‹‹  WEEK 11 — DAY 4  ›› 

Morning Nourishment

Gen. 6:15 "...The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits."

1 Pet. 3:20-21 "...In the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared; entering into which, a few, that is, eight souls, were brought safely through by water. Which water, as the antitype, also now saves you, that is, baptism..."

     The ark is a type of Christ (1 Pet. 3:20-21), not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the church, which is the Body of Christ and the new man (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:15-16; Col. 3:10-11). The building of the ark typifies the building of the corporate Christ, with the element of Christ's riches as the building material, by those who work together with God (1 Cor. 3:9-12a; 2 Cor. 6:1; Eph. 3:8-10; 4:12). By building the ark and entering into it, Noah was not only saved from God's judgment on the evil generation through the flood, but was also separated from that generation and ushered into a new age (1 Pet. 3:20 and footnote 3). Likewise, by building the church and entering into the church life, we
will be saved from God's judgment on today's evil generation through the great tribulation (Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27; 1 Thes. 5:3) and will be separated from that generation (Luke 21:36; Rev. 3:10) and ushered into a new age, the age of the millennium. (Gen. 6:14, footnote 1)

Today's Reading

     God gave Noah what was nearly an all-inclusive revelation....Although Enoch prophesied that when his son Methuselah died the deluge would come...and that God's judgment would be executed upon the corrupted earth, and although he even prophesied about the Lord's coming (Jude 14), Enoch never received the vision of the way that God would terminate the corrupted generation and bring in a new age....One day, God came to Noah and revealed it to him. As a result of this, Noah's view of godly things was greatly broadened, and he saw much more than all his forefathers did....We all need such a revelation.

     In principle, our situation is exactly the same as Noah's. Today's generation is corrupt, and the earth is filled with evil and violence. It seems that, according to man's concept, God has been defeated and driven out of the earth....From the first century of the Christian era until the present...we have inherited all the godly ways that were exercised in the past centuries. But should we stop here?...How about God's purpose?...He needs an ark that can bring His people out of this generation and start a new age...We cannot build the ark by our imagination. Like Noah, we must receive a revelation concerning God's need of the ark.

     The ark had three stories (Gen. 6:16). Since the height of the ark was thirty cubits [v. 15], each story must have been ten cubits high. These dimensions are very meaningful.

     In the Bible the number three firstly signifies the Triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit (Matt. 28:19), [particularly in His dispensing of Himself into people].

     Whenever the Bible speaks of God mingling with man, of God entering into man, or of God being dispensed into man, it always uses the matter of the Trinity. Consider, for example, 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”...[This] is the Triune God in the process of dispensing, of getting Himself into us, and of bringing us into all His riches.

     The number five...[as illustrated by] the five fingers on each of your hands [is]...composed of four plus one....The thumb is number one, representing the one God as the Creator. Four is the number of God's creature, like the four living creatures (Rev. 4:6). Thus, four plus one means man, God's creature, plus God....God's building is simply to build Himself into us, and us into Him, making Him one with us and making us one with Him. So, in the ark, the basic numbers of three and five signify that this building is the mingling of God and man. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 392-393, 399-400, 402-403)

Further Reading: Truth Lessons—Level Two, vol. 2, lsns. 16-17