Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #15 of Genesis, chapter 9 and we are going to read Genesis 9:24-27:

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be JEHOVAH God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

As we discussed in our last study, Noah is a picture of God the Father, the Husbandman. After planting a vineyard and tending it, he gathered of the vine. The vineyard had to produce the grapes and come to “fruitfulness” and then the wine could be made. Then Noah drank of the wine and he was asleep. We saw several verses in the Psalms that show us a spiritual picture of God as if He were asleep and then awakes to judgment. We saw the picture of God awakening to judgment in connection with “wine” in Psalm 78. So, when Noah “awoke from his wine,” it is a picture of God when He awoke to judgment.

We also read in Genesis 9:24: “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.” This indicates that when God comes to judge, He knows all things. He knows who has covered His nakedness and He knows who has not covered His nakedness. God is fully aware of the sins of mankind, just as Noah had knowledge of the son who had not covered him and the two sons that had covered him. Once Noah awoke, then he pronounced the curse upon Canaan. We discussed why Canaan was cursed; he is a figure of the corporate church. Ham identified more with the world at large. He was the progenitor of the Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians or the nations of the world. The unsaved nations of the world have no responsibility before God as did the corporate bodies that represent God, whether it was Israel of old or the New Testament churches. In faithfully proclaiming the Word of God the corporate church could provide covering for God’s elect among mankind. That is why Ham was not the target of the curse, but Canaan (who was in the line of Ham) was cursed because he was a representation of those that had identification with the kingdom of God and, therefore, he had the responsibility to rightly declare the Word of God. The corporate church failed to do this and they failed to cover the spiritual nakedness of God’s elect that were scattered among the nations of the world and they came under the curse or the judgment of God.

Noah pronounced the curse upon Canaan and the blessing upon Shem and Japheth. We referred in our last study to Matthew, chapter 25 where the Lord Jesus spoke a parable to teach us about Judgment Day. It says in Matthew 25:31:

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him…

The word “angels” should really be translated as “messengers” here. God’s elect are the holy messengers. The Bible tells us that when Christ comes in judgment He comes with “ten thousands of his saints,” or the complete number of His elect. That is what is in view here. Christ comes in His glory and all the holy messengers with him. Then it says in Matthew 25:31:

… then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

So, we are being told that Christ has come as the Judge of the whole earth and He is seated upon the throne of His glory. This is the judgment seat of Christ, as we read in 2Corinthians 5, verse 10 or in Romans, chapter 14 or in Revelation, chapter 20. The “Ancient of Days” is seated upon the great white throne.

By the way, in 2Corinthians, chapter 5 the word “we” is used multiple times in this chapter to refer only to God’s elect and it says, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” The word “appear” is the same word that is translated as “to make manifest” and it is used to describe the demonstration of Christ in entering the world, performing His ministry and going to the cross. It is the manifestation or the “showing forth” of something that was already accomplished. Christ’s entire life on earth was a tableau. He was appearing like an actor on a stage that is showing forth a story of something that had already taken place hundreds of years ago, like a Shakespearean play. So, Christ entered the world to make manifest or to show what happened at the foundation of the world when He was the Lamb slain for the sins of His people. The Bible uses this Word in several places in connection with Christ to describe this demonstration. It is the Greek word “fan-er-o’-o” and it is Strong’s #5319. This word is used to reveal to us that when Christ died on the cross He was not making payment for sin, but He was “making manifest” the payment already made at the foundation of the world in eternity past. This Greek word “fan-er-o’-o” is the same word we find in 2Corinthians 5:10:

For we must all appear…

The word “appear” is translated from the Greek word “fan-er-o’-o.” Again, the word “we” always refers to God’s elect in every case in this chapter. The plural pronoun “we” points to God’s elect and cannot be referring to anyone else. All the statements are associated only with God’s elect and then we come to the dramatic statement about the elect, in 2Corinthians 5:10:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;

What does this mean? When we search out the word “fan-er-o’-o” we find it used in association with the Lord Jesus Christ’s appearance into the world in being born as a baby, living his life and performing His ministry and, finally, going to the cross. By God’s grace and mercy, God opened the understanding of His people regarding information that had previously been sealed or hidden in the Bible and we began to understand that the actual atonement or payment for sin was made at the foundation of the world. A demonstration of this was then performed in time when Jesus was born into the world in 7BC and went to the cross in 33AD. We have a proper understanding of this now and it is only because God has graciously opened our understanding to that truth and it is only now that we are in a position where we can begin to understand how it is possible that God’s elect “appear” before the judgment seat of Christ in the Day of Judgment.

By the way, this is the reason that Jesus had the conversation with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, when they desired to sit on His right and on His left in His kingdom. Jesus asked them, “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They answered that they could do so. Then Christ said, “Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized.” That “baptism” was spoken of in the future tense and it could only refer to the time when Christ’s elect would “appear before the judgment seat” and make demonstration of the things that had happened to them in Christ before the foundation of the world. In other words, God’s people would follow the pattern of Christ’s example and just as Jesus made a demonstration “in time,” so, too, God’s elect would make a demonstration “in time” (in history) of what happened at the foundation of the world when we were “baptized” in Christ. Again, “baptism” means the “washing away of sin” and that is the point when our sins were washed away. But Christ told James and John, “Ye shall be baptized,” in the future tense. Christ was baptized at the foundation of the world. We were baptized at the foundation of the world. We are demonstrating the baptism or the washing away of our sins as we “appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” which began on May 21, 2011 and includes all the days of the prolonged Day of Judgment that may very well continue until 2033AD.

Again, we are following in His steps and being made conformable to the image of His suffering and death, in order that we be ready for the resurrection. Christ arose from the dead and came up out of “hell” or the grave from the foundation of the world and He demonstrated that resurrection from the dead on that Sunday morning in 33AD. God’s elect are currently being made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ and once that demonstration is complete we, too, will “rise from the dead.” The world has entered in to the condition of “hell” or the grave; it has become a place of darkness and death. We are in a world in the condition of death and God’s elect will rise out of that condition of “hell” at the completion of the tableau. Just as Christ was declared to be the Son of God when He rose from the dead at the foundation of the world, we are the sons of God that will have completed the chastisement and death in Christ and we will be children of God that endured to the end and came up out of “hell.”

All of this is in view in Matthew, chapter 25 when Christ comes in His glory and all His holy messengers with Him. I should point out that Christ came with all His saints and this includes the great multitude that are currently alive and remain on the earth. And, yet, that great multitude of the elect are being brought before Him. How can it be that all the holy messengers come with Him, but they are also being brought before Him? The solution to this is to understand that God waited patiently. That is what it says in James 5, verse 7, as the Husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth. He was patient and longsuffering. Then it tells us in 2Peter 3, verse 15: “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” God was waiting with a purpose. He patiently held back His wrath from destroying mankind because there were still people to be saved, but the message of the Bible is that the last of the elect became saved just prior to May 21, 2011 and when that last person heard the Gospel and became saved, then the Husbandman had gathered all the precious fruit and He had received the early and Latter Rain. Then He was no longer longsuffering or patient. We should not be deceived into thinking that since we see no physical wrath that God is not bringing His wrath upon the world. On May 21, 2011 God acted to shut the door of heaven and all possibility of salvation was ended forever for all the unsaved individuals in the world. That is why Revelation 22, verse 11 speaks of Judgment Day and says, “and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still.” The spiritual condition of every person in all the world is established and it cannot be changed. Men will seek “death” in Christ (salvation) and not be able to find it. There was no more possibility for salvation once the door shut on the ark. The only thing left to do was to wait for the waters to rise and destroy all with the breath of life. Not one person or animal was allowed on the ark once God shut the door. God acted and He shut the spiritual door of heaven. It is an invisible door that men could not see when it was open and men cannot see it when it was closed, but the door is shut. God is now actively judging the world and He can only do this because the complete number of the elect have been gathered and they have experienced salvation. That is why the Bible can use that imagery of Christ coming with ten thousands of His saints or the imagery of the Lord Jesus coming on a white horse and the armies of heaven riding on white horses as they come with Him.

It is the same picture as Christ coming with His holy messengers in Matthew, chapter 25 and the same language is found in Revelation 14:10:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever…

Again, the “holy angels” are the holy messengers. When it says that “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever,” we must remember that there is no physical place of eternal torment and suffering called “Hell.” Unsaved mankind will not be placed in “Hell” and be beaten with stripes for evermore. That place does not exist, but God pours out His wrath while this earth is still in existence in the Day of Judgment, so it is being done “in the presence of the holy messengers.” Are God’s elect living on the earth at this time? The answer is, “Yes.” Has God begun to judge the inhabitants of the earth? Yes, according to the Bible Judgment Day started on May 21, 2011 and it is being carried out by God in the presence of the holy messengers that are alive and remain on the earth. So, the smoke of the torment of the unsaved ascendeth up to the point of for ever and ever, not “for ever and ever.” It goes until the last day and up to the point of “for ever and ever” or up to the point of eternity future. Once God destroys this world and the entire creation that has seen corruption, then He will bring His people into eternity, where we will dwell for evermore into eternity future. Therefore, the “smoke of their torment” goes up to that point of the beginning of eternity. It goes on to say in Revelation 14:10:

… and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

What would be another way of saying that they have no rest? What does “rest” identify with in the Bible? The Sabbath “rest” identifies with salvation. Christ said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Again, it says, “and they have no rest day nor night,” and we know that there is a period of days after that Tribulation in which the sun is darkened and the moon is not giving her light. There is no salvation possible for the unsaved people of the earth and, therefore, “they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image.”

All this language fits perfectly with our understanding of the spiritual judgment which began on May 21, 2011. So, God’s elect come with Christ in the sense that He could not begin to judge the earth until He had saved the last one. It is the completeness of the salvation of all the saints that allows God to take action to shut the door of heaven and to begin the punishment process that will play out over the prolonged Day of Judgment. Therefore, all God’s elect were with Christ as He came in judgment. Of course, it would include all those that are still alive and living on the earth, but it can include those elect that have died and are in heaven in their soul existence. But for all those that are alive and remaining on the earth, we are also being brought before Him to appear (or be made manifest) before His judgment seat.