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  FOOD FOR THE FLOCK VOLUME 9
  by J.B. Stoney
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A collection of articles and writings by J.B. Stoney from Food for the Flock
Volume 9, covering various biblical topics and Christian teaching.

  Chapters: 48

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. Food for the Flock Volume 9
    1. Holy Brethren
    2. Fragment: No Will and No Strength
    3. A Word on Galatians, Illustrated by the Orders Given to the Kohathites
    4. Liberation
    5. Qualification
    6. Conflict
    7. Presentation in Glory
    8. Fragment: Quickened Together With Christ
    9. Readings on Ephesians 1-3
   10. Fragment: Perfect in Wisdom
   11. Fragment: Doing As Christ Did
   12. The Bread of God
   13. Fragment: Sin
   14. Chapter 1
   15. The Leader
   16. The Land and Its Boundaries
   17. The Moral Qualifications Requisite for Entrance Into Canaan
   18. Those Who Enter Canaan
   19. Chapter 2 Rahab
   20. The Jordan. Chapter 3
   21. Caleb and Paul
   22. Colossians 1
   23. Fragment: the Unveiled Glory of God
   24. Fragment: Complete and Perfect Rest
   25. Sanctification
   26. Readings on Philippians 1 and 2
   27. Chapter 2
   28. Reading on John 14
   29. Chapter 3 - the Jordan
   30. Chapter 4 - the Twelve Stones at Gilgal
   31. The Twelve Stones in the Midst of Jordan
   32. Chapter 5 Circumcision
   33. Gilgal
   34. Canaan's Food
   35. The Captain of the Lord's Host
   36. Chapter 6 Jericho
   37. Chapter 7 Ai and the Accursed Thing
   38. Sins After Conversion
   39. Readings on Philippians 3-4
   40. Chapter 4
   41. Meditations on the Book of Joshua: Ai and the Accursed Thing
   42. Chapter 8 - the Way of Recovery
   43. The Recovery of Gibeah
   44. Results of Discipline
   45. Chapter 9. the Snare of Gibeon
   46. Fragment: Righteousness
   47. The Three Parables of Mark 4

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  CHAPTER 0: FOOD FOR THE FLOCK VOLUME 9
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  CHAPTER 1: HOLY BRETHREN
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" WHEREFORE, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus." (Heb. 3:1.) " And let us
consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works." (Heb. 10:24.) The
two passages we have just penned, are very intimately connected. Indeed they are
bound together by the simple fact that the inspired writer makes use of the same
word in each; and, further, that this word occurs only in these two places
throughout the whole of this marvelous treatise. We are to consider Jesus; and
we are to consider all those who belong to Him, wherever they are. These are the
two grand departments of our work. We are to apply our minds diligently to Him
and to His interests on the earth, and thus be blessedly delivered from the
miserable business of thinking about ourselves or our own interests; a morally
glorious deliverance, most surely, for which we may well praise our glorious
Deliverer. However, before proceeding to the great subjects which we are called
to consider, we must dwell, for a little, on the wonderful title bestowed by the
Holy Spirit upon all believers all—true Christians. He calls them, " holy
brethren." This, truly, is a title of great moral dignity. He does not say, we
ought to be holy. No; he says we are. It is a question of the title or standing
of every child of God on the face of the earth. No doubt, having through
sovereign grace this holy standing, we ought to be holy in our walk; our moral
condition ought ever to answer to our title. We should never allow a thought,
word, or act, in the smallest degree inconsistent, with our high 'position as "
holy brethren." Holy thoughts, holy words, holy actings are alone suited to
those upon whom infinite grace has bestowed the title of "holy brethren." Let us
never forget this. Let us never say, never think, that we cannot maintain such a
dignity, or live up to such a standard. The very same grace which has bestowed
upon us the dignity, will ever enable us to support it; and we shall see, in the
progress of this paper, how this grace acts-the mighty moral means used to
produce a practical walk in accordance with our holy calling. But let us inquire
on what does the apostle ground the title of " holy brethren "? It is of all
possible importance to be clear as to this. If we do not see that it is wholly
independent of our state, our walk, or our attainments, we can neither
understand the position nor its practical results. We may assert with all
confidence that the very holiest walk that ever was exhibited in this world, the
highest spiritual state that ever was attained, could never form the basis of
such a position as is set forth in the title of which we speak. Nay, more; we
are bold to affirm that not even the work of the Spirit in us, blessedly
essential as it is in every stage of the divine life, -could entitle us to enter
upon such a dignity. Nothing in us, nothing of us, nothing about us could ever
form the foundation of such a standing as is set forth in the title " holy
brethren." On what then is it grounded? Heb. 2:11 furnishes the reply. " For
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Here we have one of the most
profound and comprehensive statements of truth contained within the covers of
the divine volume. It is simply marvelous! Here we see how we become " holy
brethren;" even by association with' that blessed One who went down into death
for us, and who, in resurrection, has become the foundation of that new order of
things in which we have our place; the Head of that new creation to which we
belong; the Firstborn among the many brethren of whom He is not ashamed,
inasmuch as He has placed them on the very same platform with Himself, and
brought them to God not only in the perfect efficacy of His work, but in all His
own perfect acceptability and infinite - preciousness. " The sanctifier and the
sanctified are all of one." Wonderful words! let the reader ponder them Let him
specially note the vast, yea, the immeasurable difference between these two
words "Sanctifier and sanctified." Such was our blessed Lord, personally,
intrinsically, in His humanity, that He was capable of being the Sanctifier.
Such were we personally, in our moral condition, in our nature, that we needed
to be the sanctified. But-eternal and universal homage to His name! -such is the
perfection of His work, such the " riches" and the " glory" of His grace, that
it can be said, " As he is so are we in this world"" The sanctifier and the
sanctified are all of one" -all on one common ground, and that forever. Nothing
can exceed this as to title and standing. We stand in all the glorious results
of His accomplished work, and in all the acceptance of His Person. He has linked
us with Himself, in resurrection-life, and made us sharers of all He has and all
He is, save His deity, which was of course incommunicable. But let us note, very
particularly, all that is involved in the fact that we needed to be "
sanctified." It sets forth in the clearest and most forcible manner, the total,
hopeless, absolute ruin of every one of us. It matters not, so far as this
aspect of the truth is concerned, who we were or what we were, in our personal
history or our practical life. We may have- been refined, cultivated, amiable,
moral and, after a human fashion, religious. Or we may have been degraded,
demoralized; depraved, the very scum of society. In a word, we may have been,
morally and socially, as far apart as the poles; but, inasmuch as all needed to
be sanctified, the highest as well as the lowest, ere we could be addressed as "
holy brethren," there is evidently " no difference." The very worst needed
nothing more; and the very best could do with nothing less. Each and all were
involved in one common ruin, and needed to be sanctified, or set apart, ere we
could take our place amongst the "holy brethren." And now, being set apart, we
are all on one common ground; so that the very feeblest child of God on the face
of the earth belongs, as really and truly, to the " holy brethren" as the
blessed apostle Paul himself. It is not a question of progress or attainment,
precious and important as it most surely is to make progress; but simply of our
common standing before God, of which the " Firstborn" is the blessed and eternal
definition. But we must here remind the reader of the vast importance of being
clear and well-grounded as to the relationship of the "Firstborn" with the "
many brethren." This is a grand foundation -truth, as to which there must be no
vagueness or indecision. Scripture is clear and emphatic on this great cardinal
point. But there are many who will not listen to scripture. They are so full of
their own thoughts that they will not -take the trouble to search and see what
scripture says on the subject. Hence you find many maintaining the fatal error
that incarnation is the ground of our relationship with the Firstborn. They look
upon the Incarnate One as our " Elder Brother," who, in taking human nature upon
Him, took us into union with Himself, or linked Himself on to us. Now, we do not
believe it lies within the compass of human language to set forth, in adequate
-terms, the frightful consequences of such an error as this. In the first place,
it involves a positive blasphemy against the Person of the Son of God, a denial
of His absolutely spotless sinless, perfect manhood. He, blessed be His name,
was such in His humanity, that the angel could say to the virgin of Him, " That
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." His
human nature was absolutely holy. As a man, He knew no sin. He was the only man
that ever lived of whom this could be said. He was unique. He stood absolutely
alone. There was-there could be-no union with Him in incarnation. How could the
holy and the unholy, the pure and the impure, the spotless and the spotted ever
be united, ever be amalgamated? Utterly impossible! Those Who think or say they
could, do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures or the Son of God. But,
further, those who speak of union in incarnation are, most manifestly, the
enemies of the cross of Christ; for what need was there of the cross, the death,
or the blood of Christ, if sinners could be united to Him in incarnation? Surely
none whatever. 'There was no need of atonement, no need of propitiation, no need
of the substitutionary sufferings and death of Christ, if sinners could be
united to Him without them.. Hence we see how entirely this system of doctrine
is of Satan. It dishonors the Person of Christ and sets aside His precious
atonement. And, in addition to all this, it overthrows the teaching of the
entire Bible on the subject of man's guilt and ruin. In short, it completely
sweeps away all the great foundation-truths of our glorious Christianity, and
gives us instead a godless, Christless, infidel system. This is what the devil
has ever been aiming at; it is what he is aiming at still; and thousands of
so-called Christian teachers are acting as his agents on the terrible business
of seeking to abolish Christianity. Tremendous fact for all whom it may concern!
But let us reverently hearken to the teaching of holy scripture on this great
subject. What mean those words which fell from the lips of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and are repeated for us by God the Holy Ghost: " Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth allow"?" Who was this corn of wheat?
Himself, blessed be His holy name! He had to die in order to " bring forth much
fruit." If He was to surround. Himself with His " many brethren," He had to go,
down into death in order to take out of the way every hindrance to their eternal
association on the new ground of resurrection. He, the true David, had to go
forth single-handed to meet the terrible foe, in order that He might have the
deep joy of sharing with His brethren, the spoils of His magnificent victory.
Eternal hallelujahs to His peerless name! There is a very beautiful passage
bearing upon our subject in Mark 8 We shall quote it for the reader. " And he
began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be
rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and
after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly_ And Peter took
him, and began to rebuke him."' In another gospel we are told what Peter said
"Pity thyself, Lord: this shall not be unto thee."' Mark the Lord's reply - mark
His attitude " But when he had turned about and looked on, his disciples, he
rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the
things that be of God, but the things that be of men." This is perfectly
beautiful! It not only presents a truth to the understanding, but lets in upon
the heart a bright ray of the moral glory of our adorable Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, eminently calculated to bow the soul in worship Before Him.," He turned
and looked upon his disciples." It is as though He would say to His erring
servant, " If I adopt your suggestion-if 1 pity myself, what will become of
these?" Blessed Savior! He did not think of Himself. " He steadfastly set his
face to go to Jerusalem," well knowing what awaited Him there. He went to the
cross, and there endured the wrath of God, the judgment of sin, all the terrible
consequences of our condition, in order to glorify God with respect to our sins,
and that He might have the ineffable and eternal joy of surrounding Himself with
the " many brethren " to whom He could, on resurrection-ground, declare the
Father's name. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren." He looked forward to
this from amid the awful shadows of Calvary, where He was enduring for us what
no created intelligence can ever fathom' If ever He was to call us " brethren,"
He must, all alone, meet death and judgment on our behalf. Now, why all this if
incarnation was the basis of our union or association? Is it not perfectly plain
to the reader that there could be no link between Christ and us save on the
ground of accomplished atonement? How could there be a link with sin unatoned
for, guilt uncanceled, the claims of God unanswered'? Utterly impossible. To
maintain such a thought is to fly in the face of divine revelation, and sweep
away the very foundations of Christianity; and this, as we very well know, is
precisely what the devil is ever aiming at. However, we shall not pursue the
subject further here. It may be that the great majority of our readers are
thoroughly clear and settled on the point, and that they hold it as a great
cardinal and essential truth. Still, we feel it of importance just now, to bear
a very distinct testimony to the whole church of God on this most blessed
subject. We feel persuaded that the error which we have been combating-the
notion of union with Christ in incarnation-forms an integral part of a vast
infidel and antichristian system which holds sway over thousands of professing
Christians, and is making fearful progress throughout the length and breadth of
Christendom. It is the deep and solemn conviction of this that leads us to call
the attention of the beloved flock of Christ to one of the most precious and
glorious subjects that could possibly occupy their hearts, namely, their title
to be called " holy brethren." We shall now turn for a few moments to the
exhortation addressed to the " holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling." As we have already observed, we are not exhorted to be holy brethren;
we are made such. The place and the portion are ours through infinite grace, and
it is on this blessed fact that the inspired apostle grounds his exhortation: "
Where fore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus." The titles bestowed on our
blessed Lord in this passage, present Him to our hearts in a very wonderful
manner. They take in the wide range of His history from the bosom of the Father
down to the dust of death; and from the dust of death back to the throne of God.
As the Apostle, He came from God to us; and as the Priest He has gone back to
God for us. He came from heaven to reveal God to us, to unfold to us the very
heart of God, to make us know the precious secrets of His bosom. " God who at
sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by the Son [ἐν υἱῷ], whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds who being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." What a marvelous privilege to
have God revealed to us in the Person of Christ! God has spoken to us in the
Son. Our blessed Apostle has given us the full and perfect revelation of God. "
No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath declared him." " God who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, hath - shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (John 1; 2 Cor. 4) All this is
unspeakably precious. Jesus has revealed God to our souls. We could know
absolutely nothing of God, if the Son had not come and spoken to us. But-thanks
and praise to our God 1-we can say, with all possible certainty, " We know that
the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him
that is true: and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This
is the true God, and eternal life." We can now turn to the four gospels, and as
we gaze upon that blessed One who is there presented to us by the Holy Ghost, in
all that lovely grace which shone out in all His words, and works, and ways, we
can say, That is God. We see Him going about, doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil; and we see him healing the sick, cleansing the
leper, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, feeding
the hungry, drying the widow's tears, weeping at the tomb of Lazarus; and say,
That is God. Every ray of moral glory that shone in the life and ministry of the
Apostle of our confession was the expression of God. He was the brightness of
the divine glory, and the exact impression of the divine essence. " Thou art the
everlasting Word, The Father's only Son; God manifest, God seen and heard, The
heaven's beloved One.

" In Thee most perfectly express'd, The Father's self Both shine; Fullness of
Godhead, too; the Blest' Eternally Divine." How precious is all this to our
souls! It is simply unspeakable. To have God revealed in the Person of Christ,
so that we can know Him, delight in Him, find all our springs in Him, call. Him
Abba Father, walk in the light of His blessed countenance, have fellowship with
Him and with His Son Jesus Christ, know the love of His heart-the very love
wherewith He loves the Son. What deep blessedness! What fullness, of joy! How
can we ever sufficiently praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for
His marvelous grace in having introduced us into such a sphere of blessing and
privilege, and set us in such a wondrous relationship with Himself in the Son of
His love? Oh! may our hearts praise Him! May our lives praise Him! May it be the
one grand aim and object of our whole moral being to magnify His name But we
must now turn for a little to another great branch of our subject. We have to "
Consider the High Priest of our confession." This, too, is fraught with richest
blessing for every one of the " holy brethren." The same blessed One who, as the
Apostle, came to make Him known to our souls, has gone back to God for us. He
came to speak to us about God; and He is gone to speak to God about us. He
appears in the presence of God for us. He bears us upon His heart continually.
He represents us before God, and ever-maintains us in the integrity of the
position into which His precious atoning work has introduced us. His blessed
priesthood is the divine provision for our wilderness path. Were it merely a
question of our standing or title, there would be no need of priesthood; but,
inasmuch as it is a -question of our actual state and practical walk, we could
not get on for one moment, if we had not our great High Priest ever living for
us in the presence of God. Now, there are three most precious departments of our
Lord's priestly service, presented in the epistle to the Hebrews. In the first
place 4 we read, in chapter 4.: " Seeing then that we have a great high priest,
that is passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our
confession. For we have not an high priest 'which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin." Christian reader, only think of the deep blessedness of having One
at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens who is touched with the feeling
of your infirmities, who enters into all your sorrows, who feels for you and
with you in all your exercises, trials and difficulties. Think of having a Man
on the throne of God—a perfect human heart, One on whom you can count in all
your weakness, heaviness, and conflict, in everything, in short, except sin.
With this, blessed be His name! He can have no sympathy. But oh! what pen, what
human tongue can adequately set forth the deep, deep blessedness of having a Man
in the glory whose heart is with us in all the trials and sorrows of our
wilderness path? What a precious provision! What a divine reality! The One who
has all power in heaven and on earth now lives for us in heaven. We can count on
Him, at all times. He enters into all our feelings in a way that no earthly
friend could possibly do. We can go to Him and tell Him things which we could
not name to our dearest friend on earth, inasmuch as none but He can fully
understand us. But our great High Priest understands all about us. He has passed
through every trial and sorrow that a perfect human heart could know. Hence He
can perfectly sympathize with us, and He delights to minister to us in all our
seasons of sorrow and affliction, when the heart is crushed and bowed beneath a
weight of anguish which only He can fully enter into: Precious Savior! Most
merciful High Priest! May our hearts delight in Thee! May we draw more' largely
upon the exhaustless springs of comfort and consolation that are found in Thy
large and loving heart for all Thy tried, tempted, sorrowing, suffering,
brethren here below! In Heb. 7:25, we have another very precious branch of our
Lord's priestly work, and that is His intercession-His active intervention on
our behalf, in the presence of God. " Wherefore he is able also to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them." What comfort is here for all the " holy brethren "! What
strong consolation! What blessed assurance! Our great High Priest bears us upon
His heart continually before the throne. All our affairs are in His blessed
hands, and can never-fall] through. He lives for us, and we live in Him. He will
carry us right through to the end. Theologians talk about " the final
'perseverance of the saints." Scripture speaks of the final perseverance of our
divine and adorable High Priest. Here we rest. He says to us, " Because I live,
ye shall live also." " If when -we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his Son,"-the only possible way in which we could be reconciled-"
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life;" that is His life up
in heaven. He has made Himself responsible for every one of the " holy
brethren," to bring them through all the difficulties, trials, snares and
temptations of the wilderness, right home to glory. Universal and everlasting
homage to His blessed name! We cannot, of course, attempt to go elaborately into
the great subject of priesthood in a paper like this; we can do little more than
touch upon the three salient points indicated above, and quote for the reader
the passages of scripture in which those points are presented. In Heb. 13:15, we
have the third branch of our Lord's service for us, in the heavenly sanctuary.
"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that
is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name." What a comfort to know
that we have one in the presence of God to present our sacrifices of praise and
thanksgiving! How sweetly it encourages us to bring such sacrifices at all
times! True, they may seem very poor, very meager, very imperfect; but our great
High Priest knows how to separate the precious from the vile; He takes our
sacrifices and presents them to God in all the perfect fragrance of His own
Person and ministry. Every little breathing of the heart, every utterance, every
little act of service goes up to God, not only divested of all our infirmity and
imperfection, but adorned with all the excellency of the One who ever liveth in
the presence of God, not only to sympathize and intercede, but also to present
our sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. All this is full of comfort and
encouragement. How often have we to mourn over our coldness, barrenness and
deadness, both in private and in public. We seem unable to do more than utter a
groan or a sigh. Well, Jesus-it is the fruit of His grace-takes that groan or
that sigh, and presents it to God, in all His own preciousness. This is part of
His present ministry for us in the presence of our God, 'a ministry which He
delights to discharge, blessed be His name! It is His joy to bear us upon His
heart before the throne. He thinks of each one in particular, as if He had but
that one to think of. It is wonderful; but so it is. He enters into all our
little trials and sorrows, conflicts and exercises, as though He had nothing
else to think of. Each one has the undivided attention and perfect sympathy of
that large, loving heart, in all that may arise in our passage through this
scene of trial and sorrow. He has gone through it all. He knows, as we say,
every step of the road. We can discern His blessed footprints all across the
desert; and look up through the opened heavens and see Him on the throne; a
glorified Man, but the same Jesus who was down here upon earth-His circumstances
changed, but' not His tender, loving sympathizing heart: " The same yesterday,
to-day and forever." Such, then, beloved christian reader, is the great High
Priest whom we are exhorted to " consider." Truly we have all we want in Him.
His sympathy, perfect. His intercession, all prevailing. His presentation of our
sacrifice, ever acceptable. Well may we say, " We have all and abound." And
nom-, in conclusion, let us glance for a moment, at the precious exhortation in
Heb. 10:24: " Let us consider one another, to provoke I unto love and good
works:" How morally lovely is the connection! The more attentively we consider
Him, the more we shall be fitted and disposed to consider all who belong to Him,
whoever and wherever they may be. Show us a man full of Christ, and we will shew
you a man full of love, and care, and interest for every member of the body of
Christ. It must be so. It is simply impossible to be near Christ and not have
the heart filled with the sweetest affections for all that belong to Him. We
cannot consider Him without being reminded. of them, and led out in service,
prayer and sympathy, according to our little measure. If you hear a person
talking loudly of his love for Christ, his attachment to Him, and delight in
Him; and, all the while, having no love for His -people, no care for them, no
interest in them, no readiness to spend and be spent for them, no self-sacrifice
on their behalf-you may be sure it is all hollow worthless profession. " Hereby
perceive we the love, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay
down our lives "for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the
love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in
tongue; but in deed and in truth." And again, " This commandment have we from
him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." (1 John 3:16-18; 4:21.)
These are wholesome words for all of us.. May we apply our hearts most
diligently to them! May we, by the powerful ministry of the Holy Ghost, be
enabled to respond, with all our hearts, to these two weighty and needed
exhortations to " Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession," and
to " Consider one another!" And let us bear in mind that the proper
consideration of one another will never take the form of prying curiosity, or
unwarrantable espionage-things which can only be regarded as the curse and bane
of all christian society. No; no; it is the very reverse of all this. It is a
loving, tender care expressing itself in every form of refined, delicate and
seasonable service-the lovely fruit of true communion with the heart of Christ.
C. H. M.


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  CHAPTER 2: FRAGMENT: NO WILL AND NO STRENGTH
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When you have no will and no strength, then you can follow Christ, and then He
can trust you. (J. N. D.)


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  CHAPTER 3: A WORD ON GALATIANS, ILLUSTRATED BY THE ORDERS GIVEN TO THE KOHATHITES
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IT is impossible to read the epistles carefully, beloved brethren, without
seeing that the grace of God, as manifested in the cross of Christ, is presented
in them in two very distinct ways. First, we find salvation through the
redemption that was there wrought once for all. Secondly, we learn that this
same grace characterizes the path of the Christian through this world. The
apostle says: " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ [not, ' By which I have been saved or have been brought to God,'
but] by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." That is,
not merely does his soul rest in the deliverance wrought for him from Satan's
power, from sin, from death and judgment, but he finds a separation effected
between Him and the world, and so completely, that there is no desire on either
side to come together again. And that which has made the separation is the cross
of Christ. So that we may look at the cross of Christ and say: Well, if I am to
go into the world, I must give up what God has vouchsafed to me in that cross; I
must outrage Him who was nailed there for me, who sheaved the depth of His love
to me in giving Himself, and in such circumstances of unutterable suffering for
the manifestation of divine righteousness in itself and in its effects. Now
there are two sides to this proposition. You might withdraw from the world and
say, I stand apart from it; and in so doing might have your heart lifted up with
thoughts of your superiority to it in thus standing aside. But the other side of
the question presents itself, Would you have the world draw aside from you? Are
you crucified to it? Paul had learned the value of the cross, and accepts the
double position. With the Galatians it was far otherwise. There was on their
part an attempt to make a path down here, such as the natural man might walk in;
but Paul says, I will not have it nor seek it. It had not been always so with
these saints. They had at first received the truth honestly, and their hearts
had burned with affection to Christ and His people. He bears them witness that
their love to him, as the minister of it to them, was such that they would have'
plucked out their own eyes and given them to him. There was every sign of the
work being a true one in their souls; at the beginning he had nothing to say
against their course at all. But when he looks at them after some years (there
is no actual date given, but evidently some years had gone by), such a change
had taken place in them, that, in considering their ways, he stands in doubt of
them as to whether there was a real work of God in their souls. He says: I have
confidence in the Lord about you, but when I look at you, I can scarcely
recognize you as my children. Now what made this difference? You do not find in
the epistle that there was any moral evil among them. But the fact was they had
given place to an evil principle which was undermining and ruining everything.
They wanted to arrange spiritual things so as to suit human nature and thus walk
by sight, not faith. They were seeking to get up a system of their own in which
everything would go on wheels, as people say; like a machine in working order,
you have only to turn the steam on and all is set going at once. That suits the
natural man. The Galatians had not got in their souls the sense of the Holy
Spirit as a present living power in their hearts, and so they turned to an
external machinery based, no doubt, on what in its origin was divine, but, when
misapplied, became the means of resisting God's present purpose in grace; and by
it they brought themselves into bondage to their own ordinances. The apostle
goes at once to the root of the matter and spews them that, in so doing, they
had really given up the truth that God had sent down the Holy Ghost to dwell in
the hearts of those that believe, to guide them into all truth, and to take of
the things of Christ and show them unto them, and to be in them a present living
power for walking worthy of Him who had called them to His own kingdom and
glory, besides giving them the power to cry Abba, Father, and to know what it is
to be " an heir of God through Christ." I may be forgiven a short digression
here for the purpose of making this clearer; for it is of great importance. The
admittance that deliverance has been wrought, is quite a different thing from
the knowledge that oneself is individually free. Now in the first seven verses
of chapter 4 there are two distinct statements as to the work of the Son and the
Spirit. There is, first, the mission of God's Son to redeem those that were
under the law. That was Christ's own work quite apart from us. Then we read: "
Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father." -This is quite another thing it is the mission of the
Holy Ghost, and is accomplished in us. The cry " Abba, Father," is much more
than the statement that God is Father. It means that the believer has the sense
in his soul of the relationship the words imply, and that he rejoices in it.
When I state that such a person is my father, there is nothing in the mere
statement which implies my attachment to him, or gives a guarantee that I shall
not break away from him and never` speak to him again. But when a child
addresses his father as such, calling him affectionately" my Father," the
relationship between the two is evidently being kept up. Now God sends His
Spirit into our hearts for this very purpose. Surely it needed a divine Person
in us to make such a relationship known so as to be enjoyed. It is based upon
redemption: there we find the door of access into it; but we have to learn in
our souls individually what it means for a slave to become a son. Let us take
the figure of a negro in slavery. Suppose you wanted to-deliver such an one and
set him free, how would you go about it? The first step would be, of" course, to
go to the master and settle with him as to what price he would take. It would be
of no use to ask the slave what he considered his price to be; he could not
settle it. It is evident: that the act of purchase is entirely apart from the
slave. But now, having paid the price, you have to do with the poor man himself,
and then the question is how to make him understand that you intend him to be
free. A first impulse might induce you to let him go. But if so, how is he to
live? He has no mean of providing for himself. He is without friends, -without a
position, without means in the wide world. You would surely furnish him with
means, but what is he to do when the money is -spent? The same difficulty
recurs. You take him into your house, and let him work for you, and pay him as a
hireling for his labor. After a while, let us go and ask him how he likes his
new life. We remark to him: You are free now! Tree? he answers; what does that
mean? I have changed masters, it is true: my present master is very kind to me,
so that my life is no longer burdensome to me as it was; but still he is my
master, and I am his servant: what do you mean by being free? As long as the
relative position remains the same, one born and bred in slavery cannot possibly
understand what freedom is. But bring him into the family, make him as one of
the children; will he not then learn, through newly awakened affections, what it
is to he in another relationship altogether? They have set me at their own
table, he says; they treat me as one of themselves; they talk to me as one
interested in the family matters; this is different indeed! I feel I am a slave
no longer; he who was my master is now my father; now I know that I am free! And
then, what place is ours at the table? Ask the negro slave again; what place
would his slave's heart dare to crave for? Would he not shrink from being at the
same table as the other members of the family,? Would he not look on himself and
say, I am black, they are white; I cannot sit with them; let them give me a
little-table by myself, or one in another room? Ah, it is not thus God deals
with us. But we must change the simile. The slaves are many, but there is one
SON, and He sets us in the place of His own firstborn. It is " the Spirit of his
Son" that He has sent into our hearts. He would turn our eyes and thoughts away
from our miserable selves, that, our gaze may be fixed on the SON and our
hearts, ravished with His glory; and He sends down the Holy Ghost to say to us
in living power, " If a, son, then an heir, an heir of God, joint heir with
Christ." Everything that belongs to the relationship is ours; for sonship and
heirship go together; but the Lord's heart finds contentment, in making known
the Father. (John 17:26.) Now, while upon this subject, just let me ask you one
thing. Which part of the blessing has the greatest attraction for your soul? Is
it the' inheritance and its glory, or is it the relationship with the Father?
Surely not one of us will hesitate to say that the relationship is by far the
more precious of the two. But that, dear~ friends, we have now. We are waiting
for the inheritance; we have the /eve of that; it is the " hope " attached to
the revelation of God's righteousness, as expressed in this epistle, and
inseparable from the relationship into which we are brought. But the
relationship, the more blessed of the two, is ours to enjoy wow. The doctrine
exposed in the Galatians is the fundamental principle of Christianity: God has
sent down His Spirit into our hearts here, and that because we have been made
sons through redemption. He sends the Spirit into our hearts, that we may know
the relationship, and enter into it, and enjoy it. In Ephesians we see the
blessed fruits of its exercise and what flows from it, as well as the activities
of these divine affections in the power of the Spirit. In Galatians we find the
introduction to it, and the power for its exercise, the Holy Spirit. Now the
Galatians had practically given this truth up; the apostle has therefore to lay
the foundation of first principles, insisting upon the relationship into which
they had been already brought, and sheaving that as to the inheritance which
attaches to it, the Holy Spirit is the present earnest. So when speaking of how
we are to live down here until we get to the inheritance, be says, " Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." The Holy Spirit
occupies us with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as we go on our way,
forming us morally in His image. (2 Cor. 3) There is 6, remarkable point too, if
we pay attention to it, in chapter v., which shows the character of this power
that works in us. We have in verses 19, 22, the contrast marked between " the
works of the flesh " and " the fruit of the Spirit." Why are the words
different? "Works" suppose effort; the natural man understands this; it
expresses his life in the world; but there is no effort connected with the
thought of " fruit." No amount of trying would ever get fruit from a tree. If it
is in a suitable climate and in a good state and watered, it must bring forth
fruit. Consider too " the fruit" mentioned in verse 22. Would you confide your
heart to a person who says, I am trying to love you as much as I can? Would you
not feel instinctively there was something wrong? Real love is so engrossed with
its object, that it is only tried with the feeling of its own insufficiency:
there is no effort, no difficulty about it; it is the natural outflow of what
exists within, and only seeks a vent in order to skew itself, though never for
its own sake. In the same way is it not clear that one who says, I am trying to
get joy, or I am trying to get peace, is only painfully manifesting that he has
not got it? All these fruits, different and varied as they may be, and admitting
of growth and culture, are produced without effort the moment a soul is really
subject to the Spirit of God, led of the Spirit and indwelt by Him. But, as with
the healthy tree, there must be, for the development, and abundance of fruit,
the suited climate and nourishment. The vital power is the Holy Ghost; the meat
and drink in Christ (John 6); the climate is the grace of God (Rom. 6:14); the
ground we are rooted in, His love (Eph. 3:17; John 15) We are first " born of
the Spirit," as the Lord says to Nicodemus, that is, made children through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ; then we are called to " walk in the Spirit." I now
desire to look at the practical hindrances which came in to turn the Galatians
aside from the path of faith in the power of the Spirit_ Paul says to them: " Ye
did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" This is why
I read those passages in Numbers, because we find in them several points which
bear upon the subject before us. It is a Serious thing to find these young
saints who had received the word in its fullness from an apostle, turned away in
so short a time from the truth they had been taught. Is not this a solemn
warning for us all? In the book of Numbers which contains the Levitical
ordinances, we find God's thoughts as to what He considers His service in this
world. The Levites were first as an entire tribe separated to God, and then
their three families made three principal classes (or four, if the priesthood be
included), each having a different service to perform. Those who, after the
priests, were brought into the nearest place were the Kohathites. Now, without
entering much into the details that are given to us, we may notice that the
special service of the Kohathites was in connection with the vessels of the
tabernacle, with the dwelling-place of God in the midst of His people-those
vessels which set forth individually different phases of Christ's glory. When
the camp removed (and the journeying was characteristic of the wilderness),
their duty was to bear the holy vessels. They could not choose their burden;
they were not even allowed to touch the holy vessels; but after the priests had
covered them up in the ordered way and 'put them upon bars or staves, then the
Kohathites came forward to receive each one his appointed service and learn what
his duty- was. They were not to look at the holy things uncovered, on pain of
death. This was a particular ordinance as to their special service. (Chapter
4:17-20.) It was the priests, who went habitually into the tabernacle, whose
duty it was to cover the vessels and prepare them for removal. None of these
vessels might, on any account, be put into wagons, as was all else that
pertained to the tabernacle; they were to be carried alone on the shoulders of
the Levites. Wagons were offered at the time of the dedication of the altar by
the twelve princes of the tribes for the service of Jehovah, and God told Moses
to give them to the Gershonites and the Merarites, as useful in transporting the
curtains, boards, bars, sockets,, and other different parts that fell to their
share in the transport; but to the Kohathites He gave none, " because the
service of the sanctuary belonging to them was that they should bear upon their
shoulders." As we have seen, all these vessels thus carried were covered up.
There was nothing to be seen, nothing to attract attention except the ark with
its covering of blue; all else was under the badgers' skins. Upon the ark was
first put the veil of the tabernacle; then the badgers' skins, and over that
they were to " spread a cloth wholly of blue." This gave to the ark a very
marked place. When the Israelites were moving from place to place, the ark in
its blue covering was always to be distinguished, standing out in contrast with
the white robes of the priests and Levites. But this exception only brought more
fully into view the fact, that all the other vessels of the sanctuary were
concealed under the badgers'-skin coverings. No one could tell from the outward
appearance what these vessels were, though each Kohathite might know what his
appointed charge was. But there was nothing in the service itself, or what was
visible of it, to bring glory to those occupied in it. An external looker-on
could only have the impression that the Kohathites were set apart for the
hardest labor. On no account were they to be allowed the relief of a wagon for
bearing their charge. They were always to carry on their shoulders. Is not this
attitude full of meaning for us? The Kohathites were subject to what they
carried, and their hearts were exercised as to the value of what they bore; each
one must keep in his proper place, and bear his appointed, outwardly
unattractive burden.. But if any asked them what they did, their answer would
be, that they carried the vessels of the sanctuary. And, better than all, they
could have the sense in their souls that the eye of Israel's God was upon them:
they were set apart for the service of His house. NOW have we anything in our
hearts of the spirit of the Kohathites? God has called us near to Himself, that
we may bear His truth in testimony to Him through this world. Are we bearing it
as the Kohathites were called to do? It was no question of choice with them:
their service was one of simple obedience, yet very near to God, and, if their
heart was in it, one of singular delight. And observe too, they must needs walk
together. No vessel of the sanctuary could be carried without a bar, which
supposes at the very least two bearers. Every personal consideration must with
them be set aside. One might be stronger than another, or able to walk faster;
but neither the strong nor the weak could decide the pace or the time; that
depended alone on the cloud which directed every movement of the camp. And none
were in more direct dependence on it than the Kohathites. But so walking in
their divine order, might they not count on help from Him who manifested His
glory on the ark they bore? So it was, on [a most memorable day of joy in
Israel, which we will speak of presently. Their service obliged them to look up
to God, both for guidance and help: it was characterized in every detail by
obedience and dependence upon Him. Does not all this transport us at once into
the epistle to the Philippians, where we find the aged apostle suffering with
joy in prison, despised and forgotten in the world, cheering and exhorting the
saints to stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the
faith of the gospel, to be heavenly minded, " walking by the same rule,"
forgetting what was behind and reaching forth to what was before? Could he not
present himself to them as an example, having labored in the gospel in the very
spirit of the Kohathites? " Necessity is laid upon me," he says; so he would
have his service without charge; its reward was in itself, in its being for
Christ's sake. So we can understand how deeply he felt the conduct of the
Galatians. Alas, God's order is easily forgotten by us. As it was with the
Galatian saints, so had it been before in Israel: human nature is the same. God
has written His judgment of it for our learning and instruction. Let us go over
briefly the facts of the history in 2 Sam. 6 It was a wonderful moment for the
king after God's own heart, when he thought of bringing the ark to Zion. Up to
that time there had been a moral blot on God's chosen people: a fortress in the
land from which no power of Israel could dislodge the enemy. Joshua, the Judges,
and even king Saul who in his zeal for Israel sought to destroy the Gibeonites,
had left it untouched. There the enemy was insolent, more so than anywhere else.
The place was impregnable in their eyes: " the blind and the lame " could keep
out the hosts of Jehovah. It was a standing reproach on them, and consequently
on Jehovah's name. But as soon as David receives the crown of the kingdom over
Israel, and the whole land is at his feet, he feels his responsibility is now to
put all at God's feet; so the first thing he does is to go to the fortress of
Zion and wrest it out of the hands of the Jebusites. God owned this act of
faith, and chose the place from that time " to place his name there." That which
had been the stronghold of the enemy is to be henceforth the brightest spot of
all. But the glory of the victory is not complete until Psalm 132 can be sung
there, and David can say in the words of Moses: " Arise, O Lord, into thy
resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength." This leads to fresh exercises
of heart, and to fresh lessons of human weakness. Yet David is a Kohathite in
heart, and shews, as is clear from the end of chapter v., that dependence on God
was his habit; and he finds in practice that God is for him. But now comes a
very different scene. David had been faithful in fighting the enemy: he has to
be tested as to faithfulness in God's house. Then is manifested of how real
danger to the soul is the moment after a victory has been gained. The ark has to
be carried up to Mount Zion; but David does not think of the Kohathites. His
mind is full of the victories God has given him, and he gathers together 30,000
chosen men of Israel, and consults with every leader about bringing up the ark.
(1 Chron. 14) He only finds the world's wisdom with them, but does not detect
it: and they imitate the Philistines with 'their cart and oxen. But the oxen
stumble, Uzzah puts forth his hand to steady the ark and is smitten, and David,
displeased, carries it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Why was it
that God allowed the oxen to-stumble? How is it that David has to give up his
enterprise with shame, whereas when the Philistines did the very same thing 'all
went right, and God was glorified? It was as David himself owned soon after,
because " we sought him not after the due order." The Kohathites were not in
their right place. God allowed this to be worked out to its full result, in
order that David's heart might be fully tested and brought into the light of His
presence. David's thought of bringing up the ark was very beautiful, but he
forgot " the due order." Like the Galatians in an after day, he replaced the
service of the sanctuary by the Philistine cart and oxen, and did not do it even
so well as they: and so it generally happens when God's saints imitate the
world. It seemed so simple and natural; but because it was so, it was manifestly
of the world. It was not God's way. David however learned the lesson; and when
afterward he set the Kohathites in their proper place, God " helped them " as
they bore the ark of the covenant, and the joy in Israel was legitimate and
blessed. At every stage of the Levites onward progress, they offered a bullock
and a ram. But to return to Num. 4 There was a special injunction as to the
Kohathites that we do not find in the case of the other Levites. The Lord said:
" Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the
Levites: but thus do unto them, that they may live, and not die, when they
approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint
them every one to his service and to his burden: but they shall not go in to see
when the holy things are covered, lest they die." There was danger for them that
did not exist in the same way for others; for they were in the place of greatest
nearness to God. God will not suffer in His presence that which is not worthy of
Himself. He does not interfere with the world in its sin. He lets that go on its
way until the judgment. But He will be sanctified in those that draw near to
Him, and for them especially exists the danger of being cut off if unsubject to
the order of the sanctuary. This was what did happen on the day of the
consecration of Aaron. The nearer we are to God, the more careful we must be to
do everything according to God's order. Only after the holy things were covered
were they to come and take them. They were separated by God to this special
service, but they were not allowed to exceed it or look upon the holy things.
What instruction is there for us in this? Is it not, not allowing the natural
man, the curiosity of an unsanctified heart, to satisfy itself with that which
God has put in His house to set forth the glory of Christ? The natural man must
not be allowed to trespass here, even to admire. God has given us His truth in
order that the truth may command us, may rule our hearts and form our ways; it
is not for the natural man to admire or to criticize it. And those who were in
the greatest danger of doing this were those who were brought the nearest. God
will have the conscience exercised as to His presence, as to what it is to have
to do, with Him: The sense of this in the soul is like the ballast in a vessel.
The unladen ship must have ballast. All may go well if the wind happens to be
gentle and favorable, but without ballast, if a storm rises, the ship must be
lost. God, having brought us in Christ into a position of the greatest nearness
and privilege, and having given us a nature capable of enjoying Him, will not
have our natural minds working about His truth, or enjoying it as a natural man
might enjoy it. Want of care as to this gets us out of the current of God's
thoughts, and leads into the state of the Galatians, who having begun in the.
Spirit, went on to make a fair show in the flesh. We may enjoy God's truth in a
fleshly way; but then God comes in in judgment. May our hearts be so exercised
before Him that we may become apt to learn more of His thoughts about service
and testimony in communion with His own dear Son. That which is nearest to the
Lord's heart is the church for which He gave Himself. " Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it." Have I got anything in my heart that answers to the
Lord's as to this? God has brought us into communion with His own firstborn Son,
and will have our hearts set upon Christ's interests, our thoughts occupied with
Him, that we may be able to understand with all saints what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God." United by the
Holy Ghost to all saints in Christ, you cannot isolate yourself from them
without practically giving up the testimony and service He has appointed, and
ignoring holiness as God has set it forth in Christianity. The Kohathites must
work together. Of course we do not find the church as the body of Christ in the
Old Testament, but we do find there the " order " of the house of God, and in
those who are brought so near to God as the Kohathites were, we have a distinct
indication of what He seeks in those whom He has now made nigh in His Son.
First, they are under the power of the truth; they bear it on their shoulders,
valuing it, and caring for it as that which is most precious. Secondly, they
walk together; and what keeps them together too is the position of service in
which they are set in dependence upon God. Thirdly, they do not seek to satisfy
the craving of the natural heart with God's holy things; they walk as to them in
God's presence in the Spirit, so as not to satisfy the lust of the flesh. These
are the three characteristics of the Kohathites. What a comfort and joy it is to
the heart to know that God has brought His people so near to Himself that He may
bless them there according to His own thoughts! Surely He desires for us that we
may be practically under the power of the place in which He has set us "IN
CHRIST." The tendency of human nature is always to measure things by the amount
of outward blessing or success. It characterizes very much so-called christian
work in the day we live in. But if I am really on God's ground, I shall be
content with knowing that His eye is ever on His saints, and that He thinks of
the appointed place and measure and sphere of service that He has allotted to
each of His own. In this He is sovereign; but if living in the sanctuary and
furnished with His thoughts, we shall get intelligent in discerning His ways,
and find ever fresh occasions of joy in tracing them out. Personally we have to
ask ourselves, Am I in the place where He wishes me to be? Am I occupied with
the service of His Son in the path of obedience, and in constant dependence upon
Him, allowing no principle of the flesh or of the world to come in between me
and Him so as to hinder my adopting His divine " order"? All the rest must be
left in His hand. The Lord has put His name upon us, and calls us to do whatever
we have to do for His sake. "I know thy works." Weakness is no real hindrance,
for if felt as it ought to be, it only draws us nearer to Him, and becomes the
opportunity for His grace to shine forth, and His strength to be made perfect in
it. To such He says, "I have set before thee an open door which no man can
shut." God will have us hold the truth in communion with Himself (otherwise it
has no power over the soul), in order that we may be found going quietly forward
as His witnesses, " led of the Spirit," and with the constant, sense of being in
His presence under the power of the truth He has revealed to us. We shall find
that it is the cross of Christ-which furnishes the secret of power for
testimony: " always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus may be manifested in our body." May it be more and more so with
us, through the infinite grace of God. [W. J. L.]


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  CHAPTER 4: LIBERATION
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THE first great question is, What is Jordan? What does it represent? What is the
antitype? One very important thing in connection with it is, that if you do not
know the antitype you never understand the type; nothing has been a more
fruitful source of mischief than trying to explain the type without knowing the
antitype. Thus those who do not understand Paul's teaching can never interpret
the Old Testament. The apostle puts his own teaching in 2 Tim. 3 alongside Old
Testament scriptures. Well, now, as to the Jordan people say, " Jordan is a type
of our natural death." If so, what, I ask, is Gilgal? Why, it must be purgatory,
for Gilgal comes after Jordan! You see at once the inconsistency of the
interpretation. If you understand Paul's doctrine, you will see that Ephesians
is the antitype of Josh. 1 may add that an important principle in connection
with this subject is, in practice never to be below the type. Now let us turn to
the chapter before us, and see what the type is. It is a type of the truth that
we are dead with Christ. It is not the Red Sea. You do not know the Red Sea and
the Jordan at the same time; antitypically they occurred at the same moment, for
Christ died but once; and these are two aspects of His death. In the Red Sea He
meets all, the enemies: that is the aspect of His death towards God. At the
Jordan it is its aspect towards me. Now what do we learn at the Red Sea? It is a
very important history, but I do not dwell on it now. I will only say that the
Red Sea is where Christ in His death removed every atom of the offensive thing
from before the eye of God; there every power was overcome; it is not merely the
blood screening from judgment. In Ex. 12 the people have the sense of being
sheltered from judgment by the blood; but at the Red Sea the whole thing is
judicially removed from the eye of God forever. The old man has been crucified
at the cross, that the body of sin might be destroyed; hence the Egyptians seen
to-day are to be seen no more forever. It is not Egypt. Egypt is the place where
the judgment was. The Egyptian is the person on whom the judgment came. That is
in figure the old man; that brought judgment on the place and that is gone
completely; as we get in one of the Psalms: " There was not one of them left."
That is what God has done for the people, and they are brought to God. Rom. 3
answers to Ex. 12; Rom. 5 gives more the idea of Ex. 15; everything is, clear.
Christ is risen from the dead; not a single disturbing thing is left; all of it
is gone from the eye of God, and therefore there is peace. There was never peace
till Christ rose from the dead. People think it very dreadful to say so, but how
could there be peace until the battle were over? I do not say there was not
victory; victory is when you have overcome the enemy, but peace is when you have
silenced him. All our enemies are sunk like lead in the mighty waters. " He
entered into death that he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is
the devil." If you do, not understand the Red Sea, it is no use going on to the
Jordan. Jordan is another aspect of the death of Christ, it is our death with
Christ, while the Red Sea is His death for us. The thing I learn in Jordan is,
that I am carried over through Christ's death to the place where Christ is, by
the Spirit of God. If I were dead I should be happy, I should go to heaven; but
the question is, Can I get over before I die? That is the entire question, and
it, is the important thing that belongs to us, and not to the millennial saints.
God does not deal now with the man that has rejected His. Son, but He changes
the rebel into a member of the body of Christ; while in the millennium the rebel
will be turned into a subject, because the King will be here. The King is not
here now. What then does God do? Through divine grace He changes him into a
member of the body of Christ. There will be no Jordan in the millennium, and it
will not be necessary to get across then, because Christ will be here. The great
thing now is to get across to the place where Christ is now. Would you like to
go? Well you are across, though you have not found it out. Christ would not have
it otherwise than that we should be with Him where He is. It would not be enough
for Him, that we should only be clear in the sight of God, and rejoicing in the
victory. No, He would have us in the place where He is. But you could not get
into the place unless death had come in. Death has come in; in Jordan we die
with Him; it is not there He for us. Thank God, He has died for us, and done the
work perfectly to the satisfaction of the heart of God forever. He has never any
question about me, never. He never sees me in the flesh again. Alas, I may go
back to it I But, as one has said, " Woe betide me if I do," because God must
judge the root of it in me, and that is the trouble a believer has now-not to be
forgiven merely what he has -done, but that the root may be judged. Peter was
forgiven for a long time before the root was judged; and that is restoration. "
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean." Not forgiven
only, but cleansed. The root must be judged. But, you say, it may spring again.
Yes, but the least likely bit to grow is the one you dread. There is another
thing in Ex. 3:8: God says, " I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of
the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a
large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." That was the purpose of God
concerning His people, and that Christ has accomplished. Have you a doubt about
it? It is accomplished., He has done it perfectly. Some one may say, I never
knew it. And why? Because you never cared for it. But do you think God does not
care whether you have it or not? It is the deep delight of His heart that you
should enjoy it. Caleb could say, If the Lord delights in us He will bring us
in. Did you ever consider in the case of the prodigal son, who it is delights to
bring him in? Why, it is the Father. It is the delight of the Father, then the
delight of the prodigal. It is He who says, " Bring hither the fatted calf and
kill it; and let us eat and be merry;" let him- share the joys of my house. The
fact is, beloved friends, and it is a wonderful thing to say it, God never had
one to share the joys of His house until the prodigal came; not one. Not one
could He have till Christ came. The thief on the cross was the first sample
brought up to share divine joys in company with the Son of God. Who can deny it?
But, you say, were there not many saved before? Yes, but never brought into the
place in company with Christ, because Christ was not there..Think of the delight
with which He said: " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." I desire to
call your attention to the fact that God never had a people to share His joys
till now. Hence He says to the servants, " Bring hither the fatted calf." The
fatted calf was the thing reserved, and reserved until the guest came. Who was
the guest? The poor sinner brought in by the Son: that is the guest. The lost
sheep brought in on the Shepherd's shoulders, and by the power of the Spirit
working in that same prodigal. The Shepherd had given His life for him, the Holy
Spirit had accomplished a divine work in his soul, and the Father was waiting to
receive him with unspeakable delight. "It is meet," He said, " that we should
make merry and be glad." That is what answers to the passage I have read in
Exodus. God would bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey. But
Moses never did; it was Joshua who brought them in. What is the antitype? First
the gospel is, that the joys of heaven are made known to me, a sinner here upon
the earth, by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven.. "The kingdom of heaven is
not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
The gospel is, I am delivered from Egypt, and I have the Spirit sent down from a
glorified Savior to light up my heart with the joys of heaven, the joys of the
Father's house, until I come home. Thus the Spirit comforts me until I come
home., That is the gospel. Now I come to the church. Well, not only is God's Son
up in heaven, but God has brought up His own to enjoy heaven now. We are not
there fully yet; but the point, is, we can come to the spot now where Christ is;
that is, in spirit. As we sometimes sing: " In spirit there already." or, as we
sang just now: " And see the Spirit's power Has oped the heavenly door; Has
brought me to that favor'd hour, When toil shall all be o'er." Have you got the
right of entrance there, and have you ever been there? That is the question. I
ask then first, What is your title? We have a right to be there because Christ
has cleared away the whole thing that hindered. You may say, I see that, but I
have never enjoyed being there. That is true perhaps, and I go with you in that
and say, would that I enjoyed it more; still, the fault is not with God; it is
our own. A person may not enjoy it, but there it is for him. Whether he does
enjoy it, is practically to be known by the way he is at his work. I say to a
working man, Would you like to go home? Oh yes, he says, that is what I long
for. I never see a man well-ordered who has no home. A Christian is not right if
he has not a home. Where is his home? Up there above. " In spirit there
already." You get the idea in Psa. 23 " He maketh me to lie down in green-
pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters." It is refreshment, and
therefore it is said, " He restoreth my soul." He invigorates it. It is not "
Whene'er I go astray;" that is not the right thought. This restoration is to
help you on, to invigorate you. Like a man going to rest at night at home in
very happy circumstances, and in the morning he goes forth cheerfully to his
work; or like a person going out warm on a cold day-that is exactly the idea. It
is the delight of God to have us there, and the Spirit come down leads us there.
It must surely greatly interest me to see the delight the Father has that the
prodigal tastes the joys of His house. That is the gospel a wonderful thing. But
when I come to the church, and know that Christ, cast out of this earth, has
been raised up to heaven, and seated on the right hand of God, I understand how
the purpose God had before Him, has been brought about: that His people should
now through the Spirit, and death with Christ, travel there and enjoy the very
spot where He is. This is greater still. Have you ever been to this place? Would
you like to go there? Will you go there? That is the question raised, and that I
want you to answer. " Wilt thou go with this man?" What! leave all my
associations here, kindred and every tie, to go with Him? Yes! Rebekah has heard
such an account concerning Isaac that she will go to him where he is. You could
never be satisfied with or enjoy the mere relation of the facts. How could you?
Suppose I tell a boy at school, who has never had a home, to go to such-and-such
a place and he would find it his home. He might say, I was never there. The fact
is he has no idea of a home, and has no power to fix his heart upon it. He has
neither father nor mother; he is an orphan. It is not that he can be so happy at
school as at home, but he has no tie to a parent, or he would be glad to go
home; it could not be otherwise. It matters not how happy the school may be, or
the things here. The question I put to my heart is, " Wilt thou go with this
man?" If you had found out the preciousness that is in Christ, would you not
long to go to the place where He is? I know what some say, Can we not have Him
with us here? That is like Orpah: she kissed her mother-in-law, but she would
not go with her. She could not leave her country, she did not love enough; Naomi
was not indispensable to her. If the Lord were indispensable to me, this Josh. 3
would be the delight of my heart. You say, would you go and leave everybody and
everything? Yes! But do not say, beloved friends, " leave everybody;" because,
mark the practical effect, you would come back to them a better man if you had
crossed over. If you went over there, and entered into what belongs to you
there, you would come back a better man. In Colossians a man is told not to be
bitter to his wife; but in Ephesians, where he comes from heaven, he is told to
"love his wife as Christ loved the church." You see how great that is. It is an
advantage to all, because he comes back to resume his ties, and fulfill his
obligations, in a better way. Well, there are three reasons for our crossing
over: first, the delight the Father has in having us there, and the delight of
Christ in having us there, and, secondly, our delight in being with Him; and a
third is, it is what suits us, because we have a heavenly nature. No place else
suits us, because we are like exotics. We have got into the sunlight, and it
suits us. I say, I can enjoy myself now! I come home from business cares, from
being always on the alert, all the day long, and now I relax myself, I am at
ease; around me all suits me. But there is another thing I have already alluded
to, and it is this: If you do not go over, and do not become acquainted with
Christ's circumstances there, you never can demonstrate Him down here. I can
understand a person saying, I do not know how to do this. You may be a very good
wilderness man, but not a heavenly one. He is not a thorough Frenchman who has
never been to France. You may be a redeemed man running on to heaven, but that
is not being in heaven. An Ephesian is one coming from heaven. He is not only
raised up, but he knows he is raised up, to the spot where Christ is; he has by
faith crossed over to heaven, and now comes back from it; and yet still is in
the place where Christ is in spirit, though not yet in body. But He will "
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
according to the mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself." Then in body too, we shall be with Him forever. Let me dwell a
little on the subject, to explain what I mean. If I die, I shall go to heaven; I
may have a happy death-bed; but I call that dissolution. Now I am going to use a
new word, which I trust will make it plain. I call Jordan liberation. I call
actual death dissolution. I trust I have stated to you plainly that God has
accomplished it all; and if I am not enjoying it, it is because I do not care
about it; and in practice, God does not "cast his pearls before swine." There is
nothing more pernicious practically with ourselves than exhibiting more
affection than is valued. If you value it, His word to you is, " I love them
that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." It is not that it is
not there for all alike, but you do not enjoy it, because you do not value it.
If you valued it, you would be in it, for " To him that hath, shall more be
given." It is blessed truth I am telling you; but of what use is it telling it
to you, if you do not care for it, do not value it? Now, I will explain. You
know what a happy death-bed is. I have seen a person so really filled with the
sense of the blessedness of being with Christ in heaven, that there was actual
delight at the thought of being released. That is dissolution. The last tie and
the greatest is broken. The greatest tie is the one you cling to most; it is the
hardest thing to get rid of. There is a saying that if you had twenty-one links
to this earth, and twenty of them were broken, you would stick to the last
harder than all the twenty. Dissolution is, the links are all worn out, and a
man gets a brighter sense or what it is to go. I visited a poor woman on her
death-bed who had a large family. I said something to her about them, but she
replied, " I could not turn my attention to them now. I could not be disturbed
now from the delight I have in the prospect of soon being with the Lord." She
was ready for dissolution. I believe there are hundreds who are really over
Jordan in spirit, who have never accepted Jordan-never accepted liberation. They
have learned they have a Savior in the glory,, and know the perfect satisfaction
they have in that scene of light, because of their Savior there, but they have
not accepted Jordan; that is, their tie to the earth is not cut. You say, what
should I do if every tie here was cut? Well, that is the proof that you have not
liberation; and if you say your natural death only can do it for you, you are
making liberation less than dissolution. In a spiritual death-bed you are still
in the body; in a natural one you leave it; and 'yet I say the former is the
greatest. Paul says, "to God I am beside myself," lost altogether. That is what
Jordan is; that is what liberation is. It is not merely I ought to be, but I am
loosened to everything by the commanding attraction of the Lord Jesus. Christ,
and the delight of heart I have to go to the place where He is. The known
welcome that awaits me in that scene enables me to say, I must stand loose to
all here. That is not when we come to a death-bed, but when in the prime of
life, and surrounded with everything here that the scene can afford to make one
happy in it; when I have found out that I can cross over, that. I am over, I
know that it is better to be there. How? Turn to the antitype: just read one
verse showing this in Eph. 1 " That ye may know... what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his
mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." That is the power that
has taken me up with Christ: the same power that has brought Christ up has
brought me up. Is that a known thing? If you have not known it, you cannot enjoy
it. You may say as in Peter, I am in the pathway. Yes, following His steps, and
you may be suffering for righteousness' sake, and watching against thee power of
the enemy and the like. And that is all very blessed, but that is the
wilderness, and this is a different thing altogether. I am not dwelling on that
side now; I am trying to set the other before you, and to lead you to delight in
it, and to see the delight the Lord has in having you where He is. Turn now to
Luke 2:29. " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes
have seen thy salvation." That is dissolution, not liberation: Simeon is going
to die. I hold liberation is, that I am cleared by Christ's death from every tie
to this world, and I have gone up to the spot where He is, and come back again
to resume every tie in a new power. If I did not get over I could not do it.
What power do I come back with? A heavenly power. Do you think that is an
extraordinary thing? But if you know the Father's heart, and Christ's heart, you
cannot for a moment doubt the reality of it. Christ is raised up by the mighty
power of God. Now, the members of His body are brought up by that same power.
All are raised up. All. You may say, I never enjoyed it. Perhaps not, but it
does not make it the less true. A child when he is born has five senses; it is a
long time before he knows he has them, but it is none the less true. A child may
be born a prince, but he does not know it; and this is like many Christians. But
what is the worst part is that they do not care to know it. When the apostle is
writing to the Ephesians, he lets his heart flow out, for they were in a fit
state to receive what he had to impart. Hence he says, " When I heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks
for you." I want the "eyes of your hearts to be enlightened." I want you to know
these things, for you are in a condition for it. Simeon's case is a happy
death-bed: but it is not liberation. There is a perfect sense that all is
cleared, but he wants to go away, and not to come back again. Liberation is: I
am going clean away, but though I go away thus, I shall come back again a new
kind of person, in a new power; a new person influenced by the place where I
have been. Look now at Stephen. " But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the
right hand of God." I say, beloved friends, that is liberation, He had not a
single regret; he gladly gave inp everything-everything for Christ. He went to
the other side before he died; he was perfectly over. Christ had gone in and
cleared the way for him. If the way had not been cleared, he could not have gone
over. It was a new thing which was never opened out before. Heaven opened to a
believer for the first time. Now Stephen is brought into liberation. And this is
true for us all. How? By the Spirit of 'God, who abides in me down here. I do
not say we have all visions like that, but we have the thing. This is the
opening of the new line, if I may so speak, and all must go by it some day: but
what I want you to know, and what I am seeking to get definitely before you, is
that we may go over now. Do you enter into the delight the Father has that you
should enjoy the place where Christ is? As a believer in the work of His Son, He
sends down the joys of heaven by the Holy Ghost to you here; that is the fatted
calf; and now in spirit He will have you come up to the place where the joys are
Therefore in the prayer in Eph. 3, the apostle says., " That he would grant you
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his
Spirit in the inner man." That is the answer to Deut. 26 " And the Lord brought
us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with
great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: and he brought us into
this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and
honey." Thank God, I can go over now. It is my right, and it suits me to go, and
I have preponderating reasons besides this. I know it is the delight of the
Father's heart to have me there. I have the sense that I am in the very scene
now where my Lord is, and there to get properly qualified for His service. What
is my duty now? The bride's duty: to set forth that blessed One on the earth
where He is not. How do I get qualified? By having to do with Christ's things
where He is. That is the difference between heaven and the wilderness. In the
wilderness Christ supports me in any circumstances: in heaven I am in His
circumstances. I am in the wilderness always in one sense; but I have to stand
for Christ here; and I stand here in the power of the Lord. In Psa. 22, I see
that there is nothing against me that Christ has not met, and overcome for me.
In consequence of this, Stephen can stand superior to everything here. The
holiness of God has been maintained by the work of Christ, and now, if I take
the order in this psalm, I see how he meets all the power of evil. First, there
is the reproach of the people. Stephen is superior to it. In the power of
Christ, the power that put him up there, he is superior to the power against
Christ here. He is a heavenly man, he is above his circumstances and standing
for Christ; and as to the reproach of the people he is superior to it. What
about the bulls of Bashan-ecclesiastical power? Superior. What about bodily
weakness-being brought into the dust of death? Superior. What about the
lion-Satan? Superior. What about the horns of the unicorn-death? Superior,
superior to them all! As to his murderers, so superior that he could kneel down
and pray for them. He was there to set forth a rejected Christ upon the earth in
His own power. He is over Jordan; he had liberation before dissolution. Let us
turn to another example in Phil. 1 " For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a
desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to
abide in the flesh is more needful for you." Paul longs for dissolution, but
still he is quite ready to stay; but he says, " To be with Christ is far
better." You say, perhaps, he was never there. Yes, he was in paradise as " a
man in Christ." How did he get there? By his own death? No, Christ's death had
relieved him of all the encumbrances connected with the flesh; "Whether in the
body, or out of the body, I cannot tell." He was set so free that he could rise
up in the Spirit to the very spot where Christ is. He would like to remain
there, but it was needful for the Philippians he should remain here, and he
says, " I know I shall remain." Now turn back to Joshua for a moment. You
understand now, beloved friends, what I feel in speaking on a chapter like this.
I say that we all ought to be delighted, we all ought to be ready to leave
everything here to go over there. What, if you get happy in the Lord? Yes, when
you are happy in the Lord, what comes into your mind? I do not think when you
are thoroughly happy in the Lord that either the greatest O mercy or the
greatest sorrow comes into your mind. That is what comforts many a one who is
really wee in spirit, but who has not accepted Jordan. I want you to accept
Jordan. That is liberation. I am over through Christ's death. Through my own
death I shall get to heaven when I die. But the question is, Can I get the power
to reach there now? I say you ought to be glad to hear that you can. Like as to
a schoolboy I say, Would you not like to go home? His parents might be
constantly sending him favors at the school, but do you think all these would
satisfy him? No, he says, I would rather go home. That is the very spirit I want
you and all to have. I thank God I can go home because of Christ's death; I am
not waiting for my own death. I can go over yonder and get qualified now;
otherwise it is no use trying- to act for Christ here. I say if you have not
been over you have not the real thing, you do not know how to go on in testimony
for Christ. Not all the books in the world will teach children how to behave; it
is the way they are brought up at home; it is the associations they are in. And
so with you. It is by beholding the glory of the lord, you are changed into the
same image. " Hereby shall ye know that the living God is -among you," says
Joshua. That is exactly what Stephen finds. The power that put him up there,
that power enables him to stand superior to the whole force of the enemy here.
He stood unswervingly against all his foes. And that not merely as a stone wall,
but with divine feeling; kneeling down, he prayed for the men who were battering
him to death. What is it to have the power of Christ? Where do I get it? By
going up there. In Eph. 1 the power comes to put you up there; and then, after
showing you that place <and in Ephesians let me add, it is not so much the joy
of it as the benefits of it), you come down in the third chapter with the power
that is now in you. There you get power, never-failing power; but this power is
little entered into. Where do the gifts come from? From that same place, and oh,
what a place it is! One thing more. You will find in dissolution as well as in
liberation that there is not a drop of water. The waters rose up very far from
the city Adam; there was not a drop to be seen; all was clear. Now the feeling I
have myself is this. If I knew liberation better, I should meet death better. I
have no doubt many a soul finds when the question of dissolution comes, the
moment of death, he knows he is not over. But I say I am by grace over. I am in
liberation; I go over to be qualified, and I come back here a new kind of
person. I do not think there is a single practical thing in the Epistle to the
Ephesians you can do if you are not a heavenly man. You have not the requisite
power else. How else could a man love his wife " as Christ loved the church "?
You might be an extremely amiable, a devoted and affectionate man, but it is
another thing to love as Christ loved the church. You have not the power for it,
hence your best love is unlike Christ's love to the church. How could these
words be addressed to any man, except one who came with Christ's power? Every
other practical thing is just the same. We are to love one another " as Christ
loved us and gave himself for us." If I turn to Rom. 1 find a different thing
altogether. There, " Love is the fulfilling of the law." But in Ephesians it
touches everything; wives, children, servants, and all. Not a word about
children in Romans, Peter, or Hebrews. Not a; word about these for a wilderness
man. Only in Colossians and Ephesians do you get the children mentioned. And
why? Because here you have come up to God, and you can take in the whole scope
of His grace. In Romans you are a delivered sinner on the earth, and your family
is not touched on. In Peter the wives are mentioned but not the children. Oh,
the immense blessedness of having this power, when we come to the practical side
of our lives as Christians here! For this I need to keep my heart more fixed
upon the place where Christ is. Nothing will draw my heart there like dwelling
on the delight the Father has that I should be there, and the delight of the One
who has brought me there. There I learn the blessedness and the freshness of His
love, and there I become qualified to stand for Him in the place where He is
not. (J. B. S.)


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  CHAPTER 5: QUALIFICATION
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GILGAL follows immediately the crossing of Jordan, the antitype of which is in
Eph. 1 By the power of God we were brought over when Christ rose from the dead.
Then we all went up with Him. We do not know it perhaps. Born princes, as I have
said, are sometimes a long time before they find out what they are. So we are
sometimes a long time before we find out that in God's mind we were over when
Christ rose. After Jordan comes Gilgal. First I will notice the difference
between Gilgal and Marah. Marah is in Ex. 15:23. Marah is when you enter the
wilderness; Gilgal when you enter Canaan, which is typically the heavenly
places. One is in the wilderness and the other in heaven. All turns upon this.
Marah is drinking death, the bitter water of the Red Sea. Christ has gone
through death for us, and cleared us of everything; we take our place in the
wilderness, and now comes suffering in the flesh, clearly not suffering for sin,
for Christ has cleared all that away. It is important to understand the
difference between Marah and Gilgal. Every Christian knows something of Marah.
He could not be a Christian without it. In 1 Peter 4 we read: " As Christ has
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he
that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." That is Marah. The cross
is the tree thrown into the waters, and they are sweet because the cross is
there. This is the antitype of the passage in Exodus: " Arm yourselves likewise
with the same mind." For instance, I go into a room, and see something is on the
table that I would like to appropriate, but it is not mine, and I do not. I walk
out of the room instead. Well, I have ceased from sin. It would be sin to like
it, and I did not take it. I suffered in the flesh; I ceased from sin. It was
not that there was no sin in me, but I have ceased from it: I have drunk the
bitter water made sweet through Christ's death. Let me however say this: the
wilderness to me is a very different thing from what it was to Israel. To them
there was nothing in it to allure them. They could only have tempting things
before them by thinking of Egypt. But there are plenty of things around me to
tempt me, because I am in the same place,' and perhaps doing the same business
as before I was converted. Egypt to me yesterday is the wilderness to-day.
Yesterday I had the world with its order and rule to depend upon; to-day I have
nothing to depend upon for a single moment but God. I will illustrate the
difference. There is a man selling apples at the corner of the street, and some
ruffianly man comes and overturns his stall. What does he do? He calls a
policeman. That is Egypt. But now he is converted, and he is no longer in Egypt,
but in the wilderness, and selling his apples at the corner of the street as
before; and the same wicked man comes and knocks down his stall again. Well,
what does he do now? Does he call the policeman? No, he commits it to his
Father; he says, I must bring in death upon the flesh now instead of gratifying
it. Now this is very different from Israel. In Egypt they could have the leeks
and the onions and the garlic, but not in the wilderness; while I have them all
around me. Therefore Peter says, " Abstain from fleshly lusts that war against
the soul." And it is important to understand this difference. You are perhaps a
person of unblemished character, but that does not give you immunity from
suffering; you do suffer, but it is from the open attacks of Satan, not the
covert ones; that is, you suffer from Amalek, the enemy of the wilderness.
Amalek came out and fought against Israel in the wilderness. He is not the enemy
of Canaan. Romans does not take you out of the wilderness. There we read, " we
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body." In Hebrews we are running
on to heaven, but not there yet, nor do we get to the ground where we can stand
for Christ. It is not that you are not on ground where you can be a real
Christian, conduct yourself rightly, and resist evil, but then it is another
thing altogether when we come to Canaan. So in the history of Israel. There was
Pharaoh the enemy in Egypt, Amalek in the wilderness, Balaam when they left the
wilderness. It was after the wars with Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og the
king of Bashan, that Balaam appeared. Balaam's object was to draw them into
association with the world. Then comes Jordan, and now I am a dead man: man is
gone, and I am on the other side. Balaam could not do me any harm in the land; I
am dead there through Christ. We have come now to another ground, and the only
ground where we stand for Christ. If you ask, What is the difference between the
wilderness and Canaan? I reply, In the wilderness Christ supports me in my
circumstances, but in Canaan I stand in His circumstances. Nothing can be
clearer. We cannot now know Christ on earth. As the apostle says: " Yea, though
we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."
Now we are in heaven, and our first lesson is that we are united to Him there,
and like a faithful spouse, bound to represent that blessed One to whom we are
united; in the place where He is not. That is the thing we are called to, and
every true heart says, That is the very thing I would like. The result is that
though I am in the circumstances of the wilderness, I am above them. I will
illustrate this simply. Here is a poor woman with many children, struggling on,
and the Lord helping her, and she thanking the Lord every day for His mercies to
her, and for His care; her heart bounding with delight in the prospect of the
eternal rest that is coming; and while thus traveling on through the wilderness,
one of her benefactors comes in one day, and proposes something of a worldly
nature to her, something of a worldly advantage. But she replies, No, I cannot
accept that. She is thus above her circumstances, she is standing for Christ
now. But what is the result? That benefactor has become opposed -perhaps
bitterly opposed to her. But she is unmoved. She says, I will stand for my Lord.
I am getting through the wilderness because He stands for me, but now I stand
for Him. Through Him I am across death, and on the other side, risen with Him.
Now I turn to Col. 3 to explain Gilgal. The Colossians were intelligent and nice
Christians. This is clear from what the apostle, says, " We give thanks to
God... since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love ye have to
all the saints." In chapter 3 he says: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the
things that are above where Christ sitteth." I do not think we have, properly
speaking, the old corn of the land here; there may be allusion to it lower down
in the chapter, in " the peace of Christ to which we are called in one body."
That is the corporate thing; but here it is individual. I am risen with Christ;
but in Eph. 1 am not only over Jordan, but I learn what will fit me for Christ
here. I do not get that in Colossians at all. It is what we get in Ephesians.
There the almighty power of God carries me over; there is not a word about me;
not even my conversion. It does not touch my side at all, except as to my state,
dead in sins; it is God's side. Well, now comes, " If ye then be risen with
Christ.... Set your affections on things above." There are only two places for
blessing, earth and heaven. Often a person may not be worldly, but he is
earthly; then he is not heavenly. " Set your affections on things above, not on
things on the earth, for ye are dead." You do not get that in Romans. There it
is, " Reckon yourselves dead." Here man is gone altogether; this man is the
practical difficulty in the way of acting for Christ; you 'mist not bring in
this man at all. " The weapons of our warfare are not carnal"-that is, not
merely evil, but fleshly. Now we come to Gilgal, and I will now try to explain
what it is. " Ye are dead," says the apostle; then " mortify your members which
are upon the earth." It is not merely bringing death upon a thing as it arises,
but now the whole thing is rolled off; the reproach of Egypt is rolled away;
that is Gilgal. It is not only that you are dead, but you roll off the reproach
of Egypt. I not only put off the bad things, but I put off the flesh, the whole
thing. I have entirely done with that man: It is a most wonderful thing to you,
if you really know it practically. See what a practical difference there is
between Marah and Gilgal. In Marah you do not allow the working of the flesh;
and you must continue that in all your christian course, not allowing the flesh
to work. But in Gilgal it is more; the whole thing is rolled off. Put off all
these-" anger, wrath, malice," Sic. A person carefully educated perhaps would
not have these, but he has others. Well, all must be put off, and this on the
ground that you are dead with Christ. I am not to have one bit of what belonged
to the old man. I am disencumbered of-the whole thing now, and I am occupying
new ground. You may say it is very difficult to understand it. In one sense it
is difficult, and you never can understand it in a natural way. Our meetings are
often spoiled by trying to bring out natural sentiment; nothing of human
sentiment can help a Christian; God does not want man's mind. If you ask, How am
I to know the difference between a natural sentiment and a spiritual thought?
Why, in this way. You will find a human, sentiment is exciting in its character;
a natural thought or sentiment elates you, while a spiritual thought gives you
the impression of the greatness of it. You are subdued with the greatness of it.
A human sentiment, on the' contrary, excites you just as in a revival meeting.
But there is sure to be depression after it. Whereas the effect of the mighty
power of God in the word has the result of making me long to be alone, that I
may know the virtue of what my ear has listened to, and my heart has rested on.
That is a very different effect. Still I can understand the difficulty; we are
but poor creatures, and have all been affected more or less by beautiful
sentiments, and we know the exhilarating, effects they have had on us; but we
also know that they do not last. It is " like the crackling of thorns under a
pot." But the divine has a subduing effect, and yet it lay’s hold of you; and it
shews the blessedness of divine teaching. Still we know how difficult it is to
keep clear of it. For instance, suppose a meeting in a low state, and some one
gives out a hymn of an exciting character to raise the tone of it. There may be
a thrill, for a moment, but it is soon over. It is mere excitement. There is no
excitement in the divine circle. There is a sense of the divine; a sense that
the blessed Lord claims me; it is not the expulsive power of a new affection,
but of a new Person. It is a very blessed thing, but I am not a bit elated by
it; on the contrary, I am sensible of the weight, of the blessedness of it. In
one sense it puts me out in order to take possession. At Gilgal I am a new man.
I am entirely apart from the activities of the natural man, amiable or not;
Christ is all. There must be nothing of myself-no human activities at all. Of
course there is the vessel still. The vessel is the body, and the body is the
Lord's and He can use it. But Christ is everything. This is a very practical
thing, and I love the subject; because I believe if the soul gets hold of the
difference between Marah and Gilgal, it gets a wonderful lift. I often think
what a relief it would have been to me had I known it sooner. I have got rid of
the old thing, and now I am coming on to learn what suits Christ. But you may
say, Still the old thing comes back again, and what are we to do with it? John
13 just answers that. In Col. 3 you get standing, in John 13, state. The Lord
there says, I will wash your feet, for " if I wash thee not thou hast no part
with me." I have gone into heaven, and I cannot have you there with me unless
you are clean, for nothing that defileth can enter there. It is not merely
forgiveness;- it is removal of defilement. Not forgiveness only, but I am
washed-washed and wiped; that there may be no sense of defilement. You cannot be
in heaven with the sense of defilement? Peter was very devoted, and had great
love for the Lord; but he was not in communion, for if you are in communion
there will be no reserve between you and the Lord. In Hebrews you get into the
holiest, but there you feel the perfect One has had to be " rent " to let you,
the imperfect one in. But supposing I fail now. Here John 13:8 comes in. The
Lord says, I will wash your feet so that there may not be a shadow of reserve on
your heart touching that thing in which you failed. The action, perhaps, may be
rapid or slow; you will generally find that it is in proportion to the depth of
the offense; the deeper the offense, the slower generally the recovery. In Num.
19 we have the ashes of the red heifer, and the running water-the Spirit-for
applying them. The ashes are the token that judgment has been here. Has been,
not, is; it could not be ashes if it were here now. Ashes are the token of
accomplished judgment. And what does it bring to your soul? The knowledge that
Christ has borne the judgment of God for that bit of self-gratification in which
you indulged. It had disturbed your communion. Would that we were more sensitive
as to this! But let me add one thing: You cannot disturb communion unless you
first have it. You may have affection for Christ, and yet may never have joined
Him in the new place where He is, and therefore you have not communion with Him.
It would have broken the disciples' hearts not to have joined Him where He was
going; He had so won their hearts that separation from Him would have been
unbearable. They would have said like Ruth, " Entreat me not to leave thee." But
I have not to say this, for He tells me He wants me to be with Him, blessed be
His name! And yet how loth we are to get into the new place! How contented to
have " no part with Him," although not a shadow of sin is left; in the eye of
God the root, the whole thing, is judged in the cross. It is not that I am
forgiven; that which I deserved He bore, and I am clear, but it is only in the
new place that I can " have part " with Him. I have said so much upon Gilgal
because of its importance; it is just this: the old man is left outside. When a
man is enlisted, he is brought to the barracks, and once within the gates, he
leaves behind all the old things which as a civilian; belonged to him; he is
turned into a new kind of person, he drops the dress, and walk, and the tastes
he had in former times, and he is brought within the barrack gates, in order to
be fitted for the king's army. That is what Gilgal is; we are brought inside the
gates. Let us see then, what the Barracks are. First of all, we are in the new
place; the old thing is gone in the death of Christ; it is all left behind., We
are dead with Him, and now raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places
in Christ. I am not going to have, in this new place where I am, any of that
which I had before. How is this effected practically? We get an instance in
Paul, when he says, " Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." It is
not the question whether it is good or bad. People draw distinctions and talk of
what is good. What does Paul say of it in Philippians? " But what things were
gain tome, those I counted loss for Christ." He not merely gave up his sins, but
he gave up his righteousnesses too. He was glad to give them up for the
righteousness in Christ. He says, I would be found "not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Not my sins, but "my own
righteousness;" what was "gain to me;" all that was gain to me as a man; it is
gone, and I come out on a new principle, to do everything in the name of Christ.
Thus I am qualified. You do not get Ephesian walk in Colossians. You get a good
deal of what is very nice; but the saint is going- on to, and looking to be
prepared for, the walk which you get in Ephesians. Do you say, This is too high
for us. The fact is, we have all missed the mind of God, we have been calling
low things by high names, assuming Ephesian walk where there is no Ephesian walk
at all. You may be on your way to heaven, as in Hebrews; that is the wilderness
walk, but Ephesian walk is standing for Christ here; above my circumstances for
Christ, like Stephen. Or like the woman I have already spoken of, not only
beautiful in her wilderness character, working her way through it, but when the
test comes, proved to be superior to her circumstances, and able to stand for
Christ. She got the power for it, by going up to the Christ's place. If Stephen
had not gone up, he could not have acted here in the power of Christ. That is
the power Paul speaks of when he says," That the power of Christ may rest upon
me." I get it by going up; it is mine, but if I do not go up, I have not got it.
Hence it is, " Hereby shall ye know that the living God is among you, and that
he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites." Well, now, we
are inside the barrack gates, and the first thing we come to inside is the
passover. Here the recruit is to be fitted for service for the Lord, and the
first great qualification is, to learn what the love of Christ is in bringing me
there. Do you say, Could I not learn that on earth? No, you could not learn it
in the same way. On earth you are surrounded with all the hindrances, like a man
at his daily business. It is not in the press of business that he learns what a
happy home he has. It is when he comes home, and sits in the circle of his
family, that his heart deepens in the sense of his happy home, and what a highly
favored man he is to have such circumstances. This was not the thing before him
in the pressure of business; it is not there that he can enjoy' the love of his
home. Well, now, when do I enjoy Christ's love? When do I learn His heart? When
I am there in the scene of unspeakable delight, with the sense " There is not a
cloud above, not a spot within." What occupies me there? I dwell on the love
that brought me there, and the manner of that love too. There is nobody who
knows anything of the heart but can affirm that it is so. When you are at ease
in your Circumstances, you enjoy the love of anybody most. Suppose you think of
a parent's love to his child; it is when he is in happy circumstances he will
have the greatest sense of it. When the child is ill, he is full of interest and
anxiety about it, and sympathizes with it to the utmost degree; but, I ask, When
does he enjoy that child most? when it is ill? No, when it 'recovers-when it is
quite well. And so God says, " He will rest in his love." When? When all is
over; when all the work is known; He will then "joy over you with singing."
Because there will then be nothing to hinder the heart from going fully out.
Thus it is in the passover, in the land, that we get the deepest sense of the
love of Christ. Now turn to Ex. 12 Here we' have the passover in Egypt. I want
you to see, the difference between the passover in Egypt and the passover in
Canaan. I often adduce this to shew what a difference a place can effect. It is
the same feast, and yet they are quite different. There were no bitter herbs in
Canaan; in Egypt there were. The passover in Egypt is, typically, what Paul went
through in the three days after his conversion; he was feeding on the death of
Christ; tasting in his soul the, sense of what Christ passed through when He
bore the judgment due to him. In this passover I am sheltered by the blood, and
feeding on the sacrifice. That was what Paul went through in those three days:
he learned what Christ went through to set him without a cloud in the brightest
glory. How often at the Lord's table we hear only of our sins having been put
away. Well, that ' is the passover in Egypt. The Lord's supper is to call Christ
to your remembrance, not your benefits. You cannot lose your benefits; but it is
when you are most in the enjoyment of the benefits, that you most dwell on the
Benefactor who brought you into the benefits. At the passover in Canaan we are
on heavenly ground. It is like Deut. 26 I am brought up to the place; I am put
on a new level; not on the level of Adam, but on the level of Christ. What am I
thinking about now? I am thinking of the love of His heart in bringing me to
this wonderful position, and calling me to remember what He did for me, and to
sit at His table in remembrance of Him. Nowhere should we get such a sense of
the love of Christ as at the Lord's supper, when we see how that love led Him to
go through death for us. Paul could say, His work has cleared away everything,
and now I can, go up alongside of Him. I know what He went through for me, and
now I want to be where He is; and I believe, beloved friends, the more deeply I
get acquainted with that realm of glory where He is, the more my heart will
revert to what that blessed One went through to bring me to that blessed
position. See what they do when they are there with Him in the Revelation: "And
when those living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on
the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down
before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever,
and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to
receive glory and honor and power." And again, "for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and
nation." Crowns are not pieces of metal; they are the sense that I have reached
the summit, and that there I can fall down before Him and say, I owe all this to
Thy death. Hence you get in Ephesians, " That ye may know the love of Christ'
that passeth knowledge." That can be only known by a person in heaven; I am
there, and I am remembering how I got there. He went down to death for me, and
"greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends." "But God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us"-sinners, mark! not friends. And the further I go
on, and the more I know of the place where that love has brought me, the greater
will be the sense I have of it. My knowledge of His love grows the way in which
a tree grows, higher and deeper; the higher the tree grows, the bigger the trunk
becomes, so that the trunk is always the thickest part of the tree. And so the
first acquaintance I have had with the love of Christ always has the largest and
deepest place in my soul. That is what He did for me, and that is first love.
The farther you advance, the more that deepens. Look at a tree; which part is
the thickest? That which grew first. Thus the first thing I was acquainted with
as a believer was the love which led Christ to go, down to death for me. Can I
get any lesson now better fitted to qualify me than that? No. Well, what shall I
do? I will stand for Him here. It is love for Him that makes me stand for Him. I
am made a soldier in a moment. I say, you have touched my object, and I am
sensitive to a degree. It is not a question of who has done it, but that you
have touched Christ. I sometimes illustrate it by showing how a hen acts with
her brood. She is one of the most timid of animals, but let a dog approach her
brood; she is a soldier in a moment, and no dog will face her. She is
transformed in a moment, by simple affection, into the most valiant of beings
for the object of her affection; if you ever saw it, you would never forget it.
Thus if I have a heart for Christ, I must stand for Him, and I cannot do
anything unbecoming His name. I could not do a thing that would in any way
compromise Him. The second thing we find after Gilgal, inside the barrack gate
is, that the manna ceased, and they ate the old corn of the land. I am not going
to say much on that, though it is a subject of much interest. The old corn was
not till Christ " sat down." It began when the Holy Ghost came down uniting us
to Christ, and thus connecting us with the old corn of the land; but we have
manna all the way up. This is the comfort for a person who touches manna at all.
As a poor sinner he has had the pardon of his sins, and he feeds on Christ's
death, and now he has the manna all the way; and this is true of every believer.
The old corn of the land is another thing; it is not what Christ was upon the
earth, but what He is in glory. Would you not like to feed on Him thus? Would
you not like to know what He is now? I feel humbled when I think how little I
know of what Christ is at this moment. If I did, I should be sure to do the
right thing in the place where I am. The simple exposition of the two is this.
Manna is what He was; the old corn of the land is what He is. Surely every true
heart that has known what He was, must long to know Him as He is. Thus the
apostle speaks in Philippians, " That I may know him "-that is, as He is -" and
the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death." That I may know Him where He is, and then come down
here to suffer for Him. You may say, this is vastly beyond us. Well, if you
admit that, it is humbling, and you cannot boast. A child may say, I have
finished that book; but, the teacher says, you have not got to the end yet; you
have to learn much more. So we: we often think we have learned all, when we are
only at the beginning. In one way there is nothing actually new to learn,
because what we have to learn is what we already possess. We have to grow in it,
and to learn on, and if we do not, we are not enjoying it. Any person who knows
anything about history, knows that many of those who were born princes, were a
long time before they found out what it was to be princes; and often called
themselves princes before they knew what it meant. I often think that is the way
with us. We talk of our position and of being here for Christ-like an army in
review. Where do you get the right idea of it? I must learn it in His presence
where He is. That is the only way to learn it. And you come out having fed on
the old corn of the land, your heart impressed with a fresh sense of His love,
and of His power also. You must know union before you can have power, and you
can only know it in the place where He is. To stand for Christ is what we are
called to do; and thus it is that we are prepared and qualified for it. (J. B.
S.)


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  CHAPTER 6: CONFLICT
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HERE we have a type of the heavenly warfare, and it is important for us to
understand, because the child of God is never out of warfare. If you look along
the Erie you will see this is the case. There is Pharaoh in Egypt; Amalek in the
wilderness; Balaam when you leave the wilderness; and in the land there is the
greatest force of the enemy, the seven nations arrayed against the heavenly
position. In the world, Satan is against even a poor sinner. For the apostle
says, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of
this world Hath blinded the mind of them which believe not." Pharaoh overcome,
you get into the wilderness and find Marah; you drink death, you are sustained
by Christ in that place. But then Amalek comes out to fight-to intimidate you-to
dispute the fact that you are to take this position. Here you will find two
things: one, the intercession of Christ to support you; and the other, if I may
use a familiar expression, you show fight. Joshua took men and went out to fight
Amalek; and at the same time intercession was the real help. Let me give you an
illustration. The Lord said to Peter: " Satan hath desired to have you that he
may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not."
There was intercession; not for his salvation-he was saved: it was that his
faith might not fail. But was Peter ready for the fight? On the contrary, he
trusted himself to the high priest's house, and was pleased when there, to find
a fire. But the devil was there too: They did not see the devil, but he was
there to prevent Peter from being a dependent man. That was not the heavenly
battle. Satan seeks by all these snares to keep us from the place of dependence,
which is the wilderness. Now go on to Num. 21 There the people are outside the
wilderness; and here you find a great many believers now, really established in
grace, knowing what God has done for them and in them, having life in Christ,
and the Holy Ghost in them, as in John 3 and iv. The brazen serpent was on the
very edge of the wilderness; the people are outside, as to state, and thinking
perhaps that all will be plain sailing now, when Sihon king of the Amorites
comes against them, and they fight him, and the Lord delivers them. That was a
battle, but it was not a heavenly battle. They are now out, of the wilderness
and going on to Canaan, and they have this desperate battle on the way. Like a
man in Hebrews; he is going on to heaven, but not there yet. A saint soon
discovers if he is going to heaven; but there is such a thing as being in heaven
and going on to it at the same time. " Ye have not yet resisted unto blood," the
apostle says; "striving against sin." That was death-martyrdom; and I have no
doubt at all that many devoted men of God, have had their battles this side
Jordan. They suffer greatly, but they seek a religious position here; like the
two and a half tribes, who wanted a place to settle in on this side of Jordan.
What we discover practically in this is, that we are not to acquire in these
battles; though we conquer in the place, we are not to occupy the place. On the
other hand, when I come to heavenly battles, all I gain is my possession-my
right. To illustrate my meaning, Luther was backed up by the Elector of Saxony,
and as a result he had a status here. But that is all wrong. If you establish a
religious system in the world you are all wrong. You must not acquire possession
where you win the battle, unless it is on the other side of Jordan. Consequent
upon these great battles, another terrible foe arises; that terrible foe is
Balaam, and many a strong man has fallen down through him. What is Balaam?
Balaam is acting on the susceptibility of your nature. You are invited out to
some social party, and you accept it because it suits you naturally, and you are
led away. Most of the unsuited marriages result from Balaam. If your natural
predilections lead you into a circle, or class of society, where those
predilections are gratified, that is the snare of Balaam. I dread the word
"social," for I know what a host of mischief lies under that word. First, people
are invited out, and that brings them into worldly associations with their
attendant follies. Look at children, where do they pick up the notions many of
them have? At school, from their companions. It is surprising what things people
learn in company with others. If you were across Jordan, a dead man, you would
not be invited out, for a dead man would have no interest in the things here. If
I have taken the place of being dead, I have got greater happiness on that side
Jordan than I can possibly have on this. That is the point. It is not assuming
anything, but the things here have no interest' for me. I am sure I am
addressing those who, if invited to partake in some kind of amusement, would
find it no amusement at all, and why? Because they have higher pleasures. Like
the queen of Sheba, it is the better things which enable me to surrender the
things here. It is of no use denouncing them. I have done it myself, but I 'have
found it was useless. You may relieve your conscience, but you will free no one
from them in that way. Let them get the better things, and the others will drop
off like dead leaves. Just as with a child. If you want to take a dangerous
thing out of his hand, offer him something bright. That is the superior thing,
the eclipsing power. I have said to myself before now, " That is a thing I can
never give up;" but it dropped off when I got the better thing, and I did not
feel it because I had heavenly joys. Just as in the case of a certain shrub, the
old leaf does not fall off until the new one is formed. It is what I call the
expulsive power of a new Person. It is not a thing now, but a Person. A person
contains much more than any amount of things can contain. There is great variety
about a person. And there is endless variety in the Person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If we knew Him better, and studied Him more, we should be constantly
making fresh discoveries of His worth every day. We come up, then, into the
land, and here is the proper christian conflict, which is really to bring out
the heavenly Christ on earth. Do you say, I am not up to that battle? I was
never in it, it is quite beyond me? Well, I say, are you set for it, or, would
you like only to look at it? A good many people like to see reviews, as they set
forth the idea of a battle, and I aril afraid that is too much the way in which
the warfare in Ephesians is read; it is only a review to many, not the real
conflict. Well, what is the conflict for? It is to be a heavenly man; we have a
heavenly country. Israel contended for the 'land. The crusaders are to me a very
interesting people, because they risked their lives in order to get the holy
land out of the hands' of the heathen and the Saracen; they died for it, and
their wars were called " the holy wars." The idea was good, but it was carried
out wrongly. The idea was to get space for Christ upon this earth. What would be
the right thing then? The right thing is to get moral space for Christ. They
fought to get Palestine for Christ. Our conflict is to stand here as heavenly
men for a heavenly Christ. It is not Christ in humiliation we are to present,
but the heavenly Christ.. What does Paul say? " Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." It is the Man in the
glory we are to present. It is the corn of the land I am to feed on. Therefore
we go to the battle. If I take the antitype, I am to be " strong in the Lord and
in the power of his might." That is the corn of the land. I am-to set forth a
heavenly man in every circle and relationship here. In the practice of Peter's
epistles you get 'nothing about the family, -nor in Romans. Why is this? Because
there you are not high enough. You are there a delivered sinner on the earth. In
Ephesians you are a heavenly man, so you can come down to the lowest point. It
is the height at which you are that enables you to come down, and with the power
that belongs to that exalted position. He has passed into the heavens, and not
merely into them, but He is higher than the heavens. Hence everything is to be
done according to this position. That is the wonderful character of Ephesian
practice. Nothing can be plainer than that the conflict is to bring out a
heavenly man, in the several circles in which you are found on earth. I count
seven circles in the Ephesians; but no matter how many there are, read Eph. 4
and 5 and you will find there is not a single thing, there that could be carried
out but in heavenly power. Paul says, " That I may know him," that is as He is
now. And I ask, would. You not like to know Him as He is now? Do you think it
would content a devoted wife or child, to be able to say, I: knew my husband or
my father ten years ago, but. I do not know him now? Why, we never heard of such
a thing. Yet that is really the way some, think of Christ. They know Him as the
Savior who died here, but they do not know Him as He is now-the glorified Man.
But you ask, who is up to it? I go with you there. I know how little I am up to
it; but I cannot shrink from what God has called me to; I cannot shrink from
Phil. 3 " That I may know him, and the power of his - resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings." Again, "I count all things loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." That was not salvation;'
Paul had that. True, He is my Savior, but the grace of God is so large that it
would lead you on from that, to know Him as the Head of His body, the church;
and when you come to know Him as your Head, oh, what happiness! And now what you
are called upon to do is to display that One upon earth, and therefore there is
conflict. Satan urged man to the climax of wickedness-to put that blessed One
upon the cross. Man's first sin was to turn his back upon God; for his second,
there is no cloak; he turned God's Son out of the earth. I think people are not
sensible enough of this. They do not walk about with the sense of it upon them.
They admit the first, but not the second. And now what God has done is this; in
His wondrous grace, He says: I have chosen you before the foundation of the
world that you should be holy, and without blame before me in love. You are
members of the body of Christ, and I want you to display Him here upon the
earth. What is all the teaching for? What is the point aimed at in ministry? "
Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature and fullness of
Christ." That is not something hereafter. Speaking to the gifts, Paul says, you
are to work on in order to reach this. You answer you will never get people to
it. Well, do not stop working on to it. That is the end of all teaching; and if
the end of teaching, it is also the end of warfare. You find in Ephesians 6.: "
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel." That is, not the gospel merely, but
the mystery of the gospel. What Paul wanted really, was to give out this truth:
Christ, the heavenly Christ; that is the conflict. To me it is affectingly
interesting. Do not you see, that when Satan had brought man to the climax of
wickedness, to refuse God's Son on this earth, and God had raised Him up to His
own right hand, God brought out, that Christ's body was here; and we' members of
it, now belonging to the place where He is, are to be the expression of Him down
here in the very place where He was refused. Do not you see that all the force
of the enemy must be directed against that? Well, that is the conflict. But God
has His object, and He, will support His own in maintaining it. And I am sure it
is a great comfort to us to know it is 'God's object to maintain for Christ
here, and if I know that, I need not fear any opposition. I say it is no matter
who opposes: I have God's object before me, not my own will. But there will be
bitter opposition. Yes, what is God's object has always been opposed by Satan.
Open your Bibles anywhere you like, and you will find it so. You will find that
what is God's object at the moment, is what is most opposed; nothing is more
striking. When God sent His Son into the world; who opposed Him most? Why, the
Pharisees. Those pious men who stood up for the keeping of the law in its
strictest sense; those before whom other men bowed down because of their piety;
these were the men who opposed Christ. The Pharisees opposed Him when here, and
the Sadducees when He had left the world. Who would have thought that those who
were the sticklers for the law, the strictest and the straitest as to religion,
the Jews, should be the ones to oppose the Lord! so much so that when the Lord
cures a man on the sabbath day, they declare He is not fit to stay here. Can you
understand the inveterate unrelenting character of the opposition against what
God's heart is set upon? Paul was left alone; all men forsook him; but the Lord
stood by him. And Paul was not a bit baffled. Read what he says to Timothy in
his second epistle to him.. He wrote that epistle after being thus forsaken, and
you will see he is not discouraged. On the contrary, he tells Timothy to `commit
the things which he had heard to faithful men who should be able to teach others
also." Well, this is the conflict, and if you get into it, you may have tough
battles to fight while standing for the Lord, or moving on as a heavenly man,
for Satan is a relentless foe. If we read Peter or Hebrews, we see that saints
there written to had the devil to contend with, but not as here; it was-as " a
roaring lion." The desperate character of Satan's opposition in heavenly places
is that it is invisible. Turn now to the chapter before us. The first thing we
need is a great power: we are to be " strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might." This word is borrowed from Eph. 1. It is the " exceeding greatness of
his power to usward who believe." Now I have got it, and I am to be strong in
it. " There stood a man with a drawn sword in his hand, and Joshua went unto him
and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our enemies? And he said, Nay, but as
captain of the host of the Loki am I now come." Joshua is not going to battle by
himself. Here One appears to him, who comes to encourage him. Here is the
captain of the host--with a drawn sword in his hand. This is the type of the
Holy Ghost. " When the Comforter is come.. he shall testify of me." That is the
object of our conflict. This passage refers to Christ in the glory, not when on
earth. When He went up to heaven the Holy. Ghost would testify of Him on the
earth. What I am dwelling on now is not the conflict, but the support we have in
it. The Holy Ghost is come down here, to be with us, in order to maintain
Christ's here. How wonderful this is! But the church has failed as a witness,
and why? I will tell you. The church very soon joined affinity with the world,
and the Holy Ghost would not help it in coalition with the world. He is against
this world, for it has rejected Christ. The Holy Ghost is here to maintain the
interests of Christ. Of late the truth has been recovered that the Holy Ghost is
here for this purpose. And I press on you, beloved friends, that in Christ's
service we are to be independent of the world. If the world aid me in preaching
the gospel, I should not accept it. Would you? I say, I cannot have it, for I
have a greater power, which is against the world. Well, that is what I start
with. I start with this great power that will not co-operate with the world. You
might as well expect fire to co-operate with water, as to expect the Holy Ghost
to co-operate with the world. The Holy Ghost is here branding the world with
sin; how then could He co-operate with it? He convicts the world of sin like a
criminal in the dock. The criminal may not own it, but he is nevertheless
convicted. I do not want to read the newspaper to know how wicked the world is.
What tells me how wicked the world is, is that the Holy Ghost is here. That is
enough. His presence here declares the sin of the world. Because Christ has been
rejected, the Holy Ghost is here maintaining for Him. So that I see the whole
world is a moral desert. I feel that we have lost the sense of this, and that
the real cause of all the breakdown is, that the church has lost dependence on
the Holy Ghost, that wonderful power with which it started. In John 15 the Lord
tells us how the world hated Him, and that it would hate us. We may feel, Why
should the world hate us? It is a bitter thing when we are trying to do them
good, to bring to them the highest kind of benevolence-the riches of Christ-that
they should hate us. What is the reason? It is because Satan would not have Him.
You cannot account for the enmity unless you understand that the devil's hatred
to Christ is at the bottom of it. Well, what a, wonderful thing it is for Joshua
to be able to say, I am not going to war in my own strength! As a great general
comes out with his commissariat, his ammunition and his reserves, so Joshua
comes out, he is not going to war at his own charges. So we may say we have the
power: "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." Our attitude is,
we are not going to give in. We are to be like what is called in war, " the
forlorn hope." That gives us the idea, though it is an unhappy name. The forlorn
hope is a number of men who venture to make a breach in the fortress, even if it
cost them their lives. They take their lives in their hands in order to succeed,
and so they are called a forlorn hope. There is no hope for them at all unless
they succeed, but they generally do succeed. In our case I do not like the
title, but that is really our place; we venture as it were to make the breach,
but it is with sure confidence, because we have a power not our own; we know the
opposition we are going to meet, still we go cheerfully forward; and we succeed.
Now I turn to what is against us; that is in chapter 9 in type. I have already
said how very important it is we should know Paul's doctrine, for if we do not,
we cannot understand the type; and the value of the type is, that in your
practice you must never be below it. You may say you are not up to the antitype,
but the anti-type alone can explain the type, because it is spiritual. The
antitype of Jericho is wicked spirits in heavenly places, (Eph. 6) It is not a
city. The type is a city, and the idea of a city is a concentration of
everything found in this world. Exeter would not be a city, if it had not a
cathedral in it. Liverpool was not a city some time since because of this. It
did not comprise within itself every organization. When speaking of some
countries we speak of the city. We talk of Paris as representing France, because
the city is the concentration of the country. So it is here; Jericho is the type
of this opposition-this organized resistance. The thing they saw before them was
a city walled up; no probability of getting possession. The conflict with us is
to represent Christ here; and the force against us is typified by this city; and
you cannot, beloved friends, have too great an idea of the character of the
opposition that there is against you. A good general never underrates his foe;
and one great cause of failure with us is, that we do not properly estimate the
world's opposition. I believe it is a great thing when the soul has the sense of
the inveterate character of the opposition to Christ. It is a wonderful help,
because it keeps you so on your' guard. You read of battles, and generally, in a
case of failure, you will find that the general underrated his foe. I say, do
not underrate the world's opposition. I always find that the man who has most of
Christ is the one who has the keenest apprehension of Satan. I do not mean
common fear, but that he foresees the danger. " We are not ignorant," the
apostle says; " of his devices." It is his wiles we have to contend with; and
that is the dangerous character of it. If I see a man coming to knock me down I
see what he is about. But now it is Satan's wiles; like the spring-guns in
former days; a person walking along on the grass touched a secret, hidden
spring, and the gun turned round and shot him. That is like the desperate
character of the warfare 1 have to contend with. He is an invisible foe; he does
not show his face. He is a desperate foe, who knows everything about me, and
knows how to touch me in the very point where I am weakest, and it is my weak
point he works on, but he does it with his wiles. That is the kind of foe I have
to deal with, and his great object is to prevent me from being a representation
of Christ. You may preach justification by faith; that will be tolerated to a
great extent; but if you teach about the body of Christ, you are sure to be
opposed. Mind, I do not say, do not do it; but if you do, I promise you you will
be at war. If a Christian would have an easy path, let him have nothing to do
with the church at all. That is what I have heard. If you would have a smooth
and easy path, have nothing to do with the church. You may preach the gospel,
and have easy times comparatively; but if the church is your interest, you will
have many a sorrow. Now having dwelt on these two things-the power for us and
the power against us-I trust you will, beloved friends, work it out like the
Israel of that day. We will now go on to the characteristics of the warrior.
There are two; and you get them both in the type and in the antitype. In Joshua
the first was the armed men; and the second, the trumpeters. So in Eph. 6 we
find armor and prayer: armor for Satan and prayer for God. Armor against Satan
alone succeeds. Prayer is, I am always depending on God, never independent of
Him. Independence is when a man does a thing for God of his own will. Uzzah was
independent when he put his hand to the ark. Who told him to do that? You say he
did it for God. But it was contrary to the word of God. He was independent.
Independency is a worse sin than what is called carnality. The latter is a
disgrace to you, but in the former case you have attempted to do something for
God, called it by a fine name perhaps, and did the very thing that God did not
want you to do. I will now just touch on the armor. I am not going through it,
although it is very interesting, and Satan wants to spoil it if he can. First,
be girt about with truth; next the breastplate of righteousness; be honest and
upright. But that is not all. You may have these, and now, Satan may say, I will
work you up and make you lose your temper if can. Now you have spoiled it all,
you have lost your temper. Your feet should have been shod with the preparation
of the gospel], of peace We have often witnessed this. Beloved friends, it is
sad to a degree, that the..man who may be most right is often most intemperate,
because he is so indignant with wrong. But " the wrath of man worketh not the
praise of God." You may be indignant, but not on your own account. You get
chafed with evil, and then you lose your temper because there is a point not
armed; you are not " shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Then
there is the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit. There are several different parts in the armor, and none are aggressive,
but all protective excepting the last. The last is " the sword of the Spirit,
which, is the word of God." We find an interesting thing in Peter: a woman can
win her husband without the word; that is, by the effect of the word upon
herself. Even that would not be aggressive; it would be what she is through the
word. I would press on you the importance of having the armor on. There is
nothing perhaps in which we fail so much, even in our families, as in being
without the armor.. There is no place where we are found out so quickly as in
our own families, because they know our weak points well. The great thing is to
be armed. If invulnerable, I am invincible. Take an illustration. If I were a
child, or a wife in a worldly family, I would be in complete subjection to the
father or husband. That is, I would surrender my liberty to any extent, but my
conscience to no extent. If he said, You are not to go out of this house any
Sunday, I could say, Very well, you shall be implicitly obeyed; but if he said,
You must go to such-and-such a place on the Lord's day-one which would
compromise my allegiance to Christ, I reply, No, that involves my conscience,
and that is for God; that you cannot govern. You can have the right over me to
any extent, but over my conscience, never. I could not go there. You can
surrender your liberty to any extent, but your conscience to no extent. For
instance: you should never join in their amusements. You lose power the moment
that you do. I know it is not easy, it goes against the grain, I have learned
that, even in talking in the train; I used to do it, but I never do it now, I
sit in silence. They may think me a stupid sort of man, but I cannot help that.
By-and-by I get my opportunity, and I can have my say for Christ. But you must
thus keep armed; if drawn away, you cannot present the gospel to your company.
There will be no ring-in it; no divine power. If you are a child in a worldly
family, do not join in their social gatherings; but be ready to carry a message,
do anything you can for them, be the most ready to serve in the house-the
man-of-all-work if you like. Your place up there above is a divine, heavenly
one, and yet, you are to be down here in the character of Christ, really meeting
them in all their requirements. That is the way the Lord was here. He never went
anywhere to please Himself, but to do -others a service. I am speaking now of
the heavenly walk; that is beyond the wilderness walk. The difference between
the heavenly walk here, and the walk in the wilderness, is that, in the
heavenly, you are always superior to your circumstances. My former illustration
of the poor woman whose benefactor became her enemy through her faithfulness
will apply here. You could not Account for the enmity, unless you saw that it
was against Christ; and the more distinctly she is for Christ, the more distinct
is the opposition. You cannot account for it in any other way. The second
characteristic is the habit of dependence upon God, and there, as in Ephesians,
the climax is reached. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all
saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me." One thing more I must
say is, that the greatest thing to mark you is patience. We all know how we
'need this when we are opposed. When there is great opposition, then is the time
we especially need patience, and here, too often, we fail. Patience is a
wonderful thing. We see it here. For seven days they went round the city, and it
must have been a very irksome thing for them; not a shout is heard till the
seventh day. What a wonderful sense they must have had of the word of God and
dependence upon Him! Like a child in a worldly family, they were depending on
God. They go round the city seven days, and on the last day seven times.
Patience, wonderful patience. Nothing keeps a man in confidence in God like
patience. We see nothing like this in our day. I believe we do not trust God
enough. I believe the incident given in Samuel at the close of that period is an
encouragement to us. God came in, in thunder, at the very close. Joshua was in
the beginning. God brought out Samuel in the very close. And we have the same
God. It is said, God thundered, and there was a great discomfiture. I close with
one remark on another scripture, and that is in Acts 16 Here we get an instance
showing all the principles brought out, and I commend it to your attention. It
was the first time Paul came into Europe, and I believe the Spirit of God sets
forth here what was specially needful in Europe. In Europe the church first
accepted the countenance of the world. But the Book of the Acts is a book of
principles by which we have to travel every day. In Joshua we see the route we
travel and the principles brought out. Paul is called in a vision to go down
into Macedonia to help them, and he goes, and does not meet a man, This was
number one nonplus. Patience was needed. He expected a man, for a man appeared
to him, not an angel. Then he goes to a place where women were accustomed to
pray, and here he has to wait, and at length a woman, who did not belong to the
place at all, but to Thyatira, her heart being opened, attended to the things
Paul said, and being baptized with her household, she says to Paul, " If ye have
judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there." There
is nothing about a Macedonian yet; but he goes into her house and stays there;
and Satan seeing him in this apparent dilemma, sends him one of his instruments,
a woman possessing a spirit of divination, and she says, I will give you
countenance. Accordingly she follows them about many days, and cried saying, "
These men be the servants of the most high God who show unto us the way of
salvation." Look at the patience of Paul; for many days he bears this, but at
length he will stand it no longer, and commands the spirit to come out of her.
He refused to be countenanced by Satan, and what was the consequence? There was
not a power in the place which was not down upon him, and the most striking and
the most awful thing about it is, that the very Satan who a few hours ago was
proclaiming him the servant of the most high God, is the one that now rouses the
people to destroy him. The whole town is roused against him, populace,
magistrates, lictors, police, to put Paul in prison, and Satan seems to win the
day. Satan might have been exulting perhaps, but it was done in the most illegal
way, to use no stronger term. It was the most unjust thing ever done to a man
who had done no wrong to put him in prison, and then to make his feet fast in
the stocks. But he did not lose his courage or energy. On the contrary, at
midnight he is praying and giving thanks to God, quite as content as if he were
at home. What would you have thought if you had passed by that prison? I often
think if we had patience to walk about in simple confidence in God, how He would
interfere for us and deliver us. What a wonderful thing to have that confidence!
Little Paul knew, shut up in prison at the silent hour of midnight, when
everything was quiet, how God would interfere for him. That a great earthquake
would come and shake off all their chains, and throw every door open. The jailer
who had retired to rest in his indifference, is at last awakened up, and
springing in calls for a light, brings out his prisoners, and falling at their
feet says, " What must I do to be saved?" I take it that he was the man Paul was
sent for. He is the first man of Macedonia we read of. What a change,! How the
populace must have felt next morning when they heard that Paul and Silas were
the guests of the jailer! I believe that even now if we really stood for the
Lord, He would bring something remarkable out in the spot where we had stood for
Him. I could tell you of spots where He did. God prepares a table for us in the
wilderness in the presence of our enemies. Do not you think He gives us manifold
more in this present world? I believe it most implicitly. Why do not we know it?
We do not believe in it. We do not walk on in simple, blessed patience, waiting,
in confidence in God. He will make a table for us in the presence of our
enemies, and what a wonderful table was here! Why, the tables are turned
completely. Why? Because they believed God; they knew He would support His own
Object, and that He would stand by them as long as they stood in simple
confidence in Him. Well, I trust each one of our hearts will be moved into more
faithfulness to Him. Some here are young; you have not entered the battlefield
yet. Well, it is everything for a person's heart to be led out in simple
affection for the Lord. If it is, he will soon be found in the conflict for Him,
maintaining for' a heavenly Christ, in the very spot where He has been rejected.
(T. B. S.)


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  CHAPTER 7: PRESENTATION IN GLORY
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THERE is a danger that, in dwelling, as we properly do with delight of heart,
upon the blessedness that accrues to us and which awaits us at, the return of
the Lord, we overlook more or less that unique joy to Himself of which His
coming is the prelude or the precursor. We carry our native selfishness so far
into spiritual things, that even the Lord's return is regarded a: thousand-fold
more in relation to what it eventuates in for ourselves, what it will emancipate
us from, and what it will usher us into, than we do in respect to Him who is the
Object of that great event. Both as to grace and as to glory, we need to be
reminded that we are but the means to an ordained end. And that end is the
heading up of all things in Christ, the things in the heaven's and the things
upon the earth, according to those divine counsels which subsisted before the
world began. No less in the ultimate display than in the prior working out, we
but constitute the prescribed means which God's wisdom has devised for the
manifestation, both now and then, of what is worthy of His exalted Son. Nor is
it of secondary importance that we should understand this, seeing that it clears
the ground for Him, and sets us in our true and subordinate position. For it
need scarcely be observed that, unless we recognize in Him the end and object of
the infinite and eternal counsels of God, we shall be exalting ourselves,
corporately at least, if not subordinating Him. For a little while, it is true,
He stooped lower than the angels, and even humbled Himself to a depth below
normal humanity-" the dust of death "- but only thereby afforded a new motive
for the Father's love, and acquired title to an unprecedented exaltation. In
working out thus the counsels of eternal glory in deep and dire humiliation, He
was never less (our souls rejoice in the thought) than the very object of those
counsels Himself, who was over all, God blessed forever! But I desire to trace,
by reference to a few passages, what the word conveys as to the church's
presentation to Him in glory. In Gen. 2:18-22, we have the primeval
foreshadowing of this in that supreme moment when man's help-meet, having been
previously formed, was brought by Jehovah-Elohim and presented to Adam as his
wife. Without her he was alone," is the divine word; because, amidst the teeming
wealth and beauty of created things, there was nothing to be found capable of
striking a chord in his heart, or of holding that communion with him that his
spirit was formed to enjoy. Not a being had been created who was qualified to
enter into any apprehension of the workings of his mind in its high estate, or
who could appreciate or respond to the pure and perfect affections of his heart.
Three actions are here predicated: 1. The rib is taken out of the man during his
deep sleep. 2. Of it the woman is built up. 3. Eve is presented to Adam as his
help-meet. Now the church is surely that suited, and that -only suited,
help-meet for Christ, the second and glorified Man, the last Adam. According to
eternal counsels she is the fruit of the death of Christ. Afterward she had to
be built up for Rim; and lastly she will be presented to Him, that He may have
throughout eternity one who shall be to Him and for Him what none else could be,
His help-meet, His consort, His joy forever. But I proceed to another scripture.
In Lev. 21 we have instructions given as to the qualifications of her who should
be the wife of him who was the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head
the anointing oil was poured, and who was consecrated to put on the garments. "
The crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him," remarkable expression,
and therefore it is commanded that " he shall take a wife hi her virginity; a
widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take,
but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife, Neither shall he profane
his seed among his people; for I the Lord do sanctify him." The New Testament
answer to this word is surely found in 2 Cor. 11:2: " For I am, jealous over you
with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present
you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ." Very evidently the lesson to be deduced from
these scriptures is that unsullied holiness must characterize her who is to be
in eternal alliance with Christ. Again, in Col. 1:21-23, we read: " And you,
that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy
and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which
ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature Which is under heaven;
whereof I Paul am made minister." We find distinct traces here of- the three
things that we noticed in Gen. 2 There is first of all reconciliation " in the
body of his flesh through death;" then this is seen to be in view of
presentation in glory by-and-by; while intermediately there is the abiding in
the faith, the grounding and settling, and the steadfastness in the hope, or, in
other words, glory awaited..(See also verse 28.) But I turn back- now to Eph. 5,
as bringing before us in the fullest way both what the eternal counsels have had
in view, and the instrumental means for bringing them to pass in a manner
adequate to that end. " Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that
he might sanctify it, purifying it with the washing of water by the word, that
he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." The three
things meet us here in their order: 1. He delivered up Himself to death in order
to sanctify it. In other words, He entered upon that deep sleep that, by the
sacrifice of Himself, a He might have formed from Himself (as the blade springs
from the grain that has fallen into the ground and died) and also for Himself, a
sanctified one, suited to enter with Him upon a communion the most profound, and
to enjoy an affection the deepest and the most intimate. 2. But if we have been
thus reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we
shall be saved by His life. Thus it is that we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, objects of His constant care, and
practically and continuously purified through the washing of water by the word.
This is seen, as to the nature of the Lord's service and ministry, much more
clearly in verse 29 " No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and
cherisheth it, even as Christ the church." He nourisheth the church, which word
implies two things: feeding it and educating it, or growth and culture. Thus
Paul speaks of Timothy as " a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the
words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained." He who gave
Himself for the church thus feeds, supports, and educates her for Himself with
assiduous and devoted solicitude. Then, also, He cherishes the church, and this
word implies two other things. He cheers her with His countenance, and He
protects her with His mighty arm, as the object of His ceaseless and His
tenderest affection. As the apostle says " We were gentle among you, even as a
nurse cherisheth her children: so being affectionately-desirous of you, we were
willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own
souls, because ye were dear unto us." 3. And all this has direct reference to
the presentation in glory: " That he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be
holy and without blemish." We are to be presented at court, and He must have us
worthy of the occasion, above all worthy of Himself! The church is to be in
glory, in His glory, spotless, without a trace remaining of sin or imperfection,
even as holy and without blame (be it reverently said), as He! And wrinkleless,
too! Not the faintest line of care or of decrepitude shall mar her beauteous
brow, as, in the luster of a heavenly bride, she is assimilated to His own
likeness for eternity. Remarkably, too, we find a confirmation of this in Rev.
21:2, where, after a thousand years of association with Him in heavenly glory,
she is beheld in her original freshness and imperishable beauty, " as a bride
adorned for her husband." It is with this in view, this presentation of her to
Himself in glory to be His joy forever, that the Lord bestows such exhaustless
and unwearied labors upon the bride. And in the spirit of that thought, that
deep desire of His heart, the apostle anticipates his own share therein. " For,"
says he, "what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and
joy." And again: " To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in
holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
with all His saints." Also: I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Or in the words of
another apostle: " Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without
spot, and blameless." And again in those of a third: " My children, abide in
him: that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be put to shame
by him at his coming." We naturally ask, why are these ardent desires for the
saints connected so definitely with that one terminus, the Lord's coming? Only
one -answer is possible: because these inspired apostles were considering, as an
artist might look forward to exhibition-day, how their master-pieces would 'look
when the strong light of the glory should be thrown upon them, and how much, and
how little the traces of the workman's hand would affect s and impress the
Lord's heart, and be tributary to -His eternal joy! Jude, another apostle, has
also this presentation in glory before his heart, exhorting the 'saints most
pointedly and most powerfully at the close of his epistle, and adding: " Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exultation [mark that precious word], to
the only God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and
ever. Amen." Lastly I would scarcely do more than mention the scene of Rev. 19
The heaven of heavens is full of joy from henceforth: " For the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that
she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousnesses of saints." But one remark I must make, namely, that while the
Lord shews us in His word how devotedly He is engaged in those wonderful
services to the church which we have traced from scripture to scripture, there
is also this other thing: " Every man that hath this hope in him," in Christ;
but what hope? The hope of His coming? No, not exactly, but the hope of being
like Him when He comes, and seeing Him in manifested glory-having this hope, "
purifieth himself even as he is pure." (1 John 3:3.) And so in Rev. 19, the
Lamb's wife is seen to have " 'made herself ready." And again the fine linen
which is granted to the bride for her adornment-white in its purity, and
lustrous in its beauty-we are told is the righteousnesses of saints. The word is
in the plural, and indicates undeniably that it is a fabric of our own weaving.
How important is this thought, that we are going to wear, in the Lord's
immediate presence on that memorable day, those practical works of righteousness
wrought out while in testimony on the earth, after they have been tested by
fire. In these garments white and shining, and made durable for eternity, the
church is arrayed for the bridal morning, the marriage of the Lamb; and in that
striking description which presents the last and most lovely picture of her
beauty, and her blessedness, and in which Scripture parts company with the
bride, the Lamb's wife, there' occurs that final and that crowning word which
nothing can surpass: " Having the glory of God." (Rev. 21:11.), May our hearts
be so divinely impressed, no less with the grace than with the magnitude of the
Lord's present diligent service to the church, in view of her presentation to
Himself in glory, that we who have this hope, may be, with only lesser
diligence, making ready for Him and for the day of His appearing. W. R.


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  CHAPTER 8: FRAGMENT: QUICKENED TOGETHER WITH CHRIST
========================================================================

IF God speaks I must give the lie to my feelings and everything else. This is
what God looks at me as: " Quickened together with Christ." (G. V. W.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: READINGS ON EPHESIANS 1-3
========================================================================

Here we get God's mind about us, all the blessedness that is in His mind.
Angels, principalities, and powers will learn through us the manifold wisdom of
God. Then He unfolds it all. First, our calling; secondly, God's purpose about
Christ -His place; thirdly, our inheritance. The close of the chapter puts it
all together. All is founded on this title which God takes: " God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ." It is only after Christ's resurrection He calls His
disciples His brethren. You get in verse 3 this double title. It is the secret
•of all God's thoughts, that His-purpose is to put us into the same place as
Christ, and like Christ. " As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall
also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Cor. 15:49.) We shall be as-like the
second Adam as we have been like the first Adam. In Matt. 17 He forbids them to
say He was Christ. In chapter 12. He was rejected; chapter 13 we get the kingdom
of heaven; chapter 16 the church; chapter 17 the kingdom of glory. But in the
'end of that chapter He shows where He was leading them (the disciples). He says
to Peter: You and I are children, therefore free: " For me and thee!" Think of
the blessed Lord saying that! He puts Peter into this place with Himself. Then
He shows His power over creation. He puts Peter in connection with Himself just
when He was showing forth His divine power. Verse 3. " Blessed us With all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." That is altogether in
contrast with the Jew. They will be blessed with temporal blessings under
Christ; we get spiritual blessings in Christ; He has blessed us thus, that -is
the first wonderful statement. Christ's place comes second; not that it is
second, but unless we were brought into the -place, we could not understand His
place. Verse 4. " Chosen in him before the foundation of the world." We have to
go through the world, all of us (speaking generally), but we belonged to heaven
before the foundation of the world. " Holy," " love," that is God's nature; we
are made partakers of it; that gives capacity for knowing Him. I know not
anything of an angel, for I have not his nature, but I am capable -of knowing
and enjoying God, and in His presence. Verse 4 is what Christ was here; holy,
blameless, and always before God in love. Verse 5. " To the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself." Children implies Father, but it is always in
Christ. He could not say " according to the good pleasure of his, will" in verse
4, for He could not have unholy creatures before Him; but here He says it, for,
though He might have had servants only, He chooses to have children. Verse 6. He
might have said, accepted in Christ; no, that would not do, it is in the
Beloved; accepted according to that. Question. Is " holy, without blame," &c
our-state now, or our standing? Here it is just as it is in God's mind, not as
it is in the poor earthen vessel. The extent of God's grace almost alarms
people. Do you believe that God loves you as He loves Jesus? If I have glory, it
is as Christ. Question. Do you think we get this without going through Romans or
Colossians? No, but it is of immense moment for us to understand that it is
grace, and that according-to what God is. The conscience must be reached; God is
light and love, and that manifests what we are-exposes us. The apostle reasons
down from what God is; no one is ever free till he gets that side. Israel in
Egypt were sheltered from judgment, but it is a different thing at the Red Sea:
there they are told to " stand still and see the salvation of God." I am where
God has put me, not where sin has put me. In John 3 you get the two sides. Then
my place flows from what God is for me. I get all the love that was in His heart
reigning through righteousness. The forgiveness of my sins is not according to
my need, though it meets my need, of course; but the manner of it is " according
to the riches of his grace." Verses 9-11. " Having made known to us the mystery
of his will," &c. Then God says, Now that I have brought you into a capacity to
understand, I will make known to you my purpose about Christ. There is nothing
absolutely certain but faith. I may believe there is such a town as Edinburgh,
but it is possible an earthquake may have destroyed it: nothing but faith can be
absolutely certain. In Hebrews we read " the full assurance of faith." There are
three full assurances spoken of. In Colossians it is of understanding; in
Hebrews, of hope and faith. " Prudence" (ver. 8) is an unhappy word here: It is
God's mind, His thoughts; not prudence in practice. You get the word in
Proverbs. God unfolds to me His thoughts and plans about Christ. He is going to
head up- everything under Christ as man. We get three reasons for -this. In
Colossians it is as Creator. In Hebrews (chap. 1.), Christ is Heir as Son; and
in chapter, 2 having been rejected as Christ, He comes out as Son of man, Head
over all., "He left nothing that is not put under him." He is seated at the
right hand of God, but He is waiting until the time appointed to take His power
and reign' over all. He has this headship as Creator, as Son of God, and as Son
of man; personal, relative and positional, Head over all, but Head to the church
which is His body; a head would be incomplete without a body. But then
redemption comes in; as a Redeemer He fills it all, not merely as God. We first
get the plan of God as regards Christ, then the inheritance. Verses 12, 13. We
are sons by faith, not merely born; quickening and believing come together. The
first part of the chapter is our calling, afterward we get the inheritance. We
get the Spirit, the earnest of the inheritance until Christ comes in His glory.
Question: Does " after that ye believed " suppose an interval? No, it should be
" having believed." It is not that there is an interval, but you must get the
things in order. God could not seal an unbeliever. There is nothing in heaven
that I have not got now. Moses and Elias talked with Christ, that was the
kingdom; then came the cloud, that was the Father's house; the Father's voice
heard speaking from it, and they entered in. That was a' new thing; the
disciples were afraid. Question. Does the inheritance include everything
heavenly and earthly? The inheritance takes in all created things. You must not
confound it With our calling. Verses 15-23. We find this distinction of God and
Father which we have been speaking of, in the two prayers in the epistle. Here
He is looked at as Head over all things. Three things the apostle prays for.
First. That they might know the hope of the calling. Second. The riches of the
inheritance. Third. That they may know the power that raised Christ from the
dead. The calling is the first part; then as sons we get the inheritance. They
get it because they are sons. There are three callings. In 1 Thess. 2 it is:
"walk worthy of God, who hath called, you unto his kingdom and glory." In Col. 1
"walk worthy of the Lord." Here it is simply God's calling. Then he goes on to
pray that their eyes may be opened. Question. What is meant by inheritance in
the saints? To Israel God says, the land is mine. He inherited the land in
Israel. We are called to enjoy what is above us, and to inherit what is below
us. The crowned elders were higher when they were on their faces worshipping,
than when crowned on their thrones. It is more blessed to be adoring Him than to
be in honor oneself. The word in Rev. 4:4 is thrones. The translators were
afraid to say thrones, so they said seats. Question. What is the eternal
inheritance in Heb. 9? It is all eternal there. You look at the inheritance in
two ways. Peter looks up (1 Peter 1:4); that is eternal. In Ephesians it is
union. In Hebrews, priesthood. Question. Is not the inheritance in Hebrews in
connection with the new covenant which is millennial? No. All is eternal there,
in contrast to Judaism he looks at the heavenly calling-a positive thing in
contrast to the old. God's side of the new has been accomplished, but it must be
made good with the Jew. The principle of the two, covenants is different. The
blood of the new covenant is shed; but He had other purposes-the church; and it
is superseded till that be accomplished. We are " sanctified unto the obedience
of Christ." What delivered us from law was not that it had lost its force, but
that we have died with Christ, and you cannot apply the law to a dead man: you
cannot charge a dead man with having lust in his heart. In Rom. 8 you get that
what the law could not do, God did: " condemned sin in the flesh." It is not
that He let it pass; it is done with in the cross. It is not that Christ died
for My sins; that is true; but I died with Him. A new subject at the end: what I
am; not what I have done. I have died. (by faith, of course). Then there is the
new life in Christ, which delights in God's will. Dead to sin in Romans; dead to
the world in Colossians; you get not a word of all that in Ephesians; but that
which takes me out of my own standing before God: Christ my righteousness,
Christ my life. In Colossians you get "risen;" that question is not looked at in
Ephesians. There it is dead in sins. If I am alive in my sins, I am dead- in
them. If I am alive in sins, I am dead to God. God takes me and Christ, and puts
us in the same place. It is new, creation here-and there are three aspects of
it: Colossians; " Ye are dead." Romans; " Reckon yourselves dead." 2
Corinthians; " Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus;" that is
carrying it out practically. I am at liberty because I reckon myself dead; and
so I can carry it out practically. In Ephesians I am dead, and quickened
together with Christ, and that is new creation. That power that came in, and
took Christ from that state of death and put Him at God's right hand, takes us
and puts us in Him. The result: all things under His feet, and He Head over all
to His body. He fills everything between hades and the throne of God; fills the
whole thing for faith: you cannot put my spirit in a place where Christ has not
been. In chapter 2:2 we have the Gentiles; in verse 3 the Jews. Verse 2, Satan's
power over the world; verse 3, the Jews were far' off by nature, but not by
position. By position they were near to God-the " elder son." God does not give
two epistles for the same purpose. In Colossians we do not find the Holy Ghost,
but we do in Ephesians, therefore there is the strongest possible contrast. "
Quickened together with Christ" is a great deal more than merely new life. I am
taken out of the condition I was in, and put in Him in the place He is in. I
have got divine life, but my standing is in Christ. The position is totally
changed. It alters the whole character of the Christian, if he gets hold of it;
it is new creation; not merely that I have got a new life, but I have got a
totally new position. We have not to grow meet; the growing is all right; but He
has made us meet. You get the ground of it. We are not in the standing of the
old Adam before God at all; a wonderful thing to apply it to oneself, that in
the ages to come God is going to show forth in me the exceeding riches of His
kindness. Remarked. What strikes me is that it makes us so small. It makes us
nothing; that is the comfort. "By grace ye are saved:" a fact, not a principle.
God's salvation is that I am going to be in the same glory as Christ. Question.
Does "not of yourselves" apply to the whole thing? No; I believe it applies to
the faith. Faith is simply the word of God applied to man's soul by the Spirit
of God. When the conscience is awakened it puts God and man in their place. If I
know all that is in your mind I am your equal, as to' your mind. The Pharisee
and the poor woman (Luke 7) are an instance. Who was the child of wisdom there?
She was kissing His feet, honoring God; that was God's wisdom. I believe there
is instinctively in man the consciousness that he has to do with a power that is
above him. A thing that reasoning proves is never a fact; it is only a
consequence. Verse 10. " Works foreordained." The works are as much foreordained
as I am. In chapter 1 we have the universal thought of Christ Head over all to
His body. Here we get a new thing, not a body as in chapter 1., but a habitation
of God. In chapter 3:5, " apostles and prophets " are those of the New
Testament. In the first place Christ builds, Matt. 16 In Peter we have another
aspect: built up as living stones. Whenever God has set up man in
responsibility, the first thing man does is to fail; then Christ comes and makes
good in the second Adam what failed in the first. 2 Cor. 3, " wise master
builder." When Christ builds, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In
verse 21 we get first it " groweth;" then what God has set up. It is not union
here. Question. When would you say the house will be set up in perfection? In
the heavenly Jerusalem-one (the house) His dwelling place, the other His body.
It is union with Christ, the Head, when it is His body or the bride. Question.
The body is not for earth only? Oh, not at all; it is forever. There was no
union till Christ was glorified in heaven. The Vine and branches are not the
church at all. I get the house on earth; it will be the temple forever.
Consequent on the Holy Ghost coming down, the members of the body are united to
Christ, entirely heavenly. The church was never revealed in the Old Testament,
it could not be; not merely that it did not exist, but it could not be revealed
until after the cross. You get the same thing in Colossians. You must have
Christ glorified first, or you will have a body without a; Head. The church has
its connection with Christ, the children with the Father. The Holy Ghost coming
from the Father puts us in the place of sons, and unites us with the Head; that
is heavenly; Christ come out, man gone in; the veil rent. Col. 1:26: you cannot
have the Jews and the church revealed on earth at the same time, for they set
aside each other. The Song of Solomon is quite a different principle; going
after Him, and getting Him, and losing Him; the church does not do that. There'
is neither the place of sons nor of union with the Head. Question. What is the,
difference between " children "' and " sons"? Well, " children" puts them in the
place of relationship, but " sons" is grown up. John speaks of children, Paul of
sons. We have " sons" in John, where it ought to be " children," and " children"
in Gal. 4 where it ought to be " sons." In 1 John 2:12,28, it is all Christians;
in verse 13 it is young Christians. Here we get a Man in heaven sitting at the
right hand of God. Consequent on that the Holy Ghost comes down; came down ten
days after Christ ascended. Then you get the consciousness of being sons. You
get all about Christ in the Old Testament, but no idea of union; it could not be
then. Question. Will the temple be set up 'in the millennium? I believe it will.
The temple is never given as a figure of heavenly things; always the tabernacle.
In the tabernacle the faces of the cherubim turned inward, and their wings
stretched forth on high, covering the mercy-seat. It was the secret counsels of
God. In the temple they stood looking down the temple, wing touching wing, in
the center, and reaching to the walls at each side: It was the administrative
government of God. Verse 15. " Every family." Before Abraham there was no family
of faith. Abraham was the root of all the promises. God had His throne between
the cherubim. In the Babylonish captivity God had not His throne. Christ came as
a king, and they would not have Him; that sets the whole thing aside. The
principle of Judaism was keeping up the partition; that of Christianity,
breaking it down. The Syrophenician woman got through all dispensations to the
heart of God, and all God's heart was at her disposal. Chapter 3:8. " Unto me is
this grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to
make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery," not merely promises,
but the mystery hid in God. The heavenly beings did not know it; it was hid in
God. " Manifold wisdom "-a new thing come out; " our conversation is in heaven,"
our hearts ought to be there; all our living associations. If I speak of sons,
it is not union: it is two; but there is only one Spirit. We are justified, you
are a son and I am a son, but it is individual, we are two; but if I speak of
the " one Spirit," it is union. " That ye faint not at my tribulation for you."
There was not one place where it was not the Jews who raised the first
persecution against Paul, so he says to the Gentiles, My persecution is " your
glory." Verse 14. This prayer is very instructive. Now I get the Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ, a deeper thing than the God. (Chap. 1) Verse 15. " Every
family in heaven and earth." This expression is taken from Amos 3 angels,
principalities, the church, &c. He revealed Himself to the patriarchs as the
Almighty God; to the Jews as Jehovah. In the millennium it will be as the Most
High. We come in as heirs with Christ, and He is our Father. We belong to no
dispensation. He does not say here as in the prayer of chapter 1., " that ye may
know; " here it is internal; We have it. He is in us as life, but here it is
another thing; that He may "dwell in our hearts by faith." (1 John 4:16.) See
what a difference that makes; it spiritualizes the whole life. It is wonderful
how far he goes here. In Rom. 5 we, have the love of God shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost; purely God's love. I get it in its absolute 'purity,
in the heart of God Himself. I had no part in what saved me except my sins.
Christ is the center of all God's purposes in glory, and I have Him in my heart.
When I get Christ in me, I am at the center. Verse 18. Then I get, " May be able
to comprehend with all saints what is the length, breadth, depth, height." What
is that? Of God's glory! He brings me back to that center, and I am at the very
center of glory in heaven! It is beautiful that he stops there. Then he says: "
That you may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." Impossible to go
beyond that! I may not be able to take it all in, but it has taken me all in. I
cannot realize the thought of infinite space; consequently,, I never can get out
of it; I am lost in it; still I know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
We are creatures even in glory; " we know it," and " it passeth knowledge," goes
together. There is nothing of God that is revealable that is not revealed. We
may think of one part at one time, and of another at another time, but we have
it all revealed. " Filled unto all the fullness of God." Verse 20. " Unto Him...
according to the rower that worketh in us." He is to be glorified in the church.
He is looking for a power working in us, and Christ being glorified in the
church by that. People generally separate the last two verses, but they go
together; - it is according to the power that worketh in us, there will be glory
to Him in the church by Christ Jesus. (J. N. D.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: FRAGMENT: PERFECT IN WISDOM
========================================================================

The Lord's ways are very wonderful, and He knows what we do not. His heart and
His government, perfect in wisdom, are the rest for our hearts, and give a peace
which no understanding of His ways could ever give. So in Philippians -iv.,
Himself is our portion; and precious as are all His ways, they are only means
for our getting to know Himself and resting in the love which is beyond all the
blessing which flows from it, and which finds its full expression in the cross.
" I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward," He said to Abraham. It was
not what He gave, but Himself, the giver. And it was this that Abraham had to
learn, in order to become practically the " friend" it was God's intention to
make him. Blessing given along the way was the occasion of exercising his heart,
and leading him gradually to personal acquaintance with the Blesser. But his
heart, was not to stop at the blessing; it was only when he was ready to give
all up into God's-hand, that he came to be truly resting in the One from whom
all had been received, and who was leading him on to yet brighter
blessing-beyond. And so he was Called " the friend of God." W. J. L.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: FRAGMENT: DOING AS CHRIST DID
========================================================================

Works suited to Christ are as much ordained, beforehand by God as He has
ordained redemption and our place in Christ. Go and imitate God Himself: Eph.
5:1. He sends us out from the place there to do as Christ did here. (G. V. W.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: THE BREAD OF GOD
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I have it a little on my heart to seek to unfold, as God may enable me by His
Spirit, the verses we have read in this chapter, which are more especially
connected with the appropriation by the believer of the death of the Son of man.
I need hardly say that this connects itself very intimately with the blessing of
eternal life, into -which the believer is brought. I would first say a few words
as to the general place in this Gospel of these two chapters, the fifth and
sixth. There is a certain development in the truth that runs all through the
Gospels. There was more than one side in the Person of the blessed Lord, and we
get this opened out by the four -evangelists. In John 5 Jesus is presented to us
as the Son of God acting in divine sovereignty: The Son quickeneth whom he
will." And then again: " The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son." The great point of chapter 5 is that the Lord Jesus
exercises divine prerogative. God is the Judge; but all judgment is committed
"unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the
Father." But in chapter vi., what is brought before us is the form in which
eternal life was presented to men; it is an incarnate Christ, the true bread
from heaven, the Son of man, sealed by the-Father, who gives His flesh for the
life of the world. This is the great point that the Lord presses in this
chapter. The Jews claimed to be the people of privilege. They say "- Our fathers
did eat manna in ' the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven
to eat." But the Lord answers: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true, bread from
heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth
life unto the world." An incarnate Christ was the form in which God presented
His Son to man to be received; and a humbled Christ is food for: the believer.
He adds, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye
have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life." If the Jews had really discerned the grace of His, humiliation, that He
really was the Son of God, they would have had eternal life, but they must, have
gone on to appropriate His death. I have - no doubt this would have been the
case, but it is not my subject to-night. I wish rather to look at the absolute
necessity for the death of Christ for us, and our appropriation thereof. Most of
you will remember these words in the first epistle of John: " There are three
that bear record; the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three
agree in one." They all bear witness to the fact that God has given to us
eternal life. But they also bear another witness, and that is, that if we have
eternal life, it is not in Adam; it is not in ourselves; it is in Christ. And
that, I believe, is the teaching of the epistle; and this is how the epistle
connects itself with the passage that I have read. It was when the Lord was dead
that the blood and the water flowed forth; and the Spirit was not given until He
had gone back to the Father. So' that I do not get one of these witnesses until
death has come in. I question in my own mind whether we realize the solemnity of
the fact that death has come in; and that, not death in ourselves, for, if it
had been, we should have been forever lost; but it is the death of Christ. But I
wish to say a few Words more about these three witnesses. I believe that you
will find that the whole of John's first epistle ranges itself under these three
heads: The consequences of the water; the consequences of the blood; and the
consequences of the Spirit. The first two chapters are rather the result of the
blood, for that is what gives us title to be with Him. God Himself is always
'light; but the witness about God to Israel was that "Moses drew near unto the
thick darkness where God was." Now the witness is " If we walk in the light as
he is in the light." God has come out in light, and Christianity has brought us
into the light in which He is. It is not conditional. God has brought us " out
of darkness into his marvelous light." This is not attainment; it is the
privilege of every believer. " The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us
from all sin," and gives us the privilege to walk in the light as He is. In the
third chapter the question is the nature; that which is the product in the
believer of the word. " Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that
we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures," as the apostle James
says, and Peter: " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever." So here we
get that we are the children of God, and that " He that practices righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous." It is a righteous nature, which has its
manifestation also in love; love that enables us to " lay down our lives for the
brethren." It is a wonderful thing.! We may not enter into it, but still there
it is plain in Scripture. And men may not be able to see it in us, it may be
obscured, but still it is there; it 15 the same nature as in God Himself, it is
divine. Then comes the third witness: the Spirit.. This is the result; it
follows on the water and the blood. An entirely new thing has been brought in, a
new creation, and this is accompanied by the Spirit. The consequences of the
presence of the Spirit are brought' out in the fourth chapter. The first is
intelligence. The apostle says " We know that we dwell in him, and he in us,
because he hath given us of his Spirit." We know it because God has given to us
of His Spirit, and He does not take away His Spirit. We continue in God and He
in us. Besides this, the Spirit is here for testimony; He witnesses that " The
Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." Both these are the result of
the presence of the Spirit of God in the believer. I have said thus much in
preface, and would now add a few words on the passage I read. The Jews were
stumbled at once when the Lord spoke of giving His flesh to eat, and I do not
wonder at it. " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you." This was the test. You may meet people who pretend to
-have life towards God, but if they do not know what it is to have eaten "the
flesh of the Son of man, and to have drunk his blood,' there is no life in
them.. I need hardly say how much Socinianism there is in the present clay. The
death of Christ is slighted as to the solemn judgment of man's state effected in
it. Now the Lord puts it as a test for the state of souls. " Except ye eat the
flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." If you
have not' part in death, you have not part in life. There are three things
brought out in our chapter about the Son. First, He has become incarnate.
Second, He dies. Third, He goes up to heaven again, where He was before. Now the
Lord was talking here to people who were setting up religious pretensions; "
Except ye -eat," you are clean outside the whole thing. You have no part in life
if not in death. The old state is death, as children of Adam; the new is life in
Christ, but through death. As to the-Christian, it does not say that he has life
in him, but life in Christ. The next verse is not so much a test, as it is a
proof- " Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life." His
death is the food of life. The eating in this verse is,-I judge, an habitual
thing. It is not a thing that is done once for all. And I ask, Is it ‘not a
privilege to feed on the death' of Christ? I do not meant at the Lord's table-on
the first day of -the week, I mean as the habit of our souls every,day of our
lives. It is an individual thing. Has not God brought in the death of Christ
upon everything? From the cedar wood to the hyssop? I do not say it is our only
food; for we have also the humbled Christ, the manna; but we do feed on the
death of Christ. And while contemplating, and a blessed contemplation it is, the
death of Christ, in His perfect love to the Father, and in His triumph over
evil, we have a part in what is eternal, in what never began and will never end.
This part in life with Christ is what we are brought into; and when the time for
display comes, He will raise us up. If, as having life, we delight to meditate
on the death of Christ, Christ will raise us up at the last day! What a blessed
thing t It is a present association with Christ, and the display and the glory
are at the last day. In the next verse we have a further statement. If we eat
His flesh 'and drink His blood, He continues in us and we in Him. We have an
eternal part in Christ; and, if I may use the expression reverently, He has in
us. A person may in a sense have a part for a time in Christ, and then go away;
but it is not this; here it is " continue" as we get it in the epistle; it is a
present and continuous " eateth and drinketh." But more than this. It indicates
a condition of -dependence, for the life is only in Him; and the word "
continue" implies dependence. I have eternal life up there in Christ, and Christ
is in me down here before the world. Christ did not present Himself to the
world, but the Father; and so with us. We continue in Christ, and Christ in us.
And if you want to know what a Christian is, I can say it is Christ. People
sometimes talk and think much of proprieties. Thank God, we have done with
proprieties. And what tends to distinguish us-that which ought to characterize a
Christian down here-is Christ, and that is what. I seek. God does not value
anything else but Christ in His people. It is what is before the mind that forms
the person. If it is Christ that is before you, Christ will come out in your
life and ways. There is one more clause: " As the living Father hath sent me,
and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." I can
only say as to this verse that I dare not expatiate on it.. Indeed what could I
say about it? I little understand what it is for Christ to live on account of
the Father. All 'that I can say is that the very same character of life as that
of the Son is the life of the believer, and that inseparable connection with
Christ is ours. In this passage there is not the thought of the body. It is life
only that is before us. But life is essential to the truth of the body, and it
is in this way that John is necessary to Paul; John gives us the life; Paul
gives us the life in one body. (Col. 3). We cannot well appreciate church truth
if we do not enter into what John teaches as to the life. And then we have this
closing expression: " This is that bread which 'came down from heaven: not as
your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall
live forever." The Lord reverts to what He had been saying in the previous part
of the chapter. He knew very well that He was going on to death, and He insists,
on the way to it, that He was " the living bread which came down from heaven,
that a man might eat thereof, and not die." I do not doubt at all, if there had
been a single one of those poor Jews listening to Him that could, in faith, have
seen the Son of God through the humble exterior of the Lord' Jesus Christ, that
he would have had the blessing, in anticipation, though, as I have said, he must
needs go on to the death. It is a great thing to get into God's 'thoughts. The
pretensions of man in the present day only move one's Contempt and sorrow; but
that a Man could stand upon earth and say: " I am the living bread which 'came
down from heaven... he that eateth of this bread shall live forever" is
Marvelous! Death has now come in, and life is the result. Is not that worthy of
God! The death of Christ is presented to man as the way of life, and feeding on
it is a proof to the believer that he has got eternal life. Take the simplest
soul that you can, but find it delighting in meditating on the death of Christ,
and it is to me a proof that it has eternal life. The seed of the life is in
Christ, and it is a dependent life, as we have been seeing: " He that eateth me,
even he shall live by me." If you could take away Christ, you could take away
the life of the believer. But you cannot take away Christ, for Christ is God. It
is a great thing for our souls if God, by His Spirit, establishes us in the
understanding of this truth, and gives us to realize what a marvelous thing it
is to be in the hands of Christ! To know that we are going to be the subjects of
His mighty power, and that He is going to raise us up at the last day. (F. E.
R.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: FRAGMENT: SIN
========================================================================

THE word sin ought to be to me identical with the sufferings of Christ. I cannot
indulge old propensities, for Christ died, and I am ransomed. (G. V. W.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 14: CHAPTER 1
========================================================================

THE Book of Joshua gives us, in type, the subject of the Epistle to the
Ephesians. The journey across the desert had come to an end, and the children of
Israel had now to cross the Jordan led by a new guide, and to take possession of
the land of promise, driving out the enemies who dwelt there. It is the same for
us. The heavenly places are our Canaan, into which we enter by the power of the
Spirit of God, who unites us to an ascended Christ, and seats us together in Him
in the glory, so that thus we enjoy anticipatively this glory which He has
acquired for Himself, into which He will introduce us, and which we shall share,
ere long, with Him. But, meanwhile, we have to fight the fight of faith against
spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, in order to appropriate every inch of
ground which God has given us to inherit. The difference between the type and
the reality is, that the wilderness journey was over for Israel 'before they
entered Canaan, whilst for us the desert and Canaan exist together, but this
only increases the blessing. If the wilderness teaches us that we still need to
be humbled and proved to know what is in our hearts, it is there that, in answer
to our infirmities, we experience the preciousness of divine resources in the
midst of this " dry and, thirsty land where no water is:" God opening His hand
to feed us with manna, to refresh us with water from the rock, and to make us
taste the inexhaustible resources of His grace, for His people have " lacked
nothing." "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell,
these forty years." (Deut. 8:4.) Moreover, we find ourselves at the same time,
if not at the same moment, in the green pastures and still waters of a rich
country whose first-fruits we taste; we can sit at peace at the table spread on
the other side of Jordan, and enjoy its food, delighting ourselves in a heavenly
Christ seated in the glory at God's right hand.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 15: THE LEADER
========================================================================

At the moment when this new stage of Israel's history begins, Joshua is called
to take the leadership of the people. This remarkable man appears for the first
time in Ex. 17, at the time of the war against Amalek, and this gives us the key
to his typical character. Whilst Moses, type here of divine authority intimately
associated with the heavenly priesthood and the righteousness of Christ, stands
on the top of the hill during the combat, there is a man down in the plain
associated with the people whom he leads, a man " in whom is the spirit," as the
Lord said to Moses, (Num. 27:18) and who conducts the battle of the Lord. This
Joshua is Christ, but Christ in us, or amongst us down here, in the power of the
Holy Ghost. Moses, as their leader, had been inseparable from Israel in the
desert, and so it will be with Joshua as leader of the people in Canaan. It is
said of this last: a man " which may go out before them, and which may lead them
out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as
sheep which have no shepherd.... And thou shalt put some of thine honor upon
him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient" (Num.
27:17,20.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 16: THE LAND AND ITS BOUNDARIES
========================================================================

In verse 2, the Jordan is mentioned, a barrier between the people and the
promised land which they must cross under the guidance of Joshua to enter
Canaan. Their inheritance was a pure gift of the grace of God: " The land which
I do give to the children of Israel." They were entitled to it by God, but it
was a question for the people not only of possession, but of entering into
possession: " Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have
I given unto you." (Ver. 3.) So it is with us spiritually: we have all these
things, but we cannot enter into them, except as having passed through death
with Christ, and entering by the power of His Spirit where He is. In short, it
is as we occupy ourselves with these things, and enter into them diligently and
personally, that we lay hold of each one-of our blessings, and prove their
heavenly reality. In one word, the Christian must himself appropriate them by
faith in order to enjoy them otherwise he would be like a poor king, ill and
living abroad, who had never traveled in his own kingdom.. In verse 5, we find
another important feature which characterizes the land; the enemy is there,
obstacles are there, wherever we put our foot an adversary arises. We see here
clearly, as has often been remarked, that Canaan is not heaven( in the sense in
which we shall reach it by actual physical death, but heaven in which the enemy
is found, heaven the scene of present warfare for the Christian. But, precious
promise: " There-shall not any man be able to stand before thee,"' said the Lord
to Joshua, " all the days of thy life;" that is to say, until he should have
established the people definitely in possession of the land. And what security
there was for the-people in this promise. Scarcely, says God, will you have
encountered the enemy on your path, ere he shall be dispersed. The people might
have shouted: Victory! Satan cannot stand before us!-Poor Israel, you will soon
see it before Ai; you are but a toy in the hands of Satan, you have no strength
to resist him, but the power is in Christ. " There shall not any man be able to
stand before thee," said the Lord to Joshua; whilst the promise to the people
was (ver. 3): I have given unto you." We may notice another point in verse 4.
God -gives them an exact description of the boundaries of Canaan. What are they?
In their full extent they were never reached by the people, but will be given to
them in millennial glory. Likewise for us, the heavenly places are our present
conquest wherever we place our foot, but shall we ever measure the extent of our
inheritance? Now we " know in part," but the day is at hand when that which is
perfect shall have come, and that which is in part shall be done away; "then
shall I know even as also I am known." The boundaries of the land were a great
desert, a great 'mountain, a great river, and a great sea. That is what was to
be found outside this fertile country, that on which the people could not or
ought not to tread. Do we not find here the world with all its moral
characteristics: its aridity, its power, its prosperity, and its agitation? As
to its aridity, Israel had gone through it, only to prove that it had no
resource for them, and that the bread from heaven alone could feed them in these
solitudes. Such, beloved, is the character of the things which are not ours. But
Canaan-heaven, is ours; Canaan with its warfare no doubt, but its victories;
Canaan with the peaceful enjoyment of infinite possessions, resuming themselves
in, and concentrating themselves around the person of a risen Christ seated in
the glory.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 17: THE MORAL QUALIFICATIONS REQUISITE FOR ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN
========================================================================

In verse 6, we find spiritual energy, what the apostle Peter calls " virtue."
Faith led them to tread everywhere with the sole of their feet; " virtue " was
to be added to faith; but it is worthy of note that this energy is not to be
found in us; for the people it is found in Joshua; it is in Christ for us. " Be
strong and of good courage, for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land
which I sware unto their fathers to give them." " Blessed is the man whose
strength is in Thee.. they go from strength to strength." This principle is of
the utmost importance. How many Christians there are who seek to discover
strength in themselves, to feel themselves strong for the combat! Their quest,
if it does not lead to discouragement, ends in what certainly is not worth more,
self-satisfaction. Power is not there, it is in Christ, but in Christ for us.
And-why is it given to us? Is it to render us great in our own eyes, or to puff
us up.? Far from it; but to lead us into the path of obedience. (Ver. 7.) It is
little children who, learn to obey. Strength makes us small; it makes an atom of
man, in order that the power of Christ may be exalted. We find a beautiful
example of this truth in Judg. 6 " The angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon
and said unto him: the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." These two
things are closely united: strength was his in the Lord Himself. " Go in this
thy might," said the Lord looking upon him; and he is immediately seized with
the sense of his own nothingness: his family was the poorest in Manasseh, and he
the least in his father's house. And the Lord said unto him: " Surely I will be
with thee." Obedience is always governed by the word of God. God gives strength
to Joshua, in order, He says, " that thou mayest observe to do according to all
the law of Moses." But besides the spiritual energy necessary to obey, there
must be something more. He adds in verse 8: " This book of the law shall not
depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that
thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein." There must
then be, besides divine energy, diligent care to appropriate the thoughts of
God. He says: meditate therein, in order to obey. ' Is that our aim when we
study the word of God? Often we like to read for the sake of instruction, which
is of itself a good thing; at other times, so as to be able to impart to others,
also an excellent thing in its place; but, let me say again, do we habitually
read it for the purpose of diligently obeying? If it were so, how it would
change the whole current of Christians' lives! He adds: " Meditate therein day
and night." There are some Christians who read a chapter (alas, a verse
perhaps!) every morning as a sort of amulet to preserve them throughout the day.
Is that meditating day and night on the word of God? What about our occupations?
do you say? Well, let me ask you in return: In the midst of your occupations, is
it the word given by God which nourishes you-that word given for your soul's
enjoyment, and to guide you in the path of Christ? That is the way to " have
good success in our ways and to prosper." In verse 9 we find a further
principle: " Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage." What
power the assurance of God's mind gives! All indecision as to the path, all
terror, all fear of the enemy disappear. Satan cannot harm us; has not God
commanded us? Such then are the principles which should govern the heart that
would enjoy heavenly things and fight the battles of the Lord. It is blessed to
see them stated quite at the beginning of this book, before Israel has taken a
single step, in such a way as to place him in possession of well-furbished
weapons wherewith to obtain the victory.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 18: THOSE WHO ENTER CANAAN
========================================================================

After showing us the Leader, the land, and the moral qualifications' necessary
for entrance therein, the word of God speaks to us (vers. 10- 18) of those who
are called to enter in. They comprise the people, and also the Reubenites, the
Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. `These last do not refuse, as the
previous generation had done, to enter, when the spies caused their hearts to
Melt. On the contrary, they associate themselves with their brethren, and are in
the first rank of combatants, but not to take possession of the 'land. Their
portion is on the other side of Jordan. It was their circumstances which led
them to choose it: they had much cattle: " the place was a place for cattle,"
adapted to their circumstances. (Num. 32:1.) It is the same with numbers of
Christians; indeed, one might say that to-day it is rather the nine tribes and a
half who have chosen their dwelling on the other side of Jordan. The main point
in the Christian life of believers is the circumstances of this life, the
everyday needs, abundance or want, enclosures for their cattle, or Cities for
their families. (Num. 32:16.) Moreover, these Christians are not, properly
speaking, lacking in faith: on the contrary they experience that the Lord can
enter in grace into all their circumstances, adapting Himself to them, and that
He does-so, He who came down to bring divine blessing to this earth. Theirs is
not a worldly Christianity, but an earthly one. Israel were a type of worldly
Christianity, when they refused to go up to the mountain of the Amorites. " Is
it not better for us to return to Egypt? And they said one to another; let us
make us a captain and let us return to Egypt." (Num. 4:3,4.) Also their carcases
fell in the wilderness. The-two and a half tribes are the type of those who
lower Christianity to a life of faith for the earthly circumstances they
traverse, making their-life to consist in these things. " They had much cattle."
Moses is at first indignant, but he afterward bears with them, seeing that
although their faith was weak; still it was faith, and that, these earthly links
did not separate them from their brethren. Beloved, this tendency to lower
Christianity vaunts itself on every hand as a tenet in the present day. With
much pretension to power, little is known beyond a Christ in whom to trust for.
His providential care, and in the details, great or small, of daily life. Christ
is known as a Shepherd: " Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me;'" but even in
this way, how feebly the extent of His resources is appreciated! If He leads us
through this world, it is not here that He gives us rest. The green pastures and
the still waters are not the fields, nor the sheepfolds, nor the cities of
Gilead, but the rich pastures of the land of Canaan. It is blessed to confide in
Him for everything, and God forbid that we should seek to diminish in the saints
aught of this confidence; but let us know something of the joy of entrance even
now there where a glorified Christ is to be found, of being attracted outside
this world, drawn away from this scene, to be introduced, dead and risen with
Him, into a heavenly Canaan. There, the motive for our walk will no longer be "
much cattle;" it will not be a question of arranging our life more or less
faithfully according to what we possess; but, having left all behind, self, and
the affairs of this life, in the bottom of the river of death, we have now to
fight to take possession of all our privileges in Christ, realizing them by
faith, and enjoying them in the power of the Spirit. Notice, too, that whether
they will or not, all cross the Jordan. Our brethren fight with us against
infidelity, and against the power of Satan, who displays his tactics in
the-world; but death and resurrection is for them only a fact (it is so for
all), not a realization. The soul must -realize it in order to take possession
of the land.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 19: CHAPTER 2 RAHAB
========================================================================

IN the second part of chapter 1 we have seen two classes of persons called to
cross the Jordan to enter the land of promise, type of heavenly places: the
people and the two and a half tribes whose moral character is not on a par with
their vocation, but who take part in the combat to ensure to Israel the
possession of their inheritance. In Rahab we find a third class of persons; the
Gentiles who share by faith the enjoyment of the promises in common with God's
ancient people. Rahab the harlot was a Gentile; she belonged by birth to that
large company of which the Epistle to the Ephesians speaks; "-Ye being in times
past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is
called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from
' the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." But
more than this, Rahab was a degraded person amongst the Gentiles themselves. But
the word of God comes to her: " We have heard," she said to the spies. It was a
word which assured grace and deliverance to some, and judgment to others. Faith
in this word places her immediately, as to her conscience, under the weight of
the judgment. " As soon as we heard it our hearts did melt." (Ver. 11.) Like her
people she is filled with fear; but whilst they had lost all courage, for her
this very fear is the beginning of wisdom, for it is the fear of the Lord, a
fear which makes her look to God, and immediately she acquires the certainty ("
I know," ver. 9) that this God is a God of grace for His people. She seeks her
resources in this God who is the resource of His own. Faith is not mere human
imagination which likes to deceive itself, and which sees things in whatever
light it pleases. It is not the human mind building its conclusions on
possibilities or probabilities; she says simply, " I know," because she has
heard what the Lord has done. Rahab looks to God. She is threatened with
judgment, but she sees that God takes interest in His people. She says to
herself: If God is to be gracious to me, I must be with His people. So when the
spies appear, Rahab by faith receives them " with peace " (Heb. 11:31); and
whilst the world seeks them everywhere, so as to rid itself of the testimony of
God, she hides them safely, and values them as being the means which God would
use to preserve her from future judgment. Her deliverance depends on their
preservation. Not only does she believe in Israel's God, but, as some one has
said, " she identifies herself with the Israel of God," and her faith receives
an immediate answer. She does not need to acquire the certainty by seeing
Jericho surrounded by the army of Jehovah. That would not be faith, which is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Notice how
perfect and worthy of God is the answer. She had said: " Swear to me. that ye
will deliver our lives from death;" and the messengers reply: " Our life for
yours." Her faith finds in others (we, in Christ) the guarantee by substitution
that death would not reach her. This is not all. A scarlet thread, unpretending
type of the death of One who could have said: `" I am a worm and no man,"
suffices her as token and safeguard. Just as the blood of the paschal lamb on
the lintels of the doorposts averted the judgment of the destroying angel, so
the scarlet thread suspended from the window of a house which was "upon the town
wall," was to preserve the house and all in it when the wall itself should fall
down at the noise of the trumpets of Jehovah. One more point: they are living
witnesses who are the guarantees that death is Rahab's safeguard. In the same
way for us; Christ is the living witness before God of the perfect efficacy, in
redemption, of His blood shed for us on the cross. " Neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption?' (Heb. 9:12.) Dear reader,' how beautiful is
Rahab's faith! She does not wait, as recommended by the spies, until the people
" be come into the land (ver. 18)' to bind the scarlet line in the window they
are scarcely gone when she hastens to put it there, testifying thud to what she
has believed; her faith does not linger, it speaks henceforth loudly; she
proclaims from her window' Christ and the efficacy of His work to save the most
miserable of sinners. Finally, Rahab is not only an example of faith, hut also
of works. " Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she
had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way." (James 2:25.)
Works -must follow faith. There is such a thing as dead works which are not the
product of faith; and there is a dead faith which does not produce works; but
Rahab's works can only be the fruit of faith. An Abraham to offer up his son as
a burnt offering, a Rahab to betray her country, or a Mary to break a costly box
of alabaster to waste her all, an odor of great price-human wisdom condemns, and
the authors of such deeds are blamed or punished by the world; but what renders
them approved of God, is the faith which is the motive spring, and faith which
sacrifices all for God, and which surrenders all for His people. Rahab finds her
recompense: a place of honor is reserved for her with those who, amongst God's
earthly people, form the lineage of Messiah. (Matt. 1:5.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 20: THE JORDAN. CHAPTER 3
========================================================================

THE two preliminary chapters with which we have been occupied bring us now: to
the main point of the narrative. Israel had to cross the Jordan to enter Canaan,
and what is the Jordan? From Egypt up to this, the deliverance of the people is
characterized by two great events; the Passover and the Red Sea; and in order to
understand the third great event, that is the crossing of the Jordan, it is well
to seize the meaning of the first two. All three are types of the cross of
Christ; but its aspects are so rich, so various, so infinite that we need all
these, and, many others, in order to comprehend its depth and extent. The
Passover shows us the cross of Christ as a shelter from the judgment of God.
"For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all, the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgment." (Ex. 12:12.) Now Israel themselves could only be
sheltered by the blood of the paschal lamb placed between the people as sinners
and God as a Judge who was against them. This is expiation. The blood stays God,
so to speak; keeps Him outside, and places us in safety inside. " When I see the
blood; I will pass over you." Only let us not forget that it is the love of God
which provides the sacrifice capable of meeting His own judgment. Love thus
spares the people who could not of themselves escape judgment any more than the
Egyptians. But we learn more than this in the Passover. The blood was that of
the paschal lamb wholly roast with fire; a type of Christ who endured in the
fullest way both externally and in the depths of His whole being the judgment of
God for us and in our stead. Whilst under the shelter of the blood, the
Israelites, and above all the believers amongst them, found food for their
hearts in the thought of Him in death, yet with a deep feeling of the bitterness
of sin, as typified by the bitter herbs, but of a sin completely atoned for. At
the Red Sea we find a second aspect of the cross of Christ, which is redemption:
Thou in thy mercy hast led forth thy people which thou has redeemed." (Ex.
15:13.) Now if God delivers and redeems us, He is for us instead of being
against us; indeed, it says: " The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold
your peace.' (Ex. 14:14.) The Passover stayed God Himself as a Judge, and set
Israel in safety; at the Red Sea God intervenes as a Savior (15:2) in favor of
His people, who have nothing to do but to look on at their deliverance: " Stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord." (Ex. 14:13.) In redemption God, so to
speak, acts as if the enemies which were against us, and which we were quite
powerless to overcome, were against Him. What a terrible and critical situation
was that of the people of God at this solemn moment The enemy seeking to recover
possession of his prey, pursuing hard after Israel and driving them to an
extremity towards an impassable sea. It is the same with sinners. The power of
Satan hurries them on towards death, and death is the judgment of God: " It is
appointed unto man once to die, and after death the judgment." Now, the soul
must have to do with this last directly and personally, must come into immediate
contact with death which is the expression of it. There is no means of escaping.
The people were weaponless and resourceless in presence of the enemy and the
power of death, and it is in this extremity that God intervenes. The rod of
judicial authority is stretched out, not over Israel, but in their favor, over
the sea, and death becomes, instead of a gulf, a pathway for the people. They
can cross it dry-shod. What a new pathway it was, and what a solemn hour for
Israel as a nation, when they passed between these liquid walls formed on their
right hand and on their left by the action of " the east wind," between these
floods, which instead of engulfing them proved their rampart! The solemnity of
the scene remained; the horror of it was forever obliterated. We find in this
scene a type of death and judgment borne by another, and for us the Lord
presents Himself in it: " For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of
the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves
passed over me." " The waters compassed me about even to the soul." (Jonah
2:3,5.) Christ endured to the full the horror of death, and felt it alone in the
infinite depths of His holy soul. But the people cross the sea dry-shod.
Judgment finds nothing in them, because it has spent itself in death, and for us
on the person of Christ on the cross. They come out on the other side safe and
sound, and here we have a type not merely of the death of Christ, but also of
His resurrection for us. This is what may be learned from the Red Sea. The army
of the adversary is overthrown, and finds its grave where we have found a
pathway. All fear is over; we can stand in peace on the opposite shore in the
power of a resurrection-life which has passed through death. It is by faith that
we share in this blessing: ".By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry
land: which the Egyptians assaying to do, were drowned." (Heb. 11:29.) Whilst
faith passes through it, the world, which seeks of itself to meet death and
judgment, will be engulfed. Having now considered the meaning of the Red Sea,
typical of the death and resurrection of Christ for us, let us ask ourselves,
What is the extent of the deliverance therein operated in favor of the people?
It is salvation, a simple word in itself, but one of unparalleled importance for
our hearts. Salvation has its negative and its positive side. The first
comprises the destruction of the enemy, of his power and all its consequences.
Grace, in the person of Christ, has taken our place in death under all this: "
It is the grace of, God that bringeth salvation." Thus, Satan's power, the
world, sin, death, wrath, and judgment, are overcome and destroyed for faith in
the cross of Christ. But there is also a positive blessing to be found in this
blessed work. " Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast
redeemed; thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." (Ex.
15:13.) " I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." (Ex. 19:4.)
" Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3:18.) " For through him we both have access by
one Spirit unto the Father." (Eph. 2:18.) Infinite blessing! The people have not
only escaped, but they have arrived by a new and living way which has brought
them to the end, into the presence of God Himself, a God whom we know as the
Father. " Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the children of God." (1 John 3:1.) Let us celebrate with
Israel, only in a higher key, the song of deliverance! No more separation, or
distance; the port is gained, which is God Himself He whom, by the Spirit, we
call " Abba, Father." What share did Israel take in all this work? Absolutely
none. Salvation is brought to us by the free grace of God who exacts nothing,
and who does not claim His rights over us, but who finds His satisfaction in
being a sovereign and an eternal Giver. (H. L. R.) (To be continued.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 21: CALEB AND PAUL
========================================================================

THE thought in my mind was just to bring before us some examples of faith to
encourage us to-day in a special pathway; for the day we live in is surely a
special day-one in which we are called to maintain a special truth given to us
by God: And to do this we need the special faith of a Caleb or a Paul. Now it is
difficulty that calls out faith; but, faith fears no difficulty, for to faith
all is possible, and to God all is possible. When the twelve spies went through
the land to search it out, Caleb and Joshua brought back a divine report as to
it; the others brought back only a human one. They forgot that which it was
God's purpose to give to His people, and so they said: " The cities are walled
and very great.... It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants-thereof, and all
the people that we saw are men of a great stature." But the others say: " Let us
go up at once and possess it: for we are well able to overcome it." They see it
with Jehovah's eyes, and there is no difficulty with Him. The people listened to
that which was false, as they still do to-day. This was the tenth time that
Israel had failed, and then it was that Jehovah judged His people and said they
should not go into the land. It is very beautiful in Caleb the way in which he
comes to Joshua, and claims that which Moses had promised him. All through that
forty years of wandering in the wilderness that promise had sustained these two
men. It was no little thing to them to have to tread that wilderness during
forty long years because of the unbelief of the people. But at the end of it
there was no diminution in the strength of Caleb. He could say " I am as strong
this day as I was, in the day that -Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even
so is my strength now, for war, both, to go out, and to come in. Now therefore
give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake, in that day; for thou heardest in
that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were - -great and
fenced: if so be that the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive
them out as the Lord said." Here was faith that had God before it, faith that
saw everything in connection with God and valued it as His gift. And today, what
is it that sustains us in the path? " This world is a wilderness wide," as we
have been singing; it is not our sphere; we have to pass through it and refuse
it. But we read the people's hearts turned back to Egypt, and it is often so
with God's people. They are often only separated from the world by
circumstances, whilst all the time their hearts are in it. They are not
satisfied. It is not with them that they are not saved, but it is that Christ is
not known, and proved, and loved. The cross tells me that all down here is
closed to faith, while Christ is made the object, the prize, and the goal of the
soul. This is what we get in Phil. 3 Here we find a soul, a, heart, completely
absorbed with its object. It is Christ who loved me and gave Himself for me,
that occupies Paul's vision at the beginning of his course; and we find him the
same at the close. Though all has come to ruin, yet nothing-moves him. Caleb can
say he has " wholly followed the Lord his God;" Paul can say, " This one thing I
do." Can you and I speak thus Alas, alas, alas! Paul had no other thought but
Christ from the beginning, when He called him, to the end or his course. And
this is just what we need in the present day. The Epistle to the Philippians
just says to us, Go on, go on I Look at the divided, mind in Paul. He says, " I
am ready to depart;" but at the same moment: " To abide in the flesh is more
needful for you... What I shall choose I wont not." His had been a life given up
to the things of, Christ, and now he is ready to be offered for Him. We have not
the power of this. How far do we know what it is to be martyrs, witnesses? We
are not called to the stake; we are not up to it perhaps. But a martyr is simply
a witness, and following Christ and refusing the world is martyrdom. The one who
loves Christ is prepared to die for Christ. " I have a desire to depart." How he
can speak of it! It was the will of Christ. He had made others suffer once for
His name's sake, and now he is ready to die himself. " Henceforth there is laid
up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day." How precious that is! 'There is a crown laid up for Paul
which the righteous judge will give him. The very proof of His righteousness
will be giving Paul that crown. Thus Caleb walked in the sense of the approval
of God, and Paul also in his day. And I would ask what have we if we have not
intimacy with Christ? Where are we if we are not where they were? Just 'nowhere!
Hence come murmurings and complainings. Are we appreciating the One who at such
a cost has given us Such a portion? What is before Christ as a Man? Does He not
value all that has been given Him' by God? All that He has acquired by infinite
sacrifice? And there we shall be with Him, and like Him; there we shall be to
His eternal praise. The Lord give us to be in the power of all the truth that He
has given to us in these last days, to be in the communion of it, the life, the
reality, the power, the knowledge of it; that all that He has given to us may be
taken possession of by us, to His everlasting praise and our glory. (H. J. J.)
His springs are our springs; we have no false prop, no stay of nature to sustain
us; we have an arm which may be leaned on. He knew in the days of His service
here that His Father's arm was enough for Him. And He is enough for us, were the
path ten thousand times more sad and difficult. I have known, if others do not,
what it is to be crucified, dead, buried, quickened and raised with Him. Have
you tasted it? Have you known it well? (G. V. W.)


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  CHAPTER 22: COLOSSIANS 1
========================================================================

WHAT characterizes this Epistle is that we are looked at as risen; dead and
risen, but not yet seated in heavenly places; but the Holy Ghost revealing our
places in heaven, but walking as risen men in the world, looking for heaven. In
different Epistles we get various aspects of the Christian. In Ephesians we are
seated in the heavenlies. Romans, alive in this world. Here (Colossians), we are
risen; not in glory. We get here, more fully than elsewhere, life unfolded: "
Your life is hid with Christ in God." Then you should walk according to that. He
puts us to run the race. People get confused by connecting these " ifs " with
redemption. " Christ in you the hope of glory;" in you Gentiles; an entirely new
thought; a thing never heard of before. You get that side of the mystery; not
Christ come in glory to take up His people, but Christ in you, the hope of
glory. Verse 8 is the only place the Spirit is named in this Epistle. Verse 10.
" That ye might walk worthy," &c. He puts the walk first; not merely avoiding
-wickedness; a natural man might do that; but "filled with the knowledge of his
will." Christ left traces of His path in the wilderness. In the ordering of
Israel the tabernacle was in the midst of the camp, and they were to march in
the same kind of order as they encamped, but when they wanted to find a way
through the wilderness, the ark went before them; it was grace. It is remarkable
there is no direction as to the walk, but " filled with the knowledge of his
will." Are you that? How often we do not know if we are right, even when we
desire it. Seeing the path through the wilderness tests the state. The vulture's
eye hath not seen it. If we are to walk worthy of the Lord, we must be filled
with the knowledge of His will. Men ought to read Christ in you as distinctly as
the ten commandments on the tables of stone. This is the apostle's comparison,
not mine. We shall be perfectly like Christ in glory, and the eye is directed to
that now. He says, as it were, I am going away, and I cannot be glorified in my
own person down here, but I should be in you. You are called to walk worthy of
the Lord. The first thing that struck me, when I began to think at all
seriously, was that Christ never did anything for Himself; it ought to govern
our hearts, our motives, everything. He was never weary of doing good. As a man
He sat weary at the well, yet ready to speak to a poor woman. He had come down
so low as to be dependent on her for a drink of water. We should walk, here
having Christ before the heart, governing us, as the only motive. He was at all
times, and in every case, governed by divine principles; sensible to everything
around Him, but never governed by what was around Him; governed always by what
was divine. We should always be governed by Him. He was at all times the
expression of divine perfections. " Christ is all and in all;" not all in all;
that is never said of Christ. God is " all in all." Our calling is to walk
worthy of the Lord; we are in that place epistles of Christ., I am called to
walk through this world to express Christ. There are three ways in which we are
told to walk worthy: of God,, of the Lord, and: of the vocation. `f Hereby,
perceive we the love of God, because, he laid down, his life for us; and we
ought to lay down our lives 'for the -brethren." It: is the spiritual, state
that discerns what' is worthy of the Lord. Verse 11. "Strengthened with all
might according to his glorious power." You would expect it was to do something
great. No; 'to be patient. There is no will when. I, am patient. You will find
where you fail through the day it is patience has failed. We get wisdom to show
what the path is; strength to walk in it; not strength to overcome but strength
to endure. We idol not read; resist the devil and you will overcome him, but "
resist, and he will flee from you." He knows he has met Christ, for flesh would
not resist him. Verse 12. " Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Now he comes to
what set him in the path. I am fit for heaven-made meet. I cannot look up to God
without having the consciousness, I am fit to be there in light. An exercised
heart looks at Christ. The thief was fit to go to heaven. He confessed the Lord
when the disciples were afraid to do it. He says " Lord," and cared for nothing,
though he was in agony, but " Lord, remember me;" and it is an ugly place to be
remembered on a gibbet. Do you believe that Christ by His work has made you fit?
I do not ask have you accepted it. God has. He gave His Son in love, and
accepted Him in righteousness, and the thing that gives me peace is what God
thinks of it. We are delivered from Satan's power; resist him and' he will flee
from you; Christ has broken his power. I am delivered from the power of
darkness, but that did not content God; He has translated us into the kingdom of
the Son of His love. We have got a positive place-the kingdom of the Son of His
love; not of light, though it is that. God has two special names-light and love;
and I get the love as well as the light. He is not content to say it is in
light, but it is love too. Then he speaks of the fullness of Christ's character,
but I cannot go into it all. Verse 16. I get blessed revelations brought close
down to me. You must not suppose that we do not know Him because He is not
present, for we know Him a great deal better, because we have the Spirit. I am
not a stranger to God; I know Him, and as my Father. You cannot get further than
the Father; if you get that you get everything. I have met God, I know what He
is, and He is all love to me. We have the real revelation of God to our souls.
See Him in John 4 Had He a hard word for the poor Samaritan woman? No; He says:
" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me
to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water." I have got it. He is all love to me. It makes me feel what a poor
creature I am, these blessed revelations. 1 John 4:16: " God dwelleth in him and
he in God." We have the consciousness that He dwells in us. When I make my abode
with the Father and the Son up there; they will make their abode with me down
here. One has a consciousness that He is with us, in us. He goes on revealing
Himself to us. The time is coming when Christ will take to Himself His great
power; then I shall get glory. His first coming did not bring the world into
order; at His second coming everything will be brought into order in earth and
heaven. Look at the earth now; oppressions, wars, &c.; that was how Christ found
the world, and He was a Man of sorrows in it. In heaven we read the angels were
cast out, and we never hear of them there again. Do you think Christ will allow
such things? Not for a moment. He will reconcile all things, but you hath He
reconciled. It is never said, God is reconciled to us. God's love was the spring
of it all. I joy in God, instead of hiding myself from Him like Adam. You are
brought now to enjoy His love. " Herein is love made perfect, that we may have
boldness in the day of judgment." I cannot realize this wonderful love of God
without loving Him. It is the sense of its mother's love that makes the child
obedient. I am reconciled; I am fit to be in the light. There is no " if " in
what has gone before. " Perfect love " accomplished all: " by one offering
perfected forever." The word "forever" means uninterruptedly; the " if " never
comes in as to redemption. The thief goes straight to heaven. In the wilderness
we are tested. You must set out for Canaan, or you will not get there. We have
the journey to take where the dangers are and thus we are-thrown on the
faithfulness of God to keep us, and that is dependence. The danger is real, but
the dare is faithful; it' is constant dependence; He has to keep us every
moment. " No man shall pluck them out of my hand," but why does he say so if
there is no 'danger? Satan would like to do it. "Pluck;" is the same' word as "
catcheth:" the wolf catcheth the sheep. In 1 Cor. 1:8, we have: " Who shall also
confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ;" and then he begins and blames then for every single thing as to their
walk. They had more gift than grace -these poor Corinthians. Christ is in heaven
because my sins are gone, but when I come to my path, there is not an instant
that I am not dependent on His faithfulness; every instant of every day I need
to be in dependence on Him. " He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous."
God had been considering Job; it is God who directs Satan's attention to Job,
but He forces Satan to own that Job was no hypocrite. He withdraweth not his
eyes for one instant. He has a constant unceasing care over us every moment. It
is not a question of my walk, but of the unchanging faithfulness of the living
Lord. He never takes His eye off us. If mine are always on Him, He will guide me
with His eye. " As 'he is, so are we in this world." Is it presumption for us to
believe what God says, though it is most wonderful? blessed too! Look at Israel.
They were going on wretchedly, "A stiffnecked people;" but what do I hear from
the mountain? " I have not seen iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel."
No encouragement to carelessness, but encouragement to lean on the 'Beloved. We
are strengthened, but we need it; and have to walk in the sense of our need of
it. The Lord give us beloved friends the full; blessed consciousness, of the
full 'efficacy of the work of Christ. (J. N. D.)


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  CHAPTER 23: FRAGMENT: THE UNVEILED GLORY OF GOD
========================================================================

Christianity is the unveiled glory of God in the place where, in Christ's face,
it is the proof that I am eternally saved. The full glory is revealed. That
glory shining into our hearts is salvation. He is in glory; I am saved. (G. V.
W.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 24: FRAGMENT: COMPLETE AND PERFECT REST
========================================================================

IT is a great thing to know a complete and perfect rest all fort de l'orage, to
know that God is working out all for the alone glory of Christ, the only worthy
One and the Man of His right hand and of His counsels, and for the full and
perfect blessing, too, of those who, by grace and the teaching and inclination
of His Holy Spirit, are bent on the magnifying of His Son above all and above
self. He loved the sheep and laid down His life for them. As the Father's Son,
and one with Him, He served them in life and in death, and will serve them
forever and ever. E. C.


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  CHAPTER 25: SANCTIFICATION
========================================================================

THE first thing to be assured of, in order to understand sanctification
practically, is that we are, on believing, sanctified to God: " By which will we
are sanctified by the offering of Jesus once for all." "Both he that sanctifieth
and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren." If a believer died the moment after he believed, like
the thief on the cross, he is -sanctified and fit for the paradise of God,
because in the act of death he would have been divested of all the old thing,
and nothing could go into paradise but the new, and nothing else will at any
time (no matter how long a believer may live here) go into paradise but what is
new-what is of God. When a believer is quickened he is born of God, and this is
sanctification of the Spirit. But when he remains here, surrounded by the flesh,
he learns practical sanctification. If he had died on believing, he would have
been divested of all the grave clothes, but as he remains in the body he has to
learn practically what it is to be divested of the influence of the old things,
and to walk in the midst of them in the grace and Spirit of Christ; and, as he
does, he is practically sanctified. Now before there can be any step in, or
knowledge of, practical sanctification, there must be a knowledge of what
holiness really is. If a believer does not know what holiness is, he is like one
looking for a thing of which he knows nothing at all-like a blind man trying to
comprehend light before he can see. I cannot know any sentiment until I have
been affected by it, hence it is said there is no word in any language for an
idea which has not yet been apprehended. If a thing is not apprehended, there is
no want for the word or sign which would convey it. Now the work of Christ lands
the believer in " the holiest of all." He is rescued from death and judgment,
brought from the deepest and darkest distance in one step, through His work,
into the brightest place-the holiest of all. We have boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus. That blood certifies the believer's title to be
there, and his place is there forever. There only can he acquire a sense of
holiness-of that separation from all defilement which suits 'God. As God's own
righteousness only suits Him as to conduct, so His own holiness only suits Him
as to associations. The believer has not entered into it, has not tasted of the
true effect of Christ's work for him, if he has not entered into the holiest of
all. True, many quickened souls do not enjoy the holiest of all, and very often
they try to be holy in order that they may reach an assured resting-place before
God. The fact is, like the prodigal, their very approximation to God in the
sense of His love in receiving them, only awakens in them the sense of their
unfitness to be near. They would fain brush up the old clothes, instead of
seeing that they, the old things, are passed away, and that in new things only
can they be really at ease in the Father's house. Thus it is as divested of an
evil conscience, and by the separating power of the word cleansed from our own
surroundings that we draw near: The-heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and
the body washed with pure water. It is here the believer first acquires the
sense of holiness. An entirely new sense to him, and one which is wholly unique,
even as no art of the apothecary could compound anything like unto the holy
anointing oil: Many are led away by a spurious article because they do not know
the genuine one. Thus Romanism beguiles many, a one by propounding a severe
self-mortification for holiness. When the believer has once tasted of holiness,
what it only is, he must be aware of what is contrary to it; and when he has
left his place in the holiest. I can never lose my place in-the holiest,
Christ's blood has obtained it for me.. I do, alas! constantly lose my enjoyment
in it.. But the place remains mine, as David's place at the king's table
remained his though he did not occupy it. Now, when my place in the holiest is
assured to me and holiness is known to me, if I had no> connection with the
flesh and the world, there would be no departure from it; but seeing that I am
in a body of sin, and that I am constantly liable to defilement and consequent
deprivation of the enjoyment of the holiest, I should be unable to recover my
place were it not for the Lord's present ministry washing my feet. This blessed
ministry is to restore me to a place that I have already enjoyed. When I am
defiled I cannot resume my place in the holiest until my feet are washed. If I
have never enjoyed my place in the holiest, even though my conscience is
distressed because of my failure, I have not the feeling that I am deprived of
it, because I could not feel that I had lost anything which I had never enjoyed.
Now the washing of the feet sets forth the great principle of sanctification. It
is not merely a confession of the error and thus a removal of it At conversion
all our sins were forgiven, as they affected us in the eye of God: being
forgiven we were sanctified; we belong to God in the holiest through Christ's
work; any sin committed after conversion is a return to the flesh. But the flesh
has been judicially terminated in the cross, and if not judged by the believer
must be judged by the Lord: " Our God is a consuming fire." When my feet are
washed I am made sensible not only of forgiveness, but of the removal of the
defilement which I had contracted. In Num. 19 the defiled one was sprinkled with
the water of separation, in which were the ashes of the sin-offering. The Spirit
of God brings before my soul the ashes, the token of accomplished judgment. I am
made sensible that I have gone back to that for which Christ suffered at the
hand of God; so that it is not merely the offense which is forgiven, but the
deeper work of judging the flesh, reaching the root from which the evil springs
that is before me. When it is only the offense that is before the conscience, it
is more the disgrace to oneself; but when it is the defilement, it is one's loss
or estrangement from God and our true place with Him. I have said we have the
true principle of all sanctification here; it is not merely the stopping of an
offense, but it is the supplanting of the flesh in its root by Christ, and this
is real practical sanctification. Let us examine the mode by which this
practical sanctification is produced. If I had died on conversion I should have
been divested of every atom of the old, and perfectly fit, because of Christ's
work; to enter into heaven. If I am fit the first moment, I am fit every moment.
I do not get more fit by living in a sinful body in a corrupt world; but as I
should have dropped every atom of the old man had I -died on conversion, so, if
I remain here, the power of Christ's life in me is to supplant the old man which
is corrupt. As I live in the Spirit I da not fulfill the lusts of the
flesh-Christ liveth in me. All depends on the garden I sow in. If I sow to the
flesh, of the flesh I reap corruption; but if to the Spirit, life everlasting.
In John 17:17, the Lord desires for His disciples that they should be
sanctified; and the measure which is to be effected is: " Sanctify them through
thy truth, thy word is truth." Now this refers to the new order of which they
were as of God. The word here is the counsel of God; an entirely new order of
the Father was now to come out. 1 John 3:1, explains it. " The world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not The sanctification resulting from this would be the
manifestation here of the new order; not any improvement in the old, but a
displacing of the old; as a tree when it grows displaces the soil by which it is
surrounded. I have real liberty when the flesh has no place, when Ishmael is
morally cast out and kept out. There is a new growth in me. Christ liveth in me,
and as He increases I am practically more sanctified; the old tastes, the weeds
that grew in the old soil, are overpowered by the new thing, like the way an
aged evergreen shrub by degrees ' monopolizes a plot in a garden. The soil that
would ordinarily grow weeds is so completely overshadowed by the shrub that no
weeds can grow; not that the soil is any better, but that there is no room for
them. Now in order to promote the growth effectually, the Lord adds: " For their
sakes I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified through the truth." The
heart of the believer drawn away from the things here to Christ where He is,
would `be practically dissociated from the hindering influence here; setting the
mind on things above and not on things on the earth. The more I am of the divine
order, the more I should be distanced from the men of the world; and the more my
heart was drawn away out of everything after Him who had left everything here,
the more detached I should be from the things on the earth and the scene of
them. For practical sanctification I require both to know that I am of a new
generation among the old, as a butterfly among caterpillars; and I require to be
removed from the leaves on which caterpillars feed, in order that my old tastes
should not be ministered to, and I should sow to the flesh. This then is the
nature of sanctification. Finally there are two ministries by which it is
promoted. One is the word, Eph. 5 " That he might sanctify and cleanse it by the
washing of the water through the word." The other is discipline, Heb. 12:10: "
That we should be partakers of his holiness." Now these two ministries work hand
in hand, one inside, the other outside. I do not speak of the chastening here
for the works of the flesh; doubtless that is to silence the root that has not
been judged. . There is then the ministry of the word by which the Lord leads
our hearts into such enjoyment with His glories and interests as the Queen of
Sheba had with Solomon, so that there is no spirit left in us. There is a
sensible dropping off of the old things. To God I am outside myself, so that
things once thought indispensable and fascinating are now superseded. The grave
clothes are for the moment gone, and I breathe freely in a holy atmosphere. The
wonder and beauty of His mind and thoughts quite surpass the small selfish
enjoyments of my poor heart. I am drawn nearer to Him; and the nearer I am, the
more distinctly do I become suited to Him. Like Rebekah, who, when she saw
Isaac, lighted off the camel and threw a veil over herself, so, as I see Christ
by faith, I lose sight of myself; Christ's presence makes me suited to Himself.
He refuses all that is not of Himself, and gives prominence and countenance to
all that is of Himself: "While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard
sendeth forth the smell thereof." When I see Him I shall be like Him, and the
more I behold the glory of the Lord, the more I am molded into its likeness. His
word instructs me in the greatness and beauty of His things. This ministry is
within me, but discipline is from without, and concurrent: "All things work
together for good to them that love God, that are called according to His
purpose." There is chastening or discipline for unjudged failure: ".For this
cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." The flesh unjudged is
judged; but I refer more to the discipline, which promotes holiness. The earnest
soul drinks Marah, refuses the things which minister to the flesh, looks not
upon the wine when it is red, but seeks to be always bearing about in the body
the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in the body.
Discipline helps in order to this: " We who live are always delivered unto
death, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal bodies." It is to
help those who are progressing; something like pruning to bring forth more
fruit; but it is constant and unremitting, indicating that one is an unceasing
object of interest. The cloud of witnesses in Heb. 11 all suffered for
righteousness, but their sufferings tended to detach them from the world, and
connect them more absolutely with God. As it has been said, every blow Stephen
-received was loosening him from all here, liberating him from all of man, that
he might the more fully enter into all that is of God. Thus suffering is not
only a testimony, but a help to holiness to the sufferer. The aim of all
discipline is to free me of everything which hinders Christ in me; so that,
while the ministry of the word opens out to me the beauty and glory of my
portion in Christ, the discipline through circumstances detaches me from the
weights which hinder me here. It is ever where a believer has most vanity or
self-confidence that discipline makes its mark. If Jacob be a very active man,
he becomes lame. If Moses be a muscular man, he must learn by forty years in the
wilderness not to trust in himself. And Paul is crippled where he feels it most.
God will stain the pride of all men. The sanctified man is a body of light, as
when the bright shining of a candle doth give its glow; every dark part driven
out, and Christ reigning in the heart. The body, simply His vessel, or medium,
for expressing His own will and pleasure. J. B. S.


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  CHAPTER 26: READINGS ON PHILIPPIANS 1 AND 2
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Chapter 1 IN this assembly all the saints at Philippi are addressed, with the
bishops and deacons; these, we have seen, are not even alluded to in
Corinthians, where the God of order was correcting the disorders which abounded.
The gifted persons were powerless to correct it, possessing their -gifts apart
from communion with the divine Giver. Still it was God's assembly at Corinth,,
and the saints, simply as such, are in view. All were in the house of God-the "
sanctified in Christ Jesus " alone, members of His body. Of such exclusively is
composed the assembly which Christ builds (Matt. 16), for the assembly is-looked
at in more than one aspect in Scripture. " With all that call on the name of our
Lord. Jesus Christ in every place " includes the hole-professing church. As we
have seen, all was disorder at Corinth, and there was none to help.. -Bishops
are not mentioned, and the gifted persons out of communion with the mind of God.
The-result was that they-the saints-became more immediately the object of the
care of God Him- self. The assembly was God's assembly, they -were God's
building, God's husbandry; and Paul, as one of God's workmen, His messenger to
them. If overseers or deacons had failed or were absent, could God become the
servant of His own ordinances? And the apostle, not searching out iniquities,
but earnestly desiring to recognize any good thing amongst them, tells them that
he thanks God always for the grace of God given to them in Christ, in that they
had been enriched in Him in all word of doctrine and in all knowledge. But how
cold, and unlike the opening of the address to the Philippians! The uniting
power of a common interest in the work, and of joint participation in the
sufferings and conflicts of the gospel, which, in a beautiful way, he speaks of
as a person, was wanting at Corinth. It was a poor substitute for what he found
at Philippi, to talk of gifts and gifted men. The gifts were still there; but
the connection between the streams and the fountain hardly manifest. But to
proceed with our chapter. " I thank -my God for my whole remembrance of you."
Not a break nor a gap from the beginning to the present hour, not a supplication
to God in which their names were omitted, and this with accompanying joy. The
ground of it, their fellowship, not here with Paul, but with the gospel itself,
suffering evil with it, according to the power of God, not ashamed of the
testimony of their Lord. But his joy in those saints was not limited to
the-remembrance of their ways from the first day: his thoughts about them ran on
into the future, even unto the day of Jesus Christ-the day of glory, with
boundless confidence in Him who had begun the good work in them, that He would
complete it unto that day. But this confidence in God respecting them was united
in Paul with a conviction as to their spiritual condition founded upon their
attitude both towards the gospel and towards himself, so that it was only a
right thing-in him to feel this. With what delicacy and grace, both of the
Spirit surely, he tells them of his feelings towards them. They had Paul in
their hearts, and in his bonds and the defense of the gospel shared the grace
given to him. What uniting bonds were these! He loved them with the affections
of Jesus Christ Himself.. "Ye have me in your heart;" they were linked up with
him in the maintenance of the truth, the object one, the conflict one. If a man
is feeding on the bread of the mighty, he becomes single-minded and
single-hearted, and deeply happy. Paul was the channel through which God was
feeding them with this bread. " That your rejoicing may be more abundant in
Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again." There was the true bread of the
mighty! It was in Christ these blessed affections were realized. Surely these
few verses unfold a scene of remarkable moral beauty, the " bond of perfectness
" binding together in blessed affections (the bowels of Jesus Christ, as he
calls it) the apostle Wand the beloved Philippians. But this longing after them
in the bowels of -Jesus Christ tells itself out in more than words. He prays
that the love already in them may abound yet more and more; no measure here, for
it was really divine love, though he calls it theirs -" the love of God shed
abroad in the heart," but with special characteristics, full knowledge and all
intelligence. What a glorious thought! love forever growing, both in itself and
in full knowledge and intelligence. Whence such thoughts as these? Ah! we need
not say whence, but how? Jesus Himself was filling his heart, and coming out
through this channel to theirs. And Paul was thinking of Him in this passage,
not as at the right hand, but as in His own day; the day of glory and of power
come; and of the Philippians being pure and without offense for that day.
Compare 1 Thess. 3:12,13, In order to the confirming your hearts unblamable in
holiness.. at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." Paul has
evidently left the old things behind'; the subject here is toil and suffering,
laboring amongst and against adversaries, and suffering for and with Christ in
view of the day of manifested glory. A great part of our deplorable weakness
flows from this, that what that day of glory means for Him and for us, is
practically lost for the hearts and minds of so many of His people. He comes
with all His saints into the scene of His glory and theirs: the creature is
expecting the revelation of the sons of God, when He is revealed they are
revealed with Him. It is in view of this glorious day that the saints suffer for
and with Christ in spirit: these sufferings and glories cannot be separated " If
we suffer we shall reign " (not live). In none of these passages have we the
standing of believers in Christ, no sitting in heavenly places, but the
responsibility of pilgrims in the wilderness, in view of salvation through and
out of it at the end. In another aspect, in connection with the work finished on
the cross, they were already saved. Forgiven, justified, accepted, and united by
the Spirit to Christ glorified, they were fit for sharing the portion of the
saints in light on taking the first step into the wilderness. But here the
apostle is not speaking of what had been done for them, but expressing his
confidence that what God had begun in them, " He would complete -unto the day of
Jesus Christ." Now look at the character in which his heart contemplated them as
fit for Jesus Christ's day: love abounding in itself, as also in full knowledge
and in all intelligence. Then there was to be spiritual judgment and
appreciation of the things that are more excellent, in view of purity and being
without offense for Jesus Christ's day. And finally, their being complete
(filled) as regards proofs of righteousness, to God's praise and glory. What
termini are these to the trials of the wilderness! Christ's day and God's praise
and glory! Verse 12. The subject changes, and we have Paul's history of himself
in relation to surrounding circumstances; but everything, to the least detail,
is for the profit of the saints. Contemplated from above, everything, was in
favor of the man who said, " This one thing I do." Whatever men might say of the
power of circumstances, it is evident that the prisoner of Jesus Christ was ever
" master of the situation," as men say. It was really Christ in him in the power
of the Spirit. Compare what he says in 2 Cor. 2 " But thanks be to God, who
always leads us in triumph in the Christ." Through his captivity at Rome, the
name of Jesus was first heard in the Prætorium, as it had once reached the ears
of the prisoners at Philippi. The circumstances there were the dungeon, the
stocks, and the midnight darkness. Was Paul making melody in his heart in the
midst of them, praising God with singing, above or beneath those circumstances?
God Himself was there in Spirit The prisoners listened. What name was that which
reached them through the dungeon walls? for Paul was in the inner prison). Was
that a mere circumstance? I think not, and that one sees there also the effect
of the presence of Him whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not.
At Rome, he says, his bonds had become manifest as being in Christ, in all the
Prætorium, and in all others, or in all other places. (See New Translation.) And
most of the brethren were emboldened to speak the word without fear, trusting in
the Lord through his bonds. Thus the " Name " was made known everywhere, and the
brethren encouraged to proclaim it without fear. Such was the result of Satan's
efforts to destroy it, and of God's purpose to glorify it; and the instrument in
all this service, the poor prisoner of Jesus Christ. To him might be aptly
applied the well-known lines: " Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars
a cage." His free and quiet spirit was in perfect liberty, where there is
neither " Greek nor Jew," nor Roman neither! but where "Christ is everything,
and in all." We see now that circumstances are only occasions in the hand of
power for the accomplishment of God's will. Some preached Christ out of
contention, for envy and strife: " What then," he says, " Christ is preached,
and I rejoice, and will rejoice, for even this will turn out to my salvation
(looked at as realized at the end of the race) through your supplication and the
supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." In these words we note his lowliness and
dependence; farther on he says, " I have learned," and " I know;" but this was
the road he took upheld by their prayers, and the " supply of the Spirit of
Christ " (increase of spiritual energy). He does not say " Spirit of God,"
because Christ was immediately before his mind, and he was seeking to follow Him
in the path which He had traversed, in all the energy of the Spirit of holiness,
not one footmark out of place, not one thought to refuse, not one thing to
regret. Paul was not ignorant of the end of the wondrous course finished by the
" leader and completer of faith " Himself, in the glorification of God, the
revelation of the Father, the accomplishment of the work given Him to do, the
conquest of the world. His blessed servant could say at the end of his course, "
I have kept the faith." He could not, like His divine Master, be the object of
faith; but the creature has not reached a more elevated point in the race set
before us than that marked out in these simple words, " I have kept the faith."
Never had mortal man had such treasures committed to his keeping: " the faith,"
" the name of Jesus," and " the ministry," " to testify the glad tidings of the
grace of God." How his heart responded to the great commission, his pen has
described in words never equaled by man in feeling and simplicity: " What do ye,
weeping and breaking my heart? for I am ready not only to be bound, but also to
die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." When the Holy Spirit in every
city witnessed that bonds and tribulations awaited him, his answer was: " I make
no account of my life as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course with
joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the
glad tidings of the grace of God." And finally he exclaims, when the conflict
was ended, " I have kept the faith." The last circumstance, if men will call it
so, of the way, death, was imminent. Did that give him trouble? Surely he was
saying in faith, -" Though an host should encamp against me, whom shall I fear?"
It is not here, " I am ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus," but " My
earnest expectation and my hope, in all boldness, as always, Christ shall be
magnified in my body, whether by life or by death." Christ was his life, and
death gain, and he was always bearing about in his body the dying of Jesus. By
the grace of God, through faith, both the life and death of Christ were Paul's.
Christ was his life, and " identified with him in the likeness of his death,"
and united to him in heaven by the Holy Ghost, he was already spiritually in a,
place where circumstance, as a thought or expression, has no meaning or
application. What are-the circumstances of the eternal life of which Paul
lived.? His own he refuses, saying, " It is no, longer I that live, but Christ
that liveth in me?' Was that life subject or superior to circumstances?' It is
hid with Christ in God; there he is speaking of its source on high; we do not
talk of circumstances there. Dead to all that Christ was dead to, and alive in
Him to God, that life is not subject to circumstances, though in one down here
it may pass through them, manifesting itself in a power that is really divine,
as expressed in the words, " I have strength for all things in him that gives me
power." But in many a one of our day, only the contrast to all this is
discernible, judged of according to, appearances. It is sometimes said even of
a, Christian, he is " a creature of circumstances?' Was Paul that? What was the
world, what the things in it, to one who wanted to be out of it with_ -Christ?
But as His saints were here, how could he cease to care for them! It was more
necessary for their sakes that he should abide; and so, divinely guided and
assured, he knew that he should abide with them for their joy in faith and
progress in faith, the only kind of progress he ever thought of; but the end of
this progress and joy was that their boasting in Christ Jesus might abound. For
Paul's heart, every thought of blessing, whether on earth or in heaven, had
Christ for its source, center, and end. And now, his last thought in this
chapter, he presses on them the claims of the glad tidings of the Christ. Their
hearts would own them in standing fast in one spirit, with one soul, laboring
together in the same conflict with the faith of the gospel, personified here, as
in the other passage: " Suffer evil along with the glad tidings." What a blessed
thought! association with the gospel as with a person, participating in its
afflictions and conflicts. Who entered into this conflict like the apostle
himself, or, being in it, behaved himself as he did? How many have been able to
say at the end, and how soon that comes! " I have fought the good fight? " And
note what he says by the way: " Now thanks be to God, who always leads me in
triumph in the Christ." Their not being frightened by adversaries was a
demonstration to them of destruction, but to the saints, of God's salvation. To
them to suffer was a gift; were they, in accepting of it, the creatures or the
masters of circumstances in the power of the life of Christ, the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus? The truth as it is in Jesus is a wonderful thing -the life of
God in man. Here it is all practical; you get a man realizing what he teaches.
Without anything like pretension or affectation, the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven
was the Lord of his heart. The Lord said: "For their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth." That is the divine way of
helping the saints. Paul has apprehended the glorious thought, and has found in
Christ an object for himself supremely above the saints whom he-loved so well,
and was ready to die for. Separation to Christ-His glory, honor, interests, is
the-measure of all true love and care for His saints. As far as the Holy Ghost
works in me unhinderedly, you see a person who can really be a blessing to the
saints. We are to conduct ourselves worthily, it does not say of human
principles, but " of the glad tidings of the Christ;" and, as said elsewhere, "
of the Lord unto all well-pleasing." Finally, it is through the priesthood of
Christ, His advocacy on high, the supply of His Spirit, the intercession of
saints, and putting on the whole armor of God, that Paul speaks of salvation
realized at the end of the course; 'it is thus that God brings us through the
wilderness. In another aspect, according to divine teaching, the first step into
the wilderness was taken with the knowledge of eternal salvation, where it is
viewed as the fruit of the work finished on the cross,. To Him who accomplished
it be glory forever.


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  CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 2
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Paul, conscious of the power of the life in which he lived, and strengthened
from its source, was far from being insensible to the difficulties and trials by
which the saints are, on every side, surrounded. He had himself been pressed
beyond his power, but the strain put upon the vessel only brought out the
surpassingness of the power which perfected itself in the vessel's weakness.;
the life of Jesus was manifested in his body. As the sufferings of Christ
abounded towards him, so, through Christ, abounded his encouragement also. The
encouragement he received from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ had
this beautiful meaning for Paul's spirit, that he should be able to encourage
those who are in any tribulation whatever, through the encouragement which he
had of God. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ was learned, by him, in
yet other characters in the school of experience, as the God of all
encouragement and the Father of compassions. What precious knowledge is this for
one's own blessing, and indispensable for service amongst His suffering people!
With what exquisite skill and delicacy he ministers such encouragement, we have
had proofs in the previous chapter; how he delights to tell them of his
thankfulness to God for his whole remembrance of them; of his unwearied
supplication for them all with joy, and that the occasion of it was their
fellowship With the gospel from the first day. They had shared in its
afflictions and triumphs, he desires now that they may share in its conflicts
also (" in the same conflict with the faith of the gospel "). Having thus
associated them with the portion the gospel has in this world, he next
associates them with himself: "Ye have me in your hearts, and that both in my
bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the glad tidings ye are all
participators in my grace." What could be more encouraging to the saints than
praise like this from the "apostle of Jesus Christ"? He had confidence
respecting them that He who had begun the good work in them would complete it
unto Jesus Christ's day: he had confidence, too, that it was better for them
that he should remain, that their boasting might abound in Jesus Christ through
him, by his presence again with them, so he knew that he should abide with them.
They had the same conflict which they saw, in him and now heard of in him. There
were many links in the chain that bound' together the apostle and the
Philippians, but we have not all the links yet. There were comforts in Christ of
which they were the channel. We must remember that their interest in him had
somewhat slackened; it was but for a moment; they had revived their thinking of
him. (Chap. 6:10, New Trans.) Yet surely they did think of him, he would not
allow the thought that they had forgotten him; it must be that they had lacked
opportunity of communication. He rejoices greatly, but it was in the Lord, the
comforts were in Christ; his heart owns the source; where but in Him could he
enjoy them? God Himself had accepted the things sent to His servant, they were
agreeable to Him, an odor of sweet savor, an acceptable sacrifice. See how, in
thinking of them, he connects them with God, with Christ and with himself. But
these comforts in Christ were the consolations of love-what God is in His
nature-and had yet another character: they were fruits of the fellowship of the
Spirit. In speaking of their affections and compassions he is thinking rather of
the saints in themselves. What heart but God's could have perceived all this in
the revival of their thinking of Paul? in whose heart God's love was flowing by
the Holy Ghost, who gave proofs of His indwelling when He thus filled the heart
and mind with thoughts which do not belong to man. By this comfort and
consolation and fellowship, his heart, we can see, was enlarged, his mouth
opened unto the Philippians, but his joy not yet filled up; that would be
realized when they thought the same things, had the same love, were joined in
soul, thinking one thing. (New Trans.) Elsewhere he speaks of the unity of the
Spirit, and in a more abstract way; here it was rather the realization of
practical union. The standard is very high; it' would be felt in the conscience
to be above the measure of human thinking; that is just what Paul feels, and he
meets it by saying, " Let this mind [what Christ thought, or the thinking of
Christ] be in you." Subsisting in the form of God [effulgence of His glory and
exact expression of His being,] ever thinking the same thing," with Him, "
thinking one thing," one with Him in nature and glory, Christ emptied Himself
when in the form of God. Found in figure as a man He humbled Himself, and became
obedient even unto the death of the cross. " Emptied," " humbled," " obedient,"
these were the forms in which the thinkings of Christ present Him to us,
bringing before us the grace of Him who came down out of heaven, the Son of man
who is in heaven. Each beautiful word, and oh, how beautiful! as thus applied to
Him, wakes up the dormant affection of His own, while sounding in the awakened
conscience the judgment of the first man. But the Philippians had already the
mind of Christ according to 1 Cor. 2 The thoughts of that mind connected with
the place He had taken-His pathway here-are the theme of the apostle in this
place. How often we find that-these thoughts are neglected by our light and
selfish hearts, which are only deceived when we-think of enjoying the fruits of
His atoning work apart from communion with Him in the further knowledge of
Himself as revealed in the word. We talk of our salvation, our joy, and
our-happiness; of the freedom wherewith He path made us free, more than of Him
who is the Source of all the blessing; and, in a certain sense, we talk and
think rightly, too, for it is our salvation, the joy, too, in it is given us,
and that freedom has made us free indeed. But to stop there, in the place where
power and love divine have set, us free, is not to think rightly; but to lose
the strength even of the joy of deliverance, and to-come short of that boasting
in Christ Jesus which the heart of the apostle was proposing for them. For this
is connected with deeper and ever-deepening knowledge of the divine Person. That
He had overcome the world, revealed the Father, and finished the work which He
had given Him to do, they knew already; but the mind that was in Christ Jesus
upon coming into the world, the thoughts of that mind revealing His relations as
man to God, had not been the subject of the apostle's special unfolding; yet
it-is impossible to think of any subject more interesting to the hearts of His
people, of anything more separative in its nature. The unveiled face in heaven
is not more attractive than the marred face on earth. Have you ever compared the
" mind " in 'which Jesus commenced and ended His wondrous course through this
world, with the works with which He closed it? the mind as expressed in
"emptied," humbled," "obedient;" the works in, " overcome the world," "revealed
the Father," "finished the work." If you have, will you say which are the -most
perfect, the thoughts or the works? but this is what none can answer. They have
each and alike their beginning and accomplishment in Himself. Besides, how
compare that which is of infinite moral beauty with something else which is of
exactly the same character? Where -all is light and no darkness at all, it would
be like comparing sunbeam with sunbeam; yet even there -some inequalities might
be found; but here, none. In the passages we have been looking at we cannot help
seeing that the deed is but the necessary outflow and accomplishment of the
thought according to all its perfection. Had He not been the emptied One, how
could He have taken the body prepared for Him, in which crucified through
weakness, He could finish the work, having revealed the Father? If He had not
humbled Himself in the world, of which Satan was the god, how could He have
overthrown him? 'And if not obedient, instead of overcoming the world He would
have been overcome by it. In John 8 He tells us that He was altogether that
which He said. (See New Trans.) Thus was He infinitely and equally reflected in
what He thought, said, and did. The apostle is not merely saying, I want you to
know about this mind which was in Christy presenting 'it as he did objectively;
but, let this mind be in you, subjectively, as they say. In this lay the secret
of power. All the grace of the Lord Jesus is unfolded in the revelation of "
this, mind," and there is no teacher like grace, carrying with it salvation as
well as instruction, as Titus 2:11 teaches. But whatever the essential
blessedness and attractiveness of this mind, and they were indeed infinite, they
were in One found in figure as a man. It was a Man's heart which was the scene
of all these holy exercises and affections, in which He was perfectly before God
as well as for Him, a most wondrous thing in this world; Man fully and
absolutely for God in every thought of His heart, all closing on earth in one
supreme thought and gift. He gave Himself (for us) an offering and sacrifice to
God, for a sweet-smelling savor. It will be remarked, too, that His enemies, the
instruments of His humiliation and death, have no place in the passage before
us. (Phil. 2) Neither saint nor sinner occupy our attention here; it is a Man
before God in all His thoughts. And then the mind of God about that wondrous
Man, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, in infinite contrast with
the first man, disobedient even unto death-the wages of sin. And now the
Philippians are to have God's mind about this obedient Man, His whole being's
-exclusive object. He had been crucified through weakness, therefore it is said
what God (the name of power) did, in highly exalting Him. In " raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father," are further and deeper thoughts; thus we learn
that the power of God and the glory of the Father, were necessarily engaged in
the exaltation of Jesus. This was His personal name, the name by which He was
known in humiliation. Yet the name was a mystery in itself, for it means Jehovah
the Savior. This name had been announced even before. His birth by an angel. Who
amongst His own had known its glorious meaning? But we are not occupied here
with man's mind; God's mind about Him is the great and only thought here. Jesus
is the name in heaven. God has granted Him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every, knee should bow, of heavenly, and earthly, and
infernal beings. This is God's present answer to the rejecters of His holy
Servant Jesus. So, when His authority and Messiahship were disowned, the apostle
tells them that " God has made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both
Lord and Christ." The kings of the earth -were there, and the rulers were
gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ; indeed they did
imagine a vain thing when they stood against His Anointed, for what is the
present result? God has invested Him in glory with these very titles, Lord and
Christ, and granted Him the great name that is above every name, that every knee
should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to God the
Father's glory: This is God's present answer to rejecters of "Jesus." It will be
understood that the glory spoken of here is the glory given by God to the
anointed Man Christ Jesus; the glory looked for in John 8 was not one of divine
names and titles; nor is it simply Man before God, but the Son before the Father
asking for glory with Him, as He says, " Along with thyself, with the glory
which I had along with thee before the world was." He had a right to it all in
the title of His Person; but claims it on the ground of His having glorified the
Father, and in view of forever glorifying Him. In Philippians the glory was in
relation to the creature, every knee bowing, every tongue confessing; in John 17
it is in relation to the Father alone " Glorify thou me with thine own self."
The Scriptures present us with yet other forms of His glory, as in Psa. 2 " Ask
of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession." But to return to our chapter, we may see
now the unspeakable importance of the exhortation " Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus." No such words had ever been spoken to man; they
would have been incomprehensible in a religion made for man in the flesh. It
needed first that the "Life" should have been manifested, and consciously
possessed, by those to whom they were addressed, for they are the expression of
that life on earth. To angels they would be wholly inapplicable: glorious beings
though they are, but how carry this mind which was in Christ! They had kept
their first estate, excel in strength and do His commandments, hearkening to the
voice of His word. In all this they are the condemnation of man, who did not
keep his first estate, whose condition was -marked by weakness and disobedience
to His commandments, and refusal to hearken to his word. But Satan's apparent
triumph in his fall has been an occasion for the revelation of ways and counsels
of grace, into which these glorious beings desire to look (1 Peter 1:12), and by
which they learn the all-various wisdom of God. Indeed we did not keep our first
estate, and angels kept theirs.. But see what God has done for the saints
according to His own eternal purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before
angels were. Angels are wondrous beings, but they have not the place we have. We
have to do with God in a way angels have not. He has given us the glorious
estate of the second Man risen and set over all creatures; Head of the new
creation. Moreover grace and counsel in Christ are not dependent upon creature
responsibility. Again, angels excel in strength, but it is angel strength in
which they do excel. Of man it is said " without strength;" the weakness of
saints, however, is but the inlet to the power of Christ, His strength
perfecting itself in their weakness. If angels do His commandments, still it is
in the obedience of angels, a blessed thing! But the obedience of saints is the
obedience of Christ Himself-sanctified unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. (1
Peter 1:2.) They are not ashamed of the holy angels now, for their gain-in the
possession of the estate, strength, and obedience of the second Man, a place
never occupied by creature before- immeasurably surpasses their loss in nature's
fall. What a mighty sanction for a life of obedience was God's exaltation of the
obedient, emptied. One-the name which is above every name which He gave Him!
With regard to motives and encouragements Paul has nothing now to add. The
obedience of Jesus had been perfected in holiness, and God had marked His
delight in it, in exalting the obedient Man to a place far above all creatures.
In the spirit of this obedience, which they had seen perfected in Christ, they
had to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, (this working is
too serious to admit of lightness; and the more diligently, that Paul was not
with them, were they to work out their own salvation; or, as Peter expresses it,
" grow up to salvation." (1 Peter 2:2, New Trans.) This meaning of salvation has
been spoken of already. It is God, he says, who works in you, (internal
operation of power) both the willing and the working according to His own good
pleasure. In the first chapter he had expressed his confidence that He who had
begun a good work in them would complete it unto Jesus Christ's day. They were
to be " harmless and simple, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a
perverted generation; among whom they appeared [as it is said of the heavenly
bodies] as lights in the world. Holding forth the word of life so, as to be a
boast for me in Christ's day, that I have not run in vain nor labored in vain."
Man's day yielded no measure for Paul's exercises of heart or conscience; for
me, he told the Corinthians, it is the very smallest matter that I be examined
of you or of man's day. No; it was Jesus Christ's day which alone would reveal
the trtie character of the running and laboring and thinking of Paul. Blessed
and solemn thought! It was the judgment of Jesus Christ's day that lifted him
above the judgment of man's day. He had spoken of the Philippians being his
boast in the day of Christ. What would they feel when they read the following
lines which tell of his devotedness to them, even unto the death; that, if
poured out on the sacrifice of their faith (their offering was the fruit of
their faith, a sacrifice to God), if my life be taken, he says, I shall consider
it as a libation poured out on the sacrifice of your faith. Their service,
faith, and work, and that of the apostle were one. Was I right in saying he had
nothing to add, in view of ministering motives for unity, when, in this passage,
he ministers to them the fruits of Christ's Spirit working in him? Never before
had the creature, man, spoken as this man speaks here. So pure and holy were the
affections with which he regarded them, now in connection with Jesus Christ's
day, and now with his own -death; fruit of a faith and love which were common to
both. They were to rejoice in common. How great will be their rejoicing together
in Christ's day! May we live more in that day! Of Timothy and Epaphroditus one
can say nothing higher than that they sympathized perfectly with Paul in these
affections and interests. How blessed and precious are the sympathies which are
the fruits of the in working of the Spirit of Christ. ( R. E.)


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  CHAPTER 28: READING ON JOHN 14
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IN the previous chapter He tells them He was going away; here He tells what
would be their 'comfort. He went to prepare a place for them He brings us into
the same place as Himself. He would come for them Himself-not send for them. To
be conformed to the image of His Son is the end of all knowledge; and God's
purpose was to give us a place with His Son; He is the Firstborn among many
brethren. " He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified, are all of one;"
one set: that is the key of all blessing. Question. Verse 7 says: " Ye should
have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him."
How does He mean they would have known the Father? not in relationship? No; not
in relationship till the Holy Ghost came; but He was there the revelation of the
Father; purity, holiness, love, all that the Father is was manifested in Him;
and He was going to, the Father, so they knew where; then they knew-the way, for
He was the way. The moment the Son was there the - name of the Father was
revealed. God has come out in Christ, man has gone in in Christ. When God does
come out, it is the Father revealed in the Son. There are four names by which
God has revealed Himself To Abraham it was as God Almighty; to Israel as
Jehovah; Most High in the millennium; and to us, the Father revealed in the Son.
This is the " hidden wisdom ordained before the world unto our glory," not
revealed before; but God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit." I get the
revelation by the Holy Ghost; the words by which the revelation is communicated,
and the Holy Ghost working to make me know it. Heb. 9:8, and 10:19. " The way
into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest;" and." Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest." You do not get the Father in
Hebrews, you get the priesthood; you do not get all the privileges, but you can
go in. There is no hindrance to our going in, but it is God's throne, not the
Father's. John 17:21,22. " That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee." The world will know it when we appear in glory, but we know it
now, though the treasure is in a poor earthen vessel. Question. But our
apprehension of it does not depend on natural intelligence? No, it is
spiritually discerned. Question. Then as it is by divine power, there-is no
limit to what we may have or to our.going in? No; only we do not get it all at
once; but what we learn makes us capable of getting more. Question. When He
says, verse 18, " I will come to you," does He mean by the Spirit? No, that is
Christ Himself. Verse 20. He does not say here, " the Father in me:" that had
been while He was on earth; but in that day which was coming they should know
another thing: " I in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." The Father had
been revealed in Him; they were dull, but the thing was there for them.. They
never once understood what He said, never on any occasion; when they said they
did, they only proved that they did not. In chapter 16 they say: " Now speakest
thou plainly;" but they dropped the Father, and' said He came forth from God.
And the Lord responds: 1 " Do ye now believe?" We have the Spirit to enable us
to understand. " I in the Father," not " the Father in me." When the Spirit is
come I know that Christ is, in me and I in Him, and that gives me everything if
I am in Him. Question. Is there an intended difference between" abide " and "
in? " Verse 17; I get as a consequence of verse 16 He in me. We get in Acts 1:2
what was a great comfort to me; that the Holy Ghost was in Christ after His
resurrection. We shall have the Holy Ghost forever in us. The Holy Ghost is
always working; we find Him working in creation, in Christ's miracles always. By
His Spirit He garnished the heavens. There is a remarkable verse in Hag. 2:5: "
So my Spirit remaineth among you." Question. Is not the Holy Ghost's work now to
take us (the Church) to Christ? The Holy Ghost is like a steamship, not
dependent on the wind. There are difficulties and hindrances by the way which He
has to surmount; but, when He has brought us to heaven, there is nothing to do
but to unfold to us, what is there. Christ never glorifies Himself, He says: "
Father, glorify thou me." He never glorifies Himself; He even gets the Holy
Ghost for us from the Father. "Ye in me " brings us into all that He has
received: " Not as the world giveth." The world gives away, but Christ gives by
bringing us into all that He has as man. " That I am in my Father;" that
introduces me to heavenly things. They ought to have known the Father in Him
down here; but now we know Him in the Father. I am there as a son as He is. When
on earth He spoke of God as " my Father;" when made sin it is " my God."
Afterward as His God and Father; but it is also " My God and your God, my Father
and your Father." In the Epistles we get constantly God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. " Because ye core sons," &c.; we have the Father's love and
Christ's love, but besides we are conformed to the image of the Son. Question.
And that is true Christianity? Yes. Christianity is heavenly; everything will be
gathered up under one Head in heaven and on earth. We have the heavenly place;
blessed in heavenly places. Remark. How few have really got that! They have not
got into it, but it is theirs. Many stop at being cleared from the first Adam,
at the debt being paid, but they do not get hold of being put into the last
Adam; and every one brought into glory is glory to Christ, and I have got to
rejoice in His glory, not merely that I am glorified. The love of the Father-is
the spring and center of the new creation. The spirit of the world is opposed to
the Spirit of Christ. I have one thing to desire, to please Christ here, to walk
as He walked. Another thing we get is God's rest; He would have us enjoying
that. You do not find rest here. If you get a meeting very happy, you may be
sure the devil will try to spoil it; there is no rest here. Question. How do you
understand verse 23, " Make our abode with him "? When we get into their abode,
they make us their abode. All in this part of John is conditional. We might to
realize these things. It is from the lack of obedience that there is lack of
joy. There are two things in verse 21; he that hath, and keepeth. Having His
commands is one mark of the obedient child; a careless child would not know
them. It is a wonderful thing to know that we are in Christ, and Christ in us
now. Knowing what He has brought me into is another thing from knowing what He
has brought me out of. We get another thing-peace; not merely peace of
conscience, though we get that, hilt Christ's peace, the peace He had when
walking through this world. Question. Would that be the same as the peace of God
in Phil. 4? No, the peace of God is another thing; nothing can trouble God's
peace. But Christ's peace fills_ my heart-walking through a scene where
disturbing things are. How the blessed Lord reckons on our hearts entering into
His joy. " If ye loved me ye would rejoice;" if you are thinking of yourselves
you will not; but He counts on our hearts. ( J. N. D.) Meditations on the Book
of Joshua


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 29: CHAPTER 3 - THE JORDAN
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BUT to return to the Jordan. At the Passover, atonement was made; at the Red
Sea, redemption was accomplished, and salvation obtained; but here it is another
question. In order to take possession of the land of Canaan, the people must be
in a certain condition. Between the Red Sea and the Jordan Israel had crossed
the desert, and this journey is divided into two distinct parts. In the first
part, up to Sinai, it is grace which leads the people-the same grace which had
redeemed them from Egypt, and by which they experience the resources of Christ
in the midst of all their infirmities. In the second part, after Sinai, Israel
is under the reign of law, and it is then that they are proved to know what is
in their hearts. The trial only demonstrated that they were " carnal, sold under
sin;" that they had no power, that their will was enmity against God, that it
was not subject to the law of God, finally showing itself in positive open
rebellion when it was a question of going up unto the mountain of the Amorites,
and entering into possession of the promises. The condition of Israel was an
absolute obstacle to their entering Canaan. When they come to, the end of their
experiences in the flesh, they find the Jordan, an overflowing flood, as a
barrier to their onward progress.. The Red Sea hindered their escape from Egypt,
the Jordan prevents their entrance into Canaan, and to attempt to' cross it
would be their destruction. Here we have a fresh type of death. It is the end of
man in the flesh, and, at the same time, the end of Satan's power. How can we,
who are without, strength, withstand it? It separates us forever from the
enjoyment of the promises. " Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?" But the grace of God has provided for it. The ark
goes before the people; it not only makes them know the way by which they should
go, for they had not passed this way heretofore (3:4), but it associates them
with itself in the passage.. The priests, the representatives of the people,
were to take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before Israel. (Ver. 6.) It
was indeed the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth (ver. 13) which
was to pass on before them across. Jordan, but not without them. The ark
maintained its pre-eminence " There shall be a space between you and it, about
two thousand cubits. by measure " (ver. 4); but as the eyes of the -people were
fixed upon it (ver. 3) they beheld at the same time the priests of the tribe of
Levi who bore it. As soon as the soles of the feet of the -priests rested in the
waters of Jordan, they were cut off and ceased to flow. A power was there which
was victorious over the power of death, And which associated Israel with the
victory. If it was thus for Israel, how much more for! All that we were in the
flesh has found its end in the cross of Christ. We can say: I am dead to sin,
dead to the law; I am crucified with Christ. My eyes, fixed on the ark—on
Christ—see in Him the end of my personality as a child of Adam; but in Him also
a victorious power, now made mine, introduces me in resurrection-life in Him,
beyond death, into the full enjoyment of the things which this life possesses: "
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Death itself, of course, is not yet
swallowed up: When the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord
were come up out of the midst of Jordan.. the waters of Jordan returned unto
their place, and flowed over all his banks as they did before." (iv. 18.) But
when " this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written; Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor. 15:54.)
Then Christ's place, beyond all that which could hinder us, will be ours, even
as to our bodies. But before the fulfillment of these things, we can already
say: " Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57.) We find then in the Jordan, in a special way, death to
that which we were in our former status, and the beginning of a new status in
the power of life with Christ, with whom we are, risen. His death and
resurrection introduce us now into all the heavenly blessings, and what we have
just said explains the reason of our not finding enemies here as at the Red Sea.
At the Jordan the Israelites are not pursued by Pharaoh and his-host, but the
enemy is in front of them, and does not begin to act until they have crossed the
river. Now they enter upon a new series of experiences. In the desert of Sinai
the old man has been proved to be sin; then follows, in type, at the Jordan, the
knowledge acquired by faith, that we have been taken out of our association with
Adam, and set in a new association with a, dead and risen Christ; finally, in
Canaan, we have the experiences of the new man, though not without weakness and
failure if there be a lack of vigilance, but with a power at our disposal, of
which we can make constant use in order to be strong and to fight valiantly and
resist the subtle wiles of the enemy.


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  CHAPTER 30: CHAPTER 4 - THE TWELVE STONES AT GILGAL
========================================================================

IN the preceding chapter we have seen that it is faith in Christ which enables
us to apprehend (after an experience often as long as the forty years in the
wilderness were for Israel) our deliverance from our old estate, and
introduction into a new one in Christ. The soul, long exercised learns at
length-and it is God who reveals it to faith-that what it was striving vainly to
attain to, has not to be done, but is a present reality, for -faith a fact, an
accomplished fact, in Christ. I used to wonder at the extreme simplicity of the
language produced by the discovery of this important truth in Rom. 7, whilst it
takes a whole chapter to describe the experiences of a soul previous to knowing
deliverance. More than this, the despairing utterance caused by the hopelessness
of the situation, changes without any interlude into one of gratitude and joy: "
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The reason now seems simple enough.
When the soul makes this discovery it learns that the deliverance which it was
incapable of attaining, God had already wrought by and in Christ, so that it is
no longer a thing to be accomplished. The soul discovers and appropriates it as
an accomplished fact prepared long ago for faith. Then calmly and peacefully the
believer can say: Henceforth I am dead, because I am in Christ; dead with
Christ, dead to the law, to the world; and " I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me." (Gal. 2:19,20; Rom. 6:10; Col. 2:20; Gal. 6:14.) It is a truth
which is outside the region of the intelligence; reason cannot explain it,
memory cannot retain it. How often have I seen souls seeking, by similar
efforts, to lay hold, so to speak, of deliverance! What was the result? When,
after much painstaking, they thought they had grasped its import, a single night
sufficed to disperse the illusion, just as dead leaves are swept away by a
breath of wind between the evening and morning. Ah! deliverance is not obtained
in a moment, for just as there was no Jordan for Israel before -the desert, so,
for us, deliverance comes after we have made the discovery of what the flesh is,
and not before. Deliverance itself is not an experience, but a state which faith
grasps. It is only experimental in the sense that I see myself in Christ,
instead of laying hold of a work accomplished outside of myself as in
redemption. Such for us is the import of the Jordan. But God desires that the
memorial of this victory should, be continually under our eyes. Joshua commands
the representatives of the twelve tribes -to take twelve stones from the midst
of the Jordan, from the place where the feet of the priests stood firm. They
were to be for a memorial unto the children of Israel, and were to be laid in
the place where the people passed their first night in the land of Canaan. The
place was Gilgal, but what was the signification of the stones? They represented
the twelve tribes, the people, snatched from death by the ark which had stood in
the very spot where deliverance was needed, and which had stayed the waters of
Jordan so that Israel could pass over. They became a monument at the very
entrance of Canaan, at Gilgal, a place to which (as we shall see later on) the
people had always to return; they were henceforth to be a sign constantly under
their eyes and those of their children. Now we, like Israel, stand as trophies
of the victory achieved over the raging waters of the river. Christ went into
death because we were there: "If one died for all, then were all dead." (2 Cor.
5:14.) But it was in order to deliver us out of death, and bring us into a new
life in His own resurrection. " When we were dead in sins hath quickened us
together with Christ.. and hath raised us up together." (Eph. 2:5,6.) But the
monument of this memorable work is permanently established on the other side of
Jordan to serve for the maintenance of Israel's faith, a monument to be
recognized at all times by the people at the entrance of Canaan. For us it is
Christ, the object of our faith, the Firstborn from the dead, risen and entered
into the heavenly places, but a Christ who represents us there, associating us
with Himself, even as He associated Himself with us in death. Moreover God
desires that Christ thus set before us should produce a corresponding moral
effect in us; that, in the contemplation of Him, our consciences should be laid
hold of in a lasting way. " It is a memorial unto the children of Israel
forever." It is also this for us, accompanied by an inward effect. The believer,
risen with Christ, has the indelible marks of His death imprinted on him, and,
if such is my place in Christ, can I live any longer in the things which I have
abandoned, which Christ has left in the depths of Jordan? " In that he died, he
died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." Up to this, it
is the memorial, and then comes the moral effect:” Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus."
(Rom. 6:10,11.) The twelve stones at Gilgal, then, are not merely our death and
resurrection with Christ (the Jordan typified that), but the memorial of this
death and resurrection as seen in a risen and glorified Christ. This monument
reminds us of what we have henceforth to be. In the Jordan God declares us to be
dead, and it is the portion of all the people; every Christian is dead and risen
with Christ; in Gilgal we have the moral realization of this. All had crossed
the Jordan, but many amongst them perhaps cared but little to inquire the
meaning of the monument in Gilgal, those stones which seemed to say in living
accents to the people: " Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God in Christ Jesus."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 31: THE TWELVE STONES IN THE MIDST OF JORDAN
========================================================================

IF the twelve stones in Gilgal spoke to Israel's conscience, there was another
monument set up in the midst of Jordan which spoke seriously to their hearts.
Who could see the stones which the overflowing waters had covered? They could
only be known to faith. They were not typical of a resurrection-life which had
passed through death and bore its impress and character; they were essentially
the sign of death. The stones in Gilgal are the monument of our introduction by
Christ into our privileges, and into which we only enter after having passed
through death with Him; but when I think of the stones in Jordan, my heart is in
communion with Him in death. I return to sit, so to speak, on the banks of the
river of death, and I say: That is my place; it is there that I was; it is there
that He has been for me; He has delivered me from my old man; He has left it
with all that belonged to it in the depths of Jordan; I am buried beneath its
waters in the Person of Christ. What led Thee, blessed Savior, to take this
place? Thou alone couldst claim exemption from it, and having laid down Thy
life, Thou alone hadst the power to take it again. But it was Thy love to us
which led Thee down to death; no other motive, save the glory of God which I had
dishonored, could have led Thee there. Thou past not only fought the fight
alone, and victoriously stayed the waters of Jordan " until everything was
finished that the Lord commanded," (ver. 10) but those waters -themselves passed
over Thee. I see in this monument what death was for Thy holy soul; I recognize
the memorial of the exquisite bitterness of the cup which Thou' didst drink. The
twelve stones "are there unto this day." (Ver. 9.) The monument remains, the
cross remains, eternal witness of a love I have there learned to know, testimony
too of the only place where God could put all that belonged to my old man. In
connection with these things, notice also what we find in verse 18: " And it
came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord
were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet
were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their
place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before." The sentence is
executed, the old man -condemned, the judgment is passed, death is conquered,
but death remains. What was formerly an obstacle to entrance, an obstacle
removed by the ark which opened the pathway for us, separates us when we are
once across, not only from Egypt and the desert of Sinai, but from ourselves. If
it were otherwise, we could have no lasting enjoyment in the land of Canaan. The
two and a half tribes (vers. 12, 13) truly crossed the Jordan with their
brethren, armed for war and prepared to fight, but there were two things of
which they remained in ignorance: the value of the land of Canaan, and the value
of death. The river did not arrest them when they turned to rejoin their wives,
their little ones, and their cattle, who were awaiting them on the opposite
shore. The country " on this side " had its attractions for them, whilst the
people, who were peacefully in the enjoyment of Canaan, saw with joy that the
Jordan was a barrier to separate them from all that which formerly was, of any
value to them. " On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all
Israel; and they feared him as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.'
(Ver. 14.) It is thus with Christ. He is highly exalted as Savior by the glory
of the Father before our eyes, in virtue of His finished work, and, as the
result of this work, the saints are introduced with Him into the present
enjoyment, and future possession of the glory. This will be to His everlasting
glory and honor. But the Lord will also have other crowns. The day will come for
Him, which Solomon enjoyed in type, and of which it is said: " Then Solomon sat
on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father, and prospered;
and all Israel obeyed him. And all the princes and the mighty men, and all the
sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king. And the
Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon
him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel." (1
Chron. 29:23-25.) He will reign; His people Israel will be subject unto Him, and
even those whom He deigned to call His brethren will bow the knee before Him,
happily and joyfully acknowledging openly in His presence that He is Lord, even
as they have owned Him on earth in the days of His absence and rejection. We
find another future glory of Christ in 2 Chron. 32:23. In the time of Hezekiah,
after the deliverance of Israel by the judgment of the nations in the person of
the Assyrian, it is said " And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem,
and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he was recognized in the sight
of all nations from thenceforth." The nations will be subject unto Him. Finally,
it is said in Phil. 2:9-10: ` Wherefore God also hath highly exalted- him, and
given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the
earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.", Heaven, earth, and hell will bow before Him who
humbled. Himself even unto the death of the cross.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 32: CHAPTER 5 CIRCUMCISION
========================================================================

IN chapter 1 we have traced the moral principles requisite for taking possession
of Canaan; in chapter 2 we have seen that, when it is a question of heavenly
places, God can go outside the limits of Israel, and bring in on the principle
of faith; in chapters 3 and 4 we find the secret of entrance; and in chapter 5
something further is unfolded to us, namely, how the victory is obtained.
Consequently, this chapter opens (ver. 1) with a mention of the enemies. All the
kings of the Canaanites and the Amorites defile, so to speak, under our eyes,
but the power given them by Satan has already been broken at Jordan, in death,
in the person of their Prince. In spite of that, they are too strong for the
poor children of Israel, but God is going to enable them to obtain the victory
over their enemies. And how? By depriving them of all the weapons and resources
which they would have found in themselves., Flesh cannot enlist in the warfare;
God judges it and sets it aside; and this is the meaning of circumcision.
Circumcision is " the putting off of the body of the flesh" in Christ. It is an
accomplished fact for every believer, just as much as the Jordan is for each of
us, whether or not we realize its import. The teaching of Col. 2:9-15 on this
point is very clear and beautiful. " In him," says the apostle, " dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily." All is in Christ, nothing is lacking in
Him. But in verse 10, it is we who have all in Him; nothing lacks for us: " Ye
are complete in Him." We cannot, then, seek to add anything to ourselves apart
from Him. Now we come to circumcision. " In whom also ye are circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ." Not only, says the apostle, is there nothing to add,
but there is nothing to cut off from those who are in Him. The body of the flesh
is judged, you are deprived of it; it is a thing done, it is the circumcision of
Christ. In verse 12, we find that this end of the old mart, which takes place
for us in the death of Christ, becomes personal for the Christian: " Buried with
him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." This passage embraces the
thing in its extent, and corresponds with the two truths represented by the
Jordan, namely, death and resurrection with Christ. Here then we have the
establishment of two great truths: we are complete before God in Christ, and
perfectly delivered from all that we are in ourselves. The Epistle to the
Philippians (chap. 3:3) establishes the contrast between the circumcision made
with hands, and the true circumcision, that of Christ. " We are the
circumcision," says the apostle, " who worship God in the Spirit." Fleshly
circumcision under the law had never done that. One must have done with the
flesh to be able to worship in the Spirit. Then he adds, "And who rejoice in
Christ Jesus." Even religious flesh never glories in anything but itself.
Finally, the apostle concludes by saying: "And who have no confidence in the
flesh." This is true circumcision. It is the setting aside by judgment in the
cross of Christ of what the word of God calls "the flesh,” so that henceforth we
cannot have any confidence whatever in it, and this is a most important truth to
get hold of. When it is a question of warfare, as it was for the children of
Israel, we must bear on us the stigma of the death of the flesh. Notice, too,
there is no thought here of trying to have done with ourselves, or of stripping
ourselves. The." putting off" was accomplished at the cross; sin in the flesh
was condemned there; it is a fact which faith grasps, and which becomes a
practical reality as the conscience owns and accepts this judgment. The burning
coal had to touch the lips of Isaiah, and even though the judicial fire from off
the altar had exhausted every 'atom of its power upon the victim, and the
anguish being over nothing remained but the purifying power, still the prophet
had to be brought into contact with it, thus typifying the experience our
consciences pass through, of divine judgment.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 33: GILGAL
========================================================================

AND the Lord said unto Joshua: " This day have I rolled away the reproach of
Egypt from off you." At the Red Sea they had been delivered from the slavery of
Satan and of sin; here, for the first time, they were freed by judgment from the
slavery of the flesh. But the Spirit of God adds: " Wherefore the name of the
place is called Gilgal unto this day." Here we have a second great truth. As has
been already observed, circumcision, judgment, the cutting off of the flesh, has
been accomplished in Christ, but has also to be considered under an essentially
practical aspect, and not purely as doctrine. Gilgal was the place of
circumcision, and if this place was to be the point of departure for the army of
Jehovah before a single victory had been achieved, it was also to be the
assembling place after victory (x. 15), and again the point of departure for
fresh conquests. The judgment of the flesh was immovable. The people were to
appropriate it to themselves continually, otherwise the flesh would work to
regain what it had lost, and a first victory would never be followed by a
second. We shall come upon Gilgal in the course of this book on more than one
occasion; for the present let it suffice us to remember, that if circumcision
signifies the cutting off of " the body of the flesh," Gilgal is " the
mortification of our members which are upon the earth." Col. 3:5-S teaches us
this in contrast with 2:11. Beloved, this is a daily reality, and every victory
opens out fresh horizons for us in the land of promise. Without conflict there
is no means of laying hold of any of our blessings, but without Gilgal there can
be no victory. Which do we value most? Canaan with its warfare, or our members
upon the earth? Do we prefer the passing gratification of the lusts of the flesh
to the painful task of returning to Gilgal? If so, we shall have to be taught by
humiliation and chastisement how to recover the path, if, at least, we have not
irrevocably lost the secret of strength in bitterness and tears and the
irremediable ruin of defeat.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 34: CANAAN'S FOOD
========================================================================

THE cutting off of the flesh by the judgment executed at the cross, and the
practical realization of this judgment are the first conditions indispensable
for warfare. Of what use were Saul's helmet, coat of mail, or sword, to David in
fighting_ against the Philistine? He had to " put them off him." (1 Sam. 17:39.)
But there is another resource. Before going forth to fight, Israel must be
seated at the table of God. To be able to withstand the toils of warfare, Israel
must be nourished; that is the secret of positive strength. And what is the
nourishment? Christ. He is the source of strength,' and there will be no victory
for the people if they have not been previously fed. What a blessed thing to
enter into the conflict with hearts fed by Christ. We may certainly expect to be
defeated if we advance to meet the enemy with hearts void of Christ. In the
reverse case, as we shall see in the following chapter, there is nothing
alarming about the combat, and may God give us each to prove this. Let us not
wait until the morrow, for we may be called to fight this very evening. Let us
feed on Christ to-day, to-morrow, every moment, that we may be ready at the
first signal to arise and march on to victory. Yes, beloved, it is a Person; it
is Christ who is our food; not truths, nor privileges, but Himself; and He is
here presented to us as food under three different aspects: the Passover, the
Old Corn of the land, and the Manna. This Passover in Canaan is the same feast
that the people had celebrated in Egypt, and yet how much they differed one from
the other. There, it was a people conscious of their guilt, hasting to flee,
sheltered amidst the darkness and the judgment by the blood of the pashcal lamb.
Here, it is a people safely landed in Canaan, delivered from the last traces of
the reproach of Egypt, a risen people, who have been through death, but who
return in perfect peace to the starting-point, the foundation of all their
blessings, to sit around -the memorials of a Christ slain for them on the
-cross. The Passover in Canaan corresponds with what the Lord's Supper is for
the Christian. And notice, it is a permanent food; it will not cease in the
glory; only it will no longer be the remembrance of the Lord's death celebrated
during His absence, neither shall we need something tangible to remind us of it,
for our eyes will see in the midst of the throne, the Lamb 'Himself, as it had
been slain, He the visible center of the new creation founded on the cross, the
basis and pivot, of eternal blessing, the object upon whom myriads of myriads
gaze with adoring and universal worship. But there is more than this in our
heavenly repast. " And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow
after the passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn in the selfsame day."
(Ver. 11.) God gave them a food which had been unknown to them in Egypt, the old
corn of the land of Canaan, a heavenly, glorified. Christ, but Christ as a Man
who had been through this sin-stained world in a spotless humanity, the
unleavened bread, and who in this same humanity had passed through the fire of
judgment like the parched corn, and wire, having entered the glory in
resurrection, sits as Man at the right hand of God. Moreover He is there for us,
not only as our Advocate with the Father, but as introducing us in His Person as
Man into the glory. The place is prepared for man in the third heavens; he is
brought, in Christ into the full enjoyment of heavenly blessing. I behold this
Man and say:: There is my place; I am in Him, a man in Christy possessing
already the same life as He, life eternal, the life of a Man risen from among
the dead; I am united to Him, seated in Him in the heavenly places, enjoying
this infinite blessing by the Holy Spirit who leads me into it. Blessed Savior!
for me Thou earnest down, for me Thou didst hang on the cross; Thou art gone
into the glory, and Thou past brought me into it already in Thine own Person,
previous to being with Thee and like Thee forever. What wondrous joy and what
power there is in occupation with such a Christ " We all with unveiled face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18.) In this
passage we see the result of being nourished with the old corn of the land. The
soul, formed by a heavenly Christ, is able to reproduce the traits of this
blessed object. Such is our portion. Such also was that of Stephen, the faithful
-martyr. In him, a man on the earth, full of the Holy Spirit, as fruit of the
perfect work of -Christ, we see a believer in his normal character, answering
perfectly 'to the end for which God had placed him in this world, in the midst
of -circumstances that were the most calculated to make him lose that character.
The Spirit in him Unhindered (his heart having no object on the -earth, and the
Holy Ghost not having to contend within him to bring him to the level of a
heavenly Christ) links him with an object in heaven so as to form him here into
its image. 'The traits of the glorified Man in heaven become in him those of a
perfect man on the earth: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Here it is an
example of what it is " to be changed into the same image from glory to glory."
It is not anything mystical, nor a vague product of human imagination; it is in
our daily life, our ways, our words, by love, intercession, patience, and
dependence, that we may, through grace, show forth the likeness of a glorified
Christ on whom we gaze. Is it so with us Christians in these days? Are our
hearts so fed by Him that the world can see it in our lives? Can those around us
catch the rays of the glory of Christ on our countenances, as with Stephen or
Moses? It would not be for us to know it, for in this case we should have lost
sight of the heavenly object, and turned our eyes upon ourselves. Moses alone in
the camp of Israel wist not that his countenance shone. " And the manna ceased
on the morrow." (Ver. 12.) Israel ate it no more; manna was wilderness food; for
us a Christ come down from heaven into the midst of our circumstances to
-encourage us in the difficulties of the way. In contrast with Israel, we
Christians are privileged to have Christ as our food in every aspect at the same
time, though perhaps not at the same moment. But the manna is not a permanent
food. Indispensable and most blessed as it is that the remembrance of it should
remain before God always, in the golden pot, and for us in " the hidden manna,"
still as food it is transitory and suited to the journey which comes to an end
Now the Old Corn of the land will, like the Passover, be our lasting and eternal
food; not in order that we should be, as on earth, transformed gradually into
His likeness, for then "we shall be fashioned like unto His glorious body."
(Phil. 3:21.) " We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he' is." (1 John
3:2.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 35: THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOST
========================================================================

CONFLICT is about to begin, and the Captain of the host has not yet appeared. He
reveals Himself at the last moment, but precisely at the needed one, " when
Joshua was by Jericho." (Ver. 13.) Faith can count on Him for the time of need.
Gilgal and the heavenly repast are, as we have seen, the preparations for
warfare; the power, the plan, the order, the time of battle, all that and much
more is the responsibility of the Captain of the host. Such a way of fighting
will be incomprehensible to one who has not been at Gilgal. He would set to work
with his own contrivances, would engage the enemy too soon or too late, would
rush forward without the Captain of the host, make a false movement, fall, and
be conquered, leaving nothing but a catalog of defeats. Notice with what
marvelous grace this representative of Jehovah adapts Himself to the
circumstances of His people, this Angel of Jehovah of whom the Old Testament so
often speaks-Jehovah Himself under this mysterious character, for it is said of
Him (Ex. 23:21) "My name is in him." As others have observed, He presents
Himself with Israel as a Deliverer at the Red Sea, as the Companion of their
journeyings in the desert, as Lord of Hosts in Canaan, and later on when the
kingdom is established, He dwells in peace amongst them. Blessed condescension!
What assurance it gives to our souls. Here we see Him sword in hand, and it is
this sword which will deal the blows. Israel needs no other. Three times in the
course of the people's history; the Angel of Jehovah intervenes with the drawn
sword in his hand. The first time it is to preserve them from threatened
dangers, when Balaam; on his way to curse. Israel, encounters the messenger who
obstructs his road (Num. 22:28); the second time, in our chapter, it is to fight
with them and obtain the victory for them; the third time, alas! it is to judge
the people who had sinned in the person of their king. (1 Chron. 21:16.)
Beloved, we also have to do with the Angel in these three ways. How many times,
without our even being aware of it, He meets the enemy who seeks to accuse or
curse us; how often He, in grace, associates us in the combat against the powers
of darkness in the heavenly places; how often, too, He reveals Himself to us as
He did to David, with His drawn sword turned against the city of God; that is to
say, as the One who, for His own, is a consuming fire, who chastens and humbles
them, but in order afterward to replace His sword in its sheath, and in the end
restore them. Even that is consoling, in spite of all; but it is a terrible
thing for a man to-be met, like Balaam, by the Angel with the drawn sword,
because, for a reward, he was selling the gift he had received from God to the
devil, the accuser of the brethren. Such a path is that of a reprobate who does
not know God, but how many Christians, alas I in these days of ruin, associate
themselves in some manner with the way of Balaam; how many in company with the
enemy of the people of God, though clad in the prophet's dress, place themselves
in the hands of the world to do the enemy's work. " And Joshua went unto him and
said unto him: Art thou for us or for our adversaries?" It is impossible to be
neutral in the fight, and we ought all, like Joshua, to understand this. " And
the Captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy
foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." He who
reveals Himself to Joshua as Lord of hosts claims also His character of
holiness. It is impossible for those who are called to fight under a divine
leader to remain associated, individually or corporately, with evil or
defilement in the walk. It was partly on account of having disregarded this
principle that the people were defeated before Ai. To keep unjudged evil in the
-heart exposes us to the judgment of God and renders us defenseless in the hands
of the enemy; it is the same thing with evil in the assembly. If God is holy in
redemption, as He shelved Himself to be to Moses in the bush (Ex. 3:5)-and where
did He make a more brilliant display of His holiness?-let us remember that He is
not less holy in the combat, and that we can only engage in it after having
loosened the shoes off our feet.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 36: CHAPTER 6 JERICHO
========================================================================

THE people arrive at length in presence of the terrible obstacle raised to
prevent their taking possession of Canaan. There is nothing the enemy hates more
than seeing us in the enjoyment of our privileges, and taking a heavenly
position. He is well aware that a heavenly people can escape from his hands and
steal his goods; therefore his chief endeavor is to set some obstacle in the way
of our onward progress. This occurs in the history of every Christian, not
necessarily at the moment of conversion, but sooner or later when it is a
question of entering the path of conflict for the realization of our heavenly
calling. The first impediment put in our way by Satan is an apparently
impregnable fortress, which it is impossible to enter or to quit: " None went
out and none came in." (Ver. 1.) Surely this is enough to terrify us, and to
make us turn back; and this is precisely the aim of the adversary, in which,
alas, he too often succeeds. Every Christian has to face at some time or other
his stronghold of Jericho. I need not enumerate here the difficulties of each
soul, they are diverse, but may be resumed in one word, an obstacle. If I set my
face heavenwards, what will happen? I shall lose my position; I shall be cut
short in my career; my friends will forsake me; my parents will never suffer it;
I should have to give up all I love, and separate myself from the Christians,
amongst whom I received such blessing. Such is often the aspect which the high
walls of Jericho assume before the affrighted soul. Ah t how many Christians
lose courage before the fight, and turn back. But the soul, prepared by God,
does not retreat in view of difficulties. It knows it is in possession of a
means of overcoming them, and makes use of it. It is a very simple, but unique,
way, for there is no other: it is faith. " By faith the walls of Jericho fell
down after that they were compassed about seven days." (Heb. 11:30.) Faith is
simple confidence in Another, in the Lord, and at the same time complete absence
of self-confidence, for these two things are inseparable. The obstacle yields to
faith. What does it matter if the walls reach up to heaven? What are they for
faith? Faith counts on the power of God, and this, dear friends, is the first
great characteristic of faith. " In order," says the apostle, " that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:5.) A
power, absolutely divine is necessary in the fight, and can alone overthrow the
obstacle, and it is solely on this power that faith rests. We may notice, too,
when faith has been appealed to, how jealous this power is of the existence of
anything which could wear the appearance of human wisdom. The Captain of the
Lord's host, who talks with Joshua, does not give them the choice of arms or
means of warfare. They are not to make any plan or arrangement; they are not to
concert as to the means for gaining the victory; God Himself has ordered
everything, and faith submits to the order established by God, uses the means
which He points, out, and does not invent others. We must have societies,
committees, conferences, money, &c., &c;, is often said. Man must have them, but
faith needs 'nothing of the kind. God has His own means. But, it may be said,
why not simplify the path? Why all these complications? Why go round the city
every day, and seven times the seventh day? Why this procession with the ark and
trumpets?' Faith does not ask why? It does not reason as to the means God
chooses to employ; it accepts them, enters into them, and obtains the victory
instead of being beaten by the enemy. It was thus at the Passover and at the Red
Sea. Do you say: Then faith is without intelligence? Not at all; it first
submits and then understands. Faith will tell you the reason of the seven days,
the ark, the procession, the trumpets, and the shouts of joy, but it will only
tell you after submission to them, otherwise it would be intelligence and not
faith. But this is not all. Faith marches forward in dependence on God, who
says: " I have given into thine hand Jericho and the king thereof, and the
mighty men of valor." Then it is put to the test. There must be patience; the
people had to march thus during six days, and then patience must Have her
perfect work: " The seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times." There
are yet other blessed characteristics of this precious faith which we may do
well to notice. It associates us with Christ, gives us.-part- and communion with
Him.. God marshals His people round the ark in the conflict. It was no longer,
as at Jordan, the ark preceding the people, but here the armed men go before the
ark with the priests, and the rereward comes after. But the aim and result of
association with Christ is never to exalt or attach importance to man; it exalts
Christ and makes much of Him. The ark itself formed the body of the army,
properly speaking, the indispensable center, the main force; and the whole
attitude of the people around it, manifestly proclaimed it. Without the ark
there could be neither warfare nor victory. Faith always renders testimony to
Christ " The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns passed on
before the Lord, and blew with the trumpets." It was a perfect testimony to the
power of the ark in presence of the enemy. Faith is zealous to exalt and render
testimony to Christ, zealous for that service which is also conflict. Joshua
rose early in the morning." (Ver. 12.) " They rose early, about the dawning of
the day." (Ver. 15.) See how zeal in one provokes and encourages it in others;
but we shall come to this again. In short we see that it is God alone who
obtains the victory, though at the same time associating us with Christ in it.
Of what use would weapons of warfare have been against Jericho? None whatever,
God does it all. He desires that the power and victory should come entirely from
Him, and be without any mixture of human importance. Generally when it is a
question of fighting, Christians are ready to admit that the power is of God,
but they do not consent to the absolute exclusion of self, and the consequence
is that they are not rewarded by a complete victory as at Jericho, where God
claimed this honor for Himself; not that He refused human instrumentality, but
it must be He who makes use of it, so 'that man may not be exalted in his own
eyes. We do well to note God's way of action. He chooses instruments without
strength or value in themselves, or else, if they are worth something in the
eyes of men, He begins by smashing them as He did with Saul of Tarsus; then He
says: " He is a chosen vessel unto me." Now I can use you. We have already
noticed that the manner of action of Christians during conflict is too often
exactly the opposite to that of God. They put their means and resources in the
foreground. " We have formed an excellent plan; we are well organized; we have a
superior staff of evangelists, and we send forth our emissaries into the four
quarters of the globe." Dear friends, I am not inventing; every day one hears
and reads such things; you and I have perhaps expressed ourselves in these terms
before now. If we look at man's work we shall always see this deplorable
mistake. Had Israel said: Very well, let the power be God's, but let us combine
to find the means wherewith to overthrow the walls of Jericho; what would have
happened on the seventh day? Not a single stone of the wall would have fallen!
But here the power of the enemy gives way, and the people destroy the accursed
city. More than this, their faith and activity in testimony and victory set
other souls at liberty, as will always be the result when we engage in the
Lord's battles. Rahab, still a prisoner, is delivered and brought into the midst
of God's people, where she can henceforth enjoy the same' privileges as the
victors. One more detail I would call your attention to. Faith makes no
compromise with the world, receives and takes nothing from it. God forbids the
people to touch the spoil of Jericho; it is accursed. Jehovah can claim these
things and glorify Himself by them; they belong to Him,, but not to the children
of Israel, who can only touch them to put them into " the treasury of the house
of the Lord." Such is the fight of faith. May God give us to go over these
things in our hearts, so as not to be vanquished in our contest with the enemy.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 37: CHAPTER 7 AI AND THE ACCURSED THING
========================================================================

WE have just been considering the brilliant, picture of a divine victory
obtained by faith over Satan. After such a conquest, we say, Israel will surely
proceed from one victory to another but not so. Chapter 7 opens with the
registry of a defeat. A little town, an insignificant, obstacle in comparison
with Jericho, and " few people " are -enough to put to flight three thousand men
of Israel, and to cause the hearts of the people to melt and become as water.
There are secrets of defeat as there are secrets, of victory, and the believer's
chief danger lies in victory. After having gained it in real dependence upon
God, the soul, if occupied with the results, willingly attributes something to
itself, and the next defeat dates from that moment. Notice the case of. Joshua:
" Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai." (Ver. 2.) He repeats what he had done in
chapter 2:1 with regard to the land and Jericho. Then it was the path of God,
but now the very same act becomes a human and fleshly expedient. The spies had
returned from reconnoitering Jericho saying: " Truly the Lord hath delivered
into our hands all the land.' What need then to send further emissaries? It was
in some measure a lack of dependence on God, a confidence in human means. More
than this, Joshua sent them " from Jericho," which is not the true point of
departure; he forgets Gilgal, where they learned, what the flesh is, or perhaps
he does not yet, know that it is the place to which they must return. Joshua had
found in the victory an opportunity for trusting in the flesh. He, who-until
now, had been a type of Christ by His Spirit acting in the believer, so as to
bring him into possession of his privileges, descends to the level of an
ordinary man. The typical Joshua, disappears, to make room for Joshua as a man.
Is it not often so with us? Every believer in his measure is a representative of
Christ, an epistle intended to make Him known, which,, directly we forget
Gilgal, disappears -to give place to the old man which we have neglected to
judge. But the people, alas! follow the example of their leader. The men sent by
Joshua having returned, said unto him: " Let not all the people, go up; but let
about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people,
to labor thither, for they are but few." (Ver. 3). They have the most implicit
confidence in themselves; they will " smite Ai." What is it for us-and our men
of war? Have we not shown our capability at Jericho? Dangerous confidence! But
there is not only this lack of dependence on God, and self-confidence, the fruit
of unjudged flesh; there is more; coveted things, hidden from every eye; are
buried in the earth in the midst of a tent; the accursed thing is there. God had
cursed the town of Jericho; all that belonged to it was under the curse; no one
dared keep any of it lest he should make himself and the camp of Israel
accursed. (Chapter 6:18.) One man Only had disobeyed, and hearkening to his
lusts, had stolen of the accursed thing. Which of us is free in heart from this?
This man had followed his natural inclinations, he had begun where we all begin,
where the first man began. " I saw." (Ver. 21.) " When the woman saw " is said
in Gen. 3:6. He had eyes which knew how to discern the goodly things amongst the
spoil. His eyes were the avenue to his heart, but there was no sentinel to
watch, no " qui vive " to resound in case of an attack. It is through the eyes
that the accursed thing takes possession of the heart, and provokes it to lust:
" I coveted them." " Then when lust path conceived it bringeth forth sin:" " I
took them." The goodly Babylonish garment which could adorn the pride of life,
the silver and gold which could satisfy every lust, became the prey of Achan;
nay rather, these things make him, their prey! Fatal and Satanic chain which
links the world to man's natural heart, in order to make him the sport of the
prince of this world. Notice now how the sin of one man has to do with all
Israel. (Ver. 1.) " But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the
accursed thing.. and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of
Israel." The people might have said: Does that concern us? How could we have
known about a hidden thing, and not having-known it, how are we responsible? To
all that we reply, that God always has the unity of His people before His eyes.
He considers individuals as members of one whole, and responsible the one for
the other. The suffering and sin of one is the suffering and sin of all, and if
it is thus with Israel, how much more so with us, the church of God, one body
united by the Holy Spirit to the Head which is in heaven. If, however, their
souls had been in a good state, God would have manifested the hidden evil in
their midst. The power of an ungrieved Spirit in the assembly brings to light
all that dishonors Christ amongst His own. The reason it was not so with Israel,
was that there was something unjudged in the people and their leader. The hidden
evil of Achan is the means of bringing out the hidden evil in the heart of the
people. When the assembly is in a good state, although always answerable for the
sin of one of its members, it is made aware of it by the Holy Spirit, and finds
itself in a position to put away the evil from its midst, and, as the case may
be, to put out the wicked person. sent men from Jericho to of the church, in the
case of the cutting off of -Ananias and Sapphira; the power of the Spirit of God
discovered and judged the evil immediately. But here in Israel, hearts had to be
brought by self-judgment to bear the sin of one as the sin of all before God. Is
it thus with us in these days of ruin? Do we feel the evil in the church? Do we
recognize our responsibility as to all the corruption which has been introduced?
Or are we self-confident enough, in presence of the rubbish, to think that we
could do better than others, and that the ruin of the church is not our doing?
If our hearts are not habitually thus before God, we are sectarian; and, more
than this, we may have to be reminded by a terrible defeat of the humility which
becomes those who ought to have remained at Gilgal. See how differently from our
miserable hearts God judges. He says: "Israel hath sinned, and they have also
transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the
accursed thing; and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it
even among their own stuff." (Ver. 11.) In verses 5 and 6 we find the
chastisement of the people. Three thousand men of Israel flee before Ai; and the
hearts of the people melt and become like water because thirty-six of them are
smitten. They are prostrate; strength and energy fail them; fear takes
possession of their souls, for their courage has been carnal. So proud of their
previous victory, they fall now to the level of the Amorites whose " hearts
melted " when they heard of the crossing of Jordan. This was a sad but necessary
experience, for they had forgotten Gilgal; and Satan undertakes to teach them
through the bitterness of a defeat, what amount of strength they possess, and
how much confidence can be placed in the flesh. All! if they had been with God
they would have been preserved from a defeat, as we see very remark, ably in
the- apostle Paul's experience. He had been triumphantly caught up to the third
heavens, into paradise, and there he had heard unspeakable words which it is not
lawful for a man to utter, but when he came down again to the earth, a thorn in
the flesh, a messenger of Satan, was given to buffet him. The flesh was in him,
and would have exalted itself, but God anticipates it and hinders His beloved
servant from being puffed up. The danger was great, for had he listened to the
flesh, how many flattering things he would have said to himself in consequence
of this wonderful vision, thus compromising not only his peace, but even his
apostleship and his course. But God takes care of His servant, giving him the
necessary corrective, in order that the course of his victories may be
uninterrupted. Paul learns by " the thorn," which is his Gilgal, that the flesh,
even the best, is worth nothing. God says to him: Never mind the infirmity-the
thorn in the flesh; stay at Gilgal, it is precisely what you need, for in this
way the power will be entirely mine and will obtain the victory; and as for
thee, my grace is sufficient! It was a place of suffering and humiliation for'
'Paul, but of wondrous blessing! He was with God, in communion with the Lord,
and the messenger of Satan is but the means of keeping him at Gilgal, and not of
bringing him back there by a defeat. (T. R.) (To be continued.)


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  CHAPTER 38: SINS AFTER CONVERSION
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FAITH in the blood of Christ shelters me from the judgment, as Israel was safe
from the destroyer because of the blood sprinkled on the lintel and the
door-post. The worshipper, once purged, has no more conscience of sins. Judgment
because of sins is passed over forever. The blood has acquired for us this new
looting: " Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more;" therefore there
is no more offering for sin. Israel left Egypt under the shelter of the blood.
That shelter could never cease; they are a redeemed people. The believer now is
placed in an entirely new standing, because of the blood of Christ. He is our
mercy-seat, in whom is concentrated the full revelation of God, according to His
power and glory. He is that ever for us, through faith in His blood. There is no
more shedding of blood. By one offering He has perfected forever them, that are
sanctified. This being accepted and held to in faith, there comes the question,
What about the sins after conversion? It will not be asserted that there are
none. True it is, that earnest souls have tried to escape from the sorrow and
shame of sinning after conversion, by assuming and attempting to reach a state
of sinless perfection.. In this case, always, there is a lowering of the sense
of holiness, in order to relieve the conscience of the, sense of sin. It is like
damaging one's sight, so as to have an excuse for not seeing. The truth is,
that, on believing in Christ, we are, through God's grace, on entirely new
ground, ever under the shelter of His blood, and, once purged, " there is no '
more conscience of sins." God, in His perfect grace, has not only forgiven our
sins, but He has terminated judicially in the cross the old man, from whence the
sins come. In the life of Christ we are " free from the law of sin and death."
If We walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, for the
Spirit is stronger than the flesh. When the believer sins, he is drawn away of
his own lust, and enticed., "The thought of foolishness is „sin." We have
boldness for entering into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, where we enjoy the
sense of being without a spot. Now, when we are defiled, when a spot occurs,
however small it may be, there is a return to the flesh. We have returned to
what God has set aside in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sensible of
the defilement, for communion is interrupted; there is no enjoyment of the place
or the part where Christ is. I need not say here that, of course, you must have
known and enjoyed this place of nearness before you could lose it, or before you
would seek restoration. I am supposing the case of " the worshipper once
purged;" he has tasted of the ineffable blessedness of being in the holiest; his
heart was sprinkled from an evil conscience, and his body washed with, pure
water. But he has lost it; he has been " drawn away of his own lust, and
enticed;" he is sensible of his loss. The greater his love for the Lord, the
more he feels it; for affection is not communion, but affection makes one long
for what can only satisfy itself. Peter had affection, and had tasted of the
Savior's love, before he was restored to communion. The course of grace now is,
as in his case, that the feet are washed. It is not merely forgiveness, though
that is included or connected with the washing. The forgiveness does not refer
in any way to the safety of the soul, because God does not impute sin to any one
under the shelter of the blood of Christ; and yet with God, always, " the soul
that sinneth, it shall die." God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; sin
is of the devil. The washing is not in any sense a propitiation. The washing is
to expose the root, or source, of the sin, and thus to free the believer of its
working and defilement. It is the light of the word exposing the evil by
substituting the good. This is done by the word, through the Spirit searching
our conscience, often in much distress and confession; the latter (confession)
because Jesus is our Advocate. The flesh having been judicially terminated in
the cross, were it not for the advocacy of Christ, a returning to it in the
believer would entail on him immediate excision from the life here. Now, when
the word has exposed to me the root of the sin which I have committed, I am in
practical abhorrence of it; and the Spirit relieves me, by presenting to me what
the ashes of the red heifer in the running water (see Num. 19) typify: namely,
that Christ bore the judgment of God for my failure. It is not fire now, but
ashes, the token of accomplished judgment. The effect on me of the washing, is,
that I, am cleared of the source of, the sin; the root from which it came has
been disclosed; the spot is gone, because the root is judged. " If we judge
ourselves, we should not be judged. But, being judged, we are chastened of the
Lord, that we should, not be condemned with the world." Flesh must go wherever
it is; we are not to be condemned with the world; but if we do not judge
ourselves, we are judged of the Lord; hence it is, " many are weak and sickly
among you, and many sleep." That is, there are cases when the works of the flesh
are not forgiven; the flesh suffers here because it has not been judged. The
flesh cannot be tolerated, and the more godly we are, the less can we tolerate
it, or the more quickly is it judged. Real liberty is walking in the Spirit; for
if I walk by the Spirit, I mortify the deeds of the body. The true course, is,
as " Marah" typifies, that I refuse everything for which Christ died; this is my
real freedom. Hence, the man who has the greatest opportunity of gratifying
himself, is the one who most distinctly feels that this is indeed a wilderness,
where he cannot enjoy what he possesses, and what would so minister to him as a
man. Now it is evident that sickness may fall on us here because of sins that we
have not judged; that is, that God will, in some way, silence the flesh in the
activity in which it has exposed itself, unless it is judged. When it is judged,
it is disallowed, and here real repentance comes in. Thus " godly sorrow works
repentance." " I repent in dust and ashes." I loathe myself, and my one relief
is to see myself crucified with Christ, and thus the flesh as far from me as,
through grace, it is from God. Hence it is, that, when one is sick, it is said
(James 5:16), " and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." Up
to that moment they had not been forgiven him, and this forgiveness related
exclusively to his sickness. I do not say that every 'sickness is because of
sin, for I read about one being " sick, nigh unto death, for the work of the
Lord;" again, a man may have inherited a weakly constitution; or may have
shattered his health before his conversion. In this case I suffer the
consequences of my unrighteousness after I am converted. The thief on the cross,
though going to paradise, dies a felon's death. And constantly, in the Old
Testament, the expression occurs, " and it shall be forgiven him." This does not
relate to future, but to present, things. There are instances when there is not
present forgiveness. This I have adduced; and again (1 John 5:16): " There is a
sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." Well, now that we have
seen that the flesh must be practically set aside in the believer, let us
examine briefly the difference between the discipline to promote holiness, and
the discipline because of unholiness. I do not see how any one can determine for
another which of the two he may be passing through. It is evident that the more
any one walks in self-surrender, the better he understands in himself the cross,
the the more he enjoys the Lord. And it is often because saints will not deny
themselves that they pass through human sufferings; as it was said to Israel, in
connection with "Marah" (Ex. 15:26): " If thou wilt diligently hearken to the
voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and
wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of
these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the
LORD that healeth thee." We all have to learn, when it is not at all a matter of
sinfulness, that the less the flesh is given a place, the more of the power of
Christ we have. This Paul learned when he came down from the third heaven, so
that he an say, " I take pleasure in infirmities,.. that the power of Christ may
rest upon me." It is thus the apostle can say, "always bearing about in the body
the dying of Jesus;" nothing for which He suffered is to be allowed in me," that
the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body." Then follows, "we who
live are always delivered unto death, for Jesus' sake." No doubt it was
persecution in that day, for it checked and cut down the flesh; but very often,
now, sickness is sent to produce what persecutions effected then. I can
understand how when one is suffering sickness, instead of persecution, one
becomes sensible of being made more practically fit for the service that one has
at heart. When a believer dreads any tendency of his nature, when he " looks not
at the wine when it is red," the Lord comes in to assist him, by bringing in
death, in some way. For instance, if he has a love for music, by spoiling his
ear; but in such cases the heart is always, conscious of favor in the
discipline, and not of rebuke. It is a very different thing when there is rebuke
for self-gratification, to what it is when the self-surrender begins with
oneself, and the Lord rolls in death, to confirm and establish the longing of,
the true heart; like the man who determined to give up his jewelry for the Lord,
and when he had done so, a burglar broke into the house, and stole it. He was
not sorry for the loss, but he was kept up to his desire by the Lord. On the
other hand, if any goes on gratifying the flesh, sooner or later his sufferings
will spring: from his gratification, just as Sodom became suffering to Lot.
While, as with Isaac in Gerar, he not only reached Rehoboth, but, when he came
to, Beer-Sheba, the Lord appeared to him that night.. The Lord not only makes me
glad of the surrender, but He more than compensates in Him-self for any loss on
my side: " a hundredfold more in this present time." Thus I have endeavored to
open out a -little this interesting subject, assured that we do not sufficiently
seek light from the Lord as to the bodily sufferings to which we are subjected.
As I have already said, I do not think that one can interpret for another, but I
am sure, that, if there were more- exercise before the Lord because of our
afflictions,- we all should bear them better, and derive real blessing from
them. Surely, when any one is rendered thoroughly incapable here in mind or
body, there must be something in it of the rebuke to Lot's wife, when turned
into a pillar of salt. The Lord is full of compassion, and often one is allowed
to go on in a carnal way for a long time, because one has no sense of the evil
in one's conscience; but, assuredly, the day must come when all that selfishness
will pass away by the stroke of His-hand: " Our God is a consuming fire." J. B.
S. THE thought that God may be honored, transforms a human being, and human
life, and everything connected with it, into value immeasurable. (G. V. W.)


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  CHAPTER 39: READINGS ON PHILIPPIANS 3-4
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"" FOR the rest, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord," and (chap. 4.) " Stand fast
in the Lord, beloved." Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I will say, Rejoice."
The key-notes for a song in the wilderness: " Rejoice, in Him, again, again, The
Spirit speaks the word," " Stand fast in Christ, ah, yet again, He teacheth all
the band." We may compare this with a former word of -encouragement given while
the people were in the wilderness: " Moses my servant is dead; now, therefore,
arise, go over this Jordan." " Be strong, and of a good courage:" " I will not
fail thee, nor forsake thee." Again, ah, yet again, -God speaks the word: " only
be thou strong and very courageous." " Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and
of a good courage." (Josh. 1:6,7,9.) Thus spice the God of all encouragement,
when announcing the death of His servant Moses. Here it is the Spirit of Christ,
in His servant Paul, encouraging the saints to rejoice in the Lord. These words,
we well know, were but the fruit of the joy poured by the Spirit of Jesus Christ
into the heart of His prisoner, and what so fitting channel on earth as the
heart of that prisoner of Jesus Christ for the nations? The circumstance of his
position, his prison-house and chain, were far from being hindrances to joy in
the Lord. And what were those of Christ when He said: " That my joy may be in
you, and that your joy may be full"? This kind of joy; blessed be God, is
independent of earthly circumstances, -though realized in their midst, and our
strength therein. But " beware," he says, " of dogs [shameless ones], evil
workmen;" the secret of the Lord is not with such. It is only the " circumcision
" who boast in Christ Jesus; the answer in them -to God's boasting in heaven,
when, having brought Him from the dead, He gave Him the great name above all
creature names, a position, as Man glorified, which claimed universal homage.
Yet this is far from being the fullness of the divine mind concerning Him. The
blessed and only Ruler, King of kings and Lord of lords, is going to shew the "
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Father has glorified Him with Himself.
Boasting in Christ Jesus is the mind of God Himself in the saints. It has just
been remarked that having the mind of Christ-this mind which was in Christ. -is
the secret of power; but the same may be said of this joy in the Lord; we shall
presently see how this comes out. But what a blessed description of our
practical state under the term " circumcision:" (and how blessedly and
wondrously he illustrates it in his own spiritual history!) " worshipping by the
Spirit of God, boasting in Christ Jesus," all confidence in the flesh forever
gone. It reminds one of another scripture in 1 John 1:7, which presents a
different but equally precious aspect of our state and standing. " If we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." There we have a
blending of both standing and state. We Christians are in the light as He is in
the light; clouds and darkness are not found in this revelation of God; darkness
is no longer-His secret place (Psa. 18), He is in the light, but we are walking
in it; where else could we walk? (he goes on to add, " The darkness, is past,"
or " passing.") And see the blessed result, " we have fellowship one with
another," and the blood of Jesus Christ is of unchanged and unchangeable
efficacy. This is said here in connection with our walking in the light. What a
roll of blessings these two passages bring before us! We walk in the light as He
is in the light, having fellowship with one another; we worship by the Spirit of
God; we boast in Christ Jesus; and we have lost all confidence in the flesh;
henceforth it is the Lord who possesses our confidence. All this is very
blessed, and it is easy to see that the Lord Jesus is the center and immediate
object before the soul of the apostle. It is no longer a question of the mind
that was in Him being in us now, but of being with Him where He is, having
Himself there as the soul's exceeding great and eternal gain. This is the one -
thought here, supreme and governing, before which all the thoughts of the flesh
disappear. What possible connection could there be between a Hebrew of the
Hebrews and the glorified Man in heaven? This Hebrew was of the former things,
the old creation and the first man; Christ was the second Man out of heaven, and
gone on high, the Head there of the new creation. Could you speak now of
circumcision or of uncircumcision in any relation to Him? These were former
things, and are nothing now, the apostle states elsewhere; but "in Christ," is
new creation. (Galatians.) Again, in the thought of the " new man," the names "
Jew " and " Greek " &c., have disappeared, and only that of Christ is found, as
in the words of Col. 3 " Christ is all." I think the apostle was full of this
thought when he says here, " My Lord!" My Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things; the answer of his heart to the purpose of God, the Father,
that every tongue should confess Him Lord, to God the Father's glory. With like
readiness he expresses his sympathy with others in their wants by: "My God shall
abundantly supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ
Jesus." The chain of the prisoner bad not weakened the confidence of the saint;
he knew whom he had believed, and was persuaded He was able to keep for that day
what he, had entrusted to Him. He had many interests connected with that day. We
may not know what the " deposit" was, but we do know there was that which would
be a boast and crown and joy for him when that day came. It is evident that he
lived much in spirit with ' the Lord, much in His coming day, making little
account of the judgment of man's day; of this kind of life how much, or how
little do we know? The things before are not in view, while the things behind,
in a religious and social aspect, are what Christians seem to be for the most
part "reaching after." Their labors are chiefly directed to the advancement
politically, socially, and morally, of this present evil world; to modify, as
far as may be, peradventure to remove altogether, the reproach of the cross.
Many thus prove themselves to be its enemies, their professions notwithstanding.
Could Paul, who said, " God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of the
Lord Jesus-Christ, by which I am crucified unto the world and the world unto
me," be of that company? He was a fanatic in their eyes in saying it; at, least
he was the true servant of Him whom he called "my Lord;" bearing in his body the
brands of the Lord Jesus. But when these professors-come to this passage, they
are silent for the most-part, in the silence of spiritual death. It can hardly
fail to be noticed, that, in this most interesting chapter, we have again before
us, one emptied, not as in the preceding chapter, in the power of divine grace
to man, but here through grace given to man: not the Son of man out of heaven,
but one who had been of earth, taken possession of by Jesus Christ for heaven,
and glory with Himself there. The fullness of Saul of Tarsus had been what might
be termed the fullness of the flesh; in principle, all that it most glories in;
what the man in the flesh had counted gain to him was there. There was nothing
to be desired in respect of race, tribe, or nationality, circumcision, law,
zeal, or righteousness of his own. There was a sevenfold completeness in this
gain to him, which gave him his place and standing before men. He was an
important personage there, a Jew of Tarsus, a citizen of no mean city, a Roman
also, educated according to the exactness of the law, brought up at the feet of
Gamaliel. Such were the varied and splendid advantages which the man in the
flesh counted gain to him. But, as he was drawing near to Damascus, About midday
there shone out of heaven a great light round about him, when he fell to the
ground, having heard a voice saying to him, -" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?" To the query, " Who art thou, Lord?" came the answer, -" I am Jesus the
Nazarene, whom thou persecutest." That voice, has reached his inmost soul. It
pleased God to reveal His Son in him; in a moment all is changed! He refuses to
take counsel with flesh and blood; all that constituted the gain of Saul of
Tarsus fell to the ground with him. He understands it now. But this was the
voice of One, not " out of the earth," but out of heaven" (New Trans.), the
second Man. " Such as he " (Adam), " made of dust, such are they also made of
dust " (hitherto -that had been his state); " and' such as the heavenly one,
such also the heavenly ones" (henceforth this is to be Paul's state). The Man of
heaven announces Himself to him who was of the earth, as " Jesus the Nazorean,
whom thou persecutest." Was it to this goal, that the advantages, already
detailed, had led the man of the earth open hatred and persecution of the
Nazarman, now speaking from that light, the glory of which rendered Saul
sightless? What affinity then had these privileges of his earthly position with
that place of light and glory of which Jesus the Nazarman was the center? They
were but the strength of that enmity in which he raged against the name of
Jesus; even as the law itself is the strength of sin. But the voice from heaven
has reached him. The God who separated him from his mother's womb, and called
him by His grace, and was pleased to reveal His Son in him, has begun a good
work in him. The starting-point of this chief of sinners, in his new and
wondrous career, was Jesus glorified on high. Of what he then saw, and of what
this voice conveyed-Jesus glorified, one with His suffering saints-he was to be
a witness. Henceforth his heart, unwearied, will never suffer him to rest until
he has gained Him in that glory from which His voice had reached him. It is no
question here of soul salvation; but oh, how unlike everything that one sees or
hears of! The subject is not one of doctrines or divine reasonings, yet who was
more used in these lines than Paul? It is the history of a whole heart forever
won, and henceforth forever to be engaged with one supreme object, in the
affections and thoughts of a new nature, of which the Holy Spirit was the
strength; for in Him, and in Him alone, were concentrated all the counsels, all
the promises, all the mercies of God towards man: His beloved Son, in whom was
all His delight-God had highly exalted Him, and here was the least of all
saints, exclaiming: My Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and whom I have alone before me in His place on high for mine eternal and
unspeakable gain! Was not this, so far; fellowship with God? the expression of
His mind in His servant at any rate. God's appreciation of His holy servant
Jesus was shown in setting Him over all; the least of all saints showed his
appreciation, in suffering for Him the loss of all things. Now what place in the
unsearchable riches of Christ had the privileges of race, and nation, and
circumcision, advantages social, moral, or carnally religious? These were the
riches of the man out of the earth, but such was Paul no longer: grace and
divine power had changed all that. Such as the heavenly one, such also the
heavenly ones, and of these was Paul. It was remarked before, that this is not
the place to look for doctrines and reasonings, and yet the chapter is full of
both; but they are the doctrines and reasonings of a heart full of Christ, and
led by His Spirit in giving them forth. Is there no doctrine in: " What things
were gain to me, these I counted, on account of Christ, but loss"? Is not this
the calculation of right reason in the highest sense; a reasonable thought, as
elsewhere he speaks of a " reasonable service "? Yet the words express the
emotion of a heart drawn in the deepest way towards its divine and heavenly
object. But these reasonings of the affections, when in spirit before God, were,
so far as he was really there, the reasonings of the Spirit of Christ, and it is
a solemn thing to be allowed to hear them. " What things were to me gain, these
I counted, on account of Christ, loss." "But surely I count also all things to
be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
" I have suffered the loss of all, and count them -to be filth, that I may gain
Christ." That which could not be found in the second Man out of heaven, or
connected with Him, was rejected by Paul, or regarded by him with utter
contempt. Here then we have another man; not the Man out of heaven, but one of
those who are such as the heavenly One, and find again in measure the same
characteristics: emptied, humbled, and obedient. All of self seems to have
disappeared; lost in the all-subduing energy of spirit in which be cast aside
all that reminded him of the things behind, pressing ever onward towards his one
and only object. Yet was he ever full of interest in the things and persons in
the midst of which his pathway lay; but they were solely Christ's interests on
earth, the kingdom and house and testimonies of Gad, the souls He had quickened,
laboring amongst them and preaching the gospel to every creature which is under
heaven. But this was work by the way; his object was Christ in the glory of God;
his path led straight as an arrow to that divine goal. From that he never
swerved. Who else of the children of men ever addressed his brethren in terms
like these? " Be imitators all together of me, brethren, and fix your eyes on
those walking thus, as you have us for a model." What a wonderful path for man
on earth! a path whose moral heights the creature had not before contemplated.
With what interest we fix our eyes, not only on the new position, but on the new
man; who, understanding its meaning, walked at its height, sustained by the
power which took man in the person of Christ, and set Him in glory on high, Head
of the new creation. Now let us look at the position in relation to, the
wilderness path; for we are not sitting in heavenly places here as in Ephesians.
Thus then the position in the wilderness is developed, old things passed away,
former things forgotten, the things before not yet reached, while all around is
-enmity and moral death, the blessings as yet, unseen, and known only, by faith;
for now was the judgment of this world, Christ not yet gained, that is, Christ
where He is, glorified on high 'eternal life a hope, as in Titus 1 In a word,
all the blessings, which replaced the old things passed away, are regarded here
(characterizing the salvation) as gained or possessed at the end, the result of
blest ways and energies in the wilderness. These blessings, beginning with
Christ Himself, are also seven in number, as were the old privileges in the
flesh. To gain Christ; to be found in Him; to have the righteousness of God; to
know Him; to know the power of His resurrection; to-know the fellowship of His
sufferings, being made conformable to His death; to attain by any means unto the
resurrection from among the dead. All this would be the glorious result of
working out his own salvation with fear and trembling, and belongs to Christian
responsibility. In another aspect, we receive eternal life when we believe, as
it is written: " In whom ye also have trusted, having heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance, to the
redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of his glory." The acquired
possession is what the saints inherit with Christ. Thus Christ Himself, with
salvation and the Holy Spirit as its seal, and as earnest of our inheritance,
characterize our present position.. As to his position in the wilderness,
through which his pathway led, Paul could not say that, he was already
perfected. He had not attained to the resurrection from among the dead (the
power that wrought in that resurrection he realized much of), he had not gained
Christ, was, not with Him in His glory; how then could he say he was perfected?
Yet, in speaking thus, he places himself, according to his own teaching, amongst
the perfect or full-grown. It was not a babe, needing milk, that desired to be
with Christ in glory, to gain Him there. " Let us be thus minded (think this),"
he adds, addressing the full-grown (perfect); yet, not forgetting those
otherwise minded, God would reveal it unto them. It will be well to compare his
state here with that of the rich man in Mark 10 He runs to Jesus, kneels to Him,
and asks Him, as " good teacher," what he should do to inherit eternal life.
What zeal, and freshness, and beauty, and righteousness, too! but it was all his
own! not found in Christ, indeed all was his own as much as his riches. The only
real advantage he received from them was in this, that they helped him in the
discovery that all was vanity: eternal life alone was not that. Yet, after all,
the present possession of wealth was practically more important to him than life
eternal; it formed they chain that bound him to earth, and was the only treasure
his heart knew of. " Treasure in heaven," was a dark saying; to sell what he
had, take up his cross, and follow the Good Teacher in His lonely path, was a
hard one, too hard for him to listen to. His soul's present immediate want was
salvation, but his own death in sins, and powerless estate as a lost sinner he
was ignorant of. Riches and the good things of this life harden the heart and
sear the conscience, hence the needed testing words: " Sell what thou halt, take
up thy cross, and follow me." His alacrity in coming to Jesus_ is turned into
sadness: " at the word " he went away grieving; his assumed competency " to do"
was a vanity, like everything else of man. Compare this with Paul's, "My Lord,
on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth,
that I may gain Christ." Paul, from the beginning, had his treasure in heaven,
and where that was, there was his heart also; the rich man wants to know what he
must do to inherit eternal life; he has no thought of finding it in the Good
Teacher, no thought that he is already a lost sinner, " without strength." Now
what thought had Paul of life or righteousness, strength, salvation, or glory,
or aught that is of God, and not vanity, apart from Christ? The grace, mercy,
promises, and counsels of God, he found in Him. His Person rose gloriously above
all that which He could bestow upon man, and to be with Himself (forever with
the Lord) was, for Paul's heart, the chiefest of all that for which he was
apprehended. When he said at his conversion, " What shall I do, Lord?" it was
not in the view of inheriting anything by his doings; what he had seen and heard
had put an end forever to all such thoughts. "For this purpose have I appeared
unto thee," said the Lord, " to appoint thee to be a servant and a witness, both
of what thou halt seen, and of what I shall appear to thee in." It was the right
word for the servant, " What shall I do, Lord?" He " was not disobedient to the
heavenly vision:' It is true, there was a doing on his part, and that of a most
peculiar kind: " But one thing," he says, and then it comes out that for Paul
the present consisted in forgetting the past (the things behind), and stretching
out to the things before, pursuing for the prize of the calling on high of God
in Christ. Such was the course he was running. It may well be questioned whether
such a present had ever been realized by man before, such a race run! The
absence will be remarked of all effort to improve or change, or act in, any way
upon the scene he was passing through; it formed no part of his divine
commission. (Acts 22) Christ had given Himself for our sins, that He should
deliver us out of this present evil world. He overcame the world, and all that
has been begotten of God gets the victory over it also. I know that this kind of
testimony torments those that " dwell upon the earth "-to be told that they who
refuse to be its overcomers will be found and judged as among its corrupters.
But any such refusal on the part of Paul would have falsified his relative
position towards it. By the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ he was crucified unto
the world, and the world unto him. Those who do not know what this means, much
less feel its power, are hardly to be blamed if they refuse 'to recognize in
Paul a model for their Christian walk (and ways); only why call it Christian in
this case? The enemies of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who mind
earthly things he classes together. But Paul had been delivered, spiritually,
from this evil world:" Taking thee out from among the people (the Jews), and the
nations, to whom ' now I send thee," forms part of the Lord's address to him. He
that had said to him, " Arise, and stand on thy feet," had also appeared unto
him that he might see, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. These three things
mark his new position set on his feet by Christ, seeing by the gift of 'Christ,
and filled with the Holy Ghost. Thus even his body is full of light. The spirit
of intelligence, by which he was thus distinguished, was not the intelligence of
Saul of Tarsus, neither was it of, by, or from, man. The scales now fallen from
his eyes, he contemplates the world through the medium of the cross, and can
find nothing in it but that which put Jesus there; it was thus he measured this
world. The Lord must be everything to him who can use such a measure as this.
John has another measure for it; but one equally perfect: " All that is in the
world.. is not of the Father," therefore we are not to love it nor the things
that are in it: we cannot love the Father, and at the same time, the things,
that are in the world, any more than we can talk of citizenship in heaven, while
we mind earthly things. " Boast " in the cross, and "love of the Father," unite
in condemning the world, quite as much as Noah's faith did. The Lord had already
pronounced its judgment (John 12), and left it out in His prayer. (John 17). The
wise preacher had no such measure: neither the Father nor the Son (in these
relationships) were known to him; yet he, too, had taken note of all that was in
it; he could not say that it was not of the Father, but simply declares that all
that was in it was only vanity and vexation of spirit. Such was the rule by
which he measured the world he was surveying: " Vanity and vexation of spirit."
No such words as these ever broke forth from the lips of the prisoner of Jesus
Christ. In their stead we have: "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again, I will
say, Rejoice." Moses never encouraged the people with words like-these. They had
seen the glory and the greatness, but where was the grace? But now these could
not be contemplated by the believer apart from the grace; they were now seen
united in divinest harmony: the greatness, the glory, and the grace, of God.
This, when fully understood, was told out in the voice from the glory. God had
been glorified in man, even in relation to sin, and where sin was; and now man
was glorified with God, where sin could not come. Well might the heart of Paul
burn within him, as filled with the Holy Spirit, he comprehended the meaning and
bearing of what he had seen and heard, his wondrous mission, and the things in
which Christ appeared unto him. Poor, blessed, wondering Paul, what could he say
or think! His whole heart was won; Christ had: gained him for Himself, an elect
vessel indeed, to bear His name before both nations and kings, and the sons of
Israel. How often, as he went-on in his service, his full heart must have found
relief in utterances like these: " My Lord, for-whom I have suffered the loss of
all things and " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ!" how often bent-the knee, whilst he prayed that the Christ he
loved might dwell in his heart by faith! It is very clear that the world has
lost its-power over the soul of one who can say, " It is crucified unto me."
Object or interest in it, save those which were Christ's, Paul had no longer.
His pathway out of it was a path of service, it is true, and there was no
lingering by the way. -When it pleased God, who called him by His grace, to
reveal His Son in him, that he might announce Him as glad tidings among the
nations, immediately he did not take counsel with flesh and blood; no, he only
took counsel with God. It seems to have been a solitary journey into Arabia.
Glorious solitude, where God is known as our everlasting portion! But he has in
spirit left the world, not on the ground of its being corrupted, or only on the
authority of such a word as: " Depart ye, this is not your rest, for it is
polluted." Far other and deeper motives wrought in the spirit of Paul. In the
light of the glory he had found Jesus of Nazareth; in His cross This own death
to sin, law, and the world itself..(Rom. 6;7 Gal. 6) What was the world now -to
him? He forsakes it in all the liberty of a..soul divinely and forever freed. In
Rom. 8 we have him celebrating God's -victory over a greater than Pharaoh. What
the law could not do, God had done: He had condemned sin in the flesh. In the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus, he realized deliverance from the law of sin and
death. No such deliverance was celebrated on the shores of the Red Sea! no such
occasion for praise ever known amongst men! He forsook the world for the highest
of all prizes, in the liberty and power of a soul thus divinely freed. But this
is Christianity. Phil. 3 gives us the new man (καινός), walking according to its
spirit and privileges, and shewing us the way out of this world to Christ in the
glory on high. In the next chapter we see how he bore himself in relation to
surrounding circumstances. He was the " creature " of none of them; master,,
through Christ, everywhere; he had learned to be satisfied in himself (for
Christ was there); had strength for all things in Him that gave him power. What
he had learned, what he loved, followed after, hoped or feared, his sorrows and
his consolations, were all for the service and encouragement of the saints he so
truly loved; by grace he shared in Christ's interests in them. He reminds one of
the eagle stirring up her nest, fluttering over her young, spreading abroad her
wings, taking them, bearing them on her wings. From the lofty heights in which
his spirit dwelt (the prison house was no hindrance: here) he could swoop down
to the weak or falling; then, spreading abroad his wings, take them, and,
bearing them on his wings, mount up to those, wondrous heights, not strange to
him though little known to them, and show them how to behold with steadfast gaze
the light of glory ' as it shone in the " unveiled face." See the figures he
employs himself in 1 Thess. 2 " We.. have been gentle in the midst of you, as a
nurse would cherish her own children. Thus, yearning over you, we had found our
delight in having imparted to you not only the glad tidings of God, but our own
lives also, because ye had become beloved of us.... As ye know how, as a father
his own children, we used to exhort each one of you, and comfort and testify,
that ye should walk worthy of God, who calls us to his own kingdom and glory."


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  CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 4
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"This world is a wilderness wide." PAUL, as no one else, could have sung that
song of the wilderness. Would he not also have led in the songs of the Lord, in
the spirit of 2 Chron. 29:27? " When the burnt-offering began, the song of the
Lord began also." No inspired writer in the New Testament has spoken of Christ
offering Himself in that character, and of His acceptance on high, as Paul has.
" The Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and
sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savor." His spirit appreciated that
aspect of the offering of Christ. Thoughts, too, of Canaan's long-loved dwelling
must have often made his heart tuneful; more than once or twice, in our day,
they issued in song in one like-minded, whose heart was much there, who -minded
the things above. " When to Canaan's long-loved dwelling Love divine thy foot
shall bring; There, with shouts of triumph swelling, Zion's songs in rest to
sing." We should like to have received, through the hands of our first Christian
brethren, of Paul's day, some of their early songs, the heart's first, fresh
overflowings; but what caused them remains, and that is far better. The strings
have been loosened sadly, from the length of the way; but the same wind from
heaven still breathes, through' them, wakening up melody to Him who, entered
into heaven, is in the presence of God for us. We are to " sing with our hearts
to the -Lord," he tells us; " with grace in our hearts, to God." (Eph. 5; Col.
3) Would he not have led in spirit in these divine songs? No man ever passed
through this world, according to the force of the expression, " in it, but not
of it," as Paul did, in the strength of that power that lifts us above it. We
are but poor imitators of him here; but the Old- Testament saints could not walk
in such a path; the goal for them was not the same, nor the starting-point
either, and the power of the Spirit of Christ was wanting; not that they had not
life (the new nature), but the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus was
not yet glorified, nor, indeed, come in flesh. Abraham's beginning was a little
like Paul's; the " God of glory" appeared unto him in Mesopotamia, as the " Lord
of glory" (the Word that had become flesh) appeared unto Paul. Which was
farthest from God? the idolater of Ur, or the devout Jew according to the flesh,
the persecutor of Jesus the Nazarman-Saul of Tarsus? The beginning, in each
case, was wholly and absolutely from above, from God, rich in mercy, wonderful
in counsel, and excellent in working. The mighty word came to each (Gen. 15;
Acts 9); the effect was similar-the effect on the flesh, or nature of man, when
God was bringing him into relationship with Himself. It is judged.. The sun was
going down when God made a covenant with him by sacrifice; then a horror of
great darkness fell upon Abraham. It was during the brightness of the midday
sun, outshone by the " glory of that light," that darkness came upon. Saul,
already fallen to the ground. Man, as he is, cannot stand there. When the Lord
said,. " Stand upon thy feet," it was a new creature -who did so. Henceforth,
whom had he in heaven tut Christ? and there was none upon earth that he desired
beside Him. When a soul is in earnest, Christ having been revealed to it, it
wants (its first, its latest, and 'greatest of all wants) to know the Lord. Who
is it who has just been saying, That I may know Him? Was it a babe, or one
simple in knowledge? (2 Cor. 11:6.) I fear we have not made much progress in
this knowledge, and so the nations hear but little of the " unsearchable -riches
of Christ" in our day. But times of trial and judgment are at hand, when, if the
Lord tarry-to use the words of Daniel 12.-(which, however, properly refer to
Jewish circumstances; but compare Matt. 25), many, now sleeping, morally, in the
dust of the earth, will arise; there will be wise ones, too, who will know what
to do. For when did He ever fail to answer the feeblest cry of the remnant of
His people? " I will never, never forsake thee; never, no, never, leave thee
behind." But, in one sense, the last days were already come, and here was one of
the wise, or teachers, of those days, in immediate connection with the divine
source of all knowledge. What he had learned, Sand received, and heard, and seen
in Jesus, shone out through Paul, as through a transparent medium. He must have
been conscious of this through the Holy Ghost, when addressing them, in verse 9;
and when, in another place, he says, " Be ye imitators of me, as I am of
Christ." It was a word of more than apostolic authority; he was himself in the
truth and power of what he enjoined on others. I do not know of any word that so
reminds us of John 8:28: [" I am] altogether that which I also say to you." (New
Translation.) See the effect of this in Luke 4, where, in spite of themselves,
they wondered at His word, characterized, even in their minds, by grace, power,
and authority. His lowly outside position took nothing from the authority of His
word, which was thereby only intensified. The result of their doing what they
saw in Paul, would be, that the " God of peace" would be with them. This is but
the complement of that other blessed truth: that, in ceasing from mere human
anxiety, and trusting Him with the secret of the heart's trouble, the "peace of
God" Himself would guard their hearts and thoughts by Christ Jesus. He is fully
conscious of the greatness of the thought, for he adds " It surpasses every
understanding." I have put this question to myself: If Paul were here, and knew
my spiritual state, could he say, " Abide in those things which you have
learned, and of which you have been fully persuaded, knowing of whom you have
learned them "? One might have to pass through some exercise of heart and
conscience as to what things one had really learned, and had full assurance of,
knowing of whom we had learned them. It is only when we have learned and
received the things which we have seen and heard that we possess them
spiritually. We are then in the state to which the Lord refers, when He says, "
Whosoever hath, to him shall be given:" Again, as in the first chapter, he
speaks of the circumstances through which he was passing, but never of himself
as a creature of any circumstance; that is the state of those who refuse to walk
with God. He who walks according to the course of this world, is carried down
the stream from whence never did soul deliver itself. He who gave Himself for
our sins is the alone Deliverer here; and Paul, who had praised God with singing
in the dungeon at Philippi, is now telling the Philippians, from his
prison-house at Rome, that the " peace of God which surpasses every
understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus." The
circumstances were only a means of his learning to be satisfied in himself. Yes!
for Christ was there, and it was He who gave him power, so that he had strength
for all things. Mark the vastness of the range, and the spirit in which he
contemplates them: " In everything, and in all things, I am initiated, both to
be full and to be hungry.; both to abound, and to suffer privation. I have
strength for all things in him that gives me power." In that heart there was no
place for the murmurs of the wilderness, and none are ever heard. May we, too,
be initiated into this mystery of knowing how to meet all and every
circumstance, satisfied in oneself. (Ver. 11, New Translation.) Dependence upon
Christ is the measure of this new kind of satisfaction. It will be remarked,
that in this part he is speaking simply of himself in relation to the
circumstances of ordinary human life. It was necessary to do so, as he had
proposed himself as a model to all the saints at Philippi. But in the first
chapter he looks at circumstances in exclusive connection with the glad tidings.
They had turned out to the furtherance of the gospel; his bonds were known in
the Prœtorium to be in Christ; and whether, as looked at outwardly, and as means
in the enemy's hand, they portended death, or that he was still to continue, his
only care was that the Lord should be magnified, whether by life or by death.
Let us look once more at the remarkable order and fullness of these
exhortations; and then let us ask ourselves, what room or occasion is left, in
one who accepts them, for that wretched unrest and vanity of mind to which even
Christians are so often a prey. First, they were to rejoice always in the Lord,
their mildness to be known unto all. He was near. To be careful for nothing, as
in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, letting their
requests be made known to God. Then he gives an outline of the character of the
things which were to occupy their thoughts. All things true, and noble, and
just; all things pure, amiable, and of good report; if there be any virtue, any
praise; and, finally, the things they had learned, and received, and heard, and
seen in him, they were to do. In all this we see nothing like the imposition of
a law for sanctification. What we do find, is the apostle, through the Spirit,
ministering to those born of God the things suitable to the nature they had from
Him. Joy in Christ, confidence in God, occupation of heart with all that was
noble, and excellent, and pure before God. How their hearts must have burned
when he interpreted for them God's mind about their gift to him! It was an odor
of a sweet savor, an acceptable sacrifice, agreeable to God. In their kindness
towards himself there was nothing wanting: he was "full." If at any time they
were in need, it was Paul's God (" my God") who would supply that need,
according to His riches in glory. The God who had accepted,, as a sacrifice
agreeable to Him, the things sent by Epaphroditus to His servant, Paul, would
not forget them in the day of their need. (R. E.) (Continued from page 217.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 41: MEDITATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOSHUA: AI AND THE ACCURSED THING
========================================================================

AND Joshua the man of God? Alas! he rends his clothes and falls to the earth
upon his face before the ark of the Lord. (Ver. 6.) Where was the ark in the war
with Ai, before which the walls of Jericho had fallen? Joshua's godly soul
acknowledges its worth, but he does not know what to do, and, ignoring the
accursed thing, he gives vent to regrets, not regrets as to what he has done,
nor as to what the people have done, but, alas! as to what God had done when He
brought them over Jordan! " Would to God we had been content and dwelt on the
other side Jordan," said he. How plainly these words show what man's heart is!
This blessed place is the only one that Joshua would fain have avoided. The tone
of his request betrays weakness. First it is Israel, the name of Israel which
occupies his thoughts; then it is the Canaanites, the world. " Israel turneth
their backs before their enemies." " The Canaanites shall hear of it." " They
shall cut off our name from the earth." Then quite at the end: "What wilt -thou
do unto thy great name?" (Vers. 8, 9.) The example given us in the history of
God's faithful servant Moses is very different. (Ex. 32:11,13.) He had been on
the mount of God, and there God reveals to him the evil which had gone on in the
camp; the sin of the people does not remain hidden from the eyes of Moses. Aware
of it before coming down from the mount, does he think of Israel's shame? No, he
is occupied with what is suited to the Lord's name. He recognizes the claims of
offended holiness. As for the nations his only concern is, as to whether God
would be glorified, in the eyes of the Egyptians by the defeat of His people. As
for Israel, he appeals to the grace of God, to the only thing which glorifies
Jehovah's name in the presence of guilty Israel. Moses had no need, like Joshua,
to recover lost communion; he can intercede for the people, and he is heard.
Joshua, on the contrary, is found precisely in the attitude in which he ought
not to be. " Get thee up," said the Lord to him, " wherefore liest thou thus
upon thy face?" (Ver. 10.) To humble himself for his lack of power was not the
only thing to be done; it was time to act. We find, the opposite to this in
Judg. 20, where Israel ought to have humbled themselves first and then acted.
Miserable flesh! What disorder does it not introduce into the things of God!
Always outside the current of His thoughts, if not in open hostility to Him. May
we join with the apostle in saying: " We, who have no confidence in the flesh."
Joshua had to act; the accursed thing had to be put away from amongst them. The
children of Israel had soon forgotten the presence of the Lord, which alone
could open their eyes to the evil in their midst. Joshua himself had been in
some measure taken in this snare of Satan, and involved in the people's
weakness. If he had realized in his soul the attitude he assumed in chapter 5.,
in loosing the shoe from off his foot, he would have understood the necessity of
holiness for the people, if God's holy presence was to be with them. But Joshua
falls to the earth upon his face and almost reproaches God for His grace,
forgetful of His holiness: " Wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over
Jordan?" He was not, for the moment at least, in the current of God's thoughts,
and God makes him feel it. His thoughts were out of tune. When the accursed
thing enters into the testimony of God, what we have to do, is to sanctify
ourselves, and to put away the evil from our midst. It is not a question here of
power, but of holiness and of obedience. God said to Joshua: " Up, sanctify the
people." To sanctify oneself is to separate oneself from all evil to God. It is
impossible without holiness to have God with us. This is one of the most
important truths for the present day. What should characterize us now, as in
Philadelphia, is communion with " the and the true." I am speaking merely of an
ordinary case of excommunication, and not of a case of discipline complicated,
it may be, by the-' incapacity of the assembly to judge evil. I would not for a
moment omit the true humiliation which should always accompany action in a, case
of discipline. It was necessary that Israel should both individually and as a
nation pass in review under-the searching eye of Jehovah Himself (vers. 14, 15);
their conscience was thus awakened and self was judged; each one took his place
in presence of the judgment. It was the same when the wicked person at Corinth
was put away. " Godly sorrow " had worked in the Corinthians. "a repentance to
salvation not to be repented of." Sorrow had produced humiliation, accompanied
by activity and zeal in purifying the, assembly of God from evil. Thus true
humiliation and action went together. " For behold this selfsame thing, that ye
sorrowed after a godly-sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what
clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what
vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge!" (2 Cor. 7:11.) To return to the
question of holiness. In chapter 5 we have individual holiness, and in chapter
vii corporate. In order that Israel should not be defiled and partakers of the
accursed thing, they must put away what had entered into the midst of the
congregation. Rarely do we find intelligence amongst the children of God with
regard to these two aspects of practical holiness. Christians more often seek
the first, that is individual holiness, and esteem the second of no importance.
Let us take an illustration to show that individual holiness is never fully
entered into apart from corporate holiness. Supposing I have a son who is
blameless as to his character, and whose virtues are everywhere spoken of. He is
respected in the town, and on all sides I hear the remark, " What a good son you
have!" Now, this son of mine, though he does not himself drink, spends every
evening at the public-house, in the company of drunkards, instead of remaining
in his father's house and taking his place at the family board. Can I call him a
good son? From 2 Cor. 6:16 to 7. 1 we learn the close connection between these
two aspects of holiness. God begins with corporate holiness. " Ye are the temple
of the living God." (Ver. 16.)." The temple of God is holy." (1 Cor. 3:17.) It
is positional holiness. " What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" "
Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate." (Ver. 17.) This is
practical corporate holiness. Then he adds: " Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (Chapter 7:1.) This is
individual holiness, and it is inseparable from corporate holiness and the
promises attaching thereto. But the corporate side is not understood by the
generality of God's people who go through the world, alas! without troubling
themselves about their fellow Christians, and to whom such a thing as corporate
responsibility is unknown. One often hears it said: " Oh! I do not concern
myself about others; I am alone with God; I take the Lord's supper
individually," &c. This is not how God views us. Let me repeat it: He sees us
altogether as forming one body, united by the Holy Spirit to His glorified Son.
The sin and the suffering of one member is the sin and suffering of the whole
body. One more word in passing, on the sentence referred to above, which one so
often hears from the lips of Christians: " I take the Lord's supper for myself."
What does Scripture say? " For we, being many, are one bread and one body; for
we are all partakers of that one bread." (1 Cor. 10:17.) Who are the " many "
with whom you profess to be one body? You take the supper individually to excuse
your alliance with the world at the Lord's table, and you do not see that you
profess to be one body with the murderers of our Savior, for it is the world
that crucified Him. Let us notice another point in the chapter. God said, "
Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow." (Ver. 13.) We are called to sanctify
ourselves before and not at the moment of action. Whence comes our frequent
incapacity to judge evil and to act for God? Because we have not sanctified
ourselves beforehand. Why is it that so often at the worship meetings our hearts
are cold and our lips silent in praise? Because we have not been obedient to the
word: " Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow." It is the same in 1 Cor. 5 The
apostle possessed the power, but not the Corinthians. They were simply to obey
in purging' out the old leaven to be a new lump; they -had to put away the
wicked person from their midst. Achan had partaken of what was under the curse
of God, and he had to be put away. It was clone in the valley of Achor. But,
wonderful to say, we read in Hos. 2:15 this comforting word respecting Israel: "
I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope." Yes, beloved friends,
it is always thus; blessing is given to us on the very threshold of judgment. It
is at the place of judgment that the soul at the time of its conversion finds
the door of hope; it is there that it meets Christ. And later on, the believer
finds the time of discipline to be the first place of hope and joy. It will be
in this valley where God pronounced their judgment, that the people of Israel
will, by-and-by, be blessed of God. It was there that Joshua was recovered in
soul for a walk henceforth with God, while leading the people to victory.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 8 - THE WAY OF RECOVERY
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The wicked person had been put away from the congregation of Israel, but by the
presence of evil in their midst, God had brought them to the discovery of their
own self-confidence. Such.cases often present themselves when an assembly is
satisfied with its state, and begins to boast of - it, and of its blessing and
growth. Israel did this, placing their reliance not in God but in their late
victory, and thus preparing a way for defeat. They had to be judged, and then to
purify themselves from the evil. But restoration of soul does not consist only
in self judgment and practical sanctification. Communion with God, which sin has
interrupted, must be restored. Here I would make a remark which is perhaps of
importance. In chapter vi. God manifests His power in connection with Israel in
the victory over the enemy at Jericho. This same power is shown too in the
'Christian's life. It may be that one has been in the enjoyment of divine power
and the victories thereby obtained, without perhaps having really known either
God or oneself. And yet there was no excuse for Joshua's want of apprehension.
The Captain of the Lord's host had revealed Himself to him with the drawn sword
in His hand, as the Holy One armed with power for the conflict. Then, in company
with the people, Joshua had witnessed the exercise of this power before Jericho;
but his conscience had to be brought in contact with divine holiness,' and he
had as yet no sense of what it necessitated from the people as to the character
of their walk. The anger of the Lord (chap vii. 1) had to be made known to
Israel and their leader, before they could learn that God in His holiness could
not tolerate the accursed thing. The knowledge of God in power is not all. To
possess a true and complete knowledge of Him, much more has to be learned. With
regard to Gilgal and the learning of ourselves, it might seem that when once
this point in the soul's history is reached, self ought to be done with, but in
reality this is only practically realized in the measure that one keeps at
Gilgal. How little did the people know themselves after the victory of Jericho!
Though God had taken a thousand pains to prove to them that all was of Him in
the victory, what self-sufficiency, what forgetfulness they show in attempting
to face the enemy without Him! Flight and trouble are the result, and when they
resume the offensive, their path becomes difficult, laborious, and full of
complications, thus, exposing to their view their own weakness, which had been
already made apparent to the enemy in their defeat. They have to retrace their
steps, forced afresh to the discovery of themselves, but it will now be a lesson
learned through grace with Christ and not with Satan. Notice in chapter viii how
complicated everything becomes, through not having followed the simple path of
faith. The soul, humbled, finds itself once more with God, and His presence with
it, but the consequences of a carnal walk remain; and although God can
ultimately use these for their blessing, the path has no longer the simplicity
of the early days of faith. It is a very simple path, for, to the believer who
follows God's guidance in human dependence on His word, victory is assured. It
was thus at Jericho, and the same power which had brought down the walls of the
accursed city is with Israel at Ai; it has not changed, although the army must
maneuver and separate into two corps, five thousand men lying in ambush, whilst
the rest entice the defenders of Ai out of their stronghold. In chapter 7 the
spies had said in their -report: " Let about two or three thousand men go up and
smite Ai, for they are but few." And now about thirty thousand chosen mighty men
of valor are required. What a humiliation, and how it lowered Israel in their
own estimation! 'They had to go up by night, and whilst some hid, others feigned
flight before the enemy. What room for boasting after this? But you may say: You
have shown us that at Jericho it was not a question of human means, -;and now
here are all sorts of contrivances for conquering the enemy. I reply: If you are
content to use means which bring your incapacity into prominence, leaving on man
the impress of his total weakness, and humiliating him so that his only resource
is to flee before the foe, all well....and good. But it is not in your power to
do this. In truth at Ai they are no more human means than at Jericho. The
difference is, that there God, ordered the arrangements so that Israel might
learn his power, whilst at Ai His object was to -teach them their own weakness.
But in the one case and the other, let me repeat, the power of God had not
changed. Israel gained the victory at Ai by means of it; Joshua was there,
Joshua with the spear in 'his hand. At Jehovah's command Joshua stretched out
the spear that he had in his hand toward the city(Ver. 18.) "For Joshua drew not
his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly
destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai." (Ver. 26.) It remained stretched out all
through the conflict. One often hears it repeated: " What does it matter if
there are divisions? Have we not all the same end in view? Are we not all
fighting for the same Lord, although it may be under different standards?" Is
this then the teaching to be gathered from these chapters? No, they contain one
great prevailing truth. The people were one; one in their victory, one in their
failure, one in their defeat, one in the judgment of the evil, one in their
restoration. We see around us the poor children of God scattered and divided,
and they are content to say: " What does it matter?" Brethren, for what purpose
did Christ die? Was it not " to gather together in one the children of God that
were scattered abroad." (John 11:52.) Does God scatter them after He has
gathered them? No, it is the wolf who scatters the sheep. (John 10:12.) And can
we say: " What does it matter?" Diversity is not division; for it displays
itself in unity. The ambush take Ai and set it on fire, whilst the twenty-five
thousand men flee before their enemies, until advised by the smoke of the city
to turn back upon them. Just as they begin to fight, the ambush issuing out of
the city join in the battle (ver. 22), and then all the Israelites return unto
Ai and smite it with the edge of the sword. (Ver. 24.) Thus there is diversity
in the action and service, but it is an action in common. The body is one; the
several parts are joined together, and Joshua with his spear is the bond of
union. If the unity is lost sight of, defeat is the result. In 1 Corinthians
12., we find diversity and unity closely brought together in the church. " Now
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit;" " and there are
diversities of operations; but it is the same God which worketh all in all."
(Vers. 4, 6.) " For as the body is one and hath many members " (this is
diversity in unity), " and all the members of that one body being many are one
body" (this is unity in diversity), " so also is the Christ." We are united in
one body, the Christ, and yet every child of God has his appointed work which no
one can accomplish for him. Each one is entrusted with a different service; I
cannot do yours, nor' you mine. Israel is now restored to communion with God.
Throughout this scene the activity of the people is blessedly characterized by
the presence of Joshua. When they were going to war, we read: "Joshua arose, and
all the people." (Ver. 3.) On the eve of battle: " Joshua lodged that night
amongst the people." (Ver. 9.) When the march was about to begin: "Joshua went
that night into the midst of the valley." (Ver. 13.) When it was a question of
enticing the enemy: " Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten." (Ver.
15.) When they had put to flight the enemy: " Joshua and all Israel.. slew the
men of Ai." (Ver. 21.) And finally when the victory was decided in their favor:
" Joshua drew not his hand back.. until he had utterly destroyed all the
inhabitants of Ai." (Ver. 26.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 43: THE RECOVERY OF GIBEAH
========================================================================

The effect of the defeat at Ai was that the Israelites learned to know their own
hearts better, and at the same time the character of the God who went before
them. Before noting the practical results of what God had taught them through
-discipline, I should like to point out a resemblance between Josh. 7;8, and
Judg. 20;21 It is an accepted fact that the book of Judges after chapter 17 does
not follow any chronological order (chap. 20:28), but gives us a picture of what
took place before God raised up the judges, of the history of Israel immediately
after the death of Joshua. There had been utter and rapid decline; idolatry and
moral corruption reigned everywhere. At the beginning and end of these chapters
we find the statement: " Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.' No
such thing as dependence on God and His word, man's conscience being the measure
of good and evil. Each one walked according to his own sense of right and wrong,
making conscience the measure of his conduct. Is not this a picture of
Christendom and of what happened after the departure of the apostles? Was
decline less complete and sudden?' Leaving aside the corrupt principles of
popery, which does enlightened Protestant Christendom bring forward as the rule
of conduct, the-word of God or conscience? Does it teach subjection to the
Scriptures, or is its watchword liberty of conscience? If conscience is taken as
a guide, absolute confusion is the result, each one', hastening to follow his
own opinion. But a horrible sin had taken place at Gibeah and that not as in
Josh. 7, the accursed thing, bidden failure, but as a sin committed openly
before God and man. The unhappy Levite himself publishes his shame, every tribe
in Israel being apprised of it (19:29). And the people, what of them? Well, God
uses the sin of Gibeah, as He did the sin of Achan, to lay bare their moral
condition, to, humble them and to awaken within them the consciousness of what
is due to God. Only here the moral state of the tribes is, more serious; they
have sunk much lower than at Ai. Indignant at the -wrong done to them selves,
the thought of the wrong done to God is entirely overlooked. They speak of the
folly wrought by Gibeah in Israel, of the wickedness done amongst those of the
tribe of Benjamin, but not a word of the dishonor brought upon the Lord's name.
How evident the declension, and how different are the words of Phinehas to the
two and a half tribes: (Josh. 22:16) "What trespass is this that ye have
committed against the God of Israel?" To this first symptom of decline, we may
add a second; namely, that they had abandoned what might be called their first
love. The Lord was no longer before their eyes; their affection for Him, and
consequently for those born of Him, had diminished: They forgot that Benjamin
was their brother. "Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the
children of Benjamin?" (Ver. 18):and these last on their side " would not
hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel." (Ver. 13.) A
third symptom of decline is that they lose sight of the unity of the people. No
doubt, to all appearance, the eleven tribes presented a unity nearly as perfect
as when Israel purified them-:selves from Achan and were restored at Ai.
Nevertheless it was no longer God's unity. It was in vain that the people " were
gathered together as one man" (ver. 1), or that they "arose as one man " (ver.
8), or that they were knit together as one man" (ver. 11), against Gibeah: God
could not recognize the unity of Israel whilst Benjamin was lacking. Beloved,
these links in the chain of declension are rivetted one to the other;
forgetfulness of the presence of God, surrender of the first love, contempt for
the real unity in spite of a show of the same. And was not Benjamin guilty? Yes,
exceedingly so. One sees that his mind was made up, from the outset not to judge
evil. Warned equally with the other tribes (xix. 29) of a crime patent to all,
knowing that the children of Israel were about to judge the evil, in fact
warned, albeit in a carnal spirit, that he would have to purify himself, he yet
turns a deaf ear to the call of duty.. By establishing the principle of
independence, he disowns the unity of Israel, and far from purifying himself
from the crime of Gibeah, he links himself with it, at the same time resorting
to a useless and miserable attempt at making a distinction. (Ver. 15.) Benjamin
had to be judged, but the state of the people as a whole was too-bad to admit of
a divine judgment on their part, and they must be sifted before being able in
truth to purify themselves from the sin of Gibeah.. If Israel had had a right
sense of things, they would have first humbled themselves before the Lord, taken
counsel of Him, and then acted;: instead of which they begin by consulting one
another, miserable result of forgetfulness of God's. presence; they take
measures, and decide very scripturally "to put away the evil from Israel," quite
forgetting that they are themselves infected by the evil, that Benjamin is in
fact part of them. After having made all their arrangements and numbered their
warriors, " they arose and went up to the house of God and asked counsel of
God." (Ver. 18.) This is also the spirit of declension, and it is to be found
everywhere in Christendom; and often amongst the children of God; in fact it is
a widely established principle. We propose some plan to ourselves, and at the
moment of its execution, often after all is arranged, we ask the blessing of
God. The result of this total oversight of divine principles, was that in the
first day twenty-two thousand Israelites were destroyed down to the ground. Then
they went up and wept before the Lord; their hearts are now full of sorrow
instead, of carnal indignation, and they call Benjamin their brother. Their love
and sense of responsibility one to another is revived. After this they again set
their battle in array and lose eighteen thousand men in a second defeat. God in
His goodness sought to produce a perfect result. Sorrow in itself was not
everything, neither the proclamation of the bonds which united them; what was
needed was a full and complete judgment of self; repentance before God. To enjoy
once more the presence of the Lord and His communion, they must retrace their
steps in the pathway of declension. Thus it is said: " Then all the children of
Israel and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and
sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt
offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord." (Ver. 26.) What comes next bears
a striking analogy to the scene at Ai. They were obliged to set Hers in wait
(ver. 29), to flee before Benjamin (ver. 32); and after all their previous
losses to have thirty men -wounded to death, and to make a great flame like
smoke rise up out of the city, to serve as a signal. Thoroughly judged and
restored to communion with God, Israel can now discharge the painful duty of
judging Benjamin for his profanity; but ah! what weeping and tears follow on the
victory. (Chapter 21:2.) How different from the scene at Jericho, where " the
people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat." (Chapter 6:20.)
Here it was a question of their own brethren, of a tribe all but cut off in
judgment. But God in grace restores the gleaning of Benjamin, notwithstanding
the many complications brought about by the carnal hate of Israel in their first
decisions. There is however one part of the congregation of Israel which the
restored people treat with more severity than Benjamin himself. There came none
to the camp from Jabesh-Gilead to the assembly. (Chapter 21:8.) It was
bare-faced indifference, and neutrality with regard to the evil of which they
took no account; far worse than the spirit of fleshly indignation in which
Benjamin had revolted, despising a decision of the assembly, and which had led
him to take arms against his brethren, while associating himself with evil.
Jabesh had to, be utterly destroyed.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 44: RESULTS OF DISCIPLINE
========================================================================

BUT to return to Joshua and the people. Israel had learned in the pathway of
humiliation not to trust in themselves, and this expression at once bears fruit.
Henceforth if controlled by the word of God, and trusting in its perfect
guidance, they would escape further falls. In verses 27-35, we see Joshua and
the people obeying the Lord's commandment (vers. 27, 31, 33, 35), and depending
on what is written in the book of the law.. (Vers. 31, 34.) The effect of being
humbled is that Joshua and the people are reminded in heart of the statutes laid
down in Deut. 27 More than this: the hanging of the king of Al shows that Joshua
is informed as to the details of his conduct by the word of God. " As soon as
the sun went down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from
the tree." (Cf. Deut. 21:22,23.) To all human appearance this would be a detail
of no importance, but a heart fed by the word of God could not overlook it. To
neglect it, would have been to lose sight of the holiness of God, and Joshua
would then have failed in the very point which brought down chastisement on the
people. "His body shall not, remain all night upon the tree.. for he that is
hanged is accursed of God; that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God
giveth thee for an inheritance." (Deut. 21:23.) And again:- Defile not therefore
the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the
children of Israel." (Num. 35:34:) In a word, a holy God could not dwell in the
midst of defilement; this was the blessed lesson which Joshua received from the
Lord of hosts, before Jericho, which he learned amidst tears in the valley of
Achor, and which, with a conscience exercised in the school of God, he blessedly
realized in the day of victory. We learn another lesson in the judgment of the
king of Ai. The bringing together in Deut. 21:18-23 of the two events contained
in Josh. 7 and 8., the cutting off of the wicked person and the judgment of the
enemy, is not without significance. This is practically always the case. The
assembly must purge out the evil from its midst before it can silence and bring
to naught the evil outside. You will find, where evil is tolerated in the
assembly, a total absence of that decision and firmness which deals-with the
enemy as such, without coming to terms, and puts him at the outset in the only
place assigned to him of God, according to the scripture: " He that is hanged is
accursed of God." There is one more striking coincidence in the, verses we are
considering. The gibbet of the king of Ai was the place of the judgment and
curse of Israel's enemy. But here the people are obliged to stand themselves on
Mount Ebal,, where the curse of God is pronounced upon them.. This terrible
conclusion of: the law which Israel could not escape, God had brought to naught
by the cross of Christ. Christ bore on the cross” the curse which was pronounced
at Ebal on man as a responsible being, to redeem us from it.. Israel could see
in type on the gibbet at Ai, what, we see in the cross of Christ, Satan, our
chief' enemy, defeated and annihilated; but we see-also, as has been already
remarked, all the curse. Under which we lay at Ebal, forever gone in the actual
judgment of Him who took this place for us. In Gal. 3:10,13,, we find the same:
blessed connection between Ebal and the cross. "For it is written " (Deut.
27:26), " Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them.'" `The curses at Ebal close with these words,
but the apostle adds: " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us: -for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a
tree." This is the hanging of the king of Ai. A further result of discipline was
that Israel, now humbled, were in a state to worship. " Then Joshua built an
altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal and they offered thereon
burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace-offerings." With us
likewise, there can be -no communion without self-judgment, and no -worship
without communion. The altar in Mount Ebal was the provision in grace for the
curse of the law on transgressors. In the altar we have -propitiation, which is
the basis of all true worship; only here it is in presence of a people
threatened by the curse if they do not obey. The cross -which has put an end to
the curse for us, is the starting-point or center of our worship, and sheds upon
us the full light of divine grace. But grace itself never weakens our
responsibility as God’s children. There are conditions under which the land is
taken possession of. A duplicate of the law was to be written upon great stones
set up and plastered with plaster. (Deut. 27:2,3; Josh. 8:32.) This same law was
read aloud " before all the congregation of Israel." (Ver. 35.) Let us never
forget that Jesus Christ is at the same time our Savior and our Lord, the One
who has pardoned us, and the. One who has every claim over us. The knowledge of
His grace fills our mouths with praise in worship; the sense of our
responsibility leads us-to persevere in holiness and truth, to fight the good
fight, to take possession of the promise& land.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 45: CHAPTER 9. THE SNARE OF GIBEON
========================================================================

As we advance in the study of our chapters, the-enemy presents himself under new
aspects. Satan knows how to make war; he knows how to place his batteries, to
attack openly, and to overwhelm by numbers; but he also knows how to employ
subterfuge, to deceive by craft, and to, ensnare. Jericho, as an obstacle, gave
way before faith; but Satan is not discouraged, he gets at Israel by means of
their lusts, and the accursed thing enters into the camp; he occupies the soul
with past victories, and self-confidence takes possession of the heart. Israel,
forgetful of the whole armor of God, is caught in the enemy's nets: But Satan's
victory is the school of God for the righteous. They cease trusting in
themselves, and entering into the claims of God's holiness, they seek their
safeguard in the word of God, owning, at length, their responsibility, of which
they seemed previously scarcely Aware. In chapter 9 we find more particularly "
the wiles of the devil," and it is expressly against these that we are cautioned
in the word. In -order to stand firm, we must " put on the whole Armor of God;
be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." We see the power of God
under various aspects in the Epistle to the Ephesians, and in the first chapters
of Joshua. In Eph. 1:19, His power toward us corresponds typically with the
crossing of Jordan. In chapter 3:16, 20, His power in us corresponds with the
divinely-spread table in Josh. 5; and in chapter 7:10, His power with us, and
the armor, in its various parts, corresponds with the conflict with the power of
evil, such as we see in the succeeding -chapters of Joshua. We have already seen
what vessels God takes up, through which to glorify Himself in this conflict;
creatures so weak, that their only resource is to depend on Him. As I have often
said, God makes use of two classes -of instruments to accomplish Hi's work:
first, those who have no value in themselves. " God hath chosen the foolish,
weak, base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which
are not." (1 Cor. 1:27,28.) Could stronger language be used to convey the
nothingness of the vessels God deigns to use? But He also takes up instruments
which are of great value in the eyes of men and to themselves. Saul of Tarsus
was a man looked up to-learned, religious, energetic, conscientious; to all
appearance he lacked in nothing of that which God could turn to account. Yet God
lays hold of him, strikes him to the ground, on the way to Damascus, and, so to
speak, breaks the vessel to pieces. Then He says, Now I can use him. The
consciousness of our nothingness as instruments keeps us in constant dependence
on the hand which makes use of us, and this is the pathway of power. It was thus
at Jericho, but the people had yet to learn that without dependence they became
the prey of Satan. In closing the description of the armor, the apostle adds,
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching
thereunto with all perseverance." (Eph. 6:18.) Prayer is the -expression of
dependence; continual, persevering prayer is the expression of habitual
dependence. Now the Israelites' chief fault, in chapter 9., was, " that they
asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord." (Ver. 14.) We saw, at the close of
the preceding chapter, that the word of God had recovered its importance for
them; but here they forget to go to God, so as to have communion with Him as to
His mind for them. Notice how Satan succeeds in making then lose, the sense of
dependence. He intimidates them by something calculated to strike terror into
their hearts; the hatred of the world, a confederation of kings assembled for
war. (Vers. 1, 2.) He begins by engaging their attention with this formidable
power prepared to crush them, and then, without losing a moment, he offers them
his resource: the inhabitants of Gibeon come to the camp at Gilgal. Israel was
not prepared for this, they had not on the whole armor of God. The leaders of
the people failed in detecting what seems to have occurred to the minds of the
simple-for a moment, at least; and it is often so; humility and a single eye go
together, and are accompanied by true and divine intelligence. " Make ye a
league with us," said the Gibeonites. What a good opportunity for Israel! "The
enemy is before you," whispered Satan; "this would be a splendid way of
overcoming him." These men came, with all sorts of good intentions, seeking an
alliance with the people of God, and openly acknowledging their moral and
spiritual supremacy. " We are thy servants," they said to Joshua (ver. 8), words
well calculated to influence him in their favor. Finally, they proclaim the
power and fame of Israel's God, and -what He had done in Egypt and the
wilderness, though, it is true, they do not say a wordy about Canaan; Satan
would betray himself by chancing to speak of heavenly places and their
conflicts. The character of the Gibeonites, and their religious convictions, are
very strongly marked, but they are Canaanites in disguise, the world under an
external form of piety-the religious world. Up to this Israel had been kept from
seeking human aid, but it was hard to resist those who professed to have the
same object, and the same aspirations. Is it not a legitimate thing to form an
alliance? We own Jehovah, as you do, and, in case of need, we could co-operate
with you as your servants. Ah! how little the children of Israel suspected at
this moment that the Gibeonites were those very Canaanites whom they were
commanded to drive out from the land of promise. They are caught in the enemy's
net, having neglected to take counsel of the Lord, and, as a sign of fellowship,
they take of the victuals of these men. The treaty is concluded; the world is
introduced into the midst of the congregation of Israel: What a diabolical
artifice! Satan suggests to the people the introduction of the world into the
camp, as a method of conquering the enemy thus offering himself as a means of
overcoming himself. He knew well that the moment he had succeeded in bringing in
this element, the way would be paved for everything else. Do not these things
remind us of the church's history? The hearts of the Lord's people had begun to
be corrupted as early as the days of the apostles, by the outward attractions of
a religion suited to the earth and the world, which was creeping in everywhere,
and which obscured the heavenly position, its interests and hopes, beguiling
souls into a' n alliance with the world which had crucified Christ. Satan gained
his end. He set up his throne in the midst of the church, and the apostle was
obliged at length to say, " among, you, where Satan dwelleth." (Rev. 2:13.)
Henceforth, alas! it is no longer a question merely of conflict with enemies
outside, but of standing against the power of evil in the church. But the grace
of God is with Israel, and although, this chapter gives us the entrance of evil
into the congregation, we do not find its development. God delivers us from
certain consequences of our sin, and allows others to remain. The people of God,
had to undergo the mournful experience of keeping the Gibeonites in their midst,
as a lasting witness to their failure. Having begun by murmuring against the
princes, the children of Israel are brought eventually to a truer sense of their
duty. There was but one thing to do, namely, to bear' with the Gibeonites in
their midst whilst keeping them in the place of the curse. " Now, therefore, ye
are cursed," said Joshua unto them. (Ver. 23.) Israel could Only view them as an
accursed-race. The judgment of the king of Ai was pronounced, not executed, upon
them, and in the meantime their safety lay in the name of Jehovah. Israel could
not touch them; they must bear their humiliation, and avoid henceforth having
any fellowship with those whom they left under the weight of the divine curse.
We, too, in the church have to undergo the consequences of our unfaithfulness,
and to be humbled on account of the evil which has crept-into the house of God.
But, whilst truly alive to this our shame, we shall yet, if faithful, be able to
distinguish between what is of God, and what merely bears His name outwardly.
The word discerns and reveals to us the mixture, and faith leaves the religious
world under the curse, At the same time acting in grace towards it. In 2 Sam. 21
we find another chapter of the history of the Gibeonites; and here we clearly
see that God's purpose was in nowise to remove them from the place which they
had usurped in the congregation of Israel. Saul, animated by ardent zeal for the
congregation, but in nowise for God, being completely ignorant of His mind; had
exterminated them. Years pass, and suddenly we find a famine breaking out-in
Israel. David seeks the face of the Lord, and inquires into the cause of this
calamity; and the Lord answers: " It is for Saul, and for his bloody house
because he slew the Gibeonites." The flesh, which has brought in the evil, is
eager, above everything, to get rid of it. The way of God is quite otherwise:
His children must feel the evil, and it is thus that their communion with. Him
spews itself in an evil day. In Ezek. 9. 4, the Lord tells the angel to Set a
mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the
abominations that be done in the midst of Jerusalem. Those who felt the evil
were expressly sheltered from the destructor. Beloved brethren, principles such
as these, should guide us in these closing days. It is not for us to take the
sword, and cut off the evil, but - to groan and sigh, saying, "The evil is
mine." We cannot purify the place; it only remains for us to humble ourselves,
and, at the same time, purge ourselves from vessels to dishonor. This-is what a
worldly Christian never learns; he is-not humbled by the presence of the world
in the, church; he defends it, and deems it an impossibility- to distinguish
between the Gibeonites and the children of Israel. Far from pronouncing them
accursed, or robbing them of any part of the blessed liberty of the children of
God, or declaring them strangers to His people (cf. Deut. 29:11), he would be
tempted rather to become, their servant, and to cut Wood for the house of their
god. The seven sons of Saul were hung, and became accursed, on account of this
bloody deed of slaying the Gibeonites, which was a pretense at purifying the
congregation. How many similar cases the history of the church affords. The
extermination of heretics, real or supposed, was no other than the crime of
Saul, and will be reckoned to its perpetrators. May God give us a spirit of
constant depend-fence upon Him, that so we may be enabled to resist the snares
of the devil. This chapter gives 'us only one of his wiles, but, if alive to the
danger, we shall discover that his design in every artifice is to turn away our
gaze from heavenly things, and so to lower our Christianity, that it should be
nothing more than what the world can share in with us. (N. L. R.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 46: FRAGMENT: RIGHTEOUSNESS
========================================================================

Righteousness, as to forgiveness, is negative before sealing; but righteousness
positive I learn in Christ. (J. N. D.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 47: THE THREE PARABLES OF MARK 4
========================================================================

IT is difficult to understand clearly the structure, of this passage without
referring to the corresponding one in Matt. 13, which furnishes: an explanation
to it. I may indeed say, they whole gospel of. Matthew furnishes, in some
respects, a key to the other gospels. Matthew gives dispensational truth,
dealing with facts which are more readily, laid hold of by us than principles of
truth, but which are necessary to, the right intelligence of these principles.
In Matthew the kingdom is habitually called' " the kingdom of heaven "-an
expression which is peculiar to that Gospel. It presents to us the sphere in
which the authority and government of God are known. Christ is the One who
exercises it as Son of man; as we read in Dan. 7 "I saw in the night visions,
and, behold, one like-.the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came
to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there whs
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people nations, and
languages, should serve him his dominion is an everlasting do: minion, which
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." The
moment He comes before the Ancient of days all the power is given to Him. In
this passage we see the place where the dominion and glory is given to the Son
of man; and consequently get a further detail as to how the eighth Psalm is
accomplished. But the great point is that He who stands before the Ancient of
days is. " One like unto the Son of man," as it is stated in the Psalm: " What
is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest
him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him
with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy
hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." It is to man not angels that
the " world to come " is subjected. This is what the apostle insists on in
Hebrews, when quoting this passage from the Psalm; and he adds: " But we see
Jesus, who was, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor: that he by the grace of God should' taste death
for every man... For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took
on him the seed of Abraham." (Heb. 2:9,16.) The truth as to this coming time of
blessing, foretold all through the Old Testament, is, that the seed of the
woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, the One whom all the prophecies
speak of, and in whom all the promises center, that One is a Man. He has not
taken up angels; and God does not subject Messiah's kingdom to angels at all. It
is put under the power of man, in His person-the " Son of man:" " Thou hast put
all things under his feet." Now we come to another point. The moment lie enters
into this place of power as man, the kingdom of heaven really begins. It is, as
far as we are concerned, in mystery and patience surely; but the power is given
to Him, though He has not as yet taken possession of His " world kingdom,"
according to the expression of Rev. 11:15. But as He says in the end of Matthew:
"All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations." Indeed how else could they? He had sent them forth " as sheep among
wolves." As such what prospect could be before them but to be eaten up: killed
all the day long, accounted as sheep for the slaughter "? If He had not all
power in His bands, how could they now go forth to preach? But there is power
given to His servants to go forth, and that because HE is in the place of power,
as we find it indeed clearly indicated, in accordance with the general character
of the Gospel of Matthew. Another passage which will help to make this clear is
the parable of the nobleman in Luke 19 Jesus was just entering into the city, at
the end of the journey which according to the structure of the gospel begins in
chapter 9.; when He comes down from the mount of transfiguration. He was on the
mountain with the two " men" who appeared with Him in glory-Moses and Elias, and
who " spoke with him of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." He
comes down from that Mountain with His face " steadfastly set to go to
Jerusalem," and telling His disciples that what He was going to there was the
cross. They did not understand His words, and were afraid to ask Him their
meaning. We find in the Gospels that He spoke of it to them four times at least.
But they did not understand. And when He arrived at Jerusalem, they thought, as
we read in chapter 19., " that the kingdom of God would immediately appear." So
He " added and spoke the parable " referred to above. " A certain nobleman went
into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he
called his ten 'servants, and delivered them ten. pounds, and said unto them,
Occupy till I come." Now this shows what Christianity is. Christ has gone into "
the far country to receive the kingdom: for it is given in heaven to the Son
of-man, as Dan. 7 shows. He has gone up as Man to receive it, and now we are
waiting for His promised return. " Occupy till I come " is His word to us; it is
our sole business now. Knowing-that He is gone up there to receive the kingdom;
our privilege is to be waiting for Him, and occupied meanwhile especially with
that part of the kingdom which is nearest to God; that is the heavenly side. So
in chapter xii the Lord warns us against being careful about things here, as
food and raiment. We are not to be of a doubtful mind, for, He says, " it is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Surely then He will care
about the small temporal needs of His children, for whom He has prepared such
glory. We are to seek " His kingdom," and all the needed things of this life
will be " added " to us. The very smallest thing possible He knows you have need
of, He makes His care. What He-desires for you is that you should be occupied
with things above, having an unfailing treasure in the heavens, the place to
which the Lord is gone. This, too, gives a deepening value for our souls to the
expression " the kingdom of heaven." (*So it should be read in Luke, and not "
kingdom of God," as in Matthew. Here it is the Father's.) But let us glance at
Matt. 13 There are' in it seven parables, six of which relate to the kingdom of
heaven. The first one, that of the " sower," is introductory, and unfolds the
principle on which the Lord is now acting. Then three parables, spoken to the
multitude, furnish a view of the kingdom seen in its external character the last
three lift the veil to show us what is internal, unseen by the world and unknown
to those who do not know Christ. These three are spoken in the house privately,
to the disciples, when the Lord gives them the explanation of the parable of the
tares. Let us look, then, for a moment at this introductory parable in the order
in which it is given in Matthew and Mark. On the face of it, we see-that the
Lord is not now seeking fruit from this world. Man is no longer looked at in his
responsibility to bring forth fruit to God. This had: been the case under law,
and it was, continued too, whilst the Lord was upon earth, as is shown, by the
parable of the fig-tree in Luke 13:6-9,„ and again by His cursing the fig-tree
that brought forth nothing but leaves. And so, in. John, He says: " If I had not
come and spoken to them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for
their sin." As a matter of fact the trial of 'man went on up to the cross; but
here the Lord spews that He is introducing a new principle, a new way of dealing
with man. It is no longer man under probation, but He Himself brings into this
world what is divine and absolutely perfect: He "SOWS" in it the WORD OF GOP;
and this is what is to bring forth fruit for God. The Sower is Christ Himself.
Thus both the Sower and the seed sown are perfect, -divine, infinite. And, being
sown, the seed remains in its own divine perfection. As the parable is explained
in Mark 4:14-20 one is struck by the way in which, as compared with the other
Gospels, the word " sow " characterizes the whole passage in Mark. It is
peculiar to this gospel. In verse 14 we read: "' THE SOWER SOWETH the word." The
thought of sowing is given doubly in this verse. It is His own personal work,
and- the seed, too, is divine; but this latter is more the point of the -parable
in Luke. (See Luke 8:11.) Then He goes on to speak of the four classes of
hearers. It is remarkable to find the word “sown" introduced in verse 15, for
the seed was eaten up by the birds. But the way it is stated allows for the
strict truth as to this; "those by -the way-side where the word is sown;" thus
leaving the direct effect produced indefinite, while the point of the parable is
maintained in its integrity, as Mark does all through, insisting-upon the work
of "the sower." So the word is repeated in the end of the verse: ". the word
sown in their hearts." It assumes, indeed, in Mark an importance it has not in
the other Gospels, not only from its being repeated in the description of each
succeeding class (vers. 16, 18,. 20), so that the verb is found six times in
verses-14-20, but also in the two succeeding parables, the same prominent idea
is kept before us. See verses 26, 31, 32. It is the divine work of Him who has
come as the Servant-Prophet into this-world, and prepares here for God, by the
word, a living testimony to the truth. Over and over-again this word "sown " is
repeated; it is the important part of the truth in these three parables. It is
no longer God testing man, coming down to see what good He can get out of the
world, but it-is God in grace bringing into the world that which, can and does
bring forth fruit for Himself, though in different degrees certainly. In Mark it
is precious to find that the measure of this fruit-bearing gets ever higher and
higher, until it reaches" an hundred-fold." The Lord's heart cannot rest,
satisfied until God has His full desired portion. In this Gospel also we have
another characteristic word: " straightway," or, " immediately." It is not
lacking in this parable, and very solemn it is in verse 15 " Satan cometh
immediately, and taketh away the word that was Sown in their hearts." The
activity of the 'enemy in evil comes out in marked contrast with the unceasing,
unwearying energy of God's holy Servant. But more: in verse 16, " they receive
the word immediately with gladness." But does that necessarily give hope for the
apparently willing hearer? Alas! it only serves to make more evident man's
inefficiency and weakness; such persons are as '" immediately offended " as they
had quickly received, being unable to endure affliction or persecution arising
for the word's sake. The third class is that which was sown among thorns; in
this case " the cares of this world, and -the deceitfulness of riches, and the
lusts of other Things entering in," choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
This latter is another remarkable expression. It does not say the things that
are already there; it is other things that keep entering in: it implies an
unceasing activity of the enemy to destroy the effect of God's word in-the soul,
thus demanding, on our part, continued -watchfulness, that we may not be
entrapped. The Sower sows the seed. If it had been merely doing good for -
people, nothing could have been got out of them by that. The Lord 'did not
commit himself " to those whose 'intelligences were convinced by the evidence of
His power in the miracles which He did, but whose consciences were unreached by
the word. (John 2:23-25.) When seed is sown it is another matter. The sower
expects to reap fruit from it in the place where he sowed it. You may leave your
garden without sowing anything in it at all, and in that case you could not look
to get anything but weeds out of it; but if you want it to bring forth fruit,
you will sow it with the seeds of what you wish it to produce. So Christ has
come down here to sow seed for God. And the seed sown brings forth fruit, though
indeed in different measures. In some cases there is comparatively little fruit;
the yield is but thirty-fold; yet He does not pass it by unnoticed, because it
is little, though he goes on to say that there is that which does bring forth
More: there is the sixty-fold. And, further still, for He cannot rest short of
what answers to the delight of God's heart, there is the full measure-" the
hundred-fold." May it be so with us through His mercy, as our hearts dwell in
His love! In considering the two following parables we must go back for a moment
to Matt. 13, which presents six parables relating to the kingdom. There are
first, as we have seen, the three which refer to what is outward in the kingdom
-its aspect in this world. The first of these is the parable of the tares, where
the enemy seeks to spoil the fruit-bearing of the field by sowing other seed
amongst that sown by the Son of man. The Lord gives no remedy for such a state
of things: the servants are to leave it all as it is, letting both grow together
to the harvest, because they are not competent to judge of what,..should be
rooted up and what left. The judgment, when it comes, is committed to other
hands. Next, the Lord speaks of the great tree grown from " the least of all
seeds." The kingdom of heaven, which had so small a beginning, becomes, a great
power in the world, so that the birds of the air-unclean thing such as those
emissaries of Satan who caught away the seed that fell by the way side-come and
" lodge in the branches thereof." And, lastly, we are told of the leaven " hid
in three measures of meal, till the, whole, was leavened." The whole 'thing
becomes corrupted in man's hand: it is Christendom as man has made it by
adulterating christian doctrine. The Lord does not there say what He will do
with it, but He indicates what has taken place. Thus far we have the outward
public aspect of the kingdom. Then, in the secret of the house,, the Lord gives
His disciples those two beautiful parables of the treasure found in the field
and the pearl of great price.. We know what the field is the Lord had explained
it before, in connection with the tares; it is the world. And we know the One
who found the treasure in it-the only One who could see it and who had anything
to sell so that he might buy it. Angels looked down upon a scene of moral
degradation here, growing darker and darker as the years rolled, by. What
treasure could they see in It? What could they -do to remedy it, though they
might wonder at the grace that bore with it so long? But there was One who
looked, on it and saw in the world a treasure that would serve to set forth the
glory of God. And He hid it. So at the beginning of His ministry He tells His
disciples two things. He says, " Ye are the salt of the earth," and "'Ye are the
light of the world." The " salt " answered in a way to His hiding the treasure.
Christians are the salt of the earth. It is for their sake the world is
preserved from imminent destruction. So in Peter, " we are to count the
long-suffering of God as salvation." Hence, too, our responsibility, as in 1
Tim. 2, to pray for the powers of the world, " that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty," that this world may be kept going
on by God's power, the progress of evil restrained, and the governments, though
they know it not, overruled so that we may be left to serve Him in quietness,
and that His word may have free course and be glorified. On the other hand, the
responsibility of Christians is that there should be a light on God's behalf, a
living testimony for Him, in the world. The former truth is more brought out in
' Matthew; the latter in Mark, see chap. 4:21-25. The next parable, that of the
pearl, goes deeper, bringing out what is more personal to Christ. It is no
longer the field bought for the sake of the treasure, but the pearl itself, in
its moral beauty, is the object of His research and desire. It is the church;
but we find here, I believe, a divine principle, which I do not think we ought
to limit so as to apply it only to the church. The principle holds in the case
of an individual soul, and so indeed as applied to. Christians generally, viewed
as children walking before the Father. The apostle says in Galatians: "He loved
me, and gave himself for me;" in Ephesians " Christ loved us, and gave himself
for us;" and so, too, we read in Revelation: "Unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood;" and again in Eph. 5 we find: " Christ loved
the church, and gave himself for it." It is the divine principle of His love
that we get in the pearl, though our hearts know that the beauty He sees in it
is the fruit of His own toil. Was ever love like this? The last parable in Matt.
13 spews us the work of the servants, the fishermen instructed in the Master's
mind and ways in view of that. Which He is now doing in grace in this world. To
resume then, we have seen in these six parables Of the kingdom of heaven in
Matthew 13 its upward and inward aspect; the latter affording us a precious
insight into the Lord's thoughts and blessed work. The two parables in Mark 4
give us the same two aspects, though in the inverse order: they are the two
things that our hearts have to learn, in order that we may walk through this
world in wisdom and grace, in a way worthy of Him. But before speaking of them I
would say just A Sword as to the difference of the two Gospels. Matthew presents
the King, Messiah, the Anointed 'One who is to reign. Mark gives the perfect
„Servant, the living Word, He who came to do God's will, and who, on entering
into His service on earth is introduced in the first verse of the 'Gospel as "
the Son of God;" for, if He is to be the Servant, it is as Son of God. Thus we
too have to learn the qualification for service: there is none now apart from
sonship. So it is, " The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of
-God." And we find Him all through the Gospel as the perfect Servant-Prophet
declaring God's mind, and carrying out His will in this world. We cannot now go
into the details; but we find Him in chapter 3 joining others to Himself in this
service; we read: " He ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that
he might send them forth to preach." In Matthew, as we have seen, all power
being now given to Him in -leaven and earth, He sends them forth to all nations.
And then in John: " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you;" which
implies the Sonship. Both sides of the truth are united in His person in the
Gospel of Mark. When at the end of the Gospel He ascends to heaven, He leaves
the testimony in the world, giving power to His word, which always goes out
through His, servants, as we read in the last verse: " And they went forth, and
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with
signs following." They preach everywhere. What had they been called for? That
they might be " sent forth, to preach." But there was a needed preparation for
this service, in the place which He gave them, near to His own blessed person. "
He ordained them that they might be with Him." Then, when He sends them forth,
He works with them.. How could they preach unless they knew His mind? We have to
learn that it is our joy and blessing, through His grace, to be able to present,
His truth according to His mind. And to do this we must be habitually with Him
in spirit, dwelling with Him, and learning of Him. These considerations will, I
trust, help us to seize the special character of the two parables of the kingdom
of God in Mark. The first one, following after that of the sower, gives us again
the sowing of the seed, the bringing in of the divine word. We know who this "
man" is, this " sower" who cast seed into the ground." There is only one. He
sloes not say there are many sower’s. It is the Lord. The parable continues:
"And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow
up, he knoweth not how. For the 'earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first
the blade, then the ear; after that, the full corn in the ear. But when the
fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the
harvest is come." Mark again the word " immediately." During all the progress of
growth what is he waiting for? When the farmer has cast the seed into the ground
he has abandoned it all to the soil. He has it no longer in his granary; it is
no longer in his power; he cannot set his eyes on it; it is gone. It is of no
use his going to look at the ground in which it lies; it is of;, no use his
rooting it up as children do sometimes to see if it is growing. He can only
leave it alone; he cannot help it in any way: " The earth bringeth forth fruit
of itself." He cannot help it to grow; if the rain does not fall, he cannot make
it sprout; if the sun does not shine, he cannot make it ripen. From the moment
he has cast the grain into the ground he has practically given it over into
God's hands; he has his daily occupation elsewhere, and as he sleeps and rises
night and day, the time passes while he waits-waits for the harvest day. Then he
has again work to do in his field: "immediately he puts in the sickle." And that
is what the Lord is doing now, He has sown the seed, but does not interfere in
any active, outwardly apparent way; He is leaving it to grow: " The earth
bringeth forth fruit of itself." And this is applicable in principle to the
individual soul as well as to the entire church, as indeed we saw in considering
the parable of the pearl in Matthew. If it is the individual, the " harvest " is
the completion of divine work in the soul in God's school while passing it
through this world: when ripe, He puts in the sickle and takes the soul home to
Himself. If it is the church, He is waiting until the last one is called in and
then He will come to take all His redeemed home to Himself in glory. He is
waiting for the harvest-day-that day when He will present to " himself a
glorious church, not having-spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." And what are
you and I looking on to, beloved friends? Are we waiting for that harvest-day?'
Do we so realize in our souls " the kingdom of God" as to have it before us in
this aspect of the carrying out to the end of God's will in. His ways with His
own, whether individually or-collectively, and that for the glory of Christ and:
the delight of His heart, that He may see of the travail of His soul and be
satisfied? Is it this-which is occupying us, giving us courage to go, on serving
Him, and making us to abound in joy in the Holy Ghost? The more we think of it,,
the more we shall find it comes into all the details of our daily life. Christ
is waiting for the harvest; He will not be satisfied till it comes.-In
Thessalonians we get the very same thought " The Lord direct your hearts into
the love of God, and into the patience of Christ." Just what-, we find indeed in
this chapter of Mark. His, love is shown to men. Before ever the world was His "
delights were with the sons of men." It is-, not said to have been with the
angels. It is with men; amongst them, He came to live and die amongst them, in
this earth, He has sown the-precious divine seed. The " love of God" is
manifested in sending His only begotten Son into the world. (John 3) And the
"patience of Christ shines out in His waiting for the harvest day. (See 2 Thess.
3:5.) In the next parable-that of the grain of mustard-seed-we have the outward
aspect of the kingdom of God as in Matt. 13:31,32,, only that here stress is
laid again by repetition on the word " sown." It is as the insignificant seed,
which " when it is sown in the earth is less than all the seeds that be in the
earth: but when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater' than all herbs,
and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under
the, shadow of it." That is what the kingdom of God has become in its external
aspect. Principles and agents of evil find a convenient home in -it; they "lodge
under the shadow of it." It shoots out " great branches;" there is plenty of
-room and convenience for lodging in it. He does not say that the tree is going
to be cut down, or its branches lopped off, or that the birds are to be driven
out, but he states a fact that all must admit who have eyes to see and hearts to
understand. This great power is in the world both for good and evil; it is full
of confusion and corruption; yet we are not told to expect that things will get
brighter or become better. What have we then for our hearts to rest in? Is it
not the blessed certainty that He is waiting for the harvest day, and that then
His heart will be satisfied in having around Him forever through eternity -all
those who have been "brought forth" by His word to the Father's glory? The end
of, the chapter furnishes a practical comment on these two parables. The Lord is
seen with His disciples in the ship launched -forth amid troublous waters: " And
the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto -them, Let us pass over unto
the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as
he was in the ship: and there were also with him other little ships. And there
arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was
now full." There they are amid all the confusion of the tempest; -the waves
breaking over them, Satan striving to destroy the testimony. And where was He?
Look at this picture of peaceful calm in such a, scene! The One who " had
nowhere to lay his head" had found a resting-place in the midst of the raging
storm: " He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow." He was
taking no outwardly active part in the management of the ship. He was truly with
them, as a matter of-fact, and they all knew it; but Her seemed to see nothing
that was going on, nor to know it; He said nothing to still the wind, nor was He
disturbed by the boisterous waves; yet they saw-the water were filling the ship,
while He, in the hinder part of it, was asleep, taking no apparent notice of the
dangers around. And what were they doing? Had they not already forgotten the
parable of the seed cast into the ground? " They awake him, and say to him
Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Just think of what these words imply! "
Carest thou not!" It was impugning His thoughts of love for them; it was making
nothing of all their experience of His care and affection. But more: it betrays
their utter want of trust in Him, their practical insensibility to His being
with them, If you were to read this part of the history to, one who did not know
the passage, leaving out the first part of verse 38, and were to ask him', Where
was the Lord at this time? the natural answer would be: Oh, of course, He was in
heaven, and they were offering up a prayer to. Him there; they speak as if they
we're apart from Him altogether. But He rises at their request, rebukes the
wind, and says to the sea -" Peace, be still." And the wind ceased, and -there
was a great calm. And then He says to them: " Why are ye so fearful? How is it
that ye have no faith?" In Matthew He says, " little faith;" here it/is, "no
faith." Did not His words burn into their hearts, making their consciences say,
on His behalf: You have doubted my love; you have doubted that I was " caring"
for you; you have thought that, somehow or another, you would go down, and that
I should leave you to go down-leave you to " perish." Was that all 7-the
practical result to 'them of having been " ordained to be with him," that He
might send them forth to preach? Alas, what hearts are ours! How slow to
receive, how ready to let slip, -the sense of His perfect' love! And when He had
done it, did 'they say, Well,.(this is just what we might have expected? No
strange to say, "They feared 'exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner
of man is -this?" There is no communion here. If there had been communion with
Him, would they not have found in Himself an all-sufficient reason for feeling
perfectly safe, and sheltered from the enemy's power? Could their trouble have
another result than in a fresh miracle, skewing them again the might of His
power, and the activity of His love? Would not their hearts have at least taken
the cue from the unruffled calm in which He was sleeping? The raging billows
were no hindrance to His finding a little moment of rest from His active
service. And in what a scene! ' Every human heart was filled with turmoil and
fear of death; He was at rest, enjoying peaceful sleep; and He was with them.
Should not His presence have been sufficient for them? I am convinced that we
shall find more and more, through grace, that this blessed fact of the Lord's
presence with His own is to be the starting-point for our souls in everything.
If it is a question of the church, He says: " Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Supposing that an
assembly is professedly and truly gathered to His name (I do not, of course
speak of any manifested evil there, or suppose it), am I to find out, first,
what its moral condition is, in order to know whether, the Lord may be there?
That would be to act as did the disciples. Satan's power may be, and is,
displayed against it; the ship may be full of water; but I am to start with the
fact that He is there. That will produce individual exercise of heart and
conscience, that everything is in me, of me, and about me, may be characterized
by that presence. It is to be the starting-point of all my thoughts. There we
shall find the needed balance for our souls as we go through this world.
Impossible it is, surely, for mere man to pass safely through it, with such an
enemy as Satan in constant activity, going about, seeking whom he may devour..
But the presence of the Lord with His own changes everything. What is impossible
for man is possible with God; and so we may fearlessly meet every difficulty,
knowing that the Lord is with us, and that the storm is just the occasion for
the manifestation of His active grace. Thus may we not lose courage; thus may
our hearts rest in the blessed certainty that God is carrying out His own work
of grace, both individually and collectively, and that Christ is waiting for His
harvest-day-the day when His heart will be satisfied in the perfect blessing of
His own-satisfied in the delight of Him who works all things after the counsel
of His own will, who " rests in his love," and who, when all is finished,,
ushers us, too, into His rest-" the rest which remaineth for the people of
God.". (W. J. L.)


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