Comparison of Adam With Noah

THE first earth and the first heavens, having been overflowed by the waters of a Deluge, perished under the judgment of God. They yielded their place to the heavens and the earth which are now (2 Peter 3:6,7). In the Holy Scripture the beginning and the end of both these worlds is given to us, together with the details which belonged to each.
The history of the first world ends before the end of the eighth chapter of Genesis; that of the world which now is begins then, and continues, with the exception of a few verses, nearly to the end of the Revelation. This first history seems indeed short,_ when it is considered that it contains the account of what passed: during 1650 years. But the ways of God are not as our- ways,, nor God's thoughts as our thoughts; and it becomes us to receive with humility, what He has given to us, and to study it with attention. If God has written a book, He has done it with the object of presenting Himself, of revealing Himself to us. This is the explanation of most of the difficulties which we find in the Bible, namely, the end which God had before Him in writing the book.
Let us examine first the beginning of Genesis. The first chapter (including the first three verses of the second annexed to it) gives to us the history of the Creation, and makes known to us the glory of the Creator under His name of GOD; the majesty of His being, His creative and eternal power, and His goodness. In the fourth verse of the second chapter we find, for the first time, the name of Jehovah; but this name is here joined with another, viz., with that of God (Elohim). It is the same under which He manifests Himself in the work of creation.
He calls Himself by the name of Jehovah-Elohim in His relationship with man set in the Garden of Eden. The happiness of Adam, as a creature blessed and in relationship with his Creator, is the subject of this chapter. Jehovah-Elohim confides to his creature (Adam) the care of the creation in the garden. Man is lord and center of a system. In the third chapter we have, first, the Serpent and the fall of man; and then the first rays of the light of divine grace in the declaration to the Serpent: "The seed of the woman shall bruise thy head;" lastly, man sent (in grace) forth from the Garden of Eden, lest he should eat of another tree, and abide forever a sinner. It ought to be remarked, that directly the human family is outside of Eden-the place of their blessedness as creatures-the name of Jehovah is found alone, without the addition of that of Elohim. In the fourth chapter, we have two great divisions of the human race, of which one part is for God, the other declares itself for the world. The fifth chapter is little more than a genealogy-all important as it is, and precious as are the details of it. The three following chapters (that is to say, the sixth, seventh, and eighth) give us the judgment of this first world, and its destruction on account of sin. The goodness and the power of God created this present world. His patience (based upon the excellency of One who was to come) was manifested towards it after its fall; but the evil having been fully developed, the just judgment of God came down, and the world perished. It may be remarked, that this mixture of evil with good, which took place at the close of this first world, was its capital sin. Sin having been brought into Eden, and having received a sanction from Eve and from Adam) God drove them out from the garden, and pronounced upon the creation a curse, in order to testify His displeasure. After that, He separated into two distinct classes the posterity of Adam; but when this divine separation had been despised, and that these two distinct races had thoroughly confounded themselves together, then was the world judged by its Creator. Sin and the determination on man's part that all should be mixed together, ought (it would seem to me) to be considered, above everything, insupportable, in a world which had been created in order to show forth the attributes of its Creator.
Noah, the first man of the world that now is, was also the last Man of the first world. Born in sin, he found grace in the eyes of God, who showed forth His compassion and His mercy by him, and in saving him and his family. If the first world was in the beginning created by God for the manifestation of His own glory as Creator, as we read in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, and then given to man as innocent; the existence of the present world has to do rather with the showing forth of the patience and long-suffering of God [chap. 8:21, and chap. 9:11-17]; and it was put into the hands of a sinful man (as we shall soon see) in order to try if he was capable of governing in the name of God, and restraining evil.
There appears to me a contrast, in the first place, between the power committed to Adam and that entrusted to Noah; and, in the second place, between the normal state of the earth under Adam driven out of Eden, and that of the earth under Noah, come out (according to God's own invitation to him-chap. 8:6) of the Ark.
As to Adam, we find (chap. 1:26): - |As to Noah, it is written (chap. 9:1):-|
"And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth…And God blessed them, and God said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."|And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. 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 hands are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And, surely, your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man. And you, be ye fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein." Remark particularly these expressions: - "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all creatures;" and, "Surely your blood, the blood of your lives will I require;" and, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed."|

The animals, the birds, the fishes, were placed,
An exception being made of their life, In the hands and under the power of Adam and of his family. The food of man was the green herb, seeds, and fruits; that of the other living creatures on the earth, the green herb. Adam's employment was to dress and to keep the garden.|Without an exception of their life, Under the fear and the dread of Noah, and of his family. To the food of man in the time of Adam, flesh without blood was added.|
|The responsibility of putting to death the man who should kill another was given to Noah.|

It cannot fail to be perceived, that in the case of Noah there was a beginning afresh: there was a new relationship between man, as head, and the creatures, with new privileges and a new responsibility. The charter of it was new likewise. And the strength of this power - this responsibility to watch over the life of man, and of all creatures in this respect - was the bringing in of a principle which is explained to us in the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, namely: - the principle of magistracy; for the sword is the ensign of government: and the sword was put into the hands of a man in the good providence of God, for the government of sinful men. It is of the utmost importance to understand well the truth which is here presented to us. God, according to His counsel and wisdom, willed the maintaining of good order here below; and, in order thereunto, He placed the sword in the hands of Noah. The thought was as of God Himself, the Creator and Sustainer of all things (present in Spirit, though hidden from human sight) to place in the hands of a man the responsibility of governing amongst men, though sinners, and in a world not renewed. It is the basis of all government: and, notwithstanding that Noah failed in his duty (as we read at the close of the same chapter), the truth that man upon earth ought to be governed by a man is of divine appointment, and is likewise (as we shall soon see) a testimony to One who is to come.
As to Providence, I have another remark to make, which is connected with the expression of the two judgments which God pronounced upon the two earths:-
Chapter 3:17-19.|Chapter 8:21.|
"Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it (the fruits) all the days of they life. (18) Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. (19) In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat (thy) bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."|"And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done. (But) while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."|

It ought to be observed that Noah, as also his children, belonged to both worlds: their persons had been saved out of the ruin of the first world, and grace had given them entrance into the second. Dust they were indeed, and unto dust they were to return; but, notwithstanding the state of their bodies being the same, there was, nevertheless, a difference in the sentence of God upon the two different earths.
Because of thy sin - "Cursed is the ground."Though there is only sin in man, I will not again any more curse the ground.||
"Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee."|" Seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."|
On one hand, it is a judgment, on account of sin, passed against the earth.|On the other, it is a declaration in favor of man, notwithstanding his sin.|

And what throws still more light upon this is the Covenant-the charter of this present world's privileges (chap. 9:8):-
" God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying: And I, behold I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the Ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 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 remember my covenant which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be 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. And God said unto Noah: This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth."
What a contrast between the charter of the privileges belonging to Eden and the charter of the privileges of this present world! Human obedience to the command not to touch of a tree; the goodness of God in providence towards a sinful world-these are the two principles.
The Rainbow continues to this day, and is the ensign of this world, and proclaims it to be the world of the providence of God's goodness, notwithstanding the sin of which the rainbow is in itself the memorial.
When I consider these things, I cannot help seeing in the first world the manifestation of God as Creator, and in the second, the manifestation of God as the Preserver of men as sinners upon the earth-the God of Providence. As to both worlds, the testimony is restricted to the earth with the physical heavens which belong to it, and does in no way affect the heavenly places which belong to another subject:-that is to say, to the heavenly glory, concerning which there is no instruction in the Old Testament.
In the case of Cain, we find the ordinary error of the unconverted with regard to the protection of God. The heart estranged from God does not recognize that God has an object of His own in His providence and long-suffering patience:- that is to say, redemption; and that He alone can explain His views correctly. Their own ease and enjoyment being the object and end of men, they cannot suppose that God is not of the same mind as themselves;-nothing blinds the mind so much as selfishness.
It is beyond a doubt that the Lord Jesus is called the second Adam, and that He is to be the One that comes in in His place as Antitype, and that likewise (though He is not called the second Noah) He will nevertheless have to fulfill the duties connected with governing amongst men in a time to come.