“He will swallowed up death in victory …” (Isa. 25:8, ACV)
We are still discussing the sixteenth characteristic of the spirit of Zerubbabel’s manifestation within the Bride. We are looking at how this corporate mantle can shake heaven and earth, and in the interrogation thereof we focused on the idea of how this is often seen in terms of the physical destruction of heaven and earth, which is a deceptive understanding.
The last teaching concluded with the important Scripture from Ps. 102:25: “Of old You laid the foundation of the earth …” With the fall the earth was cursed because of man, which means that like there is an eternal, uncontaminated “inner man”, there is also an eternal earth that exists in similarly uncontaminated terms. God’s Master plan is that the sinful, mortal and failing entity be overcome by an unfailing, pure, eternal entity, as 2 Cor. 5:4 explains, “that mortality may be swallowed up by life”, or as Isa. 25:8 suggests: “He will swallow up death forever”.
It is immensely insightful to realise that this process started long ago, with the arch-father Noah’s complete obedience to God. Noah is singled out four times in the pericope, as one of the three spiritual fathers whose righteousness is foregrounded by God as a wondrous sign (Ezek. 14:14, 16, 18 & 20).
With the birth of Noah it was prophesied, a clear promise to humanity: “Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, ‘This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.’” (Gen. 5:28-29). Therefore, for instance, J. Vernon McGee makes the following important remark about Noah in his study Thru the Bible: “Now as this man Noah comes forth from the ark, he stands in a most unique position. He stands in the position of being the head of the human race again—the same position Adam had. It is said that we are all related to Adam, but we are closer kin than that: we are all related in Noah. In one sense, Noah is the father of all of us today.” Selah.
The name of this son of Lamech is a prophetic marker of the entire humanity that would walk the earth in his wake. Lamech’s prophetic word about his son as wondrous sign also greatly influenced the rest of humanity who came after him. Remember: humanity is at this point immersed in the decay of the inherited state of sin, and the wages of that is even more decay, monstration, that all culminates in death (Rom. 6:23). God despaired over having created man: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” (Gen. 6:5-7).
Take note – with Noah the decay of man would not be stopped, but that which he represents would open a gate for the restoration of the earth, which is cursed along with man, and thus subjected to nothingness (Rom. 8:20). This man, Noah, whose name means rest, “signifying ‘to sigh, to breathe, to rest, to lie down’” (Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible). He would become the prototype of a position of rest in the midst of our work, and despite the arduous labour of our hands, working the earth that the Lord has cursed, so that we can live on it, even if it all amounts to nothing, as Ecclesiastics laments: “’Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever … All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing … There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.” (Ecc. 1:2-4, 8, 11-13).
The human condition, this general state of decay (“all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” – Gen. 6:12) had to be cumulatively alleviated by the wondrous sign of Noah, but not as singular event that automatically brings restoration. [As a comparison – the death of Jesus on the cross, for all people (John 3:16), yet not all people are saved – they need to first accept Him (John 1:12). The baptism with the Holy Spirit is for all flesh (Acts 2:17), but they need to personally accept it through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17). The veil did indeed tear once, historically speaking (Matt. 27:51), but the veil must first be torn within each individual through the baptism in Christ (Gal. 3:27) before they can personally ‘enter’ it (Heb. 10:20).]
After the flood Noah’s ark lands on the cusp of mount Ararat, and the meaning of this word is important for all humanity! According to Brown-Driver-Brigg’s Hebrew Definitions the word ărâraṭ means “the curse reversed”.
BUT, the curse is not lifted ipso facto – merely the potential to change its outcome is offered as a possibility, as an opportunity. And this requires a particular position of rest!
This condition would only be fulfilled once the Messiah, the Anointed, arrives and says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [NOAH]. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest [NOAH] for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30).
Return for a moment to God’s promise to Noah after He had built an altar for the Lord, and brought sacrifices that offered unto God a lovely fragrance (Gen. 8:21-22), and look at exactly what He says. He focuses on two elements. Firstly: “nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done” (21b). God does not set himself against man, but instates a particular principle that forces man to reconcile with his Creator. He does not remove the judgment, but uses it to direct man to obedience (Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:6; Rev. 3:19). Look at the following examples that are presented in the Old Testament:
- “Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her penitents with righteousness.” (Isa. 1:27).
- “When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning …” (Isa. 4:4)
- “But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.” (Isa. 5:16)
- “I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.” (Ezek. 39:21)
- “And he said, ‘Look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation; for at the appointed time the end shall be.” (Dan. 8:19).
From these six verses we learn that God uses judgment to ensure that we do not lose the way, and thus lose our calling and purpose. Look at how neatly it is contextualised in Heb. 12:5b-8 and 10-13: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons … “For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.” In 2 Cor. 4:17 it is phrased in succinct terms:” For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory …”
This is then the first part of God’s promise to Noah after He had built an altar and made a sacrifice that brought a pleasant aroma before God – He will use judgment to build his sons. The second matter that He pertinently emphasises is found in Gen. 8:22: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” With this He is, in broad strokes, articulating the cosmic principle of cause and effect as counter to the non-negotiable Godly order that will bring about the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21).
In his commentary on the book of Genesis, Albert Barnes calls this newly institutionalised Godly principle and order “the blessedness of a perpetuated life”. He then casts it in beautiful terms: “Let not us, then, who flow in the full tide of the latter day, despise the rudiment of blessing in the first form in which it was conferred on Noah and his descendants; but rather remember that is not the whole content of the divine good-will, but only the present shape of an ever-expanding felicity, which is limited neither by time nor sense.”
Noah and what he symbolises introduces a principle which, through a particular order and a general principle of you-will-reap-what-you-sow, will increase things, and that which increases in a Godly manner, “of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (Isa. 9:7). Amazing!
More on this secret principle of “an ever-expanding felicity” which culminates in the thousand year reign of peace, in the next teaching.
- Selah: Come to an understanding of what the word felicity means, as it is used in the phrase “an ever-expanding felicity”.
- Read: 18-21; 1 Sam. 1-2; 2 Pet. 2-3; Ps. 113.
Memorise: 2 Pet. 3:10 (what glorious synchronicity!)
