Life onboard the Ark

LIFE ON BOARD THE ARK
This is really part two of last week’s Make yourself an Ark. We saw then that the ark had three levels, which we saw represented the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit. That means being in relationship with God in faith and and prayer through a time of global life changing crisis. I want to look at more of the detail of the structure and design of the Ark.
Genesis 6:9 Make yourself an ark … The length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above (a hatch), and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

So the structure of the Ark has lower, second and upper decks and the dimensions of those levels, 300 cubits long, and 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. These dimensions speak to us of the divine nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their provision for us in these earth shattering times.

But first let us look at modern research into the extraordinary nature of the design of the Ark. Noah’s Ark was the focus of a major 1993 scientific study at the world-class ship research centre KRISO, in Daejeon, South Korea. They compared twelve hulls of different proportions to discover which design was most practical. No hull shape was found to significantly outperform the biblical design.
The research team found that the proportions of Noah’s Ark carefully balanced what are called the conflicting demands of; stability (resistance to capsizing), core strength, and seakeeping (a comfortable ride). In fact, the Ark has the same proportions as a modern cargo ship. The study also confirmed that the Ark could handle waves as high as 30 metres.

So the details of the design for function and materials for the building of the Ark are remarkable in their spiritual application for our lives in our relationship to God as seen in the symbolism of the dimensions of the ark and even the three aspects of balance – Stability, the 300 base of the Father, the centre core strength speaking of Jesus the 30 (the age of maturity for Jesus when he began his ministry). And the comfortable ride because of the wind catching trim on the upper deck – the 50 of Holy Spirit (the word for 50 in the Bible is Pente, as in Pentecost)-The researchers deduced that the top deck had a trim blade that could catch and hold the prevailing winds that allowed glide to occur. The Bible says that the Ark moved upon the waters and that God caused a wind to blow (Genesis 8:2)

For God to ascribe such precise measurements to achieve such an elegant and functional design of naval architecture and then for those measurements to match the defining characteristics of each of the three persons of the Trinity is an extravagant truth that can only reflect God’s divine purpose and meaning in our lives. They highlight how Father, Son and Holy Spirit protect and nurture our lives through times of crisis and prepare us for a new emerging life of spiritual growth and stature, and they speak of divine protection against all odds when we are battling against uncertainty and the unknown.

I’m now going to start with the work of the Father, 300, and then Jesus, 30, and finally the Holy Spirit, 50.

The number three hundred defines the work and person of the Father. That 300 code speaks of our defence against impossible odds. there is the account of Enoch in Genesis 5 where it tells us that Enoch walked with God for 300 years and he ‘was not’ because God took him – he did not see death. That is some kind of overcoming – against the odds - the overcoming of death itself through a close walk with God.

The next application of the number 300 as our defence against impossible odds is when God commands a man called Gideon, an ordinary man in a very ordinary family without military rank or reputation, to lead Israel in battle against the feared Midianites who were coming to attack them with an army of 135,000 soldiers. God made Gideon shrink his army from 32,000 to 300 to demonstrate that he was their supernatural defence against those impossible odds. (Judges chapter 7)
God had to do a lot of convincing with Gideon that it was all about God’s grace and power and not Gideon’s impoverished estimation of his own stature or strength. And also concerning Israel that it was not their own prowess or power that would defeat the enemy. So, Gideon was hiding from the approaching Midianite armies and told to lead Israel into battle to defeat them.
Judges 6:11 Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours (just previously proclaimed), and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
And then the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
God devised a radical process of drastically winnowing down Gideon’s army of 32,000. First, God said;
“The people who are with you are too many, for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, otherwise Israel will claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me. So then twenty-two thousand of the people had to go home, and ten thousand remained. That was still too many so the 10,000 was then reduced to 300. That is a special number – not quite invincible but definitely unshakable and unconquerable. This 300 number is the basis of your life in the Ark experience. It might take a lot of winnowing out of things within us like doubt and despair or even pride to get us into a 300 kind of unshakeable attitude of trust in God, but Father is saying ‘Surely I will be with you’. What attitudes is God winnowing out of us as humanity in this crisis? God is committed to doing the impossible to have us respond to his mercy and love and forgiveness – to overcome the contradiction of our indifference and ignorance of who he is. He enters into the pain and fear and alienation this world has created between humanity and him and makes himself known, to draw us to himself.

The number thirty defines the work and person of Jesus. The Bible says ‘when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age’…(Luke). Jesus came into the midst of our limitations. He did not come to remove them but to give us his unlimited risen self in the midst of them. He endured the cross resisting the fear that made him sweat drops of blood. The Bible tells us that Jesus was made perfect (mature) by willingly going through suffering. He went through the affliction of life and took the cup of suffering in the Garden of Gesthemane from his Father. In other word he accepted the buffeting of life - didn’t demand special privilege like our culture trains us to do (even some aspects of our Christian culture). He gave thanks to his father. He made himself of no reputation and let go of all human entitlements.
As we learn to live consciously with him we can ‘lose’ our me-self, and gain our true self. We learn to live for something higher than our own privilages we live for God’ entitlement over us.
Being made intensely aware of our human limitations brings about a reaction - Our reaction to a crisis of losing our entitlement to certain things is the human experience of inner suffering ,a disorientating sense of loss. The degree to which we can accept and endure the reality of this loss is the degree to which true character is formed – the number 30 - that marks the person who is a living Yes to God, and who now begins to make courageous decisions . So then by faith we can endure by meeting these limitations with acceptance and not resistance. This brings hope – an expectation of God’s goodness and we can give thanks to God. We begin to know who we are and to live in the potential of who we were designed to be in Christ.

And finally the number 50 defines The Holy Spirit – Always at work in the world of the unseen in everyone on earth. The Holy Spirit is God in action in the earth at this critical moment in time, continuing the work of Jesus from when he was God in action in the earth 2000 years ago.
So lets look at the sending of the dove out from the Ark into the world in the time of the flood. The dove went out from the Ark twice! The first time the dove was sent out by Noah he came back with the olive branch of peace, the anointing of peace, and the second time the dove was sent out it stayed out in the world. That was those times
In our times Holy Spirit has also been sent out twice into the world. The first time he was sent into the world as the Spirit of indwelling for Jesus to be born into the earth. Then Jesus went back to the Father with the indwelling Spirit. Then Holy Spirit was sent from Heaven the second time at Pentecost out into the world and like Noah’s dove he is still out here NOW with us.
The Bible says ‘He will convince THE WORLD about sin and righteousness and judgment’ … What does that mean and how are we convinced of sin?
Sin means ‘missing the mark’ not just a list of bad behaviours, and there are endless lists which people like to categorize - but it means much more than that – It is missing the goal and aim and purpose of life itself, which is to come to know God and share life together with him in oneness of Spirit – the Bible is very clear about this as the aim of God for our lives. Paul tells us we are to be joined to The Lord in one Spirit. If we don’t have a great goal we will never achieve a great goal. If we have great goal and don’t know how to aim at it we will miss the mark and fail the goal.

The good news (gospel) is that The father has set the great goal and Jesus has achieved it for us and Holy Spirit is making it real for us in our everyday lives. We need to be made aware (convinced) that we are missing the mark of life itself (The Holy Spirit convincing the world of sin)so that we can experience a major change of mind about the meaning of life itself (that is what the bible means when it says repentance) and we can then align our minds and hearts with the mind and heart and will of God (that is what the bible means when it says righteousness) and then we can live with a sense of accountability and responsibility regarding the consequences of hitting or missing the mark (that is what the bible means by judgment). Many people are not even aware that they have a spirit. Our spirit is our essential ‘I am’ created by God, but most people think of their I am’ as being what is going on in their minds at the time, I am this because I’m good at doing that (The enlightenment revelation of who we are - I think therefore I am – the motto of humanistic philosophy in the 1700’s) but the problem with that is that what you think and more important who do you think you are depends on your own imagination and is mostly based on what other people have made you believe who and what you should be and should do. Everybody tries tried to work that one out, sorting out all the labels they’ve been given, or given themselves (which you cant do – you miss the mark on that all the time). That is because only God knows who you are because he created you and he wants to tell you. That is the ongoing lifelong work of The Holy Spirit. He is there to reveal who Jesus is and what he has done for you and to guide you and lead you through life and to make you know that you are at peace (at one) with him.
Holy Spirit is doing that now in everyone on the planet. It is always NOW, in fact that is all the world has at the moment.. We need to learn to live in that now activity of the Holy Spirit’s now - otherwise we live in the yesterdays of our past regrets or the tomorrows of our future uncertainties. Those things attach themselves emotionally to our mind as imaginations. So we move away from the mind’s imaginations and bring our thoughts into who God says we are. That is entering into our rest of faith, where we hear God. So know that his presence is with you always and that your life can be lived in his strength. Your life is unique to God and he has aimed you like an arrow in his bow and sent you forth to hit the mark of being the you he designed for you to be from eternity.