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was starting out afresh. There was a new beginning. Noah stood, like Adam stood, as the head of the human race. The need for this word was obvious. The earth had been depopulated. The human family had been reduced to eight souls (1 Pet. 3:20). If then the purpose of man's creation was to be realized, if the earth was to be replenished and subdued, then must man be "fruitful and multiply." "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered" (9:2) is further proof that Noah stood as the new head of the race, the lower orders of creation being delivered into his hands as they had been into the hands of Adam.

7. "And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud;....and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth" (9:1216). These verses bring before us the token of the covenant. In the giving of the rainbow God ratified the promise which He had made. The bow in the cloud was not only to assure man that no more would the earth be destroyed by a flood, but it was also the memorial of the new relationship which God had entered into with His creatures. "His eye," and not man's only, is upon the bow, and thus He gives them fellowship with Himself in that which speaks of peace in the midst of trouble, of light in the place of darkness; and what this bow speaks of it is ours to realize, who have the reality of which all figures speak.

"God is light,' and that which doth make manifest is light." Science has told us that the colors which everywhere clothe the face of nature are but the manifold beauty of the light itself. The pure ray which to us is colorless is but the harmonious blending of all possible colors. The primary one-a trinity in unity-from which all others are

*It is something more than a coincidence that the word "covenant" is found in this connection just eight times, see Genesis 6:18; 9:9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17-eight being the numeral that signifies a new beginning, as the eighth day is the first of a new week.

produced, are blue, red, and yellow; and the actual color of any object is the result of its capacity to absorb the rest. If it absorb the red and yellow rays, the thing is blue; if the blue and yellow, it is red; if the red only, it is green; and so on. Thus the light paints all nature; and its beauty (which in the individual ray, we have not eyes for) comes out in partial displays wherein it is broken up for us and made perceptible.

"God is light'; He is Father of lights." The glory, which in its unbroken unity is beyond what we have sight for, He reveals to us as distinct attributes in partial displays which we are more able to take in, and with these He clothes in some way all the works of His hands. The jewels on the High Priest's breastplate-the many-colored gems whereon the names of His people were engraved were thus the "Urim and Thummim"-the "Lights and Perfections, typically, of God Himself; for His people are identified with the display of those perfections, those "lights," in Him more unchangeable than the typical gems.

"In the rainbow the whole array of these lights manifests itself, the solar rays reflecting themselves in the storm; the interpretation of which is simple. "When I bring a cloud over the earth," says the Lord, "the bow shall be seen in the cloud; and I (not merely you) will look upon it." How blessed to know that the cloud that comes over our sky is of His bringing! and if so, how sure that some way He will reveal His glory in it! But that is not all, nor the half; for surely but once has been the full display of the whole prism of glory, and that in the blackest storm of judgment that ever was; and it is this in the cross of His Son that God above all looks upon and that He remembers" (F. W. Grant).

In the rainbow we have more than a hint of grace. As some one has said, "The bow is directed towards heaven, and arrow to it there is none, as if it had already been discharged." There are many parallels between the rainbow and God's grace. As the rainbow is the joint product of storm and sunshine, so grace is the unmerited favor of God appearing on the dark background of the creature's sin. As the rainbow is the effect of the sun shining on the drops of rain in a raincloud, so Divine grace is manifested by God's love shining through the blood shed by our blessed Redeemer. As the rainbow is the telling out of the varied

hues of the white light, so the "manifold grace of God" 1 Pet. 4:10) is the ultimate expression of God's heart. As Nature knows nothing more exquisitely beautiful than the rainbow, so heaven itself knows nothing that equals in loveliness the wonderful grace of our God. As the rainbow is the union of heaven and earth-spanning the sky and reaching down to the ground-so grace in the one Mediator has brought together God and men. As the rainbow is a public sign of God hung out in the heavens that all may see it, so "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11). Finally, as the rainbow has been displayed throughout all the past forty centuries, so in the ages to come God will shew forth "the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:7).

15. NOAH'S FALL AND NOAH'S

PROPHECY

GENESIS 9

In our last article we inquired into God's Covenant with Noah-its basis, its contents, its requirements, etc. We saw, in the emerging out of the ark that from Noah and his sons the human family started out afresh. The new beginning promised well. God entered into a covenant with Noah, declaring that the earth should not again be destroyed by a flood-thus did the Lord set the heart of His creatures at rest. Then, we learned that "God blessed Noah and his sons"; that He caused the fear and dread of man to fall upon every beast of the field, and "delivered" all the lower orders of creation into his hands. Further, we discovered that man was now vested with the sword of magisterial authority, the principle of human government being ordained and instituted by God Himself.

After such a merciful deliverance from the deluge, after witnessing such a solemn demonstration of God's holy wrath against sin, and after being started out with full provision and Divine assurance, one would have supposed that the human race, ever after, would adhere to the path of righteousness-but, alas! The very next thing we read is that "Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent" (Gen. 9: 20, 21). Scholars tell us that the Hebrew word here for "uncovered" clearly indicates a deliberate act and not a mere unconscious effect of drunkenness. The sins of intemperance and impurity are twin sisters! No wonder the Psalmist was constrained to cry, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" What a contrast there is between this section of Genesis and the last that we considered! Who would have imagined such a tragic sequel? How evident it is that truth is stranger than fiction.

Genesis 9 brings before us the inauguration of a new beginning and as we study and ponder what is recorded herein our minds revert to the first "beginning" of the human race, and careful comparison of the two reveals the fact that there is a most extraordinary resemblance in the

history of Noah with that of Adam. We would here call attention to a tenfold correspondence or likeness. Adam was placed upon an earth which came up out of the "deep and which had previously been dealt with by God in judgment" (Gen. 1:12); so, also, Noah came forth onto an earth which had just emerged from the waters of the great Deluge sent as a Divine judgment upon sin. Adam was made lord of creation (Gen. 1:28) and into the hands of Noah God also delivered all things (Gen. 9:2). Adam was "blessed" by God and told to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Gen. 1:28), and, in like manner, Noah was "blessed" and told to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Gen. 9:1). Adam was placed by God in a garden to "dress and to keep it" (Gen. 2: 15), and Noah "began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard" (Gen. 9:20). In this garden Adam transgressed and fell, and the product of the vineyard was the occasion of Noah's sin and fall. The sin of Adam resulted in the exposure of his nakedness (Gen. 3:7), and so, too, we read "And he (Noah) was uncovered within his tent" (Gen. 9: 21). Adam's nakedness was covered by another (Gen. 3:21); thus also was it with Noah (Gen. 9:23). Adam's sin brought a terrible curse upon his posterity (Rom. 5:12), and so did Noah's too (Gen. 24: 24, 25). Adam had three sons-Cain, Abel and Seth, the last of which was the one through whom the promised Seed came; and here again the analogy holds good, for Noah also had three sons-Japheth, Ham and Shem, the last mentioned being the one from whom descended the Messiah and Saviour. Almost immediately after Adam's fall a wonderful prophecy was given containing in outline the history of redemption (Gen. 3: 15); and almost immediately after Noah's fall, a remarkable prophecy was uttered containing in outline the history of the great races of the earth. Thus does history repeat itself.

Noah "planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent" (Gen. 9:21). As we read these words we are reminded of the Holy Spirit's comment upon the Old Testament Scriptures "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (Rom. 15:4). What then are we to "learn" from this narration of Noah's sad fall?

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