‹‹  WEEK 11 — DAY 6  ›› 

Morning Nourishment

Gen. 6:14 "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make rooms in the ark and
shall cover it within and without with pitch."

16-17 "...You shall put the entrance of the ark in its side;...And now I am about to bring
a flood of water upon the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the
breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die."

     The ark had one door, [or entrance,] on the side (Gen. 6:16). No one has ever dropped into the ark from the heavens. We all came in through the side. There is only one door, one way, to get in...In the ark there is one opening for the light and one entrance for all to get in. We all, including the apostle Paul, came through the same door. The door is Christ. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 406)

Today's Reading

     The ark was made of gopher wood (Gen. 6:14)..., [which] is a cypress, full of resin; it is a kind of resinous wood. It can stand the attack of water....Gopher wood was able to withstand the attack of the flood water....Cypress is a figure of the crucified Christ. The crucified Christ can withstand the waters of death. He tasted death, and death could do nothing to Him. The ark made of gopher wood passed through the flood, and the flood attacked it again and again, but no damage was incurred. This signifies the solidness of Christ as the crucified One. Christ is the real gopher wood....The flood waters of death cannot damage Him.

     Christ is not only the crucified One, but also the One who shed His blood to cover us from the penalty of our sins. So, the ark was pitched within and without with pitch (6:14). The Hebrew word for pitch has the same root as the Hebrew word for atonement [or expiation]. The main meaning of this Hebrew root is “to cover.” The word for the cover of the Ark of the Testimony, the mercy seat, also comes from this same root. This means that in Christ we have the full covering. We all are covered with His redemption. Death cannot damage Him, and so no condemnation or judgment can reach us, because we are under the covering of Christ's redemption. The pitch signifies the redeeming of Christ, which covers God's building within and without....Perhaps when the flood was attacking the ark, the people within were frightened...The pitch inside the ark was for their peace. The pitch outside the ark was for God's satisfaction. The covering of the pitch without was also for Satan and the angels. This is a picture of the blood. Whenever we look at the blood, we have peace. Whenever God looks at the blood, He is satisfied. Whenever Satan looks at the blood, he is unable to attack. Whenever the angels look at the blood, they rejoice.

     To be saved through water is a matter of baptism. First Peter 3:20-21 reveals that the water through which Noah passed was a figure of baptism. It may be considered as the first mention of baptism in the Bible. Thus, it was the seed of baptism. This seed of baptism was firstly developed in the case of the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea....The passing through the waters of the Red Sea was a clear type of the baptism with water [cf. 1 Cor. 10:1-2]. Later, when the New Testament age came, the first thing that transpired to open up this age was baptism with water. God sent John the Baptist to carry this out.

     Undoubtedly Noah was under God's condemnation. He was also under the evil power of the age in which he lived. Noah built an ark which was pitched within and without with pitch. The pitch was a type of the redeeming blood. Thus, Noah was saved from God's judgment by the pitch upon the ark.

     The flood sent by God was a judgment upon the evil world. That judging flood [saved and] separated Noah from that age...The water that judged the world saved Noah from that evil generation. As a result of the two aspects of God's full salvation, Noah was saved from God's condemnation as well as from that evil generation. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 406-407, 412, 414-415)

Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msg. 31; The Vision of the Age, chs. 2-3