Noah's passage out of the world before the flood, into the world that followed it, is a very suggestive type of the passage of Him who became the Second Man, out of the old creation, (into which He came in grace) into the new creation. It was a passage through judgment. The waters which overwhelmed the world that then was, typify the waves of divine wrath, deserved by man's sin, which rolled over the head of Him who knew no sin, but in purest grace took the place of it. The sentence of death and judgment rested on every one of the sons of the first man. This sentence could not be set aside. The man Christ Jesus just steps into the place of those upon whom it rests. The floods of righteous judgment fall in all their infinite power upon Him, but having sustained all their fury, completely exhausted all their force, they land Him on the other side of it all. He who once stood in the blackness of darkness now stands in the light. Once He was under the frown of God, but now He is in His full favor. But as He was in the darkness of judgment for us, so also He is now in the light and favor of God for us.

It is as passed through the flood that Noah builds his altar. The altar of the new creation, of the place of light and favor into which Christ has entered, and into which He has brought those whom He has carried with Him through the floods, is one of His own building and from it there is perpetually rising a sweet savor, an odor of a sweet smell. The very presence of God is filled with this fragrance so sweet to Him. He is satisfied with the altar of Christ. Oh ! the sweetness of the thought, God is satisfied! However blessed heaven itself might be, if there was one thing about which He was not perfectly at rest, about which He was not fully satisfied, it would be spoiled. The thought that God was not in absolute rest would be painful, and a bitter ingredient in our cup. But, blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus! He is at rest. God is in perfect rest, a rest nothing can ever disturb. An altar has been built which fully suits Him. The incense of it, the odor of it, delights Him. It is an altar that will eternally abide. It is the altar of Christ (See Gen. 8:20-22).

But if God has found a satisfying portion for His own heart, an altar that gives Him perfect, eternal rest, Christ and those who are in Christ have also what fully satisfies them. There is an abundance of suited meat. But we need to realize the character of the meat that is given to us. A serious mistake is made by many as to this. It is by death that we are supplied with food. But the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat (Gen. 9:4).How many separate the life of Christ from His death. Such eat flesh with the life, or blood. But the food of new creation is a Christ that died and rose again. There can be no right understanding of His life apart from His death.

Again, there are many who eat things strangled (Acts 15:20, 29), they make His death to be merely a martyr's death, refusing the thought of the pouring out of His life, or the shedding of His blood, as being a propitiation for sins. But what is insisted on is that the food of those who pass through death and judgment (through Christ's dying and being judged for them) is Christ as the one who died under the sentence that rested upon them. Only such as in reality feed on Him as the one who gave His life for the world can in truth say, "Worthy is the Lamb that died," because the death spoken of here is a sacrificial death, a death for atonement.

How plain the connection between these first verses of Gen. 9:and the last verses of chap. 8:There it is the altar, the altar that in every way suits God. Here it is waiting at the altar and partaking of it. What a striking setting forth of the nature and character of our communion with God! Waiting at and partaking of that which gives the heart of God its eternal rest. We are brought by grace to enjoy that which is the spring of every joy with which the heart of God is filled-the Cross of Christ.

We get next a covenant proclaimed. God announces Himself as in covenant relationship with Noah, his sons, and everything connected with him. It typifies the relations which God has established between Himself and the risen Second Man. God has revealed the character of these relationships in which this risen Second Man and all under Him stand. These relationships are permanent. They are to abide forever. The storm of judgment that has passed over the holy head of the man Christ Jesus has passed by forever. It can never return. The floods of divine fury which once fell in torrents upon Him will never fall on Him again. The floods of judgment will never again assail Him; and He is the protection of all that is under Him. All of God's relationships with new creation are permanent. They are immovably established.

In establishing these relationships, such is the goodness of God, He gives a token and tells us where we will find it. " I do set my bow in the cloud." Now the cloud speaks of the darkness that came upon the blessed Lord Jesus when He was upon the cross,- that storm that burst unrelentingly upon Him, but spent itself there. It was a cloud that baffles all effort to describe. None but the Lord Himself can tell what the fury of that storm-cloud was. None but He can measure the force with which it burst upon Him. But there, in that cloud, is to be found the token of the relationships established between God and Christ.

The token is the bow, the many-hued rainbow. But what does it symbolize? Is it not the various displays of God? or, perhaps better, the display God has made of Himself in the various characters in which He was working in that terrific storm that burst upon the head of His blessed Son? All the glory of what He is shines forth from that dark, black cloud. There, in the work of the cross, as nowhere else, is God to be seen in the full perfection of what He is. He is love and light, but when are love and light displayed as there? Where do divine holiness and divine righteousness get so full an expression as in that dealing with the Son of God in which He is made sin? How that wondrous Cross displays the perfect harmoniousness of all the attributes of God! How divine wisdom manifests itself there! How divine power shines! Dark and black as that cloud was, God was there displaying Himself-displaying Himself in the fullness of what He is. He has there fully told out what He is.

Now it is this telling out of Himself, this shining forth of His every perfection that He has given to us as a token. Oh, what a token! But what is it a token of ? It is given us to be a token of the new creation relationships. It is a token that tells us how abiding they are, that they are established on settled and enduring foundations, that the new creation into which Christ and all His own have passed remains forever.

Can God ever forget the cross of Christ? Never! Never! Will He ever turn His eyes away from that
Cross? No; they will rest there forever. " I will look upon it, that I may remember." It will be perpetually before His eyes. It will be the spring of the joy of His heart-His eternal satisfaction.

It will be, too, the occupation, the eternal occupation of all whom God will surround Himself with. For God brings us to Himself to have communion with Himself in that in which He finds His ceaseless enjoyment.
Genesis 8:20 to 9:17 is but a picture; but it is a picture that helps us in the effort to realize what is foreshadowed by it. May the reality that the picture suggests fill our hearts. C. Crain.