United by the Ark

By an unusual set of circumstances, I was introduced to a young Christian by email. He and his wife moved the same time as our daughter and her hubby to the same area. We decided to meet with this couple for a meal yesterday. It was as if we have known them forever. This is the grace of God. When He brings people into His family, we become just that — family.

This morning’s devotional gives a reminder of how that works. It is found in the story of Noah. This man’s life is summed up in the NT:

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

MacArthur goes on to explain that the ark is a picture of salvation by grace through faith. In the text describing its construction, an unusual word is used:

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. (Genesis 6:14)

The Hebrew word for pitch is from the same root as the word for atonement or a covering, which is what Jesus does to our sin. However, this word is also translated as a protected village, which is what God does for His people. Pitch kept the waters of judgment from entering the ark, just as Christ’s atoning blood keeps judgment from the repentant sinner. Pitch, or the word for it, also surrounds and protects God’s family, speaking of our protection and hinting at our unity, just like the people in the ark were protected from judgment, together in that protected place, emphasis on together. Shared atonement gives a sense of oneness even among people of different cultures, backgrounds, education, and often varied views of many things. This “pitch” not only suggests the presence of oil in the middle east, but it speaks of the covering and uniting power of God’s grace!

Noah’s task was enormous. Some say this ark was bigger than a football field and more than four stories high. It had more than enough room for the animals and people in it. Engineers say its structure was incredibly stable . . .  just like the structure of salvation. This is why it illustrates what God has done in Christ.  

Even at that, only eight people entered it. There was room for more and God would have welcomed them because “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient . . .  not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) He also says: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37) but “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14)

The story says that Noah “was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. He walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9) That does not mean he was sinless and some of that showed up after the flood, but like every true believer, he was justified by God’s grace, his faith being counted as righteousness. That has always been the basis of salvation.

And (Abram) believed the Lord, and (God) counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, (Romans 4:5)

And that faith produces a unity between people who are otherwise strangers, a blessed sense of being “in the same village” even with our many differences. Atonement, like the ark, is our covering and protection. Because of God’s grace we are saved and given the mind of Christ so when we get together we are aware of belonging together in His ‘walled city’ of unity and fellowship.

PRAY: Jesus, I see Your hand in all things, in our dinner last night with people we’d never met, in our mutual edification as brothers and sisters in You, in the saving grace and life of Noah and his family, in the power that still saves people though the atonement that is ours in You. What a lovely wonder You are, a gift from the Father that never stops giving.

PONDER: Romans 4:1–8 is the gospel but it also explains why the members of God’s family have a unity that goes beyond common interests and mutual agreement. According to this passage, what gives us the status of being covered and living together in a walled city?

 

 

God’s Covenant of Faith in His Promises . . .

 

Imagine being told this! Would I believe it and go . . . ?

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1–3)

I might need to hear this more than once! Abram did; God said the same thing several times and even put fourteen provisions in this COVENANT: Abraham would produce a great nation, receive a land, be greatly blessed and have a great name. He would be a blessing to others. Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. In this man, all would be blessed. He’d receive a son through Sarah, his descendants would be in bondage in Egypt, other nations would come forth from him, his name and Sarah’s would be changed. And just as the rainbow was the token of the Noahic Covenant, so circumcision on the eighth day would be the token of the Abrahamic Covenant.

This covenant was confirmed through Isaac, not any of the other children Abraham fathered. It was also confirmed through Jacob, Isaac’s son — and his sons who fathered the twelve tribes of Israel.

Abraham stood as the representative head of the whole Jewish nation. This covenant is unconditional yet remains unfulfilled in the sense of the promises to Israel, however the NT declares him the father of all who believe. Since this promise came before the Law, the Law does not make it void.

The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. (Galatians 3:17–18)

In other words, Abraham’s faith justified him before God, not because Abraham did anything to earn or even deserve the blessings of God on his life.

This covenant is spoken of throughout the OT:

O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. (Psalm 105:6–10)

The NT points out that the faith of this man is also the faith that marks all who are redeemed by God by grace through faith, not works:

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Romans 4:1–8)

The Abrahamic covenant declares the promise of God for all who believe God. “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring — not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” and “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” (Romans 4:16 and Galatians 3:7)

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The Bible says much more about Abraham and this covenant based on God’s promises to all who believe. It reveals Law was given to show believers how to live, not how to be saved. For now, I marvel at the power of God who keeps His promises. Did the promised of blessing come upon all who believe as Abraham did? Of course it has, and so also will God keep all that He said He would do. How and when are questions but faith simply trusts that God will do what He says. In these days of fearmongering and much fear all around me, this covenant is a comfort. Just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. I am one of her children. The evidence is Christ enabling me to do good and to be without fear of anything that is frightening. (1 Peter 3:6) I can trust the Lord who always keeps His promises, even when life presents great challenges.