The Gospel as a Mystery - Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ throughout His Word

In this prayer, David acknowledged the need to have his eyes opened in order to see "wonderful things" from God's law, and then He prayed to God for this miracle to take place in his life, that He might see these wonderful things. There is the recognition here on the part of David that if God did not "open his eyes" he would not see the "wonderful things" contained within God's Word.

This article is designed to show some of the "wonderful things" that God has recorded in His Word, having to do with the Person of Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at a few of them.

To begin, let's look at the story of Joseph in Genesis 37 through 50. Please allow me to provide an overview of the life of Joseph here as a review:

Joseph was greatly loved by his father, but hated by his brothers. When he grew older, he was sent out by his father on a mission of mercy to his brothers, but when they saw him coming they plotted against him. They plotted his death, and finally sold him into the hands of "Gentiles" for pieces of silver, where he was then sold as a slave and worked in the house of Potiphar.

While in Potiphar's house, he was falsely accused of a crime he did not commit, and subsequently thrown into prison where he was placed in the midst of two criminals. To one criminal he brought a message of life, to the other a message of death. Then, through a set of divinely-inspired circumstances, Joseph was brought up from the prison and exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh. In his position here as second-in-command he became lord and savior to all, providing food to all who came to him.

It rejoices my heart to see how carefully God planned out the details in the story of Joseph to match that of the Greater Joseph who was to come. Arthur Pink (1886-1952) states that there are over 100 points of analogy between the story of Joseph and that of Christ. I just want to share the joy of seeing Christ in all of these points, and I want to fan the flames of love for Jesus Christ in the hearts of others.

For example, the Scriptures teach us that God loved His Son and sent Him from heaven to earth on a mission of mercy to mankind. But when He came, his brothers, the Jews, plotted against Him, to see how they might kill Him. Then He was sold into the hand of Gentiles for pieces of silver. He was falsely accused, mistreated, and then hung on a Roman cross right between two criminals. To the criminal on his right he brought a message of life ("Today you will be with me in paradise") but death to the other criminal who rejected Him, and then He died and was buried.

But soon after, He rose from the dead and was exalted to the right hand of God the Father; all things were placed under His feet, and He became Lord and Savior of all who come to Him.

In the Old Testament, the gospel was a "mystery" and it was "hidden" in story form, and in the facts and statements of the prophets. But now with the coming of Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, we have the mystery revealed. That which was hidden in a "mystery", that is, in "story" and "historical fact", is now unveiled and made plain and clear.

Now we read the story of Joseph, and all other stories, differently than we did before the cross/resurrection event, before the giving of the Holy Spirit.

This story of Joseph, and all of the careful details in it, shows that God intentionally hid the story of His Son within the pages of His Word, so that at the proper time He might reveal Him to the "little children" and the "not many wise" (1 Corinthians 1:26) that He would call to Himself.

Here is another example of the gospel hidden in the Old Testament:

Boaz was from Bethlehem and was a "kinsman-redeemer" who "purchased" Ruth, redeemed her, and took her to be his bride. Ruth asked that his garment be spread over her, and as Boaz took Ruth to be his wife she was covered in his garment and the redemption was complete.

So here we see the redeemer from Bethlehem, purchasing one who was "far away" and bringing her near through his redemption, covering her with his garment and providing for her every need.

Like Ruth, I too was far away from God in my sin, and it took the work of my Redeemer from Bethlehem to forgive my sin, secure my pardon, and to spread His robe of righteousness over me.

Neither of these pictures of Jesus Christ (Joseph and Boaz) in the Old Testament is specifically mentioned in the New Testament to be "types of Christ", nor are there any direct statements declaring them to be so. And yet, who can miss the analogies?

These two stories, and literally hundreds more, should teach us that God has hidden the portraits of His Son in story form (that is, in a "mystery") and that we do not need specific statements from the New Testament (declaring a certain story or passage to be pointing to Christ) in order to see glimpses of Christ in the reading of the Old Testament.

Let's consider this passage -

We note from the above passage that Christ is "the Word." If Jesus Christ is the Word (and He is), and we are given the Word to read, then the Word must point to Christ. We note in the same passage that Christ was "not understood" (verse 5), "not recognized" (verse 10) and "not received" (verse 11). This same danger is present today, for it is still possible to read the Word and not understand that it is revealing Christ; that is, to study Bible stories and facts but not recognize Christ in them. This danger and warning is another reason why we should pray, "Open my eyes that I might see wondrous things from Your Law."

Another passage that encourages us to see Christ in the Scriptures is this:

It was the intention of the Divine Author of Scripture to write about Christ, and it is the intention of the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ within the pages of the Divinely Authored book (John 16:14). When we are reading "Moses" (Genesis through Deuteronomy) we should know that the author wrote about Jesus, and so we should look for Him. When we read what Moses wrote about creation or about Adam and Eve, etc. we should know to look for Christ, for Jesus said the Old Testament was "written about Me..." When we read "the Prophets" and the "Psalms", in other words the entire Old Testament, we should know that these were "written about Me" (Jesus Christ). The danger is that we would miss seeing Christ (not "recognize Him") in the stories in Genesis, Joshua, Judges, and Jeremiah, and all other Books of the Old Testament, where the Author recorded Him.

You may recall that Jesus Christ chastised His disciples for something important, and I believe He would chastise some modern-day disciples for the same thing. The rebuke He gave them came because the disciples failed to see Him in the Old Testament:

Jesus explained to these disciples what was said in "all the Scriptures" concerning Himself. He said that had they believed all that the prophets had spoken they would have known that He had to suffer and die and rise from the dead and then be glorified.

Let's take one more example, by reviewing Genesis 2:21-23 below:

The Bible says that "everything that was written in the past was written to teach us..." (Romans 15:4). So what can we learn about Adam being placed into a "deep sleep" (which is a biblical metaphor for death, John 11:11-13)? Why did God open Adam's side and fashion Eve out of his rib? How does this passage "teach us", and specifically what does it teach us about Christ? Missing Christ in the Word is that for which Jesus chastised His Emmaus Road disciples. Let's not make the same mistake today.

We do well to ask God for a spirit to see and to savor Christ in all His Word. I would encourage you to pray with the Psalmist, "Open my eyes, that I might see wondrous things from Your Law." We do not wish to receive the same rebuke as the Emmaus Road disciples; that is, we do not want to be slow of heart to believe all that the prophets wrote concerning Christ.

When we read Ephesians 5:31-32 we gain a clearer picture:

Now we see the same words used by Paul regarding the church as was said regarding Adam and Eve in Genesis. We see the picture slowly emerge, then, to show us the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus, like Adam, was placed into a deep sleep, the sleep of death, when He died on the cross. And, like Adam, Jesus' side was opened as the Roman solider pierced it with His spear. And, like Adam, what came out of Jesus' side, blood and water, is what was needed to make a bride for Christ; forgiveness and cleansing.

For additional research on this topic, I would encourage you to read some of the Reformers and Puritan authors, and those who studied them, as the majority of them do a wonderful job of pointing to Christ in the Word. Ask God to help you see Him, and to rejoice in Him when you do. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day (John 8:56); we should ask God for hearts to do the same.

A good and very helpful place to start is with Arthur Pink's "Gleaning in Genesis" which you can find online here: http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Gleanings_Genesis/genesis.htm.

I have copied a particular chapter below. The late Arthur Pink is a well-known and well-respected conservative scholar and expositor of the Bible. Other authors from whom I get much of the material in the cross study include Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, and John Owen, among many others. This method of interpretation is not new; it has come through my study both of the Bible and of these godly men.

As we begin to see Christ in so many places that we have previously missed Him, it causes our hearts to worship Him more and more. We rejoice when we discover Him in the many places He was "hidden in a mystery" but now revealed through the gospel.

This is not to say that I believe the stories in the Bible are merely allegories, or spiritual truths in story form. No, I believe the Bible stories are literal, historical, actual events and circumstances and people who really lived and did the things that the Bible records about them. I do not seek to spiritualize away the Scriptures, or to merely use the stories to try to learn spiritual truths.

The stories have contextual, historical importance. It is important to know that creation happened exactly as recorded in Genesis 1, that the flood was an actual event, and universal in its scope, that the tower of Babel was a real tower, the Egyptians a real nation of people, and so on.

But it is also my opinion that we should not stop there with learning just the historical facts. Jesus' loving rebuke of His Emmaus Road disciples should encourage us not to stop there. We should also ask God to reveal His Son to us as we study the stories, the prophecies, the facts, the poems. For if we miss Him, we have missed the main point the divine Author intended to convey.

Here is another example, and a further rebuke from Jesus:

Here were two disciples who saw Jesus after His resurrection and were excited to come and tell the rest. He was in a "different form" (verse 12) than He had been before, different than they had previously seen Him, and some did not recognize Him nor believe that it was Him. But Jesus rebuked those who had "hard hearts" for they "had not believed those who saw Him."

There have always been those who will only recognize Christ if He looks familiar, just as they expect Him to look, and in the place where they expect Him to be. But many people down through the ages have seen Christ in the pages of the Old Testament, in the stories of creation, the flood, the exodus from slavery, and many other places. These good and godly men have come to their good and godly brothers and sisters, with hearts burning with love for their Savior having just received a fresh view of Jesus straight from the pages of the Old Testament, but some of their brothers "did not believe them." Let's not count ourselves among them!

Jesus lovingly rebukes those who do not believe the others who have seen Him "in a different form." He takes them straight back to the Bible and says:

So in essence His loving rebuke says, "you did not believe those who saw Me" (Mark 16:12-14) and "you did not believe the Scriptures (Old Testament) which testify about Me" (John 5:39-40).

Satan is delighted when people read the Word but miss the cross and resurrection, that is, miss the main message that God intended to convey in all the stories and historical facts of the Old Testament, as well as the plain statements in the New Testament. He hates the cross, for on the cross he was dealt the deadly blow, and he seeks to obscure that one event and delights if people miss it in their reading of God's Word.

Ultimately, we realize that God is in control of whether or not we see Christ, for the revelation of Christ to man is a divine prerogative:

People who are rejoicing in the gospel as it is hidden in story form are still rejoicing in the gospel, just as they are when they come to understand the gospel from clear statements in the New Testament. They are much like the disciples who saw Jesus "in a different form" (Matthew 16:12-13) after His resurrection and ran to tell the others about Him. It is my hope and prayer that God would use me in some way throughout the rest of my life to help others to see Jesus and to rejoice in Him, wherever He is revealed in the Word. I hope this is the prayer of each of you, as well.

Mike Cleveland

p.s. This manner of biblical interpretation, that of recognizing and rejoicing in Jesus Christ all throughout the Scriptures, comes directly from God's Word (as shown above) but also through the instruments of Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, Mark DeHaan, Arthur Pink, and many other godly biblical expositors. Please examine the two articles below as able.

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Christ and Adam's Rib

By

M.R. DeHaan M.D.

Do you remember the old family album of years ago? That ornate, bulky book full of snapshots and photos of the family, the uncles and aunts, together with notations of special events? In the front of the book was the family data of births and marriages, and tear-stained records of deaths. But the pictures were the things that intrigued us most. Those old tintypes of father and mother in their old-fashioned clothes, grandfather with his long beard, and then the picture of one's self as a baby with a little embroidered jacket and the long, long dress. The pictures were a continued story -- the history of the family.

Now the Bible is such a picture Book. It is a collection of portraits of one supreme Person who overshadows all the rest of the pictures. The central object of this Bible Album is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man. He is the central figure on every page, and the other pictures grouped about Him are added only to bring into bolder relief the loveliness, the superlative beauty, the infinite perfection of the Man of the Book, the Lord Jesus.

On Every Page

The face of Jesus Christ is on every page of Scripture, Every single incident recorded in the Word, in some way, directly or indirectly, has some connection with God's revelation concerning Him. This our Lord Jesus Himself taught when He spoke to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus on that first resurrection day. These disciples were returning from Jerusalem, sad and depressed because their Lord had been crucified. Jesus joined them and inquired into the cause of their sadness, and then astonished them with the statement that all this had been foretold in the Bible. If they had only known the Scriptures they would not have been sad but rejoicing. Listen to His words of loving rebuke:

And then after this rebuke for their tragic neglect to believe all the Scriptures, we read the amazing statement of our text:

Jesus says that all the Scriptures speak of Him. Now the Scriptures to which Jesus referred were the Old Testament. Not a single line of the New Testament had as yet been written when He spoke these words. It is of the Old Testament Jesus declares that they all speak of Him. The Old Testament, therefore, is not primarily an account of creation, the history of the Hebrew nation, or a collection of moral, religious and ethical instructions, but it is a revelation of Jesus Christ.

TRANSFORMS THE BIBLE

Once we realize that the Old Testament is a revelation of the Lord Jesus, and we must find Him somewhere on every page, the study of the Old Testament will be transformed from a dull and wearing task, to a thrilling, exciting exercise as we look for His face, hidden among the incidents recorded in the Book. This is what Jesus meant when He said,

PICTURES OF THE CHRIST

In the succeeding chapters we shall seek to point out a few of the innumerable portraits of die Lord Jesus in the Old Testament, with the fervent: prayer that it may stimulate you to find for yourself new and precious visions of His glory. Our Lord said to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that all the Scriptures, beginning with Moses, spoke of Him. So we turn to the first few pages" of our picture album, the books of Moses. The reference is to the first five books of the Bible written by Moses, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The picture album of the Old Testament has thirty-nine pages, and on every page we may find portraits, pen sketches, profiles, full length portraits, and candid camera shots of this Altogether Lovely One.

PAGE NUMRER ONE

Page number one in our album is the Book of Genesis. Most people associate Genesis with the record of creation and the early history of the human race. But this is only secondary. The primary purpose of Genesis is to introduce to us the Lord Jesus. Before we take up a few of these portraits, let me say that without the New Testament it would be impossible to see these wonderful revelations of Christ.

They are in miniature, and with the naked eye we can behold only the dimmest outlines. But now comes the New Testament and illumines and magnifies these portraits until all is clear. You remember the hours we spent as children looking through a stereopticon at slides of some of the wonders of the world. We called it a magic lantern because when we mounted two pictures and then looked at them through the binoculars, the two pictures blended into one, bringing out all the details in bold and clear relief. Today we, of course, have greatly improved upon this by small colored slides and a projector which greatly magnifies the otherwise dim and undistinguishable outlines and throws them clearly on the screen.

Such is the relationship of the Old and the New Testament. The Old Testament is an album of slides, painted by the Holy Spirit, but they can only be fully understood and appreciated as we view them in the light of the New Testament which is the magic lantern through which we see the infinite beauties of the Lord Jesus in the Old.

MANY PICTURES

In the previous chapter we pointed out that the very first sentence in the Bible is a picture of Jesus Christ. It will bear repeating. The opening verse is:

This is a picture of the Lord Jesus, but we could never recognize it as such until we look at it through the magic lantern of the New Testament. And when we do that, we see Him, for John says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

The picture is clear. The first portrait on page one of God's Album is a picture of Christ the Creator of all things. And now we can go on to the next photo. It is a picture of darkness and gloom, destruction and chaos. It is an earth without form and void, upon which the Spirit of God began to move in preparation for the next act in creation.

That is the picture, and as we set it in the frame and look at it in the light of God's full revelation, we see Jesus. He is the Light of the world. John says:

And Jesus Himself declares, at the healing of the blind man,

The rest of the record of the seven days of creation is but an expansion of the work of the Lord Jesus. The second day of creation, God separated the waters on earth from those in the heavens. Jesus, the Light of the World, is the Great Separator between the things of earth and the things of heaven. The presence of light attracts and awakens some, but repels and drives away others. At sunrise the birds and animals of the day awaken with song, but the same sunlight causes the unclean owls and bats and bloodthirsty beasts to seek cover under darkness. And so in the separation of the waters as the result of the light we see a picture of the work of Jesus Christ. John says:

We can find Christ in every other day of creation, until it consummates in the creation of man in the image of God. Adam is a picture of Christ and He is called in the Bible the "second man" (I Corinthians 15:47), and the "last Adam" (I Corinthians 15:45). Many men in the Scriptures are types of the Lord Jesus, such as Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, and many others, but very few ever think of Adam as a type and portrait of the Lord Jesus. We shall have occasion to point this out in detail in a later chapter, but right here let me call your attention to one superlatively beautiful picture. It is the creation of Eve as the wife of Adam. God "caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he [God] took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof" (Genesis 2:21).

While Adam slept, God created from his wounded side, a wife, who was part of himself, and he paid for her by the shedding of blood. And after Adam awoke he said:

THE DIM PICTURE

There is the slide, but we will never know its meaning until we behold it through the binoculars of the New Testament. Then we stand breathless with wonder, awe, and adoration at its beauty, and prostrate ourselves in adoration before Him, the last Adam, the Man of the glory. Let the Apostle Paul turn on the magic lantern for us. He snaps it on in Ephesians 5, among many other places. Speaking of the union of believers in Christ he says:

This is a direct reference to the words of Adam when he said, "she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." And then Paul quotes from Genesis, and says:

Now all is clear. Adam is a picture of the Lord Jesus, who left His Father's house to gain His bride at the price of His own life. Jesus, the last Adam, like the fist, must be put to sleep to purchase His Bride, the Church, and Jesus died on the cross and slept in the tomb for three days and three nights. His side too was opened after He had fallen asleep, and from that wounded side redemption flowed. I believe that in the creation of Eve, Adam gave his literal blood.

God opened his side and this implies a wound and bloodshedding. Here then at the very dawn of creation, even before man had fallen, we have an implied reference to a new creature taken from the side of a man and becoming a part of him, even of his flesh, and of his bones.

FULFILLED IN CHRIST

The Church, which is His body, was also purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. It meant His death, asleep for three days and three nights. His side too was opened, and the cleansing water and His justifying blood flowed forth. The Church, like Eve, was a new creation, not by a natural birth, but by a supernatural operation of God, and this "rib" was builded into a woman who was to become the helpmeet and bride of the husband. How long a time elapsed between the "operation" on Adam's side, and the completion of the task of building the rib into a wife we are not told, but it is implied that there was a period of time between the removal of the rib, and the completion of Eve and her presentation to Adam. There are two steps clearly indicated:

1. The operation-God "took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof."

2. God brought her unto the man.

Between these two steps is the record, "And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman." And when the building of the woman was complete He brought the man and the "rib" back together. The word translated "made" in our Scripture in the original is bannah, and occurs scores of times in the rest of the Bible, but only in this passage and in Ezekiel 27:5 is it translated "made." In all the other places it is translated "build." So the verse could read, "And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made (builded) he into a woman." How long it took to build the woman we do not know, but God separated the man from the rib until the building was done and then He "brought her unto the man."

This is the picture of our great Redeemer as seen on page one of God's picture Album. Jesus died on the cross, His side was opened, and by the Holy Spirit today a Bride is being prepared, and when the last member has been added He will bring her unto the man Christ Jesus. God has been "building" this precious Bride, purchased by His blood, for the past nineteen hundred years, and soon she will be presented to her Lord. That will be the consummation. Paul says that,

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Arthur Pink's "Gleanings in Genesis":

The Ark as a "Type" of Christ:

Gleanings In Genesis

13. The Typology of the Ark

Genesis 7

The ark which was built by Noah according to divine directions, in which he and his house, together with representatives from the lower creation, found shelter from the storm of God's wrath, is one of the clearest and most comprehensive types of the believer's salvation in Christ which is to be found in all the Scriptures. So important do we deem it, we have decided to devote a separate article to its prayerful and careful consideration.

1. The first thing to be noted in connection with the ark is that it was a Divine provision. This is very clear from the words of Genesis 6:13, 14—"And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before Me... make thee an ark." Before the flood came and before the ark was made, a means of escape for His own people existed in the mind of God. The ark was not provided by Him after the waters had begun to descend. Noah was commanded to construct it before a drop had fallen. So, too, the Saviourship of Christ was no afterthought of God when sin had come in and blighted His creation; from all eternity He had purposed to redeem a people unto Himself, and in consequence, Christ, in the counsels of the Godhead, was "a lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). The ark was God's provision for Noah as Christ is God's provision for sinners.

2. Observe now that God revealed to Noah His own designs and ordered him to build a place of refuge into which he could flee from the impending storm of judgment. The ark was no invention of Noah's; had not God revealed His thoughts to him, he would have perished along with his fellow creatures. In like manner, God has to reveal by His Spirit His thoughts of mercy and grace toward us; otherwise, in our blindness and ignorance we should be eternally lost. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

3. In the next place, we note that Noah was commanded to make an ark of gopher-wood (Gen. 6:14). The material out of which the ark was built teaches an important lesson. The ark was made, not of steel like our modern "dreadnoughts,'' but out of wood. The typical truth which this fact is designed to teach us lies not on the surface, yet is one that is brought before us again and again both in the Word and in Nature; the truth, that life comes out of death, that life can be secured only by sacrifice. Before the ark could be made, trees must be cut down. That which secured the life of Noah and his house was obtained by the death of the trees. We have a hint here, too, of our Lord's humanity. The trees from which the wood of the ark was taken were a thing of the earth, reminding us of Isaiah's description of Christ—"a root out of a dry ground" (Isa. 53:2). So Christ, who was the eternal Son of God must become the Son of man—part of that which, originally, was made out of the dust of the earth—and as such be cut down, or, in the language of prophecy, be "cut off" (Daniel 9:26), before a refuge could be provided for us.

4. The ark was a refuge from Divine judgment. There are three arks mentioned in Scripture and each of them was a shelter and place of safety. The ark of Noah secured those within it from the outpoured wrath of God. The ark of bulrushes (Ex. 2:3) protected the young child Moses from the murderous designs of Pharaoh, who was a type of Satan. The ark of the covenant sheltered the two tables of stone on which were inscribed the holy law of God. Each ark speaks of Christ, and putting the three together, we learn that the believer is sheltered from God's wrath, Satan's assaults and the condemnation of the law—the only three things in all the universe which can threaten or harm us. The ark of Noah was a place of safety. It was provided by God when death threatened all. It was the only place of deliverance from the wrath to come, and as such it speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior of lost sinners—"Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

5. Into this ark man was invited to come. He was invited by God Himself, "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark" (Gen. 7:1). This is the first time the word "come" is found in the Scriptures, and it recurs over five hundred times in the remainder of the Bible. Is it not highly significant that we meet with it here as its first occurrence! A number of thoughts are suggested by this connection, for several of which we are indebted to Dr. Thomas' work on Genesis. Observe that the Lord does not say "Go into the ark," but "Come." "Go" would have been a command, "Come" was a gracious invitation; "Go" would have implied that the Lord was bidding Noah depart from Him, "Come" intimated that in the ark the Lord would be present with him. Is it not the same thought as we have in the Gospel—"Come unto Me and I will give you rest!" Observe further that the invitation was a personal one—"Come thou"; God always addresses Himself to the heart and conscience of the individual. Yet, the invitation went further—"Come thou and all thy house into the ark," and again we find a parallel in the Gospel of grace in our day: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31).

6. The ark was a place of absolute security. This truth is seen from several particulars. First, the ark itself was pitched "within and without with pitch" (Gen. 6:14), hence it would be thoroughly watertight, and as such, a perfect shelter. No matter how hard it rained or how high the waters rose, all inside the ark were secure. The ark was in this respect also, a type of our salvation in Christ. Speaking to the saints, the apostle said, "Your life is hid (like Noah in the ark) with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). In the next place, we read concerning Noah after he had entered the ark, "And the Lord shut him in" (Gen. 7:16). What a blessed word is this! Noah did not have to take care of himself; having entered the ark, God was then responsible for his preservation. So it is with those who have fled to Christ for refuge, they are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:5). Finally, the security of all in the ark is seen in the issuing of them forth one year later on to the destruction-swept earth—"And Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark" (Gen. 8:18, 19). All who had entered that ark had been preserved, none had perished by the flood, and none had died a natural death, so perfect is the type. How this reminds us of our Lord's words, "Of them which thou gavest Me have I lost none" (John 18:9).

7. Next we would note what has often been pointed out by others, that the ark had only one door to it. There was not one entrance for Noah and his family, another for the animals, and yet another for the birds. One door was all it had. The same was true later of the tabernacle; it, too, had but a single entrance. The spiritual application is apparent. There is only one way of escape from eternal death. There is only one way of deliverance from the wrath to come. There is only one Savior from the Lake of Fire, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ—"I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). The language of our type is directly employed by Christ in John 10:9, where we hear Him say, "I am the door." It is also worthy of attention to note that Noah was ordered by God to set the door "in the side" of the ark (Gen. 6:16). Surely this pointed forward to the piercing of our Lord's "side" (John 19:34) which was the intimation that the way to the heart of God is now open to guilty and ruined sinners.

8. The ark had three stories in it, "with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it" (Gen. 6:16). Why are we told this? What difference does it make to God's saints living four thousand years afterwards how many stories the ark had, whether it had one or a dozen? Every devout student of the Word has learned that everything in the Holy Scriptures has some significance and spiritual value. Necessarily so, for every word of God is pure. When the Holy Spirit "moved" Moses to write the book of Genesis, He knew that a book was being written which should be read by the Lord's people thousands of years later, therefore, what He caused to be written must have in every instance, something more than a merely local application. "Whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning." What then are we to "learn" from the fact that in the ark there were three stories, no less and no more?

We have already seen that the ark itself unmistakably foreshadowed the Lord Jesus. Passing through the waters of judgment, being itself submerged by them; grounding on the seventeenth day of the month—as we shall see, the day of our Lord's Resurrection; and affording a shelter to all who were within it, the ark was a very clear type of Christ. Therefore the inside of the ark must speak to us of what we have in Christ. Is it not clear then that the ark divided into three stories more than hints at our threefold salvation in Christ? The salvation which we have in Christ is a threefold one, and that in a double sense. It is a salvation which embraces each part of our threefold constitution, making provision for the redemption of our spirit, and soul, and body (1 Thess. 5:23); and further, our salvation is a three tense salvation—we have been saved from the penalty of sin, are being saved from the power of sin, we shall yet be saved from the presence of sin.

9. Next, we observe that the ark was furnished with a window and this was placed "above"—"A window shalt thou make to the ark and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above" (Gen. 6:16). The spiritual application is patent. Noah and his companions were not to be looking down on the scene of destruction beneath and around them, but up toward the living God. The same lesson was taught to Jehovah's people in the Wilderness. The pillar of cloud to guide them by day and the pillar of fire to protect them by night was provided not only for their guidance, but was furnished for their instruction as well. Israel must look up to the great Jehovah and not be occupied with the difficulties and dangers of the wilderness. So, we, called upon to walk by faith, are to journey with our eyes turned heavenward. Our affection must be set upon" things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:2).

10. The ark was furnished with "rooms" or "nests"—"Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms (margin "nests") shalt thou make in the ark" (Gen. 6:14). In every other passage in the Old Testament where the Hebrew word "gen" occurs, it is translated "nest." We hesitate to press the spiritual signification here; yet, we have seen that the ark is such a striking and comprehensive type of our salvation in Christ we must believe that this detail in the picture has some meaning, whether we are able to discern it or no. The thought which is suggested to us is, that in Christ we have something more than a refuge, we have a resting place; we are like birds in their nests, the objects of Another's loving care. Oh, is it that the "nests" in the ark look forward to the "many mansions" in the Father's House? which our Lord has gone to prepare for us. It is rather curious that there is some uncertainty about the precise meaning of the Greek word here translated "mansions.'' Weymouth renders it, "In My Father's house are many resting places!"

11. In connection with the ark the great truth of Atonement is typically presented. This comes out in several particulars: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch" (Gen. 6:14). The Hebrew word here is not the common one for "pitch" which is "zetteth," but is "kapher," which is translated seventy times in the Old Testament "to make atonement." The simple meaning of "kapher" is "to cover" and nowhere else is it rendered "pitch." Atonement was made by the blood which provided a covering for sin. Our readers being familiar with this thought, there is no need for us to develop it. God is holy, and as such He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" (Habakkuk 1:13), hence sin must be covered—covered by blood. It is therefore remarkable that this word "kapher" should be employed (for the first time in Scripture) in connection with the ark, as though to teach us that a shelter from God's wrath can be found only beneath the atoning blood! Again we notice that the storm fell upon the ark which provided shelter for Noah and those that were with him. So, too, the clouds of Divine judgment burst upon our adorable Redeemer as He suffered in our stead: "All Thy waves and thy billows are gone over Me" (Ps. 42:7) was His cry; and may not His words here be language pointing back to the very type we are now considering?

12. As others have pointed out, the typical teaching of the ark reaches beyond the truth of atonement to resurrection itself. We quote here from the writings of the late Mr. William Lincoln: "There seems no reason to doubt that the day the ark rested on the mountain of Ararat is identical with the day on which the Lord rose from the dead. It rested "on the seventeenth day of the seventh month." But by the commandment of the Lord, given at the time of the institution of the feast of the Passover, the seventh month was changed into the first month. Then three days after the Passover, which was on the fourteenth day of the month, the Lord, having passed quite through the waters of judgment, stood in resurrection in the midst of His disciples, saying, "Peace be unto you." They, as well as Himself, had reached the haven of everlasting rest." But not only does our type prefigure our Lord's resurrection from the dead, it also suggests the truth of His ascension, for we read "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat" (Gen. 8:4). The final resting place of the ark was upon the mountain top, speaking of the place "on high" where our Savior is now seated at the right hand of God.

We lay our pen down with a strengthened conviction that the Holy Scriptures are no mere "cunningly devised fables," but that they are indeed the inspired Word of the living God.