Lesson 25 The Ark of Safety

                                                The Ark of Safety

                                                 Genesis 6:3 - 8:12

With “every imagination of the heart being evil continually,” the wickedness of man was great in the earth (Gen.6:5). “So Jehovah said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (v7). “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (v12).

Jehovah must destroy man, whom He had created, that He might have sons of God in His image. Man must be destroyed from off the face of God’s earth. And the other living beings which God had created on the sixth day must undergo the judgment of waters along with mankind.

Jehovah was not defeated in His purpose. He had one man who had found grace in His eyes. “Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, and  Noah walked with God” (Gen.6:8-9).

Moses recorded four things concerning Noah: First, Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah. Noah grew up in the godly line of the descendants of Seth (Gen.5). The godly line preached the grace of God, through which one is saved through faith. Grace is the great favor that God has done man in Christ, an undeserving favor, but one necessary to God’s purpose to have man in His image. Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10.

God set forth His Son as the Propitiation, a Gift to mankind (Rom.3:22-26; 1 Jn.2:1-2; 4:9-10). The Son was sent to die in man’s stead (Heb.2:9-17; 9:24-28; Rom.8:3). Jesus was delivered for man’s offenses and He was raised for man’s justification, that man’s sin might be put away once for all in the death of the cross (Rom.4:25-5:21; Heb.10:12-14; 1 Pet.3:18)). That man might be made righteous and acquitted of all charges of sin and guilt, and through the washing of regeneration be raised up to walk in newness of life (Col.2:9-14; Rom. 6:3-23; Tit.3:4-7). Jehovah saw that Noah had received the grace of God.

The second thing Moses recorded of Noah was that Noah was a just man, a righteous man. Believing in the righteousness of God through faith in Christ, Noah was justified, made righteous. “The just [righteous] shall live out of faith” (Rom.1:17b; Hab.2:4; Heb.10:38).

Noah lived out of faith. Having access into God’s grace through faith, Noah could rejoice in the hope of glory (Rom.5:2). Having received the eternal life as a gift in the coming Son of the Covenant Noah was assured of a body like the body promised the Son of the Covenant (see Phil.3:21). A deathless body would be raised up from the dead body of Noah (see 1 Cor.15:42-54).

The third thing that Moses recorded of Noah is that he was perfect in his generations. The original word for “generation” is the word commonly found in the sense of “a generation of men.” Noah lived through generations of ungodly men. Noah is recorded as being perfect, complete in his generations.

Noah was taught the truth concerning the coming Son of the Covenant through “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” declared in the heavens (see Gen.1:14-19; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6).

Noah believed that which he had been taught (see Heb.11:7). By being saved by God’s grace through Noah’s faith in the coming Christ, Noah had been justified and, having been justified through faith, Noah had also been glorified in a forever living body, to be raised up at the last day (see Jn.6:39-40).

And the fourth thing Moses recorded is that Noah walked with God. Though it is possible, it is not recorded that Noah had personally seen Jehovah with his own eyes to hear Him speak as had his first ancestors, Adam and Eve, but he had the testimony of his godly ancestors and the witness of the Holy Spirit. He had been shown eternal life and told that he could have fellowship with Jehovah and His Christ (see 1 Jn.1:1-4).

Having taken the step of faith into the righteousness of God, Noah began walking in agreement with God’s thinking (see Amos 3:3). In fellowship with the Father, made known in the Son, the Spirit of God taught Noah the deep things of God, the things hidden from the natural man in the flesh (see Job 32:8; Jn.1:14-18; 1 Cor.2:9-14; Eph.1:17-21). The complete Eternal Covenant of God is set forth in the stellar signs and their decans and the names of the main stars God set in the heavens to make Himself known (see Job 9:6-9; 26:13; 38:31-33; Ps.147:4; Is.40:26; 45:12; Amos 5:8).

Noah’s father, Lamech, named his son “Rest” (Gen.5:29), and Noah lived up to his name. When Jesus came to dwell among men, He invited men to come unto Him and He would give them rest, the rest of the security of the salvation and redemption in Himself (Mt.11:28-30). Noah had done that. He had come to the God who is, and he had received that rest of redemption. In walking with God, Noah learned of Christ to find rest of soul, the rest of the meek, the lowly. Noah found the rest of submission to the will of Jehovah and he found the joy of the Father working in him to will and to do after His good pleasure. In all of the unrest of the godless generation Noah found rest in his soul, to be comforted in the formidable task set before him by Jehovah.

Faith is the only condition making it possible to enter into rest. Christ Jesus would still the troubled soul, but unbelief will not let Christ still the soul. In unbelief, the soul remains troubled and unsatisfied. There is no inner peace, no true sense of direction for men in the flesh, born in Adam’s image.

What really causes so much trouble and unrest in this world is not so much the physical labor to be done to have food and clothing and shelter, the true cause is man’s own will, unsubmissive to our destiny as Jehovah Elohim planned it for us. When we can truly say, “Your will be done,” and submit all to our Lord and trust Him with ourselves, when we enter into His will for us and into His doing for us, we find rest unto our souls. We come to Him to learn to be meek and lowly in heart. Rest is in obedience to our Lord and Master.

“And God said unto Noah, ‘The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. You make an ark of gopher wood; rooms shall you make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which you shall make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shall you make to the ark, and in a cubit shall you finish it above; and the door of the ark shall you set in the side of it; with lower, second, and third stories shall you make it’” (Gen.6:13-16).

When Jehovah gave warning of the judgment to come, a judgment almost inconceivable to the imagination, Noah simply listened to what Jehovah had to say, and then did as Jehovah had commanded him (Gen.6:22). Faith lives in fellowship with God and overcomes all hindrances to obedience.

Moses recorded in the second chapter of Genesis that a river went out of the garden of Eden to water it, and from there it was parted into four heads (Gen.2:10-14). No mention is made of travel on the rivers, nor is it recorded in Cain’s civilization that there was river commerce or boat travel for pleasure. It is not likely that Noah had any shipbuilding experience. But Noah was not building a ship or a boat. He was building an ark. God gave him the blueprint.

The blueprint called for a large boxlike structure, 450' by 75' by 45'. There was one window all the way around the top, and one door. There was no mast and no sail to steady the ark. There is no record of a rudder or of a wheel to steer her or an anchor to stay her. The only need of the ark was to stay above the waters of judgment. And Noah did not need any nautical experience, as he would be totally at the mercy of Jehovah Elohim. Inside the ark Noah would have no control in guiding the ark. The ark was his place of safety from the waters of judgment. Noah trusted his family and himself entirely to Jehovah’s care.

If Noah had any other plans at the time the warning came to him, he would have had to set them aside. The one all-important thing would have been to finish the ark before the judgment of waters came upon the earth. Of course there would have been fleshly objections. Self does not like anything that bothers or makes one uncomfortable, or takes up too much of its time. Anything that interferes with one’s own plans is irritating. Then there is one’s own imagination. The mind cannot help jumping ahead to what could be involved. What would people think when Noah began building this huge box with a window all around and one door in his back yard? If there were boats in those days, this box certainly did not look like one. And how would Noah get the ark into the river? When Noah explained how the ark would float and why it would be necessary that it float, would the people believe him?

Of course Noah would be preaching the gospel of Christ while he built the ark and he would be warning that Jehovah Elohim was planning to wash the corruption off the face of His earth (see 1 Pet.3:20). Noah understood that he would be a spectacle and that men would ridicule his preaching and his work, as they refused to believe into his Christ. Some may have believed the Spirit’s witness through the lips of Noah and would have passed from death to eternal life and did not come into the condemnation of the judgment but died before the Flood of waters came. Believe and be made safe, or do not believe and be destroyed in the judgment (see 2 Pet.3:3-7). Each one of Noah’s generation had the choice of life or death.

“And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (Gen.5:32). Shem is named first, as the seed for the coming Son of the Covenant will come through Shem’s line (Gen.9:26). Ham is the younger son (Gen.9:24), and Japheth, the elder (Gen.10:21).

Shem and Ham would be the more prominent lines in the new beginning. Shem is the progenitor of the coming Son of the Covenant through Abraham, called to be the forefather of the great nation God promised to build for a people for His coming Son (Gen.11:10-26).

Ham, the younger son, would represent the enmity of the mind of mankind, a creation of human flesh. Those of Ham’s line would be the first enemies of the Son of the Covenant. Japheth’s line was less prominent until his descendants began spreading out over the European continent and then began colonizing.

Against all objections of his own heart and of the objection of any others, “thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him” (Gen.6:22). Jehovah had worked in Noah to will and to do of His good pleasure. Noah had made a decision for Christ. Noah had disowned himself to identify himself with the One who was coming to die in his stead. He had followed the Christ to save his own soul. He would build an ark to the saving of his house and to the saving of the household of the coming Christ. Noah, like Moses after him, was willing to bear the reproach of Christ (see Heb.11:7, 24-26).

Noah was 480 years old when the warning came (Gen.6:3, 7:6). It is not recorded that he had any sons as yet who could help him build the ark. Perhaps there were some in his righteous family who helped in the beginning. It would be a monumental task to build the ark. After 20 years sons were born. In time, the boys would have grown enough to be put to work helping to prepare the ark that would save their household.

The ark was planned by Jehovah to be a type of the coming Christ, who makes man safe from the condemnation of being destroyed in the second death. In Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, man is disapproved as unfit in an earthen vessel (see 1 Cor.15:21-22, 47-50; Eph.2:1-3). The body of the earth will return to the dust of the ground and leave the inner man unclothed (Gen.3:19; Job 34:15; Ps.104:29; 2 Cor.5:1-3).

It is appointed unto man to die once (Heb.9:27). Man must be made safe from dying in his sins. He must be healed from sin-sickness. Christ [Jesus] came to die in man’s stead that man might be made safe from condemnation. He came to take the sins of the whole world on Himself and put away sin once for all and to make man righteous, that He might raise man up out from the dead mortal body alive unto God in a body like unto Jesus’ body of glory, a vessel fit for a son of God (Rom.6:9-10; 2 Cor.5:21; Col.1:12-15; Phil.3:21; Heb.9:26; 10:10; 1 Pet.3:18). 

That is why the ark is a big box - like a coffin. The ark designed by God was a picture of His Son, the Christ, as the Ark of man’s safety. Christ, known to Noah as the Coming One, was lifted up on the cross to take the execution of the death sentence passed upon all mankind (Rom.5:12; 1 Pet.2:22-25). There, lifted up between heaven and earth, Jesus put away sin once for all that man might not come into God’s judgment on sin but pass from death to eternal life.

As many as believe into God’s Son are placed into His death as man’s Substitute (see Rom.6:3-10; Heb.2:9-17). In this way, in being placed into Jesus to have one’s sins put away and to become the righteousness of God in Christ, man is lifted up above the condemnation to come, and he is made safe from the judgment of destruction - the second death.

Noah had the ark as a visual means of  teaching in a picture form the salvation provided man in Christ. While Noah was working, with his heart at rest, he was learning and seeing the type of Christ. Noah could teach his sons the truths to be seen in this type of Christ as the only place of safety from the judgment of the second death. He could have taught anyone who was willing to hear the voice of the Spirit.

To begin building the ark, the first thing that Noah would have to do would be to cut down the trees and plane them into boards. It would take a lot of trees to build an ark to the saving of Noah’s household and to the saving of the multitudes to be born of Noah’s three sons. But it would take only one Christ to make those multitudes safe from the condemnation of the second death. Also the multitude of those who had lived out of faith, believing into the coming Christ, and had died before the Flood, would be made safe in the Ark, the Christ, the Son of God. Anyone having lived and died in the faith in the righteousness of Christ before Jesus actually did come in the flesh and in His obedience to the death of the cross put away sin once for all and overcome death with eternal life were made safe through the saving of the household of Noah (see Rom.3:22-26; Phil.2:5-8; 1 Tim.2:4-6; 1 Pet.3:18). In the household of Noah was seed for the nation for a people of whom Christ Jesus should be born.

Jehovah instructed Noah to make the ark and the inside rooms of gopherwood. Noah was to cover the ark inside and outside with pitch (Gen.6:14). The rooms inside the ark were resting places. While riding out the storm, Noah and his family could rest inside the ark of safety.

When one has believed into Christ [Jesus, the Anointed Son], one can rest in Jehovah and wait patiently for Him to bring to pass. Since one has committed his way unto Jehovah, he can trust in Jehovah and do good. He can delight himself in Jehovah under any circumstances and let Him bring to pass His doing (see Ps.37:3-9). And one can rest in the hope of an eternal resting place, a body like unto Jesus’ body of glory raised up through the redemption that is in Him, raised up in the resurrection (Rom.8:11, 14-30; 1 Cor.15:35-54; Phil.3:21).

The coming Christ is “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever He does shall prosper” (Ps.1:3). The gopher trees must be cut off from the land of the living in order to prepare an ark to save Noah’s household and, having been cut off, they would have become dead. Christ, the Man like a tree, must also be cut off from the land of the living and become dead (Is.53:8).

Within, the ark was pitched and without, the ark was pitched with pitch. Every square foot of the board planed from the trees pitched inside and out. The waters were kept out of the ark by the pitch. No water of judgment could come into the ark.

The Hebrew word used here for “pitch” is the same Hebrew word used for “atonement.”  Seventy times in the Old Testament this Hebrew word is translated “to make atonement.”  “Atonement” has the meaning of “covered” or “covered over.” Before Jehovah  ever created man He had sin covered through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. The Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world (1 Pet.1:18-21; Rev.13:8). Man would sin and must therefore suffer death. God had the means of making the dead to live again - through new birth from above (see Jn.3:3-8; 11:25).

God set His Son forth as the Propitiation (1 Jn.2:2; 4:9-10). In Him is the redemption. God could pass over sins done before Christ actually came in the flesh and He died for man’s sins, and He was buried, and He was raised up again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor.15:3-4). And God would be just to pass over the sins of the one believing into the coming Son of the Eternal Covenant. He is the Justifier of all who put their faith in Christ. Jesus is the Ark of Safety from eternity past. It is done in the Eternal Covenant. All one had to do was receive the Propitiation through believing in the blood of Christ to make him safe from the condemnation and to heal him of sin-sickness. One believed into Christ to be made safe from judgment. Each one in Christ covered all around with the Son of God (see Rom.3:20-28; 5:1-21; 1 Cor.1:30).

The ark had a window and a door. “You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks” (Gen.6:16). A cubit is about 18". The window of about 18" going all around the top of the ark was for air and for any light which might come through the storm clouds.

In Christ, we of the Body of Christ have the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God, the Wind of God, to blow in the fresh atmosphere of the heavenlies (Rom.5:5; 8:14-27; 1 Cor.3:16; 6:19-20; 2 Tim.1:14). The Holy Spirit enlightens the darkness and gives understanding as to what the will of the Lord is (see Job 32:8; 1 Cor.2:9-16; Eph.5:17-18).

There was only one door to the ark. Noah went in through that door and his sons and his wife and his son’s wives with him and all of the animals, seven pairs of clean animals and birds, and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Two by two they went into the ark, two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life, and verse 16 says Jehovah shut him in (Gen.7:1-16). In the Hebrew it is literally, “Jehovah covered him about.”  That door, pitched with pitch inside and out, kept out the waters of judgment. What a refuge from the waters of death. Inside the ark all were safe and sound. Outside all was darkness and the death of the judgment of waters.

When Jesus became flesh, He said to His people, “I am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” [made safe] (Jn.10:9a). Anyone who has believed into Christ has been made safe from death and darkness. He is covered all around with Christ Himself. He shall not walk in darkness - he has the light of life (Jn.8:12; 12:46). In His light we see light (Ps.36:9).

The Flood was on the earth 40 days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. The waters prevailed and kept increasing, rising upward of 15 cubits, until all the high hills and mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The Flood covered the whole earth and all living things upon the dry land were destroyed. Only Noah and those with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days (Gen.7:17-24).

In the ark, the souls were covered all around with the provision given by God, and received from God. The same waters that supported the ark, lifting it up far above all the high hills that were under the whole of heaven, high above all those of the earth being judged, drowned all those upon earth who had refused to believe into the coming Christ, those who had refused the only Ark of Safety. All were taken in judgment, every living thing (see Mt.24:38-39).

How thankful Noah and his family must have been to be made safe while those waters were rising higher and higher. Noah and his family were in the only safe place upon earth and lifted up into the atmosphere. Outside the ark was only water, an element in which man cannot breathe. Not being able to get one’s breath, one dies.

Are we thankful and overjoyed to be in Christ, safe and secure? Thankful to have been seated in the heavenlies to breathe the heavenly atmosphere in the realm of the spiritual? Walking with Christ Jesus in the light, and breathing the spiritual realities is the only safe place upon earth. We have been made safe from the condemnation to come, safe from the second death, the lake of fire (Rev.20:11-15).

Noah and his family were safe from the waters of judgment, but there must have been a great deal of work to be done with all of those animals to take care of. Each one must have been assigned to certain duties each day. Were there times when Noah and the members of his family felt discontented to be shut up for so long? Times when they felt discouraged? Noah was walking with God in faith. He must have been the encourager.

Do you ever get discouraged? Feel discontented with your state? Does all seem dark and gloomy and the storm has lasted too long? Do you sometimes feel condemned and guilty? Yet is there ever a moment when you are not safe? Where is your place of safety? In Christ. What did Jesus say? “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn.16:33).

Was there ever a moment that Noah and his family could not trust to come out to a new beginning? Whether they did or did not trust, all were safe in God’s hands. God held the timing in His hands. The new beginning was at hand.

We, the members of the Body of Christ, are covered all around “in Christ.”  Our sins are not just atoned or covered over. Our sins have been put away once for all. They were put on Jesus Christ, who took the execution of the death sentence (Is.53:4-6; Col.2:12-14; 1 Pet.2:22-24). Baptized into Jesus, we are baptized into His death and buried with Him, and we have been raised up to walk in newness of life (Rom.6:3-4). “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col.3:3b). Can we not be assured that we will come out of this world to a new beginning, with old things passed away and all things become new? If we are not assured, whose fault is that? God says it is so.

Now we are the children of God and it does not appear what we shall be, but a body in the image of the heavenly is assured us (1 Jn.3:1-3; Phil.3:20-21; Rom.8:29-30). We may have severe trials here in the body of flesh and blood. There are testings to pass through. We learn obedience through suffering. Even our Lord learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Heb.5:8; see Heb.2:18).

We must be being transformed through the renewing of our mind through looking into the mirror of the word to think with God (Rom.12:1-2). But there is never a moment when those in Christ are not safe and secure. You will be forever safe in Christ. You are kept by the power of God. You have been sanctified together with Christ, “your whole spirit, soul and body preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that called you, who will also do it” (1 Thess.5:23-24).

He is “able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the Presence of His glory, with exceeding joy. Unto the only wise God, our Savior, glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24-25). He will present us to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that we should be holy and without blemish (Eph.5:27).

Jehovah had prepared to keep the waters of judgment out of the ark, and God remembered Noah and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided (Gen.8:1).

The world that then was had been destroyed in the Flood of waters. The Flood was God’s way of cleansing a corrupt and violent world from off His earth. The whole world system was washed away. The Flood was an act of righteous judgment, an act of a holy and just God upon sinners, who had stubbornly refused to repent of their sins. The Flood of waters was an act of severe mercy and love to rid the earth of unspeakable evil and to save Noah’s household, that there would be seed for the coming Anointed Covenant Son, the Christ who would make safe all who would come unto Him to be given rest to their souls.

God remembered Noah and all who were with him every moment that was spent on the ark. And Noah remembered God. In his heart, Noah was walking with God in faith in the One whom he knew to be his Life. As Noah took care of those on the ark, he rested in Jehovah’s care for them. Noah knew that there was not a moment of the day that they would be forgotten by Jehovah. Noah waited God’s time, trusting all to the One who knows best, the One who always does good, the only One who always does right. Noah’s thinking was, If God be for us, who can be against us? (Rom.8:31-39). All was for the glory of Jehovah Elohim.

The ark passed through the waters of judgment and then it rested (Gen.8:4). Here was one more spiritual picture of the ark as a type of the coming Christ. Jesus came down from heaven to be obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross (Phil.2:5-8). On the cross Jesus finished the work His Father had given Him to do (Jn.19:28-30). In His lifting up on the cross, the Father was glorified (Jn.12:23-33). Jesus overcame death and judged the world and assured that the prince of this world would be cast out.

Jesus passed through the waters of death and then He entered into His rest (Heb.4:10). Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures and He was buried and on the third day He was raised up out from among the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Cor.15:3-4). It was not possible for death to hold the body of Jesus (Ac.2:24). Nor is it possible for death to hold the bodies of those having been redeemed through His blood. Those bodies will also be raised up out from the dead (1 Cor.15:49-57; Jn.6:38-40).

When Jesus had, by Himself, purged our sins, He ascended back into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High (Heb.1:3). Having finished His work, Jesus entered into His rest (Heb.4:10-11). There, seated at the right hand of the Father, Christ Jesus is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Having overcome death, “He continues ever, and has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them,” those who come to God through Him (Heb.7:24-25).

We have been made safe from the penalty of the sin - death (Rom.6:23). We are being made safe from the power of the sin (Rom.6:7). We shall be made safe from the presence of the sin. The sin is excluded from the Kingdom of God (1 Cor.6:9; Eph.5:5; Rev.21:27). In the completion of the Eternal Covenant, a Kingdom of sons of God, there will be no lawlessness. There will be no self-will. All will be one with our God, all of one will - God’s will.

Jesus has invited us to rest with Him in His finished work. He also asks us to set our affections on things above and not on the things of the earth. Our citizenship is in heaven (see Phil.3:20-21). We have been baptized into Jesus’ death. We died with Him. He that has died is freed from the sin. God asks us to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto the sin and alive unto God (Rom.6:11-23). Like Noah in his day, we have the privilege of being believing believers in a godless, unbelieving world. We have the treasure of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ in our earthen vessels that Christ might make Himself known through us (2 Cor.4:7; 5:11-21). We will not go forth from our ark but we have a new beginning with all things having passed away and all things having become new (see Rev.21:1-22:5). We have made our exodus out of a creation of human flesh to be born from above a new creation - a born son of the living and true God.

This concludes our lesson.

Lesson 24 Sanctified Together in the Propitiation

                       Sanctified Together in the Propitiation

                                           Genesis 3:16-21

Having set the Son forth as the Propitiation before the foundation of the world, Jehovah Elohim could be just to justify and cover over the sins of anyone who would choose to believe God and receive the One in whom is the redemption. The sins were covered in the Propitiation until Jesus did actually come and ratify the Covenant in His blood. Everyone from Adam and Eve is covered in the Covenant of God, which is done in heaven. The Covenant is from eternity past. Anyone may become the righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Covenant Son (see Rom.3:22-26; 4:25-5:21; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2; 2:11-14).

Having had the heart of mankind proved to them through their own experience of the lawlessness of their disobedience to God’s command, Adam and Eve had understanding in the very spirit of their being of the sin of man’s self-will. They immediately repented and set forth the Propitiation offered man in the Son of the Eternal Covenant. They understood the grace of God in the Eternal Covenant which must be clearly taught to their progeny, that Jehovah can fulfill His purpose to have man in His image - sons of God - born from above.

Adam and his wife, in their loyalty and submission to the will of Jehovah, proved they could not be lured away from the truth of the gospel of the coming Anointed Son of God. No fear would move them and no desire could move them from the faith in which they had been rooted and grounded. They had no other desire than the love of God and that His will be done. They had learned, through experience, the deceit of desire.

The judgment and consequences having been settled, Jehovah again addressed the woman. “Unto the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In sorrow you shall bring forth children. And your desire shall be to your husband, and He shall rule over you’” (Gen.3:16).

Jehovah having His first two true prophets who will speak forth the truth for Him, Adam and his wife are ready to fulfill their purpose to multiply and fill the earth after their kind - mankind in human flesh, of the earth, earthy. Through the progeny of Adam and his wife Eve, Jehovah will have sons of God - those born of the flesh who choose to believe into the Anointed Son and receive the righteousness of God to be born again a son of God - born of water [the word] and of spirit life for the mortal body (see Jn.3:5-7; see 1 Cor.15:44).

As Moses recorded in Genesis chapter 1, when God had His initial thought in eternity past, “Elohim said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them” (Gen.1:26-27). What God has spoken, He will make good (Num.23:19; Prov.19:21; Eccl.3:14; Is.46:10-11; 55:11).

In time God did bring man into being. Jehovah Elohim formed the body from the dust of the ground, a figure of the coming Son of His Covenant (see Rom.5:14). Jehovah breathed man into the body which He had formed (Gen.2:7). Man came into being a soul of life - a living soul. The life of the soul shared by Jehovah is spirit. God is spirit - the life God is. God is eternal life - without beginning or end. When He shares His life with the person, there will be no end of the person being. It is eternal life for the personal being, the inner man living in the tent body, the outer man. Adam and Eve, having clear understanding of God’s purpose and of the One Way Jehovah could accomplish His purpose, would teach only the truth and would teach it straight, as they had received it from Jehovah Himself.

As we have seen, it takes a second birth to bear the image of God. Moses did not explain all this in “The Book of the Law.” “The Book of the Law” was written for a people who were being taught through “figures of the true,” that they might be brought to full understanding of God’s Eternal Covenant.

When Moses spoke of what God had initiated, he only used the word “created” (Gen.1:27). He was speaking of what God would bring into being when He had achieved His end goal - man in His image, after His likeness. In the end, God would have a Kingdom of sons of God. This was to be a new thing brought forth in the Resurrection of Life - man in God’s image - a body of flesh and bone of spirit life - immortal (see Lk.24:36-43; Jn.20:19-27; 1 Cor.15:44, 49-53; Phil.3:21).

The first step to the end goal was the man brought into being a figure of God’s birthed Son who would be sent from heaven (Rom.5:14). The first Adam and the last Adam would share the same likeness - a body of human flesh of the earth, earthy. First is the image of the earthy - the first birth. It takes a second birth to be born of spirit (Jn.3:3). Each one born of flesh must make a choice to be born from above and bear the image of the heavenly Lord from heaven - the image of God (see Jn.1:12-13; 1 Cor.15:45-57; Col.1:15; Heb.1:1-3). Adam and his wife, having believed into the coming Son and, with full understanding, received the Son to be their life. They will bear the image of God in The Resurrection of Life (Rev.20:6; Jn.5:28-29a).

As the first step in the Covenant plan was to have a creation of bodies of human flesh, God must have male and female to multiply and fill the earth. The female body was built of bone of the body formed by Jehovah from Adam (Gen.2:21-23). Adam and his wife were one flesh, equal in their likeness of flesh, each one bearing the image of the earthy body. They were dual - two bodies of one flesh, but different.

There was one purpose to fulfill - multiply and fill the earth (Gen.1:28). For this Adam and his wife were interdependent. The male had the seed to reproduce after their kind. The female body had a womb for the conception and gestation and birth of a child after their kind, a child of human flesh bearing the image of the earthy. The blessing of Jehovah and the dominion given to be shared was mutual.

Having had the eyes of their understanding opened, each one, Adam and his wife, was fully prepared to fulfill the privileged purpose of their having been brought into being. It was then that “Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ And Elohim said, ‘Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food.’ And it was so” (Gen.1:28-30). All creation was prepared and all living beings provided for by Jehovah Elohim. All ready for man’s dominion.

Adam and his wife having been prepared for the purpose of their having been brought into being must then be instructed as to how to fulfill that purpose. Jehovah began with the woman’s part. Children will bring sorrow. They will cause the mother emotional pain. Jehovah will multiply Eve’s conception. She will have multiple births. Through the multiple births of many children and then grandchildren, etc., there will be multiplied emotional pain.

God’s design is always one of order. There must be a head of the household. Adam was created the progenitor of the race of man in human flesh. Adam was created first. He carries the seed for fruit of the womb. He plants the seed. He is the person responsible to provide and care for and protect and teach each child of his seed (see Deut.4:9; 6:7; 11:19). This will be passed down to the male in any marriage. It is God’s design and God’s order.

The husband is the head of the household (see Eph.5:22-23). The woman was brought into being as a helper to come alongside her husband and help him to fulfill his purpose (Gen.2:18-24). For this the wife must receive her instructions from the Lord. She is cast upon Jehovah as her Lord and Master as to the children and as to her husband.

If her husband is to rule, the wife must rank herself under him. Her desire is to her husband, to be helpful to him in his rule and in his care for the children. In her relationship with her Lord, the wife will be shown wisdom to fulfill her role. In their equality she will be free to share her thinking and to express her opinion. And it is not that the wife cannot have desires. She will have desires for the household and she will be free to express those desires, but her desires must be subjected to her husband’s rule, or she will be subverting her husband’s rule and God’s design for the household. Her husband is responsible to the true Head of the household - his Lord.

God has designed marriage for order and for the well-being of the household. In this way Adam and his wife would each one learn their absolute dependence upon Jehovah Elohim. To fulfill the responsibility to Jehovah in the charge given them, each one must have Jehovah’s wisdom in matters that will come up in a household of different personalities. A proper household will take recognition of and practice of the interdependency of the design for the husband and wife. In the recognition of the interdependency would be seen the need of the love of God for the submission to one another in their interdependency. Each one must learn from God how to fulfill his or her role.

Earlier in the narrative Moses had recorded Adam’s understanding of the necessity of a man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife (Gen.2:24). As this was spoken when Jehovah brought to Adam his helper counterpart, we see that Adam had had some previous instruction concerning being the head of a household. Adam’s speaking of leaving father and mother would not have applied to Adam, as he did not have parents. This would be Adam’s instruction to his birthed sons.

Each son, upon taking a wife, would be establishing a new household over which he would be the head and have the rule. The head of the new household must cleave to his wife in the interdependency of the union. Together they would learn to submit to one another, that each one fulfill his or her role under the power and the authority of their God - Jehovah. Cleaving to his wife would apply to Adam.

And unto Adam Jehovah said, “Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, until you return to the ground. For out of it were you taken, for dust you are, and to dust shall your return” (Gen.3:17-19).

In Jehovah’s rebuke of Adam hearkening to his wife, He shows Adam he was wrong to yield to his wife’s desire when it was disobedience to the command of Jehovah. Together they could have discussed Eve’s desire and traced her thinking to its source of leaning to her own understanding and, in so doing, deceiving herself. Together they could have gone to Jehovah and asked Him concerning the knowing of good and evil. Then they would be taught with understanding the sin of serving self rather than serving the will of the Creator-Redeemer who loved them. They would be taught to get understanding in His wisdom concerning any desire of the flesh or of the mind. The experience of the deceit of the heart being proved to them was a powerful lesson. It is necessary to know one’s own heart to have the wisdom and power to keep one’s heart with all diligence - for out of it are the issues of life (Prov.4:23; see also Prov.4:1-13).

As a consequence of surrendering to his wife’s desire, the ground has been cursed with the death which came by the sin of Adam having his will over the will of Jehovah. Adam and his household will be outside the garden. The ground will provide food needed to nourish and sustain the natural body of human flesh but tilling the ground of the field will not be the same as the pleasant work of tilling the garden. No longer will the mist go up to water the face of the ground. Man will be dependent upon the seasons of rain for the growing of crops (see Gen.2:4-6). And also now will come up thorns and thistles. These are aborted branches which should have borne fruit, but the life sap was cut off. Here is a constant reminder of the curse of death which came through the sin.

It will be hard work making provision for the family, causing sweat from the brow to run down over the face. Also in his livelihood man would have sorrow, emotional pain. There would be crop failure caused by drought and disease and storms, all natural causes of the curse of death. And the farmer’s animals will die. The sorrow will keep man cast upon Jehovah as his ever present Help in time of need (Ps.46:1). Man can learn from experience who he is - a creation of the living and true God, a creation dependent upon God for his very breath, and responsible to the power and authority of his sovereign Master. Man has a choice to learn through revelation, in having the eyes of His understanding opened to see what God is saying in His word.

“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Gen.3:20). Here is seen the understanding of Adam. The “living” are to be the ones who, having been born of the flesh, believe in the righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son to be born from above, born in a deathless body like unto the body of the glory of the coming Son, an immortal, imperishable body.

“Eve” has the meaning of “life-giver.” Eve will conceive of Adam’s seed and give life to all who are born of the seed of man, born of human flesh of the earth, earthy. Adam will be the father of all mankind born of human flesh (Gen.5:3). The life will be passed down through the sons of mankind. Sons of men will marry daughters of men, who will conceive of man’s seed and birth sons and daughters of human flesh. Of those born of Adam’s seed, whosoever will can choose to be born again and become a living son of God (Jn.1:12-13).

In the fullness of time, the Anointed Son would come to be of the nation Israel through the seed of Abraham, a son of Adam, and through the seed of David, a son of Adam (Gal.4:4; Mt.1:1). Through the seed of David, Heli was born of the flesh, a son of Adam. Through the seed of Heli was born the virgin to conceive the birthed Son of God, Jesus, the Anointed Son of Man (see Mt.1:18-25; Lk.1:26-35; 3:23-38). Through the Seed of the begotten Son out from the dead would come all the living sons of God, all having been born of God (Gal.3:26; 4:6).

Adam did not call himself the “father of all living,” as he understood the seed coat for the begotten Son of God must be holy. The seed of man would not be used for the holy body of Jesus. The body would be in the likeness of man, a mortal body of flesh and blood, but the life of the body would be prepared from living flesh of the virgin womb (see Ps.22:9; 139:13-14; Is.7:14; 49:5; Rom.8:3; Heb.2:9-17; 10:5-14). The body for the seed coat of Jesus was the work of God through His Spirit (Lk.1:34-35).

Jesus was the Son of Man through a special conception. He was not a son of Adam. The gospel of the Anointed Son declares this to be so. In the light of the knowledge of the glory of God one “sees” to understand God’s Way of salvation.

“For Adam also and for his wife did Jehovah Elohim make coats of skin, and clothed them” (Gen.3:21). Jehovah had just told Adam, “You will return to the dust of the ground. For out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust shall you return” (Gen.3:19b).

The living are those born of the flesh, of the earth, whose bodies will return to the dust of the ground. Having been born again, the living will be given new bodies of flesh and skin in The Resurrection of Life. Adam will have new skin in The Resurrection of Life and His wife will have new skin. Jehovah assured each one of them.

Each one will be among the living. Though neither Adam or his wife had been born of the flesh, each one, through faith in the coming Anointed Son, had been born again. Here is the proof. Jehovah has made provision for each of them to have a body with new skin.

In the Covenant of the gospel declared in the heavens in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” Jehovah had set before Adam and his wife His means of being just to justify those who lived before Jesus actually became flesh to die for our sins and be buried and raised up on the third day (Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; Rom.3:22-26; 1 Cor.15:3-4).

In Him is the redemption of the dead body of the seed coat of flesh. The Anointed Son was set forth as the Propitiation, the Man who put away sin once for all and who overcame death with eternal life to the satisfaction of the living and true God.

In choosing to receive the Propitiation set forth is the sanctification of the very being. The soul of life is set apart unto God as His to fulfill the purpose of his being to become a son of God. Sons of God bear the image of God. This will be consummated in the redemption of the body in The Resurrection of Life. Adam and his wife, having received the Propitiation set before them in the gospel of the Covenant Son, each had full hope of the eternal life promised in the Anointed Son and given before the foundation of the world (see Tit.1:2; 2 Tim.1:9-10). The God of peace Himself sanctifies completely one’s whole spirit, soul and body, preserved in the Propitiation, the One in whom is the redemption (1 Cor.1:30; 1 Thess.5:23).

In “The Book of the Law,” written that the kings of Israel might have the record, Moses - the prophet whom there was none like and whom Jehovah knew face to face - recorded certain facts for the record (Deut.31:24-26; 34:10-12). This is a record to preserve the history of man’s redemption and Israel’s forefathers and those who would be the ancestors of the birthed Anointed Son of Man. Moses was not keeping a specific time line but a written record of the facts.

This concludes our lesson.

Lesson 23 The Witness of Faith

                                   The Witness of Faith

                                        Abel - Enoch - Noah

                                            Hebrews 11:1-7

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders received witness.” ... “Without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him” (Heb.11:1-2, 6).

The faith is that which God has shown of Himself, that He might be made known, that man might believe that He is, and that He is the Rewarder of those who seek Him. Adam and Eve were the first ones shown what can be known of God.

Both Adam and Eve believed what God had made known, and each one was rewarded with eternal life. Each one, when presented with the hope of eternal life, received the One in whom is the redemption (see Gen.3:20-21; Rom.3:22-26). Each one offered eternal life in the Anointed Son of the Eternal Covenant, who was coming to die in their stead (see Heb.2:9-10; 1 Tim.2:3-6). Each one was accepted in the One coming to be man’s Substitute, the Lamb of God, who was slain before the foundation of the world (1 Pet.1:17-20; Rev.13:8; Heb.4:3).

Faith puts us immediately in touch with the spiritual realities. Faith has the power to make things hoped for so real we act as though they already are. Faith is the only way to please God. Pleasing God is the only way to live.

In his letter to the Hebrew believers in the assembly, the writer is encouraging them in their need of patience [endurance]. In a little while Jesus will come and establish the Kingdom (Heb.10:36-37). When Christ returns to earth a second time, apart from sin, unto salvation, it will be the salvation of His people, Israel (Heb.9:28; see Rom.11:26-27).

Israel rejected her Messiah and delivered Him up to be crucified (see Ac.2:22-40; 3:12-4:12). It was necessary for Jehovah to leave Israel in her sin as yet an unregenerate nation. The eternal inheritance promised to Abraham and to his seed must await the time of the resurrection and the regeneration of the nation Israel (see Is.66:7-9; Ezek.37:11-28; Mt.19:27-28).

Everything is timed. He appeared the first time upon earth in the fullness of time. God sent His Son, become of a woman, become under the Law (Gal.4:4). The first time Jesus came to put away sin once for all and to overcome death with eternal life (Rom.6:9-10; Heb.10:10-12). In The Resurrection of Life it would be seen that Christ has conquered death of the physical body of human flesh.

At His first coming, when He had by Himself purged our sins, Jesus ascended back to His Father in heaven and sat down on His right hand (Heb.1:2-3). Jesus, as the Son of Man, was received back into heaven, crowned with glory and honor (Heb.2:9; Phil.2:5-11; 1 Pet.3:22). He is just waiting until it is time to destroy all of His enemies and to set up His Kingdom (Ps.110:1; Is.66; Dan.7:13-27; Rev.11:15-18). His people will receive Him in the day of His power (Ps.110:3).

Jesus was always coming down to earth twice. It was a part of God’s Covenant plan. As the first coming was timed in the Covenant plan, so the second coming has a timing (Dan.2:44; 7:1-27; 9:24-27; 12:8-13; Mt.24:3-31).

In any age, the just, the righteous, shall live through faith. The literal Greek is “shall live out of faith” (Hab.2:4; Rom.1:17; Heb.10:38a).

Three great words in one short sentence:

The just -    those having been justified, made righteous and acquitted of all charges of sin and guilt.

shall live - in the Anointed Son of God’s Covenant, the hope of eternal life, the hope of glory. Those whom He justified, God also glorified.

  out of faith -   The righteousness of God is through faith in the Anointed Son of God’s Covenant.

The eternal God had a plan in mind, a plan which only He could bring to fruition. God Himself would work it out in time and history. The plan would be worked out in stages, called “ages.” The Hebrews, to whom the letter was written, were living after the first coming of the Anointed Son of God’s Covenant. It was the last days. God had spoken in Son (Heb.1:2). The last days end in judgment and the Hebrews were being warned. At His second coming Jesus will make a short work of His enemies in judgment. There will be the regeneration of the heavens and the earth, that His Kingdom of righteousness may be established a Kingdom of righteousness and peace (see Is.65:17-66:6). God has had His say in the age of the last days before the judgment on His enemies.

God’s last word to man was: His Son, the Word, who is God, who was in the beginning with God, the Son in whom is eternal life and the Life that is the Light of men (Heb.1:2; Jn.1:1-4). The Seed of the woman coming as promised (Gen.3:15). From the beginning God, in former ages, spoke through His prophets, the first two being Adam and Eve (Heb.1:1; Ac.3:18, 21). The true prophets of God’s nation Israel spoke for their God. They spoke the words of their God, Jehovah. They made known what God had to say (see Is.45:11-46:11; 48:3-17; Jer.7:25; 25:4-5; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; Amos 3:7; Lk.1:70; 1 Pet.1:10-12; 2 Pet.1:19-21).

God sent His Son to His people, the sons of Israel, the twelve tribes who made up the nation. Jesus came to His own people, His kindred. Jesus was a son of David, a son of Abraham, but His own did not receive Him (Mt.1:1; Jn.1:11). Here was the Son of God, sent as the Son of Man exactly as He had been pictured in the Law, sent as prophesied by God’s spokesmen, the prophets of old (see Lk.24:25-27, 44-48; Ac.3:13-24; Rom.3:21-22). The Father’s own witness to Jesus was, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him” (Mt. 17:5). Yet His own people would not receive Him.

Here was the promised Prophet, like unto Moses. God spoke through His prophet Moses, “I will raise up unto them [the people] a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him” (Deut.18:18-19).

It is written, “But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like unto Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders which Jehovah sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and by all that mighty hand, and all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel” (Deut.34:10-12). Nor would there be such a prophet until Jesus, the  Anointed Covenant Son, came (see Jn.1:19-23; 7:40; Ac.3:22-26). The Jews of Jesus’ day had this teaching of the Pentateuch. When the Jews sent a delegation of priests and Levites from Jerusalem to John the Baptist to ask, “Who are you?”, they asked him, “Are you that Prophet?”, proving that they were looking for the Prophet like unto Moses (Jn.1:15-22).

Jesus was a Prophet raised up from among His own brethren, a Prophet like unto Moses, to be the Redeemer-Deliverer of His people (see Mt.1:1-23). Jesus’ own testimony was, “I have not spoken of Myself: but the Father, who sent Me, He gave Me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; whatever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak” (Jn.12:49-50; see Is.50:4).

The writer to the book of Hebrews does not give a definition of faith, but rather more of a description of faith. God has made promises to mankind based upon a Covenant made with Himself (Tit.1:2; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Heb.13:20). The things promised were unseen and yet future in the beginning (Heb.11:1-3, 39). “The Heavenly Revelation of the coming Son of the Eternal Covenant” was declared in the stellar heavens for all to see and hear (Gen.1:14-19; Job 9:6-9; 38:31-33; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; 147:4; Is.40:26). “The Heavenly Revelation” was taught to Adam and Eve personally and from them to their children. The righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son of the Eternal Covenant is made known from faith to faith (Rom.1:17).

God promised the hope of eternal life in the Son. In the former ages, Jehovah had shown through “types” and “figures of the true” how He was going to carry out His plan. In this way, it could be seen to the understanding through faith. With the eyes of the understanding opened, the shadow types and promises had substance. Through the shadow types, the promises had Substance in the Anointed Covenant Son who was seen in “figures of the true” (see Heb.9:1-26; 8:1-6; Jn.1:14-18, 45; 5:39-40).

The Substance is only seen to faith. One must be willing to take God at His word. Through believing the One who sent Jesus, the spiritual realities are made real to the understanding. Faith puts us in immediate touch with the unseen. With the eyes of the understanding having been enlightened, we see with understanding, we comprehend what God is making known of Himself (1 Cor.2:9-14; Eph.1:17-20). The hidden mysteries are revealed in the word pictures.

“Through faith we understand that the ages were framed [or fashioned, or prepared] by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb.11:3). The “word” of God here is not the Greek word logos, with reference to Jesus as the Word, as God (Jn.1:1-4, 14-18). The Greek word is rhema, “a saying,” or “words spoken.”  Through God sending prophets to speak for Him and through the record of the written words we understand the ages were planned by God.

The writer wrote “we,” including himself with those of the assembly having had the eyes of their understanding enlightened to see that the ages were arranged by God speaking. The work of the redemption of God’s creation of mankind was a very carefully laid out plan. As already stated, the work was to be carried out in stages called “ages.”

The plan began before the eternal ages. Elohim  said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen.1:26a). God the Son would become the Servant of the Father and take the likeness of man to become man’s Substitute in death, that man could be raised up out from the dead to live forever (Phil.2:5-8; Rom.8:3; Heb.2:5-17).

In the Son, the Father would have a willing Servant, one perfectly obedient Son, a Son whom He could accept (Jn.5:19-21,30; 6:38; 7:16; 8:28-29). Whosoever believed into the Son could be accepted with the Son (Jn.3:16; 6:39-40; Eph.1:6). The one united to the Anointed Covenant Son through faith would have his sins put on the Son. The Son became sin for mankind, that whosoever will would become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor.5:21). United with Him in His death and His burial, one will also be of resurrection. His death is our death and we are raised up in His likeness, conformed to the image of God’s Son in a forever living body in the image of God (Rom.6:3-10; 8:29; Phil.3:21).

In each age, God spoke these truths through His true prophets (Ac.3:18-24; Lk.1:67-70; 1 Pet.1:9-12; 2 Pet.1:20-21). Through faith the eyes of the understanding are enlightened to see what is being said. The reason is instructed by the witness of the Holy Spirit. Faith is not irrational. Faith is not illogical. Faith is not unreasonable. In fact, faith is an intelligent grasp of the facts.

Faith furnishes the necessary starting point for a coherent understanding of that which can be seen by faith alone. Faith hears the words of the Anointed Covenant Son and is persuaded of the truth and the wisdom and power of God being shared in what God has to say. Hearing the words of the Anointed Covenant Son and with the eyes of the understanding having been enlightened, one sees the righteousness of God being offered for putting one’s faith in the blood of the Anointed Covenant Son. Being justified through faith, and having become righteous in the Anointed Covenant Son, and taught of the Spirit, living righteous becomes as natural and as necessary to the well-being of own’s soul as breathing is to the well-being of own’s body.

Man’s wisdom cannot correct one. Man’s wisdom cannot tell me what is good for me. Man’s wisdom cannot tell what is wrong with humanity. It cannot tell us why we act the way we do. And what is an even greater mystery is why our children act the way they do, even from birth. Man has come up with his answers, but society is yet in chaos and the chaos is growing.

God’s wisdom tells us these things. Man’s wisdom does not tell us why God allows evil. God’s word tells us. Man’s wisdom does not tell us how history will play out, but God’s word does. Through God’s word one’s intellect is instructed.

What our physical eyes and ears and all of our physical senses press in upon us from the world around us is made real to us. What we can see and hear and taste and touch and smell seems real. But it is all changing. It is all passing. We have to take in what the Holy Spirit is pressing in on us through the word of God, to put us in touch with the spiritual realities to see with our understanding, to hear the voice of the Spirit witnessing to the truth, to taste and see that Jehovah is good and to savor the sweetness of His Presence (Ps.34:8; see Heb.3:7-8; Rev.2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). When one takes hold of the spiritual realities, they take hold of you.

The spiritual realities are eternal. As can be seen in Ecclesiastes 3:14, everything that God does is eternal, forever. Nothing can be added to it by man and nothing can be taken away from it. All is done by God and for God and through God. Yet it is done through God speaking and a man who believes God doing as God says.

The eternal God is the first Person whom you meet in Scripture. Before time began, there He was. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1). God is the Origin of everything brought into being. “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (Jn.1:3). God is the Source of all things He made.

Paul wrote to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek [Gentile]. For in it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live out of faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Rom.1:16-20).

The invisible things are clearly seen. How?  They are understood by the things made. The things made are “types,” figures of the unseen spiritual realities (see Rom.5:14b; Heb.8:5; 9:9, 24; 1 Pet.3:21). The unseen spiritual realities can be understood in the way they are shown, through the things made to picture the reality. What is seen in understanding the spiritual reality is God’s eternal power and Godhead.

With understanding, one is taken into the unseen eternal realm. With understanding, one sees the eternal plan of the Godhead. One sees that it takes all three persons of the Godhead to carry out the plan. One sees that there is one God in three persons (see Is.48:16; Mt.3:16-17; Jn.14:16-26; 15:26; Col.1:19; 2:9). There is One Essence, Deity, but there is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three One Essence, one mind. All Three in One are Love and Light and Life. All of one will. All one - no division - no separation of thought, desire or will.

With the understanding of the things made one sees the eternal power of God to carry out what He had in His plan. God did not begin to build, He did not lay the foundations of the earth without being able to bring regeneration to the heavens and the earth. He did not go to war with His enemies without being able to destroy them and set up His Kingdom of peace and righteousness (see Lk.14:28-32).

In the first chapter in the book of Romans we learn that the things made give us understanding of the invisible realities. The visible is showing forth God to make Him known. In the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews we are told that the things which are seen are not made of things appearing; that is, the things not seen to the senses, but to the understanding in the very spirit of one’s being.

What are the things seen in the spirit with understanding made of?  Faith. God has faith in Himself and in His plan of having sons of God in His image. We understand God’s planning the ages through what He works through faith, through men who will believe Him to see, men who heard the promises of the unseen future things and believed the Promiser (see Heb.11:8-40; Rom.4:13-24). They saw the visible types and they believed that He is and that if they came to Him, He would reward them with the promises, the promise of righteousness and the promise of eternal life. The things done in the Eternal Covenant and promised to faith were brought into being and seen as done through men of faith who chose to believe in God’s doing - age after age.

Faith sees and faith acts. In God’s word we see God’s faithfulness to Himself as we see the things God worked out through men of faith. We see the faithfulness of God, who has shown Himself faithful to the ones believing Him and entrusting themselves to Him. We see faith at work and God accomplishing His plans down through the ages to have sons of God, conformed to the image of His begotten Son, the image of God, that He might be the Firstborn of many brethren (Rom.8:29; Heb.2:9-17).

Through faith the men of old received witness to having lived out of faith in receiving the eternal life in the Son (Heb.11:1-2). The writer of the book of Hebrews lists men of old who, in different ages, lived out of faith. Men who came to God believing that He is, and God rewarded their faith with righteousness and eternal life. The writer chose three men who lived in the Antediluvian Age, before the Flood with its waters of judgment. The writer did not begin with Adam or with Eve, the ones to whom Jehovah Elohim had manifested Himself in a pre-incarnate appearance and who spoke to them personally (Gen.1:27-3:24).

Instead, for the beginning, the writer chose to speak of the first set of twins conceived and birthed by Eve. He chose men to whom God is invisible and must be made known through the things made and through the word of God taught by someone who can reveal the hidden things of the types, men who must take God at His word, and believe what He has said. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaks” (Heb.11:4).

Abel had not seen the Anointed Covenant Son. Yet, when he heard the words of the Anointed Covenant Son taught by his parents, he believed that the unseen God is and he believed that God would reward him with righteousness and eternal life if he came to the unseen God through His unseen Anointed Covenant Son. Abel heard the voice of the Spirit in the words spoken by his parents and his understanding was enlightened to see what he could not see with his physical eyes. Abel put his faith in the blood of the coming Anointed Covenant Son to cleanse from all unrighteousness and he brought the offering which spoke of the Propitiation set forth by God (Rom.3:22-26; 1 Jn.2:1-2; 4:9-10). “And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering” (Gen.4:4).

In type, as he had been instructed, Abel offered to God the excellent Sacrifice of the One coming to die in his stead (Heb.2:9-10; Col.1:20-22; 1 Pet.1:17-21). Abel asked to be accepted in the coming Anointed Covenant Son. It was not just the firstlings of his flock and the fat that Abel offered. The sacrificial offerings, Abel’s gifts,  spoke of the One in whom Abel had put his faith to receive eternal life and to again be clothed with skin after his earthly body had returned to dust (see 2 Cor.5:1-4). And it was seen that God accepted Abel with his offering. Thus God witnessed that Abel was righteous.

We see the true worship of God in spirit and truth in Abel (see Jn.4:24). What made these things seen?  The word of God. There is the evidence of the power of God through the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son, the power of God unto salvation, through the words of the Anointed Covenant Son to the one believing. Abel understood that the new body would be raised up out from the dead body. Abel lived out of faith. Abel will be raised up in the last day, the day of the resurrection of the righteous, The Resurrection of Life (Lk.14:14; 20:34-38; Jn.5:25-29; 6:39-40; 11:23-24; Ac.24:15; Rev.20:6).

In Cain, we see that the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son has no effect in the life of one who refuses to come to God through the blood of the Anointed Covenant Son. “And in process of time [at the end of days, a set time] it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah” ... “Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering He did not have respect. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, ‘Why, or, for what reason are you angry?  And why is your countenance fallen?  If you do well, shall you not be accepted?’” (Gen.4:3-7a).

As was Abel, Cain was born in the dark concerning the spiritual realities. The natural man is born with darkened understanding, blind to spiritual realities (see 1 Cor.2:14; 2 Cor.4:4). The blind man does not see things in the wrong light. The blind man does not see at all. He is in the dark. It is not that Cain saw the sacrifices in the wrong light. Cain did not see with understanding the sacrifice of the animal offered as a figure of the coming Son of the Covenant, whose blood cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Cain rejected the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son preached by his parents (see 1 Jn.3:12; Jude 10-11). He could not see his need of salvation offered in the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son. He would not. Cain had faith in his own person. A blind man cannot see at all, but he has his imagination. Not seeing, he can imagine.

God witnessed to Abel becoming righteous by receiving Abel with his gifts (Heb.11:4). Abel’s gifts were the evidence of his faith. Abel, believing the words concerning the Anointed Covenant Son, brought God the proper gifts. Abel’s gifts of sacrifice showed his faith in the blood of the coming Anointed Covenant Son as his only hope of eternal life. The Anointed Covenant Son would come and take the consignment of the death of the earthly body of human flesh to return to the dust of the ground passed upon becoming lifeless (Gen.3:19). Death passed through to all  men (see Rom.4:25-5:14; Col.2:14; 1 Pet.3:18). The shed blood was the evidence of the death required in the transgression. Abel accepted the Substitute provided by God. When his parents shared this truth with Abel, it was good news to Abel. The Anointed Covenant Son would become sin for him, that he might become the righteousness of God through faith in the coming Anointed Covenant Son (see 2 Cor.5:19-21). That was good news to Abel. Abel united himself to the coming Anointed Son of the Covenant in His death, burial and resurrection (see Rom.3:22-26).

The writer makes the point that we see Abel, though long dead, yet speaking. God is still using Abel as the evidence that the just shall live out of faith. All down through the ages here is Abel witnessing to the worship of faith in spirit and in truth (Jn.4:24).

God had Moses record His witness to the faith of Abel. In the record of “The Book of the Law,” in the account in Genesis, God witnessed to Abel’s faith and to the reward of that faith with righteousness and life. And the record is still a witness to the worship of Abel. Abel is still telling of the true worship of God through faith in God’s only begotten Son, the Anointed Son of God’s Eternal Covenant.

And we see that righteousness is from faith to faith (Rom.1:17). Abel, hearing the words of the Anointed Covenant Son from his righteous parents, heard the voice of the Spirit, to see in the spirit of his being with his understanding the reality of the invisible things clearly to be seen in the “types” and “figures of the true.” And Abel believed to experience the power of God in the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son unto salvation. Having become righteous through faith in the blood of the Anointed Covenant Son, Abel could see the things planned by Jehovah Elohim to be carried out down through the ages to come, things not appearing to the senses. Things seen only to faith. One believes to see. Seeing, Abel became a prophet of righteousness. Abel could make God known through the things he could see in his understanding.

Faith enables God to use His power of salvation on our behalf, His power to make us safe from the condemnation to come, to heal us from sin-sickness. His power to justify us, to make us righteous and acquit us from all charges of sin and guilt (Col.2:11-15). His power to glorify those whom He has justified. And His power to instruct us in righteousness and teach us the deep things of God, that we might live righteous and pleasing to Him (1 Cor.2:9-16).

The next antediluvian saint chosen for a witness by the writer to the Hebrews was Enoch. Enoch was seven generations from Adam (Jude 14). Adam, the first generation, Enoch, the seventh. In Scripture, “seven” is the number of “completion.” Enoch was born in the godly line of the preachers of The Way of God to do righteousness and justice (Gen.5). The preachers were descendants of Adam’s son, Seth, “the appointed” (Gen.4:25-26).

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb.11:5). The King James uses the word “translated” for the Greek metatithemi. The Greek has the meaning of “denoting a change of place or of condition. To put in another place, or condition; hence, to translate, transport, transfer.”

The writer was using the Septuagint version of Scripture for his Old Testament reference. Around 250 b.c. the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek by seventy Hebrew scholars; hence, the name Septuagint [“70"]. Rather than reading “Enoch walked with God” as the Hebrew has it, the Septuagint reads “Enoch was well-pleasing to God” (Gen.5:22, 24).

God gave testimony to Abel being righteous and He gave testimony to Enoch as being well-pleasing to Him. Each one was witnessed to as a man who lived out of faith. Faith is what pleases God (Heb.11:6). In their age, both Abel and Enoch were well-pleasing to God. Out of faith each one became the righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son of the Covenant, who became sin for them. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). The coming Anointed Covenant Son Himself was the object of both Abel’s and Enoch’s faith. The Anointed Covenant Son Himself having become righteousness to each one, the Anointed Covenant Son Himself was the assurance of the hoped for promises of the gospel being fulfilled to Abel and to Enoch (see Rom.8:14-30; 1 Cor.1:30). The Anointed Covenant Son was their only hope of the body of eternal flesh and bone being raised up out from the dead mortal body in The Resurrection of Life (see Jn.5:21-29; 11:25-27; Rev.20:6).

The key phrase in Genesis 5, where the preachers of righteousness are listed, is “and he died.”  But in Genesis 5:24 we read, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.” The Septuagint version reads, “And he was not found, for God translated him.” Though it is not used in most Bible versions, the Greek text has the definite article “the” before God - the God. That is the God, the Elohim, who had made Himself known to faith. We are not told why God removed Enoch from the earth, but the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Enoch had this testimony of God that Enoch was well-pleasing. God was pleased to have Enoch with Him.

Abel is a witness to the worship of faith in spirit and in truth. Enoch is a witness to the walk of faith in fellowship with the Father and with the Son. Enoch walked worthy of his high calling as a son of God. His Father God took Enoch up from the earth. He removed Enoch from the field of the world. We are not given any details.

It is here in the letter written to the Hebrews that the writer has a word to say about pleasing God. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb.11:6).

Obviously the writer is speaking of the God of the Scriptures, the God of men of faith, the God who had shown what could be known of Himself that man might be without excuse for not believing Him. This is the God to whom each one must come believing that He is, and believing that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Each one named by the writer as having come unto God believing that He is. Though they had not seen Him with physical eyes, they had heard His promises, and through having the eyes of their understanding enlightened, they saw Him afar off and put their faith in His blood, to be rewarded with righteousness and eternal life (see also Heb.11:13-16). The assured hope of glory in a forever living body was theirs. Whom God has justified, those He also glorified with a body to be raised up out from the dead body (Rom.8:30b).

The Anointed Covenant Son was coming, the Seed-Grain for a forever living body (Jn.12:23-24; see Jn.11:25-27). Then He would come a second time to redeem the bodies sealed with the spirit of eternal life. It was all there to be seen in “the figures of the true” (see Heb.9:23-28; Rom.5:14). God making Himself known through the pictures in the figures. First, all was recorded in and declared by the heavens in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant.” With God’s nation Israel, the Ceremonial Law was given and practiced as the worship of God’s own people. And it was all recorded for God’s people, the sons of Israel, who kept the record down through the ages. Each one of these men of old had the witness of God written in “The Book of the Law” or in the record continued by the Hebrew writers of the history and Psalms and poetry and by the prophets of Israel (see 1 Pet.1:3-12; 2 Pet.1:19-21; Lk.1:70; Ac.3:21; Rom.3:21).

The God who accepted the gifts of Abel and declared him righteous, who was well-pleased with Abel in his worship and with Enoch in his walk, is [He has being], and He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Whether one is martyred for the sake of righteousness or one is removed from the earth by God Himself, the reward is righteousness in the Anointed Covenant Son and eternal life, a forever living body in the image of the heavenly, conformed to the image of the Son of God’s Love. One is birthed a son of God in a forever living body.

But without faith, there is no reward. God is not pleased with those who draw back, as seen in the Greek, which is a picture language. In Hebrews 10 the writer pictures drawing back as a sailor deliberately taking in sail when he should be putting out every stitch of canvas to catch the breeze and move forward. And as a result of striking sail, he is becalmed and does not reach the harbor of safety - the Kingdom of sons of God (see Heb.10:38-39).

For those who have taken in the full knowledge of the witness to the Anointed Covenant Son, the Christ, and, hearing the words of the Anointed Covenant Son, refused to believe the One who sent Him, there remains no more sacrifice for sin (Heb.10:26; see Jn.5:23-24). Having drawn back when they should have put out full faith to catch all that the wind of the Spirit was carrying them to. When He would have enlightened the eyes of their understanding as to who God is, they becalmed themselves in the flesh to their own destruction. They will receive a just recompense (see Heb.10:20-31).

When one’s ears have heard the words of the Anointed Covenant Son, and the eyes of the understanding have been enlightened to the truth of what can be known of God, that which has been shown of God, the heart should have been convinced by the evidence that God is, and one should have come to Him to lay hold of all that He has promised, and to be rewarded with righteousness and eternal life.

They that are in the flesh cannot please God. They cannot. For the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to God, neither indeed can be. They that are after the flesh are minding the things of the flesh. To be fleshly minded is death (see Rom.8:5-13).

Sin essentially is lawlessness (1 Jn.3:4). Sin is not ignorance of God’s Law. Sin is a revolt against God having the say. Sin is self-will. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. God made an exodus out of the flesh for all mankind (Rom.4:25-5:11; Tit.2:11; 1 Jn.2:1-2). Man is responsible to take the exodus (see Jn.3:14-21). Come to God, believing that He is, be rewarded with righteousness and eternal life.

There are two ways to walk through life in this world, but only one is pleasing to God (Rom.6:4; 8:1-13; 12:1-2; 2 Cor.5:7; Gal.5:16-25; 1 Jn.1:5-10). The other way is to walk in darkness. That is what men call “by sight”; that is, everything based on what you can see and understand through the senses. Everything is based on judging according to the flesh. You show it to me and I will believe it, man says.

Walk in light, believe to see, believe that God is, and  become the righteousness of God through faith in God’s Anointed Covenant Son and have the Holy Spirit come to live in your earthy tent with you and guide you and lead you in all the truth as He glorifies Christ, and keep walking in the light to see the spiritual realities (Tit.3:5; Eph.5:8-17). In this way, men are witnessed to in this world either as having lived in the flesh by sight, minding the things of the flesh, or as having lived out of faith, rewarded with righteousness and a forever living body, to be conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom.8:29).

The worship of faith is in spirit and truth.

The walk of faith is in fellowship with the Father and with the Son.

The work of faith is in loving obedience to the will of God.

Such faith as Abel’s and Enoch’s exerts its influence over others who follow them in faith to believe in the righteousness provided man in the Anointed Covenant Son and to live out of faith. In this way, the Good News was passed down to Noah, who becomes the third antediluvian witness of the writer.

In Noah, we see the faith that works through Love. Faith takes instruction from God and goes to work in obedience to the word of God. In Noah, we see how God could continue to carry out His plan of redemption to His end, though all mankind should turn against Him.

The Genesis record tells us that “Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah” (Gen.6:8). When Jehovah looked at Noah, He saw a man of His grace saved through faith. “Noah was a just [righteous] man and perfect [complete] in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Gen.6:9).

Wherever you find grace, you will find someone who has faith. “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the Gift of God” (Eph.2:8). Grace is the great favor that God has done us in the Anointed Covenant Son Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” a forever living body (Jn.3:16; 1 Cor.15:44). The believer’s whole life from start to finish is a miracle of God’s grace - His undeserved favor done in love.

Where you find faith, you will find a justified man become righteous. “Being justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Anointed Covenant Son” (Rom.5:1). Wherever you find a justified man, you will find a perfect [complete] man, a man who lived out of faith to have a forever living body in the resurrection. Noah was such a man. Noah lived in the generation before the Flood and He also lived in the generation after the Flood.

The point of the writer concerning Noah being, to show the work of faith: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear [a reverential awe], prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Heb.11:7).

The preachers in Noah’s family were prophesying of a coming judgment. It was not yet seen; it had not yet come, but when it became necessary to prepare an ark of safety, Noah was warned of God to begin building the ark. God can warn anyone who believes Him and reveres Him and walks with Him (see Amos 3:7; Dan.9:20-12:13).

Noah had faith and a godly reverence. Faith believes God to be in charge of history. Faith believes that God Himself has planned the ages, believes what God says to be so and acts accordingly. Faith worships and walks and works according to the truth on the basis of God’s word. Faith desires to be right with God and, in fellowship, listens to what God has to say. Faith believes that God cannot lie and one gives the whole heart and soul to do what God wills.

“Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his household.” Noah made his household safe from the condemnation of the judgment of the waters in the way in which he was instructed by God. The ark was the only place of safety. The waters that covered the earth lifted the ark with the eight souls above the earth, above all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven (Gen.7:11-20).

The point is not that Noah and his family escaped death by drowning. The real point is that Noah and his family were the only people to come through the judgment of God, a judgment upon all flesh that had corrupted its way upon earth (Gen.6:12-13; 1 Pet.3:18-20).

In preparing an ark to make his family safe, Noah showed the whole world to be condemned by God. The whole world of mankind in the flesh had been judged guilty and condemned to destruction by God. Man in the flesh a condemned creation; not suitable for use in the purpose intended by God that man should be in His image (Jn.3:3-8; 1 Cor.15:50-57).

The same waters that saved Noah and his family by lifting them up off the earth drowned the world in which they had lived upon earth. In the ark, Noah and his family made their escape from that condemned world. They made their exodus from a defiled creation under Divine judgment condemned to destruction. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom.1:18).

Noah and his family came through the waters of Divine judgment to a whole new beginning upon a cleansed earth. God’s earth had been washed clean of corruption. The world in which they had once lived was gone, destroyed by the judgment. The Flood of waters of the Divine judgment was God’s way of cleansing His earth from a corrupt and violent world.

The Flood was a righteous judgment, the work of a holy and just God upon sinners who stubbornly refused to repent, who refused to change their minds to agree with God in His way to do righteousness and justice in His Anointed Covenant Son. Unrighteous men were destroying themselves. The Flood was an act of severe mercy and love to rid God’s earth of unspeakable wickedness and to save the household of His Son. The salvation was accomplished through the obedience of one righteous man, Noah. Noah’s sons and their wives were saved to repopulate the earth, that in their progeny God might have sons of God in His image, after His likeness, and that He might have a family through whom His coming Anointed Son could be birthed.

Noah became heir to the righteousness which is according to faith. Noah was the last prophet of the antediluvian saints. Noah alone had the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face of the Son of the Covenant, as revealed in “The Heavenly Revelation.” The gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son, the power of God unto salvation, was the family heritage to be treasured. The gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son was taught in the Law of the Offerings. The hope of eternal life was seen in “the figures of the true,” the shadow picture of the Substance.

The heir comes into possession of the inheritance on the death of the testator (see Heb.9:15-17). Noah’s father Lamech died five years before the Flood (Gen.5:28-32; 7:11). When Noah’s grandfather Methuselah died, the Flood was sent. Noah was then the sole possessor of the treasure of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face of the Anointed Covenant Son. He held the treasure in his earthen vessel, his body of flesh (2 Cor.4:6-7). It is most likely that Noah also carried written records on the ark. That was long before Moses’ time, and Moses had the record of the antediluvian saints.

Noah, as the steward of the treasure, was entrusted to dispense out of the Master’s treasure. Noah heard the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son from the faithful witness of those in his family who had believed that God is and that He rewards those who come to Him believing that He is with righteousness and eternal life. Noah took the treasure on board the ark with him to be preserved. The words concerning the Anointed Covenant Son must be watched over carefully and preserved.

There is only One Way to be made alive unto God. The righteous shall live - receive eternal life for the body out of faith in God’s Anointed Son, Christ Jesus. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of the Anointed Son is shared from faith to faith. The righteousness of God is seen in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is shared through the preaching of the gospel of the Anointed Son [Christ].

Mankind must hear and see to believe. The light of the knowledge of God is shined into the heart of one in the flesh of the earthen vessel. That one takes the knowledge into his mind, but the light of the knowledge of the glory must penetrate to the very spirit of one’s being. One must not shut the light out. One can only see in the light the reality of the God who is offering eternal life for the body through righteousness. The righteousness and the eternal life are in the begotten Son of God and freely offered as a gift to be freely received as a gift (Rom.5:12-21). The outshining of the glory is seen in the enlightenment to the knowledge of God’s Way of righteousness and eternal life.

Those of us who have received this treasure and hold it in our earthen vessels must let the light shine that others may see the power of God to make His creation of mankind safe from perishing. They will be drawn to the light and open their hearts to the light of the knowledge of God to let the light in and obey the truth to be born from above of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Cor.4:3-7). We are merely light-givers (see Phil.2:12-16). Down through all the ages the gospel of God’s Anointed Son is the power of salvation to whosoever believes God is.

This concludes our lesson.