This volume of ministry consists of notes of addresses, summaries of readings, and private meditations by our beloved brother, covering a period of approximately fifty years. Some have already appeared in the form of booklets or in monthly periodicals, but it has been felt that these, in addition to the matter hitherto unpublished, should be made available in a more permanent form for those who are interested in the truth. The first paper, from which the title of this volume is taken, was composed by our beloved brother not long before his departure to be with Christ. The remaining items have been arranged so far as possible in the order of the scriptures to which they refer.
The Lord used the simplest figures to express the greatest and most profound thoughts of God in relation to men. "Bread" is universally known as human food, but when we think of it as given by the Father out of heaven to be life for the world it assumes a spiritual character of the deepest interest. The Father has brought into this scene of death something that is altogether new as being out of heaven, and He has brought it in that His creatures here on earth might live on it in a spiritual way.
It is quite certain that the fallen creature, if left to itself, would never desire this heavenly Bread. It is those whom the Father gives Him who come to Him; He says, "no one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him" (verse 44). It is not that the Father hinders anyone from coming, but the state of the fallen creature is such that he cannot come because of his own perversity. But the Father would not provide heavenly Bread without securing that there should be some who would feed upon it. He gives some to the Son and they come; He draws and He teaches; otherwise there would be none to value what is so precious in His sight.
Jesus says that the one who comes to Him will never hunger, and the one who believes on Him will never thirst (verse 35). Coming to Him implies that He is seen in His own distinctiveness as having no possible rival. No other ever came down from heaven; no other was ever the Object to whom the Father drew, and concerning whom the Father spoke; no other ever ascended up to the Father in his own personal right. We come to Him as appreciating the all-surpassing glory which is found in Him alone. In our hearts we leave all others: we say with Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" In this attitude of heart it is impossible to hunger; we are feeding upon One who infinitely surpasses every other kind of satisfaction. Believing on Him means that, as having come to Him, He is the abiding Object of our faith; we live, as Paul says, by the faith of Him. On that line we do not thirst.
If one eats of the Bread which comes down out of heaven he will not die (verse 50); he will live for ever. But with a view to this being opened to us the Lord said further, "But
the bread withal which I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (verse 51). His flesh must be given; that is, He must go into death. Those whom He would bring into life eternal were in death as to their state Godward. So He must needs give His flesh to furnish the food of life for us.
"He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up at the last day" (verse 54). He adds, "for my flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink". We may gather from this something of the divine value of that holy flesh and blood which can now be fed upon to life eternal. It is not here the Lord's death as making atonement or propitiation to meet the holy claims of God so that we might be justified and accepted. This is the flesh and blood of the Son of man as the food of life eternal, that by which we enter into what is wholly new, and outside the whole range of sin and death. It is the result of a divine Person coming down out of heaven and entering into the condition of death so that we might feed upon Him as having come into that condition, and by so doing acquire a life which is far more blessed than any creature had before. All believers think thankfully and adoringly of what the death of Christ has removed, but we should also open our hearts to take in what it is for us as the food of life. The Son of man being found in death is the most marvellous thing that has ever been in the universe of God.
In verse 51 the Lord speaks of giving His flesh, and in verse 53 He adds the thought of drinking His blood, and the two actions of eating His flesh and drinking His blood are spoken of three times in the following three verses. The One who came down out of heaven took part in blood and flesh. It was a sinless condition, for in it He was the Holy One of God, as Peter confessed Him in this chapter (verse 69). Indeed, the fulness of Godhead dwelt in Him in that condition. So that there is an infinitude of meaning in His being able to say, "my flesh", "my blood". Yet it was that which He could give, so that His flesh can be eaten and His blood drunk by those given to Him by His Father. His flesh and His blood were most intimately together in the days of His flesh, and while they were together they could not be eaten or drunk by anyone. But the time came when they were separated, and the wonderful spiritual reality of the present time is that they are truly food and drink for us now, and we only have eternal life as we eat and drink them.
This connects spiritually with 1 John 4:9. "Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him". The love of God would have us to live for His pleasure through the death of His Son, but for this His flesh must be eaten, His blood drunk. His flesh and His blood must be assimilated into our moral being if we are to have life in ourselves. If the Son of man gives His flesh to be eaten and His blood to be drunk it speaks of death in an entirely new way of which I believe there is no type in Scripture. It is a new starting point in the ways of God with men, intended to bring in life according to the full thought of God. It is death as the starting point of a blessedness which is wholly of God. This takes the form of food and drink for us so that we may be nourished and invigorated and caused to live in an entirely new way. The flesh and blood of the Son of man show the length to which the love of God would go in order that we might have our part in the life in which Christ now lives as risen from among the dead, and ascended up where He was before. The eating and drinking emphasises the intensely personal nature of the appropriation -- the inwardness of it. It is Christ as in death that we feed upon, but as we feed upon Him He becomes ours in a most intimate and personal way; His death becomes ours as the God-provided way for us into participation in His life. We could only participate in His life through His death, and we take this into our most inward being as before God.
On this ground we dwell in Him and He in us. But, for this we must be characteristically eaters and drinkers; we must take this on as a characterising feature, and the dwelling in Him and He in us correspond. We have reached what it is to be in Christ, as Paul would say, and He is in us; we are all of one with Him. It is from Christ in that condition of death that the "much fruit" is brought forth of which He speaks in John 12:24. The reality of this is to be assimilated into our spiritual being. We derive all from His having been in that state of death, and this is maintained in us spiritually as we eat His flesh and drink His blood; we are to continue to do so.
But if we derive life from the Son of man having been in death it is obvious that this life is altogether new and different from any life we could have naturally. It is life according to
the blessed thought of the love of God. It is the life which the Son of man has as risen from among the dead. Hence we read, "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him" (verse 56). If we dwell in Him His place is our place; we are brought to live in the blessedness of what He is as having gone to the Father. His saints are in Him, and He is in them, the Holy Spirit giving the knowledge of this, as we read in John 14:20. Indeed, we may be assured that it is by the Spirit that any are able to eat the flesh or drink the blood of the Son of man. For the Lord says, "It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing: the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life" (verse 63).
The flesh of the Son of man and His blood are now to become, by our eating and drinking, the source of our true life. They are divine love in manifestation, but now appropriated and assimilated as the way by which that love reaches its own end. We are thus brought truly to live through and in Him. This is our abiding place; we dwell in Him; but this is only maintained as a spiritual reality as we eat and drink. His flesh and His blood must be as much our regular sustenance spiritually as our ordinary food is naturally.
Genesis 49:1 - 28
I need hardly say that this scripture primarily applies in a very distinct way to Israel, but the scope of any scripture often goes far beyond its particular interpretation. The Spirit of God takes occasion in many scriptures to set forth great principles which have a wide range of application. This is one of the most striking evidences of the inspiration of Scripture. If we find thus in the first book of the Bible a prophetic statement which not only has its particular application to Israel, but which indicates the whole history of man in ruin and failure, and alongside that the whole history of God's ways in grace, it makes us very conscious that the Scriptures are divinely inspired.
In the first place we get a group of three -- Reuben, Simeon, and Levi -- in connection with whom is set forth the state of man as fallen under the power of evil. What characterises Reuben is the impetuosity of lust -- "impetuous as the waters" in lust and self-will. Then Simeon and Levi are marked by cruelty and anger; so that we get in these three the two great elements of the energy of evil -- corruption and violence. These are the characteristics of the natural man. It has been true of us all that we have been to a large extent characterised by lust -- that is the desire to gratify ourselves without reference to the will of God. The ruling thought with us was to give effect to our own will. Then if anything comes in to interfere with this it awakens anger. Many a man seems very amiable as long as he is getting his own way, but if something comes in to cross his purpose he becomes angry, and, so far as he has opportunity, cruel.
Man, the fallen sinner, having become thus characterised by lust, anger, and cruelty, has forfeited God's favour, and become liable to death and judgment. If blessing comes in for man it must be in pure grace.
In connection with Judah we see foreshadowed the One by whom God's grace has brought in every blessing for man in victorious power. It is by "the Lion of the tribe of Juda" that God has brought in blessing for those who had forfeited everything. "Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies". That is victorious power.
We have fallen under the power of evil and unless that power could be completely overthrown we must have remained under it for ever. But the power of God in grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ, has proved itself to be infinitely greater than the power of evil. The Lord said, "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils", Luke 11:21, 22. Before the Lord began His ministry of grace in this world He met every temptation that the devil could present, and proved absolutely victorious. No power of evil could touch that Holy One of God. Satan could find no point of weakness in that Blessed One; he was obliged to retire vanquished and weaponless from the contest.
Then it is very striking to see that having met and overcome the power of the devil in this way the Lord Jesus could go into the synagogue at Nazareth and open the book of God's grace for man. Morally speaking, no one had ever been able to open that book before. Never before had there been one on earth who could say, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; ... he hath sent me ... to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord", Luke 4:18, 19.
It seems to me that in this we get a kind of foreshadowing of Christ's full victory over Satan's power, and of its results in blessing to men. It was at the cross that Satan's power was completely annulled. It was there that the Lion of the tribe of Judah "prevailed". When John wept because no man was found worthy to open the book (Revelation 5), one of the elders said to him, "Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof". Not that this is the book of grace. Far from that, it is a book the opening of which brings judgment upon those who have neglected Christ. The point I draw attention to is that it is opened by One who has "prevailed". He is entitled to give effect to all the mind of God whether brought about in grace or through judgment.
At the present time all is pure and infinite grace, established for men in victorious power. Divine grace has visited this earth in power for the overthrow of all the power of evil, so
that full blessing might come to the children of men. Christ has bruised the serpent's head. Though it is true that He was crucified through weakness, yet that weakness was the mighty power of God for the overthrow of the power of evil. He could say, 'I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again'. He has broken the might of evil, and annulled him who had the power of death. As David prevailed over Goliath so has Christ prevailed by His death. So that in Luke 24 we see Him opening the book of grace -- expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. He had "prevailed" that He might open out all the grace of God for man's blessing. "It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem", Luke 24:46, 47.
"Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies". Every evil principality and power has been spoiled. Christ is victorious and triumphant. And He is exercising His power now from the right hand of God to subdue to Himself in grace those who have been His enemies. He subdued His great adversary Saul of Tarsus and led him in triumph. And He has done the same for tens of thousands who once refused to bow the knee at His Name. We may well say, 'Hallelujah! What a Saviour!'
"He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?" (verse 9). The thought of unchallenged supremacy seems to be suggested in these words. At this moment Christ is in unchallenged supremacy at "the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him", 1 Peter 3:22. The only creature who does not own the supremacy of Christ is fallen and lost man. Hence that solemn word: "He that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him", John 3:36. But ere long every knee will have to bow at His Name. The supremacy of the Lord Jesus will have to be owned by every heavenly, earthly, and infernal being, Philippians 2:9 - 11.
Every blessing that God has for man is made good in that risen and glorified One, and God is working by His Spirit to bring man to believe on Him and to bow to Him. "Thy father's children shall bow down before thee". When the Lord Jesus was here people had many different opinions
about Him. Some thought Him a deceiver, others a good man; some would have given Him a prophet's place, others would have made Him a king. Under the influence of His miracles many believed on Him for a time. But how few really bowed down before Him! How few there were who could truly say, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God". John 6:68, 69. Those who bowed down to Him were His Father's children.
The blind man in John 9 was one of His Father's children. He was not ashamed to confess the One who had given him sight: and consequently he was cast out of the synagogue. When the Lord found him He said unto him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him", John 9:35 - 38. He bowed down before the Son of God; he was one of His Father's children. The children of God are known by this, that they receive and bow down to Christ (John 1:12, 13).
"Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk" (verses 11, 12). These verses speak of plenitude of blessing. The language is figurative, and has earthly blessing more particularly in view, but I think we may apply the principle of it to ourselves. Full blessing has been brought in for us by Christ and in Christ. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. The full blessing of God is established in a risen and glorified Christ, and it is in Him for all those who bow down unto Him. God does not deposit blessings in us, but He brings us into the light and joy of those blessings which are established in Christ.
If Christians generally got a deeper sense of this it would remove them far from sectarianism and also from individualism. They would find all their blessing and joy in Christ, and they would feel instinctively that every saint participated in the same blessings. If you realise that you are enriched and fully blessed in Christ, and I realise the same thing, we cannot avoid being drawn together. There is a spiritual bond between
us; we are in a unity of blessing -- blessing that is not in ourselves, but in that holy and divine Person who sits as a glorified Man at the right hand of God.
We read of several individuals in Scripture who spoke of Jesus as "My Lord". Elizabeth says, "The mother of my Lord", Luke 1:43. Mary says, "They have taken away my Lord" (John 20:13), Thomas says, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28), Paul says, "Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). As one's soul realises that every blessing is established in Christ and administered through Him, one says to Him by the Holy Spirit, "My Lord". But in the very fact of saying this we come into fellowship in heart and spirit with all those on earth who are also by the Holy Spirit saying, "My Lord". Suppose the four saints above mentioned had come together, could they not have said in deep reality, "Jesus Christ our Lord?" God has called us "unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord", 1 Corinthians 1:9.
Judah becomes a gathering centre for his brethren and for the peoples, "Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise"; "thy father's children shall bow down before thee" (verse 8); then in verse 10, "Unto him shall the gathering of the people be". The One in whom all divine blessing is established must be the Centre for the company of those who are blessed in Him. Hence in the mind of God there is but one company of saints -- one Shepherd and one flock. The Lord Jesus died that He might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. It is by being attracted to the Shepherd that the flock is kept together in unity -- not by the walls of a fold. He has appropriated us for Himself. In John 10 He speaks of "my sheep", in chapter 12 "my servant", in chapter 13 "my disciples", in chapter 15 "my friends", and in chapter 20 "my brethren". We are "his own", and He is entitled to hold us by the attraction that is in Himself so that we may be kept in unity.
Then in connection with Zebulun, Issachar, and Dan, I think we see indicated the way by which Satan seeks to divert men from the blessings which have been brought in by grace in victorious power. The same power that took man away from innocence is active still to move men away from the blessings of grace. You see in the early chapters of the Acts how quickly selfishness and self-interest came in to divert souls, and the same thing has continued to work wherever the
light of Christian blessing has gone. Where the light of Christianity has come people are not so much diverted by violence and corruption as by self-interest.
Those who were invited to the great supper -- a supper figurative of the festivity of heavenly grace -- would not come because they were held by their own interests, not wrong things. The wrong was that they attached more importance to their own interests than to the feast of heavenly grace. This is the great snare of multitudes in Christendom, and the form in which the power of evil holds them. Even of believers Paul had to say, "All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's". If our own interests become dominant with us we shall most surely be diverted from all that is established in a risen and glorified Christ.
I make these remarks in connection with Zebulun. Read verse 13. The sea in Scripture is usually a figure of the restless and disturbed state of things which sin has brought about. In the new earth there will be no more sea. Then Zidon is a type of the world. So that I think here we have suggested the thought of people becoming engrossed in business, and in pursuing their own interests coming down to the level of the world! How ruinous is this to soul-prosperity! How many have we known whose spiritual career has been blighted by the pursuit of their own interests! Do you think a man can prosper in divine things if business and money-making are his chief interest? Beware of letting your heart become a "haven for ships", and of having your "border unto Zidon!"
It may be said, 'We have to get our living, and to provide for our families, and so on'. Yes, that is quite right, but the point is, What rules in your heart? Does business take precedence of divine things with you? With some business is the absorbing interest, and the Lord's things are put in a corner, but this is the highroad to spiritual poverty.
Then in Issachar I think we see a figure of those who want to have an easy time of it in the world. "He saw that rest was good". He would like to please God, and at the same time keep on good terms with men. But these are "two burdens" which no man can carry at the same time. The one who thinks to have an easy time in this way will find out his mistake. Many have tried to carry these two burdens, but
no one ever succeeded. Peter tried it once, and had to smart for it (Galatians 2).
In Dan we see the final issue of decline and departure. The man who is ruled by self-interest and a desire for ease here is likely to become an adversary of the truth in a time of crisis and difficulty. A Demas often becomes an Alexander (2 Timothy 4:10, 14). How solemn it is to think of this! And we are all liable to turn aside in this way. If we realise this, what effect will it have upon us? It will surely cast us upon God.
When the patriarch Jacob came to this point he broke off, as it were, to exclaim, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord". In prophetic picture the declension and departure of the people was before him and the question seemed to arise, Will there be no recovery? Are they to be altogether drifted away from what is of God? In presence of this he exclaimed, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord". Ah! it is this we need, whether for preservation or recovery. The power of God's salvation becomes a special necessity in an evil day -- a day of departure and apostasy.
The more conscious we are of the power of evil against us the more we turn to God for His salvation. In view of the dark days which were coming at Ephesus Paul said, "I commend you to God". To Timothy he said, "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus". There was a moment when all forsook him, but at that moment the Lord stood with him and strengthened him. He proved in the evil day the power of divine salvation. And if we are to stand and overcome in an evil day it must be in the power of God's salvation. God can deliver His saints from all evil. If I have a tendency to be occupied with my own interests, or to settle down here, I need God's salvation to preserve me. His salvation comes in to deliver us from the power of what is evil so that we may enjoy the wondrous things which He has freely given to us.
The result of God's deliverance coming in is seen in the next three tribes. First, the saint is made an overcomer. "Gad, a troop shall overcome him; but he shall overcome at the last". When we have tried to go on in our own strength we have been overcome, but when we wait for God's salvation He makes us overcomers. If a saint has been overcome, and afterwards becomes an overcomer, it is clearly by the special grace of God. We see this in many of God's saints and servants
-- Job, Jacob, David, Peter, Paul. Each overcame at the last. If a saint "fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand", Psalm 37:24. So he can say, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me", Micah 7:8. What precious grace is this!
If we are conscious of the power of evil that seeks to move us away from our true blessings we shall cry to God for His salvation, and the effect will be that He will make us overcomers. God is able and willing to do this. If we have been overcome again and again, that shows how necessary it is to wait for God's salvation.
Then the overcomer enjoys his portion according to God's purpose and grace. "Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties". We get satisfaction; we enjoy the fatness of God's house, and can dispense it to others. A satisfied heart is a wonderful example of what God's grace and power can do for man. But there must be the overcoming before there can be the overflowing. When Paul was in prison his bread was fat, and he yielded "royal dainties". So that all the saints ever since have been nourished and sustained by the spiritual food sent out from that prison at Rome.
The overcomer and the satisfied one is the one who walks in true liberty. "Naphtali is a hind let loose". As we enjoy what is of God we are set free from what is of man, and of the world and the flesh. God would have us to be free from all the selfish motives and evil influences that work in the hearts of men. Then we can give "goodly words". The words that come out of a free and satisfied heart are sure to be "goodly words".
We are set free in order to enjoy every spiritual blessing in association with the true Joseph. Judah and Joseph are the two distinct types of Christ in this chapter. In Judah we see victorious power overthrowing the enemy, and bringing in the blessings of grace. But in Joseph we have presented the secret of God's ways in connection with the rejection of Christ. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall". The grace that came in Christ could not be limited to Israel. If the Lord Jesus had been content to limit grace to Israel He would not have been rejected, because that would have been to recognise man after the flesh. His rejection was consequent upon the ministry
of grace in a way that did not recognise man in the flesh at all. His branches ran over the wall, and hence the Jew hated Him. When He spoke of the Syrian leper and the Sidonian widow in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4) the archers shot at Him directly. When He set before them grace that would run over the wall to poor outcast gentiles they would not have it. "The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him". They listened to Paul (Acts 22) until he came to the words, "And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the gentiles". Then they lifted up their voices, and said, "Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live". The grace which would "run over the wall", was rejected by Israel.
But God has strengthened the true Joseph in resurrection. "His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob". The One who was cast aside as worthless by men has been crowned with glory and honour at the right hand of God. God has made Him Lord and Christ, has set Him in the highest place, and given Him a Name above every name. All blessing now is bound up with a risen and glorified Christ.
This is what gives everything in Christianity the character of mystery. An infinite wealth of blessing has come in, but it is all hidden from the eyes of men because it is established in One who has been rejected from the earth, but made strong and glorious in resurrection at God's right hand. God has blessed Him for ever, and made Him exceeding glad with His countenance.
Every blessing now is in connection with Christ at the right hand of God. He is "separated from his brethren" -- that is, Israel according to the flesh -- and it is in Him, the true Nazarite, that every blessing is found. It is a great thing to have the consciousness that we are bound up with Him there in heavenly glory, and to know that we can follow Him into the sphere of resurrection and participate in all that constitutes His life in that blessed circle of love and glory where He lives unto God. If we apprehend this we shall not be deceived and intoxicated by what goes on upon earth.
Thus we get in this chapter a suggestive outline of the ways of God. First, the moral ruin of man depicted in Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. Then blessing brought in in victorious power in Judah -- typical of Christ. Then the action of the
power of evil to divert men from the blessing by engaging them with their own interests here is illustrated in connection with Zebulun, Issachar, and Daniel This power of evil is counteracted by the power of God's salvation, the effect of which is that saints overcome the enemy and enter into satisfaction and liberty, as seen in Gad, Asher and Naphtali. They then come into the apprehension of blessing which is established in Christ at the right hand of God. In this way we get detached from the things which are seen, and from our own interests, and our affections are bound up with that blessed One who is at the right hand of God. May it be so with all of us, to His praise!
There may seem to be a good deal of similarity between this portion of Scripture and Genesis 49, but really there is a great difference between them.
In Genesis 49 it is really more a history than a blessing, though it is said in verse 28 that "he blessed them". Judah represents the victorious power by which blessing is brought in, and Joseph is a type of Christ as the one in whom all blessing is established. It is true that we see in Gad, Asher, and Naphtali a figure of the blessing of those who are brought into the good of what God has brought to pass by Christ as the victorious accomplisher of His will (Judah) and in Christ as the risen and glorified One -- the Administrator of all His blessing to men (Joseph). But, along with this, the moral ruin of man, and his entire failure even in presence of the grace of God, are fully developed -- the first in Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, and the second in Zebulun, Issachar, and Daniel. All this gives Genesis 49 the character of a history -- a history, indeed, of God's perfect and blessed ways in Christ on the one hand, but of man's ruin and failure on the other.
But in Deuteronomy 33 it is all blessing; every tribe gets a distinct blessing, and it is important to notice that it is "the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel", (verse 1). There is a great contrast between Jacob and Moses. Jacob was the man of experience -- the man of ups and downs -- the man who had proved in his own experience what the flesh was and also the recovering power of God's salvation. He was just the man to give the whole history of how the responsible man breaks down so that everything has to be established in Christ. But the man of experience cannot give the full and proper blessing of the saints; it needs the man of God to do that. Solomon was a man of experience, and he could write the book of Ecclesiastes to show that everything under the sun is vanity. But it needs a man of God like Paul to unfold a Person whose glory eclipses the brightness of the mid-day sun, and scenes of heavenly blessing which are above the sun. It is the man who is with God, and who knows God's thoughts, who can unfold those thoughts in all their blessedness. We see something of this in the chapter before us.
In the song of Moses in chapter 32 the responsible history
and failure of the people is declared in a very solemn way. On their side all had been failure, and would be failure, that should result in their cutting off as in the flesh -- which has actually come to pass. Then in verses 49 and 50 Moses is directed to go up into mount Nebo to behold the land of Canaan and to die there. Amongst the people he could declare all their failure, and announce prophetically the judgment of God upon them. But when he went up into the mount he saw the whole range of blessing that was in the purpose of God for His people. If it was certain that the people according to the flesh would break down, it was equally certain that the purpose of God would not fail of its accomplishment. Chapter 33 is all on the line of Gods purpose and grace. Morally speaking, it is the people viewed from the top of the mount, according to the full height of God's blessing for His called and chosen people.
Verse 3 is the standpoint from which everything is viewed in this chapter. "Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words". From such a standpoint as this the saints can only be viewed as in full blessing.
In the first place, God loves His people. Nothing can change that sovereign love. We may have to learn what poor things we are -- breaking down at every point -- but the love of God knows no change. That love is not only the source but the security of our blessing. God is working to gratify His own heart, and will not fail to accomplish His purpose.
Then, "all his saints are in thy hand". Christ has secured every blessing for the saints by His death, and all the blessing He has secured is established in Himself, but He also holds every saint of God in His mighty hand; and in this way we are kept for the blessing. He not only holds the blessing for us, but He also holds us for the blessing. God has One to whom He has entrusted the maintenance of everything that is for the satisfaction of His own heart. If you have proved that everything fails in your hands, it will be an immense comfort to you to see how everything is maintained in the hand of Christ.
The sense of this draws us to Christ to sit down at His feet, and to receive of His words. The one that has heard and learned of the Father (John 6:45) comes to Christ the Son to sit down at His feet and be instructed in the knowledge of God, and of all that subsists for the pleasure of God.
Three wonderful thoughts are thus presented to us! The love of God as the source of all blessing; Christ the security of that blessing, and of those on whom it is bestowed in infinite mercy; and saints in the attitude that becomes them -- seated at the feet of Christ, like Mary (Luke 10:39), to hear and receive those holy words in which He declares the Father's name.
Reuben comes first among the tribes, as in Genesis 49. There his wickedness is in view, but here we get the thought of sovereign mercy which would put away the sin. "Let Reuben live, and not die". When David was brought to repentance and confession after his great sin, the prophet's word to him was "The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die", 2 Samuel 12:13. So that it seems to me we get the thought of forgiveness in what is said of Reuben.
In Psalm 32:1 - 5 forgiveness is presented in a very blessed way, and also the exercise through which the soul passes on the way to it. Then in verse 6 we see that a man is forgiven that he may be godly. No one leads a godly life in this world until he knows that his sins are forgiven. "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared". The one whose transgression is forgiven comes out in a new character in this world as a "godly" man. He is set free in conscience to take this new course. The epistle to the Romans develops this very fully.
This leads on to the blessing of Judah (Deuteronomy 33:7). "Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be thou an help to him from his enemies". This corresponds with Psalm 32:6, 7. Dependence becomes characteristic of the one whose sins are forgiven, and this finds expression in prayer, in answer to which God comes in with deliverance from all our spiritual enemies.
The soul is then ready for service and priestly approach to God, the thought of which is suggested in the blessing of Levi (Deuteronomy 33:8 - 11). Not only are our sins forgiven in view of a godly walk in this world, but in view of approach to God: This comes out in Psalm 6.5: 3 - 5, which is very much on the line of the epistle to the Hebrews. In Romans the believer is cleared according to the righteousness of God, that he may walk in a godly way in this world; in Hebrews he is purged according to the holiness of God that he may
approach God in the sanctuary. If you have forgiveness, God would exercise you as to approach.
The devotedness of Levi had been proved (verses 8, 9). We are not to be indifferent to the claims of natural affection, but superior to them when it is a question of the will of God.
Three things are connected with Levi which might almost be spoken of as three notes of the assembly -- intelligence, edification, and worship. The Thummim and Urim represent intelligence in the mind of God; He made known His mind and pleasure in the Thummim and Urim. Then as being intelligent in God's mind they were to teach His people (verse 10), and this answers to edification. And, finally, they put incense before God, and whole burnt-offerings upon His altar, and in this we get the thought of worship. These three things are intimately connected with approach to God.
Many do not care to go beyond the thought of forgiveness, and a godly walk in the world, but it is God's pleasure to bring us as priests into His presence. In approaching God we get the knowledge of His mind, and then there is edification. This is a great comfort. All may not enter into the privilege of priestly approach, but those who do are fitted to edify the whole company. Thus all are helped on in the same direction. One may be used to present God's blessed things in such a way that all are attracted and encouraged to draw near with true hearts.
If we approach God it is entirely apart from all the imperfection of the flesh. We approach in all the sweet savour and perfection of Christ. "They shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar". It is as we are identified in affection with the perfections and acceptance of Christ that we can approach and worship.
Then in the blessing of Benjamin we get the thought of communion. "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him". Communion is a matter of the affections; nearness is essential to it. Communications are not communion. Two hearts absorbed in one interest -- that is communion.
John is very fond of the word "abide"; he uses it about forty times in the gospel, and about twenty times in the first epistle. In John 1 the two disciples ask, "Where abidest thou?" and He says, "Come and see". They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him. That is communion -- to abide with Him. When a wife comes under the power of
her husband's love her interests are merged in his, and then there is communion. We do not know much about communion because we have so many interests of our own.
In getting near the Lord we are taken out of our own interests, like John who only thought of himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved". He knew something of what it was to be "the beloved of the Lord". It is a blessed thing to abide in the consciousness of the love of Christ, then we are protected from evil, and from the snares and wiles of Satan. To "continue in the Son, and in the Father" is the safeguard against all seductions. Some think they must know errors and heresies in order to avoid them. Do you think the Lord wants us to be acquainted with what is evil in that way? Not at all. We do not need to explore and know all the evil; we cannot afford to waste our time in this way. If we occupy ourselves with evil we shall in some way be coloured by it. The great thing is to be hidden in His pavilion. In this day of religious evil the only true preservative is to be kept near to Christ.
Then in the blessing of Joseph the prominent thing is fruitfulness. This is the outcome of communion (see John 15). If we abide in Christ every circumstance that arises is an opportunity to bring forth fruit. Trials bring out fruit if we are in communion. Everything comes out perfectly in its season. It is said of the tree of life that it "bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month", Revelation 22:2. Every changing season brought out its own precious fruit in Christ -- a new kind of fruit in every new set of circumstances. God changes our circumstances -- He allows the different seasons to pass over us -- to give opportunity and occasion of bringing forth different manner of fruits.
How important then to abide in Him! We all know how it is practically. Sometimes in presence of the things that happen we are kept in patience, thankfulness, and peace. At other times we are impatient, we chafe and murmur. What is the secret of all this? Does it not lie in these words? "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing", John 15:4, 5.
In Genesis 49 Zebulun was going down to commerce with the world for his own advantage, but here he goes out to call
people to God's holy mountain. He still has to do with the abundance of the seas, and with the hidden treasures of the sand, but now it is for the glory of God. He is now in service for God.
Issachar wanted rest in Genesis 49 and sought it in a wrong way, but here he is seen in his tents. Taking up the proper character of a pilgrim he gets rest. Gad is enlarged and made superior to all his enemies. Dan -- no longer a snake -- is a young lion, bold for God. Mark, after running away from the difficulties of the service at one time, is eventually found identified with Paul in prison.
Then in Naphtali we see satisfaction, and in Asher a people divinely equipped for the wilderness journey. The time fails to take it all up in detail, but I think we see in all this a wonderful setting forth of the blessings of saints. Forgiveness, Dependence, Deliverance, Approach, Communion, Superiority, Strength, Satisfaction, Resource -- all furnished to saints by the grace of God. If we meditate on these things we shall find in them a wondrous unfolding of the all-various grace of God.
There are no more precious words in Scripture, if we apprehend all that is involved in them, than the words, "the right of redemption". They are words which derive value from peculiar and unhappy conditions, because they imply that things and persons have got away from being pleasurable to God. But they are glorious words, because they bring out that God has a right to act under such circumstances in a way that will secure all that is due to Him, and all that is completely for His pleasure. Creation has not, in itself, secured God's pleasure, though it had that in view, for we know that both in heaven and earth things have come to pass that are far from pleasing God. But redemption provides a new ground, a new moral basis, on which God secures all that is in His own mind and heart. "All the counsel of God" as to the inheritance and the heirs can take effect because of this great and glorious right which is vested in God Himself -- the right of redemption.
Now what comes out in the Old Testament is that the right of redemption could only be taken up by a near kinsman. So that God in taking up this right had in mind to do so in Man, because redemption involved purchase -- it involved that a title should be acquired of indisputable validity to take out of any hands that might hold it that which in truth belongs to God. But both redemption and purchase imply that the full price is paid. Whatever obligation has been incurred, whatever liability has come on the property or persons involved, it has to be taken up by the Redeemer. So that if sin and death had come in, as they have, and the pronounced sentence had gone forth, as it has, the purchase price cannot be less than will secure a full discharge from all that divine righteousness has imposed. A Kinsman alone can meet this -- One who as Man can pay all that is due from man, so as to be entitled to claim for God's pleasure what has become subject to dreadful liabilities. But it is God's right of redemption that has been taken up by Christ as Man -- one divine Person acting in this wondrous way on behalf of the Godhead.
Now all this is of vast importance if we bear in mind that the right of redemption in the Old Testament had to do with the inheritance. And the inheritance in the New Testament covers all that is in the purpose of God's love to bestow on His sons and children, who are said to be His heirs.
2 Kings 2:1 - 14
In suggesting this scripture it is as having in mind that it is God's way to bring out His thoughts in greater fulness in a day of departure. The book of Joshua gives typically the beginning of our dispensation -- a people going into the land as risen with Christ, able to overcome all their enemies by the power of God, and take possession of their inheritance. That was verified in the early days of the assembly, particularly in the apostles. But God reserved for a very dark day the bringing out of His great thought to take up a Man into the heavens, and to have Him represented here by those who have a double portion of His Spirit. And with that in view He would show that the power by which the Jordan could be crossed was still amongst His people.
This gives Elijah a most important place in the ways of God. No other man in Old Testament times was ever taken into the heavens. Of Enoch the account in Genesis is that "he was not, for God took him", and the comment of the Spirit in the New Testament is that he "was translated that he should not see death", Hebrews 11:5. God's victory over death was set forth in him; as I understand it, he sets forth the truth of eternal life rather than the thought of being taken to heaven. But Elijah is distinctly a pattern of Christ as taken into heaven, and known there in a day of apostasy, while Elisha sets forth that there is a vessel of testimony here with a double portion of His Spirit. "And it came to pass when Jehovah would take up Elijah into the heavens". So that Elijah is more than a type of Christ; he is a pattern, for he was actually taken into the heavens, the only such man in the Old Testament. There are scriptures which speak prophetically of Christ as ascended and at the right hand of God; and types of Him as the heavenly One, such as Melchisedec, Isaac, and, to a certain extent, Aaron, but the only man actually taken into the heavens in the Old Testament is Elijah.
This took place in a very dark day, for it was soon after the death of Ahab, and Jezebel was still alive, so that it distinctly refers to what may be known in a day of great departure; it indicates precious light reserved in the mind of God for a day of apostasy. However dark the day, God is not diverted
from what is before Him, and His desire is that we should not be diverted.
It is to be noted that the first verse of this chapter tells us that Elijah went with Elisha, intimating to us that Elisha's spiritual education is the great point in the chapter, and this makes it very distinctly applicable to ourselves. God would show in that dark period of Israel's history that the power in which the Jordan was crossed was still available for His people, and God would impress us in our day that all the power that was evidenced in the resurrection and ascension of Christ is available to be known in spiritual reality by the saints today in spite of the apostasy around. It shows how Christ is to be learned today, so that it is very cheering.
We read in Luke 9:51, "And it came to pass when the days of his receiving up were fulfilled". Those days had not yet fully come, but they had come in the mind of the Spirit. God would have the gospel history to be viewed as standing in relation to the One who was to be received up, and we must ever bear in mind that it is a Christ received up into heaven that we know, and in whom is all our blessing. Exercise as to this is to go on continually, for every saint in this dispensation has to learn for himself Christ as in heaven, and the Spirit as here, if he is to be in the mind of God. It is most important that we should learn the Christ thus, and be instructed in Him. Paul's great desire was, "that I may know him". We must know Him in heaven, and then as having a double portion of His Spirit we become competent to represent the heavenly Man down here. This is the great divine instruction for a dark day like the present. Someone has said that nothing will do for the darkest day but the brightest light.
Our spiritual education in view of knowing Christ in heaven proceeds on the lines suggested by the four places visited by Elijah and Elisha. The starting point of this journey was Gilgal -- the place of circumcision, where the flesh is seen to be absolutely cut off. However feeble we may be in our apprehension of it, the circumcision of the Christ is a great divine reality; it is what was effected in His death. So that it is viewed in Colossians as a completed thing; in Christ we are circumcised; it is, as Paul says, the putting off of the body of the flesh. This has been effected in the death of Christ, and it is applied to us by a divine operation -- a circumcision not done by hand. Circumcision, as often noticed,
comes in Colossians before baptism, which seems to suggest that in this connection what is inward precedes what is outward. Circumcision takes place in the heart and spirit.
Elisha was tested at every stage of the journey, and in the Lord's way with us we are all tested as to how far we are prepared to go with Christ. Elisha here is representative of those who in remnant conditions come to know Christ as in heaven, and to have a double portion of the Spirit here. It is evident that Elisha got something which was unknown in Israel generally, and not even known personally by the sons of the prophets, though they had some light as to it. There are those today who have descended from men who had light from God, but they are now unbelieving as to Christ in heaven, and the Christian profession generally is about as dark as Israel was in Elisha's day. I trust we have spiritual desire to have something which will distinguish us from what surrounds us. If we love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption we shall be prepared to go all the way, but we may expect to be tested. As the work of God proceeds in us we are prepared to go from stage to stage; we would like to go all the way as Elisha did. God would stir up any heart that has become slack to go in heartily for the knowledge of Christ in heaven, and the full virtue of a double portion of His Spirit here. These things have to be gone in for. The sons of the prophets did not go in for them.
If we have learned the lesson of Gilgal then we can go on to Bethel. When man after the flesh is shut out God comes in, and He delights to come in wherever there is room for Him. Bethel would suggest to a spiritual mind the thought of divine faithfulness. God pledged Himself there not to leave Jacob until He had done what He had spoken to him of. It was there that Jacob had his name Israel confirmed, and Jehovah talked with him. At the present time God's house is the assembly of the living God; He is active there, and He speaks. The inner shrine of the temple was called the oracle; the great thought was that God spoke there. In Genesis 35:10 - 15 it is mentioned several times that God "talked with him". Bethel was the place where divine communications were made; God dwells in His house so as to communicate His mind. So that Bethel has a most important place in relation to our knowing Christ in heaven. If God talks to us now, it will be about a risen and heavenly Christ, and the assembly
as standing in relation to Him. I trust we know something of this, notwithstanding the state of things around us. The great substance of the New Testament is God talking with us. Think of the ministry of the Lord Himself! What a favour it is to be allowed to read the gospels -- to accompany the Lord, as it were, in His pathway here, and hear Him bringing out the wonderful things that are in the mind of God! It all has its place now in the house of God. In the ministry of Paul and Peter and John we have divine communications, too, such as really belong to the house of God, and make known His mind.
The greatest thing in the assembly is what God says to us. We are apt to think that worship is the greatest thing, but surely what God is pleased to say to us is greater than what we can say to Him. If we listen to His speaking we shall be detached from human thoughts and sentiments; we shall be filled with what is of God, and this will produce worship. In all our meetings we should be exercised to hear what God is saying in His house. Any saint is truly glorified if he becomes the vessel through whom God communicates. 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of a member being glorified, and all the members rejoicing with it. It is a great glory to be a suited vessel for divine communications in the house of God.
Then they go on to Jericho, which answers, I suppose, to "the gates of hades" in the New Testament; it was where the great power of the enemy was overthrown. God would remind us that the gates of hades cannot hinder Him; He will deal with every power that obstructs His way of blessing. Jericho represents the world on the intellectual side as marked by reasonings and high things that lift themselves up against the knowledge of God. The overthrow of Jericho means that the world is judged in all its dark thoughts of God. In John's gospel and in Colossians we move with Christ as to all this. Then we prove that there is power resident in Christ to overthrow in our souls every element of the world that would obstruct spiritual prosperity and progress.
In moving from Bethel to Jericho there is deepening instruction. It is when we have learned something of the great thoughts of God in His house that we become aware of the power that is hostile. But the falling of Jericho's walls shows that we need not be afraid of going in wholeheartedly for what God speaks to us about. But we do not get the gain of His
power if we lose our interest in those blessed things, if we lose sight of Christ in heaven.
Peter and John in the early chapters of the Acts show that greater power was with them than with their adversaries. It did no good to shut them up in prison. And the chapter we are considering would encourage us to believe that the same power is active in support of the testimony in remnant times, and in the darkest day. It may not be manifested outwardly in the same way, but great things will be effected spiritually.
Finally, they came to Jordan. Death has to be learned in all the intensity of its power, and that can only be learned in the death of Christ. This is, perhaps, the deepest lesson of all. It is death viewed as bringing out all the power that is inherent in Christ so that He may have His own in association with Himself. The Lord, at the end of the gospels, led His own to Jordan. He was risen, and they could be risen with Him. What a sense they must have had of the power of life in Him by which He could bring them over Jordan with Him! They had not the doctrine of it as yet, but they experienced the reality of it, and when they had the Spirit, and learned Christ as in heaven, they could interpret their experience. The great lesson for us now is to learn Christ as in heaven. All the preciousness of what there is in Christ in heaven is for us to learn now. He knows how far we are prepared to go in for this. He would have us all to move together in continuous exercise on this line. These movements cover the ground of spiritual education in a day of apostasy, the result being that we are qualified to represent Christ here as having a double portion of His Spirit.
Elisha stands by the bank of Jordan when Elijah has gone up, and he rent his own garments in two pieces; he had done with all that formerly marked and adorned him. In type he had received the double portion of the Spirit of the One in heaven. Elijah saying, "Thou hast asked a hard thing", is to emphasise to us the greatness of having a double portion of the Spirit of Christ in heaven. A double portion conveys the idea of a distinguished portion, for the double portion distinguished the firstborn from the rest of the family. It brings out the great distinction that attaches to the saints of the present period. Would to God we understood how God had distinguished us! There never was, and there never
will be, such a company on earth as the saints of the assembly. I do not think any other company of saints will have a double portion of the Spirit.
The great truth of the moment is that Christ is in heaven and the assembly as the vessel of testimony is here, having this great qualification -- a double portion of the Spirit. This chapter is intended to teach us what we may have in times of apostasy, and the consideration of it would help us to keep apart from the current ways of men. We ought to covet a distinct vision of Christ as having gone up; it is characteristic of the saints that they see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. Nothing less than a double portion of the Spirit will qualify us to represent Christ here. That does not mean, of course, that we have twice as much of the Spirit as He has, but that we have the Spirit in a very distinguishing way. We are always being tested as to whether we really desire this. God is working with us continuously that we may know the One who has been taken up into heaven, and be qualified to represent Him here in testimony.
The ark of the covenant is the most remarkable symbol to be found in Scripture, for, though it was a material thing, it was the actual seat of Jehovah's presence amongst His people. He is repeatedly said to dwell between the cherubim, and He said to Moses, "And there will I meet with thee, and will speak with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, everything that I will give thee in commandment, unto the children of Israel", Exodus 25:22. The ark is said to be God's strength and glory (Psalm 68), and it is called "the ark of thy strength", Psalm 132. But the history of the ark shows us that the greatest privilege that can be conferred upon man only becomes the occasion to bring out the evil that is in man's heart. When Israel had the ark in their midst they dishonoured it by their high places and graven images, and yet they assumed that it would help them against their enemies! This only resulted in the ark itself being given into captivity. This shows that, apart from His sovereignty in mercy, the nearer God comes to men the more will He be dishonoured, and this was fully proved when He was manifested in flesh in the Person of Jesus. If His glory and His thoughts of blessing are to be known He must undertake the whole matter Himself.
There could be no place of rest for God in a world utterly gone astray from Him, where sin and death reigned, the dreadful evidence of the power of the enemy. But David came in, typical of Christ as the One able to do God's will in meeting and setting aside the power of the enemy so that a place of rest might be secured for God and for the ark of His strength. Scripture suggests two distinct thoughts in relation to the securing of Zion. First, in Psalm 132 it is reached as the outcome of David's "affliction", and his unselfish devotion to "find out a place for Jehovah". Then in 1 Chronicles 11 we read that "David took the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David". The seat of the enemy's power became David's "stronghold" as the result of his victory. In the devotion of Christ He has come in, at all cost to Himself, to secure a place for God in the very spot where the enemy held sway. He allowed no affliction or difficulty
to turn Him aside from this purpose of His heart. But, on the other hand, He acted in victorious power to secure Zion by conquest. In the very place where "sin has reigned in the power of death", He met and overcame all the power of the enemy, so that grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It is instructive to consider the difference between the place which David prepared for the ark in Zion and the place to which Solomon brought it in the most holy place in the house. The first was a provisional place of rest, but the house was a permanent resting-place, for the staves being drawn out indicated that the ark was not to be carried again. We learn from Psalm 132 that Zion contemplates need in man, for it is written, "I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy ones with bread". "Life for evermore" comes in on this line as relieving men from the pressure of death. The true David has taken the stronghold of Zion, and made it His own city; He has overcome every power that stood in the way of God's grace being made known to men. The kingdom is set up, and all its benefits are available, and God can rest in what Christ has done, and in what He has brought in for men, and all this answers to Zion. It is made known in the glad tidings to men, and those who believe the glad tidings can be said to have come to mount Zion.
God desired a place of rest in relation to all that had come in here by sin and Satan's power, and Christ has secured that rest for Him. David bringing the ark to Zion typifies how, when men had forfeited all title to blessing from God, He took up in the sovereignty of His mercy, through the Lord Jesus Christ, a position where He can be known as extremely favourable to men. Nothing can be added by either God or men to the grace that reigns through the Lord Jesus Christ. God is in the attitude of forgiveness towards all men. Righteousness, life, salvation, and every blessing that divine favour can bestow, are available for men. God has left Sinai and come to Zion, and all there subsists according to what He is Himself as set forth in Christ. God does not look for anything in man, save repentance, but He is perfectly at rest in what He has set forth of Himself in Christ, and in what is available for men in Christ. There is not a feature of need in men which is not fully provided for by the all-blessing grace of God. It might be thought that none who
knew this would hesitate a moment to turn to such a God, to boast and glory in Him for evermore! But such is the alienation of the human heart from God that nothing but the touch of sovereign mercy can bring about in that heart a true appreciation of God as dwelling in Zion. All must be of Himself -- the abundantly blessed provision in Zion, and the begetting of men to enjoy it. "And of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one was born in her", Psalm 87:5. All those truly blessed of God are Zion's children; they take character from the city in which they were born; they come into view as persons in whom the reign of grace has become effective. It is, indeed, a wonderful sight to see men freed from sin's dominion, in whose hearts the works of the devil are undone, and in whom the kingdom is seen in its practical power. It is certain that amongst such persons Christ will ever be held in great honour. It was clearly so in the early chapters of the Acts; the principles of Zion were set up amongst men in the power of the Holy Spirit. Zion in a spiritual sense is found today when men, as subjects of sovereign mercy, stand in God's favour through the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, as held in supreme honour amongst such, answers to the ark being brought to Zion.
Blessed as Zion is, it is not the culmination of God's thoughts. David was right in desiring that the ark should not remain "under curtains", for Jehovah said to him, "Whereas it was in thy heart to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thy heart", 2 Chronicles 6:8. But the house was to be built by one of whom Jehovah said, "I will be his father, and he shall be my son", 1 Chronicles 17:13. This was a prophetic declaration that the full thought of God could only be brought in and established by One in the relationship of Son to Him. The Spirit of God has greatly magnified in recent years amongst the saints the truth of the Lord's sonship, and this has been in view of God's great and blessed thoughts being brought out in their completeness and finality. Solomon bringing the ark up to its place in the house indicates typically that the full thought of God is reached. The ark being brought into "the oracle of the house", verse 7, suggests the full revelation of God's mind; it is very much Christ as seen in the gospel of John. For His body being spoken of as "the temple" in that gospel links on with what is before us in the type. Then Paul speaks of
all the building as fitted together, and tells us that it "increases to a holy temple in the Lord", Ephesians 2. This is a direct reference to the scripture now before us, and it shows that the constructional work is proceeding. It cannot yet be said to be finished, but the complete thought is set before us in the type that we may understand what God has before Him.
Paul's announcement of "all the counsel of God" in the epistle to the Ephesians answers in the New Testament to the ark being brought to its rest in the most holy place. For there is nothing beyond, or more holy than, what we have presented there. God is bringing the saints of the assembly by Paul's ministry into the most blessed nearness to Himself with regard to Christ's place before Him. For the ark in the "oracle of the house" is where God's mind is most fully made known. Paul speaks of completing the word of God, and the full thought of the oracle is reached by the revelation of the mystery to him, and by his ministry of the assembly. Now the crowning point is to see Christ's blessed place in relation to it all, and this seems to be typified by the bringing of the ark into the most holy place. This brings about that the saints are filled even to all the fulness of God. There can be no further movement beyond this; it brings us to the permanent resting-place of divine love; we touch what is eternal. So that we can but exclaim, "To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen".
In connection with bringing up the ark, "king Solomon, and all the assembly of Israel, that were assembled to him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen which could not be counted nor numbered for multitude", verse 6. In bringing before us the highest and most glorious things that have place in His eternal purpose God would give us a very large apprehension of the death of Christ as the ground on which alone His great thoughts could be reached in all their fulness. The epistle to the Hebrews has in view boldness to enter the holiest, and there are no less than 28 distinct references to the death of Christ in that epistle. Gentile saints are addressed in Ephesians 2 as having become nigh by the blood of the Christ. We could not be sanctified so as to be suitable for the holiest, or for the apprehension of what is there, on any other ground.
Personally He was the ark of the covenant when here, but
His being brought into the most holy place typifies the place which He has now as risen and exalted. In 2 Chronicles 5 the house has been built, and the cherubim are known as overshadowing the ark there. The ark as brought to its permanent rest in the house is covered by the wings of the cherubim. Christ, as He may be known today in the affections of saints of the assembly, is the cherished Object of God's delight. In the holiest we come entirely apart from the flesh, and from the infirmities and limitations which attach to us as in the flesh and blood condition, and we are privileged to contemplate Christ as in relation to the will and glory of God, and as having effectuated that will. The holiest is a scene of infinite complacency for God because it is the climax of His own will and glory so far as it could be typically presented.
The wings of the cherubim are seen here in relation to the ark and its staves. The wide scope of things connected with the outward look of the cherubim is not mentioned here; it is simply "the place of the ark ... and its staves". The thought of complacency predominates here; every attribute of God and His holy government complacent in Christ and in what Christ has brought in. The "staves" are a reminder that the ark has been in other conditions than the most holy place where it is brought to rest. It has been carried in service and testimony during a long period ever since the Lord ascended and the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. The apostles' testimony to Christ as in relation to the will of God was a delight to God, and in so far as their testimony has been continued there has been delight to God. But as in the most holy place the "staves" are not in active service; they are there as the witness that the ark has been carried in testimony where it was not in rest. But now, as appears from the marginal reading, they were drawn out, as though to mark the contrast. Even when the ark is viewed as in its permanent place of rest, the carrying time is not to be forgotten. "The ends of the staves were seen outside the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen without. And there they are to this day". At the moment contemplated here the carrying service has ceased, but it is not lost sight of within the holy place.
"There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb", verse 10. According to Hebrews 9 "the golden pot that had the manna, and the rod of Aaron that had sprouted", were also in the ark. That was the
wilderness arrangement, for in the responsible life here we need both the inward sustenance of the grace of Christ, and His priestly succour in things relating to God. But the ark as brought to the most holy place in the temple has neither, indicating to us that a point is reached typically when nothing remains to be considered but the will of God, and that will as brought to rest complacently as being fully accomplished. It is possible for us to reach such a point, and particularly as in assembly privilege, and to anticipate the eternal condition of things when all that the incarnation of Christ had in view will be brought to pass.
In Ephesians 1 we read that God has acted according to the good pleasure of His will. He purposed in Christ before the world's foundation that a vast company should be holy and without blame before Him in love, marked out for sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has taken us into favour in the Beloved. This is the will of God as now seen in the ark in the most holy place. It is God having His own way, and Christ is in the most blessed nearness to Him as Man so that His will might be there as an accomplished fact. We are privileged to see Him there, and to learn that every part of what is in the will of God is brought to fruition in Him. His Person is the greatest wonder of all. The ark was greater than what it contained, but what it contained expressed God's will, and that will at the present time includes all saints in its blessed eternal purpose. The will of God is brought in now in its completeness in Christ glorified, and its blessedness extends, and will extend to all those chosen in Him. There is nothing else there, from the point of view of the wondrous type before us. Wilderness needs are not there, nor the grace that provides for them.
Then God has not only given us a most holy place before Him, and a relationship in love which answers to His pleasure in a supreme way, but as in that place of sonship and favour He has made known to us the mystery of His will. He gives us to know what He has purposed in Himself. The fulness of times is soon going to be administered, and all things headed up in Christ. The saints cherish the mystery of God's will which He has made known to them. It is all a present reality in the ark in the most holy place, but it will very shortly be brought forth and publicly administered. It will no longer
be the mystery of God's will when all things are headed up in Christ, but it has the character of mystery now; it is only known to those who have been initiated into it. The saints of the assembly have the widest outlook; they embrace heaven and earth in their view.
The hallowing of all the priests without observing the courses (verse 11), seems to intimate that a much more extended and expanded service is in view at this point. When the ark is brought into its place, the idea of "courses" gives place to the general or universal service of the assembly. "All saints" are brought in in Ephesians 3, and the climax of all is glory to God "in the assembly in Christ Jesus". This regards the assembly as moving Godward in its completeness and unity. This is the divine ideal, and it should be ever before us. It is seen typically in the levites, the singers, and the priests and trumpeters being "as one". "It came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one voice to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah; and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised Jehovah: For he is good, for his loving kindness endureth for ever; that then the house, the house of Jehovah, was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God", verses 13, 14.
This answers very much to the fulfilment of the prayer in Ephesians 3. If the saints of the assembly are "filled even to all the fulness of God", we can hardly think of official service continuing, for God fills all. There cannot be anything more for God than that He should fill all. When the Lord said, "Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24), we do not think of priests or temple service there. We are conscious that a point is reached which belongs to another and a different order of things. In the eternal state, when God is all in all, I apprehend the priests will no longer "stand to do their service". They will be in the blessedness of their eternal place and relationship as sons
2 Chronicles 5:10; Hebrews 10:5 - 10; Ephesians 1:3 - 14
I ventured to suggest the reading of this scripture, dear brethren, because in the types we are considering in Chronicles we are brought to a point when the Spirit of God tells us that there was nothing in the ark save the two tables, suggesting that it is possible to reach a point spiritually when Christ is regarded only from the standpoint of the will of God. I thought that was the teaching of it for us. That is, that the will of God has been fully and permanently secured in Christ, and by means of Christ He is going to displace everything else; so that even those matters which are essential for us as regarded in the wilderness, and in responsible service, are no longer in view. The golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded are no longer found in the ark; they are there in Hebrews in the wilderness setting, but not in the ark when it is brought to rest -- nothing remains there but the will of God. I read the New Testament scriptures to develop that.
It was evident that manna was the provision of grace for the wilderness, and we all know how essential that is from day to day; and the rod that budded was the token of Christ's blessed priesthood, and we know our need of it, especially in any service Godward, for we could not possibly do without it. But the Spirit of God suggests a point when they both go out of sight and there is nothing but the will of God secured in complacency and eternal restfulness in Christ and through Christ. The passage suggests that point being reached by us, not the mere abstract thought that it is so, but that the saints come to the blessed reality of the moment when all that belongs to divine grace in the wilderness is left and another scene entered which is filled with something more blessed than anything belonging to the wilderness. I suppose it is normally reached in assembly privilege. There is a moment reached when the priesthood of Christ merges in His headship. In the millennial day He will be a Priest upon His throne, but there is no thought of His priesthood continuing in eternity, because priesthood contemplates contrary conditions where priestly support is needed. Of Aaron it was said, "He shall serve me in the priest's office". There is a moment when what is official ceases and what is permanent as to Christ remains. The moment is reached typically when priesthood
ceases to function and the glory intimates that God is there in the supreme satisfaction of His love. God's will is love, and He is determined to have His own way and to have a universe dominated by the will of God; and all that is going to fill that universe is a living reality to the saints at this moment. The saints are privileged to go in and see Christ in this relation, which is in relation to God, the pleasure of God being established eternally. It is the highest point of assembly privilege, and I would not say that it cannot be touched by lovers of Christ individually, but it is seen in connection with the temple, that is, with assembly privilege. It works out in God filling everything. We are held by headship, by the apprehension of Christ in headship; and if it is only reached for a brief moment it is not the less real.
The object in reading Hebrews 10 was to show how God detaches us from all that system of things that does not answer to His pleasure; while the passage in Ephesians 1 shows what were the purposes of good pleasure that lie in the will of God, into which we are brought by grace. The two put together give us an apprehension of what is the will of God.
It would help us, I feel, to consider that the incarnation stands in connection with the will of God. "Wherefore coming into the world he says, Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast prepared me a body. Thou tookest no pleasure in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will ... . He takes away the first that he may establish the second; by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all". It is the blessed result of the will of God brought in in its completion. It is not the will of God in connection with our circumstances (though the Scriptures do speak of that), or in relation to our movements in service and our practical conduct and what it is to suffer, etc. (that enters in incidentally and provisionally), but the will of God brought in by Christ refers to something far greater.
The first thing secured is the setting free of believers from the old system according to the law, the system of sacrifice with which the Hebrew believers as the people of God were familiar, and from every question connected with sins or sin. The will of God effectuated by the Son set us completely free from all that. "By the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"; it is an accomplished thing. And it is "by the will of God" -- every Christian should accept that. We are set apart from every kind of religious system that does not please God -- entirely; and we are perfected for ever. These things are in the will of God, and they have been effective in relation to the saints, so that we might be at liberty to be in the enjoyment of another scene which is filled with the blessedness of what is the outcome of the will of God. The allusion to Horeb reminds us of the time when God first made Himself known. It is good for us to assure our hearts of our footing with God -- that we are on the footing that His will has been carried into effect by something outside ourselves altogether, and it happened through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and nothing can come upon our consciences. That is the Christian position. Coming into manhood He brought in the will of God, not in demand, but by securing the satisfaction of His will in love.
In Ephesians there are three marvellous statements: "the good pleasure of his will", "the mystery of his will", and "the counsel of his own will". So we are brought in Ephesians 1 to what is typically set forth in 2 Chronicles 5:10. There is nothing left but the will of God fully established in Christ and through Christ.
We have been considering the ark as setting forth the greatness of Christ personally, and in considering the tables we are brought to see what is in Him. He is greater than all He contains. It is really only the saints of the assembly who can look upon Christ in the holiest and see the will of God established in Him; so it belongs particularly to the present time -- as we are seeking to know it now.
It is indeed "the surpassing glory". The glory as seen in Ephesians goes back before the foundation of the world, and is connected with the saints being chosen in Christ. "That we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption (sonship) through Jesus Christ to himself". But I am a poor sinner, you say. But this is the will of God; you must have what God is pleased to give, or nothing! The ten commandments are the necessary claim of love, and now the truth is clear we find it is in the will of God to satisfy His own love, and what He purposed before the world was to have a vast company before Him holy and
without blame, in love. That is the will of God, and nothing can alter it. "The love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" -- that gives us the ark. And this great thought of sonship is "according to the good pleasure of his will". Making us accepted in the Beloved is a question of His will. What is His will? He wills that! In Christ and through Christ He has secured what He wills.
"The mystery of his will" refers to what is yet future. It belongs to a wider range than what is proposed in the good pleasure of His will, which has to do with the holy conditions of the saints. "Holy and without blame before him in love" (it is not what they ought to be, but what God's will is that they should be), "marked out beforehand" for sonship, "accepted in the Beloved"; all that is the will of God and has actually come into effect. It is our privilege to see Christ in the holiest as having secured this for the good pleasure of God's will and looked at apart from anything else. We turn round on to the mystery of His will, a much wider range of things. People are very stupid to call believers narrow-minded; there is nothing narrow here, but vast.
The mystery of His will comes out in verses 8 - 10. That is, we get an inner circle first upon which the will of God has put a most blessed impress; "holy and without blame before him in love", and "marked out beforehand" for sonship. Then there is a wider circle which takes in everything in heaven and on earth. That is the mystery of His will; it is millennial; it is the administration of the fulness of times, not eternity. There is going to be a wonderful administration. Figures known on the world's stage today are passing shadows; that is, they are things only here for a moment and they are going out. But Christ is going to be the centre in whom all will be headed up. It is a mystery now, because only the saints know it, but it is well known to them because God has made it known to us. Verse 8 supposes that the greatest capacity of intelligence belongs to the sons. If we are in this most blessed relationship, He looks for capacity in the sons so that His own wisdom and knowledge can be communicated to them -- a wonderful thing! Paul prayed that the saints might be equal to it. It is one thing to see it, another to be equal to it. We can only arrive at that through prayer.
In Revelation 10 we read that "the mystery of God should be finished", referring to the time when God's will will be
completed publicly. When things are manifested, they are no longer in mystery. We are privileged to go into the most holy place to see this all secured in Christ as much as it will be in a coming day -- but only there can we see it.
Then, finally, there is "the counsel of his own will", which refers to the inheritance. "In whom we have also obtained an inheritance, being marked out beforehand according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will". He has taken away the first; all this is connected with the second. The whole will of God is now brought in; the place of the saints, then their immense outlook, and all things to be headed up in Christ, and lastly the thought of the inheritance. "We have ... obtained an inheritance".
As far as I observe, believers are not so much taken up with the inheritance as they ought to be. We should have far more dignity about us if it were so. The inheritance shows us what we can be trusted with. The Holy Spirit is the earnest of it, and if He had His way He would make the inheritance a great reality to us. And seeing the inheritance would impress us with the wonderful trustworthiness of it, for we are to share with Christ what He is going to inherit.
"The good pleasure of his will" puts us into happy relations with God our Father who is above us; but the inheritance is beneath us, what we are put in possession of but are capable of taking up as joint heirs with Christ. All this great range of things is connected with the will of God and it must stand. It brings out the greatness of Christ that He is able to bring into this world all the blessed will of God and secure it on the ground of His death, so that the saints come into it and give God the praise and glory.
There is a moment when you are absorbed in the blessedness of the will of God; the Priest and the manna are no longer in view. Hebrews 10 really liberates us in order to come into this wonderful scene of divine pleasure, which brings the whole universe in as the inheritance of the saints. May we be enlarged, not only in the greatness of Christ, but in what He contains -- enlarged in what is in the ark!
Psalm 8:1 - 5; Psalm 16:9 - 12; Psalm 68:18; Psalm 110:1 - 4
The Psalms are of deep interest because they bring out in much detail the subjective exercises which mark the people of God in a great variety of circumstances. They also give, in a prophetic way, apprehensions of Christ which could only be fully taken up after He was in heaven as a glorified Man. The four psalms referred to are all quoted in the New Testament as applying to Christ at the present time.
Christ in heaven is a great reality, and our spiritual progress and our knowledge of God largely depend on the measure in which we apprehend Him there. The great truth of the present moment is that Christ is in heaven as a glorified Man. He has been here, and He is coming here again, but now He is in heaven, and all that is spiritual and vital is connected with our apprehension of Him in heaven.
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews refers to Psalm 8, when he says, "We see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour". There seems to be more in that than simply believing that He is crowned with glory and honour; He is seen thus by the Spirit; it is a matter of spiritual apprehension. There is a company of persons on earth who are in the light of what is glorious and splendid in heaven. God's testimony in regard to what is there is committed to babes and sucklings, but it is committed to them in a very effective way, for out of their mouths God has established praise, or, as the margin reads, has founded strength. God has enemies both in the Christian profession and out of it, but He is giving an answer to those enemies in the praises of babes and sucklings who are able to see Jesus in heaven. What is in heaven has become a matter of praise and testimony here. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says, "one has testified somewhere", suggesting that what is testified is important rather than where it is testified, and thus leaving it open to be testified in any locality.
Jesus is crowned with glory and honour in connection with the wondrous expression He has given to the grace of God. God is so delighted with the expression Jesus has given to His grace that He has crowned Him with glory and honour. It
is God's valuation of Him in that connection. It is a great thing to get that in the soul, for it has a universal bearing. The favourableness of God to every man has come to light in a most wonderful way. It has come out in the fact that Jesus tasted death for every man, for every thing. He did not become Man until the whole race of mankind was under death as the consequence of sin, and He became the Son of man that He might die; He has brought to light that the grace of God is greater than sin, and greater than death. He tasted death for every one who was under death. The psalm speaks of the heavens, and the moon and stars, but it is marvellously true that God is more interested in one sinful man than He is in the moon or stars! The sinless Son of man has tasted death for every man so that every man may know that God is favourable to him, notwithstanding his sin.
God has crowned Jesus with glory and splendour because He is so delighted that full expression should be given to His favourableness to men. He has put Jesus in heaven, and crowned Him there, so that the whole universe may know how pleased He is with the One who has expressed His grace by tasting death. The grace expressed at Calvary is glorified in heaven in the crowned Son of man. He is Son of man to be available for the whole race of mankind, and all heaven is worshipping Him in that character. No person in the universe is so resplendent as Jesus; a light above the brightness of the sun shone on Saul of Tarsus in grace. The sun is the most glorious object in nature, but it is infinitely transcended by the glory which is radiant in the Person of Jesus in heaven. He is the great Subject of divine testimony. No company of persons is less thought of amongst men than those who can see what is glorious and splendid in heaven. But out of their mouths God has established praise, or founded strength. The praises of the saints are God's great answer to all His adversaries, little as men know this. The Lord, in quoting Psalm 8, said, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise". The praise of the babes and sucklings is perfected because it takes account of matters in which there is no element of defect. It rises to the blessedness of what God has made known.
God deliberately takes up what is insignificant in the eyes of men, and the greatest things that are said on the earth today come out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. We
may think it a feeble thing, but it is not. The vessels may be feeble, but the praise is not. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me". God would not put any honour upon man's greatness, for the basis of all His work is that every man needed that the Son of man should die for him. Babes and sucklings appreciate this, but a great reducing process has to be gone through to bring us down to the point when God can establish us in what He has brought to pass. This is the character of divine operations in the saints.
Then in Psalm 16 we see the Lord prophetically in His pathway here, but looking forward to resurrection, fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. That is, He is looking forward to what He has now entered upon in heaven. It is another important aspect of the truth that Jesus being at the right hand of the throne of God is the answer to what He was here. We sing sometimes of "the path of worth which led up to the throne". He had subsisted in the form of God before He became Man, but He was found here in a path of humiliation as Man, in contact with all the conditions and circumstances which saints have to meet, and He went through all in such a way that there could only be one answer to it on God's part, and that was resurrection and a place at the right hand of His throne. "At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore". That was the answer to His wondrous path of worth; the throne, we may say, has awarded Him that place.
"In view of the joy lying before him" He "endured the cross, having despised the shame". In Jesus we see in absolute perfection a life which was morally entitled to resurrection. It was the perfect expression of that which in the saints is the life of faith. It is well to consider this psalm, because we are apt not to think enough of the importance of the responsible life in its relation to resurrection. There was a character of life in Jesus as Man here on earth that could not be left in death; it could not be left out of God's resurrection world. But the life of Christ as set forth in Psalm 16 is also, in all its moral features, the normal life of His saints. It is possible for us, through infinite grace, to move in the life of Jesus in our responsible life; that is, in dependence, obedience, separation from the world and its idolatry, delighting in the saints, having joy in God and in the inheritance which His love has conferred upon us. That is the life of Christ morally, and it culminates in resurrection and heaven. As we sing sometimes,
This raises the question whether we are living in the responsible life so that there is what is morally suitable for resurrection. It is evident that this thought is in Scripture, for we read, "those that have practised good, to resurrection of life", and we read of "the resurrection of the just". Such a life must be characterised, even as it was in Jesus, by overcoming the world. And this is essential, not only in view of resurrection ultimately, but in view of our walking together in Christian fellowship here. We walk with the saints as delighting in them, even as the Lord said of them in this psalm, "In them is all my delight". We delight in those who walk in obedience, dependence, separation from the world, and who have their joy in God, because we are exercised to move on that line ourselves. There is no true Christian fellowship except on this line, and it leads morally to resurrection and heaven. The result of working things out faithfully in the responsible life is that we are free in spirit for the resurrection sphere, and for what is heavenly, while we are together. We need not wait for the heavenly until we actually get there. The enjoyment of eternal pleasures is possible in the assembly now, but this largely depends on the character of our responsible life. The spiritual can only be taken up as there is moral suitability to do so. If we have not moved in the life of Jesus during the week we need not expect to enjoy the spiritual privileges of the assembly on the Lord's day. Jesus at the right hand of the throne of God is the answer to a life in which God was perfectly glorified here. John would remind us that, "He that says he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself also so to walk". As we move on that line we shall get great enlargement in the spiritual sphere, in what is connected with resurrection and ascension.
Psalm 68 gives us a further thought. "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts in Man, and even for the rebellious, for the dwelling there of Jah Elohim". Evidently we are on Ephesian ground here, for this verse is quoted in Ephesians 4:8. In connection with Christ having ascended on high we are told that He led captivity captive. I doubt if we get completely free from the elements of bondage until we know Christ as ascended. He has dealt with every power and influence that would darken
men as to God, or that would introduce the element of bondage in our relations with God. "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". That was a wonderful movement in liberty!
Everything that comes from Him as ascended takes on the character of gift; it has not to be worked or paid for; it has simply to be received. Man has ascended up to the very highest point so as to receive gifts as Man, in connection with mankind. He has received all the gifts that were in the purpose of the Father's love to bestow on men. They are of such a character that they were suitable to be received by the ascended Man, and He has given them to men. This is a great administration of divine bounty, and every saint participates in the wealth conferred. For it is written, "But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ", Ephesians 4:7.
The thought of Christ ascending suggests that He has liberty to move to the very highest point. Indeed, He went in His own personal right "above all the heavens, that he might fill all things". This is, of course, His own unique place. But in John 20 He speaks of ascending to His Father and our Father, and to His God and our God. His leading captivity captive was in view of our being liberated to move up with Him into this blessed position and relationship. If we understood that, it would set us free to speak to the Father and to God; there would not be the lack of liberty which there often is.
Then He "has given gifts to men ... for the perfecting of the saints". A double portion of Christ's Spirit is given in connection with His being taken up into heaven, but in addition to this He has given gifts for the perfecting of the saints. These gifts express in an effective way the victorious power and wealth that subsists in Christ in heaven. It is for us all to recognise this, and to discern gifts which give us an impression of Christ in heaven. Such gifts are to be clearly distinguished from what is the product of human ability or training. They are gifts of the ascended Christ, and they are all enriching in a spiritual wealth that belongs to heaven. To disregard Christ's gifts is to disregard Christ, for they are His gifts of love to us. As we value Christ in heaven we value what He gives, and we value His gifts because they perfect us in the knowledge of Him in heaven so that we may be developed as
constituting His body here. If we do not grow up to Him as Head in heaven we shall not understand the formation and fitting together of the body here according to Colossians and Ephesians. The greatest gifts of the ascended Christ are available for us in the ministry of Paul and John, and indeed in all the apostles who have left inspired words for our perfecting. The gifts of the ascended Christ today carry on the same ministry, and according to their measure they carry it on in the same power; they are commissioned by Christ in heaven. All is on the principle of gift, that we may be perfected by coming to understand the nature of divine beneficence.
The gifts cover in their exercise all that is needed for the perfecting of the saints. This has in view the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ. This contemplates the whole company of saints on earth arriving at the full measure of what is true in Christ in heaven, so that we may grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head. Most wondrous and precious things are connected with Christ in heaven.
But in the psalm we see a further thing. The ascended Christ having received gifts in Man, and even for the rebellious, is for the dwelling there of Jah Elohim. Notwithstanding the rebelliousness that has marked man in all stages of his history, it is the fixed thought of God to dwell among men. He would secure for Himself a place amongst men. This is brought out in the epistle to the Ephesians. The gentiles are "built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit", Ephesians 2:22. The apostle's prayer was "that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God", Ephesians 3:19. The title "Jah Elohim" suggests God as known in His absolute supremacy. It is noticeable that there is a militant note in this psalm. "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them: it is a Sinai in holiness". The militant thought also appears in captivity being led captive. There are powers in the universe acting in opposition to God, but He has taken up the challenge, and by means of Christ He has spoiled them, making a show of them publicly, and leading them in triumph. It is God known in complete triumph over evil, in connection with an ascended Christ, who dwells in and amongst His saints.
Finally we come to Psalm 110, where we see that Christ is shortly to have His enemies put as footstool of His feet, and He will rule in their midst. But in the meantime He is a Priest in heaven to serve us, and particularly in view of what is hostile here. Melchisedec brought out bread and wine, and he blessed Abram after he had returned from smiting the hostile kings. It was as an overcomer that Abram was blessed by the priest of the Most High God. Conditions are such today that there is continual need of overcoming. Difficulties are likely to increase rather than to diminish. But Christ in heaven is exercising a priesthood of support and blessing for those who, as in the line of faith, are overcomers here. When we are absolutely like Christ we shall not need Him as Priest. But as called to overcome in conditions of weakness we learn to value, as Abram did, the refreshment and blessing of the Priest in heaven. No doubt He succours us in the conflict too, but the particular feature of priesthood as seen in Melchisedec was that he refreshed and blessed the one who had emerged victoriously from the conflict. There is a particular sweetness in this for overcomers.
"Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in holy splendour: from the womb of the morning shall come to thee the dew of thy youth". A marginal note in the New Translation says that "the dew of thy youth" refers to young men. One has thought of this in connection with many young men who are likely to be tested in new circumstances which have arisen. They are to come to Christ, and as they rally to Him willingly, and stand by His rights, they will find that they have His support in heaven. He is continually exercising His priesthood for refreshment and blessing to those who stand for Him as faithful overcomers during this wondrous period while He is sitting at God's right hand, awaiting the time when all His enemies will be put as footstool of His feet
Those psalms, or parts of psalms, which give us utterances of Christ personally have a unique place in the affections of the saints. But there are other psalms which are exceedingly attractive because they have as their theme Christ Himself, and what stands in immediate relation to Him. Psalm 45 and Psalm 72 have this character, and Psalm 110 may also be thought of in this connection, and as giving what we have not anywhere else in the psalms, that Christ would be Priest after the order of Melchisedec by Jehovah's oath. But of all these Psalm 45 is the most personal and intimate. Psalm 72 and Psalm 110 have an official character; they speak of the King and the Priest. But Psalm 45 gives personal touches which are not found in the same way elsewhere; so that it is unique in its presentation of the incomparable moral beauty of Christ, the fragrance of all His garments, and, if one may so say, His domestic surroundings where His affections are at rest in the royal apartments.
A beautiful feature of this psalm is that the affections of the saints are portrayed here abstractedly in unmixed purity. That is, we are in presence of a state of soul where nothing whatever is active but the heart's engagement with an Object -- or objects -- which are most delightful. It is not that the speaker or singer himself is viewed in the psalm as a participator in what he describes. It is in no way what the King has done for him, or the relation in which he stands to the King. He is simply the composer or the singer, abstracted for the time from any thought of himself, but having a heart welling forth with a good matter touching the King. He does not think of himself as in the scenes which he describes, but his heart is full of what he describes. It is a peculiarly blessed experience in which no subtle element of self remains to intrude upon the delight which love finds in an Object, or objects, which give it supreme satisfaction. I think God would have us more often in this happy abstractedness from ourselves; not thinking exactly of our part in the precious things made known to us by the Spirit, but thinking of the delightfulness of the things in themselves. When we reach that point we have the truest participation in the things. It seems to me that "Upon lilies" in the title of this psalm has reference to the purity of affections which can look at things in this abstracted way. It
is like Paul thinking of the one Man, and the chaste virgin which he had espoused, and which he desired to present to Christ. So the bride, the Lamb's wife, is shown to John; he was permitted to look at it as one for the moment abstracted from it. We shall never have a full view of either Christ or the assembly until we learn to look at them in this way.
This is one of the psalms of instruction which will have a special place when "they that are wise among the people shall instruct the many", Daniel 11:33. The "Maschilim" of that future day will have acquired through exercise the gain of the "Maschil" Psalms, of which Psalm 45 is one. There is a course of spiritual instruction in the "Maschil" Psalms which will make "Maschilim", or "wise" ones, of those who are taught of God in that day. They will have their own personal exercises of a humiliating nature also, for "some of the wise shall fall, to try them, and to purge and to make them white, to the time of the end", Daniel 11:35. But they will acquire a great appreciation of Christ as Psalm 45 opens up to their hearts. For this psalm applies to a time before the kingdom is actually established in millennial glory, for there are enemies still to be subdued, and the "daughter" has still to hearken, and to forget her own people and her father's house, so that the King may desire her beauty.
It is a psalm which could not be taken up until the King had been seen in a position in which He could be compared with the sons of men. The King is a divine Person who has become Man that He might be the Vessel of divine grace as having grace poured into His lips. He is seen as receiving from God all that revelation of grace which flowed in such abundance from His lips when He was here in man's lowly guise. But He also loved righteousness and hated wickedness. He would not deviate from righteousness, whatever it might cost to pursue it; indeed, He would die to establish it as the basis of all the divine actings in grace towards sinful men. And He hated wickedness (or, lawlessness) so much that He would become a sacrifice for sin, to put it away from before God according to divine holiness.
Can we wonder that God has blessed Him for ever? Though despised and rejected by men, even by those for whom He died, He has been blessed in heavenly exaltation at God's right hand. He is sitting there until the time comes for Him to gird His sword upon His thigh, and subdue all His enemies.
This psalm is what an instructed heart has learned touching Christ; a heart, too, that has proved mercy in being delivered from the doom of apostasy, for the psalm is "Of the sons of Korah". Such a heart wells forth with a good matter; it does not think of itself, or of its own blessings, but gives itself to composing something touching the King. What I can compose concerning Christ is really the measure of my spiritual wealth. Composing suggests a careful and considered production, and this should be the character of what is said in the assembly. I do not mean that one should prepare a form of words to utter in the assembly, but what one says there should be the outcome of what we have considered. The understanding enters into it, so that "five words" may be much more profitable than a long discursive utterance. But the heart is welling forth; it is not a cold mental composition. But it is orderly, and there is a flow about it; the psalmist compares his tongue to the pen of a ready writer. We have all noticed in writing how one thought suggests another, and one thought flows into another. I believe this is the divine way in spiritual composition: it is in blessed contrast with formal utterance. The first chapter of Ephesians gives a wonderful example of spiritual composition. From verse 3 to verse 14 is all one sentence; then from verse 15 to chapter 2: 7 is another sentence. It would be very difficult to put a full stop in anywhere to break the flow of connected thought. I think it would suggest the kind of utterance which might have fallen from Paul's lips in the assembly. It seems to me that in the assembly there should be a definite flow; the Spirit being referred to as a river would suggest this. That is, there would be spiritual continuity; not a sudden break on to something else, but each contribution linking on with what has preceded it. It would be well sometimes if a brother did not go too fast or too far, but should leave room for some one to go farther. The "five words" principle would lead us to think that we need not attempt to cover all the ground that is possible. If the saints are to be instructed and edified, the ground covered by ministry must not be too extensive. We have to be sober in considering what capacity there may be to receive.
It is precious to see that the King has companions (verse 7). The epistle to the Hebrews links on with this presentation; see Hebrews 1:9; Hebrews 3:14. It belongs to the interval between
the King being presented in lowly grace, moral beauty and perfection, and His appearing as King of kings and Lord of lords. There are "ivory palaces" and "royal apartments"; there is the thought of entering into the King's palace, and of being "brought in unto thee". It is an internal view of things rather than the public glory of the kingdom, though the latter is perhaps hinted at in verses 16 and 17. The King is coming back presently, according to verses 3 - 5, with His sword girded to bring the standard of truth and meekness and righteousness to the adjustment of everything here.
But in reigning He will be the expression of all the rights of God, so that His throne is the throne of God, and He is personally addressed as God. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever", verse 6. As we know, this is one of the scriptures adduced in Hebrews 1 to assert the deity of the Messiah. But it is immediately followed by a verse which equally asserts His humanity, for it says, "God, thy God". In the affectionate worship of the assembly both must have place. It is as Man that He has loved righteousness and hated wickedness, and that He has been anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions. One great object of His becoming Man was that He might have companions to participate in His anointing. I understand this to refer to His companions sharing in His joy in God. The Spirit was given to Him by the Father; He was the first to receive the promise, so that He has the pre-eminence in this, as in all else. I believe the anointing here refers to something subsequent to His exaltation. His "gladness" is connected with His place in heaven as risen, as seen in the end of Psalm 16 and the beginning of Hebrews 12; also Psalm 21:6. It is consequent upon every moral question being settled; it is an anointing which He can share with His companions, but in which He is above them. Whatever spiritual joy His saints have, He has more of it than they have. How blessed to think of this in the assembly! So that now we see Him on the side of His companions, but pre-eminent there. The assembly takes up all this in a way that surpasses what any other family of saints can do.
Then myrrh, aloes and cassia suggest that He is clothed in the affections of His companions with the abiding fragrance of His sufferings in love. But "ivory palaces" result to yield Him joy. Ivory is the product of death, and as the saints
know what it is to bear about in the body the dying of Jesus the local assemblies will acquire the character of "ivory palaces". And "stringed instruments" are there also -- the hearts of the saints tuned to sound many varied but harmonious notes, and the skill with which they are touched yielding gladness to the King.
This leads to the introduction of the queen in verse 9. So far as I know, the assembly never bears this title in Scripture, nor the remnant of Israel. Queens are mentioned in the Song of Songs 6:8, 9, but there they have a secondary place. As a matter of strict interpretation I should suppose that "the queen" might refer to the place Jerusalem will have in the millennial kingdom, for to the daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem it is said, "Thy King cometh to thee", Zechariah 9:9. He came to her once in lowly grace to woo and win her, if it had been possible, but she refused the approaches of His love then. But in a coming day she will be brought to the King in perfect suitability to be His accepted queen. And "the virgins behind her, her companions, shall be brought in unto thee"; it has been suggested by one well taught in the Scriptures that these will be the cities of Judah in that day of joy and gladness. But in applying this figure to the present time the assembly is the only company that is femininely correspondent with Christ. She alone answers to such a dignified relation. We may say of her that she is in gold of Ophir, and as "the king's daughter" she is of royal lineage so as to be suitable in quality to be queen. Every one of those who compose the assembly is of divine generation. And the assembly can be viewed as glorious in the royal apartments, for her clothing is of wrought gold. Her origin and her suitability are entirely of God, and I believe that in saying, "her clothing is of wrought gold" the thought is that she has put it on; she is consciously in an acceptance which is wholly divine. "Wrought gold" as a type is very precious, because it is not only wholly of God intrinsically, but it is also wrought by God, so that the skill of God appears in it as a whole and in every detail. And the reality goes beyond the type, for the saints today are not only divinely clothed, but they themselves are wrought of God for that scene of glory.
Verse 12 widens out to bring in "the daughter of Tyre with a gift", and to say that "the rich ones among the people,
shall court thy favour". This has something of an evangelical touch, for it shows that those far off acquire wealth so as to come up with appreciation of the wonders which grace has wrought. One of the first marks of a work of God in souls is the recognition that there are those who have been wonderfully blessed by Him. I think He is pleased to give to men the sense that those whom He has accepted may well be regarded as persons whose favourable interest is something to be coveted.
Luke 2:25 - 32
I have read these verses with the thought of bringing them, by the Lord's grace, into present application, for, as we know, Luke writes with method, and ever has before him moral and spiritual instruction, and not merely what is historical.
It seems to me that we have in Simeon the thought of one who was at the very centre of divine things; "there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon". God would have us, beloved brethren, to cherish the thought of being at the centre of divine interests. Alas! our hearts are too ready to be content to be at a distance, but why should we be found at Dan or Beer-sheba if it is possible to be in Jerusalem? After the return from captivity "the people cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city", Nehemiah 11:1. Nine out of every ten were content to dwell in their cities away from the divine centre, and yet they recognised that Jerusalem was the favoured spot, for they blessed those "that willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem". This shows that even in times of recovery there is danger of missing the greatest privilege of the moment.
I would press on my own heart, and on the hearts of others, that we should really live at the centre of things in a spiritual sense. It cannot be denied that at the present time the assembly, and the great reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit, are the very centre of all that has divine importance, and yet how many believers live practically at a distance from that centre. It is sorrowful to think how much they miss.
This "man in Jerusalem" was marked by the fact that "the Holy Spirit was upon him". Even in Old Testament times God called attention to certain individuals who were said to have the Spirit, or to have the Spirit upon them. This must have suggested to every pious Israelite the possibility of such a thing. It was clearly in God's mind that His Spirit should be upon men. Thinking of those favoured men every pious Israelite must have been ready to say, Would that it had been me! But such a favour was not within the reach of all then. It was not until Jesus was glorified that the Holy Spirit became available for all who believe on Him. And this, indeed, in a much more blessed way than any Old Testament saint, or even Simeon himself, could know (see John 14:16, 17).
But the very fact that it is so is intended to raise exercise. We are told of the five prudent virgins that they "took oil in their vessels with their torches". It was their exercise to be thus furnished. The Holy Spirit is available on the divine side; there is no restriction, no limitation, on that side. Indeed, the Old Testament promise, quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost, that the Spirit would be "poured out" on all flesh, showed how extensive was the thought of God. But on our side the Lord has suggested that we should "take oil" in our vessels. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God, but a gift is to be received, and many scriptures speak of the reception of the Spirit, and I do not think it is ever supposed that this takes place unconsciously. What God does sovereignly is His matter; I dare say He often gives the Spirit to believers on the Lord Jesus who have had little exercise about the Spirit, but normally He would give souls exercise about this great gift, so that it is not a matter in which they have part without their being aware of it. God would have His gift valued. The Lord suggested to the woman at the well the wonderful character of God's giving, and His own giving, but He brought in a condition on her part. "Thou wouldest have asked ... he would have given". The gift of the Spirit, as announced in the glad tidings, becomes the subject of faith; that is, we come to it in the faith of our hearts that it is in the mind and love of God to give us His Spirit. So we are encouraged to put in our claim with confidence; if we have received Christ as the gift of God, we are entitled also to receive the Spirit as His gift.
But we cannot contemplate the gift of the Spirit without realising that it necessitates moral suitability on the part of the recipient. The Spirit could be upon Simeon without any incongruity; he was "just and pious, awaiting the consolation of Israel"; there was nothing about him to jar on the sensitiveness of the Spirit. If there are dark corners where unrighteousness is hidden, or if there is a lack of piety, the Spirit cannot be restful. It can hardly be said of such that their hearts are purified by faith. It must be remembered that the gift of the Spirit is the divine witness to a certain condition of heart. Peter said, "the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit ... having purified their hearts by faith", Acts 15:8, 9. Believers are said to be "according to Spirit", and to mind the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5).
If we are not in moral suitability to the Spirit we may miss practically the gain of this wondrous gift.
Then Simeon's outlook was such that the Spirit could identify Himself with it; he was awaiting the consolation of Israel, he was looking for the Lord's Christ. The saints today are marked off from those in the world by their different outlook. Those in the world have no outlook that the Spirit could identify Himself with, but the saints have a divine outlook, they are looking for the coming of the Lord. That has been God's great objective ever since sin and death came in; it will bring all that is of God into the world. In Simeon's case he was, of course, awaiting the first coming of Christ; it is ours now to await His coming the second time. None are in harmony with the Spirit who are not awaiting the coming of Christ. To be out of harmony with the Spirit is to disregard His presence.
Then the Holy Spirit made communications to Simeon; He made known to him "that he should not see death before he should see the Lord's Christ". We are living in a wondrous time, for the Spirit is even now making communications to the saints. In John 14 - 16 the Lord enlarged upon the way in which the Spirit would make divine communications. Clearly this was in the first place to those who had been with the Lord in the days of His flesh, but they were of our company, and what they got was for us. The Comforter brought to their remembrance all the things which Jesus had said to them. There must have been much more in that than has been recorded in the Scriptures.
Overcomers today are marked by having an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies. I wonder if we are habituated to hearing what He is saying? We may be quite sure that He will never say anything contrary to the Scriptures, or that cannot be substantiated from the Scriptures, but He can bring out the mind of God in a way that never would have been gathered from the Scriptures alone apart from His speaking. The Spirit has always something to say to the assemblies. Speaking is characteristic of each Person of the Trinity, and this is in a special way the time of the Spirit's speaking. I think it possible that when the time comes for the assembly to be translated the Spirit may communicate to many that they will not see death. One would covet to be amongst those thus favoured of God, but whether
we have this privilege or it is reserved for others, let us see to it that we do get the communications which the Spirit is making. Let us consider the possibility of having communications from the Holy Spirit who is dwelling here, and who is acquainted with everything that is in the mind of God. There is no part of the will of God, or of divine counsel, that is not perfectly known to the Holy Spirit, and He is here that it may be made known to us.
But if we are to have the gain of this we must not be "scattered abroad". We must be at the centre of things. Simeon was there, and because he was there he missed nothing that was possible at the moment. He was where divine communications were not missed. A well-known servant of the Lord said that he always got things first by the Spirit, and then he had to search them out in the Scriptures. I say this, that we may be encouraged to give a very real place to the Holy Spirit, and to expect to get spiritual things from the Spirit.
Then we see that Simeon moved in a practical way under the control of the Spirit. If he had been half an hour earlier in coming into the temple, or half an hour later, he might have missed a most blessed opportunity. If we move with the Spirit and in the Spirit we shall not miss divinely-given opportunities.
Simeon saw the whole salvation of God -- all that the Scriptures had spoken of for thousands of years -- substantiated in a little Child. It was no longer promises or statements of Scripture, but all that was of God was there substantiated in a Babe six weeks old! And he received Him into his arms. There have been moments, I dare say, when we have thought how blessed it would have been to embrace that holy Babe. But, beloved, it is our portion to do so -- to embrace Him in our affections.
What appeared to be small was really infinitely great. Its outward smallness tended to hide its greatness, but it was not hidden from Simeon. He saw that all peoples were before God in relation to that Babe; the gentiles were to come to light for blessing, and He would be the glory of His people Israel. The man at the centre could take in the whole circumference of divine thoughts.
We may be sure that those who are at the centre think much of Christ, and they think much of what is of Christ, that is, of the assembly which is His body. Christ is not now here personally, but He is here substantially in His body. The
Spirit would lead us to see what is here now -- His body deriving from Him. He said to Saul of Tarsus of His suffering saints, They are "me". If we truly embrace Christ in our affections we cannot fail to take account of His body here. He is here substantially in His body. We look at every believer as of the body potentially, and we want him to be of it substantially as formed in the features and moral qualities of Christ. We do not want merely to think of the statements of Scripture in an abstract way, but to have them brought into concrete expression in ourselves and in all saints. We can see that Simeon received very real substance into his arms, and God would have us to regard the assembly, the body of Christ, as a substantial thing, composed of persons who have very definitely derived from Him so as to be in their measure expressive of Him.
We do not wonder that Simeon "blessed God", and we may well bless Him for all that He has brought within our range. It is of all importance that we should be at the centre of what is of God. Christ and the assembly are at the centre; the assembly is the body, the fulness, the completeness of Christ. If we are really in mind and affection at the centre the Spirit will have His way with us; we shall get communications such as no worldly or carnal believer could know anything about. The whole moral universe comes within the scope of the communications of the Spirit, and it is the privilege of the saints of the assembly to dwell, as it were, at the very centre. Hence the apostle prayed that we might be "strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height". If Christ personally dwells in our hearts what is of Him in His members -- His body down here -- will have a very great place with us. We shall then look at the saints according to what they are potentially, and we shall desire that what they are potentially as called ones they may be substantially as formed by the Spirit in the features of Christ. It is evidently of immense importance that Christ should come out in His body in a substantial way; that is, as morally and spiritually formed in His members here. May the Lord help us in regard to these things!
Luke 2:49; Matthew 3:14, 15; Matthew 4:7 - 10
I wanted to read a few of the words of our Lord. These Scriptures are in my mind as standing in connection with what we have been reminded of lately -- the importance of love to our Lord Jesus Christ.
I think in these five utterances, which as we know, are the first recorded utterances of our Lord, we get what might be regarded as a full and complete presentation of what He is in Himself -- what He is inwardly. We know that painters have tried to put upon canvas their ideas of the Lord's outward appearance, but none of us trust their ideas. None of us would like to have a picture of the Lord Jesus on the walls of our houses, for we could not be at all sure it was really like the Lord at all. And if we were sure it was exactly like what He was outwardly, it would not supply any ground of love to Him. There is no genuine love to the Lord Jesus except as we apprehend what He is inwardly.
Now in the first scripture we find that the Lord was assured that Mary and Joseph ought to have known that He would be occupied in His Father's business, or as the margin reads, "that I ought to be in the things of my Father". Now we do not know the Lord at all until we understand that. He was a boy of twelve, but He was in the consciousness of sonship, He could speak of "my Father", and of being in the things of His Father. That is what makes Him so different from every other man, what marked Him off from everything in the world. He was wholly absorbed and occupied in the things of His Father. He brought those things here in His heart, so that men might know them, and He lived in them; and, if we do not love Him in that character, we can hardly be said to love Him at all. That is, to love the Lord as He is, we need to see Him in relation to His Father. But perhaps a poor sinner says, He died for my sins. I do not depreciate that, for it is truly what that Person conferred upon me. But what kind of Person is He in Himself? I shall never love Him until I know that. Gratitude in the heart of a believer for what He has done for him often does not go far; it very often stops short of love to Himself -- to His own Person, and has very little separating effect from the world. But if we love Him in relation to the Father, we cannot avoid being
separated from the world which knows nothing of the Father, who is altogether in separation from the world. Indeed, John says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him .... All that is in the world ... is not of the Father". All that is really blessed for men lies now in the knowledge of the Father. Jesus as a boy of twelve was absorbed in His Father's things, and in that character He becomes an object of love to His own; He is carrying in His heart the secret of all the grace of God for men. If we love Him in that character it shows we have apprehended the Father's things. For there is a whole system of things characterised as the Father's things, which are contrary to everything in the world. So if you have the Father's things brought to you by Jesus you cannot have the world. It is a very practical thing. So everything is possessed in Jesus; they are things which were designed by the Father to be the portion of Jesus. He is the only One that can give us any impression of them.
Again, the Lord said in His second recorded utterance, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness". That gives me a true thought of Himself -- His Person. He had before Him to fulfil all righteousness -- all that was right. Although with Him there was no personal cause, He would go with the men who took a right line in repentance. We have to love Him in that character as the righteous One, and so we must take on the same character. I cannot love something in Him and go on with just the opposite. So it separates us from the whole course of sin in ourselves and in the world. We have been attracted after the One who fulfilled all righteousness. Many believers are hung up for many years because they are not in the path of righteousness; they think they love the Lord, but they do not. Often a very little bit of unrighteousness will hinder us. So that love for the Lord Jesus is a very practical thing; it adjusts us at every turn.
Then the Lord in speaking to the devil brings out some of the great and precious things that belong to His own Person. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which goes out through God's mouth". If we have finished with the world, what are we going on with? We cannot go on with a vacuum. We are too negative in the matter; there is too much negative Christianity. The Lord as a Man here lived by every word that went out through God's mouth. There is no other way to live. If we did not live on the word
of God, we should starve. Christians not drawn into His manner of life do starve. He lived by every word of God. It is too great for me, you may say, and I do not question that. It is the character and quality of all life toward God, that we live by the communications of the blessed God. We love Him if we apprehend Him in that character. Then we must take on that character -- love will surely go His way -- and it will make its practical impression on us.
He says, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God". That is, the Lord Jesus becomes an object of affection as One with absolute confidence in God. He was put on the pinnacle of the temple. Sometimes God puts His saints in a position of danger. The Lord was then, and He was as quiet and confiding and restful as at any moment in His life. Now this is the Person we love. It is really the test of our affection for the Lord. Sometimes we are trembling and fearful. Oh, if we only loved Him we should be drawn into the same blessed confidence He had in His God and Father.
"Thou shalt do homage to the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve". The Lord presents Himself here as worshipping and serving God. No one could love the Lord Jesus Christ and not be a worshipper. David, the great psalmist, praised Jehovah. Every expression of holy worship issued from Jesus. So that genuine love for the Lord Jesus Christ would transform us and fashion us in moral correspondence with Him. Worship and priestly service are the very highest things, but we speak of them to the young convert. The Lord spoke of worshippers for the Father to the woman of Samaria, who was only a convert of perhaps five minutes. No one can be happy until he is set in worshipful relationship with God. Christ came into manhood to be the model of how the worship and service of God is rendered in the highest.
These words are the setting forth of all that He is inwardly, and as we see and appreciate Him in this way, we take on the character of the One we love. If we admire the features of Christ they must come out in us. Of course, it is a continual development with us, with small accessions from time to time, until we become like the Son of God, and get clearance from the world and all that is contrary to God. God give us to move in affectionate appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Mark 5:42; Luke 7:15; John 12:2
It is the glory of God to bring in life where death has been, so that in the place where death is, and in persons who have been under death, the power of life is made to appear. So there is something very special and distinctive about the three instances in which the Lord brought persons out of death. No doubt they were intended to set forth what God was doing, and going to do, in a spiritual way. The daughter of Jairus, the widow's son, and Lazarus all lived by reason of the power of life which was in Christ. In none of the cases could there be any movement, or even any desire, on their part. Others might be concerned about them, but nothing could be initiated by them. The power of life is in Christ alone, and He brings into evidence that it is so, and it is in every case applied sovereignly. Life in a spiritual sense is always the result of a sovereign acting of God; it is a manifest proof that God has acted.
In the three different instances referred to, life manifests itself in three different ways. We read of the damsel that she "arose and walked"; of the young man at Nain that he "began to speak"; and of Lazarus that he "was one of those at table with him". These are evidences of life which it is well to consider.
Three striking cases are put together by the Spirit of God in Mark 5; the man possessed by a legion of demons, the woman with the issue, and the dead damsel. In the first we see the power of the Lord to deliver from evil in extreme and violent forms. In the second we see how He can meet cases of long-continued exercise about sin in the flesh. But in the third we see a setting forth of the form which His gracious work often takes in the children of His people. Such have been brought up in an atmosphere of love, and shielded from much of the evil that is in the world, but their parents long to see in them the evidence of life.
It is noticeable that the testimony is largely passing into the hands of those who have been brought up in believing households where the truth is valued. We may gather from Paul's choice of Timothy that it would be the Lord's pleasure to identify His testimony with persons of that kind, and especially in the last days. Timothy had not gone through
the tremendous experiences of Paul, nor of such men as the Philippian jailor, but he was clearly marked by evidences of life. In Christianity what we come into is much more important than the way in which we come into it; but the only thing that is of true value is life. The angel said to the apostles, "Go ye and stand and speak in the temple ... all the words of this life" (Acts 5:20); and when the last days are in view Paul is "apostle ... according to promise of life", 2 Timothy 1:1.
One special feature of the Lord's work in relation to His testimony today is that He is taking hold of the hand of the children, and speaking to them, so that they begin to move in life. The first movement in life is a wonderful thing -- something done in relation to God and to His people that is spontaneous in the one who does it. It is good to do what one is told to do, but life has always spontaneous movements of its own. God has been pleased to let us know that there were such movements on the part of Jesus at the age of twelve, and the incident in Mark 5 would indicate that He is minded to initiate such movements in a child of twelve. "And having laid hold of the hand of the child, he says to her, Talitha koumi, which is, interpreted, Damsel, I say to thee, Arise". It was all from His side. God refers to the covenant as a taking of the people by the hand, but, if He takes by the hand when there is nothing with us but death, the whole matter must be from His side. The soul has to understand this. The epistle to the Romans shows how God takes man by the hand when he has been proved to be under sin and death. When we were in that state, righteousness and life were ministered to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. The very spirit of all that is in God's heart towards us has been expressed in Him, and it is brought into the heart of man by the gift of the Spirit. The saints are God's called ones; they are the called of Jesus Christ; He has taken hold of them personally, and because of His personal touch and call the power of life comes into their souls. And all this is as true of a child of twelve who becomes the subject of divine working as it is of an older person.
Those around know what is going on, for the Lord loves to work in the presence of those who are sympathetic, and who are quick to perceive the evidences of life in a soul. He puts out the noisy crowd who only look at things from a natural standpoint. "The damsel arose and walked". The Lord
answered the affectionate and prayerful interest of Jairus, and He loved to have His disciples with Him to witness the acting of His power. We see here that the new life expressed itself in movement. How good it is when young people are seen moving in a way that is altogether different from what obtains in the world! A young soul whom Christ has taken by the hand may not have even read the sixth chapter of Romans, but he knows that there is nothing in common between the world and Christ. Death has been Christ's portion here, but the Father's glory has raised Him. When one has been laid hold of and spoken to by Christ, there is power in the soul to rise up from the life of the world, which is really death, and to walk in relation to Christ and to those who belong to Christ. In being identified with Him they are identified with them, and there are movements of which lookers-on can take account.
How happy it is when parents and disciples can see that a true desire to please the Lord is active in the children! Instead of unruliness there is now a spirit of subjection; instead of the Lord's things being a bore they begin to be attractive; His people are loved and their company sought; it becomes a pleasure to render little acts of service; there is contentment without the pleasures of the world, and preparedness to bear a little reproach for the name of Jesus. All these things are evidences of a walk in newness of life which are not beyond the measure of a child of twelve.
The Lord "desired that something should be given her to eat". When movements in life are seen it is most important to supply food to nourish the life that is there. Do not let us think that young people cannot appreciate the food of God's house. They can appreciate it, and often they get its value more fully than some who are older. It is interesting to think of the age of twelve as a time when there may be definite movement of soul occasioned by personal exercise before God. I believe a child of that age may be competent to distinguish between what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit, and may have power in life to walk according to the Spirit and to refuse what is of the flesh.
Then when the Lord raised up the widow's son at the gate of the city of Nain we are told that "the dead sat up and began to speak". This is evidently life in a more developed sense than was set forth in Jairus' daughter who "arose and walked". Speaking is the exercise of a faculty by which
intelligent expression is given to what is in the mind. The ability to speak distinguishes man from all the lower creation; it pertains to him as made in God's image and after His likeness, for God is presented to us throughout Scripture as the great Speaker. What is in His mind and heart would never have been known if He had not spoken, and He intended that man should be like Him in being able to express what was in his mind. Speech is a very high faculty of an intelligent creature, lightly as men think of it. Since sin came into the world man has made a dreadful use of the power of speech; he has used it to express all the vileness that is in his heart as a fallen being. Scripture bears true witness when it says, "Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; asps' poison is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness", Romans 3:13, 14.
But when life comes in by the touch and word of Jesus it is evidenced by speaking in a way which shows that divine power has operated. How do you think a man would speak who had come back by the word of Jesus from death's domain? It is certain that the widow's son did not begin to speak of worldly matters in the city, or of what men were doing there. He would speak, surely, as the people did afterwards, of how God had visited His people. He would speak as one in the light and experience of the great actings of God, having been himself the subject of them. How every word would come as balm to the heart of his mother! One who has felt the havoc of death can appreciate the comfort of a speaking which is evidence of life. And this kind of speaking is being heard today wherever the power of the name of Jesus is known. Life expressed itself in Peter and others in the early chapters of the Acts in the way they could speak. The assembly was characterised by this manifestation of life; it was the place where spiritual speaking was heard.
The Lord loves to hear speaking which is the evidence of life. Such speaking is referred to in Malachi 3:16. "Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure, saith Jehovah of hosts, in the day that I prepare". How delightful it is to heaven when the holy converse of the saints bears witness to the life-giving power of
Jesus! There can only be holy speaking as the outcome of holy thinking. There needs to be more concern with us that our thinking shall be on the line of faith and love, and in the current of the Holy Spirit.
Speaking that is the evidence of life is the speaking of those who have the "spirit of faith, according to what is written, I have believed, therefore have I spoken; we also believe, therefore also we speak", 2 Corinthians 4:13. Speaking that is not of faith has no divine or spiritual value. We should be concerned that the marvellous faculty of speech is not used unworthily. We have it that it may become the vehicle through which faith shall find intelligent and intelligible expression. The good man has a good treasure, and he brings forth good things out of it by speaking of what is in his heart. What we have stored in our affections is to be brought forth in speech. This is the normal characteristic of "the good man", and none of us would wish to have the character under the Lord's eye of "the wicked man" who has only a "wicked treasure" out of which he brings forth "wicked things", Matthew 12:34, 35. How blessed that the heart of a saint can be a treasure-house of what is divinely and spiritually good out of which he constantly brings choice things in speech! This is a most precious evidence of life. The great nominal profession of Christianity around us has "a name to live", but where are the evidences of life? Are hearts stored with the precious things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and are they habitually brought forth in holy speaking? Let us see to it that our conversation is really the evidence of life. There is no spiritual gratification in any other kind of speaking, nor does it afford any pleasure when we reflect upon it afterwards. Have we not often felt that a conversation without spiritual elements in it, however interesting it might be at the time, left a sense of regret? There was no evidence of life to bring permanent comfort and joy.
Spiritual speaking will always be prompted by love. Without love there might be all the eloquence of men, and even angels, but the one who utters it will only become "sounding brass or a clanging cymbal". Even scriptural truth may be picked up in a mental way, and not held and spoken of in the power of love. The flesh can use even the truth for its own glory, but there is no breath of life in this. May such speaking as this be abhorred by every one of us!
1 Corinthians 14 is a great treatise on the kind of speaking that is suitable in the assembly, or whenever saints are together. Speaking is mentioned about twenty-five times in the chapter. All the speaking there must be such as is evidence of life; it is to make manifest that God is there, and He is the living God. Everything is to be in the fresh spiritual power of life. The more accustomed any one may be to taking part in meetings the more he needs to be exercised to be in the current of divine movements on each particular occasion. If there is not the present vital power of love in intelligent exercise there will be no evidence of life.
The apostle speaks of "even lifeless things giving a sound", but he evidently has in mind that speaking in the assembly must be very different from this. Spiritual thoughts are to be intelligently expressed there so that the assembly may be edified. The mind of God is to come out through human vessels in suitability to each particular occasion so as to make manifest that God is indeed amongst His people. There is no reason why this should not be as distinctly known today as it could be known at Corinth. I feel sure that speaking as the evidence of life was intended to continue. We read of the young man that he "began to speak", intimating that he would continue to speak. If this was the outcome of the Lord's compassion for one who represented the sorrowing remnant of that day, may we not confidently look that the life which He gives will express itself in such speaking as will comfort the feeble and sorrowing remnant of today? I believe that vigorous spiritual life will express itself in the way of speaking, and such speaking as will be a comfort to those who love God amid the feeble conditions of the last days. The revival amongst the saints of such meetings as are contemplated in 1 Corinthians 14 is a God-given opportunity for such speaking as will be the evidence of life.
We may be assured that the speaking of the Spirit to the assemblies will not cease so long as the assemblies are here, but I have no doubt it goes on through human vessels who are in the power of spiritual life. Satan will do what he can to silence the divine speaking, or to turn men's ears away from listening to it; hence there is an urgent word from the Lord, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies".
Then in the third case we read that "Lazarus was one of
those at table with him". The scene at Bethany in John 12:1 - 3 follows upon Jesus being known as the resurrection and the life, and His raising Lazarus from among the dead, so that it is distinctly on resurrection ground. Lazarus, the raised man, is presented to us as the pattern man of the company at table. He was "one of those at table with him", suggesting a company of persons of that kind. So that the company at table with Jesus represents the saints viewed in the Colossian aspect as risen with Christ and quickened together with Him (Colossians 2:12, 13). When Jesus brings the dead to life He has in mind that they shall not only walk and speak, but that they shall know what it is to be in association with Him entirely outside the life of this world.
What an education the disciples had during the forty days in which He presented Himself living to them as risen from among the dead! They found they could be with Him as risen; they could have part in the things He was occupied with. They needed the promise of the Father before they could enter fully into the things of which He spoke, but as He assembled with them they were in presence of the reality of it all in Himself. And I believe He did for them in a special way while He was with them in resurrection what the Holy Spirit gave them the permanent consciousness of after He came. All that belonged to the kingdom of God, as known to Christ risen, and all that with which they were associated in the thought and purpose of God, was verified to them in Him. He served them in a wondrous way to remove every shade of unbelief and distance from their hearts. The close of each gospel shows how He would be with them, and have them with Him in His own blessed thoughts and in the Father's thoughts too. They were truly "at table with him".
But now the divine thought is brought to completion through the promise of the Father being fulfilled. Saints as risen with Christ, and quickened together with Him, can know association with Him in a region that is entirely beyond the range and power of death. What an evidence of life this is! The scene around us here is full of the evidence of death; its dread power overshadows everything, but a new world has been opened up by the resurrection of Christ, and He is the life of those who have heard His quickening voice. They can even now, while still in mortal bodies, know what it is to live spiritually in association with One who is risen. I do not say that even
this is the limit of God's thought for them, for they are also brethren of Christ in His heavenly exaltation as ascended to the Father.
I commend to your attention the three evidences of life which have come before us. They are presented to us that we may understand how life manifests itself in those who have heard the quickening voice of the Son of God.
In the transfiguration Jesus was seen in glorified conditions, and He was apprehended as such by men who were not yet personally outside the domain of death. The transfiguration in Matthew, Mark and Luke seems to correspond in a certain way with what the Lord speaks of in John as the manifestation of Himself to an obedient lover. This gives it a most attractive place as indicating a great spiritual privilege of this present time. We have accepted that the incidents of the Lord's pathway, as presented in the gospels, have a spiritual counterpart at the present time. The transfiguration is the crowning point in that wondrous unfolding of God's triumph in Jesus, though it does not indeed belong to this world at all, and hence was not to be spoken of until the Son of man were risen. The triumph of God in Jesus was not limited to meeting all the need that was here: it included man being placed in conditions of glory. The kingdom of God really starts from the point that God has glorified His Servant Jesus; He has received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, and has shed Him forth.
The three accounts of the transfiguration in the three gospels are of the nature of a full testimony to the kingdom before it is known publicly. In Matthew what belongs to the future is brought into the present; it is the kingdom in prospect. In Mark it is the kingdom come in power, and this is seen in the exceeding whiteness of His garments -- the power of the kingdom being repellent of every soil of evil. It is the kingdom viewed in its present moral power of righteousness and holiness. In Luke it is the kingdom as seen in pattern in Jesus, for the change in Him comes about as He prayed, and His departure is the subject of converse. It is a glory which is connected with dependence and a going-out from life in this world. It is the kingdom of God as in moral contrast with what is here, and the way in which we come into it. He could be transfigured to manifest who He was, but He would also be transfigured by way of dependence, so as to be pattern for us.
We see the kingdom in its supremacy in Matthew; in its moral purity in Mark; and in Luke we see the way in which its glory is reached. In other words, we see Jesus supreme in the rights of His Person, and supreme in moral excellence, and supreme as leading in the way that ends in glory.
In the kingdom things are not given indiscriminately; they are assigned sovereignly on the principle of selection. This comes out in Matthew particularly, as we see in things being revealed to babes, in Peter being selected for special revelation, and to have the keys; also in the eleventh hour labourer, and His right hand and left being reserved for those for whom it is prepared, and also in the distribution of the talents. So three being selected to view the Lord transfigured indicates that the matter in hand is to be the subject of testimony. Jesus has been seen actually by Stephen and Paul since He was received up in glory; but the three on the holy mount saw His majesty beforehand. He could take on the majesty of His kingdom before His death, for it belonged to His Person so that He could be changed from the condition of His humiliation into the condition of glory, and be seen in that condition by mortal eyes. It was a question of what was going to be maintained in testimony, and of what was fully adequate for this. It would link with the "two or three" in Matthew 18. The present time is the time when things are secured in Christ Himself, and an adequate testimony being secured to this on the principle of selection.
"A high mountain apart" speaks of retirement from the world, and of elevation such as is necessary for a vision of the Son of man coming in His kingdom. In the Spirit we may reach the full elevation of divine thoughts; what the Lord did then is to be done in the Spirit now. For this we have to be removed to a distance from all that is of the man after the flesh. It has been pointed out that Matthew speaks much of mountains; this is suitable in the assembly gospel. In 1 Corinthians we are on a low level: "Are ye not men?" but in 2 Corinthians we go up: Paul speaks of a ministry that subsists in glory, and of radiancy. This belongs to the high mountain. Hebrews 1 speaks of the effulgence of glory.
"His face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light". All that will radiate the day was there -- the effulgence of God. Then His garments clearly represent what attaches to Him as Man -- those moral features and characteristics which stand in moral contrast with all that has come out in the mortal man. He loves righteousness and hates lawlessness; everything answers in spotless correspondence to the light which shines in His face.
The kingdom as we see it here is corrective; that was its
application to Peter, James and John. The coming in His kingdom rather suggests an initial idea; it is not His rule as having reached its end, but as introduced. It prepares the way for another order of things connected with sonship, where there is a learning of all the positive thoughts of divine love. There is a great need of kingdom truth amongst us for correction; we have much need of correction so that we may be perfectly free to talk with Him. There was no need for correction in Moses and Elias; they were made perfect. As far as we are concerned the kingdom comes to put right where everything is wrong; it is thus seen in Romans. The kingdom, we might say, had effected its object in Moses and Elias; they were able to speak suitably to Jesus in His glorified state and form. His majesty was not such as to silence creature voices; it inspired holy confidence and liberty. It was not a majesty that isolated itself, and held men at a distance; it conferred liberty, but this could only be where moral correction had come about.
Peter's suggestion was an unintelligent one; he spoke from impulse and out of his feelings. He did not apprehend the greatness of Christ on the one hand, nor the divine thought set forth in Moses and Elias talking with Him. He would have broken up that wonderful companionship and conversation, and put them in three tabernacles. It is a warning against being sleepy when the most wonderful things are before us.
Luke 22:7 - 20
It is as the Teacher that the Lord speaks of eating the passover with His disciples; and in the corresponding scripture in John 13 He speaks of Himself as "the Lord and the Teacher". I believe the only other occasion on which He spoke of Himself as Teacher is when He said, "The disciple is not above his teacher, but every one that is perfected shall be as his teacher", Luke 6:40.
It is a title accorded to Him by many, but He is only such in reality to those who love Him, like the two disciples (John 1:38), or Martha (John 11:28), or His own (John 13:13), or Mary Magdalene (John 20:16). The master of the house had accorded Jesus the place of the Teacher in his affections, and the effect was that he held his guest-chamber at the Teacher's disposal. The "perfected" disciple is "as his teacher"; there is correspondence in mind and thought.
The Teacher is a presentation of Christ which is not exactly what He is either as Lord or Head. He has come to instruct His own in the will of God; and to have Him in our affections as Teacher would ensure complete instruction in the mind of God. Under His teaching the highest spiritual intelligence can be acquired.
I doubt whether we think sufficiently of Christ as the Teacher. Where affection accords Him that place there will be a perfecting in correspondence with His mind, and any guest-chamber we have will be reserved for Him. And He knows where He has a reserved guest-chamber in the midst of all that disowns Him here. The guest-chamber is provisional; it has its place during the time of His public refusal. In Matthew it is, "Go into the city unto such a one, and say to him, The Teacher says, My time is near, I will keep the passover in thy house with my disciples". It is an authoritative word -- the claiming of His right. But in Mark and Luke it would appear to be rather that He asks for that which has been reserved for Him, and held at His disposal. "My guest-chamber" in Mark would confirm this.
If we want spiritual ministry we must see to it that the Lord is known in our affections as Teacher, that we have, like Mary Magdalene, called Him, "Rabboni", and that we have a reserved guest-chamber for Him. Where such conditions
are found there will be a spiritual ministry; the man with a pitcher of water will go in there. It suggests that he had been the fountain, and had a replenished store of refreshment and purifying. There is sure to be that where the guest-chamber is reserved affectionately for the Teacher. We know what was done with the water later on. It was used by the Lord and the Teacher to wash the disciples' feet. There was that which He could make use of to bring about conditions in which His own could have part with Him.
"A large upper room furnished" is suggestive of the fellowship. It is "where I may eat ... with my disciples". If you have a reserved guest-chamber for Him there will be room in it for all His disciples. He will not come alone. It is a large room. The effect of excluding leaven and of having a guest-chamber reserved for Christ, with a fresh supply of spiritual refreshment and purification, is that we get freed from all narrow and sectarian thoughts of fellowship. We make room in our affections for all the saints. There is nothing cramped or narrow in our thoughts, and love moves in freedom.
Then it is an upper room; it is elevated above the level of things here. What an elevation to be called from Judaism, or heathen idolatry, or corrupted Christianity, to the fellowship of God's Son! It is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit also. What elevation there is in these thoughts!
It is, too, a furnished room. There has been forethought and care that all should be suitable. The master of the house had reserved his guest-chamber for Christ, the Teacher. Can you suppose that he neglected even the smallest detail in the furnishing? How many times did he cast his eye round that guest-chamber to see if anything could be adjusted or added to make it more suitable to the Teacher and His disciples! The furnishing would refer to all being suitable to the occasion; it would be furnished according to the knowledge of the Teacher's mind, and the affections of a heart that loved Him. He had been exercised to provide, in the spirit of Psalm 132:5, "a place for the Lord".
All this indicates conditions which are according to the mind of God, as made known to subject and affectionate hearts by the Teacher, which provide a suitable place for Christ and His own during the period of His reproach and rejection here. In such a place He can unbosom Himself as amongst friends (Song of Songs 5:1).
The Lord desired "with desire" to eat that Passover. What a disclosure this is of His innermost thoughts and feelings! It is perhaps as touching an expression of His personal love to those who followed Him here as anything that is recorded. It was the last occasion on which He would be with them here after the flesh. It was with deep affection and emotion that the Lord contemplated the end of that association. He valued the companionship in which He had been with them, and they with Him.
God had given Him a household composed of those who were His spiritual kindred and companions. They had shown responsive affection to Him; they had persevered with Him in His temptations, and this had been intensely gratifying to His heart. There was never anything before like it, and there never will be again. Those three and a half years stand alone in time and eternity; the Son of God here as the Man of sorrows, and a little band privileged to follow Him, and to be His friends! It was an association which was about to terminate. "The things concerning me have an end". It was to be accomplished in Him that He was to be "reckoned with the lawless". But in that condition which was to end by His suffering death He valued companionship with His loved ones. His soul said, "In them is all my delight". An association which He had valued more than all else on earth was coming to an end, and He felt it deeply.
This should touch us in a special way. Our companionship with the saints in a scene of sorrow, reproach, and temptations is coming to an end. We shall never have that kind of companionship again! How do we value it? What are we prepared to surrender to enjoy more of it? One would desire to value more what we have in common as our solace and joy in presence of all that is testing here. With difficulties inside and outside, what are we prepared to sacrifice to maintain the fellowship? The Lord would have us to be "perfected" under His influence as Teacher so that we may be in correspondence with Him. I am sure He would affect us by the disclosure of His own deep feelings in regard to His association with His own here.
It is here a question of eating the Passover -- that which will have its fulfilment in the kingdom of God. The companionship in which Jesus and His disciples had walked together was one of humiliation and suffering, but which ever had in view
the kingdom of God. They were together in that companionship for the last time. He "received a cup", a new feature in connection with the passover not alluded to in the Old Testament. The Jews may have introduced it as a custom, but the Lord took it up and gave it spiritual significance, just as He took up the custom of breaking bread (Jeremiah 16:7). It was reserved to the Lord to give "a cup" its place in relation to the passover, suggesting a solace and joy which the love of God as revealed in His death in passover aspect would be to His disciples as left in the scene of tribulation.
In the kingdom of God love must be supreme, for He is love. Love was the motive behind the Passover, for "God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us". We are privileged to share mutually in that love while we remain in the place of tribulation. We are to divide it among ourselves.
In the light of the true passover we have the joy of the kingdom as anticipated in tribulation. We boast in hope of the glory of God, and we boast in tribulations, having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us (Romans 5). The Lord was going out of the scene of tribulation; the peculiar solace of the love of God as known through death in such a scene was to be theirs. A joy would be theirs through His death which would sustain and invigorate them in the scene of tribulation in which He was about to leave them.
There was a revelation of divine love in the passover which was to be their common portion in the place from which He would be absent. His portion with them henceforth would be in the kingdom of God -- a new and divine sphere -- not in the scene of contrariety. But in the scene of contrariety we have that which we can divide among ourselves. It suggests a mutual sharing in the joy of the love which was revealed in the true Passover. What sustaining and preserving power would this love have as known in each heart! What constraining motive would it be to lead to intelligent movements here in accord with the fellowship!
Then the breaking of bread has its own unique place as in remembrance of the One who is absent. He would be known and remembered in the love in which He gave His body, and in which the cup was the new covenant in His blood poured out for His own. This is to sustain us in relation to Him, so that instead of His absence leading to His fading from the
affections of His own He is more and more known and cherished there, and His saints are kept in heart-contact with each other in relation to Him and His wondrous love. We do not lose Him in affection, though conscious that He is outside the scene of contrariety. He has devoted Himself for us in giving His body and His blood.
It is the bringing in of God as known in love in the establishment of relations between Himself and us which are most blessed. It is not only that we have the support and solace of the love of God in presence of the contrarieties of the scene around, but we know God through the death of Christ in the precious thoughts of His love. When He makes the new covenant with Israel and Judah they will know Him as their God, and they will be His people. He will give them one heart and one soul. "And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land with my whole heart and with my whole soul", Jeremiah 32:41.
God puts us in abiding relations with Himself known as the Source of infinite blessing, and He delights to have us as His blest ones near to Him in responsive affections. We know the love of a blessed Man who has devoted His body for us so that the will of God may be established in our fullest blessing, and in that same Person the love of God has been made known as setting us in relation to Him according to what He is in His nature.
This brings in the positive blessedness of the knowledge of God, so that it can be lived in and enjoyed together. This is not only solace in the presence of all that is adverse, but a positive joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We drink into a blessedness which has acted where all was sin and ruin, but which has turned all that into an occasion for making known what a God is ours. He is 'well known in Jesus' love'. We have full joy in the knowledge of God, and in those relations in which His love has set us with Him.
Four things have a distinct place in relation to the Lord's supper: (1) an affectionate remembrance of Him in giving thanks and breaking the bread and giving thanks for the cup; (2) the communion we have together in so doing; (3) the announcement of the death of the Lord until He come -- the public testimony on God's part to the fact that the Lord has died there; (4) the occasion which it affords to the love of Christ to manifest Himself to those who love Him (John 14:18)
John 3:14 - 16; John 8:28; John 12:32, 33; John 19:38 - 42; Colossians 2:12; Deuteronomy 21:22, 23
There is great spiritual gain in the consideration of our Lord Jesus Christ in every aspect in which Scripture presents Him to the view of faith; and the above scriptures call our attention to Him as being lifted up and being buried. The Spirit of God has linked the two thoughts together in Deuteronomy 21:22, 23. Being hanged on a tree refers to one as "lifted up", and the thought of burial is closely connected with this.
When the Son of man spoke of being lifted up He referred to the particular manner in which He was about to die. Death by crucifixion involved being held up to view as one worthy of death, and, indeed, seen publicly as having become a curse, "for he that is hanged is a curse of God". Two of the most profound statements in Scripture are found in Galatians 3:13 and 2 Corinthians 5:21: "Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, (for it is written, Cursed is every one hanged upon a tree)". "Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us". One is the great redeeming act of Christ in love to those under curse; He became a curse; the other is the wondrous act of God having in view His purpose that we should become His righteousness in Christ. The Son of man as lifted up was publicly seen to be in the place of sin and curse, but it is our peace and joy to know that He was not there on His own account at all, but in divine love on behalf of those who were under sin and death. His lifting up, as referred to in John 3:14, was on God's part as given in love, that eternal life might be brought in and become the portion of those who were under sin and death.
The "serpent" being lifted up shows that God had in mind the original source of evil. In the lifting up of the Son of man the principle of evil which originated in the serpent was judged. It was judged in man in such a way that its judgment has become favourable towards men as a righteous ground of blessing. The serpent does not benefit by the lifting up of the Son of man, but it has become the way of infinite good to those whom he deceived and brought into transgression.
The state in which man was before God was publicly set
forth in the Son of man lifted up. But this testimony comes to men in the way of grace, for the One who has been lifted up in the place of sin was there as the great manifestation of divine love. This is brought into the view of all; it comes within sight for the whole creation under heaven. Attention is called, in the lifting up, to the publicity of it; it is a great universal testimony. The object of gospel preaching is to make men see that they are concerned in this great matter.
In John 8:28 it is "When ye shall have lifted up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me I speak these things". The lifting up in chapter 3 is on God's part in love, but in chapter 8 it is what men do: "When ye shall have lifted up the Son of man". Men fully exposed their own state when they put that blessed One to an open shame. He had done nothing but good. We are told that they "sought false witness against Jesus, so that they might put him to death". If they had wanted true witnesses they would have had no difficulty in finding them. They might have called Lazarus and Bartimaeus and Mary Magdalene and many cleansed lepers and once-blind men who could now see; they might have called many who had heard from His lips mighty words of healing and forgiveness. There was, indeed, the fullest testimony available that the blessed light of God revealed in supreme grace was there, but in lifting Him up men rejected it all in a shameful way; they put Him to public dishonour. In this great and solemn act the whole state of the world, and of man's heart, has come out. But every one who took part in that act will be made to know that all He said was of the Father, and that the Father was with Him. It is most certainly true that those who put Jesus, or even His feeble representatives, in the place of shame and reproach, will be made to know what they have done.
In John 12:32 we pass over to another side of this matter, and we see God's great design in it, and that He brings it to pass notwithstanding what is true of man. "And I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me". He becomes, as lifted up out of the earth, a divine centre of attraction. His death has given Him a prominence, a place of advantage in relation to men universally, which He did not have before He was lifted up. As on the earth He said, "I have not been sent save to the lost sheep of Israel's house", Matthew 15:24,
but as lifted up out of the earth He draws all to Him. The particular kind of death that He should die was designed by infinite wisdom, so that He should not die on the earth, but as lifted up out of it. It is important that, when speaking of the death of Christ, we should lay stress on the kind of death that he died. It was the death of crucifixion, so that He died as lifted up out of the earth. As in that position He was outside all limitations; He can draw all to Him. He has died in a way that was designed of God to set forth that it was the divine intent that He should come within the view of all. His death, in this sense, has given Him a wonderful elevation, so that all the ends of the earth can look unto Him and be saved, He can draw all to Him. The divine gathering centre to which all must come for blessing is not any place or person on earth, but One lifted up out of the earth. This is the blessed way which divine love has taken to draw men away from a world fully exposed as having nothing in common with God. All the work of grace during the last two thousand years has been the drawing of men to Christ as the One lifted up. This is still the public position, and the testimony of God as announced to men.
In the light of this we can see how important the cross is as the universal testimony of God to men. Paul and John are in perfect harmony as to this. Paul came to the Corinthians announcing the testimony of God, and he said, "I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified", 1 Corinthians 2:2. The great thing in preaching is "that the cross of the Christ may not be made vain"; that is, emptied of its true meaning. There is wonderful meaning in the lifting up of Christ on the cross, and its real force is to be brought home to men. "The word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God's power". Christ crucified is "to Jews an offence, and to nations foolishness; but to those that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ God's power and God's wisdom", 1 Corinthians 1:23, 24. When this testimony comes to men "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" it brings them clean out of the world. It is a testimony that can only be truly presented in spiritual power; hence Paul came to Corinth in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, not that he was afraid of the Corinthians, but he feared lest some element of human wisdom should come in to mar his service.
We gather, further, from Deuteronomy 21:23, that one who has been publicly exposed, as become a curse, is viewed as a defilement to the land. Hence it is written, "thou shalt in any wise bury him that day ... thou shalt not defile thy land". No doubt it was as having this scripture in mind that the Jews were anxious that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, John 19:31. But there is divine instruction in the ordinance, and it gives the burial of the Lord an important place. As having been identified with sin and curse -- as bearing it vicariously -- the burial of the Lord was necessary that the very condition in which He was made sin might pass completely out of sight. So long as He was exposed upon the cross what was in public evidence was One in the place of sin and curse. His death did not remove Him from that position publicly, but His burial did, and He never reappeared in the condition in which He was made sin. The condition which He had taken up as coming into holy manhood, in which He could bear sin and die, went out of sight when He was buried, and as raised from the dead He is in a new condition to which neither sin nor death could ever be attached. Viewing this matter in the light of Deuteronomy 21:23 we can understand why the burial of Christ is included in the glad tidings which Paul preached, 1 Corinthians 15:4. The condition in which Christ was made sin went out of God's sight in His burial, and this is of immense importance when we consider all its consequences in their bearing on those who love Him. Burial is viewed in Deuteronomy 21:23 as removing defilement from the land. When seven of Saul's descendants were hanged before Jehovah for his sin against the Gibeonites, it was when they had been buried we are told, "afterwards God was propitious to the land", 2 Samuel 21:14. The sentence having been executed, and the condition in which it was executed having been removed from God's sight in burial, the matter was righteously ended. The Christ on whom we have believed is One who has not only died, but who was also buried.
It is well to bear in mind that when the Spirit of God by Paul draws attention to Christ as descending, He does not stop short of burial. For His burial is clearly the full depth of His descent according to Ephesians 4:9, 10. "But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same who
has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things". Paul is led to speak of this by thinking of Him as ascended on high according to Psalm 68:18. His having ascended implied that He had descended, and the depth of His descent was "into the lower parts of the earth". This is in keeping with the Lord's own words, "For even as Jonas was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, thus shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights", Matthew 12:40. He descended from the place that was ever His in eternal deity not only to the cross but to the grave. He descended in the strength of His love to the lower parts of the earth; we get the full measure of His descent as we take in the thought of His burial. Mary of Bethany seems to have been the only one of His disciples who had His burial definitely in view. She was in concert with His mind in this. In anointing His body for burial she showed that the full depth of His descent in love was before her heart. But in doing it "beforehand" she made manifest that she had no thought of His remaining in the tomb. Her pound of costly ointment was put upon Him in view of His burial, but it was done "beforehand" because her heart understood that He would not be available for anointing after His death. The greatness of His divine Person was before her: if such a Person descended to burial it was impossible that He should remain there; He must, as He Himself had said, ascend up where He was before, John 6:62. The descending and the ascending are equal, for it is the same Person who does both. In ascending up above all the heavens He went to "where he was before". But He went in a new condition, for He ascended as Man "that he might fill all things". No scripture could more clearly establish His deity. No wonder that Mary's heart was filled as in the spirit of adoration she anointed the feet of Jesus! As regarded in the light of Ephesians 4:9, 10, we could not think of any creature anointing His head. Adoration at the feet of such a Person is the only right attitude.
In Mark's gospel the setting of the incident is different. The woman is not named, and we are told that she had "an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly; and having broken the alabaster flask, she poured it out upon his head", Mark 14:3. Our attention is called in this scripture to the vessel in which the ointment was, and to the fact that
it was broken. As seen in Simon the leper's house the Lord would be viewed as known in the midst of Israel. He was the blessed Person in whom everything that was precious to God was found, and the woman, as divinely taught, understood that His path of service was to lead Him into death. It was what her affections had gathered up as a result of what she had seen and heard. He was God's Anointed to carry out all His will, the One in whom every promise would be fulfilled. He is viewed in Mark as the great Servant of divine pleasure, and, in keeping with a view of Him in the greatness that attached to Him officially by God's appointment, the woman poured out her ointment upon His head.
In John the vessel is not mentioned, but we are told that "Mary therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus". I believe that in the setting of this gospel the Spirit of God would lead us to regard Mary herself as the vessel. She had stored up in affectionate appreciation, a wealthy knowledge of One who was so great personally that He had descended from Godhead's fullest glory that He might go down to the lower parts of the earth. He was descending to burial, and He took account of her as having kept her ointment for the day of His preparation for burial. One who could so descend must necessarily ascend up where He was before, and regarded thus in His personal greatness it is fitting that His feet should be anointed and not His head.
It is important to notice that the reference to the Lord descending into the lower parts of the earth is in the epistle to the Ephesians, for that epistle gives us the full height of things, and also the full depth. Indeed, we have the "depth and height" particularly mentioned in it, chapter 3: 18. "The lower parts of the earth" must be understood as indicating where the might of God's strength wrought in the Christ, as we read in Ephesians 1:19, 20. The apostle prays that we may know "the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead". The mighty power of God acted in those "lower parts of the earth" into which Christ had descended in love, so that His burial really took Him to the point which would witness to the fullest expression of the might of God's strength. I do not know that we have anywhere
else in Scripture such an accumulation of words descriptive of divine power, and they impress upon us the greatness of the power that operated in the raising of Christ from among the dead. They give a very solemn impression of the tremendous power that is necessary to effect resurrection. The Lord being found, in infinite grace, among the dead gave occasion for that power to be exercised. His burial brought Him to that low point where the surpassing greatness of God's power could be known, and known in a way that is "towards us who believe". As buried, the Lord is viewed as having come under the whole weight of what rested on us, and the surpassing greatness of God's power came in and raised Him from that point. Love descended to that point, but the might of God's strength came in to raise Him. The love in which He descended was towards us, and the power that raised Him is towards us also. The whole matter had in view God's wondrous purposes of love in regard to us.
The resurrection of Christ is a far greater expression of divine power than creation. In creation God spake and it was done. There is no suggestion of any extraordinary exertion of divine power in creation, but the words used in Ephesians 1:19 do suggest the exercise of extraordinary power on God's part. God would have us to ponder this. It is necessary that He should give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him so that we may know this power, and understand that it is "towards us who believe". But the fact that Paul prayed for it for the saints is evidence that God is willing to give us this enlightenment.
A further result of the burial of Christ is its bearing on those who love Him. We are never to forget that He has been buried here, and that His burial was a matter that brought into activity the affections of His lovers. The world that lifted Him up was not allowed to make provision for His burial. Men did indeed appoint His grave with the wicked, but God would not allow that appointment to stand. In retaining the Lord's burial in the hands of lovers it seems as though God would say to every lover of Christ, This is a matter for you to be concerned about; how do your affections move in regard to it? We have seen how Mary's affections moved in relation to His burial, and in Joseph of Arimathaea we see one who took up publicly and wholeheartedly the position of identification with Christ in burial. This was his great privilege, but
it is the privilege of all lovers of Christ, and therefore he may be regarded as representative of them all in this character. And there is special instruction in the experience of Joseph, for, though a disciple, he had not been publicly identified with the Lord before. What hindered him is the very thing that hinders us, and God would show us how he got free from his hindrance so that we might get free in the same way.
He had been "a disciple of Jesus, but secretly through fear of the Jews". There had been with him, as with us all, a shrinking from reproach and suffering, and a desire for the easy path. He had not known what it was to see the body of the flesh cut off, but I believe he had been circumcised in a spiritual sense between the time when he was a secret disciple and the time when he "demanded of Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus". In the meantime "the circumcision of the Christ", (Colossians 2:11), had taken place. Christ after the flesh had been cut off, and if He had been cut off, how could any lover of His desire to retain status as in the flesh? In the solemn hour of the death of Christ Joseph was "circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ", Colossians 2:11, and he put off, in a spiritual sense, the whole body of the flesh, and with it his unbelieving fears, and his desire to retain a religious place here. He was prepared now for identification with Christ in burial. Demanding the body of Jesus was claiming a right to it. His love demanded the privilege of identification with Christ in connection with His burial. The tomb was Joseph's "new tomb which he had hewn in the rock", and when he put the body of Jesus in it, I think we may say that, in a spiritual sense, he put himself there, as represented in the Person of the One who had died for him. I cannot think that he was ever seen in the council again, nor that he was ever again identified with the religious doings of the priests and others who had consulted and accomplished the death of Christ. He was henceforth a buried man to all that. His going down to burial was a movement of love on his part, and it is a movement which we all have to make if we are to know the true meaning of being "buried with him in baptism".
It is evident that Joseph had had the thought of burial before him, for he had hewn out for himself a sepulchre in the rock. God had led his thoughts that way in view of the
burial of Christ. His tomb was one of the things -- like the colt and the guest-chamber -- specially provided and reserved for the Lord. The sepulchre being in "the rock" suggested that the idea of burial was to have a permanent place in Christianity. The Lord Himself was to be there only for three days and three nights, but the thought of burial was to be permanent, for it is an abiding truth in Christianity that His lovers are buried with Him (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12). The Ethiopian eunuch was prepared for burial with Christ, when he said, "what hinders my being baptised"? It was the demand of a good conscience (1 Peter 3:21), in keeping with Joseph's demand to have the body of Jesus for burial. The Lord went finally out of this world by burial, and His grave is left "hewn in the rock" as a permanent spot for love to occupy, in a spiritual sense, as soon as there is a readiness to do so. Ruth said to Naomi, "where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried". How this tests us as to whether we are really prepared to go down out of the life of this world! Paul asks the Colossians, "Why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?" They were in danger of following the injunctions and teachings of men, and entertaining religious and philosophic thoughts which all belong to this world. We descend altogether out of that area when we go down in affection to burial with Christ.
It is helpful to see the steps by which believers are led to correspondence with Christ, as "complete (or filled full) in him". Those who are filled full in Christ certainly have no need to retain, as of value, anything connected with "the body of the flesh". So that, as a second step, they can afford to accept circumcision. Then, third, they come to the truth of burial with Christ in baptism. All this being on the way to a fourth step in apprehension that "ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead", Colossians 2:9 - 12.
In the interval between the lifting up of Christ on the cross and His resurrection by the mighty power of God on the third day, it seems to me that Joseph of Arimathaea was acting spiritually in accord with the mind of God at the moment. The women, we are told in Mark's gospel, "bought aromatic spices that they might come and embalm him". Nothing could have been more unnecessary under the circumstances, or less in keeping with the great spiritual truth of the moment.
The Scriptures might have assured them that He would not see corruption, and He had spoken again and again of rising the third day. Persons are embalmed because it is expected that they will long remain in death! The great and important truth of the moment was that He was about to be seen as the risen One. With regard to Nicodemus and his hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, the Spirit of God is careful to tell us that it was "as it is the custom with the Jews to prepare for burial". Their doings, particularly as referred to in John's gospel, are not marked by spirituality. We are perhaps much more influenced than we think by customs current, or that have been current, in the religious world. But spirituality is needed for the apprehension of what is suitable to the Lord at any particular moment; affection and devotion are not sufficient. Human sentiment, even of the choicest kind, tends to obscure what is spiritual. One would desire that there might be much more devotion to the Lord with all of us who believe on Him, but also that there might be more ability to honour Him in a truly spiritual way.
Joseph brought no spices, but he "bought fine linen, and having taken him down, he swathed him in the fine linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was cut out of rock", Mark 15:46. I have no doubt the "fine linen" represented his apprehension of the Lord Jesus as having been here in holy flesh for the accomplishment of the will of God. But the very condition in which He had been here, and in which He had accomplished all for the glory of God, was now to disappear from view in the tomb. Christ according to flesh not only died, but was buried. And when He reappeared to His own in resurrection it was in a new condition. How much we need to ponder those words of Paul: "So that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer", 2 Corinthians 5:16. This great truth lies at the root of Christianity. The Christ in whom we are is One who, according to flesh, has died and been buried. He has been raised in a new condition which never had, and never can have, any link with the life of the world. "So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation". Nothing is more important for Christians to understand.
In the wisdom of God the fine linen which Joseph brought held an important place, for it became the evidence of Christ's
resurrection. When John saw the linen cloths lying in the tomb we are told that "he saw and believed", John 20:8. The very way in which the linen cloths were lying was the proof of resurrection. What he saw convinced him that the Lord would not return to the condition in which they had known Him, and in which He had been made sin and had died and been buried. The "fine linen" represented that condition -- a condition absolutely holy and perfect in every way, and divinely suitable to all that was accomplished in it, but "according" to flesh, and therefore a condition in which Christ would be known no longer. They must now look to see Him in a new condition, the First-fruits of the resurrection harvest. His burial was a necessary step on the way to this, and hence its importance in the unfolding of God's ways in Christ.
John 14:15 - 20
There is immense gain in having the Spirit. I do not think we are sufficiently impressed with it. The disciples were wonderfully favoured to be in company with the Son of God when He was here. No doubt in His presence they anticipated, in some measure, the Spirit's day. He did much for them that was afterwards the province of the Spirit. But notwithstanding this, we cannot help seeing how little they entered into what was present with them in the Son of God, or into the communications of His love. He could say to the Father, "I have declared unto them thy name", yet how little they knew the holy name that had been manifested to them by and in the Son! Fulness of grace and truth was in Him; every ray of divine glory shone out in Him; but how little was it apprehended! In this very chapter Thomas says: "Lord, we know not whither thou goest ..". and Philip says: "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us". Again and again He spoke of His death and resurrection, but they did not understand. It was all a mystery to them.
For the understanding of all that came here in the Son of God everything depends on the presence of the Spirit. If we look at things from the Father's side everything was declared when the Son was here, but on our side everything hangs on the presence of the Spirit. Mental quickness or natural ability will not help us in these things. Hut the Spirit can and does make the Son of God and His words and works more of a reality to us than they were to those who were with Him in the days of His flesh. Saints understand now by the Spirit much that was a mystery to those who were in the very presence of the Son of God when He was here.
"He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever". The Spirit brings in an abiding order of things in contrast to all that was broken up by the death of Christ. It was very blessed for the disciples to go about with the Messiah on earth, but it was an order of things that came to an end. Death broke in upon it. The Shepherd was smitten and the sheep were scattered. Paul said: "Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now hence-forth know we him no more", 2 Corinthians 5:16. That order of things came to an end; it was not "for ever".
But when the Lord said: "Mary" to the one who sought Him in the grave He had for ever left behind, He formed a link between Himself and her that was "for ever". When He made Himself known in breaking of bread to the two at Emmaus, and when He stood in the midst of His disciples at Jerusalem and said, "Peace be unto you", He was attaching their hearts to Himself outside the scene and range of death's power altogether. It was a new order of things-a resurrection and ascension order-which goes on "for ever". It is from that side that the Spirit has come. What the personal presence and words of the risen One were to His own on the resurrection day the Spirit is to us today. He is the link with a risen and ascended Christ and an order of things which is "for ever". We have tasted deep joy in the Lord, and in the thought of our association with the Son of God. Will death ever cast a shadow on that? No, it is "for ever". The Spirit is in relation to an eternally abiding order of things. Nothing can touch those things, nothing can break them up. What an immense gain it is to have a vital link with such blessed things! In the Spirit we become conscious of our association with Christ. It is a stainless and deathless joy.
"Ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you". Now, do we know the Spirit? How do we know any friend? Is it not by what he brings before us, by his communications to us? It is in this way that we know the Spirit. No one but the Comforter could make the Son of God a present reality to our hearts, or give us the joy of His love. If Christ is before us, and His blessed things engage our hearts, it is by the Spirit, and we know the Spirit by what He does for us in this way. He makes the Son of God a present reality to us, so that we are not bereaved of Him. The world has lost Him, but we have not. The word is fulfilled, "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you".
It is as having the Comforter that we see the risen One who says: "Because I live, ye shall live also". We live in association with the risen and glorified Son of God.
Then, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". That verse conveys to my mind the thought of a wonderful system of divine affections. I understand it to mean that the Son dwells in the Father's affections, the assembly dwells in the affections of Christ, and Christ dwells in the affections of the assembly. The whole
of this blessed and divine system of love is pervaded by the Spirit and it is He who gives the intelligence of it for our souls' deep joy.
How great is the gain of having the Spirit! May we realise that gain more and more!
"On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again", John 10:17.
"The Father himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me, and have believed that I came out from God", John 16:27.
There are affections between the Father and the Son into which it is impossible for us to enter. The Father loved the Son before the world's foundation, but we cannot enter into that love. The character of the love, as well as its degree, is altogether beyond us.
But here the Lord speaks of the Father's love to Him in a way which we can, in measure, enter into. If the Father loves Him because He laid down His life that He might take it again, I think we may say with all reverence that we love Him for the same reason. We have thoughts and affections in common with the Father as to that blessed One. That those affections are very feeble and straitened in us we are fully conscious, but as far as they go we have them in common with the Father. "I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father". There is the same character of knowledge and affection between the Shepherd and the sheep as there is between the Father and the Son!
He laid down His life that we might know the love of God. We perceive divine love in His death. He has made all the Father's glory to appear. "I have glorified thee on the earth". That does not mean that He has added anything to the Father, but that He has brought into view all that the Father is. The Father's love and glory have come out in the most blessed way, and thus He has been glorified by the Son. He has laid down His life that all this light of love and glory might shine forth for our hearts, and the Father loves Him because of it. Can we not say that we love Him too?
Then, also, it is "because I lay down my life that I may take it again". His death is viewed as the necessary antecedent to His taking His life in resurrection. He has taken His life again in a new condition. He is now the last Adam, able to quicken us so that we participate in His life and have His Spirit. He is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, O
and has the first place in all things. He is the First-born among many brethren. In that character He is the Object of the Father's love, and surely of ours also. He appears before our hearts as the supremely worthy One. We gladly give Him praise and adoration.
Thus we come under the Father's love. "The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God". In both scriptures a reason is given for the Father's love. God's love is sovereign; it flows out of its own fulness without regard to any reason outside itself. But these blessed reasons are given for the Father's love towards Christ and the saints.
If we have in any measure common thoughts with the Father about Christ, we come under the Father's affection; we are in the circle of His complacency. "Bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry". How blessed to be brought into that circle!
In venturing to suggest the consideration of the joy of the Son one is conscious of very limited capacity, and this creates a great sense of dependence. But there is something peculiarly attractive in the subject itself, and especially when we see how the Lord's words to His own, and even His words to the Father, were uttered for the purpose of making His joy known to us so that it might be in us. This applies particularly to what fell from His lips after the Supper, as recorded in John 13 - 17. No doubt the company amongst whom He was represented the assembly, and what the Lord said in their midst He said as having the assembly in view, so that we see here the kind of spiritual impressions which would accompany the presence of the Lord in the assembly. An honoured servant of the Lord used habitually to read these chapters before being found with his brethren "in assembly".
When we see that the Lord's intent in what He said was that His joy might be in the saints of the assembly it gives a distinctive character to all His utterances, and concentrates all the varied rays of divine light which shine in those utterances in one bright focus. They are all to make known to us the joy of the Son, and to put it in us-that is, in those who compose the assembly. One wonders whether we have quite seen it all as centring in this?
This stands in very intimate relation to our knowledge of the Father. These chapters bring out clearly that the joy of the Son is to take a place with the Father outside the world in which His own can have a place with Him. It is the joy of His love to have our companionship in that place. He "came to earth to make it known, that we might share His joys". The true blessedness of our place with the Father is wonder-fully enhanced as we see it to be the joy of the Son to go and prepare it for us. All is looked at in John 14:2, 3, as the Son's doing-the place prepared, the coming again, the reception to Himself, the being with Him-all is done by the Son, and He would have us to know that His joy consists in having brought it about. There would be no Father's house without the Son, and no revelation of God as Father without the Son. The Son's joy will be to have His own in the place in the Father's house which He has Himself prepared, and to which
He Himself will receive them. If it is the Son's joy to do it all how great the Father's joy in it all! Everything in His house speaks to Him of the One whom He loves, and into whose hand He has given all things. In all this there will be full joy for the Father and the Son.
Then He speaks (John 14:6 - 11) of the Father having been seen in Him. This, too, was His joy. He was in the Father, drawing all from Him, and He would have us to believe Him that this was so, but if not to believe Him for the works' sake themselves. This would lead us to consider the works done by Jesus-particularly in this gospel-as the Father's works. The Father would bring in fulness of joy where it had to be admitted that there was no wine, chapter 2. The Father would answer a heart in sorrow by relieving it of its distress, chapter 4. The Father would relieve man of all his weakness, chapter 5, and satisfy his hunger, chapter 6, and give him sight, chapter 9, and bring him out of death's domain, chapter 11. The conditions here brought out what the Father was in a way it could not be known in heaven. All that was the Son's joy. We learn the Father here in Jesus. We must not look at the varied conditions which He met in His blessed pathway here merely as the result of man's sin-though that they surely were-but as opportunities for the Son to have joy in expressing the Father. His purposes of love were not seen in the works, but in giving men a part and place with the Son in the Father's house. But His revelation in grace as the Father was seen in Jesus here, so that the gospels stand alone in a peculiar glory which will never be seen in the same way again. There were three-and-a-half years during which the Father was seen in Jesus, and did works which brought out His blessed nature and character in presence of all the evil conditions here. The Father was seen by mortal eyes. The immense character of the revelation may be gathered from the fact that, if all the things Jesus did had been written one by one, John supposed that not even the world itself would contain the books written. My impression is that it is all written in heaven in the hearts of those who saw the works done. We have only a very small part recorded of what Jesus did as having the Father abiding in Him to do the works, but not a bit of the mighty volume will be lost, and all went to make up the joy of the Son.
His doing whatsoever we shall ask in His name that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13, 14) is
another element in His joy. It is part of His joy that His obedient lovers should have the Comforter. Then He has joy in coming to His saints so that they are not left orphans during the time of His absence from the world, and He has joy in manifesting Himself to faithful hearts. Then in chapter 15 His joy lies in the fact that He becomes the Source of fruit for the Father. The vine being used in this connection suggests that the fruit which the Father delights in is the joy of His saints; this is the new wine which cheers God and man (Judges 9:13). This would be confirmed by the Lord's words, "that my joy may be in you, and your joy be full". As this comes about I believe the Father's portion is secured. Another element in the Lord's joy is the delight He has in loving His own complacently. "As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you: abide in my love", John 15:9. This is clearly a complacent love, for it is as the Father has loved Him. It is therefore conditional; it was so even in His case. "If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love", verse 10. He has a peculiar joy in His saints as those who keep His commandments: obedient lovers are the only ones who afford Him this joy, or who really abide in His love. Nothing ought to affect our hearts more than to think we can minister to His joy, and, in so doing, have His joy in us. He looks that we shall be powerfully affected by the thought of His joy, and that it shall be in us as a mighty influence, bringing about that our joy is full. It must be admitted that very few saints know what it is habitually to have their joy full. Our feebleness in service and testimony largely results from our lack of this. All believers have Some joy, but God's thought is that our joy should be full, and that it should be consequent on the joy of the Son being in us.
Then the Lord would have us to regard His wonderful words to the Father in chapter 17 as an utterance of joy, having for its object that His joy may be fulfilled in us. "And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them", verse 13. One would not think of attempting to compass all that constitutes the joy of the Son as referred to here, but we may note some of its deep springs.
In the first place He asks to be glorified that He may glorify the Father. He speaks from the standpoint of having glorified the Father on the earth, and completed the work which the
Father gave Him to do. He had brought to completion what could be done on earth, but He had before Him a continuous glorifying of the Father which required that the Father should glorify Him in order that He should bring it about. It is now as glorified that He gives effect to every thought of divine love, and thus glorifies the Father. The Father has given Him authority over all flesh in view of full blessing being brought in for men. The divine position at the present time is that the Son has rights in grace over all flesh. The bearing of Jesus being glorified is as wide for blessing as was the bearing of Adam's sin. The Father can be known in full blessing in spite of sin and death having come in. Looking at things as they are publicly here we might think that sin, or death, or Satan had authority over all flesh, but it is the Son who has it, and He is exercising it in giving life eternal to all that the Father has given Him. A sovereign act of the Father is needed to secure to the Son a company to whom He gives life eternal. This is the Son's joy, too, as we may see in Luke 10:21: "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from wise and prudent, and has revealed them to babes".
The Father is glorified as men are brought into the know-ledge of Himself in the infinite grace which can set aside the power of sin and death, and bring in life eternal. At the very beginning God thought of something superior to a life of innocence amidst the good of the garden of Eden, for He put the tree of life in the midst of the garden. But the fulfilment of what was promised, if we may so say, in the tree of life awaited the coming of Jesus Christ as the Father's sent One. Then the Father was glorified on the earth in respect of all that had come in, so that He might be known in the supremacy of His grace, not only atonement to cover sin, but all done to disclose the Father. Eternal life and sonship for men are two great thoughts of divine love, and it is the joy of the Son to secure them. They have been brought into manifestation in Christ, but were not available for men in their full blessed-ness until He was glorified, because neither could be the portion of men without the Spirit.
It is the joy of the Son to be glorified as Man along with the Father with the glory which He had along with the Father before the world was, John 17:5. That glory was not new to Him, for He had it before the world was, but it was new that
He should have it as Man. It was the Father's prerogative to confer it upon Him as One who had become flesh, but who was now going to the Father. It was to add its ineffable lustre to Him as Man; it was now to be brought into conjunction with all that He had accomplished on behalf of the Father, and with all that He would accomplish as the Father's glorified One. That glory is now His in the mediatorial position, as having had it accorded to Him by the Father, and it is a deeply essential element of His joy.
As regards the men given Him out of the world by the Father it was His joy to have manifested to them the Father's name. Manifesting refers to what He set before their eyes in His own blessed Person; the Father's name was objectively presented to them in its fulness of grace in the Son, for it had been given to Him for revelation, verse 11. Manifesting would refer to what they saw. He said, "The Father who abides in me, he does the works", chapter 14: 10. What a manifestation there was in them! But making known the Father's name would refer, I think, to what they heard. He communicated to them the words which the Father had given Him (verse 8); as a result of those spiritual communications they kept the Father's word, and knew that all things that the Father had given Him were of the Father. They had received the communications, and knew truly that He came out from the Father, and they had believed that the Father sent Him.
The "men" saw in Jesus One who was in relationship with God as His Father, and they had a sense that the Father's love rested upon Him. The last verse of the chapter shows that the making known of the Father's name brings the love with which He loved the Son into those to whom it is made known, and they are to have such a glory that the world will know that the Father has loved them as He loved Christ.
It is clear that keeping the Father's word, and knowing as in verses 7 and 8, conveys the thought of great spiritual intelligence. I believe in saying these things the Lord is anticipating the Spirit's day, and the result of the Spirit's formation. The "men" were, in His eye, representatively, the assembly-all that should believe through their word being linked up with them in the Lord's mind and heart. Had He been thinking of them as not having the Spirit, there would surely have been some reference to the Spirit in the prayer.
The Lord would have all this known as His joy. All that
is in the prayer with reference to the men given Him is covered by life eternal, sonship, and glory. He would have our hearts penetrated and permeated by the knowledge that His joy is found in these things being secured to His own. But it is a joy that is not complete apart from these things having their full place with us. So He says, "that they may have my joy fulfilled in them". That is to say, that His joy is brought to completion in His own as they take in the great thoughts of divine love
John 17:11, 15, 21, 24
These verses bring before us what was in the heart of the Son of God as He went into death. These are some of His last words, they show what filled His heart as He went to the cross. It is impossible to say much on a scripture like this. There is something so great and sacred about the Son speaking to the Father at such a moment! But we are permitted to hear this outpouring of His desires with regard to His own, and He can make it speak to our hearts with divine power.
There are four great desires in the prayer. First, that His own might be kept in the Father's name: "Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we". The Son was here to declare the Father's name. That name had been given to Him that He might make it known to men. This was the work which the Father had given Him to do. The thought of the Father's name was the last thing before Him ere He went to the cross (verse 26), and it was the first thing before Him as the risen One, John 20:17. The Father gave His name to the Son that He might reveal it. The depths of infinite divine grace and love and holiness-for it is "Holy Father"-are in that name, and all was given to the Son that He might make it known. In going into death the Lord had before Him the unspeakable suffering of that hour when sin must be dealt with according to divine holiness, but it was from the Father's hand that He took the cup, and He took it that the glory of the Father's name might appear. His great thought was, "Father, glorify thy name" John 12:28. Sin was to be put away, reconciliation effected; but, above and beyond all, the Father's name was to come out in its glory of grace. This was the supreme thought in the heart of the Son of God as He drew near to death. Do we think enough of this, beloved brethren?
The Son of God went into death that we might know the blessedness of the Father's name. The goodness, grace, love, and glory of that name are all told out, and the One who made it known is the One who can instruct our hearts in it. His desire is that we should be kept in the Father's name. How wonderful and blessed to think of being kept in that name!
What rest, what peace, what joy! An Old Testament saint could speak of being hidden in Jehovah's pavilion, and in the secret of His tabernacle (Psalm 27S), but our pavilion is the Father's name! The Son would have us enclosed in all the blessedness of the Father's name, kept in the grace of that name, kept in the love of which it speaks! That is our "secret place". The apostles were kept in the Father's name, and hence in perfect unity of testimony.
Then as to the world the desire of the Son of God is, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil", verse 15. How does the Father keep us out of evil? I am assured that it is by filling us with what is supremely good. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth". The truth is in a living Person, and the Father would make that Person to our hearts the embodiment of everything worth knowing. The taint of evil is upon the best things in the world, but good in absolute perfection-even the perfect setting forth of the blessed God-is in Christ. There is preservative power in the knowledge of Him to keep us out of all the evil here.
"And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth". He was ever morally separate from the evil of the world, but now He has taken a place, as the risen and glorified One, entirely apart from it. His death, in that sense, was the moment of His entire separation from the scene and circumstances where sin was. He is wholly apart from all that is evil, and He is in that holy sanctification at God's right hand that the knowledge of Himself there may keep us out of all the evil here.
Then in verse 21 there is a third desire: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". I trust we may know more of that blessed unity in the divine nature in which the Son of God would have all His own to be. These are feeble days, and the practical realisation of unity is much hindered, but there is unity in the divine nature. In every bit of true knowledge of the Father and the Son there must be unity. It is "that they also may be one in us". If believers know the Father and the Son they come into this unity, for wherever the knowledge of the Father and the Son is there must be unity of a profoundly real nature. It is the knowledge of divine Persons that brings
about unity, for it gives saints a common portion of joy and blessedness in which there is no element of discord.
"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world", verse 24. In the first desire of the Son of God the prominent thing is the Father's name, in the second it is preservation from the evil of the world, in the third it is unity amongst saints, but in the fourth it is the Son of God Himself. He desires His own to be with Him where He is, that they may behold His glory. Think of the glory that has been given to the Son by the Father! It has been given to Him to bring to pass every purpose of love and blessing that was in the Father's heart from eternity. This is His peculiar and distinctive glory. He will give effect to all the Father's purpose. In the midst of a universe of bliss where every thought of "the Father of glory" will be accomplished we shall behold the glory of the Son. If not one trace of evil is to be found in that blessed and holy universe it is because the Son has removed it all in redemption. If every element of divine perfection and joy pervades the whole of that vast scene of glory it is because the Son has brought it in and established it on an immutable basis. The Father of glory will be known as the source of all, but the Son will be known as the accomplisher of all. This place the Father's eternal love has given Him; it will be His distinctive glory for ever.
He will have His saints with Him where He is to behold His glory. As we behold it eternal rapture and praise will surely fill our hearts.
I cannot say more. How infinitely great are these blessed things! May the Son of God give us understanding of these desires of His heart as He went into death! It is good for us to have before our hearts what was before His. May we cherish these great and holy thoughts, that they may be expanded in our souls, and take more effective possession of our hearts!
It is said of Stephen that he was "full of faith and the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5), and of Barnabas that he was "full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (Acts 11:24). This leads us to consider the relation in which faith and the Holy Spirit stand to each other as both having place in the believer. It is evident that each can occupy the same vessel-can be said to fill it-without leaving any less room for the other. Speaking naturally a vessel can only be filled with one thing at a time, but speaking spiritually a man can be full of faith and can also at the same time be full of the Holy Spirit.
Faith characterised certain individuals in Old Testament times, as we know from Hebrews 11, but it did not come as a declared principle of blessing until Christ came. Hence the apostle could say, "before faith came", and "faith having come", Galatians 3:23, 25. But when faith came, the Spirit also came, because faith brought in conditions suitable for the Spirit.
It was Jesus risen, and exalted by the right hand of God, and made Lord and Christ in heaven, that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, and he announced that those who repented and were baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What Peter said brought them to repentance, led them to receive Jesus as Lord and Christ, and made them willing to be identified with His name in baptism. All this was a matter of faith. Faith had come as a distinct principle of blessing in the ways of God, and it had come to their hearts and had reversed everything. They knew that Jesus was made Lord and Christ, and they came publicly under cover of His name here. Their faith was in correspondence with the testimony of the Holy Spirit just come down from heaven. That testimony had been received in faith, and in consequence of this they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He could be suitably given to those who had the faith of His own testimony. There was moral accord between their faith and the Holy Spirit. And this is how the matter stands in every instance.
The gentile company in the house of Cornelius in Acts 10 exhibit the same features. It is evident that as Peter spoke to them the faith of what he said came into their hearts, and immediately the Holy Spirit fell on all those who were hearing
the word! The Spirit fell on them-it is presented as an energetic action-because there was perfect congruity between their faith and the Holy Spirit.
In the epistle to the Galatians Paul dwells particularly on how the Spirit was given and received. He asks, "This only I wish to learn of you, Have ye received the Spirit on the principle of works of law, or of the report of faith?" (chapter 3: 2). We read elsewhere, "So faith then is by a report, but the report by God's word", Romans 10:17. Whoever believes the report has something in the faith of his heart that is purely of God. Christ is there as the One in whom he is justified apart from any works of law. Faith having come brings the wonderful light into the soul that we are "the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (chapter 3: 26). We see God's mind in regard to us set forth in Christ Jesus. God revealed His Son in Paul that he might preach Him as glad tidings among the nations. Now if Christ the Son of God is the substance of faith in the believer, there is something there which could not have been there before Christ came and died and was before God as a risen and glorified Man. A new Person has come in and is made known by the report so that men may have the faith of Him. I am different from what I was, but the change has come about by a new and divine Person being the Object of my faith, which He never was before. This faith makes way for the Spirit because it brings into the believer that which the Spirit can delight in and be identified with. We are God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus, and "because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father", chapter 4: 6. Justification and sonship are faith blessings because they are not in ourselves but in that blessed One of whom the gospel has brought the report to us. But the faith of Him brings Him in a very real way into the believer and this is the reason why the Spirit is given. It is not that the flesh has been improved, but a Person that cannot be improved, because He is infinitely and divinely perfect, has come in as the Object of faith. So we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; that is, through the faith that has Christ alone as its Object.
Ephesians 1:13 is in perfect accord with this: "In whom (i.e. in Christ) ye also have trusted, having heard the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise". Faith comes first, brought about by hearing the word of the truth; the glad tidings of God concerning His Son are preached so that through faith men may be sealed with the Holy Spirit. Faith does not stand alone; it has the confirmation of the Holy Spirit-a permanent divine seal attesting on God's part the reality of what is known to faith.
But it must be understood that the Spirit does not set aside, or take the place of, faith. Indeed, I believe the Spirit always operates in the believer on the principle of faith. "For we, by the Spirit, on the principle of faith, await the hope of righteousness", Galatians 5:5. I believe this indicates a general principle of the Spirit's action. Prophecy is to be in the power of the Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 12, but in Romans 12 prophecy is to be "according to the proportion of faith".
Acts 11:5 - 7; Acts 22:17, 18, 21; Revelation 1:9, 10
One is thankful to be reminded, as we have been, of the importance of prophetic communications, for they are, I think we might say, communications of the mind of heaven at any particular moment. Nothing is more to be desired than to be recipients of communications that give us the present mind of heaven, and as being of the assembly we are in a position and in relationships which make it a delight to God to communicate His mind to us.
I ventured to read these three scriptures because Peter and Paul and John were men who were of great interest to heaven, and the Lord did not leave them without the communication of His mind. In each case they received communications; two of them relative to the beginning of things in the assembly period, and John receiving what refers specially to the close of that period, which brings the experience of John in a definite way to our own time, and to ourselves. What I have specially in mind relates to what our brother referred to as the capacity to receive. We may be assured that heaven is ready to communicate; that is, divine Persons are ready to communicate; but the more special and exalted the communications are the more special is the condition of soul that is required to receive them. I feel as to meetings of this character (I may say this is the first of such a character at which I have been privileged to be present) that spiritual capacity to communicate will be found perhaps in two or three, but it is of immense importance that spiritual capacity to receive shall be found in all, otherwise these meetings will fail of the divine intent.
You will notice that in each case these great servants of God speak of special communications, but at the same time they call attention to special conditions on their part which qualified them to receive divine communications. Peter speaks of it very simply to the brethren; he says, "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in an ecstasy I saw a vision". Paul tells the crowd at Jerusalem that as he was praying-notice again, as he was praying-he became in ecstasy: and John, who is the vessel of the divine communications and prophetic word of the last days, uses corresponding language; he says that he "became in the Spirit on the Lord's day". These statements
are not to be regarded lightly, because I cannot suppose that ecstasy is limited in the divine mind to the apostles, nor that being, as John says, "in the Spirit" is restricted. What I understand by it is that, if we are to be spiritually capable of receiving communications from heaven, there must be a state and abstraction of mind which would somewhat correspond with what is referred to in Scripture as "ecstasy". I do not mean to suggest anything mystical or fanciful, but a sober, spiritual reality; and we may notice, as helpful to us in this regard, that the prayers of Peter and of Paul tended to ecstasy. It is a fine suggestion for us, beloved brethren: it was private prayer, whether on the housetop or in the temple, but the prayers of these two great servants led to ecstasy. I take it that ecstasy is a condition in which the mind is abstracted from the natural and human influences that would normally act upon our minds and our spirits. Ecstasy implies complete freedom from all that, and indicates a state which makes room for the reception of the mind of heaven. I am sure we are all convinced that such a state is extremely desirable, indeed it is essential, if we are to have prophetic communications in the assembly. Such communications are of such an exalted character that they require entire immunity from the influence of the conditions that normally act upon us here. It is encouraging to note that private prayer on the part of Peter and Paul tended to that condition; so that the importance of prayer in relation to such meetings as this is very great. We should come to them from intercourse with God, and with our minds free in a special way. There are special things and states in Christianity as well as what is, I may say, ordinary in a spiritual sense; and we should cultivate that special condition of soul that is peculiarly free to receive divine communications. Paul, as we know, speaks in another scripture, of being beside himself to God. One covets the realisation of such a state as that; it is very much the thought of "ecstasy". The soul is free from self-consideration and thus prepared for the communication of God's mind.
With Peter and Paul it was the communication of the mind of heaven at the beginning: the gentile was coming into view. The gentile was being revealed as in the light of God's purposes, cleansed and fitted for a place in the spiritual house which Peter afterwards ministered; they were to take up the holy service of God. It was a wonderful flood of heavenly
light into the soul of Peter. Then, in relation to Paul, the word of God was to be completed, the whole counsel of God was coming out, the full height of all that was in God's mind, the truth of the mystery, the assembly as the body of Christ and as the habitation of God in the Spirit: it was all coming out, but the intimation of it came to a man in ecstasy. I cannot but think that God greatly values a condition of soul which is free from the normal influences that act upon us as living in this world. He would have us free so that we might come into the mind of heaven, as receiving communications that come to us from God.
Then John's experience brings us to our own time, because, as we know, the revelation of Jesus Christ refers to the end of the assembly period, and to that which will follow. John tells us in chapter 1 that the things are "shortly to come to pass", and he says, "the time is at hand", so that the Revelation is to be read as specifically applying to the very time in which we find ourselves now. Here is a blessed servant of God suffering for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and that is the moral qualification to receive further light. I believe that at the present time those who have received light from God are those who have been prepared to suffer for what they already know. I believe if any Christian is prepared to suffer for what he knows, he will get communications from heaven. They come to people who value the things of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ so far as they may have understood it, and who are prepared to suffer for it. Such persons do not find it difficult to become "in the Spirit". John says, "I became in the Spirit". He is not referring to the Christian state as described in the eighth chapter of Romans, but to something special. I believe, dear brethren, we ought to lay ourselves out for what is special. As being "in the Spirit" John gets wonderful communications; and these communications, so far as they relate to our period, relate to local assemblies, bringing out the special interest of the Lord in local assemblies. Chapters 1 and 22, the beginning and the end of this book, make clear that the Lord has before Him the thought of local assemblies. It is not the truth in a general way, or abstractly, but it is the thought of the truth of the assembly as worked out in a concrete way in localities. I think we must accept that; and I take it, beloved brethren, that what is prophetic in any local company or companies
must of necessity have a bearing on the local conditions of that company. The Lord is specially testifying things in the assemblies. "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies". The Lord is contemplating that the assembly period shall end as it began. He tells us He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end; the end corresponding with the beginning. We have been already reminded that the mind of God does not change; what was in the mind of God in the beginning, communicated through Peter to the Jews and through Paul towards the gentiles, still remains true. Paul set the local assemblies in the light of the precious ministry which was committed to him; he set all the local assemblies in the light of the kingdom of God, and the house of God, and the body of Christ; that was his ministry, and he set the assemblies in that light at the beginning, It is to be noticed, too, that Peter addresses in his epistle the sojourners of the dispersion in the same area geographically as the seven assemblies of Revelation 1. The truth of a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, was to take form in the five provinces named. He clearly had local companies in view as found in a large area.
I believe we have very little idea of the importance to divine Persons of our coming together (no matter how few or how feeble outwardly) in the light and faith of the original and unchanging mind of God with regard to His people. As thus coming together the prophetic word will confirm every exercise that is of God. I would say in this connection that ecstasy does not set aside personal exercise. We find in the case of Peter and Paul that personal exercises came into expression even when in ecstasy. We find these two great servants (just like the brethren of today) not at once prepared to receive divine communications. They both reasoned against the divine communications, and entered good arguments against them. So you see the element of personal exercise goes on; but if we are really in a state which at all corresponds with ecstasy we shall not find it difficult to judge any action of our own minds and our own wills. These great servants were not disobedient to the heavenly visions; they accepted the light. As we walk together in local assemblies we find that exercises come along, and they test and humble us. The effect of divine communications in a day of departure must always be humbling; they will always have the effect they had upon
John; when he saw one like the Son of man he fell at his feet as dead. Prophetic ministry comes to search us, to go down to the very roots of our moral being to find out our motives and feelings and thoughts: but if we are in the Spirit, we shall accept adjustment. One great mark of one who has known what it is to withdraw into this peculiar abstraction of mind involved in being in the Spirit, is that he is amenable to adjustment; the mind of heaven carries his conscience and his affections.
My thought was to add a word as to the spiritual condition that would give us capacity to receive communications of the mind of heaven. It is an extraordinary moment, because one cannot think that the Lord will leave any part of the truth altogether ineffective before He translates the assembly to Himself. He will make every part of the truth effective, and He will make it effective in local companies; so that this has a very practical bearing on us as walking together in local fellowship. The Lord will help us as to His mind, even though we may have to fall at His feet as dead. I feel sure I am speaking to many who, like myself, have had to taste in some small measure an experience like that. But we have always found, and shall find, that the One who searches is the One who supports, and He teaches us that we can only follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, as calling upon Him out of a pure heart; that is, He alone is our resource and strength. If He gives us the mind of heaven, it will search and expose a great deal that has been in ourselves, but He will make Himself adequate and sufficient for us, so that in the very last moment of the assembly's history there may be something very bright for Himself.
John gives the assembly a glorious finish: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come". That will mark the local assemblies when the prophetic word has done its work. It means that everything has been judged that came under the displeasure of heaven; the washing of the robes has been completed, and there has been a going in to eat of the tree of life in moral conditions that are suitable. The assembly's finish thus becomes similar to the assembly's beginning-I do not say in a large way publicly, but I believe God intends to realise these things in a remnant, perhaps in a very small remnant. The size of the thing is not important with God. What is important is that His thought shall be secured in spiritual reality
Acts 20:22, 23; Joshua 23
The time was drawing near for Paul to depart--the spiritual vessel of uncorrupted truth was about to go, and what concerned the name and interests of Christ and of God was to be transferred to the hands of the elders of Ephesus, representing the responsible element in the assembly. Paul had been, in the power of the Spirit, a faithful leader of the people of God into the inheritance; he had kept back nothing; he had declared all the counsel of God, and now, as he departs, he commends to God and to the word of His grace those he is leaving. If Paul was going to depart, Paul's God was not, and the only way anything of God is going to be maintained now is by the power of the living God. The only thing to be afraid of is "an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God". Whatever is spiritually wrought, God is the doer of it. We see in Paul what He could do. God preserved him in moral suitability to the inheritance to the end. It was the power of God that did it, and the same God and the same power are available for us.
"And to the word of his grace". God is not making demands, but giving expression to the immensity of His own grace. He brings it freshly before us every first day of the week-a presentation to our hearts of all that He is in His love-coming out to us through the death of Christ to bless us infinitely according to His own heart. That is what will secure responsive affections to God, and it is only as loving God that the spiritual inheritance can be enjoyed. It is impossible to enjoy it except as loving God. The trouble is that influences come in to steal our hearts away from Him. If I loved God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength, I should have the same happiness now as I shall have in heaven; and that is God's proposal. It is the supreme blessedness of the creature. God is not proposing an impossibility: He is proposing what is a necessity to His own love and He has given His Holy Spirit to form in our hearts affections which have their spring and object in Himself.
How touching that Paul should speak to the Ephesian elders about the assembly as that which God had "purchased with the blood of his own". Think what it was to God to have the assembly. He was prepared to pay that price! "The
blood of his own"-what an appeal! What a claim it makes! It is a matter of righteousness that He should have our affections.
We are apt to overlook the importance of watching against any influence which dulls the sense in our souls of the love of God. Joshua's warning to Israel is as much for us at the present day as it was for Israel, for "what things were written beforetime were written for our instruction". He says to them, "Take great heed unto your souls, that ye love Jehovah your God. For if ye in any wise go back, and cleave unto the residue of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them ... know for a certainty that Jehovah your God will no more dispossess these nations from before you, and they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which Jehovah your God hath given you". The two sets of influences are always there; the influence of the love of God and the influences represented by the nations of Canaan, the effect of which is to counteract divine influence. What answers to "the residue of these nations" is the influence of persons who are not governed by love to God and by what is spiritual; therefore it is of the greatest importance that we should preserve purity in our associations. If we keep company with persons who are of the world and governed by what is natural and not spiritual, the subtle influence of what governs them will insidiously and unconsciously operate on us all the time. Joshua speaks about the danger of cleaving to them and making marriages with them; it suggests that they are attractive persons. We are apt to forget that influences which rob us of the enjoyment of God's love often operate through nice, attractive people, not through drunkards, thieves, or immoral persons. Nothing will do for us but to be set in our affections for what is of God and to keep ourselves carefully from association with persons who are governed by other principles. However attractive they may be naturally, they can never help us in relation to God; they can only become a snare, and a trap, and a scourge, and thorns in our eyes. Let us remember, too, that books emanate from persons. When I read a book I put myself under the influence of the person who wrote it. If he loves God, and the Lord Jesus Christ is supreme to him, if he is walking in the Spirit, that man will help me; but if he is of
the world, however nice and interesting his book is, it will be a trap and a snare to me.
The last two chapters of Joshua are a solemn test to us. Are we living in the inheritance and enjoying it? Are we loving God and enjoying what His love gives? or have we some underground passage which keeps up a link with "the nations"-that is, with the influences of the world which are contrary to God?
Then Joshua has to say, "Put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river, and in Egypt". One might be surprised to find this injunction after the enemies had been overthrown, the cities possessed, the vineyards and oliveyards enjoyed, but it is manifest that the elements of idolatry remained amongst them. It is a witness to us that whatever God may have done for us-however great the extent of His love and power-there are still remaining elements which have to be refused. John, at the end of that wonderful epistle speaking of the truth of God and eternal life, writes, "keep yourselves from idols". There are always in the human heart elements which tend to rob us of the enjoyment of God and then we cannot love Him or serve Him. The devil would like to occupy us with something of the creature so as to obscure the thought of God and hinder our enjoyment of Him. We can test everything in a simple way: Does it bring God in or shut Him out? If it shuts Him out it is idolatrous. A man may say, 'I have my business to attend to', but you need God in every detail of your business. If it shuts Him out it is idolatry. Then a woman has her household duties, not surely to shut God out! Every duty requires that I bring God in, and then it will not be idolatrous. The blessed God is, in His grace and love, the Source of all supply for me. An idol is a trouble-some thing. You have to carry it, minister to it, do everything for it, and it will never do a single thing for you. Idolatry among the people of God begins in a hidden way. Things come in surreptitiously and are kept out of sight.
It is a sobering question for every one of us: Am I enjoying God as much as I might? Everyone of us must admit that we might enjoy Him more than we do, but what hinders the enjoyment of God is more or less of idolatrous nature.
We have a witness before us every week in the Supper that God has committed Himself to us in love-a love expressed in the death of Christ: that is what the cup of the new covenant
means. When we bless the cup we commit ourselves to it. It is a blessed thing for me to commit myself to the fidelity of divine love to support me and carry me through in spite of all that is in the world and in my own heart. That is the committal God looks for. We commit ourselves in the sense that we undertake to go on on these terms. God says, as it were: I am the blessed God and I delight to make Myself known to you in all the power and reality of My love; I am committed to it and now you commit yourself to it and all will be well with you
I believe that Paul's doxologies and ascriptions of praise are intended to intimate to us the character of service Godward which is carried on in the holy places. They indicate to us the character of assembly worship, and bring us into view of the blessedness of God in a wonderful way. They came from a heart filled with God, who said of old, "None shall appear before me empty"; it is what the heart contains that gives pleasure to God.
In Romans 1 Paul speaks of the Creator, and this thought of God leads him to say, as it were aside from his subject, "Who is blessed for ever. Amen". The vast realm of creation manifests the eternal power and divinity of God. Certain things come within man's capacity of apprehension; there is enough in creation to make man honour and serve God as One infinitely great, and who gives witness to Himself as doing good, and giving from heaven rain and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness. There is evidence in creation that the Creator is blessed for ever, There is the beneficent design in all creation; it is marked by good; it was pronounced good by Him, and though sin has come into it and left its mark, there is a mighty volume of testimony in creation that the Creator should be regarded as blessed. All is good that is from His hand, and all exists and was created for His pleasure.
We have only one example of assembly prayer, I believe, in Scripture, and it addresses God as Creator. We are apt to lose the profound sense of sovereign power in God, but it is most essential to retain it, and especially at times when men seem to be having things their own way. They are simply doing "whatever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before should come to pass". It is this great Being who gives to His bondmen boldness to speak His word (Acts 4).
Four thousand years passed over this world, filled on man's side with evil, but filled on God's part with promises which brought out how good God was. The promises are numbered by thousands, and they all give expression to the good that is in God. But it needed the Christ to give them fulfilment-that blessed One of whom Paul says, "the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen", Romans 9:5. The Christ is God's Anointed to do all that was necessary to bring
in His pleasure in the very scene where sin had abounded, and to make it the portion of men so that He might have the glory of it from men. Who could do this but One coming of Israel according to flesh in true and holy manhood, but who was in His Person "over all, God blessed for ever"? The knowledge of this enters into, and forms, the worship of the assembly. Jesus is God's Anointed to bring in His full pleasure. All the power of God was in Him to deal with Satan, sin, death, and every evil that has come into the universe. The more we see the ravages of sin and the terrible results of it coming in, the more we realise how great Christ is, for He has been able to deal with it all. The glad tidings are concerning Him; all that we get in this epistle to the Romans-salvation, redemption, divine righteousness, justification, peace, reconciliation, joy in God, the knowledge of the love of God, sonship, glory-- all bring out the greatness of Christ. It is due to Him that He should be worshipped by all. Not only men but angels are to worship Him.
Then in Romans 11:33 - 36 we get another outburst of worship from the full heart of Paul. He is now in presence of the fact that men have become the subjects of the compassion of God. The Jews having been set aside because of unbelief, gentiles are now being brought into blessing in sovereign mercy, and the chapter shows that in due time the Jews will be brought in again in mercy. God's dispensational ways are traced from Abraham right on to the millennium, and we see a vast range of divine activities all having their origin in God, and all brought about by Him as their great effecting Cause, and all for Him as their glorious End. In view of all this Paul worships, exclaiming, "To him be glory for ever. Amen".
Then the last three verses of the epistle contain another utterance of worship, welling up in the soul of the apostle as he considers that his glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ were "according to the revelation of the mystery". There has been a great thought in the mind of God which in His wisdom He has kept silence about through the ages, but which is now made manifest, and is part of what is made known for the obedience of faith. The wisdom of God is known in the mystery; so in relation to it He is known and worshipped as the only wise God. He is bringing men by the glad tidings into that wondrous secret of His own mind that gentiles should be joint-heirs, a joint body, and joint
partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus. God is to be worshipped in this connection, the adoration of His saints going up to Him by Jesus Christ. It is all identified with Him in its presentation so that its acceptability is assured.
The principle seems to be set forth in David that the one who has most understanding of the mind of God is the one who can most fully and suitably praise Him. It seems to me that God has been pleased to bring this principle into the present period, not only in Christ but in that chosen vessel who had by the Spirit the pattern of the house and its service as it is to be known today. Not that it is brought out in a formal way, or as a prescribed service, but in the spontaneous outbursts that break forth from the heart of Paul I think we may get some idea of how Paul would speak to God in the assembly. They are very brief, for it is God's way in wisdom to bring the greatest things into small compass, but they are sufficient to give us a true impression of what Paul was as a worshipper. We know a good deal of what David was as a praiser and worshipper, and I think we have enough to let us know what Paul was in that character. I think we can well understand that Paul's ascriptions of praise and doxologies suggest to us something of the true character of assembly worship.
When we come to Ephesians we come to the fulness of things in the whole counsel of God. There is nothing greater to be made known; the most elevated thoughts of God are here. And the expressions of worship rise up to the greatness of what is made known. It is well to notice that in the New Translation Ephesians 1:3 - 14 is all one sentence. The whole is linked up with verse 3, and is therefore to be read in connection with it as an utterance of worship. If the sentence is considered it will be found that there is no point in it where one could rightly make a break by putting in a full stop. Every statement is linked with "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". It is, perhaps, the longest sentence in the Bible, and God has been pleased that this glorious accumulation of thoughts which bring out the good pleasure of His will, the mystery of His will, and the counsel of His will should take the form of an utterance of worship. This is the kind of worship which is proper to the assembly, and it is voiced by one who was in the light of all that is in the will of God.
God has blessed us in a heavenly Christ, according to a choice which was made before the world's foundation. Before He created Adam as an innocent man He had planned to have men before Him in love, holy and blameless, and also marked out for sonship. All this would be the result of Christ becoming Man and going into death; God will have many sons. This is the good pleasure of His will, and it is to the praise of the glory of His grace. He has taken us into favour in the Beloved, and the Beloved is Christ as now glorified in heaven. Every-thing positively delightful to God and calling forth His love is in that blessed One, and the glory of God's grace appears in His taking us into favour in Him. And it is all brought about on redemption ground, for it is brought to pass for persons who were once lost to God and who needed His forgiveness. The riches of His grace come out in this.
Now grace has abounded toward us in all wisdom and intelligence. Then all that He proposes to do requires wisdom and intelligence on the part of His sons to apprehend it. All is working up to a great result in what is spoken of as "the fulness of times". God is going to head up all things in the Christ-in that divine Person who has become Man. This is God's tomorrow. And the sons are going to have their part in it; they have an assigned inheritance. God will head up all things in the Christ so that His sons may have a blessed portion in it all, and that they may be to the praise of His glory. Gentile believers have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is also the earnest of our inheritance. Until the acquired possession is redeemed by power we have the Holy Spirit as Earnest so that the assembly can be even now to the praise of God's glory. These words "to the praise" (verse 6), "to the praise" (verse 12), "to the praise" (verse 14), have all a present bearing. The sons, as divinely taught in wisdom and intelligence, have knowledge of all this vast scope of things, and can praise God in relation to the glory of His grace, and in relation to His glory as it will be known in the world to come, for they have the Spirit as Earnest. And it is God as thus known who is intelligently worshipped by His sons.
In Ephesians 3:21 we have an utterance of worship which reaches the highest possible point, and which contemplates the assembly in eternal relations. It is "unto all generations of the age of ages". Being "rooted and founded in love" is that the very nature of God becomes the source from which
the saints draw support, and "the breadth and length and depth and height" are of that immensity which the love of God will fill eternally. But there is a Centre in that immensity to which creature hearts can turn, and find a love disclosed in a Man so that it is known in a way that brings it within our range. It surpasses knowledge, and yet it is knowable. It is all that the assembly as wife of Christ can rest in, and be cherished by, eternally. But it has in view the being filled to all the fulness of God. That is the eternal portion of the assembly. So we can understand that in the new earth in eternity she is seen as the tabernacle of God. She will not cease to be the wife of Christ-the true Eve-but she will be filled to all the fulness of God. She comes down from God-the wondrous and eternal result of His work. So that the note of worship at the end of Ephesians 3 has in view what is secured for God in the assembly eternally. "But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen".
In the blessing of Levi, the priestly tribe, in Deuteronomy 33, the first thing said of their service Godward is, "They shall put incense before thy nostrils". It is a great thought with God to have incense offered unto His name. What is said in Malachi 1:11 is anticipated in the assembly; indeed, "every place" is a distinct reminder that Gods assembly in which His name is great has taken the form of local assemblies. Things are not now centralised in Jerusalem, or any other place, but centralised in the Spirit, because the one holy anointing is upon the saints universally. In the types of the tabernacle the altar of incense came last as regards the vessels of service Godward, and the incense itself came last of all. This gives a great sense of its importance.
That the incense refers to prayer is manifest in Psalm 141. But prayer in the holy place takes a distinctive character. It is not the same as private or even household prayer, though both these may rise up to it in spiritual persons. I believe that in the recorded prayers of Paul we see examples of prayers that were truly incense, and which are indicative of the line on which assembly prayers may be suitably fashioned, just as in his doxologies and ascriptions of praise we have an indication of the true character of assembly worship, both the prayers and the worship being by the Spirit of God.
Paul's prayer in 2 Thessalonians 1:11, 12 has the saints in view in the light of the kingdom of God. God had called them to His own kingdom and glory, and the great concern of Paul was that they should walk worthy of God who had thus called them. His continual prayer was to this end. It will be noticed that in none of Paul's prayers does he mention any defect in the saints. He might have to speak to them of defects, but when he prays he is at the golden altar, and he has nothing in his tenser but fragrant drugs-a perfume after the work of the perfumer, salted, pure, holy. Think of the fragrance of this prayer for the Thessalonians! It covers all that would be delightful to God in saints viewed as in His kingdom. What a holy service it is to bring the saints before God according to His thoughts for them! What delight to God to have a priest who can bring this incense continually be-fore Him-"a continual incense throughout your generations"! The saints worthy of the kingdom of God, so that it is adorned
by them! All the good pleasure of Gods goodness fulfilled in His saints, and the work of faith with power, so that the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in them, and they glorified in Him! And all brought about according to the grace of our God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ! How delightful to God when such prayers come before Him!
It is something to be always prayed for, that our God may count us worthy of the calling. He is forming an estimate of each one of us who has believed the testimony of the glad tidings as to what kind of material there is in us to adorn His kingdom. If there is a true desire with us that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us, God will account us worthy of the calling. He is minded to fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness in us and the work of faith with power. All that is pleasing to Him will be worked out in detail. That is what our practical life in responsibility is to be made up of. In result the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in us, and we shall be glorified in Him. The saints are glorified in Him morally by being clear of all that has the character of dishonour. Glory and dishonour are contrasted in 1 Corinthians 15:43. The saints as glorified in Him will be vessels to honour. 1 Corinthians 12:26 speaks of a member being glorified; each member that functions normally in the body of Christ is glorified in Him. How we should all long for thus to be accomplished in us! It would all come into Paul's prayer for us, and his prayer is a spiritual pattern for our prayers.
In the prayers in Colossians we see Paul concerned that the brethren in Christ should move on into the full knowledge of Gods will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Colossians 1:9, 10; 2: 1, 2). They needed to know that there was more in God's will than they had apprehended. They needed fortifying against certain pretentious influences which were about-philosophy, human religiousness, the workings of the human mind or of human sentiment. Being filled with the full knowledge of God's will would enable them to resist all these influences. We need to know the greatness of Christ personally, His pre-eminence, His glorious place as Head of the body the assembly, the completeness of the saints in Him, so that we can accept as privilege the putting off the body of the flesh, and burial with Christ. As dead with Christ and risen with Him we get outside the range of philosophy
and fleshly religiousness, and we can seek the things above and have our minds on them. These are God's wondrous thoughts, and He is served in a priestly way as they are brought before Him in prayer. Paul had served in the holy place in this priestly way before he served in ministering to the Colossians by writing this epistle. He would have them brought into the full knowledge of the mystery of God; that is the mystery in its widest sense as taking in all things on the earth and in the heavens as reconciled, and Christ Head of all principality and authority. What fragrance have all these great matters to God when they are brought to Him in prayer at the golden altar!
Then in Ephesians 1:1.5 - 20 Paul has his tenser filled with incense again. And the assembly as anointed is intended to sustain this service at the golden altar. The hope of His calling is all that His eternal purpose has in view-answering to the land as God's inheritance-all that He will possess and enjoy by putting His saints in possession of it in glorified conditions. The prayer is to "the Father of glory". But the great burden of it is the power of God. It is of great importance that we should know that the power that wrought in Christ is towards us who believe. The power that took Christ out from among the dead is towards all who believe. It is a working which leaves God untrammelled as to what He will do. He can quicken us to live with Christ, He can raise us up together, He can take us as high as He pleases, He can make us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. And all that His power effects in relation to us is a matter of grace and gift.
In Ephesians 3:14 - 21 Paul prays to the Father that the saints might be inwardly strengthened so that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith. It is clearly a prayer for something to be brought to pass now. The apostle had a trying time those three years at Ephesus-three years night and day admonishing with tears. But he got it all out, so that, if any of them died without getting the good of the whole counsel of God, Paul was clean from their blood. And we should remember that the labours, the tears, the prayers of Paul bring us all under responsibility. He has offered much incense for us at the golden altar. He was not only an apostle for the Ephesians, but a priest also, and he served us also in this priestly way, as we may learn from Colossians 2:1. But this priestly service was never intended to stop with Paul;
it was to be a "continual incense". It is one special form which the service of God takes. And it is to be noted that it goes along with the dressing of the lamps and the lighting of them (Exodus 30:7, 8), showing the intimate connection between the service of the altar and the maintenance of spiritual light in the holy place. I feel convinced that the ministry will correspond with the prayers of the brethren, and it cannot be sustained if the service of the altar is neglected.
Another thing is important. The ministry is made good in our souls as we speak to God about it. We are straitened because we do not speak more to God in prayer about His great thoughts. I believe the divine intent is that all ministry shall turn us to prayer, and shall become the subject of our prayers. Failing this, however much we may think we appreciate the spiritual ministry which comes to us, it will not be made good in us
Romans 3: 23, 24; 5: 19
What an important place headship has in the ways of God, and how much depends on the recognition of the Head! God has brought in One who is morally entitled to be looked up to with reverence. He is One whose every movement, both inward and outward, was in the spirit of obedience, and He has accomplished righteousness. Redemption is in Him. He is entitled to be chief and pre-eminent in the regard and reverence of all men. If we reverence Him, we learn His love. He will never make it known to an irreverent heart. We also take character from Him. Man is so made as a creature that He needs a Head, so headship meets a great necessity in the very constitution of man as a creature. When he recognises Christ as Head, he is constituted righteous, and then his affections can come into play under the influence of the love of Christ; he is "to another", even to Him who rose from the dead, and he becomes fruitful towards God.
There is a fulness in the Head that is capable of satisfying every sense of lack that exists in man. God intends that we should have unalloyed happiness, and He has provided a Head in relation to whom we can find it. What is greater still, God has provided, in that glorious Head, One who sets everything that is in right relation to Himself, in right and blessed relation to God, so that God has complacency and delight in it. This is reconciliation.
Headship is the great principle of the moral universe. It is the first and the last thought of God. A great deal depends on our apprehending our Head. We know very little about headship, or about the Lord as Head.
We far more often speak of Him as Lord than as Head, and yet lordship is only for a time, but headship will subsist to all eternity. Lordship will end when the Son delivers up the kingdom to the Father, and all is for ever subdued to Him who is God and Father, and the Son as Man, for ever maintains a subject place. Headship is an eternal principle in the universe, lordship is not.
We must first learn that Christ has a Head. We find the order set out in 1 Corinthians 11"The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God", In regard to Christ, His Head was God;
as a Man on earth He ever looked up with reverence and affection to God. It is not exactly relationship, but as Man He looked up to God and derived all His character from Him; so that there was a Man in this world in right relation to God. This is how we see the only true God and the true Man. There was a Man on earth who knew God, and who ever gave God His place--Christ the anointed Man. All that God is was before Him, and He derived everything from God.
It is a wide glory that Christ is Head of every man. All men feel the need of a Head, the mistake is that they do not know it. It is a necessity of man's being that he must have a head, that is why a man of great ability always gets a place; man must have someone to look up to. All men are fallen creatures; there is no one entitled to be looked up to but Christ. The end of man's looking for a head will be antichrist. Adam was the finest man that ever lived. All the wisdom, all the intellect, all the inventiveness that have ever come out in the human family were in Adam. Adam was the head of the race; but he fell, and all his posterity fell in him. A head gives character to those to whom he is head. Take a king for instance; he is king politically, but then he is also head of the nation, and gives character to it. When a man like Charles II was on the throne, the whole nation was a mass of licentiousness. When a virtuous woman like Queen Victoria was on the throne, every propriety was fostered and promoted in her kingdom. The head confers character. Now the Head of every man is Christ; every man, converted or heathen. The Head of every man is Christ, but only those holding the Head take character from Him. Is He holy and true? Holiness and truth mark those under Him. Is He subject to His God and Father? Subjection and obedience and meekness mark those who come under His blessed influence as Head. In this way He gives character; it is this that gives dignity to man.
It is only by redemption that we come into the good of headship. We all know what redemption means. Boaz the mighty man of wealth, the kinsman, redeemed the inheritance, and with it the poor Moabitish damsel. There was a nearer kinsman, and as long as it was merely a question of the inheritance-something to be possessed-he was quite agree-able to be the redeemer, but when he found that Ruth had to go along with the inheritance of her dead husband, that
was another story, and he declined it all! Not so Boaz, he became head to Ruth, and she came into the good of headship by redemption. We come into it in the same way, through redemption. We are recovered for God in virtue of redemption according to the greatness and blessedness of the Head, according to all the Head is. If we are recovered to God, it must be in the apprehension of the Head: the absolute perfection of the way we are recovered is seen in the Head. In Romans 5 the way the Head is introduced is by redemption, it is Christ in contrast to Adam. He came in the way of obedience; that is God was His Head. God ever had what was due to Him in a Man. Christ has come in where every-thing was in disorder, and has established righteousness; He has come in to recover man by redemption. His work has recovered us, and by recovering us He establishes a claim over us, and we look up to Him with reverence. As we consider the path He has taken and all He has done, we cannot help looking up to Him with reverence, and all who do so get the good of headship. It is an important exercise for us to be maintained in that condition, to look up to Christ with reverence just as He looked up to God. It should be a great exercise for us as to whether we have the good of our Head.
Exercise is the movement of heart towards Christ. Exercise is movement; if not in movement we are stagnant, allowing our hearts to gratify themselves. Exercise does not mean misery. Suppose we think we are not exercised, then there is self-judgment; it makes us pray, and the soul that prays is in movement. We should pray that we may understand and know the Person who is our Head, that we may know the perfections and excellencies that are in Him. We pray-there is no other way.
To know Christ as Head there must be the deepest reverence, just as with a true wife to a true husband. When we have so learned Christ, in His moral perfections and beauties, that we reverence Him, He will make known the depths of His love to us. The Lord never reveals His heart to an irreverent soul, never! It is to the one who already appreciates and delights in Him that He confides Himself; He can have a secret with one in whom He can confide, and make private communications, just as a husband does to a true wife. Then He knows how to do everything for you, and make Himself everything to you. Are you in perplexity? He will give you wisdom and
direction. Are you in sorrow? He will comfort you. Are you in poverty? He will open up His own boundless resources for you. You cannot get into any circumstances where He will not succour you, and it will be the delight of your heart to be to Him (Romans 7), and then there will be fruit for God. Romans 7 is the Head-the new Husband; you want the Head for deliverance, He has the title to claim me in love. If I look up to Him with reverence He supplies everything: I shall have His company, His love, everything to make me fruitful. There is the yielding oneself to Him; many hold back. How much we all hold back! We do not give Christ His place, and we try to fit ourselves for Christ through painful exercises, trying to lift ourselves to His level, but we should just allow God to present Christ to us in such a way that what we see commands our reverence. We have a Husband who makes no demand, He is the Source of unlimited supply. It is not a question of whether I shall fail, but will He fail? Romans 6 is living to God in relation to the Head, a most blessed position, for it puts one entirely outside the world to be for God's pleasure. Romans 7 is the new Husband. To be to Christ is to be in relation to Him, in contrast to law. Romans 8 is that you get His Spirit, a wonderful thought! It is not His outside support, but you get His inside support, the Spirit of the Head.
Colossians 1:18 - 20; 2: 18, 19
We have been looking at headship in Romans in connection with the individual. We might look at it now in connection with the company, as presented in Colossians. We get there the assembly looking up to Christ as Head. Headship is God's great thought, and it necessarily produces unity. The Roman Catholic has the idea, and he tries to carry it out in a human way, but he can only make a dead, inert unity, a mere crystallisation of creeds and dogmas centralised in one man at Rome. God's unity is living, and grows with all the increase of God, by that which every joint supplies. Holding the Head produces living affections, and vital growth, and mutual care of the members one for another. The prosperity of one is the good of the whole. It is the Father's work in souls that the Lord values and trusts; He educates and disciplines us that we may come to the end of all our resources, and then we find that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in the
Head, and available for the body. What do we want of human wisdom and philosophy in view of that? On the other hand asceticism and harsh treatment of the body have no place either, if we are holding the Head. Then too, we do not desire to intrude into things not seen. Man has an impression that there is something wonderful around and beyond him into which he would fain penetrate. Now in holding the Head we find boundless resource to meet every need of heart and mind.
In Romans all the moral beauty and fitness for headship come out in the blessed Lord, His obedience and righteousness. There is a moral necessity that obedience and righteousness should characterise the Head, and each individual who comes under the Head partakes of His character. We come before God in all the acceptability of the Head, the fragrance of the frankincense.
In Colossians the greatness of the Head is presented to us. All His glory is brought out in chapter 1 so that we might realise what a Head we have. Creation, redemption, reconciliation, are all brought in to show the greatness of the Head. He was the Creator, the Maker of heaven and earth. It is said of Him-the Son, "by whom he made the worlds", and they were made to display the glories of the Head. He has brought all these things into reconciliation by the blood of His cross, so that the Godhead might find its perfect complacency in the whole scene. He has also reconciled us that He may present us to Himself holy and unblameable and irreproachable before the Godhead. All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him in a body, and we are complete in Him. If Christians do not know the greatness of Christ, and what He delights to be as Head to His people, they are in danger of being drawn aside by what is of man. In Colossians we see the greatness of Christ in contrast to all that could be suggested by man. As Christians we have received Christ; it is a great thing to have received such a Person. He had been presented to them by Epaphras, a "faithful minister of Christ" (Colossians 1:7) and they had received Him. Even to the Corinthians Paul said, "In everything ye are enriched by him", 1 Corinthians 1:5. Little did they understand that they were enriched in the Head. We ought to have the sense that we are enriched in the Head. It is like this chapter: "Ye are complete in him", verse 10. I could not say that every believer
had received Christ intelligently. All have believed He died for them, but to receive Him is to let into the heart that wonderful Person in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells. Nothing is right that does not take character from Christ. Whatever is pretentious must be tested by Christ; if it will not stand that test it is of no value.
"The mystery of God" has to do with the body; it is hidden, but Christ is in His saints, and the graces and moral beauties of the Head are coming out in His people down here. "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are hid. It is the most wonderful thing that Christ in rejection should be still on earth in His people. It is a unique moment; the world to come will not furnish anything so peculiar. While Christ is rejected, yet He is here for God. Christ coming out in His body is for the pleasure of God, for divine complacency. The body is not for testimony, the house is here for testimony. The body is the vital principle; you cannot see the body. You see the house which is like the clock; it shows the time of day, but it would be no use without works. The body is the works; the body of Christ is hidden. The house is the assembly of the living God; all that is of God is found in His house; it is His children presented in testimony. In Genesis 28 Jacob set up a pillar in the power of the Spirit for God, and called it Bethel. The house is the pillar and base of the truth, a pillar with all that God is inscribed on it. Everything in man's hands has been spoiled, but if we see the divine character of the house as set up of God, then we refuse everything that is not consistent with it. Every person is converted in order to be part of the house and a member of the body. The simplest thought of the assembly is in Acts 15, where James says, "God at the first did visit the gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name" That is the most elementary idea of the assembly. Every person God has visited in grace is taken out to be for His Name; such form the house of God, where the Spirit of God dwells. Many do not understand it on account of the failure; we are privileged to look at things according to the truth.
Christ is the Source of everything needed to supply the body and minister to it, so that it may increase "with the increase of God", chapter 2: 19. Everything for God's pleasure must be derived from the Head, so it should be the habitual state of our hearts and minds to hold the Head. Two thingsTHE HISTORY OF GOD'S WAYS
THE BLESSING OF THE TRIBES
THE RIGHT OF REDEMPTION
ELIJAH AND ELISHA
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT AT REST
THE WILL OF GOD
PSALMS REFERRING TO CHRIST IN HEAVEN
'No trait is lost, each beauteous grace is found,
All brought through death to resurrection ground'. (Hymn 229)GOD'S KING
SIMEON IN THE TEMPLE
THE EARLY UTTERANCES OF OUR LORD
EVIDENCES OF LIFE
THE TRANSFIGURATION
THE RESERVED GUEST-CHAMBER
CHRIST LIFTED UP AND BURIED
THE GAIN OF HAVING THE SPIRIT
THE FATHER'S LOVE
THE JOY OF THE SON
THE DESIRES OF THE SON OF GOD FOR HIS OWN
FAITH AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
PROPHETIC COMMUNICATIONS
LOVE AND IDOLATRY
PAUL'S DOXOLOGIES
PRAYER IN THE HOLY PLACE
HEADSHIP