The Story

Who can tell me about the beautiful Garden of Eden? What grew in the garden? What kind of people lived in it? They were good and happy. They loved the Lord, and the angels were very near to them. How did unhappiness come into the garden? The people began to do wrong. The temptation crept in to do what seemed pleasant instead of what they knew was right; it crept in like a serpent, little by little. When we begin to do wrong, it is easy to go on and do worse and worse. It was so after the happy days of Eden. Wrong thoughts and feelings grew so strong that every good thing seemed in danger of being lost; and the beautiful garden was destroyed. The wickedness seemed like the great floods on the Euphrates or the Nile, when houses were swept away and farms were spoiled, and animals and people were drowned. Wise people called the wickedness that came upon the world a flood, and the Lord called it so in the Bible story.

The story tells of a great storm and a flood of water over all the earth. But Noah and his family could be saved from the flood; and before the storm came, the Lord told Noah to make an ark, a kind of boat or floating house in which his family could be kept safe. The ark had rooms, and it had first, second, and third stories. It had a window above and a door lower in the side. Noah built as the Lord told him.

There were some people still who were faithful to the Lord. They were not wholly good, but the Lord could teach them and protect them and make them the beginning of another happy race upon the earth. These people are called Noah, which means "rest." The Lord's protection and His care for these people are told in the story of the ark.

We cannot draw an exact picture of the ark, only some things are told us - the gopher wood, a resinous wood, the pitch to make it tight, the rooms, the three stories, the window and the door. Dimensions are given, as in the description of the tabernacle and of the Holy City. These all have spiritual meaning and are important.

1. Who were the three sons of Noah? What does the name Noah mean?

2. What was Noah told to build? How was he told to build it?

3. What were kept safe in the ark?

4. What was the flood that covered all the earth?

Spiritual Study

We read in the first verses of the chapter about daughters of men, sons of God, and giants. It is all a description of the spiritual condition of people in those days when wickedness increased. Sons and daughters represent new developments of affection and thought in people's minds. The daughters represent affections, because girls show more affection; and the sons represent understanding, because this is more characteristic of men. The daughters of men here mean the many developments of evil affections. Sons marrying these daughters would mean understanding uniting itself with these affections, excusing and confirming them. When it says that the sons of God married the daughters of earth, it means that the things of religious knowledge and faith were joined with the evil loves and made to excuse them. As if we should indulge some evil passion and then justify it by religious teaching and texts from the Bible. Then evil became very great and strong; people grew proud with self-love, and they are called giants and mighty. (A. 568-570, 580-583)

It is said that when the Lord saw the wickedness of people, He repented of creating the human race. In another place we read, "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent." (Num. 23:19) "The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he could repent." (1 Sam. 15:29) The Lord's purpose toward humanity can never change, for it is always perfect love and wisdom. But it may take different forms toward people when they are in different states, as the love of a kind parent may be shown in different ways when children are good and obedient and when they are disobedient. So when people became evil, the Lord's love must work for them in different ways. He pitied them and tried in every way to protect them. This is meant by the Lord's repenting. (A. 587, 588)

It is said that the Lord would destroy humanity. If people turn from good to evil, is it the Lord who destroys them, or do they destroy themselves? (Ezek. 18:32) The beasts which also perished represent the affections of people's own hearts. (1 Sam. 15:3)

The Lord protected the people who were faithful, and provided in a new way that the innocent things of heaven might be saved in their souls. We are told how this was done, in the description of the ark by which Noah and his family were saved from the flood. A house or a temple is often in the Scriptures a type of the human mind. A person from whom evil spirits have gone out is called a swept and garnished house. The Lord in His effort to come into our life speaks of Himself as knocking at the door. We are to make ready for Him in the large upper room. We are to go into the closet in prayer. We find safety on the housetop, in interior, heavenly states. People who hear and keep the Lord's commandments build their house on the rock; people who do not keep them, build upon the sand. This parable also speaks of a flood beating upon the house. So the ark describes the human mind, arranged by the Lord in a new way, so that people could be saved in days when wickedness was strong. The ark was made with rooms or mansions. This points to the characteristic feature of the new order of the mind. The two faculties of will and understanding were at that time separated so that they could act independently. This had not been so before; they had acted as one. So long as people loved what was good, they understood what was true; but when they loved evil, their whole mind was carried down into darkness, so that they could not even think what was true. Now the two faculties were separated, so that people could learn what was true, and by their understanding could lift up their will to heavenly things. This is the arrangement of our minds today, and we could not in any other way be saved. The window upward in the ark, like the eye in the face, suggests the gift of intellectual light. The door in the side, like the ear, suggests the perception by the will and its inclination to obey. The three stories are degrees of understanding - knowledge, reason, and real intelligence. (A. 640-644)

The people meant by Adam and Eve were "celestial" people, of the Golden Age. They were led by love. The people represented by Noah and his family were of a wholly different kind. The understanding acted separate from the will. They learned heavenly things in an intellectual way and obeyed what they saw was true. They were led by truth rather than love. They were "spiritual" people, and their age was the Silver Age. They also had writings. Precepts of wisdom had been written down by people represented by a man called Enoch (Gen. 5:21-24) and they were used by the race of Noah. Because the work of Enoch was not lost, but preserved, it is not said that he died, but that "God took him." (Gen. 5:24; 6:9; A. 519, 521, 614)

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