Scripture Reading: Genesis 6:16

“A light shalt thou make to the ark. And to a cubit shalt thou finish it upward.” (Genesis 6:16)

The Haftorah states, “The unusual word used here for ‘light’ in the plural means ‘noon’. Legend relates that it was a precious stone which illuminated the whole interior of the ark.”

“To a cubit:” Again the Haftorah comments, “The precise meaning of is doubtful. The ‘light’ (which must be thought of as a kind of casement near to the roof) was to measure a cubit in height, or there was to be a space of a cubit between the roof and the top of the casement.”

God was getting ready to destroy His created works. But before He did, He made provision for its survival. In wrath He remembered mercy, even as Habakkuk said, “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid…in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2).

God reached back into the past, and took from His original created work, which He had formed when He commanded, “Let there be light,” and provided one square cubit of that miraculous “light” and placed it within the ark. It would provide the energy needed for all living creatures that were in the ark so they would be able to survive.

Outside the ark death reigned, but inside there was “light” and in that light was life. John had this revelation when he said, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:4-5). What this “light” was, and where Noah obtained it, we do not know.

Was it the Presence of the Lord, Himself, the One Who calls Himself the Light of the World?

Was it He Who is the Resurrection and the Life?

Was it Christ, the Living Stone, the One Peter said was the “Chief Cornerstone” (1 Peter 2:6), Whom Jesus, Himself said would be rejected by the builders of a world religious system? (Matthew 21:42).

Was this precious stone a part of that heavenly sapphire stone whereon God first wrote the Ten Commandments, and which Moses, in his anger, destroyed?

And did the Urim and Thummim, those two mysterious stones we call “lights and perfection,” which the High Priest carried in his bosom, also come from the same quarry from whence this precious one was cut out?

And is this the Stone that Daniel saw cut out of the mountain without hands, which will smite the world-government in the last days by breaking it into pieces — the One that will become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth, and of Whom Daniel said, “the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure” (Daniel 2:31-45)?

And are we now living in the days when this precious Stone will come very close to lighten our “arks” and to give life in these dark days of which Isaiah prophesied concerning when he said, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:1-2)?

And is this Stone, which Jesus promised to give the overcomers — this precious white stone — really a Stone of light? A window into the heavens, even as the Urim and Thummim were?

And is it the earnest of our inheritance to the city John saw which he described as, “Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal” (Revelation 21:11)? Beloved if it is time to “build an ark” then it is time to light up your life with the precious Stone of Light.

It will be with you as the days of tribulation swiftly roll in upon us. It will be there to give light for comfort, guidance, and vision. It will be in your life to help you make the transfer from mortality to immorality.

It is the same light that guided the wisemen to the Light of the World, Whom they found in the town of Bethlehem of Judah, and worshipped, as He calmly slept in His mother’s arms.