PART  V  –  Associational Aspects of the Lamp-Stand Model

Subpart D  –  The Day of Atonement / Witness of Water Corollary

Article 3  –  The Waters of Noah

Section (b)  –   A Salvation by Deluge

By Daniel Irving

This section of Article 3 may be viewed at the following Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJFmh7DRBt8&feature=youtu.be

i.    The Day of an Abundance of the Knowledge of God

ii.   The Ark of Noah as a Metaphor for Sanctification of the Spirit

iii.  Salvation by Means of Destruction

iv.  The Washing Away of the False Hope

Section (c)  –  A SALVATION BY DELUGE 

i.  The Day of an Abundance of the Knowledge of God

There is a day appointed for the believer in Jesus Christ when he or she shall know an abundant provision of God’s mercy and presence that comes with the revelation of Jesus Christ.  This is a time of God’s choosing when the soul He has made is brought into a continual stream and abiding sense of His goodness and glory.  Such is the nature of our Creator, to take up and to embrace the objects of His mercy.  Therefore we have the prophecy concerning God’s plans for those who keep their faith in Jesus Christ:

For thus saith the Lord, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.                       Is. 66:12

What is signified when God expresses the peace He shall bring to His people through allusion to a river?  The allusion clearly indicates a continuously renewing and replenishment; a source as perpetual as God is eternal.  This speaks of the continual flow of God’s presence and glory into the inner being of His creature which He has redeemed through His own eternal being in sending  His only begotten Son into the world to die.  Therefore, because God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,” therefore God shall send forth the knowledge of this.  God shall extend to the believer in Jesus Christ “the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream.”

Jesus Christ is the “glory of the Gentiles.”  The Hebrew word translated “Gentiles” is goy,[1] which is interchangeably translated “nations.”  Jesus Christ is the glory of the nations because in Him, God did assume flesh and blood and through Him, became a fellow member of humanity.  The whole of humanity has been a given its true King in the Person of God born to men.  Thus the prophecy:

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,  is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.                    Ps. 48:2

The proper object of man’s rejoicing is the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ; the “joy of the whole earth.”  He is the image of the unseen God, and therefore He is the light of the world.  He is the life of God made accessible to men via His Cross.  He is “God with us,” and He has promised to be God in us through faith.  Why then should the nations not rejoice, having been invited into matrimony with God through the Person of His Son?

There is a coming day of joy for the nations at such time the Gospel is communicated with the corresponding witness of the Spirit, revealing the truth of their free access to God through the remission of sins.  While we might be tempted to perceive the interpretation of this prophecy as having fulfillment in a place and time event, better instincts might acknowledge that this time and place is even now and right here.  For the message of the Gospel is “now is the day of salvation.”  Therefore Paul, in conjunction with the Trumpet of the Spirit, states:

And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For he says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.”  behold, now is the ‘acceptable time’; behold, now is the ‘day of salvation’.                                     II Cor. 6:2

This should always be the rule for those called of God, ie. “today is the day of salvation;” not some hypothetical day in the future that will never come, when we might suppose the stage to be beautifully prepared.  This principle was true when God called us to water baptism.  The principle holds true when God calls us to repent and return to Him.  The principle holds for every redemptive act of God, including Pentecost, as we may receive the Spirit of God in a time of rain, or we may receive the Spirit of God outside a time of rain.  But Jesus said; “your heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.”[2]  He did not say to wait for a future time when you think God to be willing.  He simply told us “ask.”

We must also consider the incredible danger in holding any other view.  For if we tarry “in the day of salvation” and do not affirmatively step up to meet God when His Spirit beckons us to respond, then we face the prospect of missing that day.  This is true at each one of redemption’s altars, whether the alter of “trumpets”, the altar of the “day of atonement”, or the altar of “tabernacles.”  If the Spirit of God has called us forward for the purposes of redemption, then “how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”   Therefore the apostles taught today as the critical day to humble our hearts and look to God for His sustenance.  In this way we will not miss the movement of His Spirit upon the waters of the heart.

Again, He limits a certain day, saying in David, “To day, after so long a time;  as it is said, ‘To day if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.       Heb. 4:7

For if we will “hear His voice” and “harden not our hearts”, we become proper vessels for the life and work of His Spirit!

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you,  I will make known my words unto you.                               Prov. 1:23

ii.  The Ark of Noah as a Metaphor for Sanctification of the Spirit

The words of the Holy Spirit through Isaiah compares God’s dealings with those upon whom He will show mercy with the “waters of Noah” :

In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.  For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me;  For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; So have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.                                                                                      Is. 54:8-9

The Hebrew-word translated “waters” in the KJV and Interlinear verson is inexplicably translated “days” in the NASV.  But this is the universal word for water and waters throughout the KJV.  Neither does the prophecy necessarily compare this work of grace (v.8) to the “waters of Noah.” (v.9)  The strictest rendering would not be; “This is like the waters of Noah to Me”, rather the prophecy is saying, “This is the waters of Noah to Me.”  And this is the way it is rendered by the more literal Interlinear version.

If we ask what distinction this makes, consider which of the two allusions stands as the main concern.   Which is the Divine priority?  What is of more importance in terms of the kingdom of God and God’s purposes?  Is it the literal event of a flood upon the earth, or is it the Divine judgment of humanity?  Certainly it is the latter, for which the former exists only as a shadow and metaphor.  God’s purposes are directed toward the matter of which Noah has relevance only as a symbol.  Therefore the meaning is not that God’s mercy is “like the waters of Noah”, but rather the prophecy is saying; “This is the waters of Noah. The “waters of Noah” were only a symbol of what is happening now.  This is the real event, as if to say; “I will lift you up as if you were tightly sealed within an ark and keep you safe from the floodwaters as they cover the earth and as they engulf those that continue to dwell on the earth despite the Spirit’s witness being borne which beckons the elect into heaven.  And although “a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at they right hand”[3] we can trust that we shall be kept in sanctification by the Spirit of Christ.  The ark built by Noah stands metaphor for the sanctification of Jesus Christ through His Spirit.  The ark is a metaphor for the means by which (as Peter writes) we “are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”[4]   Therefore Peter invokes the metaphor of the ark of Noah in his explanation for the manner in which the elect shall be saved:

. . . who formerly were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited  in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared,  in which a few, that is, 8 souls, were saved through water.  The like figure whereunto even baptism does also now save us  (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:         I Peter 3:20-21

When Peter uses the term “filth of the flesh”, he is not speaking of literal dirt.  Rather he is speaking of that which is the flesh brings forth before God.  He speaks of a spiritual principle.  The flesh produces filthiness because the works of the flesh constitute uncleanness before God.  Peter is saying that our baptism does not in itself work our cleansing before God.  Water baptism cannot put off the “filth of the flesh.”  What water baptism represents is our response to God, and therefore a consent and petition for entry upon the work of Christ by a declaration of faith.  We, therefore, by water baptism, entrust our soul into the hands of God via a declaration of faith in Jesus Christ; which necessarily includes the keeping good conscience before God.  Through this means, God will cleanse us from our sin and establish us in His holiness, in His time.  Our role is to bring good faith and good conscience to His covenant by “keeping the feast day without the old leaven.” [5]

Notice when the salvation occurs!  Does it occur after the ark is shut up?  No, but the salvation occurs; “while the ark was being prepared.”  The flood is too late for salvation.  Salvation had been obtained by those shut up within the ark.  The day of salvation was a day of considerable length.  For it signifies the duration of God’s patience with humanity – that mystical duration of time that His Spirit consents to strive with man for man’s salvation.

iii.  Salvation by Means of Destruction

We may ask the question; Why is it necessary that God’s salvation come by the very way men are destroyed?  But consider that the salvation of the Church constitutes the reciprocal principle of the destruction of men.  The Church is saved from wrath, through the knowledge of the atonement, allowing the presence of the Spirit’s witness.  The Perishing are virtually defined as those resisting the knowledge of the atonement as it is brought to them, and therefore become objects fitted for destruction.  Just as the saints are given more provision of God’s presence unto sanctification, so are the perishing given more of God’s presence, before which to transgress through unbelief, as constituting the true nature of Sin.  This principle is expressed by Christ in His dialogue with Nicodemas:

  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, & men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.          John 3:19

And so, the darkness that condemns is the darkness that is chosen.  Darkness is chosen at such time we have the means of knowledge within our hand, but choose what is more expedient to earthly concerns.  This is the sin that condemns and the transgression that incites wrath; doing spite to the Spirit of Truth:

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 

The greatest condemnation is for those to whom truth was most evidently brought to their mind and to their heart, and yet they chose something less for the sake of this world.  Therefore the Lord’s greatest denunciations were levied at the cities where His greatest miracles were performed.

Successive revelations of God in Christ are what constitute the bringing in of the kingdom of God.  These are not within our power, but are brought by God, in His time.  But there is a remarkable aspect of this revelation given to men: Men become empowered for righteousness because they become empowered in things spiritual.  Likewise, as the kingdom of God is revealed, so does the potential for transgression come with it.  Where there is light, there is the potential for sinning against light.  Therefore the Light which saves, is also the Light which condemns:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, & men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.            John 3:19

iv.  The Washing Away of the False Hope

What might be the reason for the prophecy referring to God’s anger in terms of an overflowing of water as in a flood?  A statement of Job may help us:

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, & Thou does wrap up my iniquity.  But the falling mountain crumbles away, & the rock removes from its place;  Waters wear the stones: its torrents washaway the dust of the earth; So doest thou destroy man’s hope.                                                                                      Job 14:17-19

Job uses the Hebrew word shaw-taf’,[6] which is the same word used in Isaiah’s prophecy (Is. 54:8) which reads, “in a flood of wrath I hid my face from you.”  Speaking by the Spirit, Job alludes to the flood as the means to wash away men’s hope.  What is the hope of man?  The hope, trust, and confidence he places in natural things.  This is the hope of the natural man in natural things.  This is the same hope from which the apostle Paul was continuously disabused:

Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves  in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;         II Cor. 1:9

If the apostle Paul had to be continuously disabused of his natural hopes in this world, then certainly the prophet Job required the same operation of the Spirit of Christ.  Certainly also do we, if we are to continue in the hope of eternal life.  To be carnally-minded is death.

  For to be carnally-minded is death; but to be spiritually-minded is life & peace.                                                                                      Rom 8:6

And God would not have those heirs of life dwelling in the things of death.  For our earthly nature does not mind the things that God would have us attend upon:

But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God:  for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,  because they are spiritually-discerned.                                                                                      I Cor. 2:14

Therefore so long as the false hope of the natural man is indulged through the staying of judgment, he will continue in his earthly lusts and vanities, bearing the fruit of Death, which is Sin; those things Paul lists for the Galatians:

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and such things as these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.                         Gal. 5:19-21

What kingdom shall the carnally-minded, in fact inherit?  A kingdom which shall be swept by the divine “broom of destruction.”[7]  Residing in Death, these shall appropriately be swallowed up by the Grave.  The fruit of having our mind upon natural things is that we become motivated out of selfish desire and ambition.  This orientation is not spiritual, but devilish:

This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.   –   James 3:15

God’s elect cannot continue in spiritual things while following the natural mind and its natural inclinations.  Therefore, God must disabuse man of his natural hope.  He does this by bringing to bear the spiritual principle of Law; that principle which indicts the man’s conscience, and drives him to repent or be damned.  Those elected before the foundation of the world, are elected to repent unto the washing away of their earthly confidences, lest they share in the end of the wicked:

Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.              Phil. 3:19

Why is it necessary that man’s hope be “washed away”?  It is necessary because Christ came to save men, rather than to leave them in darkness, without the means to know their Creator Who loves them.  The elect of God will fasten upon the object of their redemption, the risen Lord Jesus Christ.  Only in this rightly-placed confidence does the Spirit of God make the promise, “but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,” saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.”

Quickened to that place in heaven purchased for them, they show themselves possessed of the faith to prove the promises of God true.  They are brought into the eternal covenant of peace, forever to abide in the love and compassion of God:

“For the mountains may be removed & the hills may shake,  but My loving-kindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken”, says the Lord who has compassion on you.               Is. 54:10