FROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE.
[DISPENSATION A.]
THE work of creation being finished, the, first dispensation of the world's history begins. But, alas! the very first page of it is sadly marred and stained by the introduction of sin, through the subtlety of Satan, who appears early on the scene.
Where all was before bright and beautiful, in the happy innocence of that lovely garden of Eden, there was now sorrow, gloom, and depravity; and that dark cloud of sin which then arose, was henceforth to hang like a funeral pall over all the future history of the world, down to the end of time-ever casting its deep and somber shadow over everything. But God, in His infinite love and mercy, immediately points to the remedy in announcing the redemption that Christ should accomplish in due time, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15).
The dispensation that followed the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, extended for about 1656 years, without any material break or change, and the chief moral feature of this long period was a sad exemplification of the unrestrained self-will of man, who, left to himself and his own devices, became more and more corrupt, self-willed, and rebellious as time wore on.
The leading particulars and events recorded of this period may be briefly noted as follows:—
(1.) The description of the beautiful garden of Eden; the placing of Adam and Eve therein, in happy innocence, by God Himself; and the commandment given to them concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2).
(2.) The serpent's subtle temptation that led to the " Fall of Man," and the entrance of sin into the world. The guilt and sorrow, and the terrible curse that consequently followed upon the whole world; and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Also the gracious announcement of a Deliverer,—the seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3).
(3.) The offerings of Cain and Abel—Cain's rejected and Abel's accepted; the former being the offering of a proud, self-sufficient, and disobedient soul, and the latter of a humble, submissive heart, acting in accordance with the then right way of approaching God through sacrifice. Abel slain by his brother Cain, "because his (Cain's) own works were evil, and his brother's righteous" (1 John 3 i2). The first recorded fruit of sin manifested in a foul murder (Gen. 4).
These two brothers have ever served as types of the two classes of mankind which have always existed since the Fall —Abel representing the righteous, who accept God's way of salvation, and bow their hearts to His commands; and Cain, the wicked, who refuse to submit to God's ways, and who, in the pride and self-will of their rebellious hearts, vainly strive " to establish their own righteousness," instead of submitting to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3). The "way of Cain" (Jude 11) has ever been the way of the ungodly world.
(4.) The descendants of Cain and of Seth, particularly noted, thus showing us the distinct lines and genealogies of the two classes—the evil and the good. Seth takes the place of righteous Abel, and thus a line of demarcation is drawn between these two—Seth and Cain—and their descendants (Gen. 4 and 5.).
(5.)In the line of Seth one particularly bright gleam of history shines out prominently above all its surroundings, and that is the beautiful, though very short account of Enoch, the man of God, "who walked with God three hundred years... and he was not; for God took him " (Gen. 5:22-24). What a long and noble testimony in those dark times, the dim twilight of this world's history.
Further light is given to us with regard to this godly and noble character in Heb. 11:5, " By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
From Jude 14, we learn that he was a prophet, and that he prophesied, saying, " Behold the Lord has come with ten thousands of His saints;" —the first announcement of the second coming of the Lord, an event that is yet future, though mentioned thousands of years before His first coming, which has long passed. It was appropriately foretold, too, by one who was not permitted to die, but who was translated bodily to heaven, as Elijah was: and thus it may be intended to foreshadow the future rapture or translation of living saints at Christ's second coming.
This seems to be all the more probable when we consider a certain parallelism that appears in the circumstances connected with these two events. For Enoch was translated to heaven before the Deluge judgment, and was thus delivered from it, while Noah had to be in it, though he was preserved through it. So also the living saints at the Lord's coming will be caught up to heaven before the day of tribulation (as promised in Rev. 3:10), but unbelievers will have to pass into the fiery trial of that awful day, while a godly remnant of both Jews and Gentiles (see Rev. 7) will be preserved through it, to enter into millennial blessing. Thus Enoch, the first prophet of the Lord's second coming, may very properly be regarded, as to his translation, as a fitting type of the future translation of living saints to heaven, when the Lord comes for His own, as set forth in 1 Thessalonians 4.
(6.) As men began to multiply, wickedness continually increased during this first dispensation, until " God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually " (Gen. 6:5,11,12).
Therefore it was that God determined to destroy all—except one family—by an overwhelming flood (Gen. 6:13). Noah was instructed to build "an ark to the saving of his house," and all the animals that were to go in with him, and he patiently toiled at it for a number of years.
During all those long years Noah doubtless preached repentance to those unbelieving and disobedient people, who in all probability returned the warnings of this man of God with insulting jeers and scoffings, and still went on in their evil ways, until Noah entered the ark, and the terrible deluge overtook them all.
The preaching to those disobedient antediluvians is clearly referred to in 1 Peter 3:19, 20, " By which also He (Christ by the Spirit) 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." Their souls were in " prison " when Peter wrote, but, they were living on the earth in Noah's day, the time when Christ, by the Spirit, went to preach to them, chiefly, it may be, through the instrumentality of Noah.
What noble faith we see here in this upright servant of God, toiling on perseveringly for many years, without the faintest sign of the threatened deluge to encourage him—nothing but the bare word of God. It is for this that he is deservedly enrolled among the nobles of faith in Heb. 11:7, " By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
(7.) The closing scenes of this first dispensation furnish us with another very striking and solemn type of what the last scenes of the present dispensation will be. For though the gospel of God's free grace has been proclaimed for centuries, and is still sounding forth its gracious calls and warnings to the world, when the next awful judgment comes to pass,-namely, the judgment of the nations by the Lord Himself (Matt. 25:31, 32; Rev. 19:11-21),—the great majority of mankind will be found as heedless and unbelieving as they were in the days of Noah.
To this our Lord alludes in Matt. 24:37-39, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." How strange, that in the face of such a plain scripture—and of others of like import—there should be found many Christians who maintain that the world is to grow better and better through the preaching of the gospel until the spiritual millennium they are thinking about, shall come to pass!
The wicked days of Noah's time will yet be repeated, before the millennium comes.