Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #20 of Genesis, chapter 6 and we are going to read Genesis 6:14-15:

Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

I will stop reading there. We are still looking at the end of Genesis 6:14:

… and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

We saw that the first word translated as “pitch” is Strong’s #3722 and it is the word that means “atonement” and it is translated that way many times. The word “within” is the word commonly translated as “house,” so what this is pointing to is making an atonement for the house of God.

Then it goes on to say: “and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” The word “without” identifies with the location or the place of being under the wrath of God. So “within” the ark we have the house of God or the body of true believers and their presence “within” is due to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus from the foundation of the world – that is why they are able to be delivered from the flood, the outpouring of God’s wrath. They will make it through the judgment.

At the same time, there is also an atonement “without” and this has to do, historically, with the people living in the days of Noah that were outside the ark when God brought judgment upon the first earth and also provided an example of what would happen with our present earth. God poured out His wrath upon all people outside the ark. He slew them and they died and made payment for their own sins. The Law of God demands satisfaction for the sins of mankind because every human being is married to the Law. It says in Proverbs 6:34-35:

For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

God is the “man” in view here. He is “married” to the people of the earth and, yet, they have committed adultery against Him. The Bible addresses mankind as “adulterers and adulteresses” and, therefore, God will not spare in the day of vengeance nor receive atonement from any other source – there will be no ransom for their souls. Christ made the payment for sin for a specific people and for the rest there is no Saviour. There is no one to be their substitute to die in their stead and, therefore, they must die for their own sins.

That is what the flood accomplished. It was the pouring out of the wrath of God to fulfill the Law: “The wages of sin is death.” That is the payment. You know, we live in a world that thinks you can just sin and sin and sin and get away with it and that there is no payment required for our sinful thoughts, words and deeds. We just multiply iniquity and it becomes an enormous mountain of sin and because man does not see anything happen immediately, they continue. The Bible does say in Ecclesiastes 8:11: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” God does not execute punishment speedily – the moment a person sins God does not strike him dead. Seemingly a man is getting away with it, so he sins again, and again, and again. Then he gets bolder in his sins and the degree of transgressions and then we find ourselves living in a world like we live in today where people think they can do whatever they please. They take the Law of God and they turn it around; they call good “evil” and evil “good.”

And, yet, there is a God and there is His Law that demands that justice be served and, therefore, the sinner must die in accord with the Law’s decree: “The wages of sin is death.” The people of Noah’s day knew this because they experienced it. They did not believe Noah when Noah told them God was going to destroy them until the flood waters began to fall, but once it happened they knew as they experienced the judgment of God. Then they personally and individually made payment for their sins. God’s assessment of the people of the world at that time was that the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. They made atonement for their own sins.

This is what Jesus did as he bore the sins of His people. He became a sinner in God’s sight and God poured out His wrath upon Him and Christ suffered and died for those sins. That was the atonement. The only difference between what Christ did and what unsaved people do is that Christ, as God, was able to overcome death and God the Father raised Him victoriously and gloriously from the dead. He was declared to be the Son of God, the firstborn from the dead. But that will not happen with finite, feeble man because he does not possess that kind of power. The terrible wrath of God will destroy him as he dies for his own sin: he will cease to exist for evermore. The Bible tells us that man has no power in the day of death – he has no ability to overcome death. As a result, in that atoning work he dies and is gone forever and he is like the beast that perishes. That is what happened to the unsaved people at the time of the flood and that is what happened to all unsaved people down through history. And that is what will happen to people today when they die in their sins. God’s Law will be satisfied as they are dead and gone for evermore. This is the atonement “without,” the atonement that the unsaved people must perform through their death.

Let us look at the last word “pitch” in our verse in Genesis 6:14:

… and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

This last word translated as “pitch” is Strong’s #3724 and this word is translated a few different ways. It is used in Exodus 21:29-30:

But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

The three words translated as “sum of money” is a translation of the word translated as “pitch” in our verse. It has to do with making payment. It is like a “fine.” The owner permitted his animal to be loose and the ox gored someone and harmed him or killed him and, therefore, the law lays upon him a fine of money. This was his debt because of his error or sin and he must make payment and this is called a “ransom of his life.”

In Exodus, chapter 30 this same Hebrew word, Strong’s #3724, is found in Exodus 30:12-16:

When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto JEHOVAH, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of JEHOVAH. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto JEHOVAH. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto JEHOVAH, to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before JEHOVAH, to make an atonement for your souls.

In these verses we see that a “ransom” is involved with the atonement and God assigns the price of a “half shekel.” That is where we get the number “five,” because half is .5 and the atonement identifies with the number “five” in the Bible. When we break down numbers in the Bible, maybe you have heard us say that the number “five” identifies with the atonement and the atonement is simply payment for sin. It is a good thing if Christ is in view because He paid for the sins of His people, but it is a bad thing if the unsaved are in view because they are under the judgment and wrath of God. That is why it is like a twoedged sword in its meaning. We see the number “five” in Exodus 30 in regard to the half shekel, but it really comes into view in 1Samuel 6:16-17:

And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto JEHOVAH…

The historical situation is that the Philistines had taken the ark of God and wherever the ark went they were plagued. Finally, they realized they needed to rid themselves of it and return it to Israel and, yet, they wisely made an offering when they returned it. The offering had to do with the number “five,” so it really relates to an atonement or a “ransom” they were paying because of their transgression, as it said in verse 17. Then they made trespass offerings and notice the reference to five cities that are mentioned at the end of 1Samuel 6:17:

… for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

Then it goes on to say in 1Samuel 6:18:

And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords,

We find out how many golden mice there are back in 1Samuel 6:4:

Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines…

There were five golden mice. There were five golden emerods. There were five lords of the Philistines and five cities. Again, it says in 1Samuel 6:18:

And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages…

The word translated as “villages” here is our word that was translated as “ransom” or “sum of money.” This could have been translated, “of fenced cities, and of country ransoms.” Through the use of this word God is connecting the trespass offering of the Philistines to “atonement” or payment for sin.

So you can see that the ransom of the children of Israel in Exodus, chapter 30 was “half a shekel,” or written as a decimal it would be “.5.” It did not matter if they were rich or poor. The price for each Israelite was half a shekel and the Lord emphasizes the number “five” because it has to do with the ransom for trespass and, therefore, is related to atonement or payment for sin.

Let us just look at one other verse that uses this same Hebrew word, Strong’s #3724. It says in Isaiah 43:3:

For I am JEHOVAH thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

We wonder how it was that God gave Egypt for a ransom for Israel. It is connected to the death of the firstborn. Remember the last plague that came upon the Egyptians in which God killed all the firstborn son of every Egyptian and it was through the death of the firstborn of Egypt that Pharaoh finally relented and let the Israelites go free. The figure of the death of the firstborn ties into the Lord Jesus Christ and the deliverance He wrought. The Lord is connecting to that figure when He says, “I gave Egypt for they ransom,” because it was their death that freed the Israelites.

When we go back to Genesis, chapter 6 we see why God says, “And pitch it within and without with pitch,” because there must be an atonement and payment made “without” by the unpaid people of the earth because they must pay for their own sins.

Let us go on to Genesis 6:15:

And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

These are the dimensions God gave for the ark and God is the one that selected each dimension. Obviously, the Lord could have made the ark longer, wider or taller but He very specifically gave these particular dimensions, which means that they have spiritual significance and meaning.

We find meaning in numbers because in the Bible numbers are “words.” God hides truth in His Word, according to Proverbs 25:2:

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing…

The Hebrew word translated as “thing” is the Hebrew word “daw-bawr” and it means “word.” It is the glory of God to conceal a word and then it goes on to say in Proverbs 25:2:

… but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

The word “matter” is also the Hebrew word “daw-bawr,” which is translated as “word.” So it is the glory of God’s people to search out His Word.

Again, numbers are words. We can write a numeral as “6” or “7” or “8,” or we can spell it out as a word and we can spell out “six” or “seven” or “eight,” and so forth. We find numbers as words in the Bible. Therefore, these words have spiritual meaning. We find that through the context God will emphasize a number, which we just saw Him do with the number “five” in relationship to a “ransom,” which relates to atonement. The “half shekel” is “.5” and we can understand that the number “five” means “atonement.” God also did this with the number “three” at the time when Jesus went to the cross. This number was give repeatedly in connection to the cross and it indicates God’s “purpose.” It was God’s purpose that Jesus must go the cross. God also did this with the number “40” as a number that spiritually means “testing” and “judgment.” Christ was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. Israel was tempted and judged in the wilderness for forty years. The spies searching out the land for 40 days – it was a test for Israel. Moses went up to the mount for 40 days and the Israelites in the camp were tested to see if they would remain faithful, but they failed the test by making an idol.

This is how we come to assign a meaning to a certain number by how it is used in the Bible. When we see larger numbers, like the measurements of the ark, we can look at the number itself. For example, the number “300” is used elsewhere in the Bible where Gideon’s army was honed down to 300 men. We see the number “50” identifies with the Jubilee, and so forth. But the Bible also allows us to breakdown a number and when we break down the number “300” it breaks down to “2 x 3 x 5 x 10.” The number “two” points to the caretakers of the Oracles of God, the Bible; the number “three” indicates God’s purpose; the number “five” has to do with atonement; and the number “ten” has to do with completeness. So the length of the ark will involve the Word of God and its caretakers, God’s purpose, Christ’s atoning work and completion.

The number “300” can also be broken down to “3 x 10 x 10,” indicating God’s complete purpose, with a special emphasis on completeness because the number “10” is doubled.

The number “50” breaks down to “5 x 10.” We have seen how the Lord used the word “pitch” in the construction of the ark and the Hebrew word translated as “pitch” is the word “atonement,” which relates to the number “five.” So, it is not surprising that the breadth of the ark is fifty cubits or “5 x 10.” It points to the atonement as central and it points to the completeness of that atoning work as the Lord saved everyone to be saved in the first earth when He saved eight souls. But looking ahead, the world would have exactly 7,000 years before it entered into what the ark represented, the safety in Christ, before the door of salvation closed on May 21, 2011. It is the completeness of the atonement that is in view.

The number “30” breaks down to “3 x 10,” and it is a shortened version of the number “300,” and it represents God’s complete purpose.

So, we can certainly see that these key numbers used in the construction of the ark is all according to the purpose of God. It all involved the atonement of Christ and it has to do with completeness – God will complete His salvation program, the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ that was finished from the foundation of the world and, yet, it would see its completion once the atoning work of Christ had been applied to each of the elect of God and all have safely entered into the ark (Christ). The spiritual ark of God’s salvation will have accomplished its complete purpose.