Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #24 of Genesis, chapter 6 and we are continuing to read Genesis 6:16-17:

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. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

I will stop reading there. In our last study we were looking at the last part of Genesis 6:17:

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

Through this statement we understand that God is indicating that His purpose is in view. The number “three” points to the purpose of God.

The Hebrew word translated as “lower” is Strong’s #8482 and it is found 20 times in the Old Testament. One of these times it is a name of a place and 11 out of the remaining 19 times, it can be shown to be pointing to “hell” or the “wrath of God.” For instance, it says in Psalm 63:9:

But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

It is also used in Deuteronomy 32:22:

For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell…

Again, this is the word translated as “lower,” Strong’s #8482.

Psalm 88 is a Psalm that describes the “wrath of God” and it can apply to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it can also apply to the people of God. It says in Psalm 88:6:

Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

It is used in Psalm 139:15:

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

It would be beneficial to read the rest of the Psalm. God speaks of the knitting together of a child, as David talks about how he was formed, but it is actually talking about the coming together of the body of Christ, all those God has saved. We all were, as it were, “curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth” because that is where God formed us in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as He bore our sins and made payment for those sins. He suffered God’s punishment for sin at the point of the world’s foundation and the body of Christ came together, as it were, and we were knitted together like a child that is formed in the womb. The whole history of the world was basically that “child” developing and growing until, finally, it was complete. This helps us to understand some of the language of the Bible, like the phrase, “like a woman in travail,” because once God found the last of the elect and applied His salvation to that person it all relates to this “child” that was conceived at the point of the world’s foundation.

It also says in Ezekiel 31:14:

To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

The word translated here as “nether” is a translation of the same Hebrew word that was translated as “lower” in our verse in Genesis. Notice what I just read: “for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth.” The nether or lower parts of the earth relates to death and “death” and “hell” are synonymous. The word for the “grave” is also translated as “hell,” so death has everything to do with hell and, so, too, does the lower parts of the earth.

Again, it says in Ezekiel 31:14: “…for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.” It is repeated in Ezekiel 31:16:

I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

Then it also says in Ezekiel 31:18:

To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

As God uses this Hebrew word that is translated as “lower” or “nether,” He ties it into “death” and “hell.” Here, it is the “lowest pit.” It is all language that points to being under the wrath of God.

How does all this fit with the ark? The ark was to have “lower” and second and third stories. Again, once the ark was placed into the water, then a portion of that large vessel would sink beneath the water and the water typified the wrath of God – it was the outpouring of His wrath. God literally poured out a tremendous deluge of water to crush the inhabitants of the earth through the tremendous quantity of water that He unleashed and caused to rain down from heaven and to come up from the depths beneath until every creature with the breath of life perished and died. The water typified, without any question, “hell” or “death.” It is a picture of the fury and wrath of a God that is taking vengeance upon the rebellious sinners that transgressed His Laws in thought, word and deed.

And, yet, inside the ark we find the people God spared, the elect. They have not been taken up out of the world, but they remained on the earth protected inside the ark, but they would have heard the heavy rainfall as it landed upon the ark and it rained for forty days and forty nights. When the water was sufficient to begin lifting up the ark, they could feel it and for a period of time the ark would have gone higher and higher upon the flood waters until it was fifteen cubits above the highest mountain. Yet, all the while the ark was being lifted up, a portion of the ship itself was in the water – it was the “lower” story. It was beneath the water line and it was surrounded by water and that is a picture of God’s people going through the wrath of God. It is a picture of what is happening today in our time as the Lord has come as the Judge of all the earth and He brought judgment. The judgment began on the seventeenth of the second month of the Biblical (Hebrew) calendar, which in our Gregorian calendar was May 21, 2011. The Word of God brought a spiritual judgment upon the inhabitants of the earth, just as the Word of God brought the physical judgment of the flood waters upon the first earth.

By the way, the Bible does say that the flood came as a result of the Word of God. It says in 2Peter 3:5-6:

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

Let me read that again taking out some of the in-between information: “…by the word of God…the word that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” By the Word of God the first world of Noah’s day perished. The flood came by, and according to, the Word of God. Or, we could say that as a result of the Word of God, the world of that day was destroyed and every person outside the ark.

Likewise, we talk in our day of the spiritual judgment and the door shutting on that particular day. It was by the Word of God. It is exactly the same cause for the judgment of the world in Noah’s day and the judgment that occurred on the equivalent day exactly 7,000 years later on May 21, 2011. The Word of God is accomplishing the pouring out of the wrath of God in our day and, therefore, God’s people are left on the earth today to experience it just as Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives were left on the earth. They were not raptured and removed into heaven. You can search the Genesis flood account and you will not find that Noah and the other seven souls were translated, like Elijah, or changed, like Enoch. God could have done that, as He demonstrated through Enoch, but God did not remove Noah and his family so they would not have to endure the judgment of the flood that happened according to the Word of God. That was not God’s purpose for them.

God’s purpose was to leave His people to experience the flood, but their experience would be dramatically different due to their blessed and privileged position of being inside the ark. The people outside the ark and the few souls within the ark were all upon the earth and they were all being rained upon, but God made provision to protect and deliver the remnant of His people – just a handful of people out of the world. He made no such provision to protect or deliver the rest of mankind.

It is exactly the same today. God saved His elect, which in a world of seven billion is still only a remnant and, yet, that remnant numbers a great multitude because of the enormous increase in population as compared to Noah’s day. The remnant could be 150,000 million or 170, 000 million (or some other number), but even if you have 150,000 million elect living in this day, it means you have over six billion and eight hundred million unsaved individuals. There is a massive number of people, so God’s people are just a remnant and God saved them by hiding them (spiritually) in Christ: their lives are hid with Christ in God. There is a remnant out of the whole and God saved them by hiding them spiritually in Christ. They have safe and secure protection through the salvation of God and once they were all safely “in Christ” and the last of the elect was found, then God shut the door. All had entered into the safe vessel and when the door was shut, God began to pour out His wrath and the shutting of the door itself was an integral part of the wrath of God.

Then God continued to pour out His wrath, while leaving the elect on the earth and since it was a spiritual ark (Christ) and it was spiritual salvation that brought all the elect into Christ, it was not necessary for the elect to be gathered in one place physically and it was not necessary for them to board some kind of vessel. They could remain in China, India, Vietnam, Africa, the United States, Canada or South America. The elect could remain wherever they lived and it was not necessary that they come together physically in any sense and, yet, they are all gathered together in one “in Christ” and they are hid as securely as anyone can be hid. And now God is trying them and He is bringing them through the fire of His wrath, severely testing them as they go through the same experience as all the unsaved individuals in the world. The water that destroyed the wicked in Noah’s day brought no harm to Noah and the other seven individuals on the ark. It was by the Word of God that the world of that day overflowed with water and perished and it is the same Word of God that is destroying the unsaved inhabitants of the earth today, but it causes no harm to God’s elect that have been delivered for all eternity in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We go on, day by day, through the deep waters and through the “lowest part of the earth.”

Remember how Jesus referred to Jonah’s experience in the whale’s belly? He likened it to His own time of suffering “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The “heart of the earth” is another way of saying “the lowest parts of the earth” or “hell.” It is being under the wrath of God. It says in Jonah 2:1:

Then Jonah prayed unto JEHOVAH his God out of the fish's belly,

Just think about that. Jonah was inside this enormous whale in the depths of the sea, in the “lower parts of the earth.” Water compassed him about. Notice it says in Jonah 2:2-5:

And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto JEHOVAH, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

Can you see the similarity between Jonah being inside a whale and how it might be similar to an ark? Noah and his family were inside the ark.

Jonah is going through this experience as the waters are all around him and God identifies the waters as “hell” and Jonah says, “Out of the belly of hell cried I.” If Jonah was in the belly of hell when he was inside the whale with the waters all around him, then what were those inside the ark going through when the waters of the flood were all about that vessel? Even the lower portion of the ark was below the water line. You can see the picture of the water representing the furious wrath of God and, yet, inside the ark there was not a drop of water, as far as we know. God makes no reference to them being affected by that water and they were dry inside the ark while the deluge of water was outside the ark.

Likewise, the wrath of God is all around us today – it is everywhere. God is furiously judging the people of the world, but it will not touch us in any way, just as the fire did not harm Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. It had no power upon them and the wrath of God has no power upon the elect that are safe in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ today.