour was the very time for the rain of brimstone and fire to fall. Nothing could be done till Lot entered the city, but then nothing remained to be done ere the fire came down.

How deeply was the moment of visitation hid! They might well have said, "Peace and safety," when they saw that morning sun, as he was wont, gilding the bright and happy surface of the scene around them. But even then the "sudden destruction" fell.

Noah's generation was eating, and drinking, and marrying, just as the water began to rise. There was no harbinger, save, like Lot's escape to Zoar, Noah's entrance into the ark. But that was folly. To imprison himself and all that he had in the sides of a s.h.i.+p aground, that _was_ folly. But the flood came in the moment of fancied security, and took them all away. They were "willingly ignorant" of the word of G.o.d, the testimony of the "preacher of righteousness;" one who addressed them in the power and on the principle of a resurrection hope. 1 Peter iii.

Sudden and sure destruction on all outside, but divine, infallible security on all within. The city of refuge was _appointed of G.o.d_, and its walls must be salvation. Impossible to be less. The same righteousness which has p.r.o.nounced a curse on every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them, has likewise p.r.o.nounced a curse on every one that hangeth on a tree. Gal.

iii. Can He then deny His own remedy to the sinner, cursed under the law, when he pleads, by faith, the Saviour cursed on the tree? Alike, impossible.

"The Lord shut him in." The hand of the Lord imparted its own strength and security to Noah's condition. It is not too bold to say, that all within the door of the ark were as safe as the Lord Himself. The Lord returned, we may say, to His own heavens, or to His throne, which is established for ever, and Noah was left on the earth, in the place and day of judgment. But Noah was as safe as the Lord. "We may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world."

Jesus has gone back to heaven, and we are still in this world, the judgment of which is marked before G.o.d; but we have the boldness which is proper to Jesus. Wonderful to utter it! And yet is all that mysterious, glorious security figured in that little action, "The Lord shut him in." G.o.d's own hand imparted its strength to Noah's condition ere He returned to the heavens.

Some of every sort are borne with Noah from the place of death into the ark of salvation. The "eight souls," as Peter speaks, but with them, remnants of the beasts of the earth, small and great, winged fowl and creeping things, all are housed and redeemed together with Noah.

So was it afterwards in Egypt. Not a hoof was left behind. The great redemption of that day, in like manner, provided for all--Moses and the 600,000, with their wives and little ones, and also all their cattle; all again knew and manifested the saving strength of G.o.d. As in the day of Nineveh, long after, "the much cattle" are the Lord's thought, as the six-score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left.

And in the coming day of the inheritance of Christ, His dominions will measure all the works of G.o.d's hand, "All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea;" and the fields and the floods, and the hills and trees of the wood, shall be joyful before Him. Psalm xcviii.

Welcome mystery! Are they not all His creatures? Did not His hand of old form them, and His eyes and His heart rest and delight in them? And is this lost to Him? May Jonah grieve for his withered gourd, and the Lord not spare the works of His own hand for His abiding joy? He will renew the face of the earth, as it is written--The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever, the Lord shall rejoice in His works. Psalm civ. 31.

"The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of G.o.d. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of G.o.d."

But it is here that I may pause for a moment, to notice the dispensational character of these days of Noah.

The earth, as the scene of G.o.d's delight, and of His people's citizens.h.i.+p, had been lost by the apostasy of Adam; and the hopes and inheritance of the saints, all through the days before the flood, were heavenly--the Lord thereby disclosing, though faintly, certain portions of the great secrets of His own bosom--the secrets of the good pleasure purposed in Himself ere worlds were, that heaven, as well as earth, should be connected with the destinies of man. The heavens were opened to man, when Adam, the man of the earth, failed. Gen. v. 24.

That was so. But earth was not shut because heaven was thus opened. The divine counsel ran otherwise. It was this--that G.o.d would "gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." And the heavenly calling having been already revealed in the story of the saints before the flood, the due season had now come for the revelation of G.o.d's great purpose concerning the earth, and to make it known that He had not given it up, because, in His dispensational ways, He had taken up the heavens.

As in Rev. iv. When the heavenly saints, "the fulness of the Gentiles,"

the mystic elders and living creatures, are seated in their heavenly places, the thoughts of Him who sat on the throne there return to the earth. The rainbow is _at once_ seen around the throne--the witness of this, that the covenant which gives security _to the earth_ was about to be the spring of action in heaven. And so now in these days of Noah.

When the heavenly family had ended their course, and Enoch was translated, the Lord's thoughts returned to the earth, and that, I may say, _at once_; for the next thing of character in the progress of the hand, or the Spirit of G.o.d, is the prophecy of Lamech, pledging G.o.d and His mercies to the earth again, and introducing Noah--"This same [Noah]

shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed."

This is all simple--scarcely capable of being misunderstood. The prophecy of Lamech, which introduces it, tells us what we are to expect and find in the mystery of Noah. "The key of the parable lies at the door." The recovery of the earth, the return of G.o.d's rest and delight in it, all this will be made good in the coming times of the true Noah, in whom, and in whom alone, all the promises of G.o.d are yea and amen.

A great action, however, must usher in those times. The call of the heavenly people is quite otherwise, as in the call of the antediluvian saints. There was in those days no interference with the scene around.

Cain's family was left in possession--quiet, undisputed possession--of their cities and their wealth. The visitation of G.o.d then, as always under such a call, only separated a people without affecting either to regulate or judge the world. It left it as it found it. But G.o.d's claim to the earth, and His purpose to take it up again, is necessarily otherwise. There He is as _thoroughly interfering with every thing_, as in the other way of His "manifold wisdom" He was _utterly leaving all alone_. For by judgment He must purge the earth, and get it fit to be His footstool.

All this is the dispensational truth we learn here, in this parable, or in these times of Noah. The earth has been remembered, and is now resumed, but through purifying judgments. All takes the sentence of death into itself, that it may stand as a new thing, in the strength and grace of Him who quickens the dead. The earth itself was in the water, or under the water, and the elect remnant were saved--as in the appointed city of refuge--from the hand of the avenger; and all therefore appears again, as in resurrection.

Beasts, and fowl, and creeping things, some of every sort, go into the ark; and there, within that refuge, which kept its charge in peace from fear of evil, the ransomed pa.s.sed the days of their patience.

But they were more than safe. They were _remembered_--"G.o.d remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark." So did Joshua, in other days, remember Rahab. The scene of death and judgment lay all around our patriarch. It was one vast, and deep, and mighty ruin--an extended Jericho the accursed--another and a wider land of Pharaoh, with the doom of the Lord resting darkly and heavily upon it. But He who had already shut His remnant in, now remembers them; and in that remembrance there was present life, and, in prospect, a goodly inheritance.

It will be so with another elect remnant, in coming days. Before the same covenant G.o.d, who was now keeping Noah in mind, a book of remembrance will be written for them that fear the Lord and think upon His name. Mal. iii. And of them the Lord says, "They shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels;" as now, in virtue of this covenant-remembrance, the Lord causes a wind to pa.s.s over the earth, the waters abate, and the ark rests on the mountains of Ararat.

This remembrance of G.o.d was most precious. But Noah, in his city of refuge, had other consolations. The divine remembrance was the hidden comfort of faith; but he had also blessed, conscious exercises of spirit.

The ark had a window in it. The door was in the keeping of the Lord, but the window was for Noah's use. He who had shut him in, alone could let him out--the times and the seasons were in _His_ hand. But while the time of his pilgrimage, as a prisoner of hope, cannot be shortened, yet may the hopes of such a prisoner be very preciously nourished, and his spirit within him blessedly exercised. Noah may open the window, remove the covering, look out, and send forth his messengers, his Caleb and Joshua and their companions, to spy out the land, and report to him what it is, whether it be fat or lean, good or bad, and to bring him the fruit of it.

What beauty and what wisdom strike the eye and the heart in all this!

This window in the ark, and its uses, are so significant! The divine _methods_ are so worthy of the divine _communications_! "Apples of gold in pictures of silver" are the Spirit's words.

Typical, symbolic, parabolic teaching is very acceptable to the heart, and makes ready entrance there. We all prove this, just as children like pictures and stories. Not only, I would here observe, are doctrines thus taught--not only the great mysteries of the glory, but experiences of the soul, the personal inworkings of the Spirit, are ill.u.s.trated by these same methods. Conviction of sin, for instance, was expressed in Adam retreating from the voice of the Lord G.o.d, amongst the trees of the garden. The longings and inquiries of a soul awakened to a sense of its condition, if haply it might find its path, are given to us in the Israelite standing at his tent door stripped of his ornaments, and looking after the Mediator as he entered the Tabernacle. Ex. x.x.xiii. And Moses, with his veiled and unveiled face, might have spoken of exercises and experiences of heart to us, even had not the Spirit, by His light in the Apostle, helped our understandings. 2 Cor. iii.

We might go through a thousand such instances. And by this method the great things of G.o.d are pressed home upon the heart. By these figures the Lord is standing very near the heart, and knocking there. It is not His grace displaying itself in the distance, or s.h.i.+ning from afar, but it is the Lord Himself, and His blessing, coming very near for our full acceptance. We may _admire_, but if we do not also _enjoy_, the purpose of the revelation is not answered.

Now this method is beautifully preserved in these days of Noah. Indeed the whole of Genesis is full of it. It is a book of "allegories," as St.

Paul speaks--divine stories written for the school of G.o.d.

The ark, as I have already noticed, had its door and its window, and Noah had his spies to send into the promised land--and the mission of these spies, the raven and the dove, express the experience of the saint in the contrary workings of the flesh and spirit, which contend in him.

The raven never returns. The earth may be still unpurged, but the unclean nature can take up with it. The "present evil world" will do well enough for fallen, degraded man. Indeed, the ark was rather a place of captivity than security, to the unclean raven. She never returns to it when once escaped. But Noah will not trust her. Beautiful saintly intelligence! The raven may remain outside; but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. Noah will not trust her, but sends out a clean creature after her. And different indeed are the tidings which she bears. It is, in principle, the contest of Caleb and Joshua with their companion spies. The dove returns instinctively. There was no rest for her in a place still under judgment of G.o.d, and unpurged. And Noah, conscious that he can trust her and commit the question to her settlement, sends her out a second and a third time. And well indeed he may trust her. Her only sympathy is with the pledges of peace and of a new creation. On her second return she bears an olive-leaf in her mouth, and after her third mission she never comes back.