ARK OF SAFETY

ARK OF SAFETY

                The first ark of safety was the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were temples of the living God for He had breathed His Spirit into them after having created them in His image. And not only were Adam and Eve self’-contained arks of covenant, but the Garden was an Ark of safety as well for God came there to walk with them face to face in the cool of the evening.

                Some prophecy teachers, I believe Perry Stone is one of them, believe that the Garden of Eden occupied the same territory that later became the land of Israel and that God has, from the very beginning, centered all of His plans and purposes for mankind on the same location.

                After the fall, of Adam and Eve and the invasion of the Nachash (Satan) safety became a thing of the past, for even from the very beginning persecution took the life of faithful Able and from there on the violence increased until it was said in Genesis 6:5: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

                It did not help that a contingent of fallen angels had come down on Mt. Herman and conspired to co-habit with women and to produce a hybrid race of giants… and in fact they corrupted the seed of man and of beast doing everything in an effort to prevent the promised Seed of the woman from being born into the world.

                So in order to preserve the image of God in man, God took one man Noah, whom Genesis 6:9 tells us was perfect in his generations (In other words his DNA had not been corrupted by the Nephilim) and God had him build the second Ark of safety, known to this day as Noah’s Ark. (AS a side note, Noah’s Ark has been found through satellite technology and confirmed on the ground. The story is well known by locals in the area and a trail of great anchor stones complete with holes drilled in them can be followed to the ark’s resting place. This, God has allowed as a testament to the veracity of the Bible in our day, along with many other significant finds, so that there can be no excuse for disbelief.)

                Sometime after the flood the world began to be corrupted again as Nimrod created Babylon and a Tower with which to restore contact with the fallen angels and to gain the power of the Nachash. So God found a man named Abram. He called him out of Ur of the Chaldees and made a covenant with Abram. We could call this covenant the next Ark, the Ark of promise into which Abram, later Abraham entered by faith. This Ark of promise was the Ark in which the patriarchs placed their faith and God led these men on an individual basis and cared for them, for they were of the seed line of faith that would eventually lead to the Seed of the woman, the Seed of promised in Gen. 3:15.

                Abraham, then Isaac and then Jacob increased and became 70 in number when they fled to Egypt during a famine where God had sent their brother Joseph ahead of them to preserve their race. They dwelt in the land of Egypt for 450 years, ever growing in numbers until there were over a million of them. Pharaoh became alarmed and fearful that they would take over his kingdom, so he forced them into slavery, until God called upon Moses to deliver them.

                There in the wilderness at the foot of Mt. Sinai, God directed Moses to build a new Ark; a Tabernacle containing the Ark of the Covenant and a place where God could once again dwell among His people. This was indeed another Ark of safety, for God fed them and protected and provided for them and even fought their battles for them. All they had to do was to believe in Him and follow His instructions and He would meet their every need.

                The Ark of the Covenant accompanied Israel through thick and thin, for many years until King David bought a threshing floor from a Jebusite and established a place for the Tabernacle on the same mountain where Abraham had offered his son Isaac, and where later on God would offer His only Son for the sins of the world.

                The history of Israel is a sordid tale of good kings and bad kings, idolatry and revival, obedience and disobedience, faith found and faith lost. But through it all, God’s promises remained true and in the fullness of time, He brought forth the fifth and final Ark of Safety… the Messiah… Yeshua… the One in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in bodily form. (Col. 2:9) He was and is the only Ark of Safety that the world will ever need.

                Men may build kingdoms, both religious and secular where they promise peace and safety, but in reality there is only one Ark of safety and that Ark is Jesus Christ the Son of God. Those who believe in Him will not be disappointed.

                “And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He (Yeshua) explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27. And He said to them: “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

                Through Jesus Christ, each of us who has received Him, have become temples in which the Ark of the Covenant Jesus Christ may dwell. Our safety is not in that which we may find around us. It is not in houses or fortresses… it is not in governments or churches… it is not in doctrines which men have wrested from the Scriptures in order to form divisions among themselves. There is only one Ark of Safety and that is Jesus Christ, our Messiah and Savior of the world.

                “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and He upholds all things by the Word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…”

                In a way we might say that God has preserved the history of the world from His perspective so that we, upon whom the ends of the age have come, might finally put all of the pieces of the puzzle together and thus come into a special relationship with Him as the Remnant Bride of Christ.

                Paul says as much in 1 Cor. 10:6-11 saying: “Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things as they also craved.  And do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.”

                Notice here that God did not mention idols or graven images. In describing idolatry, He said that they sat down to eat and drink and then stood up to play. What this means is that they were not living lives in service to their King. They did not share in His plans and purposes, but only lived for themselves.

Then he concludes by saying more specifically: “Now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction UPON WHOM THE ENDS OF THE AGES HAVE COME.

                So what God is looking for in a Remnant Bride are people who are intimate with Him. They are becoming one with Him. They share His dreams and desires. Their hearts beat with His passion, His will that all might be saved. They have found Him and Him alone to be their Ark of Safety

                We live in a covenant which He has signed in His own blood. This covenant is no less than that of spiritually eating His flesh and drinking His blood.

                “Jesus therefore said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in yourselves.” Then He explained to them: “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” John 6:53, 63.

                Marriage serves as a dim shadow of the kind of intimacy that Yeshua is looking for in His Bride. It is two becoming one. It is a unity that produces fruit… the fruit of His Spirit. It is a marriage that finds life in His Words. We are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters. We bear His image… and as we mature in Him we look more and more like Him. We have found Him to meet our every need. He is our Ark of Safety.