Dr.
Meredith Kline, Kingdom Prologue, Lecture 1.
© 2012 Dr. Meredith Kline and Ted Hildebrandt
The
equivalent of this course is one that I teach all the time at the Seminary.
When I teach in California we have 56 hours to cover the material that is on
your syllabus outline. Here we have about half of those hours. When I have 56
hours my problem already is to squeeze it down to 56 hours. So to work it into
25 odd hours is going to be quite something. As we move along I’m just going
to have to make adjustments in that syllabus outline that you see so before
you. I may be chopping out an item or rearranging things as we see how the time
is working out. But we’ll do the best we can.
The
Structure of the book of Genesis
Now tonight we’re going to be starting with: The structure of the
book of Genesis. For that purpose, here are some outlines of the book of
Genesis. What we’ll do is just try to work through the outline and then, in
the process of doing that, try to achieve an overview of the whole message of
the book. In fact, this first week or two we will be involved in overviews
rather than the main purposes what we’re trying to do in biblical theology.
This is just to provide people with that big overview--to see the forest and
woods and not just the individual trees. So tonight in the process of going
through the structure of the book of Genesis we will be doing an overview of a
great deal of material and then going into more detail as we work through the
rest of the course. I don’t think we’ll get to it tonight, but the next thing
in your outline that is probably listed for the second week there is on the
subject of the covenants. There my policy is to start again with a big overview
of the whole subject and then to back up and work with the details.
Now in reference to the structure of the book of Genesis then, as I
say, what we have in mind is to get the large view of the whole development of
God’s covenantally administered kingdom throughout this whole period recorded
in the book of Genesis which I call “The Kingdom Prologue.” The significance
of that time will emerge by the time we’re done.
One other thing I’m trying to achieve as we work through this
structural outline of the book of Genesis is to get a feeling of the way in
which Moses, I believe in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and the book
of Genesis, organizes his narrative. In studying the Bible there are literary
features of it that are important. In order to appreciate not just the theology
but the literary aspect and also because the meaning of the text, the exegesis,
the solving various problems is going to depend on having some understanding of
the literary techniques of the author.
Not
straight forward chronological movement
For example, as we work through this outline I’ll be trying to make
the point that as Moses describes this whole history of the creation right up
through the patriarchal age, he does not just move along in a straight forward
chronological line all the way. On the contrary, he develops a story in terms
of various themes. He’ll treat one theme up to a certain point. Then he
backtracks to the beginning and goes through that same chronological period
again but from a point of view of another theme. So that’s one thing I want you
to be developing a feeling for the way the biblical authors organize their
material.
Numerical Patterns
Another thing that emerges here in the structure in the book of
Genesis is how you have certain numerical patterns. I don’t want to go overboard
with all kinds of numerical symbolism. But you can observe, as you go through
the structure in a moment, that the book is organized not just in a long string
of subjects without any other patterns to them but after the prologue, we’ll
see that there are ten sections to the book and these ten sections are arranged
in sets of three. The first triad: 1 through 3, the next triad: 4 through 6,
and then into a couple of pairs at the end. So, there are literary interests
that Moses has in his mind as he works through. So we’ll see how that works out
then.
The Prologue (Gen. 1:1-2:3)
The
book begins with what we can call: “a prologue.” It’s the creation prologue, Genesis
1:1 through 2:3. And we’ll be going back and spending more time, of course,
looking at that prologue because it’s so rich and such large questions emerge there.
That’s the opening of the book.
Ten toledoth structure of Genesis [“these are the
generations of”]
Then
following that, the rest of the book is outlined for us by the author by the
use of a certain heading. In Hebrew the heading is eleh toledoth, which
is variously translated in the King James Version, “these are the generations
of.” So that familiar heading, these are the generations of Isaac, Jacob, or whatever.
Sometimes it might be translated: “this is the story of,” or “this is the
history of.”
So, here is this heading and it’s used ten times. Actually, there
is an 11th, as one of the sections is subdivided. As I recall, the
one on Esau is subdivided at certain point in Esau’s development. But really
there are ten sections. Now in your Kingdom Prologue text if you have
that handy, what we are doing right at this point in discussing this heading is
to treat it right up near the front on page 6, okay? So what I’m going to be
covering now is I’m going too fast forward or whatever so you can then have a
chance on your own when you reading through Kingdom Prologue to more
leisurely catch up on this. By the way, this will be true with a lot of what
we’re doing. I’ll be covering rapidly things that are covered more fully in Kingdom
Prologue. So I will be depending on you to keep up with the reading in Kingdom
Prologue. In the syllabus we’ve actually given you the pages in Kingdom Prologue
which correspond to a subject along the line. So, you will have a chance, at
home, at your leisure, to be reading more fully about this and I think that
will help your understanding process. So what I’ll be doing in class is sort of
underscoring high points and maybe giving some occasion for discussion. But don’t
despair if it’s going to fast because you can catch up on it in the text
itself.
So on page 6 now, I won’t say everything that I have on pages 6 and
7 about this subject but here is this formula “these are the generations.” As
I just said, I regard it as a heading for the material that follows. The first
one appears on chapter 2 verse 4, the next 5:1, the next in 6:9 and so on, ten
of them throughout the book. I’m regarding these as a superscription, a
heading, that describes the material that follows it.
Superscription [heading] rather than sub-scription [closing]
Now
in Kingdom Prologue, on those pages, I do bring to your attention that
there has been another view of this heading which regards it not as a heading of
what follows but as a subscription referring to what goes before. I think that,
that view simply is not valid for the reasons that I sketch for you on those
pages. One of the common introductions that we’ve often used is by R. K. Harrison.
R. K. Harrison and his Old Testament Introduction assume that these
things I’m calling a heading are actually subscriptions for what precedes. The
thought is that when Moses was writing the book of Genesis he had various
sources available to him. And now this is not the same as the higher critical
view that the Pentateuch consists of various sources, all of which are after Moses
so that’s not that higher critical view. But it is thought that there were
various sources available to Moses for the history. He was recording from the
ancient documents and they would end up with what is called, “a colophon.” A
colophon is a subscription at the end which might tell you something about the
document who its author was or what the subject was and so on. So that is the
assumption that some of these scholars are working with. So we can see here by
means of these headings the seams in the several documents that Moses used and
was weaving together. So that’s what lies behind it.
Now there are various major problems that indicate that that’s
really not a viable position at all, because you can’t take these headings in
any consistent ways. Someone is named in each of the headings. On this other
view that it is a subscript. There’s no consistent way of understanding why
this particular person is named. Sometimes he supposed to be the hero of the
preceding narrative, sometimes he’s supposed to be the author of the preceding
narrative, or the one in whose library this particular document or supposed
document, was found. Then there are other cases where none of these
suggestions work.
For example, take the history of, let’s say, Esau. Let’s take whichever
one that is down there toward the end. It’s the history of Esau that would end up
with a heading in which the name of Jacob is found. On the view that we’re
trying to refute, that would mean that Jacob was the hero of this preceding
history which is a matter a fact the genealogy of Esau. This doesn’t make any
sense. It’s also a fact that this particular heading which appears ten times in
Genesis also appears elsewhere in the Bible in the book of Ruth. Very importantly,
it appears in Matthew in the New Testament that opens with this heading. We’re
talking about “this is the book of the generations of Jesus Christ.” That’s the
formula we’re talking about that appears ten times in Genesis. That particular
heading obviously in Matthew 1:1 is not a colophon, a subscription for what’s gone
before, because nothing has gone before it’s a heading for Matthew. So there’s
a whole lot of considerations of that sort that rule out this alternative view.
So the ten sections have this heading.
So, ten sections now, tens sections after the prologue each with
this particular heading, except for the first one which is: “generations of the
heavens and the earth.” All the others have the names of some individuals
associated with them.
The first section: The entrance and Escalation of sin (Gen. 2:4ff)
The
first one then in chapter 2 verse 4 you can see on your outline if I forget the
particular verses you could check on your outline and see which are the proper
verses. “This is the book of the generations of the heavens and the earth in
the day that the Lord God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s section one.
Now what we’re going to be proposing is that of the 10 sections
they divide into 1, 2, 3; as one triad, then 4, 5, 6; another triad, alright?
So here is the first block of material. Now we want to see what the subject
matter on each of these three is and what we are going to find now is, and you
can look at your outline, the subject matter in the first one is I think I call
it, “The Entrance and the Escalation of Sin.” It’s in chapter 2 and ends in
chapter 4. Now just think about that material in your Bible. What do you find
there? Well, of course, this is very ritual and it begins with the whole scene
in the garden of Eden and God’s covenantal dealings with them there. But that
story quickly then comes to a crisis in the fall of man--so the entrance of sin.
Chapter 4: overview focusing on the line of Cain
Then as you move on to chapter 3 into chapter 4, what is the theme
there? Remember, chapter 4 a very interesting story of how things developed
among the descendants of Adam not all of them but in one particular line, the
line of Cain. So in the line of Cain, we find that sin which has entered the
world in Adam is escalating now in the line of Cain. What’s happening in the
line of Cain as you read through chapter 4. It has God’s gift of common grace.
He is enabling even this rejected line, and of course, Cain is the rejected
line. He started with a covenantal situation and now out of the covenant family
there are those who are disowned and are rejected and going their own way. We
find that development takes place there in the line of Cain. What happens is
that as they develop, as they exercise their various cultural talents, it
describes their achievements in technology in the arts and the crafts and so on.
Along with that there’s the actual introduction of the political institution of
the state. I will be talking a lot more about the various institutions like the
state and the church and so on as we go along.
Institution of the state/the city in Gen. 4 [Cain]
When
we come to talk about the state we’ll be making the point that it is incorrect,
as is usually assumed, that the institution, the state, was first established
after the flood. In Genesis 9 after the flood we do have that common grace covenant
which does speak about how God did institute the state with the right of capital
punishment-- “whoever sheds man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed”--and that
is usually thought of as being the beginning of the state. Some years ago
wrote an article on Genesis 4:15 trying to demonstrate that in the history
before the flood, in response to the complaint of Cain early on in the story, God
comes to him and gives him what I call, “the charter of the city.” Cain is
afraid that all hell is going to break out and everything is going to be
anarchy everyone that comes down the turnpike is going to kill me because I
killed my brother. God assures him no that things aren’t going to be complete
anarchy. There will be an order of justice and there will be a deterrence, then
for killing and murder. In effect then what God does is to provide for the
institution of the state which we may call “the city”—“the city of man.” The emergence
in this fallen world, of this organized expression of human life in the city is
the city of man. We’ll be studying that and we’ll be seeing that it in itself. It’s
a perfectly good thing. It’s a legitimate thing. It’s a good gift of God’s
common grace. The unhappy thing is that man perverts these good things of God
and the political institution of the state or “city of man” soon is terribly
perverted. That’s what we find then as we go on in chapter 4. There’s a list of
names. It says in chapter 4 verse 17 that after God comes to him and provides
the authority to establish this city. Two verses later it tells us that Cain
built the city. He named it after his son. Now you are getting a feeling for
what this escalation of sin is all about. The theme is developing a theme. It’s
all interested in its own name and instead of being interested in the name of God.
So here is the founder of the first city, the beginning of the state. He names
it virtually after himself and his own future which he sees in the form of this
son of his after whom he names the city. Then within this city here are the
different rulers. I take it that the list of names is virtually the dynasty of
Cain as he ruled in the city of man.
From Cain to Lamech (Gen. 4)
The
story hastens to a climax in this figure of Lamech in chapter 4. Lamech is
guilty of sins on three fronts. He is despising the marriage institution that
God has set up because he is practicing bigamy. He sings this song to his two
wives we see. So, he is despising all the good ordinances of God, first of all
the family. Then, of course, he’s also despising and trampling upon the
institution of the state itself. The state is set up as an institution of law
and order, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” that’s justice. But Lamech
is boasting not “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life,”
but if someone bruises me, I will kill him. So here he is the king and in his
arrogance he is boasting of his practice of justice is that if anyone offends
him in some slight way he puts them to death. So, in other words, Lamech is
abusing the institution of the family. He’s also abusing the institution of the
state.
This is not the height of his crime. The escalation of sin finds its
worse expression in his blasphemy against God. He adopts a certain ideology
which we find in the Near East and elsewhere, the ideology of the divine
kingship, where the human kings began to conceive of themselves and to proclaim
themselves to be divine figures. So how does Lamech do it? Well, he does it by
claiming to be super-god. Now God had promised to Cain when God was founding
the city back there that if anyone would kill Cain there would be the divine
administration of justice. There would be seven-fold vengeance that would be
executed. It wouldn’t be complete anarchy. There would be a divine imperium. There
would be an administration of divine justice, seven-fold vengeance. Lamech says,
“Ha! If the suppose creator was able to avenge Cain seven-fold. What is that? I
can avenge myself 70 and 7 fold. I am super-god!” We have here what I think we
can call: “the anti-Christ syndrome.” This is what anti-Christ is. He is the
one that exalts himself above God. In the escalation of sin here in the early
city of man before the flood this is how terrible things had been going. That
brings you up then to the climax of this development of evil in this early age.
Pattern of eschatology: Days of Noah and Son of Man
Why
don’t we just back off for a moment and say this, that as we work through this
first triad and we have now traced the story of the city of man. We’re going
to find next that we’re going to be tracing the city of God in the second
section. Then having traced both of those from Adam up to the Flood, because
that’s where we have actually come, then in the third section we have the Lord
of heaven takes account on what’s been going on in the earth. He brings judgment
upon the world in the days of Noah. In the days of Noah judgment comes on this
whole development. “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of
the Son of Man.” I’m just trying to give you a feel for something of the
significance for understanding this particular period in history in light what
Jesus said. Jesus says that we can look at this period in history that we are
studying right here and we can see the pattern of eschatology in development of
redemptive history, the eschatological development up to the final judgment. What’s
the shape of it? What is the basic pattern of it when the Son of Man will come
in glory? What will be the development that leads up to that and precipitates
that coming of the day of the Son of Man? “As it was on the days of Noah,” Jesus
says, “so it will be in the days of Son of Man.”
What was it like in the days of Noah? In the days of Noah, things
developed to a crisis. Evil was developing in the world and as we’ll see that
evil involved the persecution of the saints as well. Blasphemy against God and
development of divine kingship ideology, but also the persecution of the
saints. Now this was the line of Cain.
The Covenant Line of Seth and flood (Gen. 5)
Then
you come to chapter 5 verse 1 and following. Now you get the covenant line --the
line of Seth. Now you see that the covenant line is one that is diminishing so
that by the time you come to the third section, the story of the flood and the
judgment how many are left in the line of Shem? Seven or eight souls left.
What’s been happening to them. I suspect the line of Cain, the tyrants; the
anti-christs that were developing the city of man had been busy persecuting the
saints out of existence and that’s why God must come quickly at that time and
deliver his people. But that’s the pattern of things. The pattern of
eschatology “as it was in the days of Noah” is one then where evil develops in
the world to a crisis stage, to an anti-Christ stage. Then comes the Day of the
Lord which is, of course, what the flood is.
Meanwhile, now we back up. So the story starting at 2:4 under this
first heading, “the generation of the earth.” It takes us from creation right
up to the verge of the flood. You’re on the brink of the deluge when you come
to the end of this first section with this figure of Lamech and so on.
End of the first section (Gen. 4:25-26)--transition
Now just before the end of that first
section in the closing two verses in chapter 4:25 & 26 I believe, we get
another literary feature--the transition. So, the first scene is the city of
man the escalation of evil up to this anti-Christ stage. Now a little
transition that moves you on to the next section. So while evil men are
developing this great blasphemous name for ourselves that we are super-gods, we
are gods ourselves. While they are concerned for their own name, there is still
on earth this community of faith.
Now this is what the message of Genesis is all about. In spite of
the fall, in spite of the escalation of sin, in spite of the apparent triumph
of Satan, in spite of his bringing even an anti-Christ into existence in world,
God’s covenant purposes have not failed. God from the beginning has ordained
that there should be a people for his name who should be his dwelling place who
at last he would glorify and make into his eternal temple joy and glory. In
spite of all that happening there, God is at work. There is a remnant in the
earth. There is a true seed of promise in the earth in the line of Seth.
Their story’s told rather in brief genealogical form in Genesis 5 following,
but just before you come to that, those two little transitional verses giving you
an insight into their character. It says that concerning them, does someone
have that verse? Maybe they could just read that for us, Genesis 4. I think its
24 to 26. “Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named
him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since
Cain killed him.’ Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men
began to call on the name of the Lord.” They weren’t exalting their own name
but they were making confession of God’s name. That expression, “to call on the
name of the Lord,” that’s covenantal terminology. That’s the language that makes
acknowledgment that there is a covenant relationship between God and his people
whereby he is their Father and they are his children. Children bear the name,
they are surnamed after their father. That is sometimes the force of what “calling
on the name of the Lord” means--“to call yourself by the name of the Lord.” When
we call ourselves Christians we call ourselves by the name of Christ we are
calling on the name of Christ. When we are naming ourselves after Him. So in
this particular case, this is an acknowledgement that we are God’s kids and we
are calling on His name. Then, of course, if we recognize someone as our father
then calling on his name is asking him for help too. So here’s a community that
is confessing God and is trusting in Him and confessing His name in the midst
of all that is going on in the earth.
Genesis 5:1 and following: the line of Seth
Who
are they? They’re in this line of Seth and so we come now to the second of the tenth
triad, the ten sections. Now you get the history of Seth. So you can see we’ve
gone right down to virtually to the story of the flood, however long that was,
and that’s another subject. But now you come to Gen. 5:1 and you see
chronologically this is what happens. You come up to a certain point but just
don’t continue with that, but you back up to the beginning again. We read now
about how God created Adam in his own image and we continue from there. So you
get the point now from a literary point of view Moses develops this story
according to themes. The theme of the city of man and the line of Cain.
Now another theme and you go back to the beginning in order to
follow it: the theme of the saints who were in the earth. Then you go on to
what you may call the City of God or the covenant community. Their story is
told primarily in the form of a list of names giving you here the community of
faith in the earth. Once again then, we move from Adam up to the time of the
flood, in my judgment, covering thousands of years. So you cover thousands of
years from there to there. Now you’ve covered thousands of years, again, from
Adam up to the end of this line, which is bringing you down to the days of
Noah.
The third section: God’s judgment (flood) and covenant;
claims of the two lines (Cainites and Sethites)
Here,
once again, transition, just before you moved from the story of the line of the
saints to the story which I found in the third section, which begins, I think
it is in Gen. 6:9, is that correct?--chapter 6:9, from the third section. This
is the story of God’s judgment coming up to the great judgment and the great
covenant episode. Here’s where the word “covenant” actually appears for the
first time in the Bible. The covenant has been there all along, but the word “covenant”
appears for the first time here in this connection.
Now, just before, you come to a story of God’s intervention. What’s
been happening here for thousands of years? There have been two communities of
the earth – the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The hostility,
we look at the world in terms of God’s common grace and so on. The unbelievers
don’t look all that bad. We may maybe tend to develop a superficial view of the
tensions and so on that are going in the world.
But we shouldn’t be naďve, we should be alert to the fact that there
was a terrible war that was going on. There’s a difference between the forces
of Satan and forces of God that are at work here. These tensions are the
dynamic of history. To whom does this world belong? The Cainanites are saying,
“it belongs to us, we are gods”. The other line of the Sethites are saying, “oh
no, the world belongs to our heavenly father and we are his kids, and we are
the heirs of our heavenly father, therefore the world belongs to us.” To whom
does the world belong? And, of course, the city of man doesn’t want to tolerate
the counterclaims of the saints that this ultimately is their father’s world
and therefore theirs. It doesn’t want to hear that, and so it oppresses the
saints. Now that’s what going on, but who’s right? To whom does the world
belong? The human witnesses disagree.
End of second section: transition 6:1ff (cf. 4:25-26)
God
renders the verdict. He decides whose claim to the world is right, and he does
that by unfolding the story in Genesis 6:9. But just before you get there,
there is another transition. So just as back in chapter 4 verses 25 and 26 at
the end of the first section, there was a transition to the line of the saints.
So just where you come to the end of this second section, it began at 5:1 and
it continues up though 6:8, but just before you get to the end of it, once
again you have a transition. The transition begins in chapter 6, with those
opening verses. It is very interesting and very much highly debated. There are difficult
verses there. My contention is that what they are actually doing is taking us
right back to where we were in the story of the city of man when we came to Lamech,
the anti-Christ type of guy. Now the story picks up the story again at that
point, it is an introduction now to the judgment. We come to anti-Christ again
because in the day of the son of man, that’s the way it works.
What’s in the day of Noah, that’s what it’s going to be like in the
day of the Son of Man what’s it like when Jesus comes back? What’s it like when
Jesus comes back at his second coming at his parousia? It is in response to a
crisis, which has been brought upon the world and then represented by the
figure of the anti-Christ, the man of lawlessness and so on. Well, that’s what
happened in this Day of the Lord, the flood episode. The crisis was this
anti-Christ crisis, and so understandably, this second section doesn’t end
until it returns and sets the scene again the same way it had back in the first
section.
Sons of God in Genesis 6 compared with Lamech’s offenses
Now it tops, and we’ll just quickly mention this because we have a
long of section later on. In Kingdom Prologue, this another one of those
places where you may not catch what I’m saying tonight, especially when I cover
everything fast here. This particular subject is developed over several pages
later on. Here is the story. It’s about in those days, there were these people
called the bene ha’elohim, “the sons of the gods,” or “the sons of god.”
Mankind was multiplying and spread on all over the earth, and the daughters
are born onto them and so on. So there is a population explosion going on in the
world by this time. What happens is that certain figures who are described by
that term “sons of god” or “sons of the gods” are described as taking to
themselves wives of the daughters of men of all that they chose. The picture
actually is that what they are doing is taking multiple wives.
What we have is point-per-point the three offenses of Lamech being
repeated here in what is said about “the sons of the gods” in chapter 6 verses
1 and following. The first thing Lamech had practiced was bigamy. He despised
the marriage institution. “The sons of the gods are described taking for
themselves wives as many as they please,”--that’s the way it should be
translated. They were taking for themselves wives as they please-- multiple
marriages. More specifically, because these figures are royal figures, the ones
we’re talking about there was the line of Cain, the dynasty of Cain. Lamech was
a royal figure. He was a king. Well, that’s what’s being described in Genesis
6:1-4. These are kings. Of course, it was very familiar that the ancient kings has
as one of their great offences was multiplying wives. They had great harems.
The royal harem, that’s what’s being described here. That’s one of their
offences.
Nephalim and/or Giborim
And,
of course, he goes on to say that when they were involved with these marriages,
they had children. The children are called by a various terms, the Nephalim
and the Giborim in Hebrew. What it adds up to is that these terms
described, perhaps, physical gigantic stature or certain outstanding physical
prowess and so on, but also political power, military power and tyranny.
For example, in chapter 10, we read about one such person. One of
these, the Hebrew was plural, the children of the sons of the gods were called giborim.
Well, Nimrod is called the Gibor. He is one. Who is Nimrod? He was, of
course, a great king and so on. So what we are told then is that the royal
courts where these harems were developing, were producing these young crown
princes and so on, who were notable in history for their military, their
political power, tyranny and oppression. So when God looked on the world everything
was being oppressed. Secondly, then that is what is described here. The royal
harems, the abuse of the power of the state through these physical military
outstanding princes of the court.
But once again, the third feature that’s involved in the case of
Lamech was the blasphemy of taking God’s name upon himself. That is precisely
what we have here. These characters call themselves: “we are the sons of God.” So
out of their own mouths, Moses is taking their own self-designation and we see he
describes them by their own self-designation. These are characters who claim to
be “the sons of God.” So as I said, we’ll come back and give more an exegetical
defense of that because there is a lot that can be said.
But
that’s what you have then in chapter 6, verses 1 through 4: the story of how
the development of evil did, once again, come to this stage of political
tyranny, abuse and oppression, and especially with the claim of deity on the
part of the human kings. God doesn’t let it go beyond that point. When it
comes to the anti-Christ stage, that is enough. God is very patient and
tolerant thought history and he allows history to go on in spite of all manner
of evil. But then it reaches this point of no return, no remedy, and when
anti-christ comes, it’s time for Christ to come. When this kind of thing,
described in Genesis 6:1-4, comes to pass, it’s time for God to come, and
that’s what the next one is.
So in chapter 6:9 and following, God comes. He deals with this
development and he destroys anti-christ and all of the other hopes that are
associated with him--all in whose nostrils who is the breath of life. He
destroys them all. But of course, in the process, he saves his own people. So
here, it’s a great Old Testament typological representation of the redemption
of God’s people delivered from the final anti-christ and the return of our
blessed Lord.
Covenant form
This
whole arrangement is cast in the form of a covenant. God’s kingdom, on-going,
is all articulated and organized in a form of a succession of covenants. So,
God organizes this particular event by making a covenant with his servant Noah.
It’s a covenant of salvation. It’s the covenant that centers in the ark, the
instrument of salvation. When we come to study this a little more fully, we’ll
be trying to develop how rich this whole episode is in terms of a prototype of
the final judgment and the final consummation of the kingdom. All of these
things, we’ll be trying to observe all these. The ark is not just an instrument
of salvation, but it’s actually a symbolic replica of the whole cosmos. The
whole cosmos is conceived of as a great house of God, the great temple of God,
as the Kingdom of God. So all this symbolism that’s going on, and the whole
thing develops then in terms of God’s covenant promise and his fulfillment of
that promise. As I say, we will want to analyze all of that more fully. But
there’s a whole world history.
Peter’s whole history of the world (2 Pet. 3)
Peter
in 2 Peter divides the whole history of the world right there. He says we live in
two worlds. There is the world that’s been. It was created out of the water and
then finally destroyed in the water. Then Peter says beyond that point is the
world of that now is, the present. If you’re thinking of writing a major history
of the world, where would you put the major breaks during the old covenant and
the new covenant? Very major one, various places that you might think of, but
Peter saw this as such a major break in the whole development that he describes
the whole history of the world in terms of actually being the world that then
was and the world that now is. The present heaven and earth he describes there
in 2 Peter 3. He makes about the same point that Jesus made. Jesus says, “as it
was in the days Noah, so what’s going to be in the days of Son of Man.” That’s
what now what Peter is saying. So there’s that story and the world of then was
destroyed in fire. We are now in the world that now is. This one will be
destroyed by water, and now, the world of now is this one will be destroyed by
fire, but Peter saw the same pattern.
So just within the short compass of those of first 8 chapters of
the book of Genesis, you have a whole world history. A history with this
development of evil, the increasing tempo of hostility between the people of
Satan and the people of God until you come to a crisis point of an anti-Christ.
Then there is the intervention of God in redemptive judgment which condemns the
world and then simultaneously saves his own people. That’s the shape of
history. You want to know the shape of things to come? You have to look at the
shape of the things gone by. There is the shape of the future, written right
clearly before your eyes in the story of the first three sections here of the
book of Genesis and the days of Noah.
Now that was a big prototype of the end of the world, but it wasn’t
the end of the world, of course. Beyond the deluge, history moved on. The story
of Genesis tells us that, in the next three sections 4, 5 and 6. History
repeats itself and the repeating of history is a reflected in the repeating of
the literary story here.
So chapter 10 is going to develop the city of man again just as the
chapter 4 but the fourth division of the 10 divisions, is going to develop the
story of the city of man just as the first division did. That one begins in
chapter 10 verse 1. Now, by the way, there was an awful lot more contained in
that third section there that I’ve jumped over. I’ll just mention one very
important thing that was there. After the flood, after this salvation covenant
that God made with Noah and his family to save them in the ark, after the
flood, God makes another covenant that is recorded toward the end of chapter 8
and on to chapter 9. It is the covenant of common grace, which I’ve refer to a
little earlier.
For me, this is one of the important concepts that needs to get
straightened out because everyone is confusing them. I was just looking at a
little book before we started, by Palmer Robinson back there, and the thing
called “The covenants.” He is one of those who completely confuses these two
things. There is the covenant of salvation, which we’ve just been talking
about, which is mainly about Noah and his family which gives a certain holy
people …
Transcribed by Kemberlyne I. Cordero
Rough edited by Dr. Ted Hildebrandt