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From this lesson on we intend to look into the summary of the Old Testament step by step. In this lesson we will examine the portion of the Old Testament from Adam to Noah.
Immediately after the fall, Adam and Eve realized that they had violated God’s prohibition against eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. They also realized that the result of their transgression was to be death. Therefore, they hid themselves from the Lord’s presence, awaiting the sentence of death. However, God came in, not to declare the sentence of death, but to preach the gospel, giving them a wonderful promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).
Besides receiving the promise of God’s redemption, Adam also experienced the anticipated redemption of God. (The actual redemption was to be accomplished four thousand years later.) After their fall, Adam and Eve realized that they were sinful. Thus, they tried to help themselves by making skirts of fig leaves to cover their nakedness. This indicates that they attempted to cover their sinful self with their own works. Before the fall man did not need blood to redeem him, but after the fall he needed the bleeding sacrifice to redeem him. Thus, man’s attempt to cover his nakedness with the product of the vegetable life can never work. The skirts that Adam and Eve made from fig leaves did not cover their nakedness in the eyes of God.
In Genesis 3:20, after Adam heard the glad tidings, he immediately called his wife’s name Eve, which means living. He believed that he and his wife were going to live and not die. Because of Adam’s believing, we see God’s justification in verse 21. After Adam believed in the glad tidings, God made coats of skins of the sacrifice for him and his wife and clothed them. The coats fully covered them. This means that God justified them (Gen. 3:21). To be justified means to be covered with the righteousness of God, which is Christ Himself. Adam and Eve’s being under the coats of the skins of the sacrifice signified that they had put on Christ. Christ as God’s righteousness covered them.
In order to make coats of the skins of the lambs, God probably killed the lambs in the presence of Adam and Eve. Thus, the blood of the lambs was shed, for without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). We have been redeemed by the precious blood of God’s Lamb, who was ordained by God for us before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:18-20) and was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Christ is the Lamb of God. Hence, we can see a picture of the shedding of Christ’s blood there in the garden of Eden. Without the shedding of blood, God cannot cover the fallen man. On the cross Christ was killed by the righteous God. Through the shedding of His blood God can now cover us with Christ as our righteousness. In the garden of Eden Adam experienced the anticipated redemption. His putting on of the coats of skins was based upon the shedding of the blood of the sacrifice, for the sacrificial lamb became a substitute for sinful man.
Genuine substitution is based upon union. Adam and Eve were sinful, and the lambs were killed and their blood shed for their sins. But if the lambs and Adam and Eve had been separated from one another, the lambs could not have substituted for them. Once Adam believed in the gospel, God covered him with a coat of lamb skins, and he became one with the lamb. The sinner had become one with the substitute. This is union. Union brings about the effectiveness of substitution. Once we participate in that union, whatever the substitute has accomplished is ours. Christ has done everything for us on the cross. Since we are one with Christ, whatever Christ has accomplished on the cross becomes ours. Hence, when Adam and Eve put on the coats of skins made by God, this typifies that they had believed into Christ and become one with Christ.
Abel worked and lived for God; he also lived by God. He was a feeder of sheep for God (Gen. 4:2, Heb.). During Abel’s time sheep were not to be eaten by men, because before the flood men were allowed to feed upon vegetables and fruits only (Gen. 1:29). Therefore, Abel’s feeding the sheep was not to seek food for his own existence. He did not work and live for himself as Cain did, but for God’s satisfaction as God desired. It seems that the purpose and interest of his life was to satisfy God in God’s way.
Abel did not present his sacrifice according to his concept, thought, or way, but according to God’s way of salvation. He worshipped God according to His revelation (Heb. 11:4). He knew that he had been born of fallen parents and that he was evil, sinful, and polluted in the eyes of God. He needed an offering with the shedding of blood to satisfy God’s righteous requirement and the skins of the sacrifice to cover the naked man. Therefore, the Bible says that Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof (Gen. 4:4). When he offered the fat, the sacrifice was killed and the blood was shed. The shedding of the blood was for his redemption, and the burning of the fat was for God’s satisfaction. He did this according to the instruction of his parents. What Abel did corresponded exactly to the requirements of the Mosaic law which was given later by God. This proves that his way of worshipping God was according to God’s revelation, not according to his concept.
According to Numbers 18:17, the firstling of a cow or sheep, a type of Christ, could not be eaten by the Israelites; it had to be offered to God. Hence, in typology Abel offered Christ to God. The offering of the firstling of a cow or sheep had two factors: the blood, which was sprinkled on the altar for redemption, and the fat, which was burned on the altar as an offering, as a sweet savor unto the Lord for His satisfaction. The Lord Jesus Christ had these two factors. He had the blood which was shed for us and the fat which satisfied God’s desire. Abel, seeing God’s way of redemption, presented such an offering to God and was accepted by God.
Enosh means frail, mortal man. After the fall, not only did human life become a vanity, but man also became frail and mortal. When we see that our life is vanity and that we ourselves are frail, spontaneously we will call upon the name of the Lord. This is the reason that Genesis 4:26 says, “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” From the time of Enosh, the third generation of mankind, men began to call upon the name of the Lord, realizing their weakness, fragility, and mortality.
In Hebrew, the word for “the Lord” is Jehovah. The name Jehovah begins to appear from Genesis chapter two; it is primarily used for God in relation to man. Jehovah is the name for God coming into an intimate relationship with man. Hence, Genesis 4:26 does not say that men began to call on the name of God, but on the name of Jehovah. Men did not call on the One who created all things, but on the One who was so near to them, on the One who was closely related to them. The name Jehovah means “I AM THAT I AM” (Exo. 3:14); He is the One existing from eternity to eternity. He is the One who was in the past, who is in the present, and who will be in the future forever. He is the eternal One. When men realized that they were fragile and mortal, they began to call on Jehovah, the eternal One. This calling began even with the third human generation. It continues throughout the Bible, and it was also practiced by the New Testament saints (Acts 9:14; 22:16; 1 Cor. 1:2).
Genesis 5 is a record of the living and begetting of some saved people, but they still lived under the ultimate result of the fall—death. Among these records, we find that one generation escaped death, and that was Enoch. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and God took him away (Gen. 5:24). The reason that God took Enoch away was that he should not see death (Heb. 11:5). His being kept away from death was God’s ultimate salvation. This is salvation in full.
The way to escape from death was discovered by the seventh generation of mankind. Calling on the name of the Lord was discovered by the third generation, and four generations later, the way to escape the ultimate issue of man’s fall was discovered by the seventh generation, Enoch. Enoch lived in such a way that he was kept from the power of death. Before Enoch was taken up by the Lord and while he was living and walking on earth, death could not kill him. Enoch overcame the killing of death.
Enoch was the first person to be raptured. To be raptured is to be matured in life by walking with God. To walk with God is not to override God, not to be presumptuous, not to do things according to our own concept and desire, nor to do anything without God. To walk with God is to take Him as our center and everything, to do things with Him according to His revelation and leading, and to do everything with Him. It is not only to live for God and to do things for God, but to do things according to God and with God. Enoch walked with God in such a way, living and doing things according to God and with God, not according to his own desire or concept, nor according to the current of the age in which he lived.
Enoch’s being taken away by God did not happen suddenly. He continually walked upward with God until he touched heaven. Enoch walked with God day and night for three centuries, for more than a hundred thousand days. He walked with God day by day, becoming a little closer to God each day. At the age of three hundred sixty-five, as he was nearly touching heaven, he was taken away by God.
Man went from Adam to Abel and from Abel to Enosh, then he began to call on the name of the Lord to enjoy all His riches. Then in Enoch we see a man who walked with God. In Genesis 6 we see that Noah certainly was saved, pleased God, called on God, and enjoyed all that He is. In addition to all these positive aspects of the life of the saved ones, Genesis 6 shows us even more items.
Genesis 6:9 says that Noah walked with God. Undoubtedly, Noah inherited all the spiritual blessings from his forefathers, such as Adam, Abel, Enosh, and Enoch, and he followed his great grandfather, Enoch, to walk with God in a crooked, perverse, and adulterous generation. Noah stood for a strong continuation of the line of life and, with much development, he carried it on further.
Since Noah had found grace, walked with God by faith, and inherited righteousness, God was very happy with him, so He opened Himself to him, telling him to build the ark (Gen. 6:13-14). Thus, Noah was not only one who walked with God, but also the one who built the ark. The ark was for salvation. At that time, the ark of salvation was built up by Noah. Abel offered gifts to God, Enosh called on God, Enoch walked with God, but Noah, in addition to doing all of these things, did something more—he built the ark.
Noah’s life and work were not simply a matter of walking with God or of building the ark, but also one of changing that age. Satan had corrupted that age to the uttermost, and even God repented that He had made man on earth. But Noah found grace. Noah’s life was a life that changed the age. If we want to understand that Noah’s life was a life that changed the age, we must see God’s economy and purpose when God first created man.
There is a great contrast between Genesis 1 and 6. If you read the latter part of Genesis 1, you will see that God created man in His own image for the purpose of expressing Himself (1:26). God intended that man be His expression. Man was like a photograph, made in the image of God to express God. Furthermore, man was also committed with God’s authority that he might exercise this authority for God’s dominion on earth. Man was entrusted with God’s authority that he might represent God and set up a dominion on earth over all God’s creatures.
After God created man, He said, “Very good” (Gen. 1:31). On the second day of His work, God did not say anything, because on that day there were fallen angels in the air and demons in the water. It was impossible for God to say, “Good,” on that day. In the other days, God simply said, “Good.” Only on the sixth day, the day in which God created man, God looked at His work, especially on man, and said, “Very good!” In God’s eyes, man was very good.
In Genesis 6, God took another look at mankind. When God had His first look at mankind in Genesis 1, man was very good. But when God had another look at man in Genesis 6, He saw that man had become wicked and corrupt to the uttermost, and it grieved Him that He had made man. What a change from Genesis 1! Originally, man was on such a high level; but beginning from chapter three, he descended lower and lower. God is not a temporary God, but an eternal God. In Him there is no shadow of change (James 1:17). Once He makes a decision, it stands for eternity.
Let us read Genesis 6:5-7: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” If that had been all, there would have been no hope. But verse 8 says, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” This is one of the greatest verses in the book of Genesis. Satan was glad to hear that God was going to destroy man from the face of the earth, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That turned the situation and changed the age. God was not defeated! In the midst of apparent defeat, there was victory through a man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That was the turning point. If you read history along with the Bible, you will see that in every generation, when Satan has done his best to damage the situation to the uttermost, there has always been one man or a few people who found grace in the eyes of God and who became the ones who turned the age. In Genesis 6:8 it says, “But Noah.” At the bottom of man’s fall, there is always a “but.” When man had fallen to the bottom, Noah was used by God to change the age.
From Adam to Noah, the Bible gives us an illustration or portrait of God’s redemption, of the way God wants His redeemed people to follow Him and of the work they should do. In Adam we see an illustration of God’s redemption. In Abel we see an illustration of God’s way of salvation—being acceptable to God by relying on the shedding of the blood of the sacrifices. In Enosh we see an illustration of man’s need for God and man’s calling on God to enjoy God’s riches. In Enoch we have a portrait of a person who is redeemed and walks on the way of redemption. We see how he walks with God to be raptured and escape death. In Noah we see a person who walks with God, and we see how he works with God to meet the need of the age, thus being saved to enter into a new age. He was a person used by God to turn the age.
