Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #23 of Genesis, chapter 6 and we are continuing to read Genesis 6:16:

A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

In our last study we spent a little time discussing “the door,” and we saw that the door is a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will read the plain statement of the Bible, again, in John 10:7-9:

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Christ is the essence of “the door,” because salvation is through Him: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Only Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the door to heaven. He is the Word of God and that is why the Bible speaks of a “door of faith.” The Bible ministers the Word and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Christ is that Word made flesh. The Word (Christ) is the door that granted entry to certain ones, God’s elect that were predestinated to receive salvation from the foundation of the world. It was only the ones God had chosen.

Then the history of the world was really the outworking of God’s salvation program in finding all those individuals whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. He brought His Word to them because it required the hearing of the Word. In order to enter into heaven, you have to go through God’s Word, the Bible, so God brought the “door” or pathway to the hearers of the Word to His people throughout the history of the world. They heard because God opened their ears to hear and they became saved and entered in. At the moment of salvation, they were translated and lifted up into the heavens to be seated in Christ Jesus at the right hand of God. In a figure, Christ speaks of this in John 1:51: “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Then, as it were, they were dispatched back to the earth to minister “the door” to others because the Bible likens the people of God to doorkeepers; we are lowly servants and messengers of the God of the Bible and we carried the Word (the door) with us and as we shared it faithfully an opening was ministered through the declaration of the Bible.

This ministering of the open door happened during God’s timetable of “times and seasons.” There was an open door during the church age, but not as many people became saved as we might have expected, but during the second part of the Great Tribulation, the Lord ministered an incredibly wide open door, “a great door and effectual,” through the sending forth of the Gospel in a worldwide proclamation to the nations of the elect that they might hear and become saved. God did all that and completed His salvation program, the magnificent program that God had been actively involved in for thousands of years. And the same Bible that told us that “a great door and effectual” was opened also tells us that at the end of the Great Tribulation, the door closed. God shut the door to heaven. That was that – there would be no more salvation of souls. The “first resurrection” was completed and now the elect of God await the “second resurrection,” the resurrection of their bodies and this is also a part of God’s salvation. Therefore, the elect look forward to the completion of their salvation at the day of the resurrection, but as far as our soul existence God has finished that work.

Let us go back to our verse in Genesis 6:16:

…and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof…

Again, the “door” is Christ. The entrance into the ark meant deliverance. Noah and his family entered in by way of the door and they were spared from the flood. The rest of the people of the world did not enter through that door and they perished. They were drowned and they died under the wrath of God because they did not trust the Word of God. They did not trust His “preacher of righteousness.” They did not trust the warning given by God and, therefore, they knew not these things until they actually experienced it. Then they knew the judgment of JEHOVAH. It can all be traced back to their failure to enter into the “door of the ark.”

It is interesting where God set the door. He set it “in the side” of the vessel. It was not set in the forefront and it was not in the aft, but it was set in the side. This is typical for ships. When you board a ship, they set up the plank and the gateway on the side, typically, but God has another purpose in order to teach the Gospel. Therefore, the door, as it were, is in Christ’s side and that makes us think of John 19:34:

But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

The blood signifies the shed blood of Christ that He shed for His people. The water signifies the Gospel that would then flow forth because Christ had come to demonstrate what He had done from the foundation of the world. According to God’s timetable, it was now time to evangelize the earth through the church age to send the Word forth into the nations. The blood and the water came out of Christ’s “side” and through that which came from His side, the elect would be brought in through the Gospel. The elect would be able to go “in and out,” as Christ is the door.

We know that in Genesis God also made reference to Adam’s side when He formed the woman. It says in Genesis 2:21-22:

And JEHOVAH God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which JEHOVAH God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

The ribs are in the side, so God opened up the side of Adam, took a rib and formed the woman. That fits with Christ’s side being pierced and the water and blood coming forth, two items that identify with the Gospel. It is the Gospel that saved the elect and they formed the bride of Christ, the woman. The “woman” or the “bride of Christ” consists of every one of the elect and they relate to Christ’s side.

Likewise, the “door of the ark” is in the side of the vessel. That is where Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives entered into the ark. It fits with the language of the Bible concerning Christ being pierced in His side and the woman being formed out of Adam’s side, since Adam was a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It goes on to say in Genesis 6:16:

…with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

We see three stories to the ark and that would point to God’s purpose. It was His purpose to use the ark to deliver His elect, Noah and his family. God says it has lower, second and third stories, but He does not say, “first, second and third stories,” and there is good reason for that. Once the flood began and the waters rose it would lift up the ark until the ark went upon the face of the waters. Obviously, all three stories would not have been above the water line. The ark had to penetrate the surface of the water as all ships do and a portion of the ship would be in the water. That portion is the “lower” part of the ship, so it is very accurate to say that the ark had “lower, second, and third stories.” Once the water lifted up the ark, a portion of the first story of the ship sank below the water’s surface, while the other two stories would remain above the water. The ship could float along and there would be no damage to Noah and his family and the animals. They were not destroyed or harmed by the flood.

God used the Hebrew word “lower,” Strong’s #8432, to lead us to understand something else. It is something that we at EBible Fellowship have mentioned before and we have spent some time talking about it. I have been a little surprised that more people have not seen just how incredible a thing it is. Well, I do not know what people are seeing, so maybe they do see that it is incredible, but the Bible teaches us that there is such a thing as “spiritual judgment” and the Bible teaches us in 2Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” and it is speaking to the elect. The word “must appear” is the word translated as “made manifest,” in speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and His period of ministry. He was “made manifest.” The payment for sin was made at the foundation of the world, but His entry into the human race and His ministry and His going to the cross was a “manifestation” or demonstration (a living tableau) of the atoning work He performed at the foundation of the world.

Likewise, God uses the same word to describe the elect making an appearance before the judgment seat of Christ. The judgement seat of Christ is the wrath of God and that is when this all occurs, just as the pouring out of the waters of the flood was an historical parable illustrating the judgment and wrath of God. God would punish sinners in judgment. Of course, we have seen this before, but now let us think about it a little bit more and spend more time on this idea.

The people within the ark, the elect, that were delivered from the flood went through the same flood waters or “wrath of God” as the other (unsaved) inhabitants of the earth. They did not experience different waters. The very same water that fell from the heavens above and opened up from the depths below to destroy all the wicked upon the earth also came down upon the remnant of God’s elect. And, yet, they were protected. The elect people were safe and secure from all harm because they had gained entry into the safety of the ark. However, from day one of the flood to day forty of the flood, they were upon the earth – they were not raptured out of the world before the judgment came. In fact, the ark itself would not have lifted up on the waters for a few days after the rain began to fall. The elect were right there where the wrath of God was falling and they were experiencing it, but in a different way because of being in the ark. Yet, the elect and the non-elect both experienced the judgment.

God tells us that this is the case, in Ecclesiastes 3:16-17:

And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

God judges the righteous along with the wicked. When He judges the wicked, the righteous are there. When He judges the righteous, the wicked are there. It is exactly as we understand it today – God has begun the final judgment of all the inhabitants of the earth and He has left His elect people on the earth to go through it. The elect are alive and remain as they go through it, but they are protected. They are safe and secure in Christ (the ark). That is what the Bible tells us in Isaiah 26:20-21:

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, JEHOVAH cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

“Come, my people…hide thyself in thy chambers and shut the door until the indignation be over.” That is exactly what happened with the people in the ark. They “hid” themselves in the ark and they were present on the earth while the waters of the flood destroyed the rest of the inhabitants of the world. The elect were right there, but they were hidden and protected.

By the way, God explains what it means to “be hid” in Colossians 3:3:

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Salvation in Christ protects and hides the elect until the “indignation be overpast.” Presently, God’s elect are hidden in Christ, as the ark typifies Christ, until God’s wrath or indignation is over with, but in the meantime we are going through it.

You know, we can avoid this whole idea and maybe that is why this has not been picked up on by many, but this is an incredible thing. It is a huge doctrine that God has opened up to us in showing us through His Word that He will leave His people on the earth to experience Judgment Day and we are currently going through that time.

This is a doctrine that is very helpful to us, but it is also a doctrine that can be very troubling. To think that God is presently giving us the “cup of his wrath” and He is presently baptizing us with the baptism He was baptized with are not pleasant thoughts. We can be a little afraid of it and maybe avoid investigating what the Bible has to say about it and, yet, it is always better to know the truth. The truth is always encouraging and it is that which feeds us, so it does not do any good to hide from it or avoid it. What good would that do? We are still experiencing the wrath of God, as it were, in the lower portion of the ship and the water is all around and we are going to go through it all, whether we like it, or not. Whether we want to be aware of it, or not, God’s elect will be taken through this period of time.

I mentioned the “baptism” and the “cup of wrath” that the Lord Jesus experienced. When James and John, the sons of Zebedee, requested to be seated with Christ in His kingdom, it says in Matthew 20:22-23:

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Jesus told them, “Ye shall,” and the word “shall” is future tense – it is something that will happen in the future. Christ is saying that the elect will “drink indeed of my cup.” What was that cup? “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” It was the “cup of wrath” that Christ was suffering in the garden and all the way through his dying on the cross. We will drink of that cup.

He also says, “and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with,” and it says in 1Peter 3:19-21:

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us…

The flood water is a figure of “baptism.” It was the baptism that Christ was baptized with as He suffered the wrath of God in a tableau. Christ said to His disciples that they would “be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.”

The spiritual baptism began on May 21, 2011. It is as though that is when the flood waters came forth. It was the “seventeenth day of the second month” of the underlying Hebrew calendar. It was the date God shut the door and the date the flood (judgment) began.