======================================================================== WRITINGS OF JOHN G BELLETT - VOLUME 1 by John G. Bellett ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by John G. Bellett (Volume 1), compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 00.00. Bellett, John G. - Library 2. 01.00. Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians. 3. 01.01. Ephesians 1 4. 01.02. Ephesians 2 5. 01.03. Ephesians 3 6. 01.04. Ephesians 4 7. 01.05. Ephesians 5 8. 01.06. Ephesians 6 9. 02.00. King Saul. 10. 02.01. King Saul - 8-10 11. 02.02. King Saul - 11-15 12. 02.03. King Saul - 16 - 17 13. 02.04. King Saul - 18 - 27 14. 02.05. King Saul - 28 - 31 15. 03.00. Notes from Meditations on Luke. 16. 03.01. Luke 1 and Luke 2 17. 03.02. Luke 3, Luke 4 and Luke 5 18. 03.03. Luke 6 and Luke 7 19. 03.04. Luke 8 20. 03.05. Luke 9 21. 03.06. Luke 10 22. 03.07. Luke 11 23. 03.08. Luke 12 24. 03.09. Luke 13 25. 03.10. Luke 14 and Luke 15 26. 03.11. Luke 16 27. 03.12. Luke 17 28. 03.13. Luke 18 29. 03.14. Luke 19 and Luke 20 30. 03.15. Luke 20 and Luke 21 31. 03.16. Luke 22 32. 03.17. Luke 23 33. 03.18. Luke 24 34. 04.00. The Minor Prophets 35. 04.01 Hosea 36. 04.02. Joel 37. 04.03. Amos 38. 04.04. Obadiah 39. 04.05. Jonah 40. 04.06. Micah 41. 04.07. Nahum 42. 04.08. Habakkuk 43. 04.09. Zephaniah 44. 04.10. Haggai 45. 04.11. Zechariah 46. 04.12. Malachi 47. 05.00. Musings on the Epistle to the Hebrews. 48. 05.01. Part 1 - Heb_1:1-14; Heb_2:1-18 49. 05.02. Part 2 - Heb_3:1-19; Heb_4:1-16 50. 05.03. Part 3 - Heb_5:1-14; Heb_6:1-20 51. 05.04. Part 4 - Heb_7:1-28 52. 05.05. Part 5 - Heb_8:1-13 53. 05.06. Part 6 - Heb_9:1-28 - Heb_10:1-18 54. 05.07. Part 7 - Heb_10:19-39 55. 05.08. Part 8 - Heb_11:1-40 56. 05.09. Part 9 - Heb_12:1-29 57. 05.10. Part 10 - Heb_13:1-25 58. 05.11. Part 11 - CONCLUSION. 59. 06.00.1 Notes on Joshua 60. 06.00.2. Preface to the eSword Edition 61. 06.00.3. Copyright Information 62. 06.00.4 Contents 63. 06.00.5. Introduction 64. 06.01. Joshua set in Office 65. 06.02. The Passages of the Jordan 66. 06.03. Gilgal 67. 06.04. Jericho and Ai 68. 06.05. The Gibeonites 69. 06.06. The Conquest of the Land 70. 06.07. The Division of the Land 71. 06.08. Caleb 72. 06.09. The Two Tribes and a Half 73. 06.10. Joshua's Last Words 74. 06.11. Conclusion 75. 07.00. Short Meditations on Elisha 76. 07.01. The Translation of Elijah 77. 07.02. The Waters of Jericho Healed 78. 07.03. The Judgment of the Scoffing Children 79. 07.04. The Armies of the Kings Supplied with Water 80. 07.05. The Widow's Oil Multiplied 81. 07.06. The Shunammite 82. 07.07. The Deadly Pottage Healed 83. 07.08. The Multitude Fed 84. 07.09. Naaman the Syrian 85. 07.10. The Iron Made to Swim 86. 07.11. The Syrian Host Struck Blind 87. 07.12. The Famine in Samaria 88. 07.13. The Shunammite Again 89. 07.14. The Prophecy of Hazael 90. 07.15. The anointing of Jehu 91. 07.16. Joash, King of Judah 92. 07.17. Joash, King of Israel, and the Arrows 93. 07.18. The Dead Man Quickened 94. 07.19. Conclusion 95. 08.000. Short Meditations on the Psalms 96. 08.001. Psalms 001 97. 08.002. Psalms 002 98. 08.003. Psalms 003 99. 08.004. Psalms 004 100. 08.005. Psalms 005 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 00.00. BELLETT, JOHN G. - LIBRARY ======================================================================== Bellett, John G. - Library Bellett, John G. - Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians Bellett, John G. - King Saul Bellett, John G. - Luke’s Gospel Bellett, John G. - Minor Prophets Bellett, John G. - Musings on the Epistles to the Hebrews Bellett, John G. - Notes on Joshua Bellett, John G. - Short Meditations on Elisha Bellett, John G. - Short Meditations on the Psalms Bellett, John G. - Strength from God Bellett, John G. - The Evangalists Bellett, John G. - The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ Bellett, John G. - The Patriarchs Bellett, John G. - The Profit of the Study of Dispensational Truth Bellett, John G. - The Son of God Bellett, John G. - Witnesses for God S. 1 Corinthians 11:3-16. S. 1 Samuel 1:1-28; 1 Samuel 2:1-36; 1 Samuel 3:1-21; 1 Samuel 4:1-22; 1 Samuel 5:1-12; 1 Samuel 6:1-21; 1 Samuel 7:1-17. S. 2 Chronicles 6:1-2. S. A Brief Word on the Epistle to the Galatians. S. A Fair Show in the Flesh. S. A Few Words on the Present Revival S. A Formed Character S. A Household of Faith Shows Weakness S. A Letter (3) S. A Letter — Jeremiah. S. A Letter as to Bethesda S. A Letter on Neutrality as to Christ, S. A Letter to a Bereaved Brother. S. A Meditation. S. A Meditation on Canticles. S. A Short Meditation on the Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ S. A Thought on Exodus 40:1-38 and Acts 2:1-47. S. A Warning to Us S. Abraham in Genesis 18:1-33; Genesis 19:1-38. S. Absalom. S. Acting in the Light of God’s Mysteries S. Afflictions and Consolations. S. An Extract. S. An Introduction to Isaiah. S. Answers to Objections About the Rapture S. Applying the Lessons S. Are We Looking at death in Adam or Life in Christ? Extract From a Letter S. Artificial Testimony S. Babylon. S. Being With the Lord S. Belshazzar’s Feast in its Application to the Great Exhibition. S. Bethesda. S. Blessings of Relationship S. Boldness in the Day of Judgment S. Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians. S. By faith of the Son of God. S. Calvary S. Careless Choices S. Catastrophe S. Characteristics of Remnant Times S. Christ a Reprover. S. Christ Our Prophet. S. Christ pleased Not Himself. S. Communion S. Confusion and Order. S. Conquerors S. Conscience. S. Consistently Mixed Principles S. Convicted Yet Confiding. S. Cultivate Godliness Personally S. David’s Piety and the Mind of God S. Day of Visitation — Bethsaida. S. Deu 26 - 34 S. Deuteronomy 8:7-9; Deuteronomy 11:10-12. S. Different Conversions. S. Divine Guidance for a Time of Confusion. S. Divine Intimacy (2) S. Divine Manifestations. S. Double-Mindedness S. ELECTION. S. Elijah’s and Obadiah’s Interactions S. Eras of Resurrection. S. Eschol S. Every Family in Heaven and on Earth. S. Exodus 12:1-51; Exodus 13:1-22. S. Exodus 33:1-23 — Leviticus 9:1-24. S. Exodus 33:1-23; Exodus 34:1-35; Exodus 35:1-35; Exodus 36:1-38; Exodus 37:1-29; Exodus 38:1-31; Exodus 39:1-43; Exodus 40:1-38. S. Exodus 35:1-35; Exodus 36:1-38; Exodus 37:1-29; Exodus 38:1-31; Exodus 39:1-43. S. Exodus 6:1-30. S. Exodus. S. Extract from a Letter. S. Extract from a Letter on Perfection S. Extracts from Unpublished Letters S. Extracts from Correspondence. S. Extracts from letters. S. Faith. S. Faith and Nature S. Flesh and Faith: Their Energies from the First. S. Form Without Power S. Fortified With Truth S. Fragment of Letter. S. Fragment. (2) S. Fresh Energy of the Spirit S. Genesis 49:1-33, AND Deuteronomy 33:1-29. S. Genesis 1 - 47 S. Glories. S. God Entering His Temples. S. God Exceeds His Promises: Formerly: Moses on Pisgah S. God Manifest in the Flesh. S. God’s Call out of the Earth. S. God’s Great Ordinance. S. Grace and Glory. S. Grace. S. Guidance for Today S. Hagar. S. Have Ye Not Read and It Is Written S. Herod and John. S. His Joy Greater Than Ours S. His Varied Characters: A Short Meditation on the Lord Jesus Christ S. Hope to the End S. Inexcusable Confusion S. Interesting Reminiscences S. Isaiah 52:13-15. S. Isaiah 66:1-24. S. Israel and Jerusalem in the Times of Refreshing. S. JACOB AT PENIEL. S. Jacob in Egypt. S. Jehoshaphat’s Mixed Associations S. Jehovah, Jesus, — Son of David and Son of God. S. Jesus Christ come in flesh. S. John 3:1-36. S. John, the Penman of the Apocalypse. S. Jonah S. Joshua 3:1-17. S. Joseph. S. Joshua’s Concerns S. Journeys to Jerusalem. S. Justification by Faith. S. King Saul. S. Latter Times and Last Days. S. Life, Light, and Love S. Lot’s Lack of Energy S. Lot’s Mixed Principles S. Lovely Jonathan’s Mixed Principles S. Luke 12:35-36 S. Man. S. Mary and Martha. S. Matthew 21:1-46; Matthew 22:1-46, Matthew 23:1-39. S. Matthew 24:1-51; Matthew 25:1-46. S. Micaiah’s Single Eye S. Millennial Glory. S. Ministry. S. Ministry and Self Sacrifice S. Missing Spiritual Intelligence S. Mistaking God’s Purpose S. Moral Distance S. Moses’s Heavenly Glory. S. Moses’s Loss of Canaan. S. Musings on the Apocalypse. S. Nahor’s Family S. Nebuchadnezzar. S. Nehemiah 8:1-18. S. New Creation. S. No Fellowship with Dishonour to Christ. S. Notes from meditations on Luke S. Notes of an address on 2 Peter 1:1-11 S. Nothing But Christ. S. Obadiah’s Mixed Principles S. Oh grant me by Thy grace S. On Christian Experience. S. Our Great Will Case S. Patriarchal Faith. S. PATRONAGE. S. Paul at Miletus. S. Paul’s Apostleship and Epistles. S. Peace. S. Peter in John 21:1-25. S. Peter. S. Profitable Lessons S. Quotations S. Rahab. S. REDEMPTION. S. Reflections and Experiences of One Who Had Lost an Only Son S. Restoration and Communion. S. Rich in God. S. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. S. Romans 8:19-22. S. Ruth. (2) S. Salvation and Conflict. S. Samaria — Galilee — Judea. S. Samson’s Riddle. S. Separation and Worship. S. Serious and Precious Lesson S. Strangership and Citizenship. S. That Fox. S. The Accomplished Decease. S. The All-Sufficiency of Grace. S. The Altar at Bethel. S. The Atonement Money. S. The Birth of Jesus. S. The Bitten Israelite. S. The Book of Revelation compared with the Gospel of John S. The Bride of the Lamb. S. The Call of God S. The Captives in Babylon S. The Captives Returned to Babylon S. THE CASE OF JOB. S. The Children’s Formation S. The Church at Thessalonica. S. The Claims of God’s Sovereignty and Holiness. S. The Cloudy Pillar. S. The Coat of Many Colors S. The Comfort of My Lord’s Presence: A Parable S. The Confederacies of Men and the Judgments of God. S. The Corinthians S. The Decline of the Returned Captives S. The Early Days of the "Brethren" Movement - Extract from a Letter S. The Father. S. The Form of a Servant S. The Garden of Eden. S. The Glory in the Cloud. S. The Glory of God. S. The Glory of the Only-Begotten S. The Good Confession before Pontius Pilate. S. The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ S. The Heavenly Calling and the Church. S. The Heavenly Calling Foreshown. S. The Heir of All Things. S. The Important Lessons S. The Journey to Samaria. S. The Kinsman. S. The Knowledge of God’s Mind. S. The Knowledge of Our Present Standing S. The Land I Love S. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. S. The Link between Heaven and Earth. S. The Lord Jesus in John 1:43 — John 2:1-25. S. The Lord Jesus in John 11:1-57; John 12:1-50. S. The Lord’s Supper: (2) S. The Man of God From Judah S. The Manner of the Love of Jesus. S. The Mind of Christ S. The Mornings of Scripture. S. The Mount of God. S. The Nearness of the Glory. S. The New Creation. S. The New Song S. The Obedience of Faith. S. The Parable of the Cedar and the Two Eagles. S. The Path of the Church of God S. The Person and Deity of the Holy Ghost. S. The Pilgrim Fathers. S. The Potter’s Broken Vessel. S. The Potter’s House: Part 1 S. The Potter’s House: Part 2 S. The Queen of Sheba S. The Queen of Sheba and the Eunuch. S. The Redemption of the Inheritance. S. The Redemption of the Purchased Possession. S. The Return of the Lord Jesus Christ S. The Saviour and the Sinner. S. The Schools of the Prophets. S. The Seating of the Lamb on the Throne S. The Secret of Life. S. The Shunamite. S. The Son of God S. The Son of Man in Heaven. S. The Sons of Korah. S. The Stable and the Unstable. S. The Story of Grace S. The Temple of God and Its Worship. S. The Threshing Floor of Ornan the Jebusite. S. The Transfiguration S. The Translation of Elijah. S. The Trial of Jealousy. S. The True Worshippers S. The Two Debtors. S. The Two Rich Men. S. The Two Tribes and a Half. S. The Watcher and the Holy One. S. THE WOMAN IN THE CROWD, Mark 5:1-43. S. The Word of God - Intercession - Ebenezer S. The World and Nature S. There Is a Greatness in God S. Thoughts on 2 Corinthians. S. Thoughts on John. S. Thoughts on Matthew 24:1-51; Matthew 25:1-46. S. Thoughts on Romans 6:1-23; Romans 7:1-25; Romans 8:1-39. S. Thoughts on the Lord’s Supper. S. Three Things. S. True Worship: A Line of Worshippers S. Turmoil S. Two Songs and Their Solution. S. Waiting for the Son from Heaven. S. Walk in the Spirit. S. Wine Mixed With Priestly Service S. Witnesses for God S. Woollen and Linen S. Worship S. Woollen and Linen S. Worship ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.00. BRIEF NOTES ON THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. ======================================================================== STEM Publishing: J. G. Bellett: Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians. Brief Notes on the Epistle to the Ephesians. By J. G. Bellett. This is a commentary on the book of Ephesians by Bellett (Brethren). Ephesians 1:1-23 Ephesians 2:1-22 Ephesians 3:1-21 Ephesians 4:1-32 Ephesians 5:1-33 Ephesians 6:1-24 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.01. EPHESIANS 1 ======================================================================== Ephesians 1:1-23. We must introduce our meditations on this epistle by recurring a little to the ways of God from the beginning; because there is a wonderful unity in His counsels, and the whole volume sets its seal to the divine thought, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning." Therefore, when we come to a scripture like this, it is well to pause and look about us, and see its relation to previous scriptures. If I come to a merely moral scripture, such as, "Let him that stole steal no more," I may take it and use it at once, and alone, but when it is doctrinal or prophetic scripture, which opens the divine mind, I have to ask how it is introduced, and what is to come after it, because we are to be fraught with divine, intelligence — "We have the mind of Christ." The Epistle to the Hebrews unfolds the heavens, and speaks of heavenly calling, putting you in company with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but it does not open the mystery of the church. The Epistle to the Ephesians opens the mystery of the church, but does not keep you in company with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are advancing, and we are called to distinguish between the heavenly calling and the calling of the church. So there is a fitness in considering the Epistle to the Hebrews before the Epistle to the Ephesians. Now, why do I say the Epistle to the Hebrews opens the heavenly calling? Because it associates you with Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. The earth at the beginning was given to the children of men. What did they do with it? They forfeited it. Then what did God do with them? Well, He opened heaven to them! He gave them the earth to enjoy. They soiled and lost it by sin. Well, said He, I’ll open heaven to you. This is one way in which the grace of God abounds. What should I say of one who, when I had abused the gift which he put in my hand, put a better gift in my other hand? This is God! Was not Adam brought back to God, and Enoch taken to heaven? I have no doubt that Abraham had the heavenly calling. They looked for a better country, "that is, an heavenly." Moses was carried up to Pisgah to bear witness of it. Enoch bore witness of it, and Elijah in a later dispensation. From the beginning there has been heavenly calling, but not church calling. So, when the apostle comes to address the Hebrews, who were brought from a Jewish root, he talks of heavenly calling, but does not go beyond it. When he comes to address himself to the Ephesians, once a Gentile people, the worshippers of the goddess Diana (but apart from all Jewish connections), he unfolds the mystery of the church — the richest thing in the counsels of God. Let me say another thing. How did God unfold His purposes in the earth? He knew a family in the loins of Abraham. They flourished into a nation in the Book of Exodus; then under judges and prophets; but they did not ripen to the culminating point of glory till God put them under a king. He goes on from step to step till the elect family flourished, under Solomon, into a kingdom. So it is with His heavenly purposes. It is not till the apostleship of Paul is set up that they unfold in the bright culminating point of the church. God is always consistent in His ways. Let the earth be the scene of His activities, we find them unfolding till they reach the palmy days of Solomon. In His heavenly purposes we follow on till we see the church at the highest point in creation, "The fulness of him that filleth all in all." So it is impossible not to stand and say, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Now, having prefaced thus, we stand before the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is desirable to come up to this writing with intelligence. Here we are listeners in heavenly scenes to the same kind of thine, as we saw in earthly scenery. Let me remind you of a passage in Colossians: "the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God" - or, "to fill it out." (Colossians 1:25-26) To fill out the revelation of God — a magnificent commentary of Paul on his own ministry. Was it not left to Solomon to display the closing purpose of God in the earth by heading it with a throne? It was left to Paul to reveal in his ministry the bright magnificent point of the heavenly mysteries. We are brought up by him to the headship of Christ. The apostle begins by addressing all the faithful in Christ Jesus. He steps over the Ephesians. So that we are all called to learn these things. "Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." This could not be said of the patriarchs. "In heavenly places" they would have been associated with us; but these are blessings in company with Christ. Then, having put you in this peculiar place, he unfolds the divine roll of blessings to you. First, chosen in Him before the world was. These high privileges began before the foundation of the world. Could I say that properly of Abraham? Certainly he was chosen before the foundation of the world, but you are chosen "in him." The divine purposes rested in a peculiar way on a peculiar people. Then, predestination always follows on election. Election touches the person; predestination the place or condition: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ . . . he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Now is not that a peculiar form of adoption? Do I believe that Adam was a son of God? Indeed I do. Do I believe that he was "accepted in the beloved"? No, I do not. Do I believe that angels are sons of God? Indeed I do. Do I believe they are "accepted in the beloved"? No, I do not. So that here again is a peculiarity. It is an adoption of the highest order. We have the joy and liberty of the Beloved’s sonship. He goes on to say, "In whom we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Why, to be sure, that is a thing of course. Who would think of asking a person up in heavenly places, "Are you forgiven?" Did you ever observe in the parable of the prodigal son that the father never says he forgives him? How could he? How could he frame his lips to say, "I forgive you"? You and I ought to walk in the sunshine of our calling in such a way as to assume forgiveness as a thing at the foot of the hill, while we are up at the heights. Let the music and dancing, the ring and the shoes, tell me I am forgiven. So the Father treats the prodigal, and so the Spirit treats us in Ephesians 1:1-23. Yet the soul is constantly busying itself about forgiveness when it should be viewing the magnificence of its calling in Christ. There is a style in love that love could never rid itself of. The father would have wept to say, "I forgive you." Would not you be ashamed to tell one coming back in sorrow, confessing his fault, "I forgive you"? Talk of a father, on the neck of his weeping, penitent child, saying, "I forgive you"! How little we know of the ways of love! Now, to go on. He abounds towards us in all wisdom and knowledge, having opened to us the bosom secret — all things gathered together in Christ. That is a secret never made known before. In the prophet Isaiah we get a beautiful picture of the millennial earth; but do we ever get the millennial heavens with Christ at their head? Was it ever said by Isaiah that all things in heaven and earth should be headed up in the glorified Man? "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance." We are heirs with Him. Was that ever unfolded before? And till the inheritance comes we get the Holy Ghost. We get Him here under two titles — a seal, and an earnest. A seal of present salvation; an earnest of future inheritance. When I look at the place of the Holy Ghost, in the mystery of redemption, it is wonderful to see the official glories that attach to Him here on earth. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we have the official glories of Christ. Here we are called to witness the official glories of the Holy Ghost in this dispensation. What a blessed, glorious thing — to take the secrets of the divine bosom, and make them known to us! To seal us by His presence as possessors of present salvation, and to be the earnest of our inheritance! Ah, it is wonderful. I could not move a step in company with a soul not pregnant with the blessedness of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being the One with whom we have to do. "The purchased possession" here is the whole scene — the whole creation. It is purchased, but not yet redeemed. The blood of Christ has purchased the creation as well as you; but it is not yet redeemed, and while in that condition you have the Holy Ghost as an earnest. When it is redeemed you will be the heir of it. Are you redeemed yet? You are purchased, but you wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of your body, and that you will never get till God puts forth power as well as blood. The Apocalypse is the display of redemption; the gospel is the display of purchase — but the purchased thing is not redeemed till God puts forth power to rescue it from the hands of the destroyer.* *Fully redeemed, I mean. At Ephesians 1:15 the apostle ceases to be a teacher and becomes an intercessor — and you will find that he never in prayer pulls down what, as a teacher, he had built up. You will sometimes hear people asking God to love them. I could never make such a prayer as that. I am to pray for a deeper sense of His love. Paul does not ask God to give them this, and the other; but he asks Him that they may have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him — that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened. Oh, for a better heart to know these things! But to ask God to love me, to make me a co-heir with Christ, to appoint me to heavenly places in Him! I will make a prayer much more humbling than that, I am so blessed in my calling; so poor in my enjoyment! If God has lit a candle, I will not ask Him to light it, but to take the film from my eyes, that I may see what He has done, what this magnificent purpose is, and the power that has brought us there. So he prays that you may have an eye to discern the brightness of the heavenly glory, and the resurrection-power that has conducted you from such ruins to such glories. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.02. EPHESIANS 2 ======================================================================== Ephesians 2:1-22. We have reached the second chapter, but we must look back at the first to resume the course of our thoughts. We were observing that we must distinguish between the heavenly calling and the church calling. The church has heavenly calling; but it does not follow that all who have heavenly calling have church calling. Heavenly calling arose from divine disappointment in the earth. The earth was given to Adam. Adam forfeited it, and the Lord then takes His elect to heaven. The thought introduces you to the idea of relief. The Lord found another way to bless His elect. If the earth is lost, where will He put His saints? The blessed God of all grace says, I know how I will dispose of them; I will put them in heaven. The Lord never merely repairs a breach; He brings a better thing out of the ruin. So the forfeiture of the earth opened heaven, and the heavenly man finds himself in a better place than if he had never lost the earth. The two dealings of God with the earth are in government and in calling out — strangership and citizenship alternately. Citizenship when God is dealing with, and settling the earth; strangership when God is calling people out of it. He has now called the church into strangership. That is the way to introduce our thoughts to the present dispensation. We see how God has been put into His present dispensational attitude. The earth is polluted, and God is put upon to take Himself and His people to heaven. It is a dispensation of intense strangership. But the church is something more than that. Moses, Abraham, etc., were taken to heaven as witnesses of heavenly calling. Ephesians 1:1-23 introduces a new thought. We are not only in heaven, but in Christ in heaven. See how full the chapter is with the word "in." We are blessed in heavenly places in Christ — accepted in the Beloved. God has chosen us in Him. In whom we have obtained an inheritance. We are raised in Christ. Seated in Him in heavenly places; and, when the world has told its story, you will find yourself a co-inheritor in Christ. That is a new thing; that is the body of Christ. That is one peculiarity of the church. Let me call your thoughts a little aside. We see in the argument of the Galatians Abraham brought into our company; and in the argument of the Hebrews Abraham is brought into our company. Not so in the Ephesians. This is the divine accuracy of the Holy Ghost. In Galatians we do not get the church; we get sonship and heirship. I do not doubt that Abraham was as perfect as I am; but the moment the Spirit unfolds and displays the body of Christ Abraham has no place in the argument, we lose sight of him. I see you and myself, but not Abraham. Is there not a meaning in these distinctions? Can I put myself in the presence of three such august witnesses to the mind of Christ and not see these things? I have no warrant for saying that Abraham takes a place in the church. Now, let me just ask you, Are you prepared for this? Is there any analogy in the divine dealings? I think there is. By-and-by the Lord will fill the whole face of the earth. All nations will bow to His sceptre. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. But is that all I get in the millennial earth? No: I get the twelve tribes in special nearness. I get the land of Israel in special relationship to God. And I get in the midst of the tribes a royal people, and a priestly people. This is further separation; and I get a Jerusalem. No one can read the prophetic letter and not see that Jerusalem will have her special place, seated in her beauty, "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." With that divine analogy I travel to the heavens. There will be beautiful varieties there — the noble army of martyrs, the goodly fellowship of the prophets. But, as Jerusalem will take the chief place on earth, so the church will take the chief place in heaven. So we may be prepared for what is revealed under the title of "the mystery." Do you remember when Israel stood between the Red Sea and the hosts of Egypt what is said to them? "Stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah." They had got from under the claims of the destroying angel. They were in the salvation. of God; but God had secrets in the cloud not yet unfolded to them. There was a glory there that could scatter the hosts in the ]Red Sea. It could turn one side, and take the wheels off the Egyptian chariots. It could turn the other, and make crystal walls on either side of the Israelites. So, in standing before the Ephesians, we do not come to see justification by blood, but to let the rich purpose of God unfold itself to our gaze. How blessed are these divine ways! Are we satisfied to know the blood on the lintel has delivered us? All leans on that; but still I say, Stand by, and mark the secrets - go and inquire into the cloudy glory before you. This is just the attitude to take up in Ephesians. Now mark this: the moment the history of Israel closed in the Babylonish captivity, the glory departed. The glory never went over to the Gentile. The sword went; the glory never. A great deal of your intelligence of scripture depends on your taking up a right attitude in presence of it. If you know what point you are standing on, it gives you a divine advantage. Now, in standing before Ezekiel, we see that the glory has gone up to heaven, and the sword has gone to the Gentile. His the glory ever come back? It has; not to accompany the sword of Caesar, but shrouded in the humiliation of the Man of Nazareth. The sword had failed to keep the earth in order. We know where the glory dwells. It has not accompanied the sword of Caesar, as it did the sword of David and Solomon. The glory is as much apart from the sword now as when it went up before Ezekiel and the sword went to the Gentile. The powers that be are not ordained of Jesus; they are ordained of God as God. Power belongs to God in His supreme place. Jesus expresses God brought into certain conditions and relationships. All dignities belong to Jesus in title; but we could not look at Him yet and call Him King of kings, and Lord of lords. The epitome of the remnant’s religion is, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." In a theocracy, Caesar and God are together. Now, I must recognise God’s domain and Caesar’s domain. I must take knowledge of the confusion, and not say that the glory is returned to link itself with the sword; or He who said, "Who made me a ruler or a judge?" would have been a very different person in this world.’ Do you and I detect the unity and variety of the divine volume? It is a beautiful whole, but infinite in variety. Thus, having seen our attitude, we are entering on the second chapter. We are let down a little here, but only to take up an important truth; to see out of what we are called. The chapter distinguishes itself into three parts. From Ephesians 2:1-7 we have the subject of death and life; from Ephesians 2:7-10 we have the subject of good works; and from Ephesians 2:10-22, distance and nearness. What manner of people were we when God took us up to baptise us into the body of Christ? Our condition was death — a profound moral ruin. What is the verdict that lies on us? "Dead in trespasses and sins." But, then, what condition are we brought into by Christ? The contrast is very fine. It is life of the highest order that has been imparted to us. We are linked with Christ Himself. How suitable, having shown us our high calling in the first chapter, to show us in the second the place out of which we were called! Our death-state in nature could not be lower; our life-estate in Christ could not be higher. Another subject is good works, and I am charmed with the beauty of it. "Not of works, lest any man should boast." As far as good works could have been the ground of boasting, they are shut out by God; but you are created of God in such a way that you must be bringing them forth. John’s epistle shows us the same thing; our very new creation secures them. Then, to the end of the chapter we get the subject of alienation and nearness. This is just like death and life. Two things attach to us: in our own person, either death or life; in relation to God, either alienation or nearness. I look at myself, and see death in me, but as to life, I have been quickened with the highest form of life a creature could enjoy. So by nature nothing could be more distant than my alienation: "No hope, and without God in the world." Essentially cut off from Him, my nearness now in Christ is ineffable. It could not be more perfect. It is right we should have low thoughts of ourselves, but the value of Christ rests upon every stone of the temple. The whole temple is built in the Lord; and then, when built, what other glory is put upon it? The Holy Ghost dwells there. Thus we have disposed of the first two chapters. The first unfolds our position in Christ; the second draws us aside to look at ourselves. He shows me first, in my own person, dead — then in alienation from God. Then He reverses it, and shows me what manner of life I have got, and what manner of nearness I have got; and there is not a single feeble thought in it. Have you feeble thoughts? They belong to nature. They are not the breathings of the Holy Ghost. They are not the counsels of God touching you. He is not weak when He delineates your condition in nature. He is equally strong when He delineates your condition in Christ Jesus. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 01.03. EPHESIANS 3 ======================================================================== Ephesians 3:1-21. We will now read from the opening of Ephesians 3:1-21 to Ephesians 4:16. When we meditate on such a scripture as the Epistle to the Ephesians, we ought to take care that knowledge be not overvalued; that we do not give it a disproportionate place. When Nicodemus came to the Lord to inquire into heavenly secrets, He turned him back from being a mere inquirer as to heavenly objects, to begin with himself. So Paul refused to bring out the mystery to the Corinthians because of their low moral standing. So we ought to approach Ephesian truth rather cautiously, looking at our own moral condition. The Lord’s dealing with Nicodemus was morally of one character with Paul’s dealing with the Corinthians. So there is a moral title to breathe Ephesian atmosphere, or else we might get giddy on such heights. We must tread softly, not timidly as if they were not our own. These deepest secrets of the bosom belong to us; but the vessel is to be fitted morally to receive them. Now we, were distinguishing in the first chapter between the heavenly calling and the calling of the church; and in the second chapter we were looking at our death and life condition, and our alienated and near condition. In entering on the third chapter we resume the mystery. Did you ever see a moral beauty in this chapter being a parenthesis! It has struck me a good deal, the mystery being a parenthesis, that it should be here, unfolded in a parenthetic chapter. Here we get the church more largely opened out to us. Paul was the depositary of this mystery, and he got it by revelation. You will say he got everything by revelation; and so he did, as he tells us in Galatians. Where does Paul date his apostleship? From Christ in the flesh? No; from Christ in glory. Where the other apostles? From Christ in the flesh — the Lord walking down here. But Paul never knew Christ in the flesh. So specific was his calling, and so specific the truth committed to him. By revelation, then, the mystery was made known to him. Now, why does he say, "in few words"? Why, if he had spent chapters on it, it would have been but few words. If all that the Lord had done had been written, the world itself would not contain the books that should be written, John tells us in a note of admiration. Just so; this thing was so magnificent that to spend chapters on it would have been but few words. You and I want to find these notes of admiration in ourselves. They are very suited to us. "He made known unto me the mystery . . . which in other ages was not made known ... that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs," not with the Jews merely, but with Christ. The body will have Jews in it; but still it is characteristically Gentile. So he loses sight of the Jews, and tells the Gentiles that they are fellow-heirs with Christ. Here we have a new kind of inheritance — to be of the same body, and fellow-heirs with the Son of His love; not Gentiles grafted on a body of Jews. "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints." This is characteristic. The Jews were taken up because they were the least of all nations. You were taken up because you were a poor uncircumcised distant Gentile, with no hope or God; and Paul was taken up because he was less than the least of all saints. He takes the beggar from the dung-hill. That is the way of God. Now, what was the operation of the mystery? "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." This reminds us of Colossians 1:25, Paul’s ministry came "to fulfil [or fill out] the word of God." You will say, Will you put it above the ministry of Christ? Indeed I do, dispensationally. The ways of God shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. What light we stand in! We are in the light as God is in the light. The multiform, variegated wisdom of God is now told out in all its forms of beauty. That which I now get is high calling into fellow-heirship; one body with the Lord of glory. I have reached the very head itself, and sit down in sight of the coronation of Christ and His elect. So I have completed it; I have reached the manifold wisdom of God. Then he comes down a little, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him." How he loves to put that foundation under our feet! If we are in the light where God dwells, we are in the citadel of strength which God has erected. It would not do to be in the light if we were not surrounded by the citadel. The apostle now becomes a suppliant, as he did before in Ephesians 1:1-23. Having again rehearsed the mystery, he becomes in Ephesians 1:14 a man of prayer for us. In Ephesians 1:1-23 he prays to the God of our Lord Jesus; and he prays that you may know the glory that awaits you, and the strength that is conducting you there; and he prays to the God of our Lord Jesus. Here his prayer is that you may know the love that has destined you there; and he prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus. His heart instinctively turns itself to the Father’s bosom, which is the source of all our eternal blessedness: "Out of thy heart thou didst it," as David says. And does not your heart instinctively dictate this distinction, as you find yourself in prayer with God in glory, the Father in love, and Christ in salvation. When I think of glory and strength I am in company with the God of the Lord Jesus. When I think of love, I am in company with the Father of the Lord Jesus. These are evidences in the book that address themselves to the conscience. Scripture is a great self-evidencing body of light. Then he makes his prayer. One little word we must pause on: "Of whom the whole family," etc. Critics say a better translation is, "every family," and I accept it from the whole context. I believe there are to be households in heaven as well as on earth. I believe when I take an intelligent view of the coming millennial heavens I see various families, as well as on the millennial earth. I see principalities, thrones, dominions; and I see the church as the body of Christ carried and seated above all. There may be, as was quoted before, "the noble army of martyrs," "the goodly fellowship of the prophets." There may be a patriarchal household, and a prophetic household in the world to come; but the church of the living God, in company with her Head, will be there above all. It is a fine thing to read astronomy and geography after this manner. There will be a heaven, by-and-by, studded with the sons of God — with morning stars! and there will be no jealousies or envyings among them. We want largeness of thought; and largeness of thought need not take us out of accuracy of thought. Having closed this parenthetic chapter, and its parenthetic purpose, we are entering the fourth chapter. He resumes what he was saying in Ephesians 3:1, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord." That again is characteristic, that the church should have her high calling told out from a prison in Rome. If we walked a natural path and died a natural death, we should go from prisons and stakes to Christ in glory. The saint should be an unresisting witness against the world. The world thinks separation from it an insult; and it will not be insulted without revenge. So Paul unfolds the mystery from the gloomy dungeons of Rome. The church is a martyred thing on the earth. Now he tells us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We should be cherishing that temper of soul that makes us in honour esteem one another. What a beautiful casket in which to deposit such a treasure! "All lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering." In the moral history of Christendom pride has broken that casket. Then he shows what the unity of the Spirit is, which we cannot destroy. We may break the casket, and expose the treasure, but we cannot break it. Do we come from north, south, east, and west, Jews and Gentiles? When we sit down together, it is in one Lord, ,one faith, one baptism. We must pause a little on the verses that follow. Suppose I say, We must look back to Genesis 3:1-24. You may answer, These are very distant scriptures, both locally and in the material. But there is a beautiful connection between them. In Genesis 3:1-24 we see the victory of the serpent and the ruin of man. In Ephesians 4:1-32 we see the conquest of Christ and the redemption of man. It is the undoing of the mischief of Genesis 3:1-24. Satan made man a drudge on the earth and a captive to his lusts. The Lord comes to make the devil and his hosts His captives. There is a magnificent moral opposition in this. And what has He done with the old captive He puts him in a more wonderful place than that out of which Satan took him. When He comes to make the hosts of hell His captives, He will let those hosts of hell learn what He can do with him that was once hell’s captive. He has made us independent of everything. We are not only made proof against the deceiver, but we grow up by resources in ourselves. The church grows up with energies deposited in herself. He makes captivity captive, on the one hand, and on the other hand shows what He is about to do with that poor thing that the serpent once ruined. The story is reversed since Genesis 3:1-24. We get the captivity of man, and the glorification of man. There the doctrinal part ends. Now, how shall our souls deal with it? Shall we be prepared for such magnificent disclosures of God’s mind? Are they too weighty for us? I have often felt it so. Intercourse with men on the footstool is so pleasant; but that arises from a quantity of the human mixing with that which should be unmixed. So he prays that we might be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. The human mind is not able to measure these things. If my heart were opened to the sense of what the Lord Jesus is, I should say, "Nearer, my Lord, to Thee; nearer to Thee!" The footstool may be very pleasant, but, "nearer to Thee!" That Christ may dwell in my heart, and not the scene around me; and that I may know His love, which passeth knowledge. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 01.04. EPHESIANS 4 ======================================================================== Ephesians 4:1-32. I observed that the doctrinal part of the epistle closes at Ephesians 4:16. We will read to the end of the chapter. Let us just retrace the doctrinal teaching of the epistle. The first grand characteristic we are given about the calling of the church is, that it is a calling in Christ. So we find in chapter 1 the word "in" abounds. "Seated in heavenly places in him," "Accepted in the beloved," etc., etc.; and it is not only present possessions in Christ, but our interest in Him was before the world began (Ephesians 1:4), and after the world closes. (Ephesians 1:11) You will tell me all the ransomed rest on sovereignty, and so they do, and the very angels, too, who kept their first estate; but the character of church-election is that it is not mere abstract election, but election "in him," and you never leave Him. The church finds herself in closest connection with Christ from before the foundation of the world till the glory after the world has ran its course. This is the first thought about the church. These things are not predicated of Israel. It is the peculiar calling of the church to be linked and bound up with Christ. Then this church has been "hid in God." It was, so to speak, God’s bosom secret, the secret that lay nearest to His heart and deepest in His counsels. We do not find the election of the worthies of old spoken of in that way of mysterious beauty and intimacy. It was hid in God from all ages up to the ministry of Paul. The Epistle to the Ephesians is an instance of accumulation of language. Language grows on the thoughts of the Spirit Himself. Will you tell me, if your soul is bubbling up with some commanding thought, that you will not tell it out again and again, multiply words about it, and even become eloquent? For the heart, not the head,. is the parent of eloquence. That, is the style of the Spirit in bringing out this secret in this epistle. We get "the praise of his glory," and "the riches of the glory," and "the praise of the glory of his grace," and "the exceeding riches of his grace." So in Ephesians 2:1-22 when He comes to show those who are the objects of this calling. When He shows their death-estate, description after description is given of them; and when you are brought to see your nearness, again the Spirit multiplies descriptions of what you are. The consummation of revelation waited on Paul’s ministry, the Gentile apostle. When he brought out this secret, it was the last in the revelation of God, and it was the crown of all the divine purposes. Let me refer you to a little analogy: how did the work of the old creation proceed? One thing after another was created in its beauty, and man came at the last. He was put in the garden; and what was his condition there? He was at home there; but when the cattle were brought up to be named by him, he was not only at home in his own proper place, but he gets the lordship of everything before him. He was in his dominions. Was that all? There remained a thing behind, and that thing was the chiefest. He had everything before he got the woman. It was the last thing revealed, and the tip-top of his happiness. It opened his lips, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Adam was happy before, but he was not abounding. When the woman was given to him, it was the height of his joy. So we ought to be prepared for the church waiting for the ministry of Paul. I should be prepared for the last ministry bringing out the richest thing in the counsels of God. I get the same thing in the story of Jerusalem. When Israel went into Canaan, the sword of Joshua reduced the land to their possession. So it went on in the days of the Judges; and in the days of King Saul they still remained in possession; but all that time Jerusalem was a Jebusite city; all through that season this favoured spot, this chief spot in the land — this queen, destined to fix the eye of God — was in the clutches of the Gentile; and it was not till the days of David, God’s own king, that it became the chief absorbing centre of everything in the land, the sanctuary, the throne, the place where the tribes went up. It was the chiefest of everything, and it came last. Do we not get there an image of Ephesian truth? God delights Himself in analogies. What are parables but divine analogies? And so, in the very end of the book, we see the woman re-appearing as the last and chiefest. The victories have been won — the kingdom seated in dignity; the very last thing in the book is the revelation of the church coming down to show herself in her beauty. (Revelation 21:1-27) So I am prepared to listen to Paul, without charging him with arrogancy, when he says he fills out the word of God. Again, the revelation of the church is the richest display of God in grace, glory, and wisdom. The calling of Israel was a rich display of Him. Be it so. God cannot put His hand to anything without displaying Himself thus. But when we come to listen to the mystery of the church, the body and bride of Christ, we are instructed to know that grace, in its glory, in its riches — in its exceeding riches — has been manifested, and manifested in the face of creation — in the hearing and seeing of principalities and powers in heavenly places; and there is a simplicity about all this. Does magnificence touch simplicity? It would not be simply divine if it were not unutterably glorious. If it lay deepest in the divine mind, it was most full of grace, glory, and wisdom. Principalities and powers shall hold their breath while listening to the story that the calling of the church is rehearsing. Now, what are its titles? It is called the body and the bride; and what do they mean? The body is the expression of this — that the church is set in the highest place of dignity. As the bride she is set in the nearest place of affection. As the body of Christ, occupying the chiefest point in dignity, all that is in this world and in that which is to come will be beneath her. He will be seated above all; and the church, which is His body, is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. As the bride she will be in the nearest place of affection. You cannot be too near to the person you love. As the bride of Christ, the church is set close to His heart. The church is destined to be to the heart of Christ what the woman was to Adam. Ephesians 5:1-33 is as the utterance of Adam over the woman. "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," is a re-echoing of the ecstatic utterance of the first man over the first woman. If we love a person, we love to see them in dignity and glory. There you are set in the tip-top place of dignity, and, as the bride, in the nearest place of affection. You might be surprised to hear me say that the Lord Jesus did not complete the revelation of God. When you read the four gospels, do you read them as the full picture of gospel grace? The Lord’s ministry was a transitional time. Till His death was accomplished He had not the platform for the display of full gospel grace, or the instrument for forming the church. How could you form a thing without the instrument? The Spirit was not given; and the Head was not yet glorified. The opening of the book of God prepares me for the mystery, and the close of the book shuts me up to it, and seals it on my apprehension, as we now see. But in the Epistle to the Ephesians we get not merely the church but saints individually. (Ephesians 5:1-33 and Ephesians 6:1-24.) We do not lose our personality. This is said to be the meaning of Ephesians 4:12. That is an individual thing. The business of gifts is with you individually: "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints." There is a deep intimacy and personality between me and Christ that nothing can ever touch. So the first business of gifts was with each individually, "For the perfecting of the saints." Then, let the perfected saints set themselves to the work of the ministry, and to the edifying of the body. Consequently, in Corinthians, when he had the mystery to bring out, he says, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect." So, when we come to practical details in our chapter, we are addressed individually, "That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk" (Ephesians 4:17), and so on; "Who being past feeling" (Ephesians 4:19), that is, a seared and hardened conscience, with no sense of their own lasciviousness. "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus." The introduction of the word Jesus here shows personality; and do you not love a personal lesson? Do you not delight to think that you and Christ have a business that none can interfere with? Look at John’s gospel as a beautiful picture of the sinner and Christ together. We do not find the Lord in John as a social man, working with apostles. He works alone with the sinner. It is very sweet to see the Spirit refusing to lose sight of the individual. "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness." This is a much richer creation than the first. Adam was the only object in the first creation that carried an understanding; but you could not say he was created "after God, in righteousness and true holiness. We are told to put away lying, as being members one of another. "Be ye angry, and sin not." Anger may be as holy a feeling as any other, but do not retain it so as to let it degenerate into nature. Then we are to "resist the devil," and "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour . . . that he may have to give to him that needeth." This is very beautiful. He is not merely to cease from stealing, but to become a workman for others. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth . . . and grieve not the holy Spirit of God." Our works are looked at and our words, and now our tempers. Are you not thankful that Christianity legislates for every bit of you? But what dignity! Your lips may be employed in communicating grace to the hearers; and your thoughts, either in refreshing or grieving the Holy Spirit of God! "Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you." This is a change from "The Lord’s Prayer." There you are instructed to know that God will measure Himself by you: "Forgive . . . as we forgive." Here is quite the reverse; I am to measure myself by God: "forgiving, as God hath forgiven you." This shows as we were observing before, that the Lord’s ministry was a transitional thing; it had not come out into the full glory of salvation. Now a ministry has gone forth for the perfecting of us individually, and for our edification as the body of Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 01.05. EPHESIANS 5 ======================================================================== Ephesians 5:1-33. We have observed that the doctrinal part of the epistle closed at Ephesians 4:16. Then from that point to Ephesians 6:9 we get the practical part, and we get conflict in the end. Read now Ephesians 5:1-33 and Ephesians 6:1-9, where we get the practical details of christian life. I should like, first, to say a little about precept. If we consult the Epistles to the Romans and the Colossians, we shall find in them a different construction from the Philippians. There the apostle is eminently a pastor, looking at the souls of the Philippians. But in the Ephesians, Romans, Colossians, he is a teacher; therefore in them we get doctrine followed by precept. Now, why do we get precepts in the epistles? Do you always get your conduct directly from precepts? No; but by putting your mind in connection with Christ Himself, and the grace of God in your calling. So we get in Titus, "The grace of God . . . hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly"; that is, if I know the moral virtue of the grace in which I stand, I shall be taught without precepts to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Peter tells us exactly the same thing. "Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be"; and again, "Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent." There is no precept to be diligent, but the eye of the soul is directed to the glory and to the dissolution of all things present, and it says, What manner of persons ought we to be! So practical power derives itself from the grace of our calling. We get the same thing in the Book of Genesis; there are no precepts there, but the patriarchs lived holy lives (through the Spirit, surely) by virtue of their calling. One is called out by "the God of glory." It is said, as on the lips of Joseph, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God." It is not that he had precepts, but he looked at God. So in your daily walk you are not commonly looking at precepts but at Christ. But why, then, the precepts? For several reasons: First, precepts serve as tests. If a soul is backsliding, you may use them in discipline. It is very well in such a case to have a well-defined precept to guide you. Secondly, God is dealing with living realities in His word. If doctrines tell me that God is dealing with me, precepts tell me that it is with me God is dealing. God is not revealing an indefinite light that may sparkle before me. He addresses Himself to me, a corrupt creature, and says, "Let him that stole steal no more." Thirdly, there is this beauty in precepts they do greatly honour the doctrine; they are the expression of the hidden moral virtue that lies in the doctrine. For instance, "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God." The doctrine had already taught me that I had received the Spirit as the seal of salvation. The precept tells me that the Spirit I have received is sensitive of the least touch of unholiness. So the doctrine is glorified by the precept. Fourthly, I will tell you further what precepts do. They show you that your holiness must be dispensational. You will say, Is not holiness holiness? No; I boldly say, it is not. We can only judge of it in the dispensed light of God. Is it unholiness now for the Jew to traffic with the Gentile? No; it is not. Yet under the law they dare not eat with them. So holiness may vary its form. Now, suppose I were to keep a good conscience just because my conscience resented evil, and were moral because morality is comely, would that be christian morality? No holiness is christian holiness but such as derives itself from the truth. When you come to apply that to yourself, you will find you have something to do! You will have to associate the Lord Jesus with every bit of your life. How did the elders obtain a good report? Was it a precept that worked Abraham’s separation from his kindred and his father’s house, and Moses’ abdication of Egypt? It was God making Himself known to them. Precepts will never make a christian man. The soul must come in contact with the revelation of God. "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us." Now, let me ask you, supposing I was a good neighbour just to keep my conscience a little easy, would that be meeting the demands of this passage? "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us"; that makes kindness christian kindness. I take the Lord Jesus as my great prototype. Does not this take morals out of the hand of Moses? This puts my morals on a new ground altogether. I am to walk in love, because Christ has loved me, and given Himself for me, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. The Lord has not only presented you in all the value of His blood, but in the sweet savour of His sacrifice. Is it accepted in the righteous one you are? No; but "accepted in the beloved." The high priest, when he took the blood into the holiest, went in enveloped in a balmy, savoury cloud of incense. Was it a grudging acceptance that waited on the sacrifice of Christ? No; it was a delightful acceptance; and you are in all the value of that acceptance. Well, then, could I give the atmosphere in which I am set before God one glance of faith and come back to indulge my enmities? You know your renewed conscience would never be satisfied by merely doing what is right. You must have the springs of action purified. It is what Christ has done that asks it from you. These uncleannesses, as I read in verse 3, do not become saints. Am I to lay aside uncleanness because it is uncleanness? No; but because it does not become saints. So it goes on: "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." I refuse participation in uncleanness, because I was in darkness, but now I am transformed. I am a new creature, a child of light. And I pause here again to ask you, Would you qualify this beautiful intensity? Do you want to leave Christ when you come to the practical details of life? We never leave Christ. So, when we come to meditate on conflict, we are just as much in His company as in the details of life, or as up in heaven in the early part of the epistle. There is something sublime in this. If a doctrine comes to unfold God to me, a precept comes to show me the moral virtue that lies hid in it. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, as in the benevolent virtues — righteousness, as in integrity and honesty, and all connected with truth. We find goodness and righteousness in the world, but we shall not find them connected with truth, save in the household of faith. These things are given to make us practically Christ. As an old writer says, "Christ Himself is the ground of all laws to a Christian", one loathes cultivation of soul by anything short of Christ. Christ would have us sober, truthful, honest. Now are ye light; and what quality of light? Light "in the Lord." You have not kindled the spark that is in you from Moses, but from the Lord of light. You have borrowed a ray from Him, and you are to walk in it, proving what is acceptable to Jesus. I am sure after this we shall not ask why the precepts of the New Testament, when we see the blessed Lord connected with each bit of the details, the Spirit bringing down my Lord Jesus to be the sanction of my ways. You will often find here that the Spirit is not satisfied with mere abnegation of evil. He insists on the cultivation of good. "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good." There is the negative in company with the positive. The evil is denied, and the good is brought in. So here, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them"; because you have put off the old man. But are you merely an emptied, stripped thing? No; you have put on the new man. As the old man would have made plunder of what belonged to another, so now you are to work for him whom before you would have plundered. Moses never set me to that work; will Christ measure Himself by Moses? Will He measure Himself by anything but Himself? There is such dignity in this. We should keep morals up in their own elevation. Moses would drag them down; I do not say this when we get Moses passed through the filter of Christ, as in the Sermon on the Mount. Would Moses have required you to lay down your life for another? Christ does, because Christ has done it. "Wherefore it saith" (I would rather have it in ver. 14), it is the voice and language of Light. The light that is now shining is the light of Christ. So "Christ shall give thee light"; a peculiar moral light has risen now. "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time." Now, how is understanding to exercise itself? In the philosophy of the schools? I am to have an understanding of the will of the Lord. He keeps you, again I say, as a heavenly creature in company with Christ; as a man walking across the face of the earth, He keeps you equally with Christ. When He sends you into the field of battle He arrays you in Christ, He puts Christ upon you. Who but the Spirit could come down into the traffic of such a world and keep Christ in your company through it all! So the old man might get drunk with wine. The new man has the Spirit to fill himself with. If that is to be mortified, this is to be cultivated. And how will this filling with the Spirit express itself? "In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." There is a vessel filled with the Spirit. It is the very same vessel, only transmuted. It was once filled with wine; now, in a spirit of thanksgiving, it is bubbling up with melody to the Lord. We have been in a fervent, heated atmosphere, heated by the Holy Ghost; and now we are suddenly let down, with a beautiful calmness, into the ordinary virtue of taking a low place. There is a beauty in the very style of this. How can we be sufficiently charmed with it! We do not know which to admire most, the doctrinal or the practical part. Having come down to that, He details it, and addresses husbands and wives. There, I need not say, how deeply we are in company with Christ. Do not a wife and husband get their sanctions from Christ? Many a good wife never thinks of the Lord Jesus. Is that a christian wife? Here let me turn aside to note a title that occurs three times in this epistle. Christ is called "The Head" in Ephesians 1:1-23, Ephesians 4:1-32 and Ephesians 5:1-33; but in each place the Headship has a different aspect. In Ephesians 1:1-23 it is as the Head of the body. He is Head over all things to the church, the principal feature of the mystic man. In Ephesians 4:1-32 it is as being Head of influence, dispensing virtue to the ’members. "From whom the whole body fitly joined together . . . maketh increase of the body." Here in Ephesians 5:1-33 we see Him in another aspect, as the Head of authority, "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." In Ephesians 5:32 it ought to be, "This is the great mystery." Then, having addressed wives by the common duties that belong to them, in Ephesians 6:1-24 it is the same thing with children. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Even in the time of Moses this was an honourable duty. But here it is because it is right in the view of the Lord. This takes it out from the legal promise, and the Lord becomes the new sanction. So with fathers. A father ought to be his child’s christian servant. I mean, that he should every hour be watching that the nurture and admonition of the Lord be ministered to his child. He should minister Christ to him. As to servants — beautiful this is! — they are to be obedient. It matters not the character of their master. They are to be doing service, "as unto the Lord." Did you ever get up to that verse in James (James 1:9), when you see people maintaining station in this life, that you ought positively to rejoice in anticipation of these distinctions passing away? Not touching the thing in passing along, 1 Timothy 6:1-21 would tell me that; but it ought to be the hidden joy of the heart that by-and-by station will have passed away with the fashion of this world. Then as to masters. Do not be guilty of threatening. The lordly ways of masters and mistresses are hateful. How does your Master in heaven treat you? Here the practical part ends; but I ask Does it not dignify you? As George Herbert says, "Who sweeps a room, if for Thy laws, makes that, and the action fine." It is the same thing to Christ if you are up there in His company. It is the same Jesus who is enfolding, embracing, enriching you in every step of the journey, and that for His own eternity. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 01.06. EPHESIANS 6 ======================================================================== Ephesians 6:1-24. We have observed that this epistle naturally distributes itself into three parts — doctrinal and practical; and here, from verse 10 to the end, we get a scene of conflict. Teaching, walk, and conflict. The teaching, we remember, was the education of the church — the body of Christ; and we were observing that there was heavenly calling before there was church calling. We have constant proof all along the line of Old Testament days of heavenly calling, but we have only distant, shadowy intimations of the body of Christ. As has been said by another, "It would have sounded absurd in the ears of a Jew to talk in divine, mysterious language of giving Messiah a body, completing Him, filling Him out." It is not said of Abraham that he was blessed in heavenly places in Christ, incorporated in Christ. This is the grand teaching of this highest of all the epistles. Then, leaving the doctrinal part, we enter on the practical, which goes on to Ephesians 6:9; and I should like to repeat what we were observing. When we come to the practical part of the epistle, we get the doctrinal part gloriously honoured. Precepts become, in the hands of the Spirit, the expression of the moral virtue that lies in the doctrine. If I had my heart open to God, I should be guided by the intrinsic virtue of my calling; and, oh, if we have common spiritual taste, we must enjoy that! Is it not beautiful to see the doctrine and precepts thus in company? In the same way Peter stands before the doctrine and wonders that we should not prove the moral virtue of it, and so do I. Then, in the next place, it gives precepts a dispensational character. God is not dwelling in the same light now as when He was sitting on the throne in Jerusalem. That was an earthly light, a light that shone on earth. The light in which God now dwells is the awful yet most precious mystery, that He has been rejected here in His dear Son, and that that Son is now glorified in heaven. And you must be in the light where God dwells. You must make God’s dispensational truth the rule of your ways. I speak not, of course, of the light in which God dwells, as in His own proper glory — as we read in 1 Timothy 6:16. Now, the difference between Ephesians 5:1-33 and Ephesians 6:1-24 is this: in chapter 5 we see the saint taking his walk in the midst of the circumstances of human life. Here we see the saint in the field of battle. Do you believe your conflict is as constant as your walk? Are you to be in conflict today and in conflict again tomorrow. There is plenty of work for us to do; our hands will be full enough if we are practical living saints of God. Now, in opening this third view, he tells us to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, taking to us the whole armour of God, that we may withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. The Spirit contemplates that it is a war from beginning to end. There may be certain battles; but, having done with the specific fight, you must still stand as in a war! Are you prepared for finding human life a war? That is what this passage is pregnant with. Whether the specific fighting be present or not, your whole soul is to rest in the conclusion that it is incessant war till you have done with this world, this flesh., and the devil. If two nations are at war, they may not be fighting every day, a battle may be a rare thing, but war has been proclaimed. The Lord forbid that you and I should not know that as long as we are in the body we are in a field of battle. "The evil day" is a specific battle. If we have won the victory, why are we still to stand? Because war has been proclaimed. Have you proclaimed war with the lusts that are in your members, and the spirit of the world around you? Your soul is to recognise that, while you are in the body, you are a fighting man. That being your position, you are to put on the whole armour of God, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Now, how do you understand this? Do you rest in the thought that wicked spirits are in heavenly places? It is abundantly taught us. In 2 Chronicles 18:1-34 the Lord says, "Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel?" "I will entice him," says a spirit; "I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." This is a fruitful lively expression of the thing that is taken up in Ephesians 6:1-24. It is beautiful to see the Spirit so at home in His own scriptures. He takes it up as a settled thing that Satan is in heaven. He does not make a difficulty, or a question about it. He assumes it as a thing sealed and accredited, and so takes it up. What does the Lord say? "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." This was not a mere honorary expression. Then in Revelation 12:1-17 Satan is cast down from heaven. Satan and the principalities and powers are now in heavenly places. But what do these wicked spirits do? They come down with all their wiles and lies and deceivings to practise them in your heart and mine; as in Micaiah’s vision, the lying spirit came down with a wile to Ahab; and again, as Satan tempts David to number the people. The Old and New Testaments are pregnant with all this. Paul says, "We are not ignorant of his devices"; and again, "O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil." All these prove that he acts by wiles. He acts by violence, and by persecution also, but that is not contemplated here. If we go over the story of Satan in scripture, we shall find him an accuser. Was he not an accuser of the brethren in the Book of Job? And is not the very same character attached to him in the Book of the Apocalypse? Thus we now find ourselves put in the presence of the enemy. I am in the war, and I can never get out of it, though I may get out of the evil day. What then am I to do? I am to take the whole armour of God. And now I just ask you to inspect each part of this armour. Is there one single piece of that which is declared to be the armour of God fitted to send you out into the field of battle with flesh and blood? Is that the way He armed Joshua and David? They were to meet flesh and blood; and they were carnal weapons which He put into their hands. Now there is not a touch of that here. There are no slings and stones and jaw-bones of asses; and this is declared to be the whole armour of God. If this is not the armour I have on me, I am not fighting for Christ. Saints may take carnal weapons; but if I do — if, for instance, I go into a court of justice to assert my rights — do not let me talk of being in the light of God. That is where dispensational truth is so important. I find here that the Spirit sends me into a field of battle, and I find that my security depends on truth, righteousness, faith, peace, and the sword of the Spirit. Now, supposing we were to describe a few of these wiles. Infidel heresies, superstitious vanities, evil doctrines, false expectations about the history of the world. We are not here in company with our lusts, but in conflict with direct attempts of the enemy. We must withstand the temptations of our hearts in walking through the world, as in Ephesians 5:1-33. Here we are set face to face with Satan, the deceivableness of unrighteousness, doctrinal heresies; these are the things we are to withstand. And is it not perfectly right that, being delivered by the Seed of the woman, we should make our war with him who was our captor? How could you attach yourself to Jesus, and not turn round in the face of the enemy and let him know that you are at war with him? Having passed this fervent scene, we find that, having this armour on us, if a quickened condition of soul be not maintained in communion, the armour will be cumbrous, "Praying always . . . 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, for which I am an ambassador in bonds." Did you ever hear of such a thing as the ambassador of one nation being put in bonds by the nation to which he was sent? Why, God has fared worse in this world than any nation in it would., and pray, what message did this ambassador bring? A message of boundless grace. And that is the way He has been treated. The law of nations would not allow it for an instant. Yet that is the way God for eighteen hundred years, in the Person of His servants and witnesses, has consented to be treated. Then he tells them that he sends Tychicus, "That he might comfort your hearts." Oh, if we could be in that way! — in prison, yet able to comfort others. As dear Saunders, a clergyman in the Bishop of London’s coal-hole, sent to his wife, "Be merry, dear wife, be merry; we’re all merry here. We weep with Him now, but we shall laugh with Him for ever." That is equal to Paul, sending from a prison in Rome a cheering word to his brethren at Ephesus. What cannot the Spirit of God work? The Lord grant that we may be taught by the doctrine, instructed in morals, and put in something of strength for the battle by this closing scene. AMEN. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 02.00. KING SAUL. ======================================================================== STEM Publishing: J. G. Bellett: King Saul. King Saul. By J. G. Bellett. BT vol. 14, p. 84 etc. This is a brief work of 5 chapters on King Saul (using passages in 1 Samuel). CONTENTS 1. King Saul - 1 Samuel 8:1-22; 1 Samuel 9:1-27; 1 Samuel 10:1-27 2. King Saul - 1 Samuel 11:1-15; 1 Samuel 12:1-25; 1 Samuel 13:1-23; 1 Samuel 14:1-52; 1 Samuel 15:1-35 3. King Saul - 1 Samuel 16:1-23; 1 Samuel 17:1-58 4. King Saul - 1 Samuel 18:1-30; 1 Samuel 19:1-24; 1 Samuel 20:1-42; 1 Samuel 21:1-15; 1 Samuel 22:1-23; 1 Samuel 23:1-29; 1 Samuel 24:1-22; 1 Samuel 25:1-44; 1 Samuel 26:1-25; 1 Samuel 27:1-12 5. King Saul - 1 Samuel 28:1-25; 1 Samuel 29:1-11; 1 Samuel 30:1-31; 1 Samuel 31:1-13 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 02.01. KING SAUL - 8-10 ======================================================================== 1 Samuel 8:1-22; 1 Samuel 9:1-27; 1 Samuel 10:1-27. There is not in Scripture a character that furnishes more solemn warning than that of King Saul. As we pass on from stage to stage through his history, it fills the soul with very awful thoughts of the treachery and corruption of the heart of man; and as we are sure that it has been written for our learning (Romans 15:4), we may well be thankful to our God for the counsel that it gives us, and seek His grace that we may read the holy lesson to profit. But this we should know, that, though the Spirit of God may have thus graciously recorded these acts of the wicked for our learning, they were all executed by the hand and according to the heart of the man himself. God is to be known here, and in similar histories, only in that holy sovereignty which draws good out of evil, and in that care for His saints which records that evil for their admonition. The first Book of Samuel has a very distinct character. It strikingly exhibits the removal of man and the bringing in of God. It accordingly opens with the barren woman receiving a child from the Lord; this being, in scripture, the constant symbol of grace, and the pledge of divine power acting on the incompetency of the creature. It then shows us the priesthood (which had been set in formal order and succession) corrupting itself and removed by judgment, and upon that God’s Priest (who was to do according to his heart, and for whom he was to build a sure house) brought in. (1 Samuel 2:35.) And then, in like manner, it shows us the kingdom (at first set according to man’s desire) corrupting itself, and removed by judgment, and upon that God’s King (who was also after His heart, and for whom He would also build a sure house) brought in. Thus, this Book exhibits everything, whether in the sanctuary or on the throne, while in man’s hand coming to ruin, and the final committal of everything to the hand of God’s anointed. And this anointed of God, we know, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, is to be none less than the Son of God Himself, God’s King to hold the immoveable kingdom, and God’s Priest to hold the untransferable priesthood. The history of King Saul properly begins with the eighth chapter of this book. There we find the revolted heart of Israel, which had been departing from the Lord, as He there tells Samuel, ever since He had brought them out of Egypt, seeking still greater distance from Him, and desiring a king in the stead of Him. The ill government of Samuel’s sons at this time was their pretence, but it was only a pretence. There is no doubt that they did act corruptly, and Samuel may have been at fault in making them judges, consulting perhaps too much with flesh and blood, and too little with Israel’s welfare and the Lord’s honour. But the Lord discloses the real source of this desire for a king, saying to Samuel, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Like Moses in such a case (Exodus 16:7), Samuel was nothing that the people should murmur against him or his sons; their murmurings were not against him, but against the Lord. "Israel would none of me," says the Lord, "so I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust, and they walked in their own counsels." (Psalms 81:12.) They shall have what their soul was now lusting after, but they shall find it to be their plague. Their own king shall be their sorrow and ruin, as all our own things are, if we will follow them and have them. "He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart turned him aside." What but ashes (sorrow and death) does the labour of our own hands gather for us? So is it always, try it in what way we may, and so was Israel now to find it in their own king. (1 Samuel 8:11-17.) But in wonted grace, the Lord here gives His people space to repent of this their evil choice before they reaped the bitter fruit of it. And this was just what He had done before at Mount Sinai. When they were there bent on accepting the fiery law, as though they could keep it and live by it, Moses is made to pass and repass between them and the Lord, in order, as it seems, to give them space to turn and still trust in that grace which had redeemed them from Egypt, and not cast themselves on the terms of Mount Sinai. (See Exodus 19:1-25.) And so here, I believe, with the same intent Samuel passes again and again between the Lord and the people, But as they there listened to their own heart in its confidence and self-sufficiency, so here they will have a king in spite of all God’s gracious warning. They take their own way again. And I ask, dear brethren, is not this His way, and alas! too often our way still? Is He not often checking us by His Spirit, that we go not in the way of our own heart, and yet are we not like Israel, too often heedless of His Spirit? And what do we ever find the end of our own way to be, but grief and confusion? For the Lord has only to leave us to ourselves, if He would fain leave us for destruction. Legion is the fearful witness of this. (Mark 5:1-43.) He presents man in his proper native condition, choosing the captivity of Satan, and, as such, being one whom nothing could relieve but that sovereign grace which does not stop to take counsel with man’s own desire (for then it would never act), but which goes right onward with its own purpose to rescue and to bless. But such was Israel now, knowing only their own will in this matter of the king. And this at once prepares us for the manner of person that we are to find in their forthcoming king. For the wilful people must have a wilful king. Of none other could it be said that all the desire of Israel was on him. Of none other could Samuel have said, "Behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired." None other could have been the king of this people. But all this forebodes fearful things in the king, and fearful days for Israel. And so shall we find it. In the divine order such a time as the reign of King Saul has its appointed uses. Showing us the kingdom in man’s hand, it serves to set off the kingdom in God’s hand — mischief and corruption and disaster marking the one, honour and blessing and rest the other. The kingdom brought in by their own desire would let them see how unequal they were to provide for their own happiness; just as "this present evil world," which our own lusts have formed and fashioned, is found unequal to satisfy, leaving us subject to vanity still. But with all this, God’s workmanship will stand in blessed contrast. The kingdom under Saul in all its wretchedness and shame might set off the glorious and peaceful days of David and Solomon, as this world of ours will set off "the world to come" in the days of the Son of man. But however the Lord may thus serve His own glory and His people’s comfort by this, it is Israel that now bring this season of shame and sorrow on themselves. They sow the wind to reap the whirlwind. Saul comes forth, the chosen one of a wilful and revolted nation, to do his evil work. And thus he stands in one rank with another more wicked than himself. He stands as the type and brother of that king in the latter day who is to do "according to his will" — the one who is to come "in his own name," and say in his heart "no God." Saul was now coming forth the first of that line of shepherds or rulers who were "to feed themselves and not the flock," to eat the fat, and clothe them with the wool (Ezekiel 34:1-31), and do all that evil work that is here prophesied of Israel’s own king, and fill out that character that is here drawn of Saul.* *Saul is expressly treated of as "the violent man" or last enemy of Israel in 2 Samuel 22:1-51 and Psalms 18:1-50. This last enemy, or the last of these kings of the people, will give place to the true David, who shall feed God’s heritage with integrity of heart and skilfulness of hand, as this first of them is succeeded by David the son of Jesse, the man after God’s own heart. This last of them is called "the foolish shepherd" in Zechariah 11:15. Into the hand of such shepherds Israel is now cast, seeing they had rejected the Lord their good Shepherd, and desired one after their own heart. The first of them, as we here find, was of that tribe of which it had been said of old, "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf, in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil." (Genesis 49:27.) And he was of that city, in that tribe, which had already wrought such mischief in Israel, and been the occasion of nearly blotting out the memorial of one of the tribes from among the people of the Lord. (Judges 19:1-30; Judges 20:1-48; Judges 21:1-25.) But we further learn of him, that though belonging to the least of all the families of his tribe, and that, too, the smallest tribe in Israel, his father Kish was "a mighty man of substance." And from this description, I gather that Saul and his father had prospered in this world, being men who were wise in their generation, people of that class who "will be rich," though nature and family and circumstances are all against them. And Saul is first shown to us searching for his father’s asses. Some thing of the family property was missing, and it must be searched for — their own ass had fallen into the ditch and it must be taken out. But though thus careful of his own things, he seems, as yet at least, to have had no great care for the things of God, for he does not at this time know even the person of Samuel, who was now the great witness of God in the land; and soon after this, his neighbours, "who had known him aforetime," wonder with great wonder that he should be found among the prophets, so that to this day he is a proverb. All these are notices of what generation he was, telling us that though as yet in an humble sphere, he and his father’s house had been formed rather by the low principles of the world, than by worthy thoughts of the Lord of Israel. And such an one was just fit to be directed to Samuel at the time when the worldly heart of the people was desiring a king. His mind was upon the asses, as Samuel seems to him. The world was set in his heart, though from circumstances it had not as yet been developed in many of its proper fruits. And this is awful warning, beloved. Circumstances, as here, may indeed be needed in order to prove the ground of the heart; but it is the heart itself that determines the man before God (1 Samuel 16:7), and sooner or later will determine the life before men. (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:19.) In accordance with all this, on being introduced to the intended king, we have no mention whatever of any moral qualifications that he had. All that we learn of him is this, "that he was a choice young man, and a goodly, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people." Thus and thus only is he spoken of. He is judged of simply after the flesh, looked at only in the outward man, and thus was suited to man who had desired him, for "man looketh on the outward appearance." Therefore when the people saw his stature and nothing more, they cry, "God save the king." This was the king after their heart. He was of the world, and the world loved its own.* * Absalom, another of the same generation with Saul, is described only in this way also. "In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him." And surely both of them are types of the beast or the wilful king of the latter day. And will not he be decked out with the same beauty in the flesh? Will he not have his parts and comely proportions all to admiration? Will he not be perfect in all subtle attractions and forms of beauty as the serpent in the garden? And here let me say, that if Saul be thus the man after man’s heart, and David, as we read afterwards, the man after God’s heart, we learn in the one what we are, and in the other what God is. And the distinctive characters of the two kings is this: Saul would have everything his own and be everything himself; David was willing to be nothing and to have nothing, but still in whatever state he was, to be the diligent unselfish servant of others. And thus man, to our shame, is presented in the narrow-heartedness of Saul, but God to our comfort in the generous self-devotement of David. All this character of Saul will be awfully disclosed in all the passages of his future history, but the same principles are even now early at work. It may be that the less practised eye cannot discern this, and it is indeed well and happy to be "simple concerning evil." But heart will sometimes answer to heart, and make some of us, beloved, quicker to detect its treachery than others. Thus in Saul keeping back Samuel’s words touching the kingdom, in hiding himself among the stuff when the lot had fallen upon him, and again in holding his peace when some would not give him their voices, there is in all this, I judge, only the show of virtue.* For the love of the world and of its praise can afford to be humble and generous at times. It can even send forth those or any other virtues, taking care, however, to send them forth in such a direction as to make them bring home, after a short journey, some rich revenues to the ruling lusts. *Another indeed hid Himself when they would have come to make Him a king (John 6:1-71), but He was acting according to God’s glory and will in that; Saul in this was resisting it, however his modesty, as it might be thought, may attract the judgment of the mere human mind for awhile. In the hand of such an one is the kingdom of Israel now vested, but such an one was not "God’s king." To give them a king, however, appears to have been God’s purpose from the beginning. The prophetic words of both Jacob and Moses upon Judah, as also the words by Balaam (Numbers 24:17), intimate this; as also Moses’ title, "king in Jeshurun." And more than these, the ordinance touching the king in Deuteronomy 17:1-20, and the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself sought the kingdom when He was here (Matthew 21:1), and in the end, at His second coming will take it (Psalms 2:6), prove that God’s first purpose was to give Israel a king. But things were not ready for the king all at once; various previous courses must be accomplished, ere that top stone in the divine building could be brought forth. Israel at first had to be redeemed from bondage — then to be carried through the wilderness to learn the ways and secrets of God’s love — then to get their promised inheritance delivered out of the hand of the usurper. Till these things were done, all was not in readiness for the king. Had these things been simply accomplished, the king without delay would have appeared to crown the whole work with the full beauty of the Lord. But each stage in this way of the Lord Israel had sadly interrupted and delayed. After redemption from Egypt they had given themselves, through disobedience, forty years’ travel in the wilderness; after taking the inheritance, they had again, through disobedience, brought pricks into their sides and thorns in their eyes; and now they forestall God’s king, and through disobedience and wilfulness again bring their own king, as another plague upon them. But this is the way of man, beloved, the way of us all by nature. Through unbelief and wilfulness we refuse to wait God’s time, and we procure a Saul for ourselves. It was thus that Sarah brought Ishmael into her house, and Jacob his twenty-one years of exile and servitude upon himself. Our own crooked policy and unbelief must answer for these sorrows. God, if waited for, would bring the blessing that maketh rich and which addeth no sorrow with it; but our own way only teaches us that he that soweth to the flesh must of the flesh reap corruption. To this day Israel is learning this, and reaping the fruit of the tree they planted, learning the service of the nations whom, like Saul, they have set over themselves; and their only joy lies in this, that God’s counsel of grace, in spite of all, is to stand, and His own king shall still sit on His holy hill of Zion. But in spite of all this, and though Israel is now transferred into other hands, God will prove that nothing should be wanting on His part. He had not only signified Saul to Samuel, and Samuel had then signified Saul at the sacrificial feast, and anointed and kissed him, (1 Samuel 9:1-27; 1 Samuel 10:1-27), but in the mouth of several witnesses the divine purpose had been established, and the Spirit, as faculty for office, had been imparted, and an "occasion," as Samuel speaks (1 Samuel 10:7) for proving that God was thus with the king, now arrives. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 02.02. KING SAUL - 11-15 ======================================================================== 1 Samuel 11:1-15; 1 Samuel 12:1-25; 1 Samuel 13:1-23; 1 Samuel 14:1-52; 1 Samuel 15:1-35. The insult of Nahash the Ammonite towards Jabesh-Gilead was this "occasion," and the Lord gives Israel a complete victory over him by the hand of their king. For this battle was the Lord’s, inasmuch as the Lord would fulfil His part in this matter. We need not inquire where Israel got their instruments of war, if now there was "no smith found throughout all the land," for this day was won not by might nor by power, but "by My Spirit, saith the Lord." This victory might therefore have been gained as well with lamps and pitchers, or with the jawbones of asses, or with slings and stones from the brook, as with the battle-axe and bow. Thus again, as in ancient days, the Lord approves Himself not wanting, however wilful and stiff-necked His people may be found. And after this, the king is accepted again of the people (1 Samuel 12:1-25); and this chapter reminds us of Exodus 20:1-26 as the eighth chapter reminded us of Exodus 19:1-25. For in Exodus 20:1-26 Moses transfers them into their new position, but convicts them of the terribleness of it; and here Samuel formally plants them under their king, but convicts them again as with the thunder and tempest of Mount Sinai. The thunder and rain came upon them here, as the fearful pledge and prelude of the end of their own kingdom, as the shaking of the earth at Sinai pledged the end of their own covenant. And under it they cry out in terror here, as they had done there. There they had said to Moses, "Speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die," — and here they say to Samuel, "Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king." And in mercy Samuel here, as Moses there, encourages them still to hold fast by the Lord, who, in spite of all, was still graciously owning them as His people.* *This thunder in harvest is noticed here as something remarkable; and so it was. Jehovah was the husbandman of the land of Israel (Deuteronomy 11:1-32), and had Israel been in simple allegiance to Him, everything would have witnessed the care and skill of the divine husbandman, and the blessing of that people that had the Lord for their God. There would have been nothing out of season: the early and the latter rain would have fallen only in their appointed months. Thunder in harvest would not have been known, or known only in judgment, as it is here. These two occasions are thus in strict moral analogy, and show us that king Saul was introduced into the Jewish system now, as the law had been at Mount Sinai, through the wilfulness and unbelief of the people, Saul being no more God’s king than the law was God’s covenant. Israel has again lost their peace by all this, and cast themselves into sorrows and difficulties that they little counted on; but the Lord pardons and accepts them, as He had done at Sinai, and now sets them in the way again in their new character. And now comes the trial again. "Fear not," says Samuel to them, "ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart." But, ere the first scene in the kingdom closes, all is broken and forfeited, just an the covenant from Sinai was broken ere Aaron and the people had left the foot of the Mount. There the people grew impatient at the delay of Moses, and, in violation of the very first article of the covenant, made a golden calf. So here Samuel had left Saul for awhile, telling him to go down to Gilgal, and wait for him there till he should come and offer the sacrifices, but now Saul offers the sacrifices himself. (1 Samuel 13:1-23.) He forsakes the word of the Lord. The first act of the king was thus again a violation of the first command he had received. And thus was it all again, as at Sinai so at Gilgal, the immediate breach of the covenant on the part of man. The Lord, it is true, had grace in store for Israel while they were thus destroying themselves; as at Sinai He showed the witnesses of mercy on the top of the Mount, while Israel was sinning away all their present blessing at the foot of it. But still, in the king’s hand now, as in the people’s then, all was disaster and loss. Speedy and yet fully ripe fruit was this of their own way. But, beside this one great act of forfeiture, there are traits of character now displaying themselves in the people’s king that strongly mark his generation. We see him acting now after the manner forewarned of Samuel. He chooses three thousand men of Israel to wait upon him, sending the rest to their tents, thus dealing with them as his property, having right to do what he would with his own. "When Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took him unto him" — taking thus their sons and appointing them unto himself, as Samuel had said. And all his ways are in the same tone of self-will, fully opposed to the manner of God’s king as prescribed by Moses. (Deuteronomy 17:1-20.) In the sovereignty of his own good pleasure, the people’s king now does his own will, exalting himself above his brethren, blowing the trumpet throughout the land, speaking, as with the voice of a god and not of a man, and saying, "let the Hebrews hear;" thus bringing, as it were, the people to his own door-posts, and there boring their ears, that they might be his servants for ever. And he would be priest as well as king. He would fain sit in the sanctuary as well as on the throne; in disobedience, he will himself offer the sacrifice; in all these things giving us awful pledges of the ways of him who is still to be more daring, magnifying himself above all, planting his tabernacles on the glorious holy mountain, and sitting in the temple of God.* *To mark the wilful infidel character of Saul still further, I may observe that the ark of God was not once consulted all through his reign. (1 Chronicles 10:13-14) Such was Saul, and such will be his elder brother or antitype in the latter day. But as, in spite of all the trespass and breach of covenant at Mount Sinai, the Lord did not allow the enemy to triumph over Israel, but brought them into the good land that He had promised them; so here, in spite of all this, He works deliverance for them from the Philistines as He had promised, and that, too, in a way that more marvellously displays His hand than the day of Gideon or of Samson. (1 Samuel 14:1-52.) This victory at Michmash, like the victories of Joshua, verified the faithfulness of the God of Israel. Not one good thing could fail. He had promised strength against the Philistines now, as He had promised the land of the Canaanites then, and this day of Michmash and that which follows fulfils the word of the Lord. (1 Samuel 9:16, 1 Samuel 14:47-49) But all this, as everything else, serves only to develop the people’s king more and more. The ways of a wilful one are strongly marked in all that he does. His course is uncertain and wayward, because it is just what his own will makes it. But in the midst of all the present gathering darkness there is one object of relief to the eye — the person and actions of Jonathan. He is the one in the apostate kingdom who owns God and is owned of Him, the remnant in the midst of the thousands of Israel, the one who stood in the secret of God, and knew where the strength of Israel lay. And thus he is in full readiness for all the openings of the divine purpose. We see him in immediate sympathy with David, as soon as David appears. (1 Samuel 18:1.) His deeds in Israel, before David is heard of, savour of the very spirit that animates David afterwards; for the victory of Michmash which his hand won was in full character with that in the valley of Elah, which David afterwards achieved. God was trusted in both of them, as the only giver of victory. The spirit with which Jonathan entered the passages between Bozez and Seneh carried David into the front of the battle against the giant. And this, I may say, is the character of every remnant — they walk in the spirit of the hope set before them, so that when it is manifested they are ready for it. As here Jonathan was ready for David, Anna and Simeon waited for "the consolation of Israel," and embraced the Child the moment they saw Him. In the latter day, in like manner, the remnant will be looking for the Lord as an afflicted and poor people; and so, in the meanwhile, we should watch for the heavenly glory in the spirit of holy retirement from the world and the things of the world. In spirit and conversation we should be as "children of light and children of the day," thus signalising our remnant character, though the night is still around us; so that when the light of the morning breaks, and the day of the kingdom comes, we may find our native place in it. The oil in the vessels of the wise virgins tells us this. It tells us that they had counted the cost of being wakeful to the end — that they knew themselves only as "prisoners of hope" in this world, and that it was still but night-time, which would need the lamp, till grace should be brought to them at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And the character of the apostate is marked in the very opposite way. It is this remnant that they hate, and their hope that they are not preparing for. It is this righteous Jonathan who now moves Saul’s envy. Saul, it appears, would now have sacrificed him to his lust, as we know he afterwards sought to slay him. For envy, or the love of the world, cares not though it have even a child of our own bowels for its prey, as we know, in the case of Joseph, it craved a brother for a sacrifice. In Saul it also hunted David like a partridge in the mountains, and even would have killed Samuel, to whom under God Saul owed everything. (1 Samuel 16:2.) As says the divine proverb, "wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy?" And with all this, he had no courage in the Lord’s cause when the trial came. He makes a stir and bustles a good deal with his six hundred men behind him at Gilgal; but as we follow him to Gibeah, where the battle was at hand, he tarries in the uttermost part under a pomegranate tree, nor do we see him in the field till the day is won. He rages after the fight, but strikes no blow in it; and all that he does is to sacrifice the honour of Israel to his own will, for in the mere exercise of his own good pleasure, he adjures the people not to touch any food till the evening, and that curse hinders the full overthrow of the Philistines. Thus all that he really is, on this memorable day, is the Achan in the camp. Jonathan is the strength, and he but the troubler of Israel. But with all this, he can be very religious, when religion does not turn him out of his own way, or when, like Jehu, he can serve himself by it. After the offence of the people eating the blood with the flesh, he orders the table of the camp himself in due religious form. But this, instead of crossing his own desire, only serves it, for by this he seems to take the honour of the priesthood to him, and thus to exalt himself. He bustles again as though he were the one object of importance in the whole scene, thus gathering the thoughts of man to himself, and walking in the full light of the world’s countenance, which was everything to him, the thing that he lived for. All this is indeed darkness, but we have gloomier shades to penetrate still. When Israel entered the land, they received a commission to destroy the nations, for the day of their visitation had come. But here I would observe that it was not the whole earth that was thus to be destroyed, but only those nations which had been guilty of doing despite to God, and had filled up the measure of their sins. The Canaanites had had God’s witnesses among them in old time, for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been there, but they remained Canaanites still. The Egyptians had known Joseph and the grace and power of the God of Joseph, but they had ceased to remember Him. And Amalek had seen the God of glory leading His hosts out of Egypt, with His cloud over them, and the water from the rock following them, but the hand of Amalek was at that moment raised against the throne of God. Of these three, Egypt, the Canaanites, and Amalek, Egypt and the Canaanites had been already judged, and the day of Amalek had now come; for surely when the Lord’s cup was passing, they could not be forgotten.* *And I would further observe, that in the same way will be the judgment of the nations in the latter day. It is not all the earth that is then to be destroyed, but only those nations among whom God’s witnesses have previously been, those who will then make up the confederacy against the Lord’s anointed. The kingdoms of the world shall then become the Lord’s, and not be destroyed; the isles afar off shall form the train of the earthly glory of Messiah, as the distant cities and people of old were to be left in order to become tributaries to Israel (Deuteronomy 20:10-18), and those only to be cut off, as I have noticed above, who had filled up the measure of their sin, and done despite to God. (Genesis 15:16.) But Israel had not been fully faithful to the commission which they had received against the Canaanites, as Judges 1:1-36 shows us; and now our 1 Samuel 15:1-35 is just that chapter again under the hand of king Saul. The kingdom was now received, as the land had then been, and the king gets his commission now, as the nation then did. "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that he hath," says the Lord to Saul by Samuel. But Saul makes terms with Amalek, as the tribes before had done with the Canaanites. He spares Agag, as Benjamin had spared the Jebusites, Manasseh the people of Dor, Ephraim the people of Gezer, Zebulun the people of Kitron, Asher the people of Accho, and Naphthali the people of Bethshemesh. (Judges 1:1-36.) And thus we have here with the king, as there with the tribes, the disobedience of man, and the consequent forfeiture of all blessing and honour. "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord," says Samuel to Saul, "He hath also rejected thee from being king." (1 Samuel 15:23.) And this was as the loss of Eden to the Lord. The land of Israel should have been the earthly rest, where God would have kept His sabbath. But now it was defiled, as paradise of old; and as of old God repented that He had made man on the earth (Genesis 6:6), so now does He repent that He had made Saul king over Israel. (1 Samuel 15:35.) Thorns and briers and sorrow of heart the kingdom was now to yield, as the cursed earth did then. Samuel goes away to weep, and the Lord takes no pleasure in the kingdom. Thus all is ruin under the hand of the people’s king, and the lust of his heart is seen again to work in this scene with fearful power. For he seeks at once to turn this conquest of Amalek to his own profit and glory, careless as he was of the word and glory of the Lord. He first flies upon the spoil, and then sets him up a place (1 Samuel 15:12), that is, erects some monument to his own name, thus seeking to make this victory serve both his pride and his covetousness.* It is true, he says, "I have sinned;" but so said Balaam before him, and Judas after him. And even in that confession, the desire of his heart was not towards God’s forgiveness and peace, but towards his own honour before men. For these are his words to Samuel, "I have sinned; yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel." This was his lust — he loved the praise of men. He would at all cost have the honour that cometh from man, and Samuel now delivers him over to a reprobate mind. He turns for a moment with him towards the people, but then leaves him for ever. *We read also of "Absalom’s place." (2 Samuel 18:1-33.) But Saul and Absalom, as I have already noticed, were children of the same generation, both types of the Great Pretender of the latter day. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 02.03. KING SAUL - 16 - 17 ======================================================================== 1 Samuel 16:1-23; 1 Samuel 17:1-58. Thus the judgment of God lies upon him, and an evil spirit from the Lord comes to trouble him. (1 Samuel 16:1-23.) And now the time has arrived for revealing again "the secret of God." For in all the seasons of man’s destruction of himself, there has been another thing going on in the plans of the blessed God. Thus of old, the promised seed is sown in man’s field of briers and thorns. (Genesis 3:1-24.) While his brethren are filling up their sins and sorrows in Canaan, Joseph, unknown to them, is growing up in Egypt for their help: while Israel is in the heat of the furnace, Moses is preparing to be their deliverer in the distant solitudes of Midian. And again, while disasters follow sins in quick succession, the Judges are brought forth as God’s deliverers for the people; and at last, when the priesthood was defiled, and the glory gone into the enemy’s land, Samuel the child is brought forth to raise the stone of help. Thus had it been before, and so is it now again. Saul and the kingdom are bringing ruin on themselves, but David, "the secret of God," is under preparation to set the throne in honour, and the kingdom in order and strength. And what are all these things but notices to us of Him who is the true secret of God. For as such, the blessed Son of God is now, though flesh and blood decay, the hidden seed in the believer, that is to burst forth in the resurrection a plant of glory. And as such He will by-and-by bear up the pillars of the earth, when all things else are dissolving. He will then come forth out of His secret chambers, as Joseph or as Moses, as Samuel or as David, and shall be as the light of the morning, after a dark and dreary night, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.* *Moses preaches Christ as "the secret of God" in Deuteronomy 29:29. In connection with that, in the next chapter (Deuteronomy 30:11-14), he speaks of a certain "commandment," which he there describes; and Paul in his ministry refers to those words of Moses as descriptive of "the righteousness which is of faith," or, the word of Christ. (Romans 10:6.) And thus the Apostle fully discloses what the Lawgiver had only darkly intimated, and shows that Jesus is the secret that belongs to God — God’s true resource for sinners. And I may further observe, that one of the names of Christ is "Secret." (Judges 13:18; Isaiah 9:6.) And this is always the way of grace: it comes into exercise after man has been convicted of entire insufficiency. It speaks on this wise: "Except the Lord had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." Man makes Jerusalem a Sodom, a filthy ruin, and then out of that ruin, God in His own grace and strength builds again "a city of righteousness." (Isaiah 1:1-31.) And this grace ever takes for its instrument the weak thing and the foolish thing of this world. Such was Jesus of Nazareth, such was Paul with a thorn in his flesh, and such is David now. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart." Man had already, as we have seen, looked on the outward appearance, and found his object in Saul, who in person was the goodliest of the children of Israel. But God’s choice was not to be ordered by such a measure. (Psalms 147:10.) A rod out of the stem of Jesse is His object, a root out of a dry ground in which there was no comeliness before the eye of men, the one of whom his father, "according to the flesh," says in scorn, "there remaineth yet the youngest, and he keepeth the sheep" — the one, who like a greater than he, man was thus despising and the nation abhorring. (Isaiah 49:7.) This one, this youngest son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, the keeper of a few sheep in the wilderness, is now God’s object. "Arise, anoint him," says the Lord to Samuel, "for this is he." And here again I must notice something that seems to me to have great moral value in it. I allude to what appears to have been the different condition of Saul’s house and David’s house, when they are severally brought before us. Saul’s house, as we have seen, was of no repute in Israel, but had made a fortune as people speak. David’s, on the other hand, had once been in honour, was of the tribe of Judah, and in its genealogy bore the distinguished name of Boaz, who had been, perhaps, the first man in his generation. But now it seems to be otherwise with them, for David and his father and his father’s house have no distinction now, but simply take their place among the many thousands of Israel. But what of all this? the world finds its object in Saul ("for man will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself"), and God, in David. And these things teach us, beloved, that it is safer to be "going down," than "getting up," as the word is, in the world. And they tell us also that whom God will exalt, He first abases; whom He will glorify, He first humbles. He puts the sentence of death in the children of resurrection. But with the wicked there are no bands, their strength is firm.* (Psalms 73:1-28.) Saul went through no sorrow up to the throne, as David did. Esau, the man of the earth, had dukedoms in his family, while Jacob’s children were still homeless strangers on the earth (Genesis 36:1-43), yet it is written, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated." * Psalms 73:1-28 is the trial of the soul in learning that death and resurrection is God’s principle. God’s way is according to this, hard indeed for flesh and blood to learn, and God’s hand thus found its object in David, and we now have accordingly a new feature in the scene before us. We have David, God’s chosen, as well as Saul within, and the Philistine without. David is before us in the strength of the Spirit of God, and he soon gives proofs of his ministry both upon the rejected king and upon the uncircumcised. Both are made to own the power of the Lord that was in him. Whether it were the harp or the sling, his hand is skilled to use either. The king had an evil spirit in him, and the uncircumcised is breathing out slaughter, but David stands above both in the strength of the Lord. The unclean spirit goes out from the king at the bidding of his harp, and the Philistine giant falls under his sling. (1 Samuel 16:1-23; 1 Samuel 17:1-58.) It might be thought that king Saul’s evil course was interrupted by this, but it soon appears that this was rather only another stage in his downward way. The sow was to return to her mire. The unclean spirit goes out only to gather and bring in seven other spirits more wicked than himself. This quieting of the evil spirit was but a flattering of God with the mouth, for the king’s heart was not thereby set right with Him. He was not estranged from his lusts by it. His love of the world and its praise, his self-will, and hatred of the righteous, rule him still, and God and His word and His glory are as little regarded as ever. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 02.04. KING SAUL - 18 - 27 ======================================================================== 1 Samuel 18:1-30; 1 Samuel 19:1-24; 1 Samuel 20:1-42; 1 Samuel 21:1-15; 1 Samuel 22:1-23; 1 Samuel 23:1-29; 1 Samuel 24:1-22; 1 Samuel 25:1-44; 1 Samuel 26:1-25; 1 Samuel 27:1-12. And in all this we see Israel; for (like prince, like people) Saul is the representative of Israel in apostacy, as he is the forerunner or type of their king in the latter-day. This way of Saul under David’s harp has been the way of Israel under God’s ministers. Elijah raised among them for a moment the cry, "the Lord He is God, the Lord He is God," but all was quickly "Baal" again. In the light of John the Baptist they afterwards rejoiced, but it was only for a season; and when the hand of the Son of God Himself was among them to heal them and bless them, for awhile they flocked to Him in thousands, and when He preached they wondered (Luke 4:1-44), and when He entered their city they cried "Hosanna" (Matthew 21:1-46), but all soon ended in the cross. The evil spirit had been charmed, the unclean spirit had gone out, but the house was still ready for it, and for it only. And thus the harp of David and the grace and ministry of the Son of God were only the same stage in the downward paths of the king and the people. They were, both of them, disobedient and gainsaying still. And it was this case of David’s harp, as I judge, which our Lord had especially in mind, when He said, "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?" — thus likening to Saul that generation of Israel to whom He was preaching, and making the power of David’s harp the same as the power of that preaching. And the parable of the unclean spirit going out and returning with others more wicked than himself, which the Lord then delivers (Luke 11:1-54), is thus a setting forth both of the history of Saul and of that generation. And so we shall find, that the spirit which now went out of Saul came into him again with increased strength, as the casting out of devils and cleansing the house of Israel for a time by the Son of God ended only in His becoming the victim of their lusts and enmity. For Saul was the man after Israel’s heart, the full representative of the revolted and unbelieving nation. But Saul’s sin is not to hinder God’s mercy. David has a work to do with the Philistine, which must be done, be the king never so unworthy. And in this we still see the way of the Son of God. He came to destroy the power of the enemy, as well as to heal the daughter of Zion; and though she, like Saul, may refuse to be healed, the Son of God must do His work upon the great Goliath. He must lead captivity captive. He must make an end of sin. He must break down the middle wall of partition and nail the handwriting to His cross. He must slay the enmity and abolish death. He must accomplish all this glorious triumph over the full power of the enemy, though He find none in Israel, who were His own, to receive Him, nor any in the world, that He had made, to know Him. This again is shame and comfort to us: shame, that we could thus treat His love; comfort that His love survived such treatment. And upon this, I would further notice (for it carries another lesson to ourselves), that though Saul knew the power of David’s harp for a time, he never knew David himself. He had not learnt David, if I may so speak — David was still a stranger to him (1 Samuel 17:56). And how does this tell us of man and of Israel still!* Man will enjoy the rain from heaven, and the fruitful season; but remain ignorant of the Father who orders all this for him. Israel was healed of Jesus, but did not learn Jesus; many pressed on Him in the throng, who never touched Him. And all this is like Saul who could be refreshed by David’s music, but still have to ask, "Abner, whose son is this youth?" *The transposition of the latter part of 1 Samuel 17:1-58 to 1 Samuel 16:1-23 in order to meet the objection which has been made to the fact of Saul not knowing David in 1 Samuel 17:1-58, when he had been so much with him in the preceding one, is, I judge, quite uncalled for; and it does strike me that such efforts as that arise from the book of God being handled more with a critical than with a moral mind. We want the temper of "little children," for "the wise" are taken in their own craftiness. And this, beloved brethren, is truly sad and solemn; and I think I can say that I never felt more awed, while meditating on scripture, with thoughts of what man is, than in this meditation on poor wretched miserable Saul. The subject is indeed very solemn. It gives us the way of man, the way of a child of this world, who goes on in self-will, with desperate purpose of heart, to take the world for his portion at all cost. And it is no theory, nor singular thing. It finds its counterpart in our world every day; and would in ourselves, but for the gracious keeping of our God. And I do pray, beloved, that neither my pen nor your eye may travel on through these dreary paths of man, without our heart feeling what a thing it is thus to live and thus to die a lover of this present evil world. "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." (Proverbs 29:1.) Through the next chapters (1 Samuel 18:1-30; 1 Samuel 19:1-24; 1 Samuel 20:1-42; 1 Samuel 21:1-15; 1 Samuel 22:1-23; 1 Samuel 23:1-29; 1 Samuel 24:1-22; 1 Samuel 25:1-44; 1 Samuel 26:1-25; 1 Samuel 27:1-12.) David becomes the principal object; and all that we see in Saul is only the course of a vexed and disappointed man of the world, who by the goading of his own lusts rushes on to destruction, as a horse to the battle. He feels that he is losing the world, and that is every thing to him. He cared nothing for the kingdom, for its own sake; and he valued its welfare, only so far as that served the world in his heart and his honour among men. The evil spirit now returns with others more wicked than himself. Before, it was a spirit that troubled him, but now it irritates his lusts, and is too strong for the harp of David. (1 Samuel 16:14, 1 Samuel 18:10.) He had now become one of that generation who will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. (Psalms 58:1-11.) The song of the women had, the rather, awakened all the evil passions of his soul; and envy and wounded pride and hatred of the righteous work, and express themselves fearfully through all these scenes. That fatal song was to Saul what Joseph’s dream had been to his brethren, and what the tidings of the wise men was afterwards to Herod — it stirred up all his enmity; and David’s first successes are, of course, only fresh irritations of his lust (1 Samuel 19:8-9); and nothing roots it out. Convictions, disappointments, resolutions all fail. And the ruling passion is strong even in death; for while he confesses that David shall soon have every thing, and he himself be laid in the grave, still he says, "Swear now, therefore, unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father’s house." Truly this is all a solemn warning to us. Saul’s eye was set on fire of hell, and he kept it fixed on the righteous as its prey. "Saul eyed David." And it is not in the power of the prospect, or the approach of death, to heal "the evil eye." The spirit of envy and of strife will work in us, even to the very last gasp; and the only divine cure for it is, to learn through the Holy Ghost, with enlarged hearts, to cease looking to our own personal honour or interest, and to take our place in God’s interests; to know that we have our honour, our enduring honour, only in that mighty and glorious system to which the ten thousands of others, and our own thousands are all contributing. That will give divine victory over the world. But the world was Saul’s end, and he must get it at all cost. He knew nothing beyond "his own," and had never learnt the glorious and enlarging lesson, that all things are our’s, if we are Christ’s, for Christ is God’s. But Saul would have David fall by the hand of another, rather than by his own, for he had some stings of conscience in the business as it was; and beside that, he saw that David was "accepted in the sight of all the people." He plots against his life first by the Philistines, then by his daughter, and at last solicits even Jonathan to be the executioner. But these failing, and only forcing David out from the court and the camp, he then proclaims him a traitor; and would have his people treat him as an outlaw. But no weapon formed against him can prosper. Every snare of the fowler is broken, no craft can surprise, no strength can overthrow him. When the officers of the Jews came to take Jesus, they had to return, saying, — No man ever spake like this man;" and Saul himself and his officers are turned into prophets, that every hand that would bind this anointed of the Lord might be loosed also. And David, in the exile and shame of an outlaw, gathers round him a company, in the world’s esteem, as dishonoured as himself; but who prove the real strength and the only honour of the nation then, and, who afterwards shine in the brightest ranks of the people, when the kingdom is set up in righteousness. For it is to this David, this exiled David and his band of distressed and discontented ones, that Israel look in their trouble (1 Samuel 23:1); and the enemy is made to know, that the presence of the God of Israel is with them. The Philistines are routed by them, and the Amalekites spoiled; but they defend and rescue their exposed and threatened brethren. (1 Sam. 22:25.) Such and other famous deeds are done by them, and the priest and the prophet and the sword of Goliath (the symbol and the spoil of glorious war) are with them. As afterwards with the greater than David, there was another dishonoured company, who still were "the holy seed" of the nation, the publicans and harlots, the Galilean women, and she out of whom He had cast seven devils. Saul and his friends kept court, it is true, and the Scribes and the Pharisees sat in Moses’ seat, but these were whited sepulchres; and the only place of real honour was to go without the camp, and there meet David and Christ, and their dishonoured bands. For this is the blessed way of Him who stains the pride of man, and lifts the beggar from the dunghill. But because David was thus the Lord’s chosen, Saul is his enemy, the victim that his enemy lusted after; and the more wisely David carries himself, and shows that God is with him, the more with infatuated heart Saul fears him and hates him and would fain kill him; in all this, going the way of Satan who, knowing the Son of God in his day, trembled before Him, and yet sought to destroy Him. So fully was Saul found to be of "the children of this world," and "the children of the wicked one;" a suitable king for the revolted Israel, his whole course showing us that nothing is too horrid for man, when God gives him up because of his wickedness. Does not the massacre at Nob, by the hand of his Edomite, show us this? Does not the massacre at Bethlehem by another Saul, show us this? And these are but samples of the ways of that "violent man," in the latter day, who doing according "to his will" shall "go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many." But Saul can weep when he meets David; but so did Esau when he met Jacob. There is, however, no trusting these tears. They may but indicate the stony ground at best, while all the time the heart is not right with God. David could not trust Saul’s tears, but turned away from them to his hold in the wilderness, and says, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul." (1 Samuel 24:1-22; 1 Samuel 27:1-12.) So with the Son of God; when many were believing in Jesus, beholding the miracles which He did, He would not commit himself to them (John 2:1-25); so unworthy is man, though he put forth his best, of the confidence of God. And Saul can prophesy too. But so have others of the same generation. Balaam the prophet prophesied while loving the wages of unrighteousness. Caiaphas the priest prophesied, while he was thirsting for innocent blood. Judas the apostle wrought miracles while he carried the heart of a traitor. And Baalam the prophet, Saul the king, Caiaphas the priest, and Judas the apostle, are all of one generation. A new heart, or "another heart," as a gift for office, had been imparted to each of them, and in the Spirit they prophesied or wrought miracles. But all this tells us that it is not gifts that make us what we should be, and that nothing will do, if the heart be not with God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 02.05. KING SAUL - 28 - 31 ======================================================================== 1 Samuel 28:1-25; 1 Samuel 29:1-11; 1 Samuel 30:1-31; 1 Samuel 31:1-13. My present business I will not forget is with Saul; but I cannot entirely pass by further notices, which these chapters suggest, of David and of Jonathan. In David we see much that is indeed beautiful and excellent, richly savouring of the Spirit of God. But still we see also the failing of man. Troubles prove temptations to him, and such temptations as are at times too strong for him. He lies to Ahimelech, feigns madness before Achish, purposes vengeance on Nabal, and seeks a refuge among the uncircumcised. For such is man found to be even in this, one of his best samples. But such was not the Lord. He stood faultless, the author and finisher of faith. The faith of David at Nob or at Gath was not what it had been in the valley of Elah, but all was full and equal brightness in Jesus from the manger to the tree. In Jonathan also we see beautiful faith. His soul was knit to David the moment he saw him, and he empties himself in order to fill David — he strips himself that he may clothe David. For God gives Jonathan clearly to see the divine purpose touching David. But then the question is, this being so, did Jonathan go far enough? ought he not to have more fully left his father, and joined the little outcast band in the cave of Adullam? and is not his inglorious fall at Gilboa the wages of his unbelief? I judge that is so; and thus Jonathan gives us another proof that there is none perfect but the Lord, that none but He has ever gone the walk of faith without some backward step, some error to the right hand or the left.* *Nabal and Abigail I would also, in addition, notice here for a little. Their history is quite in character with that of Saul and David — gentler in its tone, but still of the same general character. It is a scene in which the woman, the weaker vessel, acts, but acts in the same spirit of faith with David, while the same person, "the fool," or" he violent man," shows himself in Nabal as he had done in Saul. And David and Abigail meet at last, while Saul and Nabal alike perish under the hand of God. David leaves the court of the apostate, and Abigail the house of the fool, and they meet, first, "without the camp," and then "on the throne! And so with the Lord and the church. He like David, has the scene of deeper trial to go through, and the more extended field of toil to go over; but the church, the weaker vessel, has to know in her measure, something of the same, and like Abigail to forsake her home in the faith of her beloved, to leave the house of the fool for the Lord’s anointed. And here let me add that nothing but faith could have warranted either Jonathan’s or Abigail’s conduct. The one would have been a rebellious son, and the other a rebellious wife, had they not both understood and believed God’s purposes concerning David. But God’s claim upon faith knows no rival, and calls for the sacrifice of the claims either of a father or a husband. Human claims fall before it. And thus the Lord, makes upon us the claims of God himself, when He says, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." Had He not come with the very authority of God Himself, He could not have claimed thus much from us; and the heart that answers this claim can say nothing less to him than, "my Lord, and my God." — This is one way in which the scripture preaches His divine glory to us. But I must now hasten to the closing scenes of this solemn and affecting history. For the night of Israel is now setting in with many a dark and heavy cloud. (1 Samuel 28:1-25.) Samuel is dead, the Philistines as strong and threatening as ever, David the deliverer of the people forced without the camp, and our poor king, the slave of his lusts, all fear and confusion. He enquires of God, but there is no answer, even as it is written, "because I have called, and ye refused, I will mock. when your fear cometh." The Lord was now building against him, and setting him in dark places — He was hedging him about, and making his chain heavy, and when he now cried, He shut out his prayer. It was indeed a day of darkness and trouble to Israel, as it will be by and by. There was now a forsaking of the living for the dead, and a seeking unto wizards that peep and that mutter, as there will be in the vexation of the latter day. The day of Israel’s final iniquity is now anticipated — it is "trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish," as it will be then. (Isaiah 8:20-22.) At different seasons of the ripening of man’s iniquity, there has been a confederacy of kings and their counsellors against the Lord and His Anointed. Thus Pharaoh took council with the magicians to withstand Moses. Balak sent for Balaam to curse Israel. The Jews with Caiaphas their counsellor rage against the Lord, and imagine evil. And so in the latter day, the confederacy of the beast and the false prophet will form itself against the power, and in despite of the glory and worship of God. And thus at the close of the iniquity, whether it be in Egypt, in Midian, in Israel or in Christendom, man puts forth his full strength, forming confederacies between the wise ones and the great ones of the earth "The carpenter encourages the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smites the anvil;" but all that is only made to show forth the greater glory of Him who sits above all water-floods. His patience has then been despised, His waiting to be gracious has then been neglected, and "the grounded staff," the decreed vengeance, has only to take its course. And now, in our history, we get another instance of the same desperate effort of man of the consummation of his sin. Saul with the witch of Endor is another apostate king in consultation with his evil counsellor for the filling up the measure of his iniquity. (1 Chronicles 10:1-14.) The cup was now about to be full, and judgment at the doors ready to enter. Saul, I may here observe, had never set up an idol in the land, though that had been so much the way of Israel both before and after him. He had rather been moved with the desire of setting up himself, thus more clearly marking his brotherhood, as I have before observed, with that wilful one of the last days, who is not to regard any God but to magnify himself above all. And with this desire he had already cleared the land of wizards and witches. But even this light was darkness in him, for it was himself and not the God of Israel that he would fain bring in instead of the idol. But now that he is losing himself, and the world, as he fears, is departing from him, he will readily enough strike hands with any helper, and form confederacy with even the witch of Endor. The way which the Lord now takes in hand to deal with this confederacy, is very striking, By his prophet Ezekiel he has said, "Every one that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him according to the multitude of his idols." (Ezekiel 14:1-8.) Now this, I judge, was just the sway of the Lord in this case. Saul was a corrupt man, in whose heart, and before whose face, the world, as his idol and stumbling block, was set; and because of this the Lord now answers him Himself. He takes the business out of the hand of the witch altogether, gives Samuel for a moment according to Saul’s desire, but it is only in judgment, only "according to the multitudes of his idols," only to tell him of the vengeance that was now at the very doors prepared for him, his house, and his people. The witch is set aside, just indeed as Balaam had been. Balak, like Saul, had consulted the prophet; but the prophet, like the witch, had been overruled and disappointed. He could not go beyond the word of the Lord, but simply speaks as the Lord constrained him; as here the witch is confounded, and cries out in fear, not knowing what she saw, for the Lord had taken the business into His own hand according to the word of the prophet. And thus this appearance and word of Samuel was another hand-writing upon the wall, marking judgment against another profane king with the finger of God Himself.* *See another instance of this in the case of Jeroboam and Abijah, (1 Kings 14:1-31.) The Lord thus in Saul illustrates His own principle of acting as revealed by Ezekiel. It was too late now for any thing but an answer in judgment. Like Esau, Saul might have had God for his portion. The birthright was his, but he sold it. For the honour that cometh from man, he sold it, as Esau did for a mess of pottage. And now there is no place of repentance for hum. He beseeches Samuel, but the door was shut, and the master of the house had risen up. And Saul was no more renewed by all this than God was led to repentance by it. The prophet going from the dead will not persuade, where the living prophet has been refused. Esau might weep at the loss of the blessing, but he still hated his brother. So here Saul for a while is amazed and troubled, lying on the earth and refusing to be comforted; but the trouble and amazement pass by, and he takes of the woman’s hand and is refreshed by her dainties. Thus all this is only another stage in his downward path, rather progress than interruption in his dark and evil way. As in Israel His people afterwards, the raising of Lazarus did but strengthen the enmity against the Lord, and carried them onward only the more rapidly to finish their sin at Calvary. (John 11:47.) And now we have only to follow our infatuated king to the place of judgment, the "day of visitation." He had rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord had rejected him. His sin had gone before unto judgment — no inquiry after it need now be made. Every passage of his evil reign had declared it, and now he has only to meet the judgment. Accordingly in the strength of that food which he had received at the hand of his evil counsellor, he goes out against the uncircumcised, but it is only to fall before them. (1 Samuel 31:1-13.) But not the death of all men does he die. He dies as a fool dies, slain by his own sword; his sons fall with him, and his army is routed by the enemies of the Lord. "Saul died, and his three sons, and his armour-bearer, and all his men that same day together." For it was the Lord, and not the Philistines, that had a controversy with him. The day was the Lord’s, and in the day of the Lord the apostate king and his host fall. "’They lie uncircumcised with them that go down to the pit"; and he comes to his end, as another shall do, and there is none to help him. (Daniel 11:45.) Thus all ends in the fearful day of Mount Gilboa. Our king has presented us with a fearful pattern of the apostate and his end. He was one indeed who left his first estate. Chosen, anointed, gifted for office, he stood at first in the full title and exercise of the throne; but by transgression he fell, and his office another is to take. Lost, infatuated, child of this world! Here was death the wages of sin again, here was the end of man’s and of Israel’s way, ruin and confusion and the full power of the enemy, the harvest of whirlwind from the wind which they had sown, the end of that storm of rain and thunder which they had been called to listen to at the beginning of their sin. (1 Samuel 12:1-25.) Our Lord has said, "For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind." So is it in these scenes. (1 Samuel 29:1-11; 1 Samuel 30:1-31; 1 Samuel 31:1-13.) Here "the lame take the prey," and the stout ones "bow down under the prisoners." The poor outcast David with his little goodly band does mighty deeds which are still to be had in remembrance; but Saul, with the strength of his camp and the glory of his court perishes, the sport and reproach of the uncircumcised. The, spoils of Amalek go among David’s friend, while Saul’s armour hangs in the house of Ashtaroth and his head in the temple of Dagon. "This is David’s spoil," was said over Amalek; while the Philistines had to publish every where among their people, that "Saul was dead." Thus are the bows of the mighty broken, while they that stumbled are girded with strength. Because for judgment has the Lord come into the world that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. Well, beloved brethren, surely we have reason to remember Saul, as we are charged by our blessed Master to remember Lot’s wife. In him we see the man of the earth perishing in his own corruptions; and in his history we read the end of one whose inward thought was that his house should have continued for ever, but whose way proved his folly. "Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness." Can you and I sit down on the ruin of all that which Saul lived for, and still find that we have lost nothing? Can we look at the world failing us, and yet know that our real inheritance is untouched? Has "the God of glory" as yet led us out from the world? Have we as yet cast our anchor within the veil? Is our "good thing" with Jesus? O brethren, is there not a cause to sound the warning of the history of Saul in our ears? does it not show us, that "the friendship of the world is enmity against God?" He sought its honour, and what it had to give; and that he might make sure of that, he gave up God. And are not we pressed and tempted by the same world that ruined him? Oh that our blessed, blessed, Lord may, by His grace set our hearts upon Himself, and our eye upon His glory, so that we may stand on the wreck of all that can be wrecked, and still find that our portion is like the everlasting hills! Amen, Lord Jesus! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 03.00. NOTES FROM MEDITATIONS ON LUKE. ======================================================================== Notes from Meditations on Luke. By J. G. Bellett. (Attributed to Present Testimony, Part 65, August, 1866.) (Commentary CMT format) This is a commentary on Luke by Bellett (Brethren). His comments are more or less chapter overview and brief. ---> Contents <--- DCox Luke 1:1-80 and Luke 2:1-52 Luke 3:1-38, Luke 4:1-44, and Luke 5:1-39 Luke 6:1-49 and Luke 7:1-50 Luke 8:1-56 Luke 9:1-62 Luke 10:1-42 Luke 11:1-54 Luke 12:1-59 Luke 13:1-35 Luke 14:1-35 and Luke 15:1-32 Luke 16:1-31 Luke 17:1-37 Luke 18:1-43 Luke 19:1-48 and Luke 20:1-47 Luke 20:1-47 and Luke 21:1-38 Luke 22:1-71 Luke 23:1-56 Luke 24:1-53 STEM Publishing: J. G. Bellett: Luke’s Gospel ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 03.01. LUKE 1 AND LUKE 2 ======================================================================== Luke 1:1-80 and Luke 2:1-52 It is impossible to read Luke 1:1-80 and Luke 2:1-52 of this Gospel without feeling that heaven is opened, and opened very widely too, to the view of earth. Do you enjoy the thought of heaven bringing itself near to you? God is an intrusion to the heart that does not enjoy Him. We ought to read all Scripture with personal application. There was a very beautiful opening of heaven at Jacob’s ladder. Again, it was opened to Stephen when he looked up and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. So in the beginning of Luke, we get the opened heaven communicating with earth, and we ought to have a welcome for such a sight. Things have been going on in a very homely kind of way since the prophets. Then heaven opened with a witness So it will be by-and-by, though there may be a pause now. Zacharias had been serving the Lord in the temple, as others, and the angel’s visit was a surprise to him. He was not quite prepared for it. Listen to the angel’s language: "Fear not." Does the thought of nearness to God awaken alarm in your soul? Very right that it should, in one sense. We are all revolted creatures, but how blessed to see God quieting such alarms! The angel speaks the mind of God "Fear not." Can your heart let in the comfort of that? Do you know what it is to have alarm as a sinner, and then to have your alarm quieted? We must acquaint ourselves with the personal application of these things. Zacharias is not quite prepared, and he confesses it, and the angel rebukes him. There is comfort in this let us examine it. Would it be happy to you if a person did not show confidence in you? Just so it is with the blessed God. So the angel expresses resentment: "I am Gabriel," he says, "that stand in the presence of God." And why, beloved, why is your faith, too, challenged? Have you read the Romans with care? Why does God challenge your faith there? Would it be comfortable to you if God did not care for your confidence? It would not be so between friends. We do not read Scripture with sufficient intimacy of heart. We read it as if we were acquainting ourselves with words and sentences. If, by Scripture, I do not get into nearness to God in heart and conscience, I have not learned the lesson it would teach me. In the sixth month the angel goes up to a distant village of Galilee, to Mary God still communicates with earth. Mary has a more simple faith than Zacharias. How often we see a poor unlettered soul that knows more of the simplicity of the truth of God than many who can talk much of the Bible. Again the angel’s words, "Fear not." Do not pass that. What consolation in the fact that a visitor from heaven had such words upon his lips! He then speaks largely of what God is about to do. And Mary answered, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." Is that the echo of our hearts? What is the proper answer to grace? Faith. If a person shows you a kindness, you accept it. It is the only return you can tender. The grace of God shines out, bringing salvation, and the sinner’s duty is to accept it. The eunuch accepted it and went on his way rejoicing. The joy of faith is responsive to the communication of grace. No element is more responsive to the gospel than joy. I have mistaken the glad tidings if they have not made me happy. If I have so listened to the gospel as to find it glad tidings, my answer is joy. So it was with Mary. Now we get Elizabeth and Mary coming together. I do not know that we find in Scripture a more beautiful sample of communion in the Holy Ghost than here. Elizabeth was the wife of the high priest; Mary, the betrothed of a carpenter. Perhaps they would never have come together but for this. Now they meet not merely in the flesh, but in the spirit. Now Elizabeth bows to Mary as the more highly honoured "And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Communion arises when people forget the flesh and act only in the spirit. There was no grudging on the part of Elizabeth, no pride on the part of Mary; Elizabeth holds herself meekly, Mary holds herself humbly. There is plenty of intercourse nowadays, but too little communion, even among the people of God. Communion is according to relationship in Christ. Now we see a beautiful thing in Zacharias’s mouth being opened. Unbelief had shut it faith opened it. God does not afflict willingly, but personally with an end in view. It was very right that he should be put into silence for a time, but as soon as possible his mouth was opened, wider than ever he counted on. It was but a little bit of the world that heaven had opened upon. The great world lay, as we read in the Luke 2:1-52, in the hands of Caesar. We will leave the big world for a moment and come to the fields of Bethlehem. There is something here exceeding what we get in Luke 1:1-80. We see the glory coming out of the opened heaven, and not one angel, but a host of them. When the poor shepherds tremble at the sight, we hear that word unchanged on the lips of heaven, "Fear not." Again, and again, and again, heaven echoes its own words in speaking to trembling sinners. Do not pass them by as commonplace, unnecessary words, but drink them in. What title had the poor shepherds to them that you and I have not? They were poor sinners. Faith entitled them to it. And the angel said, "Unto you is born . . . a Saviour." Not a judge nor a lawgiver. The grace of God, as the Apostle tells us, brings salvation. The angels talked of salvation. From beginning to end of the book from the woman’s seed down to "Whosoever will" let him come, salvation is the burden. So here "And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Though very easy to us, it cost Christ everything. It brought the Son from the Father to be made flesh; and the beginning of the story of His sorrows is here. The poor weak infant. lying in a manger! The moment He touched the flesh, the story of what His days were to be, began to tell itself out. Suppose I showed you a person, it might be only his back, and say, He did you a kindness once; you could not but look after him with interest. The Lord Jesus has done you a kindness, in the three hours of darkness, and if by faith you entertain the thought, you cannot but be interested in Him. It is a simple, believing mind we want, to bring our minds into contact with the Person of Jesus. The moment the glad tidings are announced, the hosts raise their acclamations. Now the word of the Apostle begins to be accomplished: "God was manifest in the flesh . . . seen of angels." 1 Timothy 3:16. The angels are deeply interested. In the Old Testament we get the cherubic figures hanging over the ark to express their desire to look into the things of Christ. That is the Old Testament form of the New Testament truth. The moment He is manifested, they begin to take up their attitude. The angels come to watch the path of the Son of man. They are interested, and they have less interest in it than you have. The next person that is introduced to us is Simeon in the temple. We find him rehearsing his joy, as the angels and Elizabeth and Mary rehearsed theirs. The Holy Ghost gave him warning who the Child was; and at once, without asking leave of any, he took Him in his arms for salvation. Have you ever acted the part of Simeon and taken Christ in your arms for salvation? We are not indebted to Mary, to the Church, or to the brethren. Faith refuses to be debtor to a fellow creature. A brother may help us; a friend may comfort and cheer our spirits; but as to the question of the soul and eternity, we know nothing but Jesus. What a wretched piece of sophistry it is that sets up Mary for our souls! When it comes to a question of salvation, Mary must stand by, and all the saints in the calendar. Then poor Simeon is ready to depart. "Whom He justified, them He also glorified." The moment the soul is introduced to the blood, it is made meet for the glory. It is very blessed to grow in knowledge, but the moment that by faith I have stepped into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, that moment I am made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Are attainments to be my title? Attainments are very right, but the blood is my title. Would Christian watchfulness allow one carnal thought? No; but still, all that is not my title. The dying thief caught hold of the fountain, and his next step was paradise. So with Simeon salvation in his arms, the crown upon his brow. Next we come to Anna the widow-hearted Anna. Her widowhood is over, exchanged for nuptial beauty and joy. She talks of Him to all. If we were more familiar with these chapters, it would enable us to live much in heaven. Here "Heaven comes down our souls to greet." Is there cloud, sorrow, defilement there? Look at the angels with joy and shining garments. There is joy and strength in His presence. Under the law, no priest had any more right there in sorrow than in pollution. If heaven is the place of unspotted holiness, it is the place of unchecked joy. At the close of the chapter, we get a little bit ashamed of Mary. She is the only one that leaves a blot on these chapters. Zacharias did, but it was more than compensated by his returning faith. And this Mary is the one in whom men boast! O the subtlety of Satan! He will place anything between the heart and Christ. Ah, none but Jesus! Commit your souls to none but Christ. Even when a gift exercises itself before me, I am to judge it; but where the committal of your soul is concerned, "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace." There is a thing abroad in Christendom that tells me to commit my soul to the Church. Will I? By God’s help never. May God acquaint our consciences with Jesus for sufficiency, and our hearts with Him for satisfaction. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 03.02. LUKE 3, LUKE 4 AND LUKE 5 ======================================================================== Luke 3:1-38, Luke 4:1-44, and Luke 5:1-39 We looked at Luke 1:1-80 and Luke 2:1-52 of this Gospel in our last meditation. Let us now look at Luke 3:1-38. There is a great interval between the time of Luke 1:1-80 and Luke 2:1-52, and that of Luke 3:1-38. We get the Lord there in infancy and boyhood. Now He has travelled on to the age of 30 years. I ask, What sense are we to have of the Lord during that period of 18 years? What apprehension of Him is my soul to take? The answer is intimated in the closing verses of Luke 2:1-52; and the intimation is full of meaning. He was all that time under the law, growing up as an untainted sheaf, and the only untainted sheaf of human fruit "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." This was the proper fruit of fulfilling the law. By-and-by He provoked much enmity. But suppose I fulfilled the law, and loved my neighbour as myself; should not I grow in favour with all men? So with the Lord. There is nothing more interesting than this, and I invite you to consider it. One act of complacency waited on Him from the manger to the cross perfect complacency in the mind of God. The complacency might change its character, but not its quantity. There was not a single flaw in it from first till last. It is delightful to know that one such person has passed before the mind of God. He was equally perfect growing up in subjection to His parents as when the veil was rent. Eighteen years have passed, and now we find Him introduced to His present ministry. He has magnified God under the law, and now He comes forth to walk among men as the witness of grace a vessel about to display the grace of God to a ruined world. We must be prepared for tracking His path in its varied glory. Now we see Him as the perfect one under the gospel. He was introduced by John. John preached the baptism of repentance. "Bring forth . . . fruits worthy of repentance." Moses had prescribed a law, and they failed to keep it. John prescribed repentance, and they failed in that too. Then the Lord comes and dispenses grace. Supposing I had offended you, you would be disposed to give me space for repentance. This is just the ministry of John. The way of God is so simple that a wayfaring man will not err as he tracks it. Man broke the law, but before God gave him up, He gave him space to repent. He failed in that, so we see that whether he was tried by law, or by ability to repent, he failed under all. We must each one conclude that this poor self is a ruined thing. I have destroyed myself, but in God is my help. The Lord comes to John, but He is not kept under John’s ministry for a single hour. Ere He left the water, the Holy Ghost descended as a dove, and ordained Him for His ministry. Why was this? For a most simple and beautiful reason. There could be no fruit of repentance demanded from one who had never broken the law. You would not ask a person who had never erred, to repent. He would fulfil all righteousness. This was the divine appointment, and He would pass under it; but He could not stay under it for a moment. The moral beauty of this is perfect. We see the Lord fulfilling all the demands of Moses for thirty years; and though He passes under John’s baptism, He does not stay under it for a moment. Now He goes forth to do His own work. Now we see a minister, not coming with demands upon you and me, but bringing something to you and to me. Moses and John came in the way of righteousness. The difference is this: The law exposes yourself in all your failure; the gospel reveals God in the plenitude and riches of His grace, for salvation. Now we enter Luke 4:1-44, and it is beautiful. Now that the Lord has been ordained, what is the first thing He ought to do? What is the first thing any man ought to do before he speaks to another? Speak to himself. Do not speak to another and carry a careless heart yourself. "Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?" Romans 2:21. Now, before the Lord goes to assail Satan, He must withstand Satan. He lets him see that he has nothing in Him. If I take part in evil, I cannot rebuke it. So now He lets the devil see that there was not one single principle or touch of the power of darkness in Himself. The Holy Ghost leads Him up as the champion of holiness as the champion of light to contend with darkness, and His victory was complete. Satan may come in every form. He tries to get into the Lord what he got into Adam, but he utterly failed here, as he entirely succeeded before. In Genesis 3:1-24 you get the defeat of man; here you get the victory of man. Did you ever study with interest the Lord’s being tempted? It is our stupidity that does not make every scene, jot and tittle of His journey interesting to us. The Lord lets us know that "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." John 14:30. Now He returns in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. Under the power of the Spirit, He goes into the synagogue and teaches: and, as He teaches, He opens the book of the prophet Esaias. He does not find it open, but finds the place Himself. I pray you mark that. Why does He turn it over till He comes to Isaiah 61:1-11. Because Isaiah 61:1-11 is the deep, earnest, precious expression of the ministry He was entering upon the ministry of grace. It was the very language that expressed the infinite varied grace that was about to mark His ministry. Do you believe that you and I are entitled to listen to such a voice? It makes no demands on me, as did Moses and John. I am called to listen to One that is doing everything for me. How do you find secret communion of heart with God? as a judge or as a Saviour? Nature puts you before Him in the character of a judge; the gospel puts you before Him in the character of a Saviour. While you are figuring God to yourself as making demands upon you, you are under law. If you are listening with ravished attention to grace, you are under the gospel. Oh, happy soul that knows what it is to listen to Jesus! It will do more for the purifying of the soul than can Moses and John. "The joy of the LORD is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10. If I drink it in, it will make my heart too glad for it to serve my pride and vanity. Then He closed the book as much as to tell them, That is everything. Do I believe, when I have listened, that there is my rest forever? Happy the poor sinner that takes up that attitude that closes his heart where Jesus closed the book. The people marvelled at His gracious words. At the close they said, "Is not this Joseph’s son?" What principle in human nature dictated that? It was their pride that could not brook the thought that the carpenter’s son should be their teacher. They wanted a teacher from the college fresh from the hand of man. The Lord finds out the two currents in their hearts. Supposing a mere sentiment awakens in your mind; is there any moral power in it? There was sentiment here, but pride got the mastery. Nothing will do but faith that principle that lays hold on Jesus. Their fine admiration is gone; they are a defeated people. Their sentiment has been obliged to yield to a stronger current of pride, and they would have cast Him over the brow of the hill. He that trusts his heart is a fool. There is much excitement abroad now, and I welcome it, but I do not trust it. There must be a hold on Christ to secure victory. The lusts of the heart are too powerful to yield to excitement Then we find Him teaching in the synagogue, and they were amazed at His word; and, at the setting of the sun, He healed all that were sick. And now I will introduce you to Luke 5:1-39, just to show how and where it is that the link is to be formed between Him and you. Admiration, as we have seen, will not form it, nor the healing of the body, of the ten lepers, but one returned to give glory. Nothing but a work in the conscience will do. You must learn your need learn that a poor sinner cannot do without Him. Then the link is formed for eternity. We get this in Peter. How blessed to see this simplicity! The world is full of its wisdom, its religion, and its speculations. The gospel makes short work of it. It lets me know that I need a Saviour, and then shows me that I have a Saviour. If any soul cannot comfortably say, I have Him, I just ask, Do you want Him? If so, you are welcome to Him. "He stood by the lake of Gennesaret," and He entered into a boat. It was Peter’s. Peter was a good-hearted man, and would lend Him a boat. It is simply told. So He taught the people, and when that was done, He said, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." Well, said Peter, We will, but we have toiled all night and caught nothing. It was the reply of a good-natured man, willing to lend his boat to a stranger, and do a little thing the stranger asked him. But when Peter saw the multitude of fishes, the Spirit was forming a link that never was to be broken; he cried, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." What had taught him that? The draught of fishes was the expression, to his conscience, of divine glory. The veil had dropped off from the face of the Nazarene, and the glory of God shone out. Who but God could have commanded the wealth of the lake into Peter’s net? So Peter’s conscience, coming in contact with the glory, found out that he was a sinner. How do you know you are a sinner? Because if God broke the blue heavens and came down, you could no more stand before Him than did Adam. You would call on the rocks to cover you. There was the happiest intercourse between God and Adam in Genesis 2:1-25. In Genesis 3:1-24, Adam flies from Him and hides himself behind the trees of the garden. This is just the difference between innocence and sin. Peter says, "Depart from me," and what is the Lord’s answer? If you have found out, poor sinner, that you want Me, you shall have Me. Fear not. Has that intercourse ever gone on between you and Christ? Have you found out that you are a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is your all in all? You may spend your admiration, scholarship, sentiment, on the Book. It will not do. Your conscience must have to do with Him. How simple it is! How worthy of God to be so simple! "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." 2 Corinthians 4:6. He who said, "Let there be light," said also, "Believe and be saved." We have pursued our meditation down to the middle of Luke 5:1-39, and have seen the Lord introduced to His ministry. If we scan with attention the characteristics of His ministry, we shall find out the mind of God. What the Lord was, God is. He tells us Himself, not by the lengthened descriptions of others, but by acting and speaking Himself. Would not we much rather learn Him from His own activities, than let another describe Him to us? We do not spend our time describing ourselves to others; we let our actions speak for us. We ought not to pass such a thought without blessing Him! The Son has come into our midst, not merely personally by incarnation, but He has brought Himself into the history of everyday transactions, and can say, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Shall we sit down to mark the characteristics of His ministry with increased desire? It is a highway cast up, to lead us to the bosom of the Father. We discern God Himself in the activities of the Lord’s speaking and doing. The heavens declare His glory, and the firmament shows His handiwork; but the firmament has no glory, by reason of that which excels. Does anyone who has seen Him in the face of Jesus need to go up to the heavens to seek Him? Could the heart be satisfied there? If I have discovered the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, His glories in the heavens and in the flowers cannot satisfy me. It is like sending a man back to the alphabet after he has read some of the precious treasures of a language. Christ is your lesson as well as your teacher. I could not do with Him exactly as a teacher only. What would He teach me? But when He sits before me as a lesson, I have but to read my lesson. We find out in His ministry the moral glory that characterizes Himself, and he that has seen Him has seen the Father. In the opening of Luke 5:1-39 we see the link formed between Christ and Peter. In Luke 4:1-44 we saw how admiration failed to form that link. What admiration formed went to pieces under the assault of the pride of life. So also the healing of the body formed no permanent link. Those who were healed could come and go, but the moment conscience forges the link, it is not coming and going, but coming and staying. Yes, and until this hour it is the same thing. If we are not conscious that there is a link between the conscience and Christ, there is no link that will abide. To be sure, it is right to admire, but if we merely admire, the link may be shattered by the first blow of pride; but if you cry out, I want Thee, and cannot let Thee go, that is Peter’s place; and he and Christ were joined for eternity. Nothing can be simpler. I would not have anything but my necessity bind me to Christ, and when that link is formed, it is so blessed that I would not exchange it for anything. Adam outside the garden knew more of God than when inside. It was no condescension for God to make the heavens, but He must have emptied Himself to make a coat for a poor naked sinner. Genesis 3:1-24 might well prepare me for John 13:1-38. I am not surprised to see the Lord washing the disciples’ feet. God delights in the work of grace. Adam might have walked through the flowers of Eden for eternity, and never have found out God in that character. Do you think he would have exchanged his pardoned for his innocent state? his clothed for his naked state? He had found out God in a richer way than ever he would have done as an untainted man. So in Ephesians 3:1-21 we find the angels have to learn through the Church the manifold wisdom of God the tale of divine goodness through pardoned sinners. Now let us look at some of the characteristics of the Lord’s ministry. First we come to the poor leper. What does he say? "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." Do you believe in the reality of the varied ministerial glories of Christ? Then delight in it. Is the first thing I have to do to imitate Him? My soul deeply says that the duty that attaches to the first look at Christ, is delight to be "lost in wonder, love, and praise." Then, if such an object pass before me, I say I will appropriate it. I say, That is for me. This is the duty of faith the obedient attitude of faith. When I can trust myself to Him, that is the most blessed obedience I can render. The leper comes with a half heart "Lord, if Thou wilt." It was a shabby thought. We should be ashamed to come to one another and say, You have a hand if you have a heart. I say it was a shabby thought, but the Lord bore with it. "I will," He says, "be thou clean." Can you trust the heart of Christ? Faith says it can trust the heart of Christ better than any other heart. Here is comfort. I may be very conscious that I have approached Him feebly. Fallen human nature is a legalist an arrant unbeliever. But I am encouraged here to know that though my approach may be feeble, the answer will be blessedly full. Next we have a poor palsied man, let down through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. How does He treat him? The moment He looked at him He said, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." How magnificent! The same condescension that comes down to a weak faith, delights in a bold faith. When Jacob said to the Lord, in Genesis, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me," how did the Lord entertain the thought? Just as He did here. He allowed Himself to be overcome. If He condescends to a feeble faith, He allows Himself to be overcome by a bold faith. When the blind beggar met Him, what happened? His bold faith commanded Christ. "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" He commanded all His resources. Does not such a picture of Jesus suit you? It is It worthy of Him, but it suits you. If you approach Him with a bold, unclouded faith, He will delight in it. Mark now, "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?" He intimates here, that as the poor palsied man got up and glorified God, so you, coming to Him as a sinner, should rise up and go out glorifying God. He who could say, "Rise up and walk," could say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." The Lord is His own commentator and He tells you that even though you cannot bring your diseased body to Him to be healed, you can bring your sins. He is the text and the commentator, so that He may give the lesson and then comment upon it, till He lays it down at your own door. The act happened almost 2000 years ago, but by the comment of the Lord, I have the pardon of my sins laid down at my own door today. We are still pursuing the discovery of Christ, and at Luke 5:27 Levi is called. The Lord simply said, "Follow Me," but Matthew felt His power. He brought in the hidden operative power of the Holy Ghost. How was Lydia’s heart opened? Who saw the operation? "The wind bloweth where it listeth." The Lord was opening the heart while Paul was addressing the ear. So here, the Lord was addressing Levi while the Spirit of the Lord was opening his heart. Suppose you are happy in Christ; will you attribute it to nature? No; learn in simplicity to trace it to Christ. What virtue was there in the words, "Follow Me"? None; and yet in spite of himself, he rose up and followed Jesus. It was the wind blowing where it listed. What carried Zaccheus through the crowd and up into the tree? It was the drawings of the Father in the hidden energy of the Holy Ghost that threw the bands and cords round him to draw him to Jesus. What mighty power was detaching Levi from everything he had in the world? It was the voice of the Lord that breaks the cedars. Do you know such a moment? We should never have been at the feet of Jesus if the Lord had not drawn us. Levi rose at His bidding. And he made Him a feast and, with blessed beautiful intelligence, what company is it he brings? The very company that the Lord came to seek and to save. This was power clothing itself in light strength accompanied by intelligence. The moment he is in company with the Lord, he knows the atmosphere he is in. What spreads a feast for Christ? knowledge of Himself. That is what spread the feast here. The poor prodigal spread a feast for Him, and the Lord found delight at the table. He quickly transfigures Himself from the guest into the host, as He did at another time, with the disciples going to Emmaus. He makes Levi’s feast His own He answers the Pharisees, Do not complain; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. I came, I spread the feast, not Levi. Levi had spread the feast, but he spread it in deep-hearted sympathy with the mind of His Master. Have you ever in your house a table of which the Lord could say that He spread it, and not you? that He could appropriate it? How blessed to get into such personal intimacy with Him! Oh, let the Pharisees to this day break their heads over this! What villainous Pharisaism lurks about you and me! What should we do if Christ had not come to spread a table for poor sinners? Joy in Christ is what you and I want. If we had more of that, we should have more victory over the world. The Lord then puts an interesting figure before their thoughts. It is the bustle of the bride-chamber we are in now. We are on the way to the marriage. It is a happy bustle the foreshadowings of a blissful day. Is your spirit breathing that atmosphere? Do you know the activities that suit the children of the bride-chamber? Oh, if I knew the atmosphere that suits the place preparing for the joys of Christ, the old wine would have little power over me! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 03.03. LUKE 6 AND LUKE 7 ======================================================================== Luke 6:1-49 and Luke 7:1-50 We are meditating on this Gospel with the purpose of discovering the ministerial glories of Christ. Every jot and tittle ought to have an interest with us, because if we discover the ministry of Christ, we discover Himself. It is the complexion of all that He was. It is not so with us. We are all more or less deceitful in our ways. Then we travel from that up to God Himself. Man by wisdom knows Him not, but in the face of Jesus Christ we do know Him; and the more we discover the lineaments of His face, the more we know of the Father. We should acquaint ourselves with Him as reflected in the ways of Jesus. We can track our way back to His presence only through Jesus. His precious death is my title to put my foot on the road, and all that He is and was is my light on the road. "The second sabbath after the first," is generally supposed to be some one sabbath between the Passover and Pentecost. On this occasion, as they were passing through the cornfields, His disciples plucked the ears of corn. The Pharisees objected, and this brings out a beautiful commentary on the temple (Luke 6:3-4). What was the Lord doing after creation? Resting. And has He not had creation rest disturbed? To be sure He has, as John 5:17 declares distinctly, when the Pharisees complain of His breaking the sabbath. The moment His rest was disturbed, He became a workman afresh, and prepared a coat for Adam. When sin turned Him out of creation rest, He entered upon the work of redemption. In the opening of Genesis, He comes forth as the Creator, and on the seventh day He rests. Man intrudes and disturbs His rest; and the Creator sets to work again. He is not overcome of evil, but overcomes evil with good. He sets to work for the very creature that had disturbed His rest. He quickens one poor sinner after another, till we shall see the sabbath of redemption the rest which is called glory. Creation rest depended on the fidelity of Adam; it was lost. Redemption rests on the blood of Christ, and can never be lost. If their ox or their ass fell into a pit, they would trespass on the sabbath. So God trespasses on it. The rest of the Redeemer was intruded on the rest of the Creator. We are debtors to Him for our eternity. He quotes Hosea (Matthew 12:7), "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." He is not looking for you to bring something to Him, but He brings something to you. If only we were happy in Him, we would work much better for Him. It is joy in Christ that gives victory over the world. Why are we all in subjection to the world? Just because we have not found in Christ all the joy we ought to find. If I rightly use the grace of God, it will purify me. As Titus says, "The grace of God... hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" God links my redemption with my purification. Next we get the choosing of the twelve. In Matthew we have only the choosing of the twelve; here the seventy are also chosen, because the Lord shows Himself in a larger character. There He is rather as the Son of David; here He is the Son of man. Therefore the seventy are sent out, to show how illimitable is the grace of God that surveyed the whole family of man. Salvation is to all the world. The twelve were confined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Contrast that with Paul’s wide-spread ministry in The Acts; and "that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth." The Apostle of the Gentiles was standing as the representative of the present ministry of God. That ministry stretches to the ends of the earth. After the choosing of the twelve, He came down into the plain; and great multitudes came to Him, and He healed all their diseases. He was a divine visitor to this world a heavenly stranger among men a divine visitor to men. He had not where to lay His head while He was visiting their necessities with all the resources of God. This is the ideal of a saint of God to be independent of all that the world can give, while, with open heart and lavish hand, bestowing upon it all the benefits and blessings of God. If he is a mere heavenly stranger, he may be an ascetic, if a visitor only to the world, he may get involved in its corruptions. In this chapter there is an epitomized presentation of the sermon on the mount. It begins with the poor, the hungry, the mourner, and tells them that they are "blessed." Now, would that have been the voice of God when He had accomplished His creation? In Genesis 2:1-25 He put Adam among the fruits and Rowers of Eden an obedient creation. Enjoyment was the duty then, but patience now. God has not put me here to enjoy myself, as He did Adam. Sin has cast out the Lord of glory, the Prince of life, and my proper place is patience. It is not, blessed are they that walk amidst the fruit and Bowers, but, blessed are they that suffer, they that mourn, they that are persecuted. We have seen the Lord in infancy and then as a healer. Now we have Him as a teacher, and the burden of His teaching is, I call you not to enjoyment, but to patience. Was Adam in the garden to be poor? There was no end of his wealth. But there is a new kind of blessedness now, because He who became poor has been in the world. God is a stranger now in a defiled world, and are you and I to settle down in a world where Christ has been crucified? We will not go through these verses, but that is the burden of them. In patience possess your souls; do not count upon enjoyment. In Luke 7:1-50 we find the Lord in company with the centurion. Two needy ones crossed the path of our Lord here the widow of Nain and the centurion. The centurion took his place at once, and he pleads through the Jews. This is a beautiful instance of the intelligence of faith. He took his place as a Gentile, having no right to approach immediately to the Lord, but comes through His own nation. There is great beauty in the intelligence of an understanding illuminated by the mind of Christ. He approached by the right door got at the Lord by the elders of the Jews. And the Lord says, I will go. Then, at the due time, he began to be busy when Jesus was on the road. He did not begin by going to Him, but the moment He was on the way to the house, it was time for the centurion to begin to stir himself. We want these fine touches of the mind of Christ, for we are not only cold and narrow, but awkward and clumsy. By a Spirit- led soul we get all this beauty. Now, he says, Lord, I am not worthy, but speak the word only, and it is enough. Servants are at my bidding, he says, but diseases are at Yours now. I pity the soul that cannot enjoy such a specimen of the workmanship of the Spirit. That is communion, when we can sit together and enjoy one another as the workmanship of the Spirit. The Lord marvelled. It was the marvel of deep and rich enjoyment. Nothing in this world refreshed Christ but the traces of His own hand. The joy of the woman at the well of Sychar did not come up to her Saviour’s joy. So here, He was overwhelmed for the moment. To speak after the manner of men, He did not know what to do with it. Christ found no water in this world, but when the Holy Ghost knocked a poor rocky heart to pieces, then there was water for Jesus. Now we have the widow of Nain. The Spirit presents, in a few words, the deep loneliness of her condition. The dead man was "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." The heart of Jesus was arrested, and then He arrested the bier of the dead young man. His compassions always went before His mercies. It is commonly said that the heart moves the hand. Do you not prize a blessing that comes to you in that way? Salvation came gushing forth from the heart of Christ. To say that the cross of Christ is the source of our blessedness, would be slandering the heart of God. God loved the world, and sent His Son; Christ’s heart went before His hand. A blessing from Christ is given, as Jeremiah says, with His whole heart and His whole soul. "He came and touched the bier." He was undefilable, or He must have gone to the priest to cleanse Himself after touching it. Did Christ ever need the washings of the sanctuary? He might have restored the young man without touching him, but He has God’s relationship to iniquity. He not only stood apart from the actuality of sin, but from the possibility of it. "And He delivered him to his mother." Let me be bold and say, The Lord does not save you that you may serve Him. To suggest the thought would be to qualify the beauty of grace. He did not say, I give you life that you may spend it for Me. Let His love constrain you to spend and be spent for Him, but He never stands before your heart and says, Now I will forgive you if you will serve Me. Surely, He had purchased him; yet He gave him back to his mother. Yet you and I go back to the world, and seek to make ourselves happy and important in it. Ah, throw the cords of love around your heart, and keep it fast by Jesus! Amen. We have now reached the well-known mission of John the Baptist to the Lord. We were observing that the Lord’s ministry is the discovery of Himself, because everything about Him was infinitely truthful. So also it is a highway cast up before us by which to reach the blessed God. If man seeks by wisdom to reach Him, His answer is, I dwell in this darkness; but when we follow Him through Jesus, we get Him in His full glory Now John sends his messengers to inquire, "Art Thou He that should come? or look we for another?" There is such a thing as faith, and the patience of faith. Abraham illustrated both of these. He was called out to listen to the promise in the starlit night, and he believed God; that was simple faith. Afterward, he was called to give up all he hoped in; that was the patience of faith. That is where John failed. He believed, and pointed out the Lamb of God, but the prison was too much for him. He was a choice servant, but he failed in this, and did not like being passed by when others were being attended to. He was offended. Therefore he sends this unbelieving and rather a little insulting message. It was very faulty, but the Lord bore with it. He stood as the champion of God’s rights in the world, but He passed by every insult to Himself. This was part of His moral perfection. He does not resent John’s insulting style, but sends a word home to him that none but he could understand. "Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me." He couched His rebuke in such terms that none could decipher it but the conscience of John. If I find a fault in anyone, nature disposes me to go and whisper it in the ear of a neighbour. The blessed Lord did exactly the contrary. He saw that John was not quite prepared for what the service of Christ brought upon him. If another trespasses against you, you ought to rebuke him, but take care to tell him his fault between him and you alone. It is as if the Lord had written an admonishing letter in a language that none but John could understand. It is equally beautiful when He turns to the multitude. He paints two or three dark grounds to set off John to them. The first is a reed, and by that He shews out John; then, king’s courts; then all that are born of women. He is presenting these things that John might shine out in relief. How perfect the Lord’s path is! He sends a message of rebuke to John’s conscience, and then turns round and sets him out in every way He can. Now what is meant by, "He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he"? Did you ever look upon John as greater than Moses or David? No. It is not the person the Lord speaks of here, but this secret that God’s ways are always advancing, as from the prophetic to the evangelic. In this way John was greater than all that were born of women. He was not personally above Moses, but he stood in an advanced stage of God’s dispensational purposes. So now, every saint, however feeble or strong, is in a higher dispensational condition than John, Moses, or David. The light of His unfolding purposes shines brighter and brighter. You stand in the resurrection and in the risen glories of Christ; and will anyone tell me that it is not a higher place than Moses had? In Luke 7:31 He looks at the generation and says, Now what are you like? How He delights to hang over His servant John! He has got John before Him here, and He puts him in company with Himself. In substance He says, "We have come to you, children of the market-place, both piping and lamenting, and you have neither danced nor wept." The hand of God is very skilful in touching the instrument, but He can get, no, not one note of music in return. That is you and me, beloved; for the Lord is delineating our common nature, and He says God’s finger has touched the instrument in every possible way, and He can get no answer. "In me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." Let us pause for a little at Luke 7:36. Did you ever consult the occasions on which the Lord is seen at different tables? We see Him at the Pharisee’s, at Levi’s, at Zaccheus’s, with the two disciples going to Emmaus, and at the table at Bethany. What an interesting theme for meditation, to see the Lord sitting and forming one of a family scene in this social world of ours! He occupies each table in a different manner. In Luke 7:1-50 and Luke 14:1-35, He sits at the tables of two Pharisees in the character He had earned outside. He goes there, not to sanction the scene, but because He is invited. One Pharisee may have a better apprehension of Him than the other, but He goes in on the credit of the man He was when outside. He continues to be the teacher in the chapter before us. He has a right to be a teacher or a rebuker, because it was in that character He was invited when outside. Then we see Him at the house of Levi. Levi had been called, and left all and followed Him, and was so impregnated with the mind of the One he had invited, that he puts publicans and sinners at the table with Him. The Lord sits there, not as a teacher, but as a Saviour. How beautifully He can thus morally transfigure Himself! Then, when the Pharisees complain, He pleads for Levi and the poor publicans with him: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Zaccheus had just been moved by a desire to see Him, and He calls him by his name, "Zaccheus, make haste, and come down." He went in as one that had been desired, and would gratify that desire. He said, as it were, You have looked for a passing sight at Me, and I will abide all day with you. Do you look around in the gospel for these glittering rays of His moral glory? He does not violate His character in any of these. He goes to Zaccheus as one who would cherish and nourish an infant’s desire. Now we come to look at the disciples journeying to Emmaus. Here we get two, I will not call them backsliders, but two who had got under the power of unbelief. "O fools, and slow of heart," He calls them, but He does not leave them till He leaves them with kindled hearts. It was a kindled heart that said, "Abide with us," and He stays till He could have them, in spite of the nightfall, go back to Jerusalem and tell that they had seen the Lord. Last, we see Him at Bethany, not here as a teacher or a Saviour, but as a familiar friend, one who adopts completely the sweet and gracious truth of the Christian homestead; and He would have left the family scene as He found it, if Martha had not stepped out of her place. She might have been a housekeeper still, but the moment she leaves her place and becomes a teacher, He will rebuke her. In the case before us, in the Pharisee’s house, we have two persons. This is the most complete expression we get in the gospels of a consciously accepted sinner. She came, knowing that her sins were forgiven, and bringing everything she had with her, her heart, her person, and her wealth. This is a beautiful witness of what we would be if the sense of salvation were simple with us. The Lord entered into Simon’s reasonings, but they were lost on the woman. One loves the soul that is resting peacefully in the conclusion, "I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine." If the reasonings of a doubtful mind are lost on you, happy are you! So happily have thousands reached this conclusion, that they cannot understand the reasonings of others. She is occupied with her joy. Another thing: When the Lord speaks to Simon about her, it is of what she has done; when He speaks to her ear, it is, "Thy faith hath saved thee." It was not her love, but her faith that saved her. Was that a cold word? Do you ever suspect the Lord of treating you coldly? She might have thought it a cold word, but go behind her back and hear His words: Simon, do you see her? Was that a cold heart? So if in His direct immediate providence He seems to deal coldly with you, just go behind what is behind your own back, so to speak. Do not judge Him by His providence to your face, but by the love that never, no, never forsakes you, but has recorded in His book every cup of cold water given in His name. Let us pray that He will keep us near Him. We want, inside, to be as near to Christ as ever we can get, and outside, to go on from victory to victory in His name. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 03.04. LUKE 8 ======================================================================== Luke 8:1-56 This chapter is the beginning of a series Luke 8:1-56, Luke 9:1-62, and Luke 10:1-42. Luke 8:1-56 is the Lord’s own ministry, Luke 9:1-62 is the ministry of the twelve, and Luke 10:1-42 is the ministry of the seventy. The very fact that we have the ministry of the seventy is symptomatic of Luke’s Gospel. Very properly, we do not get it in Matthew. The Lord is there in contact with the Jew, and the ministry sent forth is accommodated to the Jew. Here He was more on moral ground, and human ground, and therefore He sends forth a ministry characterizing the gospel sent forth largely to the whole human family. Did you ever think it a strange thing that the kingdom of God had to be preached in this world? It is a witness against the world that God has to publish His claims in it. The Lord has not only to announce that which meets the necessity of sinners, but God’s rights in the world. We find that God lays His claim to me, as well as makes provision for me. I cannot accept salvation without bowing to His claims. The Creator has to publish His rights in His own creation. What a thought! Earth in mad rebellion against its Creator! We get both these thoughts in what is called preaching the gospel, and preaching the kingdom of God. God is proposing His rights to man, as well as revealing His provision for man. When the Lord went forth, how was He attended? By the twelve by men that had been attracted to Him, and women out of whom He had cast devils. That is His suited train quite a different train from that of Him who comes upon the white horse in judgment. That is a suited train too. "The armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses"; but this is a degraded company, and the more largely you sum up the account of their degradation, the more you magnify the grace of Him who led them on. It will not be so when He comes in judgment. The chapter begins with the parable of the sower. Do you think you have found the secret of that parable? It is to expose man. The seed was one and the same, but the dropping of the seed here and there was to expose the character of the soil. The seed makes manifest the soil. There is not a heart that is not seen in one or the other of these soils. The first character is the highway; that is where the devil prevails. The second is the rock; that is where nature prevails. The third is the thorny ground; that is where the world prevails. The fourth is the good ground; that is where the Holy Ghost prevails. If you examine your heart, day by day, you will find that one of these has its pleasure with you. The business of the parable is to expose you to yourself, and to make manifest the four secret influences under the power of which we are all morally moving every hour. Take the joy of the stony ground hearer. It is well to rejoice, but, if when I listen to the claims of God my conscience is not reached, that is a bad symptom. It is the levity and sensibility of nature. How wretchedly we are treating God if we do not deal with Him in conscience! If I have revolted from such a one, am I to return to Him without conviction of conscience? It would be an insult to Him. Supposing I had insulted you, would it be well for me to come and talk to you about some light matter? We have all insulted God, and are we to come to Him with a little animal-like joy? The thorny ground hearers are a grave-hearted people that weigh everything in anxious balances. They carry the balances in their pocket, and try the importance of everything; but the mischief is that, as they weigh, they make the world as heavy as Christ. Are we not often conscious of that calculating spirit prevailing? In contrast with the others, we get the good ground. We are not told what has made it good, but suppose we have the devil, nature, and the world (in the first three parables), what is the only remaining influence? There is nothing but the Holy Ghost. It is very needful nowadays to testify that the plow must come before the seed basket. What makes the heart good? He that has gone forth to plow the fallow ground and sow the seed. God could never get a blade of grass from our hearts if He did not work Himself. The heart can never have anything for God that has not gone through the process of the plow. Be it with the light measure of the eunuch, or the deeper strength of the jailer, the plow must go through the fallow ground. Those of the thorny ground talk of their farm, their business, their merchandise. Those by the highway say, Oh, let us think of it tomorrow. Then too, there is a sensibility that can rejoice under a sermon. It is happy for me that my conscience has to do with God, for when my conscience has to do with Him, then everything has to do with Him. We should try to get our hearts into the ministerial glories of Christ. Then we have Himself, because everything that passed from Him had the mark of deep truthfulness. Then, if we reach Himself, we reach God. It is the way we are introduced to God in this world. The world is full of its speculations about God, and the issue of them all is thick darkness which the wisdom of man finds impenetrable; but in Christ we find nothing less than the full glory of God. Let me take the happy path of studying Jesus. By that blessed happy path I can study the Father. Now we come to a little passage in His life. "On a certain day... He went into a ship," and He fell asleep. "So He giveth His beloved sleep." Now if the disciples had been wise, what would they have done? With what intent and worshipping gaze would they have looked at their sleeping Master! The musing of their hearts would have been, Let winds and waves arise; He has said, Let us go to the other side, and that is the pledge of safety. They might have gone to sleep with their Master but, instead, they look at the rising waves, and cry, "Master, we perish." Are you often, in providence, called into company with a sleeping Jesus? He does not always manifest Himself at your side; nevertheless, He has said, "Let us go over unto the other side." His thought is on the end of the journey yours and mine on the path. He never would have slept if He had not pledged them the end of the journey. Then, when the Lord makes good all that He had promised, they reap astonishment where they should have reaped worshipping admiration. Have you not often found it so? How often He comes down to your level when you cannot reach His elevation! The result is a poor experience instead of a bright and sunny experience. If He cannot take you up on the wings of faith to His elevation, He will come down and save you to the end, though He will show you what you have lost. Now we get three cases together: Jesus in Gadara, in the crowd, and at the bedside. It is a series of victories. First we see Him in Gadara. Here is the strength of Satan displayed. He did not wait on faith here. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and would destroy them. In the case of the poor woman in the crowd, He waits for and upon faith. We have often marked the traces of His grace and the pathway of His glory. Nothing could meet this poor captive of Satan. Human power left him as it found him. The Lord delivers him, and deliverance in His hand is as perfect as captivity in Satan’s. Yes, and something more. His restoration is more than mere restoration. Restoration would never describe the ways of God. With Him it is a bringing forth of fresh glories from ruins. Not only was Legion cast out, but the man was impregnated with this principle, that he would be with Jesus for eternity; yet, at His bidding, would go to the ends of the earth. Is that merely restoration? What would not one give for such a mind as that! To have found a home in His presence; yet, if it be His blessed will, to go to the ends of the earth in drudging service! Now, as He passed on, a poor woman touched Him in the crowd. He was touched by thousands, but the virtue that was in Him waited on faith. The moment faith commanded, virtue went forth. Now, have you more in Christ than a healer? This poor woman had. She did not know when she came up that she had a title to Himself. So she modestly retreated as a debtor. Very right that a debtor should carry herself with humility; but oh, Christ is more to you and me than that. The healer puts Himself into relationship. When He inquired after her she began to tremble. Her faith had measured her title to touch Him, but she was not prepared when He called her face to face to look at Him, till He said, "Daughter, be of good comfort." There is no spirit of liberty in our souls if we do not know relationship. Nature cannot trust God, but the blessed way of God is to show me that I have an interest in Himself, as well as in the saving virtue that is in Him. We have relationship now it does not wait for glory. In spirit I walk in the family mansion now, as soon I shall personally in the glory. The woman left Him, not only with a healed body, but with a calm and satisfied spirit. Is any book so worthy of reading as the book that we call Jesus? Now we get to the house of Jairus, and the Lord meets the power of death in its fresh victory. The poor damsel is delivered from the bands of death, as the man was delivered from the bands of Satan, and the poor woman from the bands of corruption. Oh, let us acquaint ourselves with Him, and say, "Christ for me, Christ for me!" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 03.05. LUKE 9 ======================================================================== Luke 9:1-62 A very important thing is suggested at the opening of this chapter. We were observing the three distinct ministries of Luke 8:1-56, Luke 9:1-62, and Luke 10:1-42, and that the largeness of the ministry set forth bespeaks the character of this Gospel. The Lord did not, it is true, step over Jewish limits, but He is looking at man in the Jew, and not, as in Matthew, at the Jew in the Jew. Now observe, in sending out the twelve, He told them to heal the sick and to preach the kingdom of God. They were to cure diseases and to challenge the claims of God in the face of the world. Do you think that God has come into the world, bringing salvation, to surrender His own rights to your necessities? He could not do it; and you, if in a right mind, could not wish it. The glory of the gospel is, that He is glorified while you are saved. Could you enjoy a robbery? It would be a robbery if you could get a blessing which took glory from God. You get this in the cross if you read it aright. It is the glory of the gospel that God could be just and yet the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. We get a sample of that here. He tells them, then, to take with them neither scrip, nor money, nor bread. He says, as it were, You are going forth-with My message; lean on Me. No man goeth a warfare at his own charges. I will take care of your necessities, and do you let your moderation be known unto all. He says, "Whosoever will not receive you,... shake off the very dust from your feet." While there is a graciousness attaching to such ministry, there is a solemnity too. Now let us look at Herod for a moment. Tell me, do you think you have done with sin, when you have committed it? One thing is certain: It has not done with you. The charm of sin is gone the moment it is perpetrated. That is your way of disposing of sin, but conscience which makes cowards of us all, lets you know that it has not done with you. Herod had beheaded John long before, but now it was said of some that John was risen from the dead, and he is perplexed. Here the worm that never dies was doing its business. I am not of course determining its eternity, but the Lord in such cases lifts the veil from hell and shows us the worm at its work. Herod could not rest. How could he? the murderer of the greatest witness of God in the world at that moment! Now the apostles return and tell what they have done, and we have the scene of feeding the multitude. Here we get the largeness of the heart of Christ, in contrast with every human heart. Could you get a sample of the human heart more easy to love than Peter’s? He was an open-hearted, good-natured man that you could easily have loved; but look at it in contrast with the heart of Christ! They said, "Send the multitude away." No, said He, Give ye them to eat. And they said, What! are we to go and buy. It was said in a sulky mood of mind, but the Lord did not refuse to go on with His sulky disciples. He met with vanity, ignorance, heartlessness, bad temper. It is a very interesting study to see how He always overcame evil with good. If my bad temper puts you into a bad temper, you have been overcome of evil. God never gives place to evil. This is a beautiful instance of it. The disciples said, Send them away. "Make them sit down," said Jesus; then, being the master of the feast, He must supply the guests. Now, mark something of the moral beauty of Jesus’ feast. He sits at the head of the table in the glory of God, and as the perfect Man. As God He puts forth creative powers, and was acting without robbery. He not only was God, but there was no form of divine glory that He would not assume no act of divine power that He would not put forth. But He took His place also as the perfect Man. He was an entire contradiction to Adam. What was Adam’s offence? He did not give thanks, but assumed to be master of all. It was a man refusing to be thankful. The Lord gives thanks. I see Him taking His place at the head of the table in the wilderness, as perfect God and perfect Man. The worship that God got in the Person of Jesus was richer incense to Him than if Adam had lived forever as a thankful man. He came to erect out of the ruins a temple for the glory of God that the creation in integrity would never have yielded. Now the blessed God would have us know that at His table there is always more than enough. We know what it is to sit comfortably at a plentiful board. When I see very God making the feast, and very Man giving thanks, then leaving cart-loads, so to speak, of fragments, what can I do but be thankful! We may, each one and all, be full and go away thankful that there is plenty for others. Now we get a very important part in the gospel story. The Lord was in prayer, and when He arose, He asked His disciples, "Whom say the people that I am?" Let me say, there is a great deal to be found out in the style of the moment in Scripture. The very style in which an event comes out, gives it a character. That question draws out the proof that the world was rejecting Him. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." You are now in the vestibule of the mountain of transfiguration. He has ascended into heaven as the earth-rejected Son of man. If you ask, Were not all things known to God from the creation of the world? surely they were; but these things came out in great moral glory. Man would not give Him place here, so God took Him up to heaven. "Whom say the people that I am?" And they answered, "Some say, . . . Elias; and others, . . . one of the old prophets." What! is that the best thought that Israel has of Me? "But whom say ye that I am?" "The world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." Let us search out the undercurrent of the spirit of Scripture, not merely track the words Now the Lord says to the disciples, Do not you be loving your life. Come away up to the hill with Me, and there I will show the glory. And now I will ask you, What suits the man on his way to heavenly glory? Is it money and power, and such like, he should be seeking? Judge in yourselves, Is it consistent in a man to load himself with clay on his way to a place where there is to be no clay? The Lord shows you the path, and shows you the end of the path. It is only our love of present things that makes such a lesson difficult. My whole soul seals it; would that my whole heart adopted it. After this the Lord comes down and meets His disciples in their inability to cast out a demon. Now, on no occasion does the Lord express disappointment of heart more vividly than here. "O faithless and perverse generation." All human development in Christ was perfectly natural. I ask you, When you have been particularly happy on the mount with Christ, would not the pollutions of the earth, and the poverty and degradation of the Church, pain your spirit more, in contrast with the joy and liberty you have been tasting? The Lord had been tasting the joys of His own land, and He comes down to find faithlessness and defilement. He does not look for glory here, but He does look for the labouring and energy of faith; and when He finds Himself unhelped by the disciples, He says, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you?" Now when they came down they were amazed at His glory, and while they wondered, He said, "Let these sayings sink down into your ears." In Luke 9:51, He had sent His disciples to prepare His way, and the villagers would not receive Him. The disciples would have commanded fire to come down and consume them, but He rebuked them. Now, why do I put these two things together? I see, in the developments and expression of the Lord’s human beauty, a man who knew both how to be abased and how to abound. It is a beautiful virtue in human nature. Paul may have learned it by severe moral culture, but Jesus learned it by the perfection of His own human nature. How willing and ready our wretched and corrupt nature is to take advantage of a flattering moment! Jesus had not become an object of wonder and amazement, and at once He hides Himself behind a veil of deep degradation. While the rays of glory were shining still about His countenance, He says, Let this be your understanding of Me. And afterward, when they would have brought down fire upon the Samaritan villagers, He said, No. He knew how to be abased. In these ways His moral beauties shine out. At the close, one comes and says, "I will follow Thee"; and He says, Do not you see how the villagers have treated Me? If you will follow Me, you must take part with One who has not where to lay His head. Now, mark another thing. Another comes and says, "Suffer me first to go and bury my father." The sense of the dignity of His ministry was with Him wonderfully. He answers, One fellow creature may do the office of the dying to the dying, but go you and do the office of a living Saviour in the world. He carried with Him a sense of His ministerial glory. Paul had it in the vessel going to Rome, and before Agrippa. There he was, a prisoner in chains and degradation, and he stands and says, I would you were like me. What consciousness of secret dignity in the midst of public degradation! "Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God" go and do My business, the business of life, and not of death, in a sin-stricken world. Now tell me, whom do you admire in this world? Do you speak well of those who do well to themselves? Do you hate the practice that speaks of men according to their standing in society? Accustom your selves to see true glory. It shone in the carpenter’s Son, in the captive at Rome, and it shines in the poor in this world, rich in faith. May the Lord open our eyes to see God’s objects in God’s light! Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 03.06. LUKE 10 ======================================================================== Luke 10:1-42 We have reached Luke 10:1-42 in our meditations on this Gospel. "The entrance of Thy words giveth light." We were observing in the progress of this ministry that we get in Luke 8:1-56 the Lord’s own ministry; in Luke 9:1-62, the ministry of the twelve; and now here in Luke 10:1-42, we have the ministry of the seventy. Observe, here it is added, "Whither He Himself would come." The thing that principally strikes us in this is, that the Lord was giving emphasis and every advantage and opportunity to this His closing ministry. He would send forth precursors and follow in their track, that the cities and villages might be without excuse. He was both the Labourer in the field, and the Lord of the harvest. He may have intimated that here, in sending precursors, as great men are wont to do. He carried the sense of the dignity of the Lord of the harvest, as well as of being an earnest-hearted labourer. Now look for a little at the commission of the seventy. He gave them full notice of what they were to expect. Nothing provokes the world like testimony. Goodness will not suffer here. "Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" But if you stand in the way of righteousness against the tide of moral evil and, still more, if you testify for Christ, you may count upon martyrdom. The reason we suffer so little is that we stand so little in testimony. They were not merely to witness of courteous civility between man and man, but of the serious things existing between God and sinners. Then, though they are in the midst of wolves, let their business be that of peacemakers. In Luke 10:7, "In the same house remain." We had this in the mission of the twelve Do not be looking out for better fare. What a defiling thing, to see the followers of Christ seeking to make themselves comfortable here! Let the restraining, yielding principle mark your ways. Verse 9 presents again that combination which we were looking at some time ago. Christ stands out severely for the rights of God, and He does graciously for the necessities of sinners. They were to say, "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you," as well as to heal the sick. What a terrible verdict against this world, that God has to publish His kingdom in it! A well-regulated family would be insulted if you told the children to be in subjection to their parents, but that the world has to be told to be in subjection to God, only shows its true condition. "Go your ways" here is something more than courtesy. "Shake off the dust of your feet" an insulting kind of thing to do. Ah, this is the seriousness of the message. Let them learn, if they receive it not, in the most awful terms you can convey, how they have jeopardized themselves. In Luke 10:17, they return and tell Him that the devils are subject to them. The moment they say this, He gets into the book of Revelation, where not only is there power to cast out devils from this body and that, but He penetrates to where, in the majesty of His authority, Satan shall be cast down. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning." In this the Lord shows Himself to be God. Let us step aside for a moment, and ask, Have you been accustomed to think of Satan as being in heaven? We find him there in Job, in Kings, here, and in Ephesians; and in the Revelation we see him cast down from heaven. He has possession of the earth, and he is seeking to get possession of that which rules the earth. Now, the disciples come with a sample of power which is to be fully illustrated in Revelation. Which is dearer to your hearts this moment your relationships or your circumstances? The Lord puts these balances into the hands of the disciples: You may have power on earth, but it ought not to be so dear to you as your family place in heaven. Did it open Adam’s mouth when he was made lord of all around him? No. It was not opened by a sense of property or power; it was opened when he got relationship when he got Eve. Property ought to be nothing compared with affection. How beautifully the Lord delineates what the heart ought to be! In the day of his coronation, Adam might have rejoiced, but in the day of his espousals, his mouth was opened; his heart had its property, and he was satisfied. "Rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." See how the Lord falls into the current of their joy for a moment. We ought to drop into the current of one another’s joy. Then the Lord looks up to heaven and rejoices there. If you look at this utterance, and the same in Matthew 17:1-27, you will find a beautiful contrast. There it is the utterance of a heart relieved of its burden here, the utterance of a heart joyful with what had spread before it. Then He goes on with the joy as He turns to His disciples and says, in substance, Happy are ye (Luke 10:23-24). I do not know that the Lord was ever happier than here, save yes, let us tell it for our comfort save when a poor, believing heart gave Him meat to eat that others knew not of. Angels may have joy over the repentant sinner, but they do not originate it; it is in their presence. It is beautiful to see God leading the joy of His creation. God leads the joy; the angels only echo it. The Lord here gave Himself to the disciples. They returned with joy, and He entered into their joy and swelled it out. This is intruded upon in Luke 10:25, and we see that, while the Lord can drop down to a gracious current, He knows how to meet a contrary current. You do not like to have your currents forced from their course, but the Lord puts up with it. The lawyer’s intrusion is the worse for what it spoils. The Lord was rejoicing in grace, and the lawyer comes to trespass on every bit of it. The Lord turns to the intrusion at once. Now let me draw a contrast. The disciples, in John 4:1-54, beautifully took knowledge of His spirit, and stood back, holding themselves in silence. That is communion. The deepest and richest communion is often in silence. No one said, Why talkest Thou with her? Now this rude scribe knew nothing of the Master’s spirit. A blessed thing to be disciples of the spirit of Christ to know something of His mind! This man comes, and the Lord turns in divine meekness and answers at once, "This do, and thou shalt live." If the law be consulted on a question of acquiring life, the Lord shows what it will say. But the lawyer was willing to justify himself, because, the moment we are put in a legal atmosphere, an effort must be made to reduce the demands of the law. We know little of the mind of God even in legislation, so we do all we can to reduce the law to our own capacity. So the lawyer put another question, little thinking the answer he would get. The Lord indites a parable, and He sketches, what? What was He forced to sketch? He was forced to sketch His own life and death, because His own life and death was the only illustration of neighbourly love which He could get. He could not escape an illustration that exhibited Himself; I speak it to His praise. We never touch the borders of neighbourly love but in the perfect life of Jesus. "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead." Leaving him half dead there was our condition. He was ruined, but still his life was in him well for us our life was in us when we met Jesus. And by chance there passed by that way a priest and a Levite. We may take this up in two aspects. It is a striking characteristic of the impotency of the law to take up our condition; but the Lord shows too, here, that the representatives of the law did not keep what they taught. I learn here, to the eternal confusion of all lawyers, priests, and Levites, that they have never kept what they set forth. Were they authorized to pass by on the other side? The law will never do for me a sinner, or make its abettors and assertors the thing it would have them to be. Why is the blessed Lord of glory called a Samaritan? Because He was a stranger. A stranger from heaven has come down to show neighbourly love on earth. He has come to exhibit to earth, what earth never could exhibit to itself. How did He do it? First, "He . . . came where he was." Who could unfold that duly! Did not the Lord do so with you? "And when he saw him, he had compassion." What is the source of all the salvation found in Him? Was there anything in you to draw it out or provoke it? No. Something in Him suggested it. The poor waylaid man was silent from first to last. Was not the poor prodigal silent when that clothed him with the best robe, and Joshua, while they "clothed him with garments," in Zechariah? There is no more blessed answer to the grace of God than the stillness of faith. Joshua, be silent while they clothe you from head to foot, and set a fair mitre on your head; poor waylaid man, let Him do to you as He will. The Lord acts from Himself at the suggestion of His own compassion. And he poured in oil and wine. He happened to have with him the very wealth that was suited to the man that lay in the road. The Lord Jesus came freighted with the very fullness that was fitted to your condition. "And set him on his own beast." He exchanged places with us. He was rich, and we were poor. He became poor that we might be rich. Next, he had charged himself with the man, and he would look after him. That is the gospel, and that is neighbourly love. Again, I say, the blessed Lord was forced on a picture of Himself when He was asked, "Who is my neighbour?" And now, how are we to act the part of the Samaritan? We must begin by being debtors to Jesus, before we can follow Him in the neighbourly love be the waylaid man before we can be the Samaritan. How simply He unfolds the story of our necessity and His fullness. Now we pass on to the house of Martha and Mary. We see the Lord in a social scene and, as we were observing before, this is the richest table at which we have seen Him; it is the richest exhibition of the Christ of the social scene that the evangelist presents. He was here not as a rebuker or a Saviour, as we have seen Him in other places, but as an intimate family friend; and by this scene He has sanctified a Christian household. The presence of Jesus to this day will take hospitality at such a place, in the person of His poor members. The Lord lifts up a picture for our admiration, and we shall have it by-and-by, for heaven itself is but an extended scene of family affection. May the Lord grant you and me to dwell in desire of it. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 03.07. LUKE 11 ======================================================================== Luke 11:1-54 We will now meditate on Luke 11:1-54. We are tracing certain characteristics in the Lord’s ministry. Here we find the minds of the disciples in what we may call a very interesting moment. They were learning the necessity of taking the new creation place. The law never taught them that. Prayer is the expression of dependence-the law taught them independence. The soul was insensibly learning its necessities, though not formally, or dispensationally, till after Christ’s death. John went beyond Moses; his disciples wanted to be taught to pray. So it is here, with the disciples of the Lord. Then, as the perfect minister of their souls, He sets Himself to teach them, and you find a form of prayer. He suits His words to their then condition. Prayer is the expression of the heart in its present condition. Then He speaks of man going to a friend at midnight and asking for three loaves. "And he from within"; these are pregnant words! Are you "within"? It is a dangerous condition in this world. What I mean by that is, losing your sympathies with the joys and sorrows around you. So the Lord shows out God’s grace on the dark ground of that man’s selfishness. You have not to "ask" and "seek" and "knock"; that is importunity. But "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." See the divine readiness in answer to human necessities. Never say importunity is needed to move God. At your leisure read Daniel 10:1-21. For "three full weeks" Daniel was chastening his heart before God, and no answer was given At the end of that time the answer came; and how? The angel told him that as soon as ever he began to pray, he was heard; but a certain transaction that was going on in heaven, hindered the answer. He went on in importunity for three weeks, but as soon as ever he had prayed, he was heard. So you may have been praying for a long time, and getting no answer, but be sure the interval has been well employed; if not in heaven, in the chastening of your spirit. This beautifully illustrates what we get here. There is no reluctancy in God not that selfishness to be overcome that there was in the man at midnight but there may be reasons to delay the answer, and when it does come, it may be in a way you are little prepared for. Paul prayed three times, and the thorn was not taken away; but the answer came at last, and in a way he had not expected. The thorn was left until the day of his death, but he was given grace by which he could triumph in it. When the Lord has thus commented on prayer, he enters (Luke 11:14) on a solemn scene. Two antagonist thoughts come up to Christ. The Lord was constantly enduring the contradiction of sinners against Himself. The one set of people came to charge Him with casting out devils by Beelzebub; the other, tempting Him, sought of Him a sign from heaven; the first of these represents perverted religion; the second represents infidelity. We will look at these for a little. We have the same thing to meet to this hour. The Lord takes up the first of these. He begins to address those who say He cast out devils by the prince of the devils. Mark, here is exquisite beauty. "If Satan . . . be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" He begins by the gentler argument. I wish you and I copied Him in the beauty of His style and in the truth of His substance His style was inimitable as His substance was perfect. In answering this contradiction, He begins by showing them the folly of their thought. Would Satan be so foolish? Why are you so senseless? Now, His argument is addressed to themselves: Let us go back to your favourite, David, when he tuned his harp and delivered Saul from the evil spirit. The carnal mind is not enmity to David, but to God. How He presses in on their consciences! "By whom do your sons cast them out?" Now, He is approaching the serious part of the matter No doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you; therefore, take care what you are about. The very style in which He conducts the argument has a beauty and an order. He begins by the gentler argument and then goes on to the stronger, and He says, Take care; you are on dangerous ground. Then He indites the parable of the strong man to show that it was by the finger of God He cast them out. The strong man only gets his house rifled by a stronger than himself. God alone is stronger than Satan. We have already been conquered and made slaves by the devil, so that when we get him bound in this world, God alone has done it, for no child of man could. If I see anyone stronger than Satan in this world, I have a witness that God is here. He shows that what Satan is doing, he is doing in collision with God that his bruiser has appeared. That is what He taught Satan in the wilderness. Satan is not afraid of us, but he has more than his match in the Son of God. He is bold as a lion when he comes to you and me, but he trembles in the presence of Christ. Now, in Luke 11:23, He draws a very solemn conclusion. The battle is proclaimed, and there is no neutrality. God has made the world the scene of the conflict in which the question between Himself and Satan is to be decided, the fruit of which is to occupy eternity. The voice goes forth: "He that is not with Me is against Me." Then when the Lord had thus solemnly sounded the voice of the trumpet across the field the blast of the silver trumpet, proclaiming war, in Luke 11:24 He sketches a very solemn sight, where we may linger a little. It is a most pregnant, awful picture. It was illustrated in Israel, and I believe will be in Christendom. The besom of Babylon may have swept the house of Israel, and to this day they may abominate idols, but a clean house may be just as fit for Satan as an unclean one; reformation will not do. So it is with Christendom. I trust there is not a single heart here that trusts in reformation. We are all thankful for that which gives us the privilege of sitting here together in peace; mere Protestantism will not do. The Lord teaches us that the swept and garnished house may be worse than before. What has taken the place of idols in reformed Christendom? Is it knowledge of Jesus? Yes, in His own elect; but human vanities have conducted man in Christendom by the same path as the Jew. It is only hurrying on to a matured form of apostate iniquity. Then He turns to those who were requiring a sign, and says, "There shall no sign be given." Now, why was it ever said to Christ? Show us a sign from heaven? Worldliness dictated it. They wanted a Christ that would astonish the world. The Lord would not and could not answer that. If you and I could not accept our Jesus in rejection, we shall never have Him in glory. Shall I think to see my Lord glorified in a defiled world, in the midst of such moral elements as fill it? He will give no sign here. If He is accepted, it must be under the sign of the prophet Jonas not with a crown on His head, but buffeted and spit upon. Instead of giving a sign from heaven, He gives one from the bowels of the earth, in death and humiliation. Next He gives the beautiful instance of the Queen of Sheba. Her conscience and affections were stirred when she heard that Solomon had the knowledge of God. ’ When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD" (1 Kings 10:1), she took the long journey from the South to Jerusalem, just to find out God. What suited the conscience of the men of Nineveh? Jonah’s words. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Then the king clothed himself with sackcloth. What a ridiculous thing to put horses and sheep in sackcloth! Who can measure the throes and compunctions of an awakened conscience! You may sit and analyze and criticize, but it will give no account to you. It is blessed to see, as in the stricken cases nowadays, that the convicted conscience cannot stand upon measure. Send us a sign, they said. No, says the Lord, You must believe on Me with your conscience. While the Lord was about to answer the second of these questions, there was a woman in the company whose affection was stirred. Now tell me, do you not often find human affections stirred under the cross? The daughters of Jerusalem took their places apart from the prosecutors. Now I am not to trust this excitement of nature, but I am not to treat it as vile. There may have been a crop for Jesus in it a blessing in the cluster. You may be prepared for a variety of moral activities nowadays. The Lord says to this poor woman, There is a mistake in your judgment; rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Connection with Christ is to be spiritual and not fleshly, divine and not human. Do you not delight to know that nothing less than your necessity as sinners is to form the link between you and Jesus? Anything else would snap asunder like the withes that bound Samson. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 03.08. LUKE 12 ======================================================================== Luke 12:1-59 At the close of Luke 11:1-54 we see the Lord at the house of a Pharisee again. He does not sit in the house of Bethany in the same character as He does here. Such is the multiform beauty of the Lord. We see Him at the houses of three different Pharisees, in Luke 7:1-50, Luke 11:1-54, and Luke 14:1-35. And here is one beauty of the mind of Christ He was ever set upon distinguishing things that differ. In that way He illustrated one of the divine properties, as we read in Hannah’s song "The LORD is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed." The Lord was a God of knowledge, always weighing actions; but He never weighed an action in its relation to Himself, but in its relation to God and the person acting. He would pass by an affront offered to Himself (as in the Samaritan villagers), but He would stand firmly against an affront offered to God, as when He made a whip of small cords and drove out the moneychangers from the house of God. We are all prone to judge of actions in relationship to ourselves. That is not Christ, but ruined nature. The Lord might be flattered, and He would not be perverted. It is just as easy for human nature to be perverted by flattery, as to be made angry by an affront. There is scarcely a single person who is not tempted to value or misappreciate actions by the way in which they affect himself. You and I soon become the captives of a little flattery. If Peter had said to you in kindly humanity, That be far from thee, would you have said, Get thee behind me? I will answer for you, No. But Peter’s softness was not enough to provoke easiness in Christ. If you examine at your leisure these three Pharisees, in their moral condition, you will find that the Lord had the balances in His hand in each case. All Pharisees were not the same. Some were amiable, some besotted; some led, and some leading; but Christ distinguished between them all. The Pharisee of this chapter, of course, was courteous like the others, and the Lord accepted it, for He was the social Son of man, and came eating and drinking; but He was judging all the time. The Pharisee wondered that He had not "first washed before dinner," and the Lord answered him, and went on with earnest-hearted rebuke, verse after verse, to the end. I should have wondered to read such rebukes after such a simple remark, but wait a little. No rough word or providence will ever cross your path that He will not be able to vindicate The last verses are His vindication here. He discerned what was underneath the flattery a hypocritical enmity to Christ, and here it comes out in the end. They were "laying wait for Him, and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him." You will not find that He treats Simon, in Luke 7:1-50, in the same manner. He knew there was a different pulse in him, and there was not the peremptory stern rebuke, but, "Come now, and let us reason together." "Simon, I have some what to say unto thee." Do not go clumsily through society. Carry the balances of God with you. So did the Lord. Luke 12:1-59 is the appendix to the scene in the Pharisee’s house. He speaks to the multitude and warns them against hypocrisy. He had just been the victim of it, and the Lord always takes a natural text. He did so in John 4:1-54. There the water was His text, and here His text is naturally the scene in the Pharisee’s house. In Luke 12:2-3 He shows the folly of it. If you and I walked in the light of eternity, everything that had not reality would be arrant folly to us. What a fine style the Lord can use when He chooses! For the soft whispered slander in the ear, the day shall come when the angel of the Lord shall proclaim it on the housetop. There is the answer to the insinuations that go abroad in well-conducted society. The next subject is that of fear the fear of man and see how beautifully the Lord discusses it. The words of Jesus would give you a well-regulated mind, but your mind must first own its relationship to God as its great paramount circumstance. Now He tells you, if fear finds a place in your mind, not to fear man but God. Then He goes on to show how, if you fear God, you need not fear as a slave, but as a son; not servilely, but with confiding reverence. Take Him up in this blessed way; there is not a single hair of your head that He has not numbered. Would you stand in fear before a friend who has numbered your hairs that you might not lose one That is the way to extract fear. Then He goes on to say, in Luke 12:8-9, Now you who confess Me, do not fear the Pharisees. Confess Me, for a day is coming when I will confess you. Could any reasoning be more perfect to extract fear from the heart? If you confess Me before perishing men, I will confess you before the indestructible glory of God. Then He goes on, "Unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven." You and I are the vessels of the Holy Ghost. A personal insult to the Son of man might be forgiven, but refusal of that which the Church carries is without remedy. Now having disposed of fear, He takes up the subject of worldliness. "One of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me," and the Lord answers, Do you not understand Me? Is it Me business to make a man richer in this world? The Lord has promised deep peace to His people, but never honour or wealth. This man mistook His mission, so He now preached a sermon on covetousness, and He gives a striking parable. Now, is the plentiful bringing forth of the ground evil? No. There is nothing evil in a good harvest. Plentifulness is a mercy, but I will tell you what is in it not evil, but danger. And so it proved with the man in the parable; for he began to turn it to the account of his earthly mind, instead of to the account of the Lord paramount of the soil; and if people are in a thriving way of life, very right, I say, to employ their hands and skill, and it is a mercy if the crop be plentiful, but there is danger in it. Then from Luke 12:22, He goes on in that exquisite discourse of which, if one did not speak a word on it, the very reading is edification. I am sure of this, that the life of faith and hope is the only deliverance from worldliness. In the keen, discerning, vivid mind of Christ, that is what He shows us in this discourse. A man may be blameless and harmless, and yet he is a worldly man if he is not nourishing the life of faith and hope. Go and get lessons from the ravens and lilies. "Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not." Do you welcome such a lesson as that? Do you love to have the subtilty of a worldly mind shown to you? The love of present things rests itself most sweetly in the heart of man. If I am not trusting in God and waiting for glory, I am exposed by the Lord here as having a worldly mind. If in the Book there is a chapter of moral power, it is this. Get the girdle around your loins, the lamp of hope in your hand, and you will be delivered from worldliness not waiting for bigger barns, but for the Lord. Does not this beautiful style extricate us for a moment? Ah, if it were kept fresh in our affections all the day long, I will answer for it, our wretched hearts would not be worldly. Now, He shows that if thus waited for, when He comes, He will change places. You wait on Him now; He will wait on you when He comes. No longer wonder at the certain Samaritan. The travelling Samaritan changes places, and here the girded Lord serves. Love could do nothing more than that. This is love to a neighbour indeed. He will practice it in glory as He did in degradation. These words are easily read, but I ask you one thing: Could they be exceeded? Do you think it hard to gird your loins in waiting for such a master? He will not find it a hard matter to gird Himself and to wait on your joy. Thus speaking, Peter interrupts Him. In this Gospel He is constantly interrupted, because the Lord is here drawing out the human mind to give the passions of the heart their answer. He lets man expose himself. So Peter says, "Speakest Thou this parable unto us?" and the Lord answers, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household?" Again He changes places. If I only wait for Him in heart, He will gird Himself; but if I go forth and serve Him in hand and foot, He will make me ruler. Do you not call Him "Lord" as well as "Saviour"? Then He will make you lord. Next He distinguishes about the many and few stripes. He was carrying the moral balances here not judicial. He did not come to judge, but by-and-by the day will come when He will hold the balances of righteousness and be as accurate there as He was here. If He did not confound the Pharisees, He will not confound His servants. It is a great relief to the heart to know that a day of retributive justice is coming. There is not a single moral action you ought not to judge; but retributive judgment awaits another day. In Luke 12:54 He turns again to glance at the request, Show us a sign. "Ye hypocrites," you are asking a sign; now do you not discern the west wind laid up as a forerunner of heat? Now, where are you to get your forerunner? In Scripture, of course, where they ought to have got theirs, like the wind and cloud, to tell them what was coming. Look at Me, He says, in poverty and fullness, and witness that God has come among you. In the last two verses, He glances back at the man who asked Him to be a divider. You have been dragging your brother to a magistrate. Another is dragging you, and I would advise you to make terms with him Moses, the law of God. Make all diligence, for I tell you, if once you get there, you will not get away till you answer the demands of the throne of God. Could anyone here do it? If you cannot stand before the throne of God, you are not saved. So, while that beautiful chapter morally addresses itself to saints, it closes by a word addressed to the conscience of man. Oh, how one longs to feel the girdle a little tighter, and to walk in the light of the lamp of expectation, and "abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 03.09. LUKE 13 ======================================================================== Luke 13:1-35 I believe that in this chapter the Lord’s thoughts from beginning to end are in company with Israel and Jerusalem. Many things filled the Lord’s eye the world, and the land of Israel, and, in the land, the city. So it will be, no doubt in the Millennium the nations, with Israel as the metropolitan part of the earth, with Jerusalem in their midst. In this rich, varied scenery, the Church holds a special part in peculiar relationship to Christ. Are you not charmed when thoughts flow naturally? We do not like anything artificial. The Lord here had a piece of the news of the day brought to Him. He hears it, as it may be, and at once tells how to make use of it. The style is homely; you do not want to be in a foreign land with Christ. At once He turns and says, Do you think that those were sinners above all? No; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. Now, this is not exactly the doom of sinners. It is true, if we do not believe, we have no life; but here the Lord had the nation in His mind, and if they did not repent, they would perish. The blood of the Galileans, shed by a Roman soldier, stood out as representing the judgment coming on the nation generally. Then there is exceeding prophetic beauty in the tower of Siloam. The judgment of Israel was the judgment of the descending stone. Upon whomsoever that stone should fall, it should grind him to powder. There is exquisite beauty in this, and perfect prophetic truthfulness. I grant you, sinners will perish, but the Lord’s mind is more perfect than yours. He is looking at Jerusalem’s condition as ripe for the judgment of God. Having said this, He indites the parable of the fig tree. This is just a beautiful parabolic picture of what the Lord had been doing with Israel. He was travelling through the land for three years in long-suffering. Did you ever mark the departing glory in Ezekiel? how it lingers, passing from cherubim to cherubim, loath to leave its ancient place? So loath is the divine favour to leave an object that has engaged it. And will you not allow the Lord to be reluctant in withdrawing Himself from a nation that has so much engaged Him? The whole ministry of Jesus was the lingering of the love of God over unrepentant Israel. Suppose He had executed judgment when the Bethlehemite was refused; Israel would have perished. But He lingered for three years. Righteousness from the throne said, "Cut it down"; grace in the vinedresser said, "Let it alone." The three years spent themselves, and then, after that, He cut it down. The tower of Siloam fell-the sword of the Roman came in and did the work of judgment. Now there comes the woman with the spirit of infirmity, and the ruler; and here comes out the secret of all the terrible judgment the Lord had been anticipating. Judgment is His strange work. He is provoked to judgment grace is from Himself. The stone that fell was provoked by the unfruitful disappointment of the fig tree He had dressed year after year. Judgment is provoked; grace springs naturally. Why did salvation ever visit us? Did our good works provoke it? God’s nature was the provocation of salvation; sin provoked judgment. It is blessed to see how God stands vindicated before all our thoughts. The ruler is indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. Here was the representative of the need of Israel, standing out in the poor woman, and the representative or the moral condition of Israel standing out in the ruler that talked about healing for six days. You know what John Newton says: "If the most patient man that ever lived had the ruling of the earth, he could not stand it for a single hour." What do you do with your ass on the Sabbath day? says the Lord. How He exposes the man to himself, that he positively valued his ass more than his fellow creature! Then, having looked at this terrible apostasy, He goes on in the parable following to keep apostasy in view. It is the story of the kingdom of God, as well as the kingdom of Israel. We are in that story and not a whit better than Israel. It is a leavened thing a thing that lodges the unclean birds. Can you rest yourself in Christendom? The birds of the air have found a home there. Can you? Or are you walking as a stranger there? Too often strangership is overborne by citizenship; but the mind of Christ can never rest in such a world. The Lord’s eye passes on, that you and I may be rebuked, as well as Israel. In Luke 13:22 He is pursuing His way to Jerusalem. Did you ever observe in the structure of Luke’s Gospel that the great bulk of it is made up of the Lord’s doings and teachings on the journey to Jerusalem? You see Him in Luke 9:1-62, Luke 13:1-35, and Luke 18:1-43 on His way; but He is looking at the distant city, in different places, in different lights. In Luke 9:1-62, it is as the place that was to witness His ascension; here, as the place about to fill up the measure of its sin by crucifying Him; and in Luke 18:1-43, as the place where He was to finish His journey as the Lamb of God. The mind of Christ is a beautiful thing, dealing with everything variously, yet accurately. Do you not long for such a fruitful mind? Now as He is thus addressing Himself to the journey, one says to Him, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" No doubt the man saw something in His eye that awakened the question. No doubt those that marked His bearing often saw something significant in it, as when the disciples held back in chapter 4 of John. So here, as He went on, one said, "Are there few that be saved?" Does He say "few" or "many"? Does He answer categorically? No. There is a style among ourselves that is often painful. You hear people say, Is he a Christian Is he a Christian? We are not to confound light and darkness, but we ought not to answer such naked questions so serious in their : import. He does not say "many" or "few," but, You seek to get in. He looks at the inquirer, not the inquiry. Are the striving and seeking in Luke 13:24 merely different measures of the same thing? No. They are not different measures of intensity, but different actions. The man that seeks does so after the master of the house is risen up at the last moment but see that you begin beforehand. Do not let the rising up put you in that attitude of a seeker. Take the ground of Christ now, not the terror of a seeker then. The Lord’s ministry dealt with three persons God, Satan, and man. For a little moment let me present a few qualities of His ministry as addressed to man. He was ever exposing, relieving, and exercising him. He was letting him see himself to be a poor worthless thing, and then relieving him. Is it not blessed to see Him exposing your wretchedness, and providing relief out of it? We have to do with a faithful friend, not a flattering friend. But while exposing and relieving, He was exercising too. He called the conscience and heart into activity. Was He not putting the conscience of this man on a goodly piece of moral activity? If you could part . with one of these things, the ministry of Christ would be defective. Then the Lord goes on to show the plea the seeker may put in. But "depart from Me." It will not do. He pleads his privileges and intimacy. "We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets." "Depart from Me." It will not do. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." What is the difference between the two? Do not confound them. Weeping is the expression of sorrow: gnashing of teeth is the expression of wickedness, as in Stephen’s case, when they "gnashed upon him with their teeth." The incurred iniquity and villainy of the human heart is there, and they know it for ever. If the condemned soul carries its sorrow, it carries its enmity too forever. These are serious thoughts. Now we find the Lord approaching the city and He comes into Herod’s jurisdiction, and they say to Him, "Depart hence; for Herod will kill Thee." "Go... tell that fox," He answers. How He looked in the face of that monster and let him know He would move on unfearing. He exposes him as a fox and reveals Himself by the similitude of the hen. This is the story of Israel. They refused the hen, and preferred the fox; and, because of the mountain of Israel that lies desolate, the Roman foxes and the Turk and the Arab have walked there. Jesus would have gathered them, but they would not; and the foxes shall walk there till He that can gather as the hen is received, and they shall say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." When they shall turn to the Lord, and the veil be taken away, and He, as the gathering hen, be accepted, in the homely style of this beautiful figure, Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit. Read Isaiah 54:1-17 and Luke 15:1-32 and you will find yourself in company with the same God of grace. In Isaiah 54:1-17, Jerusalem is looked at as a widowed thing. The Lord had said, "Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement?" Did I get tired of her? But in chapter there is not a thought of divorcement but widowhood. In Luke 15:1-32, when the prodigal is introduced, is it, This is my wicked son? No, but, My lost and dead son. Oh, the tenderness and beauty of this! He does not wish to keep our iniquity in remembrance, but our sorrow, and will not introduce Jerusalem as a thing once put to shame, but as one long in sorrow and widowhood. The divine eye has no capacity to look on that which is worthless, but on that which is dead, and alive again, lost and found. Why has the Lord so little of our hearts? Just because we so little know Him. May He reveal Himself to each one of us, and discover Himself before the thoughts of our souls. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 03.10. LUKE 14 AND LUKE 15 ======================================================================== Luke 14:1-35 and Luke 15:1-32 Put together, these are wonderful chapters. In the first, the Lord visits our world; in the second, we visit His. In Luke 14:1-35, He makes Himself acquainted with our ways; in Luke 15:1-32, we are called to acquaint ourselves with His. This is the grand moral distinction between the two chapters, and nothing can exceed them in interest. In the Luke 14:1-35 we find that nothing satisfies Him. Are you prepared for this conclusion? There is nothing thoroughly according to His mind. In Luke 15:1-32, everything is suited to Him, and if we were divinely intelligent and divinely sensitive, we should find that nothing in man’s world and everything in Christ’s world would do for us. It is the grand character of the Apocalypse, that there is not a thing in it but suits the mind of the glorified Church Luke 14:1-35 opens by the Lord’s being invited to eat bread in a Pharisee’s house, and, as He enters, at once all the sympathies of His mind are intruded on. The house is a type of man’s world. As He went in, "they watched Him," and there came in a poor man that had the dropsy, and He asked them, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?" Now why did they hold their peace? It was a hypocritical silence. They ought to have answered, but they wanted to catch Him. Oh! what wretched, miserable tricks these hearts of ours can play! Your heart is under the lion and serpent violence and subtlety Satan is represented as both these. The Lord healed him, and then said to them, "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?" Ought not you to have gathered your answer to the question from your own ways? The Lord takes us on our own showing, and exposes us out of our own mouth and our own ways. I do not need anyone to show me what I am; I know very well. In Luke 14:7, He has entered the house and looked around. That is exactly where we fail. We are so much taken up with ourselves that we do not look around to see things with the eyes of the Lord. The Lord came with the heart and resources of God to dispense blessing, but with the eye and ear and sensibility of God, to acquaint Himself with the moral of the scene here. What does He see here? First, the guests, and they do not please Him. He saw they chose the highest rooms. Now suppose you had the eye of God, and looked on the scene around you, day by day; would you not see the same thing? We savour too much of it ourselves, and therefore cannot testify against it. Christ was infinitely pure, so that He could detect the smallest bit of impurity. He saw that it was pride that animated the scene under His eye, and you and I must have very false notions of what is abroad if we do not see the same thing. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life mark the spirit that animates the activities around us. Now He looked at the host, but there was no relief for Him there. Selfishness in another form shows itself to Him. It was not the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind that the Pharisee asked to his feast; but his rich neighbours were seated on his right hand and on his left. Here the heart of Christ tells itself out in calling those who cannot recompense Him. It is very happy that Christ cannot be pleased with your world. What would your Lord Jesus be to you if He could put up with such a world? If Christ could have found sympathy with man’s world as delineated here, you and I should never have been saved. He acted on directly contrary principles. Now, one of the company says, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God" a gracious movement, I believe. I do not say whether it ended in good or not but a certain gracious instant passed over the soul. The Lord was not unaffected by it. He pays attention to the interruption. Oh, the precious and perfect humanity of Jesus! His deity was equal to the Father’s; His humanity was equal to yours and mine, not in its corruption, but in all the beautiful traits that could adorn it in its perfection. He waits and indites the parable of the marriage supper. The man had said, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God," and the Lord brings out this parable to exhibit eating bread in the kingdom of God. This shows that the Lord is willing to wait on the secret stirring of your spirit, and give it a suited response; and that word of the man that sat at table gives Him occasion to expand before his eyes a feast spread in the heavenly country; and, oh! what a different one from that here. Not one of the bidden guests came. No, and not a single bidden guest since Adam will be at that table. What do I mean? There must be more than an invitation. God must fill the chairs as w-ell as the table. He must force His guests in, as well as fill the board. He sends His servant, and says, "Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." There is a peep into heaven. Did you ever know such a place in all your life? The richest feast ever seen, and not one at it that has not been compelled to come in! And does God put up with this? If there had only been the mission of the Son, there would never have been a single guest. If there had only been the mission of the Holy Ghost, there would have been no feast spread. What a wonderful exhibition of the love of God! If you had prepared a kindness for another, would you like to find an indisposed heart in him? No, you would not ask him again, but would say, Let him go and get what he values more. But there is the double mission of the Son and the Spirit. The Son prepares the feast, and the Spirit prepares the guests. So there is not a single merely bidden guest there; they are compelled guests. What a wretched exhibition of the heart you carry! One has bought a piece of ground, another has bought five yoke of oxen. Anything but the Lord’s feast. This is the contrast between God’s table and man’s. When the Lord had delivered the parable, as He was leaving the house, great multitudes followed Him; and He turned and said, "Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple." Now, how do you treat the Lord Jesus? Do you look at Him as a pattern an example? Well, you will say, I ought to do so, and I grant it; but you and I are thoroughly wrong if our first communion with Him is as a pattern; it must be as with a Saviour. The multitudes followed Him as a pattern, and the Lord says, If you will be like Me, you must give up everything. The next chapter opens with publicans and sinners, and there is communion of soul with Him as a Saviour. The moment the Lord got that object, He was at home. He passes on through all till "publicans and sinners" draw near to Him. He had entered and left the Pharisee’s house, and His spirit had not breathed a comfortable atmosphere; but when a poor sinner comes and looks at Him, that moment His whole heart gave itself out, and uttered itself in the three beautiful parts that follow. It is impossible to follow the spirit of Christ in this chapter without being comforted. Could I know Christ as I would know Him if He could find a home in my world? No! but He says, If I cannot find a home here, you come and find a home with Me. You have disappointed Me, but I will not disappoint you. As one said once, "In preaching the gospel, the Lord said, ’Well, if I cannot trust you, you must trust Me.’" It is another version of the same thought here, and these beautiful illustrations show one leading and commanding truth that God’s world is made happy by sinners getting into it. Do you believe that you, as a sinner, are important to heaven? Whether you believe it or not, it is true. It is not our gain in the matter of salvation that is presented here, but God’s joy, and that only. He takes these homely figures that our thoughts may not be distracted, and that you may learn that you are lost; but you learn, too, the joy of God in recovering you. I do not believe a richer thought can enter the soul of man. I sit down in heaven, not as a recovered sinner only, but as one whose recovery has formed the joy of heaven. Now you are at Christ’s table, in Christ’s world, and you see what kind of a place it is. As for the poor lost sheep, if left to itself it would only have wandered farther still; and as for the piece of money, it would have lain there to this hour if the woman had not searched diligently till she found it. Now let us combine these two chapters. In Luke 14:1-35, you get the words, "compel them to come in," and in Luke 15:1-32, you get the prodigal compelled. We were observing the missions of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost never gives me my title to glory, but He enables me to read it. If I could not read it, it would be of no use to me. Now, I ask, what is this compulsion? It is not against your will, but you are made willing. Take, for instance, the prodigal. When he was brought to his last penny and began to be in want, he came to himself. This was the beginning of the compelling, when the poor prodigal opened his eyes to his condition. What did the Lord do to the heart of Lydia? He opened it, and her opened heart listened to what Paul spoke. The mighty compelling power showed itself here when the poor prodigal looked around on his condition and said, What shall I do? The Holy Ghost makes you willing when He makes you see your need, and that death and judgment are before you. He stirs you up by this till He puts you on the road to God. One poor soul says, I had better begin to look out for eternity; another is terrified by the thought of death and judgment. He will take you in any way. The thing is to get your back to the land where once you lingered. The poor prodigal says, I will arise; I have found out the end of my own doings; I will go to my father; and back he goes, and back he is welcomed! The story of the prodigal beautifully illustrates the compelling of the previous chapter. Zaccheus wished to see Jesus one morning, and up he got into the tree. That was the compelling of the Holy Ghost. Oh, what two chapters! Christ disappointed in your world, and you satiated in Christ’s world! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 03.11. LUKE 16 ======================================================================== Luke 16:1-31 We have now reached Luke 16:1-31, and it is a serious chapter. We have been, in one sense, on very happy chapters in the last two, and have seen how the Lord visited our world, and how we are to visit His world how nothing in our world pleased Him, but everything in His own. It should be so with us. If we are right-minded we cannot find a home here. Man’s apostate condition has built this world, and it is a painful thing to build a house and not be happy in it; yet it should be so with us. You have built a house here, and Christ has built a house in the heavens. Do you cultivate the mind of a stranger in this world, and of a citizen in the heavens? Having gone through this wonderful moral scenery, we enter on Luke 16:1-31 a continuation of the same scene. If there is a serious chapter in this Gospel, it is this one. The Lord begins by the parable of the unjust steward; and before we go further let me call your mind to the word "wasted," in the case of the prodigal. It was just what he had done, and it is the business of this parable to show that the elder brother may do just what the younger did. He may be a very respectable waster; there are hundreds of thousands of such in the world, and high in the credit of the world they stand; but, weighed in God’s balances, they are just as much wasters as this dissolute prodigal. If we do not carry ourselves as stewards of God, we are wasters If I am using myself and what I have as if they were my own, in the divine reckoning I am a waster. This lays the axe deep at the root of every tree. The elder brother thought he was not a waster; but let me ask you, if you are living for this world, and using what you have as if it were your own, are you not an unfaithful steward and, if so, are you not a waster? Here is a steward. We are not told how he spent his money, but it is enough to know that he was not faithful to his master. Then we see how the Lord goes on to draw out the reasoning of a man like that. He lived for this world laid plans about his history in this world and not in the next. The moral is beautifully laid to you and to me. As that man laid out his plans for this world, so you should lay up your plans for Christ’s future world. If you live to yourself, do you not deny your stewardship to the Lord? Then the Pharisees who heard Him derided Him. To be sure they must! It was a heavenly principle, and the were covetous. Covetousness is living for this world, and we are covetous just so far as we are laying our plans for this world. Now, when you find corruptions in yourself, what do you do? Do not let corruptions lead you to give up Christ, but to put on your armour. The Pharisees derided Him, and what did the Lord say to them? "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men." This is just what we w-ere saying. The elder brother may be highly esteemed among men, but "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." We are now introduced to the rich man. Tell me, has this passage been repulsive to you, rather than attractive? There seems something rather repulsive in it, but let us look at it. Observe the difference between the rich man and the prodigal. The prodigal "came to himself" before it was too late, and the rich man, after the door was shut. The prodigal was dissolute and abandoned, and when he came to himself he thought of his sin. The rich man came to himself in the place of judgment, and did not think of his sins, but of his misery. The prodigal came to himself in the midst of his misery here the rich man, in the midst of his torment there. That is all the difference. The prodigal said, I will go back; what a sinner and a rebel son I have been! There was nothing of that gracious stirring in the spirit of the rich man when he lifted up his head in flames. The prodigal had not to finish the first sentence; the father answered him on the spot, and put on him a ring and the best robe, and killed the fatted calf; but the rich man cried again and again. It was too late. Here is the end of the respectable waster. Why do I call him a waster? Will you tell me he called himself a steward of God while he was living sumptuously every day, with a saint of God lying at his gate? I am bold to say you and I are just the same if we are living to ourselves. This man died a respectable waster, full of honour and gratification. He had no misery to call him to himself. Have you ever contrasted these two pictures? It has changed this picture from repulsion to attraction. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 03.12. LUKE 17 ======================================================================== Luke 17:1-37 In the opening of Luke 17:1-37, the Lord applies all this. "It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." I call upon each one to listen to this. To offend one of these little ones is to be on the way to the judgment of the millstone. In Revelation 18:1-24, we see Babylon under the judgment of the millstone; and here the Lord sees, in the offending of a little one, something that savours of the same thing. Now what is it to offend? Beloved, the Church of God is His little one a cypher in the eyes of the world, but everything in the sight of God, and you and I ought to take care of any course of conduct that might stumble the little one. So far as I am living in this world, I am savouring of offense, having gone back to that out of which the grace of God had called me. Do you and I go through the circumstances of each day in the spirit of service to everything around us? That is the spirit of the little one. That is the beauty of the Church of God, and of every saint in the world. The moment you act as if you were privileged to dispose of circumstances after your own pleasure, you are an offender. "If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him." That is serving his soul. We should seek for grace to walk through circumstances as serving Christ and our neighbour. Christ is to be our Lord as well as our Saviour. He is a Saviour inasmuch as He saves for eternity a Lord inasmuch as He demands our time. This beautiful combination is exactly what Peter talks of, "our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." There were some (2 Peter 2:1) who talked about Christ as a Saviour, while denying His lordship practically. The Spirit is fruitful in revelations of grace and in admonitions of holiness. They cry out, "Lord, Increase our faith," for this is a terrible demand on us: and the Lord says, Ah, faith is the very thing that will do that for you. Faith is the very thing that God brings in, and then all things are possible. You might pluck up the roots of nature, and send them to be planted in the distant sea, in mortifying the flesh. There are two beautiful virtues of faith here, while it is a principle of self-emptying. "When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants." If I can meet a temptation with the Lord Jesus, I have the stronger man with me, and I overcome, and then come back and say, I have done that which it was my duty to do. There is an import in this chapter that makes it infinitely valuable. Luke 17:11 to Luke 18:8, must be read together. We are still with the Lord on His way to Jerusalem. The historic structure of Luke delineates the different stages of His journey up to the city. Now, as He passed through Samaria and Galilee, He came upon a certain village, and was met by ten lepers taking the place in which their leprosy put them, standing afar off. We find in Leviticus the divine dealing with leprosy. It was set apart among the plagues that visit human nature to represent sin, and to show what God would do with it. The leper was first put outside the camp, and that is just where sin puts you and me. Have you any business or right to put a spot on the fair creation of God? No, you have not; and therefore to represent that, the leper was put outside the camp; and his business there was to learn what he was. Your first business as a sinner is to learn that exile from God becomes you. So he lifted up his hands and cried, "Unclean, unclean." This, in evangelic language, is called conviction. There he is, left outside; and with whom? None in the whole creation but God. His friends and neighbours were put afar off. So none can meet our necessity but Christ. Then he was cleansed, brought back to the camp, and the priest received him back. This represents sin in its fruit and penalty, and the way in which God takes it up and deals with it. These lepers cry, "Master, have mercy on us." This was not the language of faith, but of misery; but the Lord has an ear for the voice of misery. He had an ear for the voice of Hagar when she wandered in the wilderness; and now from their misery they howled out, "Have mercy on us," and He had mercy. "Go show yourselves unto the priests," He said; and they went, and as they went they were healed. This was the proof that they had been in God’s presence that the Jesus who had spoken, was none less than God Himself, because if we look again at Leviticus we shall find that none but God had a right to speak to a leper. This just shows us that we in our sin can go to none but Jesus; if we go to any other, we have not learned what sin is that it shuts us out from all but Him. Our necessity is such that if we do not reach Christ, we do not reach blessing. The nine lepers had not discovered this; only one read the healing aright. Nine-tenths of those who hear a sermon will let it pass by. Another will ponder it and learn Christ. That was the tenth leper. He was stirred up to ponder what was done; and, instead of going to the priest, he returned to Jesus and laid his offerings at the feet of God his Saviour. This was faith; "with a loud voice" he "glorified God." The other cry was misery. He had discovered who the stranger was, and he was down on his face glorifying God. He who "thought it not robbery to be equal with God," at once goes in and occupies God’s relation to their misery. There is a difference between misery and faith. Did you cry to me when you howled on your beds? says the prophet. No, you did not. Yet many a one begins his eternity of joy with the howling of misery. In Luke 17:20 we find Him again in company with the Pharisees. How exquisitely interesting it is to trace the moral scenery that constituted the path of Christ! Here they asked when the kingdom of God should come. What a vain an insolent inquiry! What I mean is this: it was as if they had said, Oh, we are ready for the kingdom the only question is, when the kingdom will be ready for us. At once the Lord answers the condition of their souls. You must look for the kingdom within you before you can get it around. Do you not vindicate the Lord in such words? You are never ready for the kingdom in glory, till you have the kingdom within you. And having thus disposed of their question, He turns to the disciples and speaks to them of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is a self-evidencing thing. Whenever it erects itself, it does not need a witness. Does the sun or the moon, the thunder or the lightning require a witness? They bear witness to themselves. Are you conscious that God has set up His kingdom within you? Paul says, "The kingdom of God is . . . righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Romans 14:17. Now, can you have such a thing in you and not know it? It may be in feebleness. There is many a poor trembling soul whose tremblings are evidence to those who look on that it is in a better plight than it thinks; but wherever the power of God is, it makes itself known. "The kingdom of God" is an expression meaning divine power. Having established this with His disciples, He says, The days will come when you will desire to see the kingdom in glory, but you will not see it yet. What is the path of the Church all through this age? A path of desire. Is your spirit travelling, day by day, a path of desire after your unmanifested Saviour? He says, I am to pass through rejection first, and you must pass through it with Me. The saint is desiring an absent Lord and, till He comes, is the companion of a rejected Lord, filled with the desire for His return, and filled with consent to be companion of His rejection. It is a rebuke, but let us welcome it; it is an excellent oil that will not break our heads (Psalms 141:5). Having presented these qualities, He goes on to show the state of things just before the Son shines out in glory. In the days of Lot and Noah you get a picture of what the world will be then. They will be going on as those that have found their object in the world. The Lord had given a sketch of what the saint in the age of His absence ought to be; now He draws a sketch of what the world would be. Then, He says, it will be a day of discerning, as the day of Noah was. Was not Noah left when the whole world was destroyed? The story of Noah is to be revived in the closing hour of earth’s history. There will be two in a bed two in the field it matters not; it will be a day of discerning. Like the pillar of cloud that was at once salvation to the Israelites and doom to the Egyptians, so the day of the Lord will rise like the sun with healing in his wings to one in a bed, while it will burn like an oven for the other. No wonder that they cried out, "Where, Lord?" Strikingly, He answers, "Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together." He never answered a question curiously, but totally So it is here. The day of judgment will make no mistake; it will not take one it ought to have left, or leave one it ought to have taken. We ought to say, Am I ready? Do I know that if the Son were to break forth in judicial glory, I should not be part of the carcass? Then in this connection He gives the parable of the poor widow. "He spake a parable unto them to this end," that they ought always to pray. It should not read "men." Suppose I were practically the companion of a rejected Lord; what should I naturally be doing? praying, to be sure, for strength to take my place till the Master comes back. Then He shows how the judge lent a deaf ear to the poor widow. Now does not the Lord appear to do the same? It was the judge’s wickedness it is His glory, and His long-suffering. Why did the judge not answer? Because of his selfishness! Why does not the Lord come back? Because of His long-suffering. The Lord seems to pass by our prayers, as the judge did pass by the poor woman; but the judge passed her by because of his selfishness! The Lord passes by, not willing that any should perish. But He will avenge, and the book of the Apocalypse comes in to make good the word. The day is coming when He will avenge these quarrels, but look to yourselves. Take care, while you are crying out against others, that you may be found right yourselves. Cherish and cultivate the hidden life of faith to which He has called you, and into which the Spirit He has given you would lead you. This completes the scene. Oh, if there is a thing to delight our hearts, it is to discover the personal, moral, and official glories of the Lord Jesus, and to see how Scripture harmonizes to bear this lesson undistracted to your heart and mine! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 03.13. LUKE 18 ======================================================================== Luke 18:1-43 If we meditate on that portion from Luke 18:9 down to Luke 19:10, we have the mind of the Lord delivered on various detached subjects. It is a blessed thing to hear the mind of Christ on any single matter. His verdict entitles me to say I know how God thinks in such a case. This is a wonderful privilege. There is a difference between the gospels and epistles. The gospels introduce your heart to Christ, to find in Him its satisfaction; the epistles introduce the conscience to Christ, to find in Him its peace. We find here the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Lord describes the condition of soul in both of these. The mind of the Pharisee was a mind of religious pride and self-satisfaction. The mind of the publican was the mind of a poor brokenhearted one that could not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. Having these two objects before Him, the Lord lets us know His thoughts about them; and when He gives forth His mind, does it not make you happy to know that He approved the publican and not the Pharisee? It is a comfort to know that the mind of the Lord thus suits itself to your mind. I could not say that the publican was the expression of a fully justified man. He was justified "rather" than the other. He would not, if fully justified, have cried out, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Is that the proper condition of a believer? No. "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. That is not a poor publican, howling about his misery. He does not utter, again I say, the language of a consciously justified sinner. No doubt he was on the way to it, for "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Still there is comfort for us in this, when we see that the Lord values these first tremblings of the poor publican. Paul may have penetrated the innermost part of the sanctuary, and the poor publican be only at the brazen altar; but all these differences are very sweet to us who are conscious of our feebleness. The next case is that of those who brought to Him young children, that He might touch them; "But when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them." Here we have to determine between the strangers and the disciples. Now do we not know that oftentimes those who are more familiar with the things of Christ, are less intimate? I think we see it here. These strangers had a better understanding of the Lord’s mind than the disciples. They said, Stand by. No, said the Lord. Would you like the Lord to have approved the disciples rather than the strangers? I will answer for it, you would not. Now, am I not right in saying that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have done a worthy and wondrous work for us in introducing our hearts to Christ? When the heart is satisfied and the conscience is at peace, you are close upon heaven. You are pleased with the judgment of the Lord in this case. Some say, The Lord is better to us than our fears. A poor thought! He is better to us than our expectations. The strangers had said, Touch them, but He took them into His arms and pressed them to His bosom (Mark 10:16). How He exceeds all our thoughts! Next, we have the case of the rich young ruler. He brought an uneasy conscience, and said, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He saw that the Lord was a good man, as we speak; and, uneasy, he saw the life of the Lord Jesus and watched it, and had no doubt that He had the secret of peace; so he came and put the question which the Lord beautifully answers by another, "Why callest thou Me good?" because you have no right to call even Jesus "good" if He is not "God over all." This man did not apprehend His glory, so the Lord would not accept the title from him. He knew how to answer every man. He did not say He was not good, but "Why callest thou Me good?" You have no title to call Me good. You know the commandments. Well, says the young man, All these things have I kept; what lack I yet? "Yet lackest thou one thing," said the Lord; "Sell all that thou hast, . . . and come, follow Me." What is the meaning of that? Why, that if I will put myself in the track of Christ, I must be like Christ. The Lord gave up everything and came down as an emptied man to serve others. Now, if you will be perfect, go and do likewise. And, when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he could not comply. How would you like the kingdom of God characterized? by selfishness or by unstinted benevolence? Oh, you will say, let selfishness perish here. The young man could not give up everything, so the Lord says that is a condition unfit for the kingdom. You may be ashamed of your own wretched, selfish heart every day, but I will answer for it, you will justify the Lord’s answer. Worldliness and selfishness have no power to breathe the atmosphere of the kingdom of God. Do not all these things please you? You have to carry on a warfare with the same mind in you as was in the Pharisee, the disciples, and the young ruler. Conflict is your perfection here, as sinlessness will be in your glorified body. What a different Christ you would have had if He had approved the Pharisee rather than the publican, kept the little children at a distance, or allowed the selfishness of the young ruler! I do not doubt that the young man was struggling after the kingdom, or that he got into it by-and-by. I do not doubt that there was a labouring of soul that was given of God. In Luke 18:31 the Lord turns to speak of His going up to Jerusalem, and of all that He must suffer there; but "they understood none of these things." No, they were very ignorant. We may observe that the Lord never speaks of His death without speaking also of His resurrection; in the same manner the prophets of the Old Testament never spoke of the judgments coming on their nation without speaking of the glories that should follow. So it should be with you and me. We may talk of death at times, but resurrection and glory should come in rapidly on our thoughts. The Lord is still on the way, and I invite you again to look at the mind of Christ. Here is a collision between a blind beggar and the multitude, and the Lord comes in to decide between the two. Are you pleased with the decision He makes? I am sure you are. You would have had a very different Christ if He had joined the multitude in telling the blind man to hold his peace. Every stroke of the Evangelist’s pen is full of the beauty and perfection of Jesus. The blind man asked who passed by, hearing the multitude, and they answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." Is that all you know of Him? "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." What acquaintance, tell me, had this man with Christ? He knew Him (and so must you and I) in His personal glory and in the boundlessness of His grace. He called Him, "Son of David," and when they told him to hold his peace, he cried "so much the more." That is how you and I must know Him. If He be not the Person He is, all He has done is worth nothing. If He be not man, as one with the children (Hebrews 2:1-18), and God as alone sufficient to put away sin by Himself, it is all in vain. If we do not recognize the glory of His Person, the grace of His work is worth nothing. We must connect His grace and His glory. The confession of the blind beggar showed an apprehension of these two things. He did not take up their word, but called Him Son of David; and when they rebuked him, he "cried so much the more." But how did the Lord decide? What is it that you want? His dignity is beautiful as He stops on His way at the bidding of a poor blind beggar. Joshua once bade the sun and moon to stand still in the heavens, but here the Lord of the sun, and the moon, and the heavens, stands still at the bidding of a blind beggar! That is the gospel the glorious, gracious One dispensing the grace of eternal healings to meet our degradation. We often admire Jacob, laying hold on the divine Stranger, but look at Bartimeus! He would not hold his tongue, but cried out till Jesus stood and said, "What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" "Lord, that I may receive my sight." Take it, said Jesus. Now look at Zaccheus. He saw the Lord pass, and went through the crowd to get up into the sycamore tree. In the narratives of the four gospels there are two cases that distinguish themselves from each other one is an exercised faith, as in Bartimeus; the other is a quickening of spirit. This was Zaccheus. In John, the second class of these prevails most, as in Andrew, Nathanael, Philip, and the Samaritan woman. These are all cases of quickening. In the two cases before us, we get samples of what I mean. Bartimeus was exercising faith; Zaccheus was getting life. It is a very simple story. He had a desire to see Christ. Who gave the desire? The life-giving Spirit of Christ. How beautiful to see eternal life beginning in such a seed! The power that clothed the desire is strongly manifested. Pressing through crowds to climb up trees was not the habit of this rich citizen. He made himself one of the rabble to gratify this commanding desire, and got up into a tree. The Lord called him down. He not only knew that there was a man in the tree, but He knew who he was; "Zaccheus, . . . come down." Is there intimacy in all this? Are you pleased with it? I will answer for it, you are. So we have the Lord delivering judgment in detached cases, and such a judgment as contributes to make us happy. You can easily conceive with what haste Zaccheus came down. They spent the rest of the day together, and what is the fruit of their communion? "Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." His heart instinctively uttered itself a very different thing from the boastfulness of a self-righteous mind. The simple force of communion with his Lord enabled Zaccheus thus to speak. There was power when he pressed through the crowd, and there was power when he closed that day which had given him communion with Jesus. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 03.14. LUKE 19 AND LUKE 20 ======================================================================== Luke 19:1-48 and Luke 20:1-47 We will now read from Luke 19:11 to Luke 20:18. We are putting those parts together which seem to belong to each other, though the chapters may separate them. We have here another instance of the way in which the Lord applies His mind to the correction of the moral scene around Him. The human mind is historic; the divine mind is moral. Here they were near the city, so they thought: a little advance, and the kingdom must appear. This was taking a simply historic view, and we are never right unless we are taking a moral view of everything. The mind of Christ was a moral mind. The Lord addresses Himself to the thought of the multitude in the parable of the nobleman. The Lord gets His title to a kingdom sealed in heaven but where is He to administer it? Not in heaven; He comes back to earth first. That is dispensational truth. He has, it is true, a kingdom now "The kingdom of God is . . . righteousness, and peace, and joy." But I speak here of His royal glory, hereafter to be displayed on the earth. He goes on in this strikingly fine parable to tell us of a certain nobleman, going into a far country, who called his servants and delivered them ten pounds; but his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. Here are three parties — the departed nobleman hid in a distant country for a time the servants who were to occupy till his return and the citizens. This is graphic of the moment in which you live. The Lord has gone to the distant heavens to transact many things. One of these is to receive for Himself a kingdom. In Daniel 7:1-28 you see the nobleman in the distant country, but this parable only tells you that He has gone there. It is beautiful to see the prophet and the Apostle thus mingling their lights together. The citizens were at that moment the Jewish people, but the enmity of theJewis now the enmity of the world at large, which has let the Lord Jesus know it will not have Him for king. That is the relationship the world bears to Christ. The servants are those who profess to serve Him while He is absent. There is a moral secret embosomed in this part of the parable. I am never really in the spirit of service if I do not remember that He is an absent and a rejected Lord. If I serve Him as aKing, I do not do it, to say the least, in dispensational wisdom. I am not now a subject to a king, but a servant who has to recognize the sorrowful fact that his master has been rejected and insulted here. Is it not a tender thought, that the very sorrows and insults which have been heaped upon Him here are so many fresh claims on our affection? Service, to be in the right character, should be in the recollection that it is rendered to One who has been cast out and refused. You might do but little, but that little would have a precious quality if rendered in the affection of one who owns the insults the Lord has received. Then He returns and gives the rewards. There is such a secret as rewards. When the kingdom comes to be parcelled out, I have not a bit of doubt that there will be rewards. But there was one that hid his talent; and now, mark the Lord’s reply for your comfort. "Wherefore... gavest not thou my money into the bank?" He did not say, Why have you not traded with it? I may not have the energy and activity of my brother, but the Lord would say here, Well, do not be afraid, if you have not energy to go out and serve Me; at any rateown Me, and put My money into the bank. But this man had no spirit of service; he did not know grace; he feared. As far as we have a legal mind, we are serving ourselves. That is this man. The best thought he had was to serve himself to come off free in the day of reckoning. So he was cut off as one that had no link with Christ. I love that "bank." If I have not the energy of my brother in service, at least let me own that I am not my own. but bought with a price. Let us cultivate in our souls the hidden spirit that says, Though I may be feeble, yet one thing, I will cleave to Christ-I am His and not my own. How beautifully He links the next scene with what had gone before! There were two missions on which He sent His disciples; the first was to get the ass the second, to get the guest chamber. But the ass must precede the guest chamber. Do you see the beauty of that? You must distinguish His dispensational actings His rejection before His return. The mission to get the ass was that He might offer Himself to the daughter of Zion in glory. He was rejected and, as it were, asked to descend from off the ass so He must be a guest in this world and pass on to His cross. Here we get the Lord in royal glory, seated on the ass, descending the Mount of Olives, and about to enter the city. The multitudes follow, with palm branches and exultation, and the King is seen in full beauty. God is taking the thing into His own hands. "The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof." Jesus took the place of Jehovah-Creator in Psalms 24:1-10. He had a richer title to the ass than the owner of it had. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. The owner bows to His claim, and in He goes, in the midst of the acclamations of His people. But now the Pharisees say, "Master, rebuke Thy disciples." That was the heart of the nation exposing itself in the representatives of the people. The mind of the nation stood out in that saying "Master, rebuke Thy disciples." That was rejection. "We will not have this man to reign over us." The Lord then laments over the city. Instead of being the city of peace, Jerusalem would have to go through another history altogether. Jerusalem is but a sample of the world in general, and because of the rejection of Christ, the world will have to go through a very different history than if it had been prepared for Him. The world has forced the blessed Lord up to heaven through His cross, and now it must go to the kingdom through its judgment. He went to display His beauty to the daughter of Zion, but the daughter of Zion was not prepared for Him, so He weeps over her and announces the judgment she brought upon herself. The world is not prepared for Him and the earth must pass to its rest through the judgments that will purge it of its defilements. Now they suggested a bit of subtlety. But there was not a bit of subtlety in the Lord’s mind as He answered them. He did not lay a snare for them, though it acted as a trap. His purpose was divine. John the Baptist being rejected, it followed that Christ Himself would be rejected. It was as much as to say, I will let God answer you. In John you have God’s answer to your question. It was God’s way to reach Messiah through John, and as he was rejected, so would Christ Himself be. Now look a little at the next parable. Here is another "far country." "A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time." When was that? In the days of Joshua the Lord planted a goodly vineyard and left it in the hands of Israel and told them to till it. I need not tell you how judge after judge, prophet after prophet was raised up, and all in vain. Then said the lord of the vineyard, "What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves." Ah! BEWARE OF REASONING. So they cast him out of the vineyard. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?" This brings us just where the parable of the departed noble brought us to judgment. "He shall come and destroy those husbandmen." If you put these two parables together, you will get a beautiful sketch of God’s dealings from the days of Joshua till the Lord’s return in glory. The labourers in the vineyard give us God’s dealings with Israel till the rejection of Christ, the heir of the vineyard. The parable of the "ten pounds" carries us through the present age, up to the second coming, or the kingdom of Christ. He has now gone into the distant country, not to send back servants to seek for fruit, but to receive for Himself a kingdom, and to return and execute judgment. I will just ask one thing: Is it the case that the Lord is seated in heaven till His enemies are made His footstool? You know it is That thought in Psalms 110:1-7 links itself with both these parables. There He is expecting till His enemies are made His footstool, and here His enemies ere made His footstool. These are the beautiful luminous fragments that Scripture throws in here and there, and tells you to go over the field and gather them up, and when you have filled your basket, to bring them home and feed upon them. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 03.15. LUKE 20 AND LUKE 21 ======================================================================== Luke 20:1-47 and Luke 21:1-38 In our last meditation we reached Luke 20:19. Now we enter, according to Luke, on the scene of the Lord’s last conflict with His enemies. In this world, not only our sins but our enmities gave Him work. That you find continually. His sorrows on the cross, our sins put Him to; His sorrows through life, our enmities put Him to. Now the Jews come to Him (Luke 20:21) with a subtle question. There were three great representatives of the people the Herodians, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. The Herodian was political religionist; the Sadducee, a free-thinking religionist; and the Pharisee was a legal religionist; but these were only different forms of enmity against God. The flesh can never form alliance with God’s Christ. We must be born again for that. Now they come to Him with a question "Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?" They thought they had Him, and it was a sharp-sighted, subtle question. At once, detecting the moral of the occasion, He approached it. "But He perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye Me? Show Me a penny." The Lord had no purse. When He wanted to preach on a penny, He had to ask to be shown one. The Lord had the wealthiest purse that anyone ever had in the world, but He never used a mite of it for Himself. He asked, "Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar’s." Very well; the Lord was not going to treat Caesar as a usurper. He was the rod of God’s indignation in the land of Israel. Whether Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, or Romans, they were no usurpers. So, when the Lord saw Caesar’s coin passing through the land, He saw in it Israel’s shame, not Caesar’s usurpation. How beautifully He escapes the snare of the fowler! "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s." That was a golden rule ever since their captivity the rule of returned captives and so it is our rule. Do you treat the powers that are ordained of God as usurpers? No, but do not confound the rights of Caesar and the rights of God. If there is a collision between them, say with Peter, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." It was a short, terse sentence, replete with divine wisdom for Israel’s condition at the moment. Then when the Herodians are dismissed, the Sadducees come forth. The enmity of Satan is never weary. If foiled in the Herodian, he w ill try his hand in the Sadducee. Now, Master, here is the strange thing! The Lord is ready for them. He knows how to answer every man: You are confounding heavenly and earthly things. You are mistaking things altogether, but that ye may know that the dead are raised, even Moses called the Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He is not a God of the dead, but of the living. Now do you see the difference between the resurrection of the body, and a separate life in the spirit? If the only thing brought in had been a life in the spirit, do you see that God would not have been fully glorified? So Paul lets them know in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 that if they do not believe in resurrection, they do not know the glory of God. The enemy has brought in death to both soul and body, and God must meet him in the place of his power. If, when Satan had destroyed the body, God had said, I will now make another creature, His glory would not have been fully shown. If He took you out of the body, to dwell with Christ in spirit, it might satisfy you, but not His own glory. That is the need of resurrection. Now He had silenced them. He confounded the interrogators, and then He put a question that baffled them: "David therefore calleth Him Lord, how is He then his son?" They were baffled, and none can answer that question who do not see the Person of Christ, the precious mystery of the God-man. Is it not a sad and terrible thing that you have sent the Lord to the right hand of His Father, there to wait till His enemies are made His footstool? You will say, He has gone there to help me, a poor sinner. Yes, but you have sent Him there too. You have a very imperfect view, if while you see Him waiting on the necessity of poor sinners, you do not see Him waiting till He comes forth to judge His enemies. at the end of the world. His grace has put Him there as the High Priest of our profession; our enmity has put Him there as waiting for judgment. Chapter 21 derives itself from this; and here I would just say, there is an exceedingly beautiful thing attending the close of the Lord’s ministry. At the early part of His ministry, He was getting consolation for Himself, as at the well of Sychar, the man blind from his birth, etc. These were the fruits of His own labour; but, from the moment He leaves Jericho and meets Zaccheus, and up to the thief on the cross, these were cases on which He never spent a moment’s toil. They were consolations provided by God. The Lord was about to enter upon the darkest scenes of His sorrow, and God provides here and there a cup of cold water to refresh Him on His way. His toil was over He was preparing for Gethsemane, and Gethsemane was preparing Him for Calvary; and God said to Him, as it were, Now, You shall not toil I will bring refreshment to an untoiling Jesus. He had not expended labour on Zaccheus, or on the thief on the cross. These were brought to Him. Now, the Lord opens the story of "the times of the Gentiles." He is up there waiting till His enemies be made His footstool, and He gives a sketch of the times of the Gentiles the age of the depression of Israel. "The times of the Gentiles" intimates the supremacy of the Gentiles and the depression of Israel. He anticipates the whole of this age. In Luke 21:24, He calls the whole age, "the times of the Gentiles," in which the Gentiles are supreme; and Israel has no land or heritage in the earth. [While it is true that Israel again has land as a nation, the specific words of our Lord should be carefully noted: "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke 21:24. It was the city of their solemnities which they are not to regain until the period of Gentile supremacy runs out. The old city of Jerusalem, with its temple site and wailing wall, is in the hands of the Arabs, although it is a prime object of Israeli aspiration. They will probably get it from the beast of the revived Roman Empire when he makes a league with them for seven years (Daniel 9:27), but the Gentile soldiers of this Roman Empire will, in all likelihood, have to patrol it to guarantee its security. Thus the Lord’s exact words are being literally fulfilled. Ed.] Look in Luke 20:7, when they ask Him, "When shall these things be?" "Take heed," He says, People will be promising you rest before rest comes. Do you remember the mistake of the people in Luke 19:1-48, when they thought the kingdom would immediately appear? The Lord here anticipates the very same thing. He says, Now, do not mistake; the time cannot draw near till there has been judgment. And that is what I am bold to say to the world now. You are not going to have a kingdom; the time of glory is not drawing near, nor will it, till judgment has purged the earth. It is very different with the hopes of the Church. Judgment is on the other side of my glory. I shall be glorified when I stand before the judgment seat; but will the earth enter its glory before it is purged from its iniquity? He cannot be Lord of lords till He has girt His sword upon His thigh. The world is promising itself glorious things. Do not believe it. Then He tells them, "In your patience possess ye your souls," not in false expectation. "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." That day has come, and Israel has been led captive into all nations. In Luke 20:25, He anticipates the closing days of the times of the Gentiles. "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; . . . men’s hearts failing them for fear, . . . and then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Then, when fearful signs come to pass then, ye Jewish remnant lift up your heads, for your jubilee draws nigh. It is the same word as redemption. In Leviticus we read that every fiftieth year God re-asserted His own principles. For forty-nine years they might corrupt God’s order, but in the fiftieth year they were sent back, every man to his own property, and the family order and estate was resettled. The moment we get things under God’s hand again, we are keeping a jubilee. God knew that He was entitled to call His world, the world where His principles reign, a jubilee. Are you wearied of man’s world? God’s world will be a jubilee. Man’s best world is to get his vanity gratified. Are we ashamed to have a heart for such enjoyment? So when these purgings and purifyings take place, then "lift up your heads." The sword of David is doing its business, and the throne of Solomon will be erected. "This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled." You will never mind it. It is now the very same generation as in the days of Christ. The world may be advanced in the accommodations of civilized life, but does that mend it? God only can cure it, and that by making an end of it. If He were to put new wine into old bottles, the bottles would burst. Then, that beautiful admonition to everyone. Do not live as if this world were your portion. The life you nourish in this world is a very different thing from the one you have to cherish for the next. If you live as if this world were your portion, that day will come upon you as a thief. So if you and I are telling our hearts to eat, drink, and be merry, the coming of the Son of man will be as morally different as the coming of a thief at night would be circumstantially different to a family that went to bed in rest and quietness. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 03.16. LUKE 22 ======================================================================== Luke 22:1-71 We have now come to a very serious chapter and must be a little particular on each verse. We have entered a solemn moment, and the impression produced on the mind is this: that all to whom we are introduced have their thoughts on death. Immediately we find the Lord’s thoughts on death, but in a very different character. His thoughts on death are of laying the foundation of the eternal kingdom. They thought if they could but kill Him it would close the matter between Him and them forever. The doom of the old thing, and the foundation of the new and eternal thing are laid in death. The blessed Son of God entered into death, and laid the foundation of the new creation exactly at the point and spot where the old creation had its close. How the unfoldings of His ways are fraught with perfection. We see all who represented religion found in this confederacy. You may lay it up as a sure and settled thing, that the religion of flesh and blood is ever at enmity with God. We have remarked before, that in the close of the Lord’s ministry two missions are glanced at; one was to get the ass to take Him in royal glory into the city; now here is a mission to get a room to eat the Passover in. The failure of the first mission makes place for the second. If the Lord had been accepted on earth, He had a title to fill the throne of David; but the citizens would not have Him, so, being cast out as a King, He must become a stranger. He offered Himself to crown the whole system of the earth in royal beauty, but the earth would not have herself crowned; so what does He do? When He was refused as the headstone, He must be the chief cornerstone. That is the knitting of the two missions. The first was to get Him an ass and, as Lord of the fullness of the whole earth, He claims it from its owner. He says, so to speak, You are the owner, but I am the Lord. The man bowed to the claim, and so it will be by-and-by in millennial days the supreme Lordship of Jesus owned, and His sceptre kissed to the end of the earth. Now He sends out a mission, as a traveller going into a guest chamber. How the Lord knew how to transform Himself! He knew how to abound and how to suffer need; how to be abased and how to be exalted; to ride as a King into Jerusalem, and to go and take supper with a few poor disciples in an upper room! So to this day the Lord is a mere guest here, visiting His people. The master of the house is as ready to own His claim as the owner of the ass, so they sat down at the paschal table not yet the Lord’s supper, but the Jewish Passover. Now He says, "With desire I have desired to eat this passover [for it will be the last] . . . I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." That act blotted it out forever. Now, why did He not take the cup? It was not enjoined by the paschal ordinances. Now, said the Lord, I will not taste joy. As an obedient Jew, He celebrated the Passover, but joy was reserved for Him in the kingdom. Till then, He knows no earthly joy. Now, He institutes His own supper. He did not eat of this. He merely gave it to them. He could not take of it. He does not want redemption purchase by blood. "This do in remembrance of Me." There is a deep and blessed secret in these words. That which in other days was anticipative, is now retrospective. The Lord’s supper is a memorial. What has occasioned the transfiguration? "This is My body." The Son from the bosom of the Father took a body. "A body hast Thou prepared Me." And now we do not come on the principle that sin has to be remembered, but that sin has been remitted, put away; there is no more. The paschal table anticipated the coming of the Lord to die. Now He has spread a table at which I remember that I was once in my sins, but that sin has been put away. The body prepared of God has been broken [although a bone of Him was not broken; see John 19:36] on the accursed tree, and now sin is put away forever. The whole character of the feast turns on the victim. The whole epistle to the Hebrews turns on the passage, "How much more shall the blood of Christ . . . purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" If your conscience is purged, what do you do with your sins? Remember that you were once in them, but that you are in them no more dead and risen with Christ. Now see again how the thoughts of all are on death. So are the thoughts of the Lord, but with this difference: they were thinking of Him as a martyr. He was thinking of a sacrifice the victim character He was about to fulfil. The Lord died in two characters. He died a martyr at the hand of man a victim at the hand of God. Now we see that Judas was not simply one of the multitude. He holds a more awful character. He is the representative of apostate wickedness. His was not the common form of man’s enmity to God. Judas represents apostasy. There has always been apostasy. Christendom at this moment, if it be not fully blown, is on its way to apostasy. The apostasy of Judas formed the link between Christ and His enemies. Now we are introduced to the disciples, and (oh, terrible!) were they thinking of death? They were thinking of their own pride. "I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly." Proverbs 5:14. Have you not been conscious, in the most solemn moments, of your vanity and lusts? In the midst of all these deep solemnities, the thoughts of the disciples were about their vanity. I wonder that a look of the Lord would not have stilled and hushed the workings of their carnal mind! Now see the meekness of the Lord. The proud are flattered in this world. It likes the haughty and the great. There is a verdict on the world. "But ye shall not be so." Does it not give you relief to come to the mind of Christ? "But ye shall not be so"; and He says elsewhere, "Go and sit down in the lowest room." Oh, the beauty of His mind, as well as the perfection of His grace and the brightness of His glory! "Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations." Rebukes never separate. Suppose you are conscious that the Lord is rebuking you; you ought to be conscious that He is not putting you at an inch of distance from Himself. A rebuked Peter, James, and John went up to the hill of glory. The disciples had all been rebuked when He said to the Father in John 17:1-26 of John, "They have kept Thy word." Here they are rebuked, and yet the next moment He brings them nearer to Him, as the companions of His temptations, than the angels are. Did the rebuke put them at a single inch of distance? In the kingdom of God there will be a table and a throne. The table is the symbol of personal family intimacy; the throne is the public display of glory. By a little word like that (Luke 22:30), what a volume the Lord conveys to our hearts! We get the sanctuary of the family, and the outer places where the dignities of the throne will be displayed and shared. Now He turns to them, and they had earned it. If He never withdraws tenderness, He never withdraws discipline. The use of the rod never for a moment stills the pulses of the heart. "Simon, Simon," says the Lord, "behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." He had sifted Christ as wheat. Why did Satan get into Judas but that he might sift Christ? and now he desired to sift the disciples. You see this introduces Peter in a very special way. From the very beginning he showed characteristics of being a natural leader, and the Lord can use such if there is self-judgment and dependence on Him. When all the disciples Red, Peter afterward came back, but he failed miserably. His courage failed; everything failed but his faith in Christ, thanks to this intercession. Later when he saw the Lord, he rushed into the water to get to Him. Then, when he was converted, he could stand before councils; they could not make him a coward. So, when he was converted, he strengthened his brethren. We find the opening chapters of Acts verifying this. He was sifted; he failed in all but in faith; he was strengthened and he strengthened his brethren. "And He said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing?" The meaning of this is very simple. When He was with them, He sheltered them; the garment is the symbol of shelter. Now that He was about to be withdrawn, they must take His place and become a militant people. They must reckon on taking His place in the face of the world’s enmity. These are a weighty thirty-eight verses the beginnings of laying that foundation on which creation itself is to rest for eternity. Christ died under the doomed old thing, to bring in a new eternal thing. Nothing was as old there. The joy will be as fresh when it has run ten thousand years as it was in the beginning. The new creation is ever new and ever young. Luke 22:39-71 We have reached Luke 22:39 and, as we were observing, we must be more particular with each verse, for each verse is pregnant with something. It is very blessed in this chapter to see how the Lord passes through different relations with the disciples, with His Father, and with His enemies. It is beautiful to mark the moral pictures that adorn that path. Now He came out; He left the supper table and went to the Mount of Olives. That is a mystic spot. Why do I call it so? There are various lessons to learn there. A mystery is the enclosure of a secret. For instance, Abraham taking his son up to Mount Moriah was the incrustation of a secret. We find the Lord in these chapters in three conditions coming down the mount, ascending, and on the hill. As His royal descent was refused, we see Him making a wearisome ascent; and if we read Zechariah, we find Him again on the Mount, but it will split beneath His feet in judgment. Now He is consciously leaving the disciples for the presence of His Father, and He leaves them with wholesome words: "Pray that ye enter not into temptation." His business is now with the Father. And what is He saying? "If Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me." Surely this was part of His moral perfection. It ought to have been so. His love made Him a willing victim; but it would have been a blot on the moral beauty of His journey if He did not deprecate such a relative position to God as that He was about to enter into on the cross. Since it cannot be disposed of except He drink it, "not My will, but Thine, be done." "And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him." How do you interpret that word "strengthening"? It was not the same thing as "strengthen thy brethren." It did not extend beyond His frame. That is the office of angels. They are the messengers of providences. The Holy Ghost deals with your spirit. So I take it they were imparting some supporting virtue to His frame. It is a proof that He was not yet forsaken. We find nothing of that in the three hours of darkness. He was left in deep unfathomable solitariness. Not a ray of light from the countenance of God gladdened Him there. But as yet He was not made an offering for sin, and angels can come and strengthen Him. He is strengthened for a fresh agony. When He rose He came to His disciples and found them sleeping. They were Histhought, not He theirs! He their thought? They could not watch with Him one hour. So it is now. He ever lives to make intercession for us. Do we live ever to love Him serve Him? He ever lives for you. Do you ever live for Him? Now He is brought into His last relationship. He is plunged into the midst and thick of His enemies. "While He yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, . . . drew near unto Jesus to kiss Him." Then one of His disciples makes a mistake. It is a terrible thing to make mistakes. There is a class of mistakes that arise not merely from an imperfect understanding, but from a wrong condition of heart. That was the mistake of the disciples here. They had not been in Christ’s company as they ought to have been. Can you conceive anything more distant from the Lord’s heart than drawing the sword to smite the servant of the high priest? On His way to die, the just for the unjust, to see a hair of a poor sinner’s head touched! I may mistake about the calling of the Church, or about coming glories, but there is another class of mistakes that you and I should keenly judge ourselves for. The Lord of course heals him. Now mark Luke 22:53. It gives a character to the moment. What is meant by this "hour"? How long did it continue? How is it distinguished from all that went before it, and all that followed after it? As to what went before, they could not touch Him till that hour had come. He must be a willing captive as He was a willing victim. But now the hour of the evening has arrived, and He becomes their captive. The moment you leave that hour (which stretches to the three hours of darkness) you have a new era altogether no longer the hour of the power of darkness, but the bruising of the woman’s seed. Now He puts Himself into their hands. He was a willing captive now, as He was a willing victim on the cross. They took Him! Did you ever, in the light of Scripture, consider what the heart of man is? You will tell me it is a wicked thing. Aye, that it is; but it is not only capable of wickedness, it is incurable, desperate. Conceive a man taking stones in his hand to batter and beat a face shining like an angel’s! Could you conceive it? Look at the priests in the temple in the presence of the rent veil. They plotted a lie. Look at the soldiers in the presence of the rent tomb. They consented to a lie. The riven waters of the Red Sea did not cure Pharaoh’s heart. The shining countenance of the martyr Stephen did not cure the heart of the multitude. A rent veil did not cure the priestly heart, and a rent tomb did not cure the soldiers’ hearts. Now the sight of the healed ear (for the blessed Lord is a divine surgeon here) in the presence of that they take Him. Is that a picture of the heart you carry? You may have different habitudes but the flesh is the same in all not only evil, but incurable. The watery walls did not cure it, and here in the very garden, they see Him performing a wondrous divine miracle of healing, and yet they take Him with murderous purpose. Tell me what you can do with a heart that has been proof against those things? Has hell had power to cure the devil? He may be overcome in Legion; out he goes into the herd of swine. Now we have the little episode of Peter warming himself. Cannot you fancy him sunk down into humanity? He became not the companion of Jesus of Gethsemane, but of a poor man in the outer court of the palace. Here we have two things the crow and the look. How do you interpret them? They are symbols of very different things, but two things we must all have to do with conscience and Christ. The crow awakened his conscience; the look placed him with Jesus. I want to have an awakened conscience and an eye by faith directed to Jesus. Then let Jesus close the story of my soul. If we are not all conscious of the cock-crow and the look, we are not yet in the school of God. My intellectual activity about the things of God will not do. Conscience must be occupied, and faith must be occupied. "And Peter went out, and wept bitterly." But his faith did not fail. He may be sent through sorrow and tears, but his faith does not fail. "And the men that held Jesus mocked Him, and smote Him... And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led Him into their council, saying, Art Thou the Christ?" How He looks at the inquirer! Do you think we deal faithfully with one another? No; we are too fond of letting people think well of themselves, and we call it tenderness, but it is a vapid thing! You never find in Christ the human amiability that gratifies. There was love in every form of faithfulness, but no human amiableness. Now the Lord deals with their condition in answer to their question You will not deal with Me righteously You are set on mischief, and mischief you will have You are set on My blood, and My blood you will spill. Having convicted them, He rises up; "Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God." This is the exhibition of Christ in judicial power. In many ways we track Christ to heaven. We think we have disposed of the ascension when we say He rose and ascended; but you must track Him to the highest heavens in various characters: personally as with the Father in His priestly character as making intercession in the sanctuary as One whom earth has sent there, and whenever we get that form, we see Him ascending in judicial glory. That is presented here. He is not gone up to heaven as a sanctuary, but as being the place of power, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. In that character we view Him here. Now we see the way in which He was viewed by the Gentiles, by the ecclesiastical and civil powers, that every form of society might be brought in guilty before God. Pilate and Caiaphas might be amiable men, but, as touching God, one and all stand guilty in a common revolted nature. Do you and I realize that the blessed Lord consented to walk such a path for us? We may well say that such love as that "passeth knowledge." May the Lord give us to receive it by faith, and feed on it by communion. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: 03.17. LUKE 23 ======================================================================== Luke 23:1-56 We are now going to meditate on Luke 23:1-56. "The whole multitude of them arose, and led Him unto Pilate." With what skilfulness did they adapt themselves to the moment! When He was before the Jews, they brought a charge of making Himself the Son of God. Before the Roman governor, they bring a charge of making Himself a King. He had a right to both of these titles. Both these claims were brought and challenged in a human court. Thus everything has been gainsaid and everything will be vindicated. We see Him standing as challenged before man; we find Him by-and-by vindicated before God. Now when Pilate revives the question, "Art Thou the King of the Jews?" He answers, "Thou sayest it." It is a beautiful thing for you to carry conscious glory in a hidden shape. He avowed Himself a King when He was asked. It was a glory He constantly carried, but was constantly hiding. We should be conscious of dignities that would outshine the glories of the world; but we find the world in such a moral condition that we cannot display them. That was the life Jesus. He was consciously a vessel of glory, but morally under the necessity of hiding it. How instructive it is to see the labouring of different states of souls! Nothing can be more striking than the story of Pilate. He had no enmity against Christ. He would have discharged Him if he could at the same time have preserved his character in the world. The Jews’ conduct was a mere carnal enmity against God. In Pilate you see the victorious struggle that the world makes in the conscience. Now, Pilate naturally wished to rid himself of an uneasy conscience. So, when he "heard of Galilee," he thought it was a little door of escape, and at once he took advantage of it. Ah, it will not do to get out by back doors. The subtlety of the human heart in wickedness seeks them. So Pilate sent Him to Herod, and we find that, before Herod, He never uttered a word. Herod was unmixedly wicked. He did answer Pilate, because there was no enmity in his heart. He answered Caiaphas for the oath of God’s sake, by which he adjured Him (Matthew 26:63); but as for Herod, He has not a word for him. He passes from before him without opening His mouth. It is a terrible thing for God to be silent. It is better that He should be speaking to us by chastenings. "Be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit." Psalms 28:1. The silence of God is as if you put a man into a pit. "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." Hosea 4:17. The intercourse between Herod and the Lord illustrates this. "And Herod . . . sent Him again to Pilate." "For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast." We are entering on a moral moment of great solemnity. Why must he release one at the Passover? There is no direct commentary on it, but my own thought about it is that they claimed from the Roman governor a sign of the dignity that attached to this feast when the Lord of heaven and earth made a great deliverance for them. And in order to keep up the memorial of it they demanded that one should be delivered to them. The Passover was a memorial of the ancient dignity of the nation. We like some little relic of bygone dignities. Now at that time it so happened that there was a murderer in prison one "who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison." You could not go lower in moral acting than that. Now the question arises, Will they choose such a man as that, or the Prince of Life? We find Peter in the opening of Acts making much of that. What does it tell us? It is the deep, full sifting of the heart of man, and it tells me that the heart of man in Luke 23:1-56 is exactly what it was in Genesis 3:1-24. Man in Genesis 3:1-24 preferred the lie of the serpent to the truth of God. Man here preferred a murderer to the Prince of Life! and if you do not think you are a full-grown Adam, you are deceiving yourself. I see the Jew of Luke 22:1-71 practicing the Adam of Genesis 3:1-24. The God of grace, the God of life, the God of glory, given up for the serpent. A murderer was preferred, for "he was a murderer from the beginning." So it was here. So Pilate "said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath He done?" Still struggling! Those battles are not settled in a moment. Conscience loves ease too well to yield in a moment. Pilate is in a field of battle till he is conquered. In this wondrous Volume we get man exposed and God revealed man shown to be an incurable moral ruin God revealed as a repairer of every breach. And He will go on repairing till He turns the howling of creation into the praises of creation. He begins with the conscience. If the conscience is not restored, it is nothing to you to see creation restored; but He begins where we want Him to begin. Have I any reason to doubt that if, as a sinner, my conscience is given to howl, He can give it the garment of praise? He is to do this in creation; by-and-by He will turn its groans into praises; and is not my conscience as worthy of His workmanship as creation? Then Pilate gave sentence. He succumbed to pressure and condemned the guiltless. Now we are introduced to the daughters of Jerusalem. The daughters of Jerusalem are not the women of Galilee. How do we distinguish between them? They are distinguished. It is another instance of the vast moral variety of Scripture. We get the disciples the women of Galilee the daughters of Jerusalem the centurion and Joseph of Arimathea. Are you not conscious of like varieties in the scene around you? It may puzzle and grieve you; but what is too big for you, roll over upon Christ. I can hardly tell where light begins and darkness ends. It is too much for me. I must leave it with God. Now, where must you put all these varieties? Do not put them anywhere. Leave them with Christ. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" Do not seek to settle it. The angels will know how to clear the field by-and-by. I converse with people every day and, if I were asked, I should not know where to classify their souls. The women of Galilee were evidently "elect according to the foreknowledge of God." But what do you say of the daughters of Jerusalem? They were not among the crucifiers. They represent, I think, the soul of the remnant by-and-by, in the first moment of awakening. "Weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." Ah, this self-forgetting character of the Lord! I do not know that it more wonderfully displays itself than in these last scenes. If you are in trouble, do you not feel privileged to think of yourself, and to expect others to do so too? What beautiful witnesses we have here of self-forgetting love. "Woman, behold thy son"; "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me"; "Father, forgive them." Now we pass on to the cross. What do you say about the "spirit" (Luke 23:46) ? Have you learned with calm conclusiveness that if the believer’s spirit is now delivered from the body, it is with Jesus? When Stephen followed the track of his Master, he did it in life and in death. If they were battering his body here, the Lord Jesus was receiving his spirit there. Paul went to paradise simply as "a man in Christ." Men in Christ are independent of the body. He clothes the body with immortality, and the spirit with indestructible life. In His own Person the Lord was the first to recognize the spirit’s going to the Father. He was the firstborn among many brethren, and the firstborn among many spirits. Now we come to the confession of the centurion. Then Joseph of Arimathea seemed to get courage by the confession. He "waited for the kingdom of God." What are we to make of him? Why had he not, for these many years, cast in his lot with the followers of the Nazarene? Well, we do not know; we must leave him there. He boldly goes and claims the body of Jesus. It did not cause him much trouble to go to Pilate. Pilate had no enmity. What a chapter! The Lord closing the old creation. The Sabbath of old celebrated its perfection; the death of Jesus celebrated its close. The old creation was doomed from the beginning, and if we have not a place in the new creation, touching God we are nothing. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: 03.18. LUKE 24 ======================================================================== Luke 24:1-53 We have now reached Luke 24:1-53, and here we might generally observe that the Lord takes the scene into His own hands. We observed when He was taken in the garden, that He recognized that moment as the hour of the power of darkness. Man was the principal then; man took Him, man nailed Him to the tree, thereby verifying the word, "This is your hour." Man was disposing of the scene as it pleased him. And so it went on till the three hours of darkness. Then God took it into His hands. That was the time when God bruised Him and made His soul an offering for sin. It is very desirable that we should see the special characteristic of that moment. All through life, His Father’s countenance was beaming on Him. Was He forsaken of His Father through life? Read His utterance in Psalms 16:1-11. But now, according to the prophetic voices, according to the premonitions of John the Baptist there He was God’s Lamb. Then at once He became a conqueror. God did not wait for resurrection, to sanction the death of Jesus. He sanctioned it by rending the veil. This was not the public seal; but ere the appointed third day had come, for the public seal (of resurrection), God put His private seal on it. And the rapidity of it is beautiful. We cannot measure the time between the giving up the ghost and the rending of the veil (Matthew 27:50-51). That was the seal of the satisfaction of the throne. In two ways He was doing the will of God here. Through life His business here, as at the well of Sychar, was turning darkness into light. That was the will of the Father when He was a living minister. As a dying victim He was doing the will of the throne. The throne where judgment was seated was satisfied when Jesus gave up the ghost. One was doing the will of the Father; the other was doing the will of God in judgment. After that, having passed through man’s hour and God’s hour, we see Him in resurrection in His own hour. His own hour is eternity. How blessed to be in His company, to enter a bright and intimate eternity with Jesus. We now see Him in resurrection, and we find many things here to invite attention. We find in the opening verses that as soon as the Jewish Sabbath was over, the women came with spices which they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher; but they found not the body of the Lord Jesus. Now what do you say to all that? There is something exceedingly comforting in it. It is ignorance and affection mingled. It was ignorance that took them to look for the living among the dead; affection took them, counting the dead body of the Lord of more worth than all around. What are you to do with ignorant affection? Just what Christ did with it. He could appreciate it, but He was not satisfied with it. He will not have love in the place of faith. Love is the principle that gives; faith is the principle that takes. Which is the most grateful to Christ? He will tell you in this chapter. He will have us debtors. He will occupy the place of the "more blessed." Faith says, Lord, You shall have it so. Another has said, Faith is the principle that lets God think for us; and so to that I add, That puts God into the chief room. If I come naked and empty and make God everything, that is faith. The law makes man principal, and God secondary. Man is to be doing this and that, while God is passive. The gospel changes sides altogether. In the gospel God is the giver and you are the receiver. Here, instead of faith, was ignorant love. They had affection, but they did not understand the victory He had gained in their behalf. It is Christ that has visited me in my grave, not I that have visited Him in His grave. He is the living One, I am the dead one. So they bring their spices and ointments to the tomb, and there the angels meet them. They were afraid. They were looking for a dead body they might well be startled by a glittering stranger. The angels were fresh from heaven, the witnesses of the risen and victorious Lord. They had not been thinking of that, so the angels put them to fear. And they said, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?... He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee." That was a rebuke. Do you like to see love rebuked? It is not pleasant, but it is faithful. They were about the business of love, but the business of unbelief too. So in everything God stands vindicated. Then they remembered the words. How much mischief we get into by not remembering God’s words! When the Lord Jesus was tempted, He had the word of God at hand, and by that simple word He could gain the victory in the battle. They do this piece of foolishness, because they had not remembered the simplest words that could have fallen on their ears. How sweet to see the God of all grace in intercourse with us even in our mistakes! Would you like a person to be always standing before a glass, fitting himself for your presence? You would rather find him at ease before you, and so would God. The rebuke was well meant and well deserved, but it was an excellent oil that would not break their heads (Psalms 141:5). Now this light puts them on quite a different road. Let my mistakes be a link with Christ, rather than the Ephraim condition, "Let him alone." "Be not silent: lest... I become like them that go down into the pit." Psalms 28:1. All this is anything but that. They were well-deserved and sharp rebukes; but again I say, Let my mistakes put me in company with Jesus, rather than that I should not be in company with Him at all. So they went and told these things to the apostles, "and their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not." Now would you call the apostles Corinthians, who, by intellectual workings, denied the resurrection? or Sadducees, who, as a depraved sect, denied the resurrection? I could not say that. I should not put them among the Sadducees of Israel or the Corinthians of the Gentiles. How then do you account for their unbelief? Ah, it is hard to believe that God is doing your business in this world. It is much easier to us to do Christ’s business than to believe that He has done ours. Not a form of human religion takes up that thought. So it was with the disciples. They could bring their spices and their ointments, but they were not yet able to believe the mighty fact that He had been doing their business. We think of Him as hard, and exacting, and watching above the clouds to find occasion against us. Their hearts had been as leaking vessels of the words of Christ, and they came as the living to the dead instead of believing that He, as the living, has come down to us, the dead. We will spend our days in penances, but we will not trust Him. Then we see Peter in the same plight. Peter! Is it possible! he that had made the very confession on which the Church is founded! When Peter had to live the confession, he failed. The one among the eleven that ought eminently to have blushed was Peter. How you can distinguish a man from himself at times his condition from his experience! If he had known what he was confessing, he never would have thought of "the Son of the living God" as among the dead. Then we leave Peter, and return to the Lord, in company with two disciples. He got the very same element in them. The only exception lay in the distant corner of Bethany. We do not find Mary and Martha at the sepulcher. They had already been at the tomb of their brother. Was it from want of love that they were not at the empty sepulcher? No, but from faith in Christ. Ignorant love brought the Galilee women there; intelligent faith kept the Bethany women aside. Now He joins these two disciples on the road, as with gloomy clouded hearts they were going back to the city. What made them sad? It was unbelief. That sadness was attractive to Jesus. If the affection that took the spices to His tomb was delightful to Him, the sadness that gathered round their clouded hearts was delightful to Him too. It was reality. Do you not believe that the gospels give you little bits of eternity? The gospels give you intercourse between the Lord of glory and poor sinners, and eternity will give you the same intercourse. It is worth a world to have an intimate eternity with Christ. The gospels prepare our hearts for it, even now, by such confidence. Their confidence was won and retained, though the Lord never made an effort about it. He just threw Himself out on their hearts, and they took Him up as He was. And He drew near and asked them, "What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" And they said, "Art Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?" We have turned our backs not only on Jerusalem but on all our expectations. This is the third day, and now we are going home. It is all over with us. He replied, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe" to believe what? "All that the prophets have spoken." That was the cure, and that was where they came short. Oh, how that should bind round your heart and mine every jot and tittle of God’s Word! Then He showed them how Christ should suffer, and expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. Now their reasonings turn into kindlings. What turned them? Jesus had interpreted Himself. How natural then that He should make as though He would go farther! He was hiding Himself under a veil, and, as a stranger, He would not intrude on them. "But they constrained Him." I do not thank them a bit I thank the kindlings they were enjoying for this piece of courtesy. We had better take up our thanks to the One to whom thanks are due. We know how it ended. Be sure the joy of eternity will never weary you. Kindlings will be there in seraphic order. Give me a seraphim mind within, and the glories of Jesus around. That will be heaven. Luke 24:33 We are closing the Gospel of Luke, and we still find the same thing that we were meditating on the last time the unbelief that lurked in their hearts touching the resurrection. Now the Lord sets Himself to dissipate it. It must be dissipated, for it is fatal to the faith of God’s elect. Nothing could be a substitute for resurrection. The whole dealing of God with sinners depends on its being an accomplished fact. In several cases during His ministry we get the people expecting Him to interfere between sickness and death. But that was not God’s way. The wages of sin is death. So now, He must go into death. He must meet the enemy in the place of his strength and defeat him there. In the history of Jairus’s daughter, it was just that. He tarried so long that she died a beautiful witness that the Lord did not come to intercept death, but to defeat death. So in the case of Lazarus the Lord tarried till the sickness ended in death. They were all crying and bewailing howling over the ravages of death. That was the very place for the Son of God to display Himself. To be sure, He did heal and cleanse, but He came into the world not to interfere between sickness and death, but between death and life again. He is the holder of victorious life. Supposing He had met sickness and not death, nothing would have been done, for the wages of sin is death. Did He come to qualify the original judgment, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die"? He did not. He came to meet it, suffer it, verify it, and get the victory on the other side of it. When the two disciples are satisfied, they get back to the city to report what they have seen and, while they speak, Jesus Himself stands in the midst of them. There are many things for us to observe here. I will tell you a sweet thing. He not only rose, but He rose the same as He died. Could you put up with an altered Son of God? Though throned in glory this moment, He is the very same as He was at the well of Sychar. If you want to know what Christ is now, go and learn Him in the four gospels. Do you want a different Jesus than the one that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have introduced to you? Perhaps it is hard to understand that He is the same now in glory as He was here. It is part of the business of the post-resurrection scenes to assure us that He is the very, very same. Treasure that up in your souls. It will make the pathway to heaven easy. He has come into your world before ever He asked you to go into His, and the way to make the path there easy is to know that you will find, in yonder world of glory, the very same Jesus that came into your world. The Lord of the distant glories has been in the midst of my ruins, and has shown me that He is the same in the midst of the glories as in the midst of the ruins. It is among the moral wonders of the gospel that the blessed Lord has taken such means to accommodate my eye and ear to future glories. He has given beautiful pledges of that. As He entered the room, He said, "Peace be unto you." Had He ever said that before? Were those strange words on His lips? He was only redeeming His pledge. Before He died, He said, "Because I live, ye shall live also." After He rose, "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." That is another witness. Before He died He said, I will meet you in Galilee. Did He not take up the pledge? You may say that was a little thing, but whether big or little, a risen Christ makes good what a ministering Christ had promised. Circumstances cannot change Him. Ruins here and glories there have no power to touch Him. He said before He suffered, "I go to prepare a place for you." After He rose, He said, "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father." If you go through the post-resurrection scenes, you will be able to track a risen Christ in company with a ministering Christ. taking up the pledges and showing all the beautiful traits of character that He exhibited before. Do you ever think of sudden death? You may be borne without a moment’s notice into His presence. Will it be a strange place to you? I may be a stranger to His circumstances, but not to Himself. Therefore, the more we acquaint ourselves with Jesus, the more we are in heaven already. It matters little about His palace if I know Himself. The blessed Lord wants to make us intimate with Himself. So in the post-resurrection scenes He lets us know that we know Him already. Now we come to the verification of the fact of resurrection. Why is that such an important point? Suppose God had said, Satan has ruined your body, so I will take you to be with Me in spirit; it would have been verifying the victory of Satan over the body. Did God come into the world to do that? So the Apostle says, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain." Then He makes us, in our glorified bodies, the witnesses of His victory. Resurrection was not only the seal of His victory. He has made an atonement, and the throne has owned it by raising the Surety from the dead; but not only so, it is necessary to see that He has got a victory in this world; so to verify this, the Lord wonderfully condescends. "He said unto them, Have ye here any meat?" Why was all that? Simply to verify that it was no mere spirit that stood before them. The Lord came to fight a battle for you palpable flesh and blood. Palpable manhood had been destroyed palpable manhood must be redeemed. Having established the fact in the 44th verse, He makes all to hang on it. Then having recited what He had once told them, He here knits His present ministry with what had gone before. He opens to them in law, prophets, and Psalms, the things concerning Himself. We see something like this in His dealings with Peter. He had said, "Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice." That came to pass. Then the Lord looked at him. He had awakened his conscience by the crow; He relinked him with Himself by the look. When the Lord rose, He took up Peter exactly where He had left him. He did not want to awaken his conscience again, or relink him with Himself again; but He took him up at the critical point where He had left him. He puts him into the ministry again. The Lord knows the path of your spirit and will take you up exactly where you are. He had told them while He was with them that all things should be accomplished, and now He gives them an opened understanding (which He had not done before), and sits down to give them a lecture on them. It is beautiful to see how He educates us. What a wonderful moment! and that moment has been continued to this moment. That was a moment that characterized the present dispensation that on the warranty of His death remission of sins should be preached to every poor sinner. In one sense we have never got beyond it, and we never shall till the last of the elect is brought in. Now He has done everything; and, as a preacher to the world, He was silent. He had declared remission of sins to a world of sinners. As an evangelist, I take leave of Jesus there. As a high priest, we have not yet fully seen Him, but, as an evangelist, that was a stereotyped moment of His ministry. He cannot add to that. He has told me, as belonging to a world of sinners, that through death and resurrection remission of sins is preached to me. Now He led them out to Bethany. I believe it was a silent walk. If my spirit is drinking in the simplicity of such a gospel, it will be in deep-toned, silent satisfaction of soul. "And He lifted up His hands, and blessed them." That was priestly service. There He "ever lives." I never have done with His uplifted hands, and in that attitude He was taken up to heaven to carry on His priesthood on high. What effect has all this on you and me? to look at an evangelist Jesus giving peace to the conscience, and then see Him going up to heaven in the act of blessing! What effect had it on the disciples? The whole character of their religion was changed. They were no longer trafficking with Moses. Their service became that of eucharistic priesthood. They went back to the city with great joy, "And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." Can anything be more divine? Nothing. And there Christ takes leave of you. The heavens will retain Him till the times of refreshing; but have you lost Him? Could He give a more graphic impression than He has done here? He has accomplished redemption and He ever lives to bless you. Go to your Jerusalem, and be ever praising and blessing Him. There it drops. "We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness." The trail of the serpent is everywhere, but in such shining paths as I see the feet of Jesus treading here. What He lays His hand to, He accomplishes to perfection. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: 04.00. THE MINOR PROPHETS ======================================================================== The Minor Prophets John Gifford Bellett Contenido Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: 04.01 HOSEA ======================================================================== Hosea Section 1 of: The Minor Prophets by J. G. Bellett HOSEA prophesied in the prospect of the breaking up of the kingdom of the ten tribes, and near the end of the house of Jehu. He is full of the thought of the ruin that was at hand; but he anticipates scenes of restoration and glory beyond it. As I may express it, the death and resurrection of Israel is contemplated by him, and announced under different figures, in a very abrupt and vivid style. At the opening of the book, the prophet is directed by the Lord to take to him a wife and children. And he might say of them, as Isaiah did of his two sons, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders." (Hosea 1:1-11) The first child is "Jezreel" - the sign of the doom, both of the house of Jehu, and of the house of Israel. The second child is "Lo-ruhamah" - the sign that God would withdraw His mercy from the house of Israel. The third is "Lo-ammi" - the sign that He would disclaim Israel, so that they should be no more His people. But all this is, followed by a promise of final re-gathering, called "the day of Jezreel," when the very same nation, now cast off, should be restored. The strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire, pass by to do their appointed service; but the still, small voice closes the history. Hosea 2:1-23 then gives us a more expanded view of this guilt and misery of Israel, and of their final blessedness. The beautiful description of the covenant made by the Lord for Israel, as between them and the beasts of the earth, after He has taken them into covenant with Himself, and the sight we get of the Lord at one end of a magnificent system of blessing and Israel at the other, after wilderness. days, are exquisite indeed. "The valley of Achor" is also declared to be "a door of hope’! - that is, judgment ending in victory or glory, tribulation in joy. (Joshua 7:1-26) All these things bespeak the death and resurrection of the nation. Then, in Hosea 3:1-5, the prophet is directed to take a second wife. These marriages are emblematic actions, reminding us of many things in Ezekiel, of Jeremiah going to the Euphrates to hide his girdle there, and of Agabus in the Acts of the Apostles, taking Paul’s girdle and binding his own hands with it. All these were actions emblematically or typically fitted to give intimation of coming events. The instruction of the Prophet’s first marriage is about the casting off of Israel as a nation, and their return to blessedness in the last days. The instruction conveyed to us by his second marriage is about the political and religions history of the people; and this may well strike us as marvellous; for with our eyes we see this anticipation of the prophet verified and exhibited to the very life. They are, at this moment, without a king, without a sacrifice, without teraphim. They have no political standing, and they are neither a sanctified nor an idolatrous people. They are not in the knowledge and worship of God, nor in the service of idols, as their fathers were. Our own eyes do indeed see all this. But they are to revive politically and religiously. As the prophet goes onto tell us: "They shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." Surely this is again their present death and coming resurrection. Then, after these first three chapters, we get, in the great body of the prophecy, details of the sins which had provoked this judgment. "There is a sin unto death," as we read in St. John. Israel, as a nation, I may say, committed it. All the prophets, I may also say, tell us this. "This iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die," says Isaiah to them. But Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones is the leading and the best-known scripture on this mystery. And the Divine Prophet Himself talks to the Jews of His day of the Lord God miserably destroying them as the wicked husbandmen; and says also to them, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate." And surely it is a death-stricken land and people we see in them and their country at this moment. Surely it all tells us, "There is a sin unto death." They are as a nation in Ezekiel’s valley, or in Hosea’s graveyard. But this death shall be triumphed over. The nation of the Jews shall have a resurrection, as the bodies of the saints shall have a resurrection. And then, as the saints in their glories shall fill and adorn the heavens, so Israel shall blossom, and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. "What shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?" In spirit, as well as in circumstances, there shall be revival, moral as well as national recovery, conversion as well as restoration. Hosea’s last chapter lets us see this, and all the prophets. Micah, whose prophecy we may consider in another place, gives us this subject in a very vivid way, delineating the exercises of the soul very strikingly in his Micah 6:1-1; Micah 7:1-20. Very various and broken are the notices which our prophet gives us of those iniquities which were leading the people to their graves, or to the judgment of death. The land was to mourn - the people were to languish. The Lord would be to Ephraim as a moth, to the house of Judah as a worm; as the fowls of the heaven He would bring them down. They should be swallowed up; Memphis was to bury them; their children should be brought forth to the murderer; they should use the words prepared for the day of utter excision, "mountains cover us, hills fall on us." Such words are used, such descriptions are given of them. But they were to revive, and of this we get abrupt witness also. The Lord was God and not man, and His heart would turn within Him - His repentings should be kindled; there should be no full and final destruction. Resurrection, as in the third day (a glance at the resurrection of the Lord of Israel Himself) is spoken of. The coming out from Egypt also, as a renewal of their history, as though they were beginning afresh, under the hand and grace of God, and Jacob’s history, are likewise referred to, with the same intent. Birth from the womb, and resurrection from the grave, are also called forth to set forth, as in figures, the same story of this people. And, again, the blighting force of the east wind, and then afterwards the bloom and beauty of spring, tell us of the doom and the revival of the nation. Such passages throughout the book give it its character. I read it as that which, under the Spirit of God, keeps the judgment and redemption, the death and resurrection, of Israel as a nation, constantly in view. The language of resurrection itself is so employed in Hosea 13:1-16, that the apostle can use it, when he is making literal resurrection his subject, in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58. Here, however, it is the recovery of the nation. And standing, as Hosea was, in the full prospect of the Assyrian captivity, and in the near approach of the doom of the house of Jehu, it was natural and easy, so to speak, that the Spirit should lead him to see and speak of the death-stricken state of Israel as just about to begin.* *In Hosea 13:14 we get the thought of the apostle in Romans 11:29 - that divine mercy shall gather Israel at the end, because God’s gifts and calling are without repentance. Principally, again I say, we have a detail of those iniquities which were making such a process, judgment unto death, necessary. But I welcome and fully admit the instructions of another, that, in a passing way, we get a large view of truth in this book of Hosea. In addition to the present casting-off of the Jews, and their future restoration, which, as we see, constitutes the great subject, we get the grafting of the Gentile on the Jewish root, intimated in Hosea 1:10, used to that end by the apostle in Romans 9:26. So the idea, the scriptural idea, of a remnant in Israel is conveyed in the "Ammi" and "Ruhamah" of Hosea 2:1, and thus we do get notices of other points of truth beyond the leading ones. And, further still, as he has said again upon this prophecy, "nothing can be finer than the intermingling of the moral necessity for judgment, the just indignation of God at such sin, pleadings to induce Israel to forsake their evil way and seek the Lord, God’s recurrence to the eternal counsels of His own grace, and, at the same time, the touching remembrance of former relationship with His beloved people; there is nothing more affecting than this mixture on God’s part of reproaches, of loving-kindness, of appeal, of reference to happier moments, that touching mixture of affection and of judgment, which we find again and again in this prophet."* *Hosea 6:7 should be translated, we learn, "but they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant." This tells us that Adam and the Jew were alike under law, and, therefore, became transgressors. This is as the teaching of Romans 5:1-21. In this way, we get variety of matter in Hosea, while, again I say, the death and resurrection of the nation of Israel constitutes the great theme. The closing verse draws the moral. It tells us where wisdom, true and divine wisdom, wisdom in which the soul is concerned, and concerned for eternity, is to be found. And surely it is in this mystery of death and resurrection, judgment and redemption, sin and salvation, the mystery, as I may say, of Adam and of Christ, that the grand moral of the story of this ruined world of ours lies. All that is to be brought back to God, all that is to stand in Christ, or tinder Christ, is to be in resurrection-character, in redemption from the judgment of death; and the Jew as well as everything else, the nation of Israel in the latter day, as Hosea, and the prophet and the apostle of the Gentiles himself teach us. We might formally close with this reflection on the closing verse of our prophet, but I must add another word. Redemption leads to relationship. This is God’s way. He only satisfies His own nature by this. "God is love." Whom He redeems, He adopts. He puts His ransomed ones into relationship to Himself. It was thus among the patriarchs. Isaac followed Abraham. It was thus in Israel. God speaks to Israel and of Israel, as betrothed and adopted. I might refer to Isaiah 54:1-17, Jeremiah 3:1-25, Ezekiel 16:1-63, Zephaniah 3:1-20, and a multitude of other scriptures, in proof of this. It is thus with us. We read this largely in the New Testament. Redemption from the curse of the law is followed by redemption from the bondage of it. In other words, the blessing of justification is waited on or followed by the Spirit of adoption. (Galatians 3:1-29; Galatians 4:1-31) And among the scriptures which show us that the nation of Israel is to be in relationship as well as in redemption, Hosea may be very principally cited. For here, in the second chapter, the Lord, anticipating His people in the coming days of the kingdom, says to them by His prophet, "And it shall be at that day, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali." Wonderful and precious! Restored and quickened Israel shall have communion with their Lord in the grace and freedom of conscious relationship of the dearest, nearest character! For thus again speaks the Lord by Jeremiah, "Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will, surely have mercy upon him." (Jeremiah 31:20) It is enough. Redemption leads to relationship, and so to glory; and in coming days, the heavens and the earth shall witness it, in its various, and excellent, and wondrous exhibition. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: 04.02. JOEL ======================================================================== Joel Section 2 of: The Minor Prophets by J G Bellett THE age of this prophet is not given to us. From this, we might say, it matters not when he flourished: but we may say the same also from the character of his prophecy. And thus the silence of the Spirit on that point is more than accounted for: it is justified. He delivered the word of the Lord in some day of sore national calamity, when either again and again the adversary came in to waste and destroy, or year after year famine was in the land by reason of plagues upon it. But through this present calamity, the great closing calamities of Israel are seen, as by the far-seeing eye of Him who knows the end from the beginning and in the grace of Him who would fain sound an alarm in the ears of the people, that they may prepare themselves for a day of visitation. Nothing is more common than this in the prophets. They treat the present moment as the pledge of a future. Indeed, the Lord does the same - taking up, I may say, this style of the prophets in Luke 13:1-35; where, in the day of Pilate’s cruelty to the Galileans, and of the fall of the tower in Siloam, He says to the generation, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." In Joel’s day, the vine and the fig, the corn and the wine and the oil, palm-tree, pomegranate, and apple-tree, all are withered; and the priests and ministers are summoned to weep, and a solemn fast is proclaimed, that the elders and all the people may gather themselves. The services of God’s house are suspended, the meat-offering and the drink-offering are withheld, and the joy and gladness that belonged to the house is no more. The seed is rotten in the field, and the garners at home are empty. Herds and flocks share the misery of the times. The prophet himself begins to cry to God under this sore sorrow. He leads the way, as it were, in the humiliation and confessions which suit such a moment in the people’s history. In Joel 2:1-32, we have again a detail of national miseries, but with, a near approach to that great, final, judicial day, which is to close, in righteous, wrathful visitation, the story of Israel in apostacy. The call to repentance is repeated with the hope of a turning of God’s anger away. And however suitable to the calamity of that day these calls of the prophet may have been, we know that there will be this spirit of humbling and confession in the coming days of his nation, and on the eve of their deliverance. A spirit of grace is then to be poured out, and every one is to mourn apart. The punishment of the people’s sin is then to be accepted. If the trumpet have blown "an alarm," to tell of the enemy at hand, it will be blown, but not as an alarm, to call the people in assembly to the mourning. So that in this feature of the prophet’s day, we may trace again the moral circumstances of the closing day. Calamity comes as the judgment of the Lord in righteousness; repentance" comes as the fruit of the Spirit in grace. And then, as the fruit of this repentance, the whole system in Israel is revivified; all fruitfulness is pledged to the land now wasted; times of refreshing and the restitution of all things are anticipated; and "my people," says the Lord again and again, "shall never be ashamed." The gift of the Spirit is promised, and the times of "the day of the Lord" are seen to end in the destruction of the enemies, and the deliverance of the Israel of God. In all this we have Matthew 24:1-51 and Acts 2:1-47 combined: the one giving us a sample of the promised gift; the other detailing the terrors of that day which is to make an end of the confederated enemies of Israel, to deliver God’s remnant who have called on the name of the Lord, and to bring in the elect for whose sake those days of terror are to be shortened. Indeed, all the great characteristics of this coming day are clustered here. The pouring out of the Spirit - the deliverance of the elect brought to call on the name of the Lord - the judgment of the apostate nation by the hand of their great enemy, as in "the great tribulation" - the destruction of that enemy, the confederated Gentiles, by the Lord Himself, when sun, moon, and stars shall be disturbed - the peaceful reign and glory of the King in Zion, following all this; these things are together here, as we find them scattered through all the prophets. I say, we see them here clustered together. We may not be competent to settle them in their order, or to put them in the presence of each other, and in their relations, as they will, by and by, be the living materials of the scene around; yet do they contain rich principles of truth, which we can be edified in knowing, and in which we can justify the ways of that wisdom that has ordered them, which is now revealing them, and will in due season accomplish them. Here I must turn aside for a moment, and observe that the gift of the Spirit in the day of Acts 2:1-47, according to this prophecy, was not followed by those judgments on which the darkened sun and moon and the falling stars are thus solemnly to wait and to give witness. Such was not the history in the Acts after the gift of the Spirit there. Why? Israel was not then obedient. These judgments will be in favour of Israel. They will light upon the head of the oppressor, and close the day of Israel’s tribulation. But they did not follow the gift of the Spirit in Acts 2:1-47, as they are spoken of in Joel 2:1-32, and again I say, because Israel was not then repentant and obedient. "If ye will not believe, neither shall ye be established" is a standing oracle in the case of the nations. (Isaiah 7:9) And being then unbelieving, refusing (even to the slaying of Stephen) the testimony of the then given Spirit, the nation was not delivered nor established. The Spirit, therefore, given at that Pentecost, led on in a very different direction. He became the baptizer of an elect people, Jewish or Gentile, into a body destined to heaven, and to be the bride of the Lamb in the day of the glory, when again the Spirit will be given. The remnant in Israel, under that gift, will be go led in faith, repentance, and obedience, as to let the full amount of this prophecy of Joel spend itself in the behalf of the nations. But I must say a little more on Joel 2:1-32 and Acts 2:1-47 In what a profound and interesting manner the Spirit in an apostle fills out the word of the Spirit in a prophet! Many an instance of this might be given, as we generally know. But I am now looking only at Peter’s commentary on Joel: that is, at Peter’s word in Acts 2:1-47 on Joel’s word in Joel 2:1-32. Joel tells us. of the Spirit, the river of God, as we will call it. He traces it, in its course or current, through the sons and daughters, the old men and young men, the servants and handmaids, of Israel; he speaks of it in its rich and abundant flowing, and the fruitfulness it imparts. Peter admits all this. In the day of Pentecost, as he was preaching at Jerusalem, he looks at that same river of God, charmed, as it were, at the wealth and fruitfulness of it, as it was, at that moment, under his. eye, taking its course through God’s assembly. But. then, he does more than this, and more than Joel had done. He traces this river backward and forward - backward to its source and forward to its mouth. He traces it to its source, and does so very carefully. This occupies him in his discourse on this great occasion. He tells us of Jesus - ministering, crucified, risen, and ascended; how He had served in grace and power here on earth; how men with wicked hands had crucified Him; how God had raised Him from the dead; and how He was now exalted at the right hand of God in the heavens. These things he proves diligently and carefully from Scripture. And then, having thus followed the Lord Jesus through life and death, and His resurrection up to heaven, there, in Him - the ascended and glorified Man - he discovers the source of this mighty river. He traces it, likewise, onward to the end or issue of its course. He tells us that it is to reach to the children of that generation, and also to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord shall call. What a commentary by an apostle on a prophet is this! What enlargement of heart and understanding in the ways of God is given to us by it! In what an affecting, and yet in what a wondrous and glorious way, is Jesus brought in as having connection with the river of God! He becomes the source of it as soon as He, who had once been the serving, crucified, rejected One, became the ascended One.* *Just as we learn from John 7:1-53. This same river is there tracked in its course through the bellies of the saints. But it is declared that it could not then begin to flow, for Jesus was not then glorified. Here, in Acts 2:1-47, it has begun to take its course, because Jesus has now been glorified. And now we reach Joel 3:1-21. The Lord comes with a recompence. Other scriptures speak of this, and tell of the Lord’s recompence of the controversy of Zion - the recompence, too, of His temple. But the same idea fills the mind on reading this chapter. Now, as the end is contemplated, things are changed. The last axe first. The captive is the spoiler. Israel is the head, and not the tail, as was pledged in the patriarchal age of the nation, when Abraham was sought by the Gentile, and he, in the presence of the king of Gerar, the chief man of the earth in that day, prepared the sacrifice, made the covenant, and gave the gifts. (Genesis 21:1-34) God has taken the whole of the interests of His people upon Himself. He is summoning the hosts of the nations to the battle, as once He did the host of Sisera, captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitudes, to the river Kishon, (Judges 4:1-24) to meet, their doom. The ploughshare must become a sword, the pruning-hook a spear, until the Gentiles, in the height of their pride, and in the strength of their resources, like Egypt at the Red Sea, meet the day of the Lord - the judgment of God in the valley of Jehoshaphat,* at the hand of his descending mighty ones. And the sun and the moon and the stars shall then be in darkness - not in the light, for which they were formed, and by which they were filled; and the heavens and the earth shall then be shaken, instead of pursuing their even, steady, staid course, in which they had been making their rounds for thousands of years: and all this to witness the terrors of that day. *The judgment of God. For the end is come. Judgment is to clear the scene. and then glory to fill it. The Lord is to dwell in Zion, and Judah and Jerusalem to be at rest and in safety. The days of Solomon the peaceful are to be realised in their millennial fulness, and the earth itself be a quiet habitation. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: 04.03. AMOS ======================================================================== Amos Section 3 of: The Minor Prophets J G Bellett Amos was the prophet who went before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah (Amos 1:1). We may say that he was the prophet of that event (Amos 8:8; Amos 9:5). That earthquake is treated by Zechariah as typical, as a notice of the Lord’s controversy with the world, when again there will be earthquakes and pestilences, ministers of judgment and vessels of wrath (Zechariah 14:5). Accordingly, judgment is the great burthen of Amos’ prophecy, and it therefore served the purpose of Stephen in Acts 7:1-60—for that moment was also a crisis in the history of the Jews. And Stephen there quotes Amos (see Acts 7:42-43, and Amos 5:25-27). But, again, Amos treats the Gentiles as dealt with by God, as well as the Jews. He judges them all alike. He brought the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir, as he had brought Israel from Egypt. And in coming millennial days, He will have all the Gentiles called by His Name, as surely as He will build again the fallen tabernacle of David (see Amos 1:1-15, Amos 2:1-16, Amos 9:7-12). In this character, the word by Amos directly answered for James in Acts 15:1-41, where the apostle was insisting on the independence of Gentile saints, and that they must not be required to be circumcised, and to adopt the custom of Israel. Amos intimates this, and James cites him, to show that the Gentiles were to be adopted of God (or have His Name called on by them acceptably) in a way quite independent of the Jews; or that the Lord knew them before Israel knew them. Thus, those two great occasions in the history of the Church in the New Testament, Stephen’s words in Acts 7:1-60 and James’ in Acts 15:1-41, were served by the Spirit through Amos, who gives what may be regarded as some what a distant and unnoticed portion of the Word of God. But it is beautiful thus to see that we are to live “by every word of God.” We know not in what obscure corner of the volume, so to speak, that Scripture may lie, which is fitted and destined by the Holy Ghost to stand by the soul in the trying hour. Amos, ministering to Stephen and to James, witnesses this. I only add a verse or two from George Herbert, which this finding of the words of Amos in Acts 7:1-60, and again other words of his in Acts 15:1-41 may call to mind. They are in his little piece called “The Holy Scriptures.” “Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine And the configurations of their glory! Seeing not only how each verse doth shine, But all the constellations of the story. This verse marks that, and both do make a motion Unto a third, which ten leaves off doth lie: Then, as dispersed herbs do make a potion, These three make up some Christian’s destiny.” Bellett, J. G. 2004; 2004. The Minor Prophets ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: 04.04. OBADIAH ======================================================================== Obadiah Section 4 of: The Minor Prophets by J G Bellett THE Spirit in the prophets constantly looks beyond Israel and Judah, taking notice of the nations of the Gentiles. "An ambassador," as Obadiah speaks "is sent among the heathen," now and again. Thus, Nahum was sent to Nineveh, and now Obadiah is sent to Edom. But from the very beginning, the Lord had a word or controversy with Edom, as by His prophet He now has. "I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness." Esau was a profane one. He sold his interest in the Lord for a mess of pottage. He was "a man of the field" and "a cunning hunter." He prospered in his generation. He loved the field, and he knew how to use it. He set his heart on the present life, and knew well how to turn its capabilities to the account of his enjoyments. His history was destined to be a very singular one. It was also to prove, again and again, the occasion of sorrow to God’s people, though it will be found that Israel had entailed this sorrow on themselves. "The elder shall serve the younger" was the word of God in favour of Jacob, ere the children wore born. But Jacob did not wait in patience of faith, till the Lord in His own time and way made His promise good. The promise, therefore, gets laden with reserves, and difficulties, and burdens. It shall assuredly be made good in the end; but by reason of this way of Jacob, his unbelief and policy, the elder shall give the younger much trouble. Accordingly, Esau got a promise from the Lord, through his father Isaac, to this effect, "Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above, and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, thou shalt break his yoke from oft thy neck." (Genesis 27:1-46) All this comes to pass. David, who came of Jacob, set garrisons in Edom, and the Edomites became his servants and brought gifts. But Jehoram, who also came of Jacob, a afterwards loses the Edomites as his servants and tributaries. They revolted under his reign, and continue so to this day. (2 Samuel 8:14; 2 Chronicles 21:8) But still, "the elder shall serve the younger." This promise is yea and amen. Amos is a witness of this to us, when he says, Israel shall possess Edom. (Amos 9:1-15) And our prophet, Obadiah, is another witness of the same, telling us that by and by saviours shall come to Zion, and judge the mount of Esau. (See Obadiah 1:21) In early days the Lord gave Mount Seir to Esau for a possession; and what He gave him He would preserve to him; and accordingly, He would not let Israel, as they passed along the borders of the land of Edom, in their wilderness-journey, to touch with hostile hand a village or a rood of it. But long after all this, not only after the wilderness-journey of the children of Jacob, but after the times of David and of Jehoram, Edom made fresh trouble for himself, as we read in this prophet. He made merry in the day of Jacob’s captivity. He looked on his brother with congratulation and malice, "in the day that he became a stranger." He rejoiced in the fall of Jerusalem under the sword of the Chaldean. Even Moab might have been a dwelling-place for the captives of Zion; (Isaiah 16:4;) but Edom stood in the way to cut them off.* *No time is given to this prophecy, but it must have been uttered between the destruction of Jerusalem and that of the land of Edom by the Chaldeans, God’s sword in that day. The Lord needs no more. He has a word for Edom because of this, and He utters it through Obadiah. For God’s controversy with the Gentiles is this, that in the day when He was angry with His people, they had helped forward the affliction. This we read in Zechariah 1:15. How much more, then, may we expect to find him angry with Edom, Jamb’s brother, for looking on him in the day of his calamity! And the Lord of hosts is jealous for Jerusalem with great jealousy. Because Zion is His set on earth; He has linked His name with Israel. "Israel is the lot of His inheritance." He is "the God of Israel." Despite of that people is, therefore contempt of His glory and defiance of His power. Accordingly, Babylon and Edom may well be put together, as they are in Psalms 138:1-8. Edom rejoiced in the ruin which Babylon wrought. Nimrod and Esau may be tracked in the same field, hunters before the Lord; the one the bold defier of the God of judgment, the other the profane despiser of the God of blessing. Babylon is never restored, neither is Edom. The, judgment of the millstone awaits the one, perpetual desolations the other. (Jeremiah 51:1-64; Ezekiel 35:1-15) Nimrod of the loins of Ham, and the circumcised Esau, who comes even of Abraham according to the flesh, may lie together as in the same pit. Surely we may say again that this laying of hands upon Israel, this despite and hatred of Zion, whether by the Assyrian, by Babylon, by Edom, or any other, is a bold act, bespeaking contempt and defiance of God Himself, because God was with Israel. As Ezekiel expresses it, "God was them." (See Ezekiel 35:10.) And this fact the enemies of Israel ought to have felt. Even had they been employed as the Lords rod upon His people, they should have executed their commission under the sense of what Israel was or had been; just in the spirit of the mariners and shipmaster, when they were casting Jonah into the sea. But this was not so. The Assyrian had once said, "Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?" The Chaldean had "brought the vessels of the house of God into the treasure-house of his god." And now the Edomite "entered into the gate of God’s people in the day of their calamity." And surely all this was after the pattern of apostate Egypt in the first days, who said, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?" Thus it has been, and thus will it be, as the judgment of the Son of man in the day of His throne of glory lets us learn: "inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me." (Matthew 25:1-46) All the prophets who have spoken of Edom have given that people the same character, and have found in them the same causes of God’s controversy with them. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and the Psalmist have a kindred burthen for Edom. Profaneness or infidel suffering, pride, hatred of Israel, these are Edom’s common marks, the posts upon Esau. Hatred of Israel is noticed in the history, as well as by the prophets. (See 2 Chronicles 28:17) The world was Esau’s portion, While Israel was still a stranger and a pilgrim. His children had their dukedoms, were kings also, and had their cities; were settled, as in the clefts of the rocks, where eagles made their nests; and all this while Jacob’s children were still but houseless wanderers in lands that wore not theirs, or , in wasted deserts. According to all the moral account given of them, the Edomites are called the people of God’s curse, (Isaiah 34:1-17) and "the people against whom the Lord has indignation for ever: (Malachi 1:1-14) and, addressing Himself to the land of Edom, the Lord says, "When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate." (Ezekiel 35:1-15) Amalek, I may observe, came of Esau; and we know what place Amalek fills in the page of Scripture. Agag belonged to Amalek and Haman to Agag: Doeg likewise. He as an Edomite, and so is he called; and a true Edomite, a man of blood he was. And when the Lord arises for the avenging of Israel, for the recompense of the controversy of His people, "the day of the heathen," as it is called, the land of, Edom is presented to us by the prophets as the scene of that solemn action, as the gathering-place of the confederated hostile nations, and where the Lord in judgment meets them. (Isaiah 63:1-19) I think we may see, from all Scripture, that God has a special question with this people. Edom was kindred with Israel, a blood-relation, as we speak. Israel had spared Edom in their passage through the wilderness, under the direct command of the Lord. God’s claims on Edom, and that too in company with Israel, were peculiar; and He seems to be treated as the servant who had earned many stripes, having known his Lord’s will, and yet did it not. But short as Obadiah’s word is, it does not close without taking notice of the kingdom that follows the judgment. And this is so with all the prophets. Resurrection follows upon death, the kingdom and its glories succeed the judgments. Jesus the Lord never speaks of His death alone, but of His resurrection after it. His prophets, who spake by His Spirit, never speak, I may say, of the judgments which are to cleanse the earth, without telling of the glory that is to follow. And according to this, here in Obadiah we see, at the end, Zion established and had in admiration; her king, the king of glory, seated in her when Edom has become a desolation. When the mount of Esau is judged, and salvation shall rejoice on mount Zion, and holiness find its sanctuary there. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: 04.05. JONAH ======================================================================== Jonah Section 5 of: The Minor Prophets by J G Bellett OUR moral corruption is very deep. It is complete. But at times it will betray itself in very repulsive shapes, from which, with all the knowledge of it which we have, we instinctively shrink, confounded at the thought that they belong to us. Privileges under God’s own hand may only serve to, develop instead of curing this corruption. The love of distinction was inlaid in us at the very outset of our apostacy. "Ye shall be as God," was listened to; to this lust, this love of distinction, we will, in cold blood, sacrifice all that may stand in our way, without respect, as it were, to sex or age, as at the beginning we sacrificed the Lord Himself to it. (Genesis 3:1-24) We take God’s gifts, and deck ourselves with them. The Church at Corinth was such an one as that. Instead of using God’s gifts for others, the brethren there were displaying them. But the man who had the mind of Christ, in the midst of them, would say, "I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that others might be edified, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." The Jew - the favoured privileged Jew - grievously sinned in this way. Romans 2:1-29 convicted him on this ground. His separation from the nations was of God; but instead of using this as witness to the holiness of God in the midst of a revolted world’s pollutions, he took occasion to exalt himself by it. He boasted in God and in the law; but he dishonoured God by breaking the law. Now, Jonah was of the nation of Israel, and among the prophets of God. He was thus doubly privileged. But the nature is quick in him to take advantage of this, and to serve her own fond ends by this. Yea, and Jonah was a saint of God also; but this alone, under pressure and temptation of the flesh does not secure victory over nature. As a prophet, the Lord sends him with a word against Nineveh, a word of judgment. But he knew, when he received it, that in the bosom of Him who was sending him,* mercy was rejoicing; and he reckoned, therefore, that His word, which was to speak of judgment, would be set aside by the grace that abounded in Him. (See Jonah 4:2) *2 Kings 14:1-29 had given Jonah proof of this. Was he prepared for this? Could he, a Jew, suffer it, that a Gentile city should be favoured, and share the mercy and salvation of God? Could be, a prophet, suffer it, that his word would fall to the ground, and that too, in the presence of the uncircumcised? This was too much. He goes on board a ship bound for Tarsus, instead of crossing the country to Nineveh. But surely, When we look at him under such conditions, we may say, it is a proud apostate, another Adam, that is now in the merchant-ship on the waters at the Mediterranean. He was a transgressor like Adam, a transgressor through pride, like Adam; and, like Adam, he must take the sentence of death into himself. Simple, sure, and yet solemn, all this! To accept the punishment of our sin is the first duty of an erring soul. We are not to seek to right ourselves by an effort of our, own, when we have gone wrong, lest Hormah (Numbers 14:1-45) be our portion. Our first duty is to accept, in the spirit of confession, the punishment of our sin, to be humbled under the mighty or chastening hand of God. (Leviticus 26:41) David did this, and the kingdom was his again. Jonah now does the same. "Take me up and cast me into the sea," said he to the mariners, in the midst of the tempest, "so shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." And they did so, but with a grace that might well shame their betters, which bespeaks the hand of God with them, as it was against Jonah. And Jonah is soon wrapped among the weeds of the sea, down in the bottoms of the mountains there. Could Gentile Nineveh be in a worse plight? Was not Jonah’s circumcision as uncircumcision? A Jew and a prophet in the depths of the sea, with the weeds wrapped about his head, because of displeasure of Jehovah! Surely, such an one in such a state may well cease his boastings, and no longer despise others. Could any one be well lower? Proud Adam was behind the trees of the garden; proud Jonah is in the bottom of the sea. The Lord by no means clears the guilty. The Judge of the earth does right. But grace brings salvation. And thus very soon, and it will be only Jonah’s sin that shall be in the bottom of the sea, Jonah himself being delivered, as his first father, Adam, left his guilt and his covert behind him and returned to the presence of God. But Jonah was taught as well as delivered. In the belly of the fish he finds out that, Jew as he was, he stood in need of the salvation of God, just as much as any Gentile could need it. Uncircumcised Nineveh had been unclean and despised in his eyes, and he grudged her God’s mercy. What would become of himself now but for that mercy? He was in prison, and he deserved to be there. What could do for him, what reach his condition, but mercy - free, full, and sovereign? "Salvation is of the Lord," he has to say. It is not in himself as a privileged Jew, or a gifted prophet, that he will now rejoice, but only in Him to whom it belongs to bring salvation. And then the exulting question arises, "Is He the God of the Jew only? nay, but of the Gentile also." Our need of salvation, our dependence on the sovereignty and, grace of God, equalizes us all. "It is one God that shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." The Jew must come in on the very same mercy that saves the Gentile. (Romans 11:30-31) Jonah must be as Nineveh. This is the lesson the whale’s belly taught Jonah, the Jew. Let Nineveh be what it may, Gentile and uncircumcised, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, or anything else, it could not stand more in need of the salvation of God than the favoured Jew and the privileged, gifted prophet at that moment did, being as in hell for his transgression. It was all over with him, but for that. But that he gets, and the fish casts him up on the dry land, when he had learnt, and confessed, and declared, "Salvation is of the Lord." He was a sign to the Ninevites. His nation, by and by, will have the like lesson. No sign is now left with them, but that of this prophet: and they will have to find out, as from the belly of hell, or as from under the judgment of God, (where now as a nation they are lying,) that grace and the redemption it works is their only place and their only refuge. But this salvation of God, in which Jonah is called to rejoice, we know gets all its authority from the mystery of the cross; because One who could do so, for us sinners, went down under the dominion of death, under the judgment of sin, and of whom in that condition, as in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, Jonah himself in the belly of the fish for the like time, is made the type. And when we think of this, we may say, Scripture may magnify its office, as the apostle of the Gentiles does his. It has to reveal God and His counsels; and surely it does this in marvellous and fruitful wisdom, delivering forth, as here, pieces of history for our instruction, but at the same time making that history deliver forth samples, and pledges, and foreshadowings; of further and richer secrets for our more abundant instruction. Jonah, as a sign, suits both the Lord Himself, and Israel as a nation, as the Gospels let us know. Israel must go through death and resurrection. Their iniquity is not to be purged till they die. (Isaiah 22:1-25) All scripture affirms this - the valley of dry bones illustrates it. But they will be as a risen people in the day of the kingdom - all thanks and praise to the death and resurrection of the Son of God for this and every blessing! And Jonah’s death and resurrection, as I may again. say, applies significantly or typically to the history of his nation, and to the history of his Saviour. (See Matthew 12:40; Luke 11:29-30.)* *Jonah’s sin, too, was the expression of the nations. He and they have alike refused the thought of mercy to the Gentiles. (1 Thessalonians 2:16) When Paul began to speak of God’s mercy to the Gentiles, the Jews would listen to him no longer. (Acts 22:21-22) The story of our prophet is, thus, a fruitful one. True as a narrative, it is significant as a parable; and all of us, the elect of God as well as Israel, may, in our way, take our place with him, as dead and risen, the only character that can be ours as saved sinners. Returning, however, to the history itself, we may now observe that as one that had been thus taught, taught his need of God’s grace, Jonah is sent on a second message to Nineveh. He goes, and with words of judgment on his lips, he enters that great city, that Nimrod-city, the representation, in that day, of the pride and daring of a revolted world. "Within forty days," he proclaims as a herald, "and Nineveh shall be destroyed." Thus he "mourned." It was his commission. Responsively, Nineveh "lamented." The king rose from his throne, and all the nation put themselves in sackcloth; and in such condition, as humbled under the hand of God, a king of Nineveh shall find the Lord as a king of Israel had before found Him. "I said," says David, "I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." "Who can tell," says this royal Gentile, "if God will turn, and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" And so it was. "God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not." "Is he the God of the Jews only," again I ask with the Apostle? and with him again I answer, ""Nay, but of the Gentile also." Grace is divine. Government may know a people, and order them as such; grace knows sinners just as they are, whoever, wherever. The earth has its arrangements, heaven holds its court in sovereignty. Nineveh, like Jerusalem, is spared; the hand of the destroying angel is stayed over the one city as well as over the other. (1 Chronicles 21:1-30; Jonah 3:1-10) But "tell it not in Gath." Let not the daughters of the Philistines hear of Jonah the Jew in Jonah 4:1-11. Did Lot go a second time to Sodom? Did Hezekiah, after the going back of the shadow upon the sun-dial, sin through pride, with the ambassadors of Babylon? Did Josiah, after his humbling and tender-need, go wilfully to the battle against the King of Egypt? Did Peter, in spite of warnings from his Lord, deny his Lord? Have you and I, beloved, forgotten lessons learnt, and correctings endured? And is Jonah now to be unmindful of the whale’s belly? It is passing wonder; a lesson so sealed, so stamped, so engraven, as we would judge, and yet so quickly lost to the soul! Jonah is displeased. The mercy shown to Nineveh had made a gentile important to the God of heaven and earth; and this was too much for the Jew. The word of a prophet had suffered wrong, as pride suggested, at the hand, of the God of mercy. Jonah was very angry. He cannot exactly again take ship and go to Tarsus; but, in the spirit of him who lately did so, he goes outside the city, and he says, "O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country; therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I know that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil: therefore, now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." What naughtiness of heart all this was! Was he preparing another whale’s belly for himself? He well deserved it. What troubles we make for ourselves? Why did not Lot remain in the holy, peaceful tent of Abraham? and why did he prepare for himself a first and second furnace in Sodom? Why did David bring a sword upon his house, which was commissioned of the Lord to hang over it unsheathed, to the day of his death? "If we would judge ourselves we should not be judged; but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." The Lord’s voice crieth to the city, and the man of wisdom shall hear; but Jonah was deaf. He has forgotten the lesson of the fish’s belly, and he must now be put to learn the lesson of the withered gourd. Outside the city, Jonah prepares a booth for himself, that he may sit under it, in his moody, bad temper, angry as he was with the Lord. The Lord then prepares a gourd to overshadow Jonah in his booth, and Jonah is very glad because of the gourd. But, then, the Lord prepares a worm that eats and withers up the gourd; and, the sun and the east wind beating on the unsheltered head of Jonah, he is very angry, and wishes in himself to die. The Lord, then, in marvellous gentleness, turns all these simple circumstances into a page of the profoundest and most affecting instruction. "And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do. well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hut had pity on the gourd, for the which thou but not laboured, neither madst it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night; and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle." The prophet’s delight in the gourd is but the faint reflection of the Lord’s delight in the mercy that visits the creatures of His hand - be they where they may, at Nineveh, or Jerusalem, or elsewhere, it matters not. And if Jonah would fain have the gourd spared, he must allow repentant Nineveh to be spared. Out of his own mouth he shall be judged: Jonah shall witness for the Lord against himself. It is, indeed, a precious and an excellent word. Jonah had been sent down to learn the grace of God in one character of it, and now has he been taught it in another: i.e., his need of it, and God’s delight in it. The whale’s belly, the belly of hell, where he once was, had taught bun his own need of "salvation," in that sovereignty of it, in that magnificent height and depth of it, that could stretch, as from the throne of power in the highest heavens, down to the bottom of the seas in the lowest, to deliver a captive there under the righteous judgment of God. The withered gourd now teaches him (as all the parables in Luke 15:1-32 have also taught us) how the blessed Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Lord of the cattle on the thousand hills, whether in Assyria or Judea, delights in His creatures, the works of his hands, finding His rest and refreshment in the mercy that spares them, when they repent and turn to Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: 04.06. MICAH ======================================================================== Micah Section 6 of: The Minor Prophets by J G Bellett THIS prophet is mentioned and quoted in Jeremiah 26:18. He was called to be one of the Lord’s watchmen, much at the at time with Isaiah, and it was a marked time. The history of things in Judah was taking a peculiar character, and things in Israel were ripening for the sickle of the Assyrian. It was a day in importance only second to the day of the Chaldean; but it was second to that, I grant. For the captivity of Israel, or the removal of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, did not involve the house of God as did that of Judah. The glory was still in the land, though Israel had gone away to the river Gozan. But the Chaldean sacked the city of the king, and spoiled the sanctuary of God; and the glory had to depart when Judah became a captive and Jerusalem a desolation. And as the prophetic spirit was largely poured out in that day of the Chaldean, as in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and others, so was it now, as in Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, and others. 2 Kings 17:1-41 is an important scripture in connexion with Micah. It details the sins of Israel on the ground of which the captivity of the, Ten Tribes had come. It gives us an account also of the beginning of that people who, in the New Testament, are called, "Samaritans." It shows us their origin as a religious sect, holding truth, which the Jew had corrupted by a mixture with the various lies which the heathen conquerors of Israel had brought with them into the land. As to this little book of Micah we may see it in three parts: Micah 1:1-16; Micah 2:1-13; Micah 3:1-12. These chapters give us a gloomy burden over the sins and consequent miseries of Israel and Judah. Micah 4:1-13; Micah 5:1-15. These chapters anticipate the political or national recovery of the People. Micah 6:1-16; Micah 7:1-20. These chapters exhibit their experience or moral recovery. Micah 1:1-16; Micah 2:1-13; Micah 3:1-12 The strain begins with anticipations of judgment, specially on Samaria, but not entirely overlooking Jerusalem, and then details the sins which led to this; thus, in prophetic style, telling us what we may have already read in the historic style, in that chapter referred to, 2 Kings 17:1-41. Judah had transgressed as well as Israel, and the, Assyrian rod, now prepared by the Lord in righteous anger, is raised against Jerusalem as well as Samaria. The day of Ahaz there, had been as the day of Hoshea here. But Hezekiah, who came after Ahaz, did right in the sight of the Lord, and therefore the Lord debated with His rod, and the Assyrian did not prevail over Judah, as he had over Israel. Such was the condition of things in those days, and spoke as the Lord’s watchman. Princes, priests, prophets, and people, are all severally challenged by him, and are all found guilty and condemned. That land which had been redeemed out of the hand of the Amorites, and been made the clean vessel among the nations, and the Lord’s dwelling place, has now acquired for itself another character altogether; and now, if there be any ear to hear, any circumcised heart among the people, they are addressed in these words, concerning this land, "arise, depart, for this is not your rest, it is polluted." Strange and humbling indeed! How has the fine gold become dim! Waste and desolation are to follow in the train of pollution. But in the midst of all this, the prophet himself is full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and he talks of judgment in the hearing of the nations. "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field; and Jerusalem shall become heaps upon the mountains of the house of Israel, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest." Micah 4:1-13; Micah 5:1-15 The very first expression of the goodly estate of Zion in the days of the kingdom, here called "the last days," which Micah gives us in these chapters, is that fine one - presented also by Isaiah in his second chapter - i.e., the peoples of the earth, an the world over, coming up to her to learn the ways or statutes of the king of glory then seated there. This is highly characteristic. Now, in this time of the ministry of grace, the Saviour’s messengers go forth, carrying glad tidings with them, and beseeching sinners to be reconciled. For love is active in goodness; it busies itself at its own cost about the blessing of others. But royalty and judgment take a different attitude. Judgment enthrones itself, and will be waited upon and listened to. If a king reign in righteousness, the people must be in attendance. His courts must be filled. His will is to be learned and observed. and thus it is here. But if it be a sceptre of righteousness, it shall be also of peace; and a willing, happy world shall witness that a morning has risen without clouds, and that another Solomon, a greater than Solomon, has taken rule in Zion over the whole earth. (2 Samuel 23:3-4) The remnant now scattered are brought home; and in Jerusalem the Lord, the Messiah, reigns over them, His natural-born subjects. The prophet speaks of all this, and then turning to Judah, leaves the Assyrian of his day for the Chaldean of a coming day; and the daughter of Zion is taught to know that she must go to Babylon, ere she can be brought forth in the majesty that is to be hers in the days of the kingdom. It is in Babylon her pains, her travailing is to end; but the progress of the delivery is noticed; "Thou shalt go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon, and there shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies." Zion must reach her joy through captivity and come to honour through sore sorrow. As it had been told Abraham of old, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land for centuries, ere they came to their inheritance; so it was - the brick-kilns of Egypt went before the victories of Joshua. And now again, Babylon is as a second Egypt to the children of Zion, ere "the first dominion" came to them, ere the palmy days of David and Solomon be restored. The day of the Chaldean leads the prophet to the day of Israel’s confederated enemies at the close. (Jeremiah 4:10; *Jeremiah 4:11) This closing visitation will be severe, and the rejection of Christ is brought forward as the occasion and the warrant for this. Judah insulted Messiah when He came to them. The Judge of Israel was smitten on the cheek. (Matthew 27:30) But the One whom they refused and insulted, shall be their only hope. This is Joseph again, and Moses again. Those whom the nation once refused, are their only strength and expectation in the day of their calamity. And thus, because of Messiah, whom they once insulted, the Assyrian of the last days shall seek to trouble Israel in vain. *Between the times of these two verses there is a long interval, not noticed, however, by Micah. The condition of the people under such a Messiah is then detailed. They shall be purified, while their enemies shall be destroyed. The remnant shall now "abide," because their Messiah in strength and majesty "shall be great unto the ends of the earth." They shall be also as "dew from the Lord," and as "a young lion among the flocks," the occasion of either blessing or judgment to all around them. And in the midst of all this, Messiah the ruler is presented in various glories, personal and official; and poor Bethlehem, little in Judah, is honoured because of Him For as the poor carpenter’s wife of Nazereth, His mother, so the poor town of Bethlehem, His birth-place, take honour and blessing because of Him. This leaves us at the end of Micah 5:1-15. Micah 6:1-16; Micah 7:1-20 The earlier chapters of this prophet have been giving us a view of the Lord’s hand with Israel: here we O the way of His Spirit with them. These two subjects very much occupy all the prophets some way or another. They constitute the political and the moral history of God’s people, all the restoration and the conversion of Israel. The work of the Spirit, in these chapters of Micah, is given to us in the form of a dialogue. The exercises of the soul are delineated as in a living person, and the dealings of God in answer are given to us as upon the voice of the Lord Himself; and, therefore, these chapters may remind us of the Psalms, where the pulses of the heart are so constantly felt, and the path of the spirit of a man as led of God is so variously tracked. We get personality here as there. It is the Lord that opens this dialogue. He challenges the ways of His people; and this He does as in the hewing of the mountains and the hills and the foundations of the earth. He refuses not, as it were, to let the whole creation be present when He judges. The Judge of all the earth does right; therefore let heaven and earth wait as in the courts of His righteousness, and before the throne of His judgments. (See Deuteronomy 32:1) This challenge has been heard by a remnant, and they answer it in Micah 6:6-7. They are awakened to know the sword of the Lord which has now been lifted up. They are alarmed, and would fain find a refuge. Ignorance of God and His ways and truth mark their words. But no matter. - It is no longer the sleep or stupidity of the soul: there has been a quickening. The Lord shortly answers them. He lets the awakened, enquiring ones learn what is "good" and what is "required." That which is "good" is shown to them. God reveals it, as we know, as belonging to Himself. "There is none good but one, that is God." The gospel reveals this in its fulness. That which is "required," or demanded, is nothing of man’s cattle for offerings; it is not rivers of oil, or the fruit of his body: it is that only which is morally fitting, that we should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. (Micah 6:8) This is perfect in its place. But having thus shortly answered the remnant, (the "man," as he is here called, the one that had ears to hear in the midst of the reprobate nation), the Lord goes on with His challenges of the nation, detailing still further, and with awful disclosures, the ways and iniquities of Israel. For His voice was to the city, though He will surely hear and answer the cry of His remnant, who have heard His rod and Him that hath appointed it. (Micah 6:9-16) The, quickened ones then, at once, take up the word, and seal the judgment which had been just pronounced, owning that things were indeed as bad as they could be, that few were left to form a goodly seed in the midst of the people, and that the nearest and the dearest relationships were violated. But they avoid where they had not found their refuge and relief, even in God Himself, so that they could challenge all that might oppose them. And yet, with all this happy, holy boldness in the presence of their enemies, they humble themselves under the Lord’s hand, knowing and owning that, as of a sinning, unclean people, they had no answer for Him. (Micah 7:1-10) To this the Lord again replies, and it is beautiful. If the godly had just set their seal to the righteousness of His judgments, He now, in His way, sets His seal to their expectations, and talks to them of the day when their captivity should be turned - when they should be re-established in their own land and city, and the purposes of their adversaries be all frustrated, and when they should be sought by the nations around them, after their penal righteous desolations. (Micah 6:11-13) Again the remnant take up the word. Being encouraged, they seek for a restoration of those days, when all the tribes were at home in their inheritance, even in the distant eastern places of Bashan and Gilead. (Micah 6:14) The Lord, in answering, exceeds this desire; for grace, I may surely say, abounds over faith, as well as over sin. Sin does not exhaust it - faith does not measure it. The Lord here pledges that the day of the Exodus shall be renewed, and that His Israel shall again enjoy strange and magnificent ’displays of His power on their behalf, as once they did, when He brought them forth from the land of Egypt. (Micah 6:15-16) These gracious words, however, the remnant interrupt, insisting (as it were, when they had listened to the story of these mercies) on giving all the glory to God, and that the secret of their deliverance lay in the fear of Him, which their enemies were then to know. This interruption is seen in the last clause of Micah 7:17. But then, having thus taken the words to themselves, ascribing the honour of these great, final, delivering mercies to the Lord alone, they continue in that strain; and in fervency of spirit utter the praises of His grace and faithfulness. (Micah 7:18-20). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: 04.07. NAHUM ======================================================================== Nahum Section 7 of: The Minor Prophets by J G Bellett THE Ninevite was the first great man of the earth in the age of the kingdom, as I may speak; as Nimrod, the ancestor, as to territory, of the Ninevite, had been the great man of the earth in the earlier age of the fathers. Nimrod had affected dominion and empire then, when as yet things were in simpler, and primitive condition. Now that kingdoms have been formed, and nations rather than families overspread the earth, the king of Nineveh, in Nimrod-pride and worldliness, affects dominion and empire in the midst of them. He is not one of the great imperial powers that are looked at in Daniel. He is neither the head of gold, nor the breast of silver, nor the thighs of brass, nor the legs of iron. Such an image had not begun to be formed in the day of Nineveh, when the king of Assyria was supreme in the world. But among the kingdoms which were then formed, in days preceding the day of the Chaldean head of gold, he was eminent. Asshur had carried away captive many of them. Amalek was then gone from the scene, and the Kenites had been wasted until their full removal was accomplished by the Assyrians (Numbers 24:20-22) And further, the Assyrians had insulted and reduced that people whom the Lord God of heaven and earth had chosen as the lot of His inheritance, and formed for Himself. The Lord, in that action, had used him as a rod upon His disobedient, rebellious Israel; but "he meant not so." He purposed "to prey the prey, and to spoil the spoil." Pride gives him his only language, "Are not my princes altogether kings," he says - "as my hand hath formed the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel those of Jerusalem and of Samaria, shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?" (Isaiah 10:1-34) The Lord God was angry. He pronounces a burthen upon him, and Nahum delivers it. "The Lord is a jealous God and a revenger." The ministry of Jonah, as well as of Nahum, had respect to Nineveh. We have considered that already in our chapter on Jonah’s prophecy. Jonah preceded Nahum, it may be, about 120 years. Under the word of Jonah, Nineveh had repented; but the word which now follows by Nahum is a notice of judgment, final judgment, judgment that is to make an utter end. "Affliction," says the prophet, "shall not rise up the second time." What are we to say then of Nineveh’s repentance in the day of Jonah? Was it, as the morning cloud, or early dew, a goodness that passed away? It may have been such. Or, it may have been reformation, and a genuine work like that in another Gentile world, the Christendom of this present age. It worked its fruit and had its blessing at the time, and it would seem, left its witness behind it, even in this distant day of Nahum (see Nahum 1:7) There may have been a remnant in Nineveh! I say not otherwise. But at the most it was but a blessing in the cluster. "My leanness, my leanness," Nineveh surely had to say. The repentance in the day of Jonah, like the Reformation in Christendom, secured nothing - it did not prepare Nineveh for glory, or for a place in the kingdom of God. Whatever may have been the moral fruit of it in a remnant in this distant day of Nahum, Nineveh, as a city or kingdom, had returned, like a sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire, and ripened herself for the cutting off of the land. This is a figure for us to study, a voice for us to bear. What did Jehoshaphat-days, or Hezekiah-days, or Josiah-days, for Jerusalem? Did judgment after such days enter by the hand of the Chaldean, though they were very fair and promising? We know it did. Did Nineveh want the day of the Lord, though once upon a time the king there descended from his throne and sat in ashes, and man and beast were clothed in sackcloth, and neither did eat nor drink? Yes, we know this also. And I may ask again, What has Reformation done for Christendom? Coming judgments, and not the Reformation, or progress, or education for the million, will prepare the world for the glory and kingdom of the Lord. But further. The earlier history of God’s dealing with Nineveh by the hand of Jonah may, in this day of judgment announced by Nahum, witness to us that He is "slow to anger" -for He sent a preacher then to warn, and turn them to that repentance which He received, and spared them. But He that is slow to anger, does not "acquit the wicked" (see Nahum 1:3). There is a separating between the precious and the vile. "He knows them that trust in Him," even the remnant in Nineveh if there be such, as we said before (Nahum 1:7); but the Judge of all the earth, like the Judge of Sodom who stood of old before Abraham, "will do right." "I doubt not," says another, "that the invasion of Sennacherib was the occasion of this prophecy; but most evidently it goes much beyond that event, and the judgment is final. And this is another instance of that which we so frequently observe in the prophets - a partial judgment serving as a warning or an encouragement to the people of God, while it was only a forerunner of a future judgment in which all the dealings of God would be summed up and manifested." Surely the Assyrian is a mystic or representative person, as well as a real individual. Isaiah so looks at him. And this was easy and natural: for the Assyrian began the captivities of God’s people, and in his day represented the enmity of the earth, the enmity of the Gentile world, to God and His people. The Spirit, therefore, in the prophets, sees the Gentile in him, and looks along the vista which then opened, to the very end of the earth’s history under the Gentile or the man of the world, when the full-measured and ripened iniquity of man shall call forth the closing, clearing judgments of God. But does judgment close the story? That never has been, nor could it be. It only makes way for the purpose of God. The judgment of this "present evil world" will introduce the millennium or "the world to come." And Israel will be received as the seal and pledge of that bright and happy age - as our prophet says, "though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more; and now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds asunder. O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows, for the wicked shall no more pass through thee, he is utterly cut off" (see Nahum 1:12-15). Or, in the words of one of ourselves, the saints of God in this day, "the vengeance of God is the deliverance of the world from the oppression and misery of the yoke of the enemy and of lust, that it may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer." Come, Lord Jesus! Do not present doings of the Spirit show a rapid gathering in of the elect unto the hastening of that hour? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: 04.08. HABAKKUK ======================================================================== Habakkuk Section 8 of: The Minor Prophets by J G Bellett WE must begin with God, as sinners, on the principle of faith, and go on with Him to the end, as saints, on the same principle. "The just shall live by faith." (See Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; taken from Habakkuk 2:4.) This prophecy of Habakkuk has great moral value for us. But besides this, it is seasonable now; for in this our day things are ripening to a crisis, as they were in the day of Habakkuk. His was a day when the iniquities of the professing people of God were moving the holy anger and sorrow of this man of God. And yet, while his soul was thus vexed with their evil conversation, his heart would feel for their misery, and he would earnestly make their cause his own. I would listen to him a little carefully for a few minutes, and observe upon his words as they show themselves to us in their natural parts and order. Habakkuk 1:1-4 In these opening verses, as I noticed already, the prophet’s righteous soul is vexed with the evil conversation of his nation. He presents the sad, reprobate scene that was lying under his eye to the notice of the Lord. He cries out of violence, and grievance, and spoiling, and strife, and such like iniquity, found, as it was, in the very midst of God’s people. Habakkuk 1:5-11 In His answer to this cry of His servant, the Lord seems, at the first, to vindicate and to join with it. He enters into the resentment of the moral state of Israel, which Habakkuk was so deeply feeling. He challenges His people as "heathen" - for such they would prove themselves to be, by not believing the work that He himself was purposing to work among them. He counts their circumcision as uncircumcision. The apostle, quoting this word from our prophet, calls them "despisers." (Acts 13:41) The Lord, therefore, thus, at the first, follows the story of Israel’s iniquities, which the prophet had been rehearsing; and anticipates their great crowning, closing iniquity - the rejection of His word and work through unbelief. But having done this, He lets the prophet know, that this iniquity which had been vexing his soul, and against which he had been crying to Him, should not go unpunished, for that the Chaldean sword should soon enter the land to avenge the quarrel of His holiness. Habakkuk 1:12-17 Hearing this, Habakkuk is terribly alarmed. Like Moses, in such a case, he cannot be prepared for this; nor can his heart, that so cared for his people, welcome the Chaldean, however his soul may be angry with their evil ways. In the deepest strain of fear and of feeling, and in the skilfulness of an advocate whose allections were making him eloquent, he pleads against the Chaldean, assured that the Lord would not give over His own people, however guilty they might be, to the reckless wrath of those who were still more wicked than themselves. Moreover, he seeks that this terrible scourge may in the Lord’s grace, be only for correction, and not for destruction, to Israel. All this is a sweet state of soul in our prophet. Habakkuk, perhaps, is more of a Jeremiah than any of the prophets. He lives more personally in the scenes he was describing than is common. He feels everything - and so did Jeremiah. They lived the prophet, and not merely spoke as such. Habakkuk 2:1 And having thus unburdened his heart and pleaded with the Lord, he waits for the answer. His heart is with his people, and he must watch for the end of the Lord." He is no hireling; he cares for the flock, and cannot flee. His service for Israel had not been lightly taken up,, and it cannot therefore be quickly laid down. He must see the end of it; and for this, he sets himself upon the watch-tower. Habakkuk 2:2-20 Here we read the Lord’s answer - and it is full of solemn, interesting meaning. Habakkuk shall not be disappointed; he shall not be on his tower for nothing, As Daniel’s fasting for his twenty-one days, so Habakkuk’s watching on the tower shall be rewarded. The Lord, however, begins his answer by stating some strong, leading facts, or rather principles of truth. 1. That the vision or prophecy was to be clearly announced. 2. That all was to remain in vision, or unfulfilled, for a season. 3. That during that season the man of the world would ripen himself in pride for the judgment of God. 4. That during the same season the saint should live by faith. 5. That in due season, God’s appointed time, the vision should speak, the prophecy be fulfilled, so that the end was surely worth waiting for. Then, having laid down these facts or principles, the Lord goes on to announce, to the welcoming ear of the prophet, the awful judgments that were to overtake the Chaldean. Habakkuk 3:1-19 Having listened to this from his watchtower, the prophet, as I may say, descends to speak with the Lord. Having been graciously visited and answered on the tower, he will now enter the sanctuary, as with the voice of prayer and praise, and in the power of that faith which had accepted the answer of God, rejoiced in it, and counted on still further blessing. But these his closing words are very beautiful. The, answer he had just received seems at once to put him in spirit, back to the earliest days of his nation, or the time of the salvation of God, when He was beginning to make Israel His people. The Chaldean reminded him of the Egyptian and of the Amorite. And he designs that the Lord would do for Israel now in the face of the Chaldean, what in those primitive days He had done for them in the face of the Egyptian and the Amorite. He seeks that there may be "a revival" - that now in the midst of the years God would do the works which so wondrously marked the beginning of the years. And with affecting beauty, and in the broken style of one who was following the currents of a heart alive to its subject, he rehearses, as in the divine presence, those early works of Jehovah in behalf of Israel, whether accomplished in Egypt, or in the wilderness, or in Canaan, that (if I may so speak), the Lord might look at those mighty doings of His, and do the like in these present Chaldean times. It is as if Habakkuk were lifting up the bow under the eye of God in the day of the cloud; so that, looking at it, He might remember His covenant, His grace, and His power for His saints, His promises and. His mercies, and save His people from this threatened overwhelming. For as yet the Lord had only promised judgment on the Chaldean. (See Habakkuk 2:1-20) He had not spoken of the final restoration and glory of Israel; but Habakkuk must have this also promised and secured; and therefore he prays for "a revival" of His work in behalf of Israel. And then, at the very end, as the just man living by faith, whom the Lord’s word had already told him of, (see Habakkuk 2:1-20) he utters his present full confidence in God. He tells, indeed, how the Lord’s word about the coming of the Chaldean had frightened him, so that he was as one astonished, or as a dead man; but that now, as a man of faith, he knows that he has but to wait,. through a season of discipline and patience, assured that all will end in the salvation of God. And in the joyous assurance of this, he sings to the chief ,singer on his stringed instrument; and as Jehoshaphat entered the battle with the song of victory on his lips, so Habakkuk now enters on the season of the vision, or of the exercise of faith and patience, in the joy of the Lord, and with a song prepared as for a day of glory. Now, upon this, we may again say, the present day may put us much in company with Habakkuk. The man of God looks round, and sees everything in Christendom to provoke the resentment of holiness, or to vex the righteous soul. But while he resents the thing, he would fain plead for the people, like Habakkuk; and, like him again, turn to God, with his burthens and his expectations. But somewhat beyond our prophet, the believer now, from the fuller instructions of God, knows there will be "a revival," and does not merely pray for it. He knows that the judgments which are coming, mole solemn than that by the hand of the Chaldean, will only clear the earth of all that offends, take out of it all that are corrupting it, and thus lead to its redemption, and not to its destruction. And he knows that a brighter, richer condition will mark its end, than that which did its beginning - for "the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into, the glorious liberty of the children of God." So that it will not be merely a revival of early days in the history of either Israel or the earth; but their latter end, like that of Job, will be more than their beginning. And I would add a practical word upon the experience of Habakkuk, which is so blessed at the end. "I will rejoice in the Lord," he says, "although the fig-trees shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines." To live happily in the love of God, through Jesus, is the glory He seeks at our hand - sinner, self-ruined, as we are. And to do this, like Habakkuk in spite of the contradiction of circumstances, makes this service and worship still more excellent - the fruit, as it surely is, of His grace and inworking power. Man seeks to live pleasurably, but he has no care to live happily. He would live pleasurably, or in the sunshine of favouring, flattering circumstances; but to live happily, or in the favour of God, in the light of His countenance, the sense of His love, and the hope of His presence in glory, this is not what man cares about. And it is God’s work in the heart and conscience, when man is bethinking himself, and seeking to cease from living pleasurably, that he may live happily - find his life only in the greatest of all circumstances, that is, in his relation to God, having discovered, through grace, that that relationship is settled for him for ever, in the precious reconciliation accomplished in the blood of Christ. And let me still take on me to add another word on what the Lord says as to the Chaldean in Habakkuk 2:14. "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." The pride of man, whether he be Chaldean or any other, that would affect universal empire, has ever been, and shall still be, judged and broken; and that dominion shall be reserved for Jesus "the Lord," and for Him only. He shall be made higher than the kings of the earth, and His kingdom shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Neither the past or present unbelief of His own nation, Israel, nor the purposes and attempts of any of the Gentiles, shall hinder this. (See Numbers 14:21; Habakkuk 2:14) For, in the coming peaceful days of the sceptre of the righteous One, this shall be accomplished. (See Isaiah 11:9). The people shall labour after this, but they shall weary themselves for nothing, for ’’very vanity." (Habakkuk 2:13). But Jesus shall have it. "Blessed be his glorious name for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. "Amen and amen." (Psalms 72:1-20). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: 04.09. ZEPHANIAH ======================================================================== Zephaniah Section 9 of: The Minor Prophets by J G Bellett VERY commonly in the prophets, glory touches judgment. These are their themes, with the iniquity that provokes the judgment, and the characters that attach to the glory that follows. But these things, judgment on iniquity and glory succeeding, have been, again and again, in the history, as they are, again and again, in the prophecy, of Scripture. The day of Noah was such a day - a day when judgment introduced glory, or a new world. So the judgment on Egypt was accompanied or waited on by the deliverance of Israel, their triumphant song, the presence of the glory in the midst of them, and their journey onward to the land of promise. So the judgment on the Canaanites or Amorites was at once followed by Israel’s taking of their inheritance. The day of Nebuchadnezzar was a kindred day of judgment. The spirit of prophecy lingers over it. Not only does it, anticipate it in earlier prophets, as Isaiah and Micah, but it is, at the time, or about the time, poured out very largely, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah witness. And that day, the day of the Chaldean invasion and triumph, was truly a remarkable crisis. The iniquity of the kingdom of Judah was then full, as that of the Amorites had been in the day of Joshua. Sad, however, it is indeed, that things should have taken such a turn; that the iniquity of the Jew was now full, and that the Gentile was called out to judge it, as once the iniquity of the Gentile had been full, and the Jew, the man of God, was called out to judge it. But the Chaldean was not only a real, but a representative, or mysterious person. He stands forth in the prophets as telling us of coming and final judgments. His sword visited not only Judah and Jerusalem, but the surrounding nations. His was a day in which the God of all the earth was rising up, and the world had to keep silence. It was a miniature or inchoative judgment of all the nations. It was "the day of the Lord," in spirit or in principle. The sword was furbished for the slaughter. The dominion went from "the daughter of Jerusalem," for the house of David was reprobate, and the Chaldean took the throne under God, so to speak, away from the Jew. Judgment, however, never closes the scene. As we said, glory touches judgment, in the ways of God. Judgment cleans out the vessel, and then glory fills it. It takes away what hinders the presence of the Lord, and then the kingdom is established and displayed, as Zephaniah, together with all the prophets, show us. The Apocalypse is the great closing witness of this. There judgment makes way for glory again; and that, finally - in other words, that which offends and does iniquity, the great reprobate, apostate energies, are all judged and removed, and the day of millennium brightness begins to run its course. It is judgment, judgment; over them sing, over them sing; in continuous succession, because no steward of God has been faithful, or given an account of his stewardship. Adam, the Jew, the Gentile, the candlestick, all, in their day, have been untrue to Him that appointed them; and "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, He judgeth among the gods." The garden was lost by Adam: the land of their fathers by their children, or Canaan by Israel; the Gentile was as faithless as they, and power passed from the head of gold’ to the breasts and arms of silver, thence to the belly and thighs of brass, and then to the legs of iron, and the feet which were of iron and clay. There was no delivering up to God of that which had been received from Him. The stewards have been removed, one after the other, and their stewardships have been taken away from them, in the stead of their delivering of them up, or giving a just account of them: Thus it has ever been, and thus is it still, and there is no exception to this till we look at Jesus. With Him all stewardships are accounted for; for which is committed to Him in the due season is delivered up, and not taken away. And, what a volume, I may say, on the glories of Christ does that one sentence in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 write for us: "then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God." It signalizes Him in the face of the whole world, and in contrast with all the generations of the children of men, from the very beginning to the very end. ’Every stewardship committed to others is taken away, because of the faithless hand that had betrayed it; but He delivers up His, as having fulfilled all the purpose of Him who had entrusted Him with it. In Christ, but in Christ only, all the promises of God are yea and amen. When He takes the kingdom He will at the end, or in the due moment, "deliver it up." Precious words! But we see the kingdom taken away from Saul, and from the house of David; and then, when given to the Gentile, taken away from him in like manner, again and again, in a series of judgments or overturnings, till He came whose right it is; and then for the first time we get a stewardship accounted for, and a kingdom delivered up. In this day of the Chaldean, on which we are now looking, with Zephaniah, everything, as it were, is judged. As in the Apocalyptic day, or as before the great white throne, all is judged personally or individually, so now in the light of the sword of Nebuchadnezzar, all is judged nationally. There is Judah, and there is Jerusalem; and the people around Edom, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Ethiopians and the Assyrians; north, south, east, and west, all come in for this common and complete exposure, and that, too, in all its minute distinctions; the remnant of Baal, the name of the Chemarims with the priests, idolaters, those who swear by the Lord and by Malcham, the backsliders and the careless, and those who wear strange apparel, are all severally visited; and the candle of the Lord searches out those who are settled on their lees, and who despise the fear of judgment. Nothing escapes. All is naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And the Judge of all the world does right; they that have deserved many stripes get them, while others are beaten with as few; for, God is no respecter of persons. He renders to every man according to his deeds. But, "the remnant according to the election of grace" are recognised here in Zephaniah, as everywhere. "The meek of the earth," they are called; and they are told to wait on the Lord under the hope that they shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. (Zephaniah 2:3; Zephaniah 3:8.) And then, as we said, glory comes in after judgment. Some features of millennial blessedness are presented to us. It is told us, that with one life or language the nations of that kingdom, "the world to come," shall worship the Lord the God of Israel. The confusion of Babel shall be at an end; a sample of which was given at the Pentecost of Acts 3:1-26. The distant parts of the earth, those beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, shall take part in the common acknowledgement of the Saviour-God of Israel. Israel shall be purified, saved from all fear of evil any more, and be glad with all the heart, because the Lord their God is in the midst of them. These are the days of the kingdom. The judgments have cleansed the scene, the remnant have been carried through them, the earth witnesses the salvation of God, and the name of the Lord is owned in the joy and service of, His restored people. The mourners in Zion, moreover, have taken to them the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. The lamentations of Jeremiah are heard no more; for the captive daughter of Zion has been brought home with every band that was about her broken off; and she that was led a captive, of whom it was written, "This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after," is made a name and a praise among all people of the earth. Such things are here, in the third chapter of our prophet, and such things are the common themes of all the prophets, in anticipation of the kingdom of the Lord following upon the day of the Lord. Glory, however, shines here, in one very attractive character. The harp of Zephaniah has one note of very peculiar sweetness. The personal delight of the Lord in His people is given to us in words which savour of the Song of Solomon itself in its rapture and affection. "The Lord thy God, it is said to Zion, I will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." This is the Bridegroom rejoicing over the bride, as had been anticipated by Isaiah, long before this day of Zephaniah. (See Isaiah 62:5) This is as if the Lord were. taking the place which the rapturous song of the King of Israel put Him into, when He says, "How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!" (Song of Solomon 7:6) It is the personal joy of the Lord in His people that is thus anticipated by Zephaniah - the brightest, dearest article in all their condition. It may remind us of a little sentence in our own 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 - "and so shall we ever be with the Lord." This is all that is said of us there, after our translation. Glories might have been detailed, and the various joy of the heaven of the Church; but it is only this, "and so shall we ever be with the Lord." It is personal, like this passage in Zephaniah; but, had we affection, we should say, it is chief in the great account of our blessedness. One further thing I would notice. There are two suppers laid out before us in Revelation 19:1-21 - the supper of "the Lamb," and the supper of "the great God." The supper of the Lamb is a scene of joy in heaven: blessed are they that are called to it. It is a marriage supper. The supper of the great God is the fruit of the solemn, terrific judgment that closes the history of the earth as it now is, the judgment of this present apostate world, when the carcases of the confederated enemies of the Lord are made the food of the fowl of the air. Ezekiel notices the last of these two suppers, and gives us as full a description of it as John in the Apocalypse. Zephaniah just glances at it as he passes on with his account of the acts of the Lord in the day of His wrath. (Ezekiel 39:1-29; Zephaniah 1:7) "The day of the Lord is at hand," says Zephaniah; "for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests." He does not, however, go into the scene, as Ezekiel and John do. What the sacrifice or the feast is, and who the guests that are bidden to it may be, he does not let us know. For there are voices and under-tones in the perfect harmony of Scripture. Certain truths and mysteries are given a chief place here and there, while at other times the same truths are only assumed, or passingly, incidentally, touched on. But all this does but yield us that grateful, artless unison, that lives in all the parts of the book, giving us witness that it is but one hand that sweeps all the chords of that wondrous harp which is the present "harp of God," till other harps be formed by the same hand to celebrate the glories, of His own name, and the fruit of His own work for ever. (Revelation 15:2.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: 04.10. HAGGAI ======================================================================== Haggai Section 10 of: The Minor Prophets J G Bellett This book is a witness how rapidly declension sets in, and fresh corruption follows upon restoration and blessing. Return to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon was made at the opening of the Book of Ezra, with great brightness and promise. Thousands left Babylon ; and they who remained behind helped them with their goods; and a general awakening of the national heart and energy was known. The first business of the returned captives was to build the house of the Lord; and they laid the foundation of it in the midst of such mingled and diverse affections, as showed how throughly and personally they had set themselves to it. Tears and joys, shouts and wailings, told the living realities of the moment, and gave promise that an earnest-hearted work, then begun, would find its way happily and prosperously to the end. But it was not so. The promise was not made good. Is man’s pledge, and promise, and stewardship ever realised? The Gentile seed which had been planted in the lands of the ten tribes became the occasion of hindrance and difficulty; and the building of the house is suspended, and that, too, for so long a time as fourteen years; during which interval, self-indulgence and consultation about their own things marked the moral ways of the people, of that people who had started so earnestly and so single-heartedly. Under such conditions, the Spirit of God visits Haggai, and by him the word of the Lord addresses itself to Zerubbabel the chief of Judah, and to Joshua the high priest, and to the congregation of returned captives. It was in the second year of Darius, king of Persia, that Haggai was thus called forth by the Spirit. This notification of time has meaning in it. It bespeaks the degradation of Israel . The coin of the Roman is by and by to go current through the land, and Israel will then be taught by their land to accept that badge of their vassal-state; and so now the Spirit teaches them the like lesson, marking the eras of their history by the reign of the Persians. Haggai begins by challenging the people on account of their neglect of God’s house, and concern about their own houses; and he calls on them to take knowledge of their present condition as the consequence of this, and to mark how unequal the fruit they were gathering out of their fields and vineyards was to the toil they had spent upon them. And, under this rebuke, the people are brought afresh to the fear of God; and fear being awakened, the conscience being reached, the fallow-ground of nature ploughed up, the same voice of God by Haggai begins its. ministry of comfort and encouragement. “I am with you, saith the Lord.” But the Spirit visited the heart of the people, as well as the lips of the prophet, and the end of the ministry was therefore reached. “And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah , and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.” The heart of Lydia , in other days, was opened by the Lord, as well as the lips of Paul that spoke to her. He spoke to her and she attended to him; and both of these: things were of God. How simple, and yet how needful? The Lord lets us know the need of each of those operations in His great discourse in John 6:1-71, teaching us that if the Father gave not to the Son, if He draw not, if He teach not, the ministry will be lost upon the soul, and the bread of life, the true manna of the desert, will be spread in vain. Now, this was a revival, and reviving of God’s work in the midst of the years became the necessary way, because of the tendency to decline which is found to be in us. The sinner’s utter ruin, and full incompetency to restore himself, is the ground of needed sovereignty at the first (Isaiah 1:9); the saint’s or the church’s tendency to slacken, to grow cold and dull, becomes the like ground of renewed, repeated revivals afterwards. A fresh putting forth of reviving virtue has been ever the way of maintaining a dispensation in any condition worthy of itself. And this day of Haggai was one of those revival seasons. The subject of this prophetic word by Haggai might lead us to observe how perfect in their seasons the divine thoughts and purposes are, though so various and different. David proposed to build a house for the ark of God, a house of cedars, costly and stable, but the word of a prophet forbad him; the time had not come. There would have been moral unfitness in the ark taking its rest before Israel had reached theirs; or seating itself in a sure dwelling-place in a land as yet unpurged of the blood of the sword of battle. But in the day of Haggai, we find the contrary of all this. Israel are rebuked by a prophet for not building the house of the Lord. David erred in saying that the time had come for such a work; the returned captives now err in saying that the time had not come. And the Spirit of the Lord knew the times, and what Israel ought to do, whether to build or not to build. “God is a Rock, His work is perfect.” He is true, though every man be a liar. But again, as we find also in the book of Ezra, the returned captives had refused the Samaritans, rejected alliance with people of such mixed blood and principles. They had done rightly in this—surely they had. They had kept themselves pure. But this was a provocation, and under the suggestions of those Samaritan adversaries, the great king, the Persian “breast of silver,” had stopped the building of the house. This, however, becomes a temptation. As soon as their hands get free of the work of the Lord’s house, the people go, every one to his own house. How easy to understand this! Nature is ready to take all its advantages. We know this every day. But faith acts above nature. Paul, for instance, becomes a prisoner after he had been for years a servant. His activities abroad are stopped by the adversaries. But Paul, though a prisoner, though stopped in his work abroad, waits on the same Master still. There is prison-service, as well as field or pulpit-service. He will receive, at his own hired house, all that come to him, though he be in chains, and talk with them from morning till evening, expounding and testifying the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. This was faith, not nature. But the returned captives employ their hands for themselves; tied up from working in God’s house, they use them, as free, for the work of their own house; and thus Satan masters them as well as the Samaritans. And it is upon this condition of things the Lord breaks in by the voice of Haggai. The building of the house, as I observed, seems to have been suspended for about fourteen years; but it is very happy to find that it was resumed, not by force of a decree in its favour by the great king, the Persian who had rule over the Jews at that time, but by the voice of the prophets of God, Haggai and Zechariah. The Lord, indeed, did dispose the heart of the king; but this was not till His prophet had disposed the heart of Israel (see Ezra 5:1-17; Ezra 6:1-22) And this is very much to be remembered in connection with our prophecy. The fresh spring in the heart of the people was found to have been in God, and not in circumstances. It was God’s voice by His prophets that set them to work again, and not the royal favour of the Persian. The Lord turned the heart of the king their master to countenance them, when they had taken again the place of faith and obedience. Haggai is simply styled, “Haggai the prophet.” We have nothing about him more than that. The word of the Lord was delivered by him on several distinct occasions; but all in the second year of Darius the king of Persia : and all was directed to this end, to set agoing and to further the building of the house of the Lord. I can look at them only in the most general way, noticing the time of each, during the second year of Darius the Persian. 6th month. 1 st day Haggai arouses the careless, self-indulgent people—the returned remnant, who were neglecting the Lord’s house, and serving themselves. 6th month. 24 th day He promises them that the Lord will be with them; thus, as in the Name of the Lord, appreciating the fear that had been awakened; and, consequently, the people begin to work. 7th month. 21 st day In order to encourage them in their work, Haggai tells them that the final glory of the house which they had now begun to build, should be the brightest after the shaking of all things by the hand of the Lord. 9th month. 24 th day He leads the people to a humbling sense of what they had been ere the house of the Lord was attended to; but he tells them also of future blessing. Same day He address Zerubbabel, telling him again of the shaking of everything, and of the establishing of Zerubbabel as the Lord’s signet. These are his utterances in their seasons. The voice of the Lord by this prophet first awakens the conscience of the people, and then, in various ways of grace, encourages them in their revived condition and energy. Let me observe, that the Spirit of God in the prophet does not take part, either with the aged men, who wept over the remembrance of the past, or with the younger ones who were rejoicing in the present (see Ezra 3:1-13), but He bears the heart of the people on to the future. Those tears had been real, as was their service to God: but neither were perfect. The Spirit who leads according to God indulges neither, but carries heart and hope forward. Encouraging the people in their work by His servant, He tells them of the future glory of the house, and of the stability of the true Zerubbabel, when all that has its foundation in the first creation, be it what it may, shall be shaken to its removal and overthrow. The Spirit again, in an apostle, comments upon this word of the prophet (see Hebrews 12:1-29) He tells us, that all that which is to be shaken is “all that is made”—that is, as I judge, all that has not its root or its foundation in Him in whom “all the promises of God are yea and amen.” He only is the Rock. His work is perfect. Christ the Lord can say, and will say, “The earth and its inhabitants are dissolved; I bear up the pillars.” What is of Him cannot be shaken. It remains. And in the faith and hope of what we have in Him, and from Him, beloved, let us say to one another, in the words of the apostle, “we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.” Amen. Bellett, J. G. 2004; 2004. The Minor Prophets ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: 04.11. ZECHARIAH ======================================================================== Zechariah Section 11 of: The Minor Prophets John Gifford Bellett Zechariah was a companion with Haggai in that energy and gift of the Spirit which was animating the returned captive in the building of the temple. But, under that inspiration, Haggai applies himself more exclusively to that one object. All he says he addresses to the captives by way of encouragement in the work then immediately in their hand. Zechariah looks out more widely, anticipating distant days in the history of Israel and of the nations, with a purpose beyond that of merely encouraging the builders in their work. This book opens with a kind of preface in which the prophet, ere he details his visions, challenges the people, warning them not to treat the Lord’s words by him as their fathers had treated other words of the Lord by other prophets, and which, nevertheless, had been fulfilled against them — had "taken hold of them," as he speaks. (Zechariah 1:1-6) He then begins to record his visions. Haggai had no visions. Zechariah is principally instructed by them. But they both prophesied in the same year, the second of the reign of Darius the Persian. Zechariah 1:7-17 This may be called "the vision of the horses among the myrtle-trees." The first of these horses had a rider on it, the others were in the rear, and, as far as we learn, were without riders.* The prophet asks the angel that waited on him what this meant. The rider upon the foremost horse tells him that these unridden horses were the agents of the Lord’s pleasure in the earth. The unridden horses, the representatives of the Gentiles, then speak and say that the whole earth was still and at rest; that is, just as they would have it. For such, surely, was the mind of the nations of the earth, whom God had set up upon the degradation and fall of Jerusalem. So would they have it — their exaltation upon the ruin of God’s people. *They are without riders, I believe, in order to represent the senseless, brutish force which marked the Gentiles, unguided as they were by the Spirit of God. The first horse was ridden by a man, a symbol of the divine energy that ruled the fortunes of Israel. It was "the angel of the Lord" that was the rider. Nebuchadnezzar had been already as an unridden horse. (Daniel 4:1-37) So now the remaining three Gentile powers. (See Psalms 49:20) So, in the next vision, the Gentiles are "horns," senseless things; Israel ’s friends are "Carpenters." The angel, who stood for Jerusalem, upon this, at once takes the alarm, and pleads for the city of the Lord and of Israel . The Lord having answered this. appeal of the angel, the angel seems to let the prophet know the answer, telling him that the Lord was displeased with the Gentiles, who were thus at ease, though they had helped forward the affliction of Jerusalem ; that Jerusalem should be restored, the Lord’s house be built there again, and the cities of the land be reoccupied. Zechariah 1:18-21 The second vision we may call, "the vision of the four horns and the four carpenters." It gave the prophet a view of the Gentile adversaries that had dispersed Judah , and also of the friends who were soon to avenge Judah at the hand of his Gentile adversaries. Zechariah 2:1-13 This third division may be called, "The vision of the man with the measuring line." The prophet here has before him not only the angel who was attending him, but another angel and a man with a measuring line in his hand; and moreover, he hears the voice of. the Lord; or, it may be, the word of the Lord is rehearsed to him. But the whole of this teaches him, that Jerusalem is to be in its place, established and dignified again; and that after the glory has seated itself there, inquisition should be made of those nations, who, in the day of their calamity, troubled the Israel of God.* Zion, in that day, is to sing for joy; nations also shall join themselves to the Lord of Israel, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, and be subdued to the sense of the presence of the Lord in the earth again. *We see this again, I may say, in Matthew 25:1-46, when the Son of Man is on the throne of His millennial glory. Zechariah 3:1-10 The fourth vision is that of "Joshua, the high priest." Having just received a pledge of the restoration of that city, we have now, in another vision, a picture of the justification of the people; and this, justification of Israel leads, in the end, to the beauty and acceptance of Israel in the days of the kingdom, when Messiah, "the Shepherd and Stone of Israel," shall be exalted in providential authority over the whole earth. But this picture is so vivid, so graphic, that it can be used as the delineation of the story of the justification of any sinner, in the great principles of it — as we know that justification itself is one and the same for each and all of us. It is the sinner, the polluted one, the Joshua in filthy garments, chosen, cleansed, stripped and clothed again, all in grace, in a grace that acts as from itself on the warrant of the blood of Christ, while we, like Joshua, are silent before it. Zechariah 4:1-14 The fifth vision is that of "the golden candlestick." If, in the preceding vision, we saw the great act of justification exhibited, the value of Christ applied to the unclean condition of Israel, here we find exhibited the communication of power, and the application of the Spirit to the circumstances of Israel. It therefore follows in due order. And the power is pledged not, to be withdrawn till the needed grace be accomplished, and the work begun be completed;. till what was entered on in that day of restoration under Zerubbabel, be perfected in the day of the royal Messiah, the true Zerubbabel, the revived heir and holder of the honour and strength of the house of David, the head of all order throughout the earth, as in kingdom-days. Zechariah 5:1-4 The sixth vision is that of "the flying roll." This is an exhibition of curse or judgment finding out sinners, whether sinners against their neighbours as thieves, or sinners against God, as false swearers.* The previous visions had been of mercy to Israel , either under the providence of God, or under Messiah, or under the Spirit; but now we get visions of judgment. *Curse follows law. (Galatians 3:10) As the law had its two tables, the curse has its two sides, corresponding, as we here see, to the two tables. Zechariah 5:5-11 The seventh vision is that of "the Ephah with the woman sitting in it." This is a picture of wickedness — ajnomia — lawlessness. It is hidden — the woman in the ephah — and it is borne to the land of Shinar , its base, where it began its course. This we know; for Nimrod was the first great representative of the wicked or the lawless one, who is to be destroyed in the day of the Lord. This "wickedness" is hidden as here in an "ephah;" or, as in Matthew 13:1-58, in "three measures of meal" — hidden, I may say, under a profession, as of the religion of Israel , or of the name of Christendom. But it is really Babylon at the end as at the beginning, "the land of Shinar ;" as we again see in Revelation 17:1-18, and many other Scriptures. Zechariah 6:1-8 The eighth vision is that of "the four chariots." These symbolize the four great monarchies so much spoken of by the prophet Daniel. These chariots, drawn by different horses, come forth from between mountains of brass, and then take their appointed course over different parts of the earth, and this may remind us of the first vision, or that of "the horses among the myrtle trees." Only we have a new fact here: viz., that the second chariot has settled God’s question with the first; or, in the language of this vision, "those that go forth to the north country have quieted my spirit," saith the Lord, "in the north country." The Persian had, in the days of Zechariah, put down the Chaldean. Zechariah 6:9-15 These closing verses of the same chapter seem to be a kind of appendix to this vision of the four chariots.* The prophet is instructed to take certain children of the returned captives, and in their presence to set crowns on the head of Joshua, the high priest; and then to address Joshua as a type of the Branch, the destined builder of the Lord’s temple, the bearer of the glory, the combined priest and king who is to secure peace in the coming days of His kingdom. And having gone through this ceremony, the prophet was ordered to lay up these crowns under the hand of certain guardians, in the house of the lord, as a memorial of all this destined glory and power which are to be displayed in the last days, in the person of the Branch, that is, the Messiah of Israel, the Christ of God. *For it intimates a fifth kingdom which in season is to be revealed, the four kingdoms of the Gentiles having preceded it. But now we may observe, that on closing the sixth chapter, we have done with Zechariah’s visions. We are also in another year, the fourth instead of the second of Darius. But I would separate these remaining chapters into what appears to me to be their distinct portions, as I have done with the preceding. Zechariah 7:1-14; Zechariah 8:1-23 These chapters must be read together, I judge. For Zechariah 8:19, clearly seems to refer to Zechariah 7:3. They form the communication which was made by the Lord to the prophet, when the returned captives sent to inquire whether their captivity-fasts were now to be continued. The prophet begins his answer by a humbling word addressed to the conscience. They had, it is true, been fasting statedly during the years of their captivity; but he now tells them to ask themselves, had this been done to the Lord? The character of the answer which the prophet, under the Holy Ghost, returns to the enquiring people is greatly worthy of thought; but it would be too much to consider it in its detail. I would, however, say this upon it: that this word of Zechariah reminds me of the method of the Lord Jesus in a like case. He never simply answered an enquiry, but so took it up as to call the conscience and heart of the enquirer into exercise. He looked rather to the moral state of the enquirer than to the subject of the enquiry. So, Zechariah here. He humbles, exhorts, and teaches, ere he gives the answer. But then, when he does come to give the answer, he gives it fully and blessedly indeed. He tells them that their fasts shall become feasts; and further, announces prophetically the bright and palmy days which yet in the distance awaited Israel . Zechariah 9:1-17; Zechariah 10:1-12 These chapters, taken and read together, form another burthen of the prophet. Syria , the Philistines, Tyre and Sidon are to be humbled, though a remnant may be spared, in the day when Israel is protected and vindicated by God her Saviour, and the eyes of men are towards the Lord. This is first announced here. And then, the appearing the royal glory of Messiah, is anticipated, offered, as we know it was, in the day of Matthew 21:1-46, but being then refused, it remains for a coming day when it will assert its place, and make good its claims by judgment, as the prophet here goes on to tell us.* But then, after that, the kingdom shall be displayed in its universality of strength or peace. The prophet then addresses Messiah, and pledges to Him, that by His own blood, which was the seal of the covenant, His people, His prisoners in Israel , should be delivered. And he then, suitably, addresses another word to Israel , presenting Messiah to them as the object of their confidence, and the security to them of victory and honour. *The rejection of the King at His first coming has made judgment necessary to the future and final display of His glory in Israel . Many other prophecies, beside this of Zechariah, tell us this, as also the Lord’s great prophetic word in Matthew 24:1-51. The results of the recovery of Israel are then enlarged upon, in great and various blessedness, in Zechariah 10:1-12. Zechariah 11:1-17 This chapter may be read by itself. It gives us, as I believe, an anticipation of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, as in the gospel by Matthew — introduced, however, by some solemn premonitions of judgment, as we see in Zechariah 11:1-3. Messiah begins to cite His commission under the God of Israel, telling us, that He had come forth to find the sheep of Israel, for that they were in an evil case, from their possessors, their vendors, and their shepherds - that is, from such as the Romans, the Herods, and the Pharisees. He then tells us. that He took two stalls, in order to fulfil this His commission. And these staffs were significant or symbolic. Moses, in other days, had his rod, Messiah now had His staffs. They signified strength and beauty; for Christ had to impart each of these to Israel , to establish and adorn them, to secure and dignify them. The inhabitants of the land, the great body of the Jewish people, are found to disappoint His service as much as any, so that He has still to separate "the poor of the flock" from the general "flock of slaughter." His first service is then told us. After thus taking up the flock of Israel , (as He does in the earlier chapters of Matthew) He cuts off three of the shepherds whom He found in the land. This we see in Matthew 22:1-46: the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees, religious heads of the people, being then silenced in controversy with the Lord Jesus. Having done this, Messiah disclaims them, breaking His staff, "Beauty," as we see Him doing in Matthew 23:1-39; withdrawing Himself, which was the taking away of their beauty from them; for they lose their glory when they lose Him. They were but a crownless head without Him; and that being so, all is gone for the present. He then tells us that "the poor of the flock" waited on Him as "the word of the Lord;" and this we see, in perfect order and place, in Matthew 24:25. And then, He anticipates the scene of His betrayal and death, as in Matthew 26:1-75; Matthew 27:1-66. And this is followed here by the Prophet, as we know it has been historically, by the disruption of Israel . The other staff, "Bands," is broken.* *The Godhead, the Jehovah-ship, as I may speak of Jesus, is fully set out in Zechariah 11:13. it was Jehovah who was priced at 30 pieces of silver. A remarkable anticipation of Christ’s ministry, all this is. But this being the history of the true Shepherd, the good Shepherd, at the hand of the flock, we then get the history of the flock at the hand of the foolish shepherd, the idol-shepherd. This is retribution, as many other Scriptures let us know. that the raising up of Antichrist will be in judgment upon Israel for their rejection of God’s Christ, their own Messiah. This is future. See Zechariah 11:15-17.* *The foolish shepherd, thus raised up in judgment or retribution on Israel, because of their rejection of Messiah, may remind us of Saul. He treated the flock very much as this foolish shepherd is to treat them (1 Samuel 8:1-22); and he was given to the people, because they had rejected the Lord in the person of His servant Samuel; we may read Ezekiel 34:1-31 in this connexion also. But I must add — that, though the good and true Shepherd was at first refused, and in retribution the foolish shepherd is to be raised up still, at the end, on the mountains of Israel, and beside the rivers of Israel, the flock shall again lie down and feed under the care of their Shepherd-king, the true David, who will guide them by the skilfulness of His hand, and feed them according to the integrity of His heart. All Scripture tells this. Zechariah 12:1-14; Zechariah 14:1-21 These chapters form the last burthen of our Prophet. It tells us of "the day of the Lord," or of that great action which is to introduce the kingdom. It begins very significantly, celebrating God in three characters of glory — the stretcher out of the heavens, the layer of the foundations of the earth, the power of the Spirit of man. For these three characters are such as the kingdom is destined to display. For then, the God of grace and of glory will be seen as having furnished the heavens, as having established the earth, and as having renewed man. And the details of the prophetic burthen that follow this introduction, give witness of these things. It is, as I said above, "the day of the Lord" which is delineated here, in various virtues and features of it. The confederated enemies of Jerusalem shall be broken under the walls of Jerusalem in that day; and this shall be done after a manner and method which is to have respect to certain moral results. But if the hand of God work amid the circumstances of that day, the Spirit of God shall work with the people of that day also. This is blessedly delineated here. The Spirit will begin His work with them in the power of conviction. They are brought to remember their sin against Jesus, and to mourn bitterly. Then, they are led to discover by faith, the remedy for sin in that very Jesus whom once with wicked hands they crucified and slew. Then, they consider their ways, and with Levite zeal, purify themselves; according to Deuteronomy 13:1-18, nothing is spared, though dear as near kindred. Then they hold communion with Jesus about those very wounds which once they themselves inflicted.* *This communion may be introduced (after the zeal of Zechariah 12:4) by the Lord Jesus Himself breaking in, in Spirit, and saying, "I am no prophet, but an husbandman, for man has acquired me as a slave from my youth," for such is said to be the translation of Zechariah 12:5. The hand of the Lord shall then work in company with His Spirit, the fire of persecution or of discipline (the purging of the floor, as John the Baptist speaks) taking its course, and then Judah shall be acknowledged again by the Lord, and again the Lord shall be acknowledged by Judah, according to the pattern or precedent of Deuteronomy 26:17-19. This leads to the close of Zechariah 13:1-9. At the opening of the next chapter, Zechariah 14:1-21 — the last, we have the great action around the city, which had been anticipated. at the beginning of Zechariah 12:1-14, further and more fully described, together with the interference of the Lord Himself in the behalf of the city, and the results of its deliverance., such as the consecration of it as the centre of God’s earthly purposes, and the seat of His earthly glory; and then the millennial or kingdom-joy of the nations holding their feast-days there as the scene of public, universal festivation. Solemnly, in the midst of all this, we are given to see the judgment of those who had been fighting against Jerusalem , and also of those who would not go up there to worship in the days of the glory. What ought to have been, but was not, shall then be realized. Holiness shall give character to everything; consecration to God. Nor shall there be blot or exception then, as hitherto there has been. The Canaanite was in the land, and left there, after Abraham had entered it; but now, "there shall he no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." (See Genesis 12:6; Zechariah 14:21) As one of our own poets says, "Days surpassing fable, and yet true." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: 04.12. MALACHI ======================================================================== Malachi Section 12 of: The Minor Prophets John Gifford Bellett Malachi closes the writings of the minor prophets, as they are called, and with them the volume of the Old Testament. This suggests and warrants a short review of things in the previous story of Israel. From the beginning the Lord had been, in various ways, testing and proving that people, whom He had made His people. After having delivered them from Egypt, and borne them through the wilderness, under Joshua, He set them in the land promised to their fathers; and then, in a certain sense, began afresh with them. This is seen in the days of the Judges who succeeded Joshua. But what was the story? The people transgressed; the Lord chastened; the people wept under the rod; the Lord raised up a deliverer. Thus it was, again and again. But during all this time the Lord kept Israel before and under Himself. In those days there was no captivity of the people, or conquest of the land. Israel was still at home. The land was still their own, and Jehovah their king as well as their God. In due season, the Lord gave them the house and the throne of David. They flourished into a kingdom. But the kingdom became untrue to Him as the nation had been. Much longsuffering towards the house of David the Lord exercised, as before He had exercised towards the nation. The Books of Judges and of 2 Chronicles show us all this. But at length, loss of home and country, with sore captivity, ensued; and a worse condition than had been known under the rod of the Philistines, Midianites or Canaanites, was now known under the kings of Assyria and Babylon. Scattering of the people among the Gentiles, and possession of their land by the Gentiles now takes place. This was fearful. There is, however, restoration. There is a return of captives from Babylon. Jerusalem is regained, rebuilt, repeopled. The house of God is raised up again, and the worship of His name and the service of His altar are observed again. But this state of things was something quite new. Israel was not now a nation set in their own land, as they had been under Joshua and the Judges; nor a kingdom with one of their own children on the throne, (such a throne as the glory could accompany) as under David and David’s sons. The people were now the vassals of the Gentile. They were debtors to the Gentile for permission to occupy the land of their fathers, and to observe the laws and do the service of their God. They were the subjects of the Persian, and their ruler was his vicegerent. This, surely, was a new condition. But they are put into it, that they may be again tested, tested to the full, and thereby proved and convicted to the uttermost. For so it comes to pass: when the trial of them is made in their new circumstances, failure ensues, as it had ever done. The book of Judges had already witnessed against them as a nation; 2 Chronicles had already witnessed against them as a kingdom; and now Ezra, and Nehemiah, and this prophecy of Malachi witness against them as returned captives. I must, however, turn aside from this for a moment. The returned captives at their beginning, give some beautiful samples of faith and service. They are left, as we may see presently, by Malachi, in a very sad moral condition. But there had been brighter, earlier moments. Great events, greater than had been known for centuries in Israel, had been witnessed: such as their journey from Babylon, the building of the temple, the building of the wall, the purifying of the congregation again and again. Yet there was no miracle: all was accomplished by force of moral energy; the Spirit of God working in the people, rather than the hand of God working for them. There was no cloudy pillar to conduct them across the second desert; but they went, the fast and the prayer on the banks of the Ahava bespeaking the virtue of the Spirit that was among them. They refused Samaritan alliances, as a people that knew their Nazaritism. The customs of the nations, the traditions of the elders, their own thoughts and wisdom, had no place in forming their character or conduct. The word of God was their law. Individual grace and gift shine eminent, as in Ezra and Nehemiah. The light that was in Ezra, the single-heartedness that mark Nehemiah, could carry the people through difficulties, when the rod of Moses was no longer in the camp to do its marvels, as in the sight of the enemy. I speak not of Mordecai and Esther, though strange and admirable was their way, without a miracle in their behalf, because they represent Israel in the dispersion, and not as returned captives.* *The virtues which would have duly given character to the remnant of Israel, or the returned captives, showed themselves to perfection in the Lord Jesus, who was, as we may say, the Remnant in His day. He would have His disciples refuse Samaritan alliance, and yet bow to the Gentile. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that we God’s," may be read as the summary of the religion of returned captives. But these brighter moments had now faded, and Malachi gives us our last Old Testament sight of the state of Israel, sad and humbling as indeed it is. In due season, the hour of the New Testament arrives, and we find the same before us, just as Malachi had promised us it should be. Messiah, the Lord of the temple, appears, introduced by John Baptist, the messenger of Malachi 3:1, and the Elias (if the people would receive him) of Malachi 4:5. The series of tests which have been made from the day of the Exodus to the day of the returned captives is resumed now. Messiah is offered,* and He proposes Himself, in full and varied forms, to the. acceptance of Israel. And, at last, the Spirit is given, and apostles full of the Holy Ghost call on Israel to repent and believe, and thus enter the times of refreshing and restitution promised and spoken of by all the prophets. These are the brightest, richest, visitations: the last yet the best; the: closing, yet the most promising; but, like all the rest, they fail. Israel is not gathered. In Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the land; as a pilgrim-people, or as captives; as a nation, or as a kingdom; as presented with Messiah and His works, or as visited by the Spirit and His virtues — still, from first to last, under all the patient exercise of this long-suffering, grace, and wisdom, they are untrue still. "They always resist the Holy Ghost," as one inspired voice says of them. "they fill up the measure of their sins always," as another inspired voice pronounces against them. *"If ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come," are words which clearly tell us, that the ministry of the Baptist of Christ was a testing time. The nation had been preserved, as we saw, and kept in their own land till the king, the house of David, was set up — and now they are restored to their own land, and kept there till Messiah appear and offer Himself to them. "The rod of the tribe of Judah is preserved, in order that the Branch of the root Jesse may be presented." At the opening of the gospels we find passages from Malachi quoted, as belonging to that moment of the evangelists. The close of the Old thus links itself with the opening of the New Testament And these connexions, simple, and striking, and self-widening as they are, illustrate the unity of the divine volume. They display something of the moral glory of the Book, and let us learn, what we learn from another and a more direct witness, (that is, from a passage in the Book itself,) that, "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." (Acts 15:18) We may briefly present this prophecy in the following manner: Malachi 1:1-14 It opens with a terrible exposure of the moral condition of the returned captives. Was the state of Israel ever worse? If idolatry had marked it from the beginning hitherto, infidelity does now; the spirit of scorning, the spirit that contemns and repudiates all the claims of God, and only mocks His pleadings and entreaties. So that, we may say, if the unclean spirit have at this time of Malachi gone out, a more wicked one has entered. We cannot say that the old unclean spirit has returned, bringing with him seven other spirits; for we do not find, under the word of this prophet, a return to idolatry. But we may say that a spirit more wicked than the old one has entered. The. "wherein" of this chapter, used by the returned captives again and again, as they answer the appeals and rebukes of the Lord, sounds awfully in our ears. Malachi 2:1-17 The Lord by the prophet, in this chapter, addresses a word of rebuke to the priests now, as He had done to the people before. The Spirit awakens a word in the bosom of the prophet, challenging the abominations that were committed in Judah and Jerusalem, the treachery against the nation’s covenant — letting the people know that they were not straitened in the Lord who had provisions for them in the Spirit to fulfil His part in that covenant, but that they had been their own enemies, unfaithful to their conditions in the same covenant. The covenant is spoken of under the figure of a marriage-contract, or marriage vows, according to the style of the prophets generally. And it is such a figure as the Lord’s own words about Himself and His people Israel would warrant and suggest. Malachi 3:1-18; Malachi 4:1-6 The Lord, continuing His controversy with the evil estate of Israel, here lets them know, that of a truth the Lord of the temple would come and His messenger before Him; but that such a mission would turn out to be a very different thing from what they expected. They thought, to be sure, that it would be in their favour, that it would flatter and accredit them, set them up, and be deliverance and glory to them. They sought it: delighted themselves in the prospect of it. (Malachi 3:2) But the prophet would have them undeceive themselves, and learn that in judgment this mission would be; necessarily so, because of their evil condition. And the present question with them should therefore be, who will abide this coming of the Lord? not, as it were, who will tell its glories and its blessings, as they might have thought, but, who will abide the searching process that will attend it? Still there was patience in God thus insulted: Had not this been so, had he not been God and not man, Israel would have been already consumed. But even now, they might prove that He would bless them beyond all expected measures, if they would but be obedient. In the midst of all this national iniquity, the remnant are manifested. The Lord declares that He has them and their ways in His remembrance now, and will have them as his displayed jewels by and by, in that day when there shall be to some a sun with healing in his rays, to others a sun to burn up as an oven - like the two in the bed, at the mill, or in the field, of which the Lord Himself speaks in the Gospels. The prophet then closes by addressing this remnant with advice and promises; and as the Old Testament thus closes, so does the New open; for, at the very beginning of St. Luke, we see this remnant, in the persons of Zechariah and Elizabeth, following this advice of Malachi, obedient to the law of Moses, with its statutes and judgments; and we see them also receiving the Elijah in the person of their child John, according to the promise of Malachi.* *The remnant, let me add, are not promised present deliverance from the Gentile power, but they are taught to hold by the word, to expect the judgment of the wicked and a new state of things in due time. Our epistles, in like manner, do not promise us a recovery of church beauty, but teach us to look for a new and better thing: and the coming of the Lord will find us as the epistles leave us — just as the first coming of the Lord found Malachi’s remnant as Malachi had left them. I would add a little by way of postscript: The John Baptist of the Gospels is identified (officially, not personally) with the Elijah of Malachi. (Matthew 11:1-30; Mark 1:1-45; Luke 1:1-80; Luke 7:1-50) John Baptist stood ready to fulfil the promise of the prophet to Israel. He was, as the messenger that went before the face of the Lord of the temple; and as the one who would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. But Israel was unbelieving; and, as the ancient oracle is a standing oracle in the story of that people — "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established," (Isaiah 7:9), Israel remained unblest. Elijah, in Ahab’s day, was a restorer, as we see in 1 Kings 18:1-46. But this was but for a season. His light was rejoiced in by the people; but Jezebel forced him out into the wilderness again. So with the Baptist. His light was rejoiced in also. But, again, this was only for a season. The multitude were baptized of him; but the wicked hated him; and there was another Jezebel in that day that had him beheaded; and Israel was left unestablished, whether by Elijah or the Baptist. But the promised Elijah will still appear, - and lead on to the throne and power of Messiah. For God is true,. though every man be a liar. His gifts and calling are without repentance. He will be faithful to Israel, though, as we have seen, Israel under every trial has been unfaithful to Him. He will accomplish His purposes in grace, be the world, be Israel, or man, never so angry or never so perverted. "God is unchangeable both in righteousness and grace." "All Israel shall be saved; as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 11:26.) Behold the mountain of the Lord In latter days shall rise, On mountain-tops above the hills, And draw the wond’ring eyes." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: 05.00. MUSINGS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. ======================================================================== STEM Publishing:J. G. Bellett:Short Musings on the Epistle to the Hebrews Musings on the Epistle to the Hebrews. ’The Opened Heavens’ By J. G. Bellett. This is an eleven chapter commentary on Hebrews. Contents Part 1 — Hebrews 1:1-14; Hebrews 2:1-18 Part 2 — Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16 Part 3 — Hebrews 5:1-14; Hebrews 6:1-20 Part 4 — Hebrews 7:1-28 Part 5 — Hebrews 8:1-13 Part 6 — Hebrews 9:1-28 - Hebrews 10:1-18 Part 7 — Hebrews 10:19-39 Part 8 — Hebrews 11:1-40 Part 9 — Hebrews 12:1-29 Part 10 — Hebrews 13:1-25 Part 11 — Conclusion ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: 05.01. PART 1 - HEB_1:1-14; HEB_2:1-18 ======================================================================== Hebrews 1:1-14; Hebrews 2:1-18. The Epistle to the Hebrews strikingly illustrates one quality of the Book of God. It may be read in various lights; yet no one ray interferes with another. In six or seven ways this epistle could be read with the greatest ease. I will specially look now at the first two chapters. It opens the heavens to you as they now are. How blessed is the introduction of such a thing to the heart! You look up and see the physical heavens above you; but it is only the superficial heavens you see. This epistle introduces the inner heavens to you, and not in a physical, but in a moral character. It introduces us to the glories surrounding and attaching to the Lord Jesus, now accepted in the heavens. We are thus enabled to see the heavens in which He has sat down, what He is about there, and what will succeed those heavens. When the Lord Jesus was here, as we learn in Matthew 3:1-17, the heavens opened to get a sight of Him. There was an object here then worthy the attention of the heavens. He returned — and the heavens had an object they had never known before — a glorified Man. And now it is the office of our epistle to show us the heavens as the place of this glorified Man. And as in Matthew 3:1-17 we get the heavens opened to look down at Christ here, so in the Hebrews you get the heavens opened that you may look up at Christ there. But supposing you ask, Is that all the history of the heavens? Have you gone to the end? Indeed I have not. In Revelation 4:1-11 and Revelation 5:1-14 we get the heavens preparing for the judgment of the earth. Then at the close of the volume I find the heavens not only the residence of the glorified Man, but of the glorified church. What a book it is that can present to us such secrets as these! It is a divine library. You take down one volume from your shelf, and read about the heavens; in another volume you read of man in ruins; take down a third and you read of God in grace; and so on, in precious, wondrous variety. Now we will set ourselves down before Hebrews 1:1-14; Hebrews 2:1-18. "When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." That is just taking up the pledge I gave — that the epistle is going to open to us the heavens. The Lord has been here purging our sins, and He has gone up to occupy the heavens as the Purger of our sins. Supposing I had been to a distant country, I might describe it to you so as to fill you with delight and with desire to visit it. But when the Holy Ghost comes and shows you the distant heavens, He does more than this — He shows you that your interests are consulted there. Our Representative is seated in the highest place and seated there in that very character. Is it possible to have a more intimate link with the place? It is a wonder we are not all on the wing to get there as soon as we can! To think that because He came to die a wretched death for us He is seated there! I defy you to have a richer interest in the heavens than God has given you. Now in Hebrews 1:4 we see that not only as the Purger of our sins, but in the verity of His Manhood He is there, seated above the angelic hosts. We have seen already what an interest we have in Him as the Purger of our sins. Now the chapter introduces Him to us as the Son of man above angels. Man has been preferred to angels. Human nature in the person of Christ has been seated above angelic nature, though it be in Michael or in Gabriel. The whole of chapter 1 is thus occupied in giving you two sights of Christ in heaven. What two secrets they are! The Purger of our sins, and very man, like ourselves, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. I read the first four verses of Hebrews 2:1-18 as a parenthesis. Do not you like these parentheses? The Holy Ghost speaks the language of nature. We see friends when conversing together turning a little aside to converse about one another; so the apostle speaks here — "I am teaching you wonderful things. Do take heed that you let not such things fall on a careless ear." We must not be mere scholars. If we be disciples of a living master in the school of God, we shall have our consciences exercised while we are pursuing our lesson. That is what the apostle is doing here. That parenthesis falls on the ear most sweetly and acceptably. But though a parenthesis, it opens a new glory to us. How the field of scripture teems with fruit! It is not a thing you have to till diligently and get but little fruit. That parenthesis contains another glory of Christ. (Surely we ought not to need exhortation!) He is seated there as an Apostle — my Apostle. What does that mean? He is a preacher to me. God spake in times past by the prophets, He is speaking to us now by the Son; and Christ in the heavens is the Apostle of Christianity. And what is His subject? Salvation. That salvation which, as the Purger of our sins, He wrought out for us; and which, as the Apostle of our profession, He makes known to us. There is more furnishing of the heavens for you. Then Hebrews 1:5 returns to the theme of Hebrews 1:1-14. It goes on with the distinctive glories of Christ, as super-eminent, above angels. "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come." What is "the world to come"? It is the millennial age, which we read of in Psalms 8:1-9. We have three conditions of the Son of man here. "A little lower than the angels"; "crowned with glory and honour"; and "set over the works of God’s hands." So that the world to come is not put in subjection to angels but to the Son of man. Now you find that you have an interest in this glorified Man. I was saying that if I went to a distant land and described to you its scenic wonders, you would desire a sight of them. But this epistle shows you that you have a personal interest in these glories. Is there a single point that the Son of man has travelled in which you have not an interest? The apostle traces it here for you. So that again I say this epistle is opening the distant heavens to your view, and showing you the glories that attach to Christ, and that you have an immediate, personal interest in those glories. In Hebrews 2:10 a new thought comes in, "to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Only pause here for a moment. It became the glory of God to give you a perfect Saviour. Do you believe it? What thoughts rise on the soul when we come to that! Are you in possession of Him, so that you never in a single thought are tempted to look beyond Him? We have got an unquestionable, infallible salvation, one that will stand the shock of every coming day. From Hebrews 2:11 we further see our interest in the glorified Man. "Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Not ashamed! Tell it out that earth and heaven may hear! This glorified Man is a brother of the elect of God. He is not "ashamed" because of their dignity. Not merely because of His grace, but because of their personal dignity. He has appointed me a share of His own throne. Is He ashamed of His own doings — of His own adoptings? Do not get creeping, cold thoughts as you read scripture. Our thoughts of Christ should be such as to take captive our old man — to bear us on eagles’ wings. "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." Christ raising and leading the song of the ransomed ones, and not ashamed to be found in their company! "And again, I will put my trust in him." He did that when He was here, and we do it now. "And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me." There is our interest in the glorified Man. Then we return to see what He was in humiliation. "He took not on angels; but he took on the seed of Abraham." He left the angels where He found them. The angels excelled in strength. They kept their first estate, and He left them there. Man excelled in wickedness, and He came and linked Himself with man. Then Hebrews 2:17 introduces us to another glory that attaches to Christ in the heavens. We see Him there as our High Priest, ever waiting with reconciliation for sins, and succour for sorrows. The epistle teems with divine glories. It is massive in glory and ponderous in the divine thoughts that press into its short space. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: 05.02. PART 2 - HEB_3:1-19; HEB_4:1-16 ======================================================================== Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16. We were observing that one leading characteristic of this epistle is that it gives us a look into heaven as it now is not as it was in Genesis 1:1-31, and not as it will be in Revelation 4:1-11 or Revelation 21:1-27. The heaven of Genesis 1:1-31 had no glorified Man in it, no Apostle, no High Priest. The heaven of Hebrews has all these. That being the general character of the epistle, we looked at the Lord Jesus as in that heaven. Then we were observing how the Lord is there as a glorified Man — as the Purger of our sins — as our Apostle preaching salvation, and as the High Priest making reconciliation for sins. Every page is fruitful in casting up the glories of the Lord Jesus now in heaven. Now we will take up Hebrews 3:1-19 and Hebrews 4:1-16. Having been introduced to the heavens where Christ is, and to the Christ that is in those heavens, Hebrews 3:1-19 and Hebrews 4:1-16 turn a little round on themselves and look a little sharply at us and tell us to take care now that we are travelling along the road in company with Him. The first thought is that we are to consider Him in His faithfulness. The exhortation here is commonly misunderstood. For what are we to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession? Is it to imitate Him? The religious mind says so. But that is not the point of the passage at all. I am to consider Him as faithful, for my sake, to God; faithful so that I might be saved eternally. If I do not consider Him so, I have more than blunted the point of the passage and lost the sense of grace. The word should be, not "was faithful," but "is faithful," or "being faithful." Not in walking down here but now in heaven. I look up and see Him discharging these offices, faithful to Him that appointed Him. What business have I to imitate Him in His high priesthood? I am to consider Him for my comfort. What a constellation of grace there is in all that! The grace of God that appointed Him, the grace of the Son that discharges the work, and the grace that opens Hebrews 3:1-19 is infinite in magnificence. Could there be sublimer exhortation or diviner doctrine? We get the Son in the highest heavens, there seated as the Purger of our sins, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, and could any exhortation be more divine than that which tells me to sit still and look at Him in His faithfulness up there? Then in Hebrews 3:3-4 : and onward we get further glories unfolded in contrast with Moses. The first dispensation is here called a house. It was a servant to serve a coming Christ — Moses and the house are identical. All the activities of that dispensation were worth nothing if they did not bear testimony to a coming Christ: therefore it was a servant. When the Lord comes, on the other hand, He comes as a Son, to claim that which is His own as His own; and the whole thing now depends on this — Will the house, over which He is set, be faithful to Him? What is your faithfulness? To continue in confidence and hold the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. "Christ for me, Christ for me!" I will take nothing but this all-sufficient Christ. Cling to Him day by day till the wilderness journey is over. Then you are part and parcel of that house over which He presides as a Son. He not only presides over it, but He claims it as His own - a dearer thought. It is quite right to be subject to Him, but He tells you to lie near His heart. Faithfulness is not merely being subject to the headship of Christ. If I am lying on His bosom then I am faithful. So that when the Spirit comes to exhort, in Hebrews 3:1-19 and Hebrews 4:1-16, He has not left the high and wondrous ground of Hebrews 1:1-14 and Hebrews 2:1-18. Then, having come to that point, He turns aside to Psalms 95:1-11. If you begin to read at Psalms 92:1-15 and read to the close of Psalms 101:1-8 you will find it a beautiful little millennial volume. It is exhortings and awakenings of the Spirit of faith in Israel, summoning them to look forward to the rest of God. How is that brought in here? The wilderness journey of Israel is a beautiful, lively picture of the journey the believer is now taking from the blood to the glory. People sometimes at the opening of Hebrews 4:1-16 turn it on themselves. But rest to the conscience is not the thing that is thought of at all. It assures us that we are out of Egypt and looking towards Canaan. The danger is, not lest the blood should not be on the lintel, but lest we should break down by the way, as thousands did in the wilderness. It never calls you to re-investigate the question of having found rest in the blood, but to take care how you travel along the road. When He speaks of rest, it is the rest of the kingdom He talks of, not the rest of the conscience. Then He calls the whole age through which we are passing one day — "Today." It was a short day to the dying thief, a short day to the martyred Stephen. A longer day to Paul, and a longer day still to John; but let the wilderness journey be short or long, it is one day, and you are to hold by Christ to the very end. If you are to be partakers of Christ, you must hold fast to the end. Now, what is the Christ of Hebrews 4:14? A Christ crucified? No, Christ glorified. You are made partakers of Christ in the kingdom if you hold fast by Christ crucified. Let this "today" ring in the heart and conscience every hour. Holding to a crucified Christ is my title to the rest of a glorified Christ. Two things contest this with you — sin and unbelief. Do you not recognise these two enemies as you pass along? Shall I continue in sin? Am I to give place to one wrong thought? I may be overtaken, but am I to treat them other than as enemies? Then unbelief is an action of the soul towards God. You and I do not know what saintly character is — what it is to be between Egypt and Canaan — if we are not aware that those two things stand out to withstand our passage every day. Hebrews 4:1-16 still pursues the subject. The Christ of Hebrews 3:14 is the rest of Hebrews 4:1-16; Christ glorified — rest glorious. He has us out of Egypt. The exhortation attaches to a people out of Egypt. We have left the blood-sprinkled lintel behind. The glorious Canaan is before us. Take heed lest you come short of it. "Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them." The gospel, not of the blood of Christ, but of the glory of Christ. It took one form in the, ear of the Israelites and it takes another form to us; but to them, as to us, rest was preached. Then He beautifully falls back on the Sabbath rest of the Creator. The blessed Creator provided Himself a rest after creation. He promised Himself a rest in Canaan after bringing them through the wilderness. Adam disturbed His creation-rest. Israel disturbed His Canaan-rest. Is He, therefore, disappointed in His rest? No; He has found it in Christ. The secret of the whole Book of God is, God retreating into Christ when man in every way had disappointed Him. Christ is the One who has worked out that rest, and who holds it now, and it remains with Him both for God and for His saints. "Therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein." It is no longer a fallible thing depending on Adam or on Israel, therefore let us take care that we do not come short of it. Now we get two ways in which to use Christ. We had two enemies in the end of chapter 3, now we have two uses of Christ in the end of chapter 4. We are to use Him as the Word of God and as the High Priest of our profession. Is that the way I am using Him? These two uses stand opposed to sin and unbelief. Let the Word of God discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. Instead of giving place to your lusts and vanities, invite the entrance of the two-edged sword, that makes no allowance for a single bit of sin. And when you have dragged out the enemy — found some favourite lust lying in this corner and some unsuspected vanity in that, what are you to do with them? Take them to Christ and let His high priesthood dispose of them in the mercy and grace that are in it. There we pause for the present. We have seen the heavens opened, and looked in, and found there a Man arrayed in glories, every one of which I have an interest in. Then comes the exhortation. Two enemies beset you — take care. Instead of yielding to them make use of the two-edged sword; and when you have found them out, take them to Jesus. There is a beautiful suitability between the Christ that is exhibited up above, in Hebrews 1:1-14 and Hebrews 2:1-18, and you and me as we are exhibited here below in all the characteristics of Hebrews 3:1-19 and Hebrews 4:1-16. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: 05.03. PART 3 - HEB_5:1-14; HEB_6:1-20 ======================================================================== Hebrews 5:1-14; Hebrews 6:1-20. We will read now to Hebrews 5:10-14; and from there until the close of Hebrews 6:1-20 we may observe that the apostle turns aside to a parenthetic warning. He is full of that style; and our style with one another is full of it. Such little breaks and interruptions in a discourse are always grateful to us. In Hebrews 5:1-10 a most weighty matter is introduced to our thoughts. In the first verse we get a general abstract thought of priesthood. It is that thing which serves men in their relationships to God. Then the character of service is presented to us — "That he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins"; that is, that He may conduct both eucharistic services and penitential or expiatory services before God. He stands to conduct our interest with God in whatever form. He is "taken from among men" that He, may have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. He is not, taken from among angels, therefore we read in Timothy, "the man Christ Jesus." God in ordaining a Priest for us has chosen One who can have compassion. We find at the close of Hebrews 7:1-28 that the Lord Jesus was separate from infirmity. But the priest here was one who by reason of infirmity could sympathise. The Lord Jesus had to learn how to sympathise, as well as to learn obedience by the things which He suffered. Under the Old Testament scriptures two persons are distinctly set in the office of the priesthood — Aaron in Leviticus 8:1-36 and Leviticus 9:1-24, and Phinehas in Numbers 25:1-18. The difference between them was this: Aaron was simply called into the priesthood; Phinehas acquired a title to it. When we come to the Lord Jesus we find that both these, Aaron and Phinehas, are seen in Him. He was "called of God, as was Aaron." Aaron was a mere called priest. The priesthood of Numbers 25:1-18. stands in contrast with Aaron’s. Phinehas was not called, as was Aaron, but he acquired his title. How did he do this? He made an atonement for Israel in the day of their great breach, touching the daughters of Baal-Peor and enabled the Lord to look with satisfaction again at His erring camp. Phinehas stood forward to avenge the quarrel of righteousness and to make atonement for the sin of the people. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas ... hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel ... Wherefore say, Behold I give unto him my covenant of peace ... even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood." Nothing can be finer than this. You could not have a more magnificent light in which to read the Christ of God than in that act of Phinehas. Aaron was never in this way entitled to a covenant of peace. So you have these two Old Testament lights in which to read the priesthood of the Lord Jesus.* He was the true Aaron and the true Phinehas. *Melchisedec was a third. (Hebrews 7:1-28) Both these are brought out here. The blessed Lord Jesus was called into office, as was Aaron; but He was in office because He made an atonement. This earth was like the outside place of the temple,, where the brazen altar was. The Lord Jesus is now seated in the sanctuary of the heavens, which God has pitched, and not man, because He has passed by the brazen altar on earth. He has passed it by and has satisfied it. Nothing can be simpler, and yet nothing can be more mysteriously grand. How did God bear witness to the satisfaction of the brazen altar? By rending the veil. Then it is an easy thing to pass in. If God has rent the veil am I to let it be rent for nothing? If it be now rent I have as much right to go inside as the Israelites of old were bound to keep outside. By satisfying the altar He has passed by the rent veil into the sanctuary in the heavens. All that is brought out here. He glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest. Why is it a matter of honour to be made a high priest? You will tell me that nothing can dignify the Son of God; and I grant it. But let me ask you, Do not men know what it is to have acquired honour as well as hereditary honours? The son of a nobleman goes to battle and may he not acquire honours as well as his hereditary family dignities? And tell me, which will he value the most? Those which he has acquired. He himself is more honoured by them. His hereditary dignities are his, and no thanks to him; but his acquired honours are more specially his own. Divine things are illustrated by human things. Who can add anything to Him who is God over all, blessed for ever? But the Son has been in the battle and acquired honours that would never have been His if He had not taken up the cause of sinners; and dear and precious honours they are to Him! That word "called" is very sweet in the original. God "saluted," "greeted" Him when He seated Him in the sanctuary, as He greeted Him when He seated Him on the throne — "Sit thou at my right hand." The Epistle to the Hebrews shows, in the opened heavens, a throne as well as a sanctuary. In Hebrews 7:7-9 we find some very weighty truths connected with ourselves. "Who in the days of his flesh" (let us mark that with holy reverence), "when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death." The scene of that conflict was eminently marked in Gethsemane. What was the transaction there? He properly shrank from undergoing the judgment of God against sin. "And was heard for his piety." He was heard because death, the wages of sin, had no claim on Him. His claim to deliverance was allowed. Instead of the judgment of God being sent to wither His flesh, an angel was sent to strengthen Him. Yet He suffered death. He might have claimed His own personal exemption from it, yet He went through it. He learned obedience to His commission by travelling from Gethsemane to Calvary, and He now presents Himself to the eye of every sinner on earth as the Author of eternal salvation. We see the Lord in Gethsemane pleading, as I may express it, His title against death. His title is owned; yet, though death has no claim on Him personally, He says, "Thy will be done." He might have gone from Gethsemane to heaven; but He went the rather from Gethsemane to Calvary; and so, being made perfect there, He became the Author of eternal salvation to all who receive Him. Then, when the altar was satisfied, the sanctuary received Him, and there He is. In creation God planted a man in the garden in innocence; in redemption God has planted a Man in heaven, in glory. There is a glory that excelleth. The glory in redemption leaves the glory that was once in creation as a nothing. Now we have got down to Hebrews 6:10. Observe that the language of Hebrews 6:10 is taken up in Hebrews 6:20, and the argument there has not advanced beyond Hebrews 6:10. Supposing, then, I were to take you to 1 Corinthians 1:1-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 and 1 Corinthians 3:1-23, you would find the apostle there hindered in his teaching. "You are carnal; I cannot teach you with the rich treasures I have stored up for the church." It is so here; only there the evil that hindered was moral, here it is doctrinal. It was very difficult for the Hebrew to detach himself from the things in which he had been educated. He was "unskilful in the word of righteousness." The legal mind is apt to take up righteousness as Moses did, as a thing demanded from us. God takes it up as a thing that He will give us. And in the next chapter, finding this hindrance among them, he sounds an alarm, as in the opening of Hebrews 2:1-18 he sounded an exhortation. A carnal mind and a legal mind are two great villains. They are both little foxes that spoil the vintage of God. "Now," says the apostle, "you must leave these things. I must put you down to another volume, and that volume is perfection." "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened," etc. That is, "It is not within my reach to do it." We must leave it to God whether they be brought back or not. It is just between themselves and God. It is a terrible thing, having known Christ, to go back to ordinances; but I have no warrant to say that it will not be forgiven in the person of many who have thus been ensnared but have come back. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: 05.04. PART 4 - HEB_7:1-28 ======================================================================== Hebrews 7:1-28. To look carefully at the Melchisedec priesthood of Christ is important to our souls. Therefore, for the present, we will lay aside the parenthesis at the close of Hebrews 6:1-20 and read part of Hebrews 5:1-14 and the whole of Hebrews 7:1-28. We are looking at the priesthood of the Lord Jesus as reflected in Aaron and Phinehas. Aaron, we saw, was simply called into his office; Phinehas earned his office. We will now look at the Melchisedec phase of the same priesthood. Supposing I said to you that this world is a scene of forfeited life — you would understand me. Life is but suspended death. To return to life is to return to God. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Sin worked the forfeiture of life; consequently, if I can make a return to life, I make a return to God. In two characters God visits this world — as a Quickener and as a Judge; and John 5:1-47 tells us that we are all interested in one or other of these visits. Now it is the office of this epistle to let every poor believer in Jesus know that he has returned to life and that his business now is with the living God and with God the Quickener. "The living God," is an expression that occurs often in this epistle. "Departing from the living God," "To serve the living God," "The city of the living God." The living God thus occupies the field of my vision both now and in glory. I am now not to depart from Him which intimates that I have got back to Him. I have escaped from the region of death and got back to the region of life; and by-and-by in glory I shall find "the city of the living God." The question is, How have I got back to Him? The epistle beautifully unfolds that. It is a magnificent moral subject to trace the Lord Jesus in His ministry through the four gospels and see Him from the beginning to the close of His history, displaying Himself as the living God in this world. To mark Him at Gethsemane — to mark Him giving up the ghost — then as the living God rising from the tomb and bestowing the Holy Ghost. We see the living God in a scene pregnant with death. It is the office of this Epistle to the Hebrews very specially to present Christ as the living God. The apostle is full of the death and the cross of Christ. It would not be the Epistle to the Hebrews if it did not take up Christ in His vicarious character. But though we see the Lamb on the altar, we see the vacant sepulchre too. We have remarked before that the Lord Himself always attaches to the story of His death the story of His resurrection. "The Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death . . . . and the third day he shall rise again." We have the same thing here, only in a doctrinal and not an historic way. The cross is often named, but always in company with the ascension. Take the opening of the epistle — "When he had by himself purged our sins." How did He purge them? By death. Death looks at you at the very opening of this epistle; but at once you read, "Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Again we read, "That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Does the story end there? No; He is "crowned with glory and honour." What is done historically in the gospels is taken up doctrinally in the Hebrews. The Holy Ghost is considering the living God in the Person of Jesus, as Jesus was exhibiting the living God in His own Person. So again Hebrews 2:1-18, "That through death" - death looks again at you, but what follows - "he might destroy him that had the power of death." Have I not again the empty sepulchre as well as the altar and the Lamb? I go in this epistle to find an empty grave; but not as "Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary." I expect to find it empty. Their mistake, dear women, was that they expected to find it full. I go expecting to find it empty and I do find it so. When I see the Lamb on the altar and the empty sepulchre, I have got hold of victorious, infallible life. That is the rock-life of which the Lord spoke to Peter. In Hebrews 5:1-14 we find that in Gethsemane He transacted the question of His title and was heard for His piety. He had a moral title to life. Then He surrendered that moral title and took His vicarious place. From Gethsemane He walked on to Calvary. Gethsemane was a wonderful moment. There the great question of life and death was settled between God and Christ; and instead of taking the journey He was entitled to up there, He went along the dreary road our sins put Him on down here. There is exceeding blessed interest about all that. At Calvary, again, we find Him in death; but the moment He gave up the ghost everything felt the power of the Conqueror. He had gone down into the darkest regions of death, but the moment He touched them every one felt the power of the Conqueror. The earth quaked, the rocks were rent, the graves were opened, and the bodies of the saints arose. If we look in John 20:1-31 we see not merely the vacant tomb, but the tomb strewed with the tokens of victory — the linen clothes lying, and the napkin, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. We shall never be able to read the mystery of the Christ of God if we do not remember Him as the living God in the midst of death, getting victories worthy of Himself. We see Him in death rending the veil. In the grave we see the napkin lying wrapped together by itself to tell the story of conquest. We see Him then with His disciples, and He is exactly the living God of Genesis 1:1-31. We find God there breathing life into the nostrils of man — the Head and Fountain of life. In John 20:1-31 the Lord shines under our eye as the Head and Fountain of infallible, unforfeitable life, breathing on the disciples and saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." In this epistle we find Him in that character, as entitled to life and as holding it for us. That is His Melchisedec priesthood. He is not merely the living God — He might have been that if He had gone to heaven from Gethsemane; but He went to heaven from Calvary, and is now there as the living God for us; and God is satisfied — to be sure He is satisfied. How could He be otherwise? Sin has been put away and the blessed God breathes the element of life. It is, so to speak (with worshipping hearts may it be spoken), His native element, and He is satisfied. And God has expressed His satisfaction. But how? When Christ rose in the face of the world that said, "We will not have this man to reign over us," God said Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool." That was His satisfaction in a rejected Christ. When Christ ascended the heavens in another character, as having made atonement, He put Him in the highest heavens with an oath, and built a sanctuary for Him - "the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Is it possible for Him to show us in more interesting form that He is satisfied with what Christ has done for us? Are the services of such a High Priest enough for me? They must be so. I am in connection with life, and every question is settled between me and God. He is King of Righteousness and King of Peace, and He dispenses all you want in the royal authoritative virtue of His own name. The moment you get the living God expanded in this epistle you find that everything He touches He communicates life for eternity to it. His throne is for ever and ever — Hebrews 1:1-14 tells you that. His house is for ever and ever — Hebrews 3:1-19 tells you that His salvation is eternal — Hebrews 5:1-14 tells you that. His priesthood is unchangeable — Hebrews 7:1-28. tells you that His covenant is everlasting — Hebrews 9:1-28 tells you that. His kingdom cannot be moved — Hebrews 12:1-29 tells you that. There is nothing He touches that He does not impart eternity to. To entitle the Epistle to the Hebrews in a word, we might say it is "the loaded altar and the empty sepulchre." Christ has put Himself in possession of life, not to keep it to Himself. The living Jesus in the highest heavens says, "Now that I have got life, I shall share it with you." Oh, the depth of the riches! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: 05.05. PART 5 - HEB_8:1-13 ======================================================================== Hebrews 8:1-13. We meditated as far as Hebrews 6:7 and there we left it, taking up Hebrews 7:1-28. Now we will read the close of Hebrews 6:1-20 and Hebrews 8:1-13. But before we pursue the doctrine of the epistle we will look a little at what we called the hortatory parenthesis in Hebrews 6:1-20. At Hebrews 5:10 we left the doctrine, and from that to the close of Hebrews 6:1-20 is a parenthesis. The apostle having turned aside to exhort them, we were observing that the thing he feared in the Hebrews was not moral, as in the Corinthians, but doctrinal pravity. And do we not see such moral varieties around us now? One has a Corinthian bias, another has a Galatian bias. The thing he feared in the Hebrews was giving up Christ as the Object of their confidence. What is the dressing that God is giving your heart now? (Hebrews 8:7) It is not law but grace. Moses was on the principle of law — the Lord Jesus was on the principle of grace; and free, happy, grateful hearts are the herbs meet for such tillage. How is your soul before God? Do you apprehend Him in judgment or in grace? Is the communion of your soul with God in the liberty of grace or in the fear of a coming day of judgment? If the last, it is not yielding herbs meet for Him by whom it is dressed. Thorns and briers are the product of nature. They are the natural product of a corrupt scene, whether it be the earth I tread or the heart I carry within me. Supposing I am acting in a legal, self-righteous mind — dealing with God as a Judge — is not that natural? But these are all thorns and briers. But if I walk in the filial confidence of one who has trusted in the salvation of God, that is the earth yielding fruits meet for Him by whom it is dressed. Now what is the ground of the apostle’s persuasion of "better things" touching them in Hebrews 8:9? Not confidence in the simplicity of their apprehension of grace, but that the fruits of righteousness were seen among them — beautiful things that accompany but never constitute salvation. Therefore the apostle, seeing this beautiful fruitfulness, says, "Though I am sounding an alarm I do not attach it to you." Having got on that ground he pursues it to the close of the chapter, and does not return to what is doctrinal till he reaches Hebrews 7:1-28. He prays them to continue to minister to the saints. Does your knowledge of Christ lead you to two things — secret communion of soul with Him and practical energy of christian walk and faithfulness? "Now," says he, "do you go on with the beautiful, practical work you have begun. Do not be slothful, but followers of them who by faith and patience inherit the promises." Then he brings out Abraham as one who did not slack his hand to the end. Abraham not only got the promise in Genesis 15:1-21, but went on in patience till it was confirmed by an oath in Genesis 22:1-24. We are called not only to faith, but to the patience of faith. May you not have a consolation and yet not a strong consolation? We see it in Abraham. He had a consolation in Genesis 15:1-21 and a strong consolation in Genesis 22:1-24. A saint once said to me, "In that last sickness the Lord brought me so near Himself that I felt as if I had never believed before." The apostle would have us like, Abraham in Genesis 22:1-24, that "we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to take hold upon the hope set before us." This passage is commonly misquoted. It is not a sinner running to the blood for refuge, but a saint running to the hope of glory from the wreck of every prospect here. This is enough to try us. Do you and I sit on the wreck of everything here? Are we promising ourselves hopes for tomorrow? Abraham was a man who fled from every prospect here to lay hold on the hope of glory. The apostle says, "Lay hold upon the hope," not on the cross. The word of God has an intensity that commonly escapes us. Now he returns to the Levitical figures. Does your hope enter within the veil? Have you not a hope about tomorrow? What is the thing the expectation of your heart hangs about? Is it the hope of the return of Christ, or the promises tomorrow? "Whither the forerunner is for us entered." The Lord Jesus is here brought out in a new character. We see Him in heaven, not only for us as our High Priest, but to secure a place for us with Himself. Oh! if we could unfold the glories of the present dispensation! It is full of glories. Jesus is now in heaven in the glory of a Forerunner — a High Priest — the Purger of our sins. There He sits arrayed in glories. He will put on other glories in the millennial heavens. He will also be King of kings and Lord of lords on the millennial earth. He is not that now; but there are glories in which He is displayed to the eye of faith. Do you go and meditate, brokenheartedly, on the glories of "these last days," as they are called in this epistle. But we pass on to Hebrews 8:1-13. "We have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." What exquisite words! What glories filled the heavens in the days of creation? The sun, and moon, and stars were set there. His fingers garnished them. And pray, have not they garnished the present heavens? If there were glories set in the superficial heavens by the fingers of God, there are glories set in the interior heavens by the grace of God. One of these glories is a tabernacle which the Lord has pitched there. Christ came down from the eternal bosom to glorify God on the earth. Was there anything too brilliant in the way of glory in which to array such an One? What intercourse we get here between God and His Christ — between the Father and the Son! And among the glories that awaited Him there was a temple pitched by the Lord Himself. The sun comes out of his chamber to run his course. The Creator built a habitation for the sun in the heavens. (Psalms 19:1-14) God in redemption has built a habitation for the High Priest; and He is seated there in the highest place of honour. Christ could not be a priest here. The place was divinely occupied, It has been foolishly said, He could not go into the holiest. Surely He could not, for He came of the tribe of Judah. Did He come to break God’s ordinances or to fulfil all righteousness? What business had He in the holiest? A priest of the tribe of Levi, if he found Him there, would have been entitled to cast Him out. He was entitled to everything, but He came as a subject, self-emptied Servant. Did He intrude on the two poor disciples at Emmaus? Much less would He, a Son of Judah, as He was, intrude in God’s house. Here we pause a little. In this epistle we find one thing. From the beginning to the end the Spirit is taking up one thing after another and laying it aside to make room for Christ, and when He has made room for Christ and brought Christ in, He fixes Him before us for ever. And we must all submit to it. Has not God laid you aside and brought in Christ in your stead? Faith bows to this. It is what He has done in every believing soul. So in Hebrews 1:1-14 He lays aside angels. "To which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?" Oh! how faith consents to it! Oh! how angels consent to it! Next we see Moses laid aside. "Moses verily was faithful ... as a servant ... but Christ as a Son over his own house." We can part with Moses because we have got Christ — as the poor eunuch could part with Philip because he had got Jesus. Then in Hebrews 4:1-16 comes out Joshua. But he is laid aside also. "If Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day." Christ is set before me as the true Joshua who really gives me rest. Then Aaron is set aside to let in the priesthood of Christ; but when I have it before me I have it for ever. He is the Administrator of a better covenant. The old covenant is done away because the Lord has nothing to say to it. And at the close we read the beautiful utterance, which might be the text of the epistle, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." He being brought in is the same for ever. What a magnificent thought it is to think of God bringing in the blessed Jesus to the displacing of everything! That is perfection, because God rests in Him. This is exactly the sabbath of old, when God rested in creation. Now God rests in Christ, and that is perfection; and if you and I understand where we are, we are breathing the atmosphere of perfection — an accomplished work — a sabbath. There is nothing more fruitful in glorious luminaries than the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is an epistle of untold glories, and of inestimable value to the conscience of the awakened sinner. It is the title of my soul to breathe the atmosphere of heaven itself; and if I do not do so, shall I put a cloud on my title because my experience is so poor? Now at the close of Hebrews 8:1-13 we see another thing set aside — the first covenant. The covenant that Christ ministers never waxes old. "Your sins I will forgive, your iniquities I will pardon." There is no wrinkle on its face; no grey hairs upon its brow. The Lord touches everything and fixes it before God for ever; and God rests in it. He perfects everything He touches. Mile everything gives place to Him, He gives place to nothing. And would not you have it so? Would not John the Baptist have it so? When they came to him and said, "Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptiseth, and all men come to him," he answered, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled." This ought to be the instinctive utterance of your heart and mine. If the Spirit has dealt with you in your soul you ought to say, "Blessed be God for it! He has set me aside to bring Jesus in." There is wonderful unity between the discovery we get here and the experience of our own souls. We shall never get to an end of these glories till we are lost in an ocean of them by-and-by — a sea without a shore! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: 05.06. PART 6 - HEB_9:1-28 - HEB_10:1-18 ======================================================================== Hebrews 9:1-28 - Hebrews 10:1-18. We closed at Hebrews 8:1-13; and pursuing the structure of the epistle we will now read Hebrews 9:1-28 down to Hebrews 10:1-18. This is the last section of the doctrinal part; and then to the close we get moral exhortations. From the opening of Hebrews 9:1-28 to Hebrews 10:1-18 is one argument. Suppose we linger a little over the structure of the epistle. Did you ever present a little distinctly to your mind the glories that belong to the Lord Jesus? There are three forms of glory that attach to Him — moral glory, personal glory and official glory. From the manager to the cross was the exhibition of His moral glories. In "these last days" the Lord is exhibiting some of His official glories, and by-and-by He will exhibit more of them, as in millennial times. The prophets of old spake of His sufferings and the glories which should follow — not glory. But Its personal glory is the foundation of every one of these. This is a grand subject for our constant meditation — the glories of the Lord Jesus from the womb of the virgin to the throne of His millennial power. All through life He was exhibiting His moral glories. The scene for these is past now, and He has taken His seat in heaven; but that has only given Him an opportunity to display others. The four gospels give me a view of His moral glories here. In the Epistle to the Hebrews I see Him seated in heaven now in a constellation of official glories. In other writings we get His coming glories. Whenever you see Him you cannot but see Him in the midst of a system of them. In these Hebrews 9:1-28 and Hebrews 10:1-39 you get what He was doing on the cross, the foundation of every one of His present glories. In the first eight chapters we get a varied display of the conditions of the Lord Jesus now in heaven; and now, as the sustainment of all these, in Hebrews 9:1-28 and Hebrews 10:1-39 we have an account of the perfection of the Lamb on the altar. Do you ever make "these last days" a subject of thought? Why is the Spirit entitled to call the age through which we are passing the "last days"? We shall have other days after these. Why then does He call them the last days? Beautifully sobecause God rests in what the Lord Jesus has accomplished, as thoroughly as He rested at the close of creation in the perfection of His own work. It is not that in the unfolding of the economy of God we shall not have other ages; yet, in the face of that, the Spirit does not hesitate to call these the "last days." In all the Lord has done He has satisfied God. He perfects everything He touches, and makes it eternal, and God does not look beyond it. Everything is set aside till Christ is brought in, but there is no looking beyond Him. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." Now the moment I get God resting in anything I get perfection; and the moment I get perfection I am in the last days. God has reached satisfaction, and so have I. Christ may be unfolded in millennial days; but it is the very same Christ that we have now. Shall I get Moses then or Joshua? They are all (treated in the light of Christ) "beggarly elements." All give place one after another; but Christ being introduced to the thoughts of God, God rests in Him; and when you come to see where you are, you are in God’s second Sabbath — and see how one thing exceeds the other! The rest of the Redeemer is a much more blessed thing than the rest of the Creator. In Christ you have got perfection - the rest of God — and you are in the "last days." Now when we come to Hebrews 9:1-28 and Hebrews 10:1-39 we see Christ, not properly or characteristically in heaven, but on the altar. The glories that surround Him now have been given to us one after another — the glory of the priesthood — the glory of the Purger of our sins — the predestinated Heir of the world to come - the Apostle of salvation — the Dispenser of the covenant that never gathers age to itself - the Giver of the eternal inheritance — these are the glories of "these last days." In Hebrews 9:10 we see the cross that sustains them all. How blessed it is to track from Matthew to John a path of moral beauty. Was the Lord Jesus in office here? No; He was here in subjection. When I have looked at Him thus I am invited to look upwards. Is it One travelling in moral beauty I see there? No, not that specially; but it is One who has been seated at the right hand of the Majesty with an oath in the very midst of glorious beauties — One whom the satisfied, unrepenting heart of God has seated there. It was the testing purpose of God that seated Adam in Eden. It is the unrepenting heart of God that has seated Christ in heaven. And now we come to read the perfection of His work as Lamb of God, as the grand foundation of all these glories. He would not have perfected His moral glories here if He had not gone on to the cross and died there. He would not have had Its official glories in heaven if He had not gone on to the cross and died there. When the Lord Jesus was hanging as the Lamb of God on the accursed tree and over His bleeding brows was written the inscription in every language, "This is the King of the Jews," they sought to blot it out — but God would not have it blotted out. He would have the whole creation know that the cross was the title to the kingdom. The inscription that Pilate wrote on the cross, and God kept there, is very fine. Supposing the cross sustains the glory, according to the inscription, now tell me what sustains the cross itself? Is the cross without a foundation? The secret comes out in these chapters: as the cross sustains your hopes it is the Person that sustains the cross. His personal glory is the sustainment of the cross. If He were less than God manifest in the flesh, all He did was no more worth than water spilt upon the ground. Of all the mighty mystery of official, millennial, eternal glories, the cross is the support and the Person is the support of the cross. He must sustain His own work, and His work must sustain everything. This is just the argument of these chapters. There was a veil hanging between the place where the priests ministered and the mystic dwelling-place of God. That veil was the expression that that age gave a sinner no access to God. Were there not sacrifices? Yes, there were; and God’s altar was accepting them. But they were "gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience." Beautifully then, at this point, He comes to your heart and demands a note of. admiration. "For if the blood of bulls ... sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Supposing we inspect the old tabernacle, and see the beggarliness of all its elements - that the blood of bulls could not bring you into the presence of God; and from the beggarliness of all that, look at the satisfyingness of the blood of Jesus, will you not exclaim, "How much more shall it purge our consciences?" That is the way you are to come to the cross — laying doubtings and questionings aside, and losing yourself in admiration. The thing the Spirit does is to take you gently by the hand and lead you up to the altar at Calvary, and tell you who is the victim that is bleeding there. None but one who was personally free could say, "I come to do thy will." Have you any right to a will? Has Gabriel or Michael? To do God’s pleasure is their business; but here was One who could offer Himself without spot to God. "How much more," then, shall such a sacrifice purge our consciences and introduce us at once to the living God? That entitled me to say, that while we look at His glories — His official glories — we see that the cross is the sustainment of them all. But if the soul does not know the personal glory of the Lord, it positively knows nothing. That is the secret you get here. He, for whom God prepared a body, through the eternal Spirit, satisfied the altar. Yes, satisfied the brazen altar before He went into the holy sanctuary to do the business of God’s priest. And atonement flows from satisfaction. If I find out that Christ’s sacrifice has answered the cravings of the brazen altar, I see that my reconciliation is sealed and settled for eternity. The Epistle to the Ephesians tells you to stand upon this, and look round about you at the glories of your condition. The Epistle to the Hebrews shows you the glories of Christ’s condition in the compass of about three hundred verses. What a world of wonders is opened! You sustained by what He has done; and what He has done sustained by what He is. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: 05.07. PART 7 - HEB_10:19-39 ======================================================================== Hebrews 10:19-39. We are coming now to another beautiful part of the epistle, and as we hinted to a new division of it. We will read Hebrews 10:19-39. You may have observed the general structure of the epistles. Take the Ephesians, for instance: in the first three chapters we get doctrinal truth, and in the last three the moral application of it. So in Colossians, Galatians, Romans, etc. Now in Hebrews it is the same, and we are just entering now on the practical application of what has gone before. "Now the full glories of the Lamb adorn the heavenly throne," as a beautiful hymn of Dr. Watts says. Constantly through this epistle we have been looking up and seeing this. But let me ask, do you see glories anywhere in "these last days" that are not attaching to the Lord in heaven? You will tell me that all glory belongs to Him, and I grant it; but I tell you, you ought to see glories attaching to yourselves. Such is the wondrous working of God, that He has made the poor sinner a glorious creature. These same last days that have set Christ on high, in the midst of the glories, have set the poor believing sinner down here in the midst of glories. I want that you and I be girt up to an apprehension of them. We do not wait for the kingdom to see glories. Is it no glory for you to have a purged conscience? Is it no glory to be fully entitled to be in the presence of God without a blush? no glory to call God, Father? to have Christ as your Forerunner in heavenly places? to enter into the holiest without a quiver of conscience? no glory to be introduced into the secrets of God? If we can lift up our heart and say, "Abba, Father"? if we can lift up our heart and say, "Who shall condemn?" or "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" If we can believe that we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; that we are part of Christ’s fulness, will any one say there is no glory in all that? So that this epistle introduces us to most precious thoughts. It tells me to look up and see Christ adorning the throne, and to look down and see the poor sinner shining on the footstool. The world sees nothing of these glories. We only apprehend them in the glass of the word by faith; but I do say boldly, that I do not wait for the kingdom to know what glory is. I look up and see the Lamb in acquired glories. I look down and see the saint in gifted glories. Now the moral application begins. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." There I look at myself; and will any one say there is not glory in such a condition? That is my title. Now the exhortation is that you are to enjoy your title. To enjoy is to obey. The first duty you owe to God is to enjoy what He has made you, and what He has given you. "Let us draw near." Use your privilege, as we say. It is the first grand duty of faith, and I am bold to say it is the most acceptable duty of faith. How narrow we are to enjoy these glories. Do you ever look at yourself in the glass of the word? We are very much accustomed to look at ourselves in the glass of circumstances — in the glass of relationships. If we say in the secret of our heart, with exultation of spirit, "I am a child of God"; if, with exultation of spirit we can say, "I am co-heir with Christ," that is the way to begin obedience. Here it is exactly that. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." We should look on ourselves as the priesthood of God. The priests of old were washed when they were put into office. Then every day their feet were washed before they entered the tabernacle to serve the Lord. The pavement of God’s own presence was not stained by the foot of the priest. He went in, in a character worthy of the place. Are you occupying the presence of God all the day long in the consciousness that you are worthy of the place? How will you be presented before Him by-and-by? Jude tells you — "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." You ought to know that you are in His presence now faultless or without spot. We cannot put ourselves in the flesh too low; and we cannot put ourselves in Christ too high. If one may speak for another, we find it much easier to degrade ourselves in the flesh than to magnify ourselves in Christ. That last is what the Spirit is doing here. Now He tells me, having got into the holiest, what to do there. If I know my title to be in the presence of God, let me know also that I am there as the heir of a promised glory; I am there to be kept there till the glory shines out. We are the witnesses of a class of glories, just as the Lord Jesus is the witness of a class of glories. We are in a wealthy place; and having got in there we are to hold our hope without a quiver. "Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering" (as the word should be). If we got in without a quiver, we are to hold our hope without a quiver. That is what our God has called us to. We are there with boldness; and being there, we are to talk of our hope. And we are to talk of charity also, "to provoke unto love and to good works." What exquisite service! Who can utter the beauties of these things? "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together ... but exhorting one another." When you get into the house, what are, you doing together? Are you to be down in the depths of conscious ruin? No; but exhorting one another to love and to good works. These are the activities of the house. We dwell together in one happy house, exhorting one another, and so much the more as we point to the sky and say, "Look! the dawning of morning is near; the sky is breaking." We want a great deal more to exhort one another to know our dignity in Christ than to know our degradation in ourselves. It is very right to know ourselves poor worthless creatures. Confession is very right; but to gird up the mind to the apprehension of our dignity is much more acceptable and priestly work than to be ever in the depths. "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee." Here we see ourselves accepted; holding our hope without wavering; exhorting one another; and saying, as we point to the eastern sky, "The dawn is coming." Then, having thus conducted us to Hebrews 10:25, he brings in a solemn passage about wilful sin. We read the counterpart of this in Numbers 15:1-41, where presumptuous sin is looked at. Under the law there were two characters of offence. A man might find a thing that was his neighbours’, and deal falsely about it, or he might lie to his neighbour, and there was a trespass offering provided. But when a man picked sticks on the sabbath day he was to be stoned at once. There remained nothing for him but "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." It was presumptuous sin, flying in the face of the legislator. This is the presumptuous sin of the New Testament. It is running in the face of the God of this dispensation, as the gatherer of sticks ran in the face of the God of the law. We are not to be careless about sin. If we do the least sin we ought to be broken-hearted about it. But that is not the thing contemplated here. It is a defection from Christianity. Then, having come to Hebrews 10:31, he exhorts them to "call to remembrance the former days." Let me ask your souls, "Do you all remember the day when you were illuminated?" One might say, "The light shone brighter and brighter upon me." I believe Timothy may have been such an one. Timothy, I have often thought, under the education of his godly mother, may have passed gently into the flock of God. But most people know the moment of their illumination; and if there is a moment of moral energy in the history of the soul, it is the day of its quickening. Why do not you and I carry the strength of that moment with us? Is He a different Jesus that we have now? When I know that the day was. when all was over between God and me, and that now the day has come when all is over between the world and me, that is practical Christianity. What was that day that he called on them to remember? The day when, being illuminated, they "took joyfully" the spoiling of their goods. Why was this? How does he account for it? Their eye was on a better inheritance. Let me grasp the richer thing, and the poorer thing may pass away for aught I care. We can account for victory over the world just as easily as we can account for access to God. That, let me say, is just the knot that this epistle ties. It puts you inside the veil, outside the camp. In the wondrous, divine, moral character of Christianity, the grace and the ’blood of Christ work exactly contrary to the lie of the serpent. The lie of the serpent made Adam a stranger to God, and at home in this polluted world — inside the camp and outside the veil. Christianity just alters that. It restores us to citizenship in the presence of God, and strangership in the world; and Hebrews 10:35 is the one verse in this epistle that knits these things together. Hold fast your confidence and it will be the secret of strength to you. Where do we see victory over the world? In those who are happiest in Christ. My are you and I so miserably down in the traffic of the world? Because we are not as happy in Christ as we ought to be. Give me a soul that has boldness and joy in God’s presence and I will show you one that has victory over the world. Now the apostle tells us that a life of patience intervenes between the day of illumination and the day of glorification. I am not to count on a path of pleasure — a path of ease — a path of prosperity — on being richer or more distinguished tomorrow than today; but I am to count on a path of patience. And is not there glory in that? Yes, there is companionship with Christ. No greater glory is or can be yours than to be the companion of your rejected Master. That is your path. "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." He was not ashamed to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were strangers here; but if we become citizens here, instead of strangers — strike alliance with the world — He who could say, "I am the God of my strangers," can say to the citizen of the world, "I have no pleasure in him." May you and I exhort one another to love and to good works, and, pointing to the eastern sky, say, The day is dawning. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: 05.08. PART 8 - HEB_11:1-40 ======================================================================== Hebrews 11:1-40. We have reached Hebrews 11:1-40. I think we observed that Hebrews 10:35 was a connecting link between the two great thoughts of the epistle — that Christianity puts you inside the veil and outside the camp — that is, it undoes the work of Satan, which estranged you from God and made you at home in a corrupted world. The religion of the Lord Jesus just comes to upset his (Satan’s) work. Nothing can be more beautiful than the antithesis which thus shows itself between the serpent and the serpent’s bruiser. The "great recompense of reward" shows itself in the life of faith that we are now going to read about. We are called, as John Bunyan says, "to play the man." If happy within we are to be fighting without. This Hebrews 11:1-40 shows us the elect of all ages "playing the man" in the power of this principle of confidence. "Cast not away therefore your confidence," for it thus shows that it has "great recompense of reward." Faith is a principle that apprehends two different things of God. It views Him as a justifier of the ungodly, as in Romans 4:1-25; but here it apprehends God as "a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." The moment you apprehend God by a faith that does not work, you enter on a faith that does work. And while we rightly cherish a faith that saves our souls, let us not be indifferent to a faith that serves our Saviour. How boldly we sometimes assert our title, but do we value our inheritance? It is a poor wretched thing to boast in our title, and yet show that the heart is but little moved by the hope of the inheritance. Just so, if I boast of a justifying faith, it is a poor thing to be indifferent to the faith that we have here in Hebrews 11:1-40 — "Now faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Then you are told that it was the strength of all the worthies in old times, who through it "obtained a good report." It is another proof that, as we have said, everything in this epistle is to set aside law. If I take up the law as the secret power of my soul to do anything for God I am not doing it for God but for myself. The law might chasten and scourge me and call on me to work out a title to life. But that would be serving myself. Faith sets law aside. Then, having established faith as a working principle he begins to unfold the different phases of it from the beginning. I believe Hebrews 11:3 may have a reference to Adam. If Adam was a worshipper in the garden, it was by faith. He may have looked behind all the wonders that surrounded him, and apprehended the great Artificer. Now some say they can still worship God in nature; but when we left innocency we left creation as a temple and we cannot go back there. Nature was a temple to Adam; but if I go back to it, I go back to Cain. Here we come to Abel and to revelation. We are sinners; and revelation, which unfolds redemption, must build us a temple. You must take your place as worshipper in the temple that God in Christ has built for you. Then we come to Enoch. Enoch’s was an ordinary kind of life; but he spent it with God. We are told in Genesis that he walked with God, and here we are told that he pleased God. As the apostle says in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18, "Ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God." To walk with God is to please Him. Can anything be more welcome to us than the thought that we can give complacency to God? There was nothing in Enoch’s life to make history; but whatever condition of life may be ours, our business is to walk with God in it. It is beautiful thus to see an undistinguished life going before a life of great events. You may hear some say, "A poor, unnoticed thing am I, compared with some who have been distinguished in service for the Lord." "Well," let me reply, "you are an Enoch." Now Noah’s was a very distinguished life. Faith laid hold on the warning. Faith does not wait for the day of glory or the day of judgment to see glory or judgment. Faith in the prophet did not ask for his eyes to be opened. Faith here for one hundred and twenty years seemed to be a fool. Noah was building a ship for dry ground; and he may well have been the mockery of his neighbours; but he saw the thing that was invisible. How rebuking to us! Supposing you and I lived under the authority of coming glory: what fools we should be! But I should not have passed over the word I took for my text. "He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Again, I boldly say, you would not have had that definition of faith in Romans 4:1-25, "A rewarder of them that diligently seek him"! "Why, what legal language!" some would say if they read it in a book. Ah! but it is beautiful in its place. The faith of a saint is an intensely working thing. Will God be a debtor to any man? No; He will pay to those who sow bountifully. Abraham’s life is next; and a picture of the varied exercises of faith. There was a magnificence in his faith — a victorious quality — a fine apprehension — all these qualities of faith come out in the life of Abraham. He went out blindfold; but the God of glory led him by the hand. So he came to the land; but to him not a foot of it was given. He must have the patience of faith; but whatever fell from the lips of God was welcome to Abraham. Abraham walked all his life in the power of the recollection of what he had seen under the hand of the God of glory. Now supposing I tell you that the vision of Stephen has gone before every one of you. You need not be expecting the same vision that Stephen saw, but you have seen it in him. They may carry you to the stake; but you may say, "I have seen heaven opened over me, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." If you and I are simple, true-hearted people, we shall just go forth as Abraham did when he had seen the God of glory. Then Sarah’s was another kind of faith. We must see God as a Quickener of the dead. Noah understood God so. The Israelites, under the blood-stained lintel, received Him in the same character. Death was there, and attached to every house in the land; but the Israelites knew God as the Quickener of the dead. That is what Noah, Abraham, Sarah, apprehended of God. If I make God less than a Quickener of the dead, I make myself more than a dead sinner. It is as a Quickener of the dead I must meet with Him. Hebrews 11:13 is a beautiful verse. The first thing to do to a promise is to apprehend it — then to exercise faith about it — and then to receive it by the heart. They "embraced" them. Their hearts hugged them. How far has my heart hugged the promises? One knows his own "leanness." But surely the closer we hug them the more blessedly we shall consent to be strangers and pilgrims in this world. This is a wonderful picture of a heart put into faith. Did they speak of strangership because of leaving Mesopotamia? No; but because they had not reached heaven. They might have found their way back. Abraham could tell it to Eliezer; but that would not have cured their strangership. Supposing there were a change in your circumstances, would that cure your strangership? Not if you are among God’s people. Mesopotamia was no cure. Nothing could cure, end, or close their strangership but the inheritance. On they went to heaven; and God was not ashamed to be called their God. In Hebrews 2:1-18 we read that Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren. Now, we read that God was not ashamed to call these strangers His people. Why is Christ "not ashamed to call them brethren"? Because they stand in one divine, eternal purpose with Him. One family embraces the elect and Christ. How could He be ashamed of such a people? And if you have fallen out with the world, God is not ashamed of you. For God Himself has fallen out with it, and He could not be ashamed of you, because you are one mind with Him. Therefore, when they said they were strangers, God called Himself their God. Our hearts are terribly rebuked here. How much lingers in them of striking alliance and making friendship with the world! Then we see Abraham in another light. Every hope of Abraham depended on Isaac. To give up Isaac seemed not only to become a bankrupt in the world, but to become a bankrupt in God. He might have said, "Am I to become a bankrupt in God and in Mesopotamia?" There could not have been a higher stretch in the believing principle. Have you ever feared God making you a bankrupt in Himself? Has He turned away never to return? Well, he got him back in a figure, sealed as a fresh witness of resurrection. Do we ever lose anything by trusting God in the dark? If ever any one trusted Him in the dark it was Abraham. After passing him we come to Isaac. Isaac showed his faith by blessing Esau and Jacob concerning things to come. This is the little, single bit of his life that the Spirit looks at. If we inspect his life, we shall find that that is the eminent work in it. That act shines out under the eye of God. Jacob is more remarkable, as Noah had been more remarkable than Enoch. His was a very eventful life; but the only thing we get here is — "by faith he ... blessed both the sons of Joseph." This is exquisitely beautiful. It shows how much in christian life may be rubbish. I do not believe Jacob’s life was an exhibition of a servant of God. It was an exhibition of a saint who went astray, and whose whole life was occupied in getting back; and we do not get this act of faith till we come to the close, when he "blessed both the sons of Joseph." There he came in contact with things unseen, and things that came across the current of nature. His life was the life of a man recovering himself; and just at the close he did this beautiful service of faith to God in the face of the resentments of his own heart and the appeal of his son Joseph. But Joseph’s is a lovely life — a life of faith from the beginning. Joseph was a holy man throughout; but there was magnificent outshining of faith just at the close. He had his hand on the treasures of Egypt and his foot on the throne of Egypt; yet in the midst of all that he spoke of the departing of his brethren. That was seeing things invisible. That was the one thing the Spirit has signalised as an act of faith. Why did he talk in this way? He might have said, "Ah! I do not walk by sight. I know what is coming, and I tell you, you will go out of this land, and when you go, take me with you." The general course of his life was unblameable, yet we do find in his words as he was departing the finest utterance of faith. And now that is what you and I want. Do you want to be righteous only? You must be so; but will that constitute a life of faith? You must seek to get under the power of things hoped for — things unseen — the expectation of the Lord’s return; and till you do so in some energy you may be blameless, but you are not walking that life of faith by which "the elders obtained a good report." Thus, so far we see faith as a working principle. Not the faith of the sinner, which is a no-working faith. The moment the no-working faith has made me a saint I must take up the working faith and live in the power of it. But we must go on. We will not forget what we hinted — that the whole of Hebrews 11:1-40 depends on, and is the illustration of, Hebrews 10:35. The stronger our faith is, the more our soul is in the possession of mighty, moral energy. This chapter shows how this principle of faith gained the day. Do not read it as if it were the praises of Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others. It is the praises of faith as illustrated in Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others. What a simple, blessed thing Christianity is! I stand in admiration of it when I see how the devil has wrought a two-fold mischief in putting us outside the veil — inside the camp; and how Christ has wrought a corresponding two-fold remedy. Do I rejoice in the thought that I have gained God though at the loss of the world? That is Christianity. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child." What is the meaning of that? It means that when he was born there was an expression in his countenance that faith read. "Beautiful to God" is the word. There was a certain beauty in him that awakened the faith of Amram and Jochebed; and they were obedient to it. Was there not a beauty in the face of the dying Stephen? Ought not his murderers to have been obedient to it? They stand in moral contrast to Moses’ parents. Under the finger of God they saw the purpose of God and hid the child. Now in Moses we see a beautiful power of faith. It got a three-fold victory — three splendid victories, and the very victories you are called to. First, his faith got the victory over the world. He was a foundling, picked up from the Nile and adopted as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. This was personal degradation translated into adopted magnificence. What did he do with it? He "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter." What victory over the world that was! We like those things that put worldly honour on us. Moses would not have it; and sure I am faith is set to the same battlefield and challenged to get the like victory to this day. Next we see Moses getting victory amid the trials and alarms of life. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." What a terrible thing the life of faith is to nature! You have got a victory today — you must stand again tomorrow. "That we may be able to withstand . . . . and having done all, to stand." Here the pressure of life was coming on Moses after the attractions of life had got their answer. Then, in the third instance, Moses had an answer for the claims of God. It is magnificent to see a soul braced in the power of a faith like this. "Through faith he kept the passover." The destroying angel was going through the land, but the blood was on the lintel. From the very beginning grace has provided the sinner with an answer to the claims of God; and it is the simple office of faith to plead the answer. God provided the blood and faith used it. Christ is God’s provision. He is God’s great ordinance for salvation; and faith travels along with Him from the cross to the realms of glory. Then, "by faith they passed through the Red Sea" — "by faith the walls of Jericho fell down" — "by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not." And what more shall we say? It is the story that animates the whole of scripture. The story of grace and faith — grace on God’s part and faith on ours — gives animation to the whole book of God. We are never called outside the camp till we are inside the veil. The early chapters of this epistle show the sinner his title to a home in God’s presence; and then you are to come forth from that home and let the world know that you are a stranger to it. That is the structure of this beautiful epistle. It tells us our title to be in God’s presence before it opens the calling that attaches to us. Before Abraham was called out to a land that he knew not, the "God of glory" appeared to him. Does he ever send a man a warfare at his own charges? Does He ever send you to fight with the world before you are at peace with Himself? Everything is for me from the moment I turn to God. I am called in God, to everything that is for me. I am come "unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," etc. This is Hebrews 12:1-29. Before ever David was hunted as a partridge, he had the anointing oil of God upon him. We must linger a little on the two closing verses. They are very weighty, precious, pregnant verses. These elders obtained a good report, but with the good report they did not obtain the promise. It reminds me of the prophet Malachi. "A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts. in that day when I make up my jewels." They are not His made-up jewels yet, but He has their names in His book, and He will make them up and display them as His jewels by-and-by. So with these elders. Why have they not yet obtained the promise? Because we must first come in, in the rich furniture of this evangelic dispensation, or all they had in their beggarly dispensation would never have done for them. We find the word "better" constantly occurring in this epistle. "A better testament" — "a better covenant" — "some better thing for us" — "which speaketh better things than that of Abel." And we find the word "perfect" in constant use also; because now everything is perfected. Everything is perfected that gives God rest, as we have already said, and God is not looking for any satisfaction beyond what Christ gives Him. He has His demand answered — His glory vindicated — His character displayed — and all in Christ. Now what is this "better thing" in the last verse? If we had not brought in our Christ, so to speak, nothing would have been done. God having introduced Christ in this dispensation, all the old saints that hung on it are perfected. For in one light of it, we look at this epistle (as we will now do briefly and rapidly) as a treatise on perfection. Thus, in Hebrews 2:1-18 we read that it became the glory of God to give us a perfect Saviour; not merely my necessity, but God’s glory required it — "It became him" — consulting for His own glory. It became Him to give the sinner an author to begin salvation, and a captain to close it. The difference between an author and a captain is just the difference between Moses and Joshua. Moses was the author of salvation when he picked up the poor captives in Egypt; Joshua was the captain of salvation when he carried them across the Jordan right into the promised land. Christ is the One who carries us both through the Red Sea and the Jordan — the One who did the initiative work of Moses, and the consummating work of Joshua. Then in Hebrews 5:1-14 we read, "being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation." Not moral perfection — we all know He was morally stainless — but perfection as "the author of salvation." He would never have been perfect thus if He had not gone on to death; but as it behoved God to give us a perfect Saviour, so it behoved Christ to make Himself a perfect Saviour. Then in Hebrews 6:1-20 : "Let us go on unto perfection," the apostle says, that is, let us "read our lesson on this subject." Some read this as if they were to go on till they got no more sin in themselves. That has nothing to say to it. It is as if the apostle said, "I am going to read you a treatise on perfection, and you must come and learn it with me." Then he goes on with the subject in Hebrews 7:1-28. He says, you cannot find this perfection in the law. "The law made nothing perfect." You must look elsewhere. By the law here is not meant the ten commandments, but the Levitical ordinances. In the midst of these beggarly elements you must look elsewhere for perfection. Hebrews 9:1-28 thus shows you that it is in Christ and tells you that the moment faith has touched the blood the conscience is purged, and Hebrews 10:1-39 tells you that the moment Christ touches you you are perfected for ever. Not in moral stainlessness in the flesh — there is no such thing here. The moment Christ touches the apostleship He perfects it. The moment He touches the priesthood He perfects it. The moment He touches the altar He perfects it. The moment He touches the throne He perfects it. And if He perfect these things He will, as to your conscience perfect you, a poor sinner. So this epistle is, in one great light, a treatise on perfection. God gave you a perfect Saviour — Christ made Himself a perfect Saviour. Let me go on to perfection. If I seek it in the law I am in a world of shadows. When I come to Christ I am in the midst of perfection. "And there I stand, poor worm," as Gambold says. Therefore these saints could not get the ,inheritance till we came in laden with all the glories of this dispensation. But now they can share the inheritance with us, when the full time comes. What glories shine in this epistle! What glories fill the heavens, because Christ is there! What glories attach to us because Christ has touched us! Is it no glory to have a purged conscience — to enter into the holiest with boldness — to say to Satan, "Who are you, that you should finger God’s treasure?" We creep and crawl when we should be getting into the midst of these glories and encouraging our hearts. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: 05.09. PART 9 - HEB_12:1-29 ======================================================================== Hebrews 12:1-29 We will now read Hebrews 12:1-29. We have looked at the doctrine of the epistle. We are now eminently in the practical part of it; yet the blessedness of the doctrine shines out too. I would just say this first, we have been looking at the various characters in which the Lord has entered heaven. Now here in verse 1 we get Him in heaven in another character. Do not many crowns belong to Him? Will not you put a royal crown — a priestly crown — on His head? Can you put too many crowns there? What a cluster of glories fill the eye as we look at Christ in heaven by the light of this magnificent epistle! Now among other characters we see Him there as the One who perfected a life of faith on earth — "the author and finisher of faith." The counsel of God is busy in crowning ,Jesus. It is the delight of the counsel of God to crown Him — it is the delight of the Spirit of God to exhibit Him as crowned — and it is the delight of faith to see Him crowned. God, the Spirit, and the faith of the poor, believing sinner, all gather round Him, either to crown Him or to delight in seeing Him crowned. Now we see Him owned in heaven as the One who perfected the life of faith. He passed through it to perfection from the manger to the cross and is so accepted in the highest heavens. That of course put Him in collision with man. "Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself." This is beautifully pregnant with the thought that He was "separate from sinners." You would not dare to take that language to yourself. It is too lofty a style for any but the Son of God to take. Was anything like that said of Abraham or Moses? No; the Spirit would not have talked so of one of them. So when you put the Lord Jesus in the wear and tear of life in company with martyrs, you see Him, as in all other things, taking the pre-eminence. It is so natural for the Spirit to glorify Christ! If He is looking at Him officially, as in the first part of this epistle, it is easy to look at Him with many, many crowns upon Him. Or, looking at Him here, it is easy for the Spirit to put this crown of peculiar beauty on His head. He "endured such contradiction of sinners against himself." It is a description which your heart would condemn you for taking to yourself, though you might be called to the stake. The cross, in one aspect, was martyrdom. Jesus was as much a martyr at the hand of man as He was a victim at the hand of God. It is as a martyr we see Him here - and as such we are put in company with Him. "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." You have no deeper enemy than your own heart to strive against. It was sin in the Pharisees — sin in the multitude — sin in the chief priests — that carried the Lord Jesus to the cross. But He never had a bit of sin in Himself to strive against. It was sin in others. The apostle then goes on to put you, as a chastened sufferer, in company with the Father. Here we drop company with Christ. For He never was under the chastening of the Father. The moment I get under the scourging and education of the Father, I have dropped out of company with Christ. I am deeply in His company when travelling the path of the martyr. I am not a step in His company when I am under the chastening of the Father. So from Hebrews 12:5 onward you are in company with your heavenly Father. Oh! these sacred, divine touches — that know when to introduce Christ and when to let Him disappear! How, or in what form of excellency to display Him, and how to let Him Gut of sight! There is a glory, a completeness, in the very way in which the task of the Spirit is executed. He walks through life enduring the contradiction of sinners. I walk through it striving against sin. Then I am in company with the chastening of the Father — all resulting in a blessed participation in His holiness, but Christ is not there with me. If you put all the wit of aggregated intellects together, could it give you these divine touches that glitter in the book of God? In Hebrews 12:12 we are exhorted not to let our hands hang down. There is no reason why it should be so. Though you are under the scourge there is not one single reason why your hands should hang down or your knees be feeble; for the Spirit has shown you yourself first in company with Christ and then with your Father who loves you. Is there any reason why you should travel as if you did not know the road? This is a beautiful conclusion. We all know how the hands will hang down; but I set my seal to every word of this and say, "Truth, Lord." There is no reason that we should be fainthearted. Then having come to that he looks round. Do not let your own hands hang down; and in connection with others follow peace — in connection with God follow holiness. "What communion hath light with darkness — what concord hath Christ with Belial?" "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you." If you consult at your leisure Deuteronomy 29:1-29, you will find a root of bitterness there spoken of; but it is a different kind from this. There it arose from some man taking up false gods — here it is failing of the grace of God. The whole epistle has it as its bearing and purpose, to nail your ear, in scripture language, to the door-post of Him that is speaking of grace. It is not a lawgiver that is heard, but One who is publishing salvation from the highest heavens. Angels and principalities and powers are made subject to the Purger of our sins; and the Purger of our sins has taken our conscience up to the highest heavens and every tongue that could lay a charge against us is silenced, as we read in Romans 8:1-39. (See also 1 Peter 3:21-22) Now take care lest you fail of the grace thus published. It may end in the profaneness of Esau. It has been said by another that this reference to Esau must have been very striking to the mind of a Jew. "If you fail of the grace of God, you will be left in the position of one whom your nation repudiates." I do not care what you take up in His stead, if you slip away from Christ you may be tomorrow in the position of the reprobate Esau. How does Esau stand before you? As the type of that generation who by-and-by will say, "Lord, Lord, open to us." But their tears will be as ineffectual as Esau’s by the bedside of his dying father. He came too late. So when once God has risen up and shut to the door they will find no place of repentance. This Hebrews 12:17 is very solemn. It tells me that that action of Esau is the presentation to our thoughts of that which is still to be realised in an Esau generation — and only in such — "Behold ye despisers, and wonder and perish." Esau despised his birthright, and this generation have refused the grace of God and despised the Christ that has passed through the world and died for sinners. After this, in Hebrews 12:18, we get a magnificent sight of the two dispensations. It is as if the apostle had said, "I have been showing you a martyr path, but now I tell you that the moment you look to God every thing is for you. The martyr path and the chastening of the Father are only further proofs of love. Now, leaving Christ and the Father, we come to God; and you see that all the eternal counsels of God have clustered to make you a blest one, as they have clustered to make Christ a glorious One. Do not be afraid. You are not come to the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire. Turn your back on it. The more advisedly I have turned my back on it the more advisedly I have met and answered the grace and wisdom of God and rendered the obedience of faith. Am I to be turning round my head — to be looking over my shoulder — to be giving it some glances? Is that the obedience of faith? Then as to my face. Where is that turned to? To a cluster of blessedness. I was introduced by my own self-confidence to law and found not a thing for me. Now I have turned my face right round and I see everything for me. "Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and to God the Judge of all." The Lord, even in judgment, is for us, for it is one office of a judge to vindicate the oppressed. Then, "the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling." Everything is for you. And that is where your face is undivertedly to direct itself. Let your face be right fully turned to the one hill, and your back be. right fully turned to the other hill. But here at this place, in Hebrews 12:1-29, you are at the very beginning of the epistle again. In Hebrews 2:1-18 we read, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord." Now we read, "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh." From the beginning to the end the Spirit is nailing your ear to the door of the house of the Master of grace. Then it very solemnly closes: "Our God is a consuming fire," that is, the God of this dispensation. From the fires of Sinai there was a relief by turning and taking refuge in Christ; but there is no relief if God’s relief is despised. If you turn away from the relief this dispensation brings in, there is no more relief. "Our God is a consuming fire." What, I ask you, puts you in company with God like simplicity of faith? As we said before, the purpose of the eternal counsels and the joy of the Spirit is this, to put crowns on the head of Christ; and when I am simple in faith I am delighting to fill the field of my vision with these glories. Thus I am put in the most dignified company I could be in — God and the Holy Ghost. The Lord grant that you and I may be there! If we know these things, happy, thrice happy are we if we rest in them! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: 05.10. PART 10 - HEB_13:1-25 ======================================================================== Hebrews 13:1-25 We are closing the epistle, and we get what is common in all the epistles — some little details. It is eminently the structure of Paul’s epistles to begin with doctrine and close with exhortation. So it is here. "Let brotherly love continue." Then a brother may be a stranger. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers." And to encourage them to that duty they are reminded that some in their own history entertained angels unawares. Then another duty — "Remember them that are in bonds," and the encouragement follows — "as bound with them." Take your place in the body of Christ as His prisoners, not prisoners corporeally but mystically. When he speaks of suffering for Christ’s sake he appeals to you in your mystic place; but when he speaks of suffering adversity (ver. 3) in a common, ordinary way, he appeals to natural life "as being yourselves also in the body." Then we get the divine duties of purity and unworldliness. Unworldliness is expressed in the words, "Content with such things as ye have," not seeking to be richer tomorrow than today. Then the Lord speaks in Hebrews 13:5, and you answer Him in Hebrews 13:6. It is the response of faith to grace - the reply of the heart of the believer to the heart of the Lord God. Then comes the duty of subjection — "Remember them which have* the rule over you." Not a blind following of them, as when they were heathens (1 Corinthians 12:2) following dumb idols. Are you to be led blindfold? No; you are to be led intelligently. "No one calls Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." We are living people of a living temple. So it is, "considering the end of their conversation." They died in faith, as they preached faith.† *Rather "which have had." †As one said shortly before he died: "I have preached Jesus, I have lived Jesus, and I long to be with Jesus." Now he leaves all that and starts in Hebrews 13:8 from another point; and Hebrews 13:8 may be called the motto of the, epistle. Only in one light I grant. What I mean is, that as we have seen before, the Spirit of God in this epistle is looking at one thing after another - taking a passing glance at angels, at Moses, at Joshua, at Aaron, at the old covenant, at the altars with their victims, and setting every one of them aside to let in Christ. And you would not have it otherwise. With your whole heart and your whole soul you set your seal to that. Let all go to make room for Christ; and when Christ is brought in, do not let Him go for anything. This is what you get in verse 8. He is gazing for a moment at the object of the epistle. "I have displaced everything to let Him in, and now keep Him before you." It is a most blessed peroration of the whole teaching of the epistle. Then there comes a corollary — a conclusion to that: "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines," doctrines foreign to Christ. You have got everything in Christ; take care to hold fast by Him. Then if I get Christ as my religion I get grace. "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace." The Lord is set before you and me as the sum of our religion, and that religion is a religion that breathes grace to the poor sinner. Now do not read Hebrews 13:9 as if you could to some extent establish your heart with meats. Observe the punctuation; a semicolon after "grace" cuts it off from the close of the verse. Meats do nothing for you; as he tells you in another place — "touch not, taste not, handle not." They bring neither profit nor honour to you. Suppose you accumulate carnal religious observances. If Colossians 2:1-23 tells me there is no honour in them, this tells me there is no profit in them. When probed and searched out they are all to the satisfaction of the flesh. The moment I get the Lord brought in, I get the heart established in grace. Did you ever hear it remarked that not a single religion on earth takes grace as its secret but the divine religion? It is keeping God quiet, if you can, with them all. God’s religion is the only religion ever thought of that takes grace for its basis. This is exactly contemplated here. Do not be carried about by doctrines foreign to Christ. "We have an altar." What is the altar of this dispensation? It is an altar exclusively for burnt offerings — eucharistic services. The Jews had an altar for expiatory sacrifice. We have no such altar. Christ has been on the altar of expiation, and now we as priests minister at an altar of eucharistic services. We remember that the Son of God has bled, and we serve at an altar where we know sin as cancelled, blotted out, thrown behind the back; and there at your altar you are rendering a constant service of thanksgiving. But they that go back to the services of the tabernacle have no right, no competency, to stand as priests at the altar of this dispensation. Many a loved and loving soul is struggling with a legal mind, but that is a very different thing from displacing Christ for anything, as the Galatians were doing, putting a crutch under Him. The Spirit in this epistle does not quarrel with the poor struggling soul, but if you are seeking to offer expiatory sacrifices and not holding your altar diligently for eucharistic services, you are blaspheming the sacrifice of the Son of God. Now, having put you at your altar, and also within the holiest, he shows you your place outside the camp. Jesus was accepted in the holiest by God and He was put outside the camp by men. You are exactly to be with Christ in both these places.’ That is where this dispensation puts you; and if ever moral glory attached to a creature of God it is that which attaches to you at this moment. Called outside the camp with Him to bear His reproach! Are angels in such conditions? Did He ever say to them, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations"? Angels are never invited to be the companions of His sorrow. He has never put such honour on angels as on you. Therefore by-and-by the church will be nearer the throne than angels. "Here have we no continuing city." Christ had none. But further, we see in Hebrews 13:16 another beautiful thing, another character of service for your altar: "To do good and to communicate forget not." In various scriptures we find that the more joy we have in God, the more large-hearted we shall be to one another. It is the very character of joy to enlarge the heart. As in Nehemiah 8:1-18, where the prophet tells the people, "Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. ... And all the people went their way ... to send portions, and to make great mirth." A man that is happy himself can afford to look round and make others happy with him. After this the apostle comes to those who have present rule. Those in verse 7 are those who had died. Is this a blind subjection, I ask again? No; you are to take knowledge of them. "They watch for your souls." Office without power, without the unction of the Holy Ghost, is a thing this dispensation does not know; and if we know of it, we have got into the corrupt element of it and out of God’s element. It is a part of your fidelity to God to keep the dispensation in purity; and mere official authority is an idol. This vessel of the Holy Ghost, this mightiest servant that ever served in God’s name, comes down to the feeblest saint, "Pray for us," and he asks it on the authority of a good conscience. Could you ask another to pray for you if you were purposing to err? I will answer for it, you could not. And here it is on the ground of a good conscience that the apostle asks prayer. Then he gives them a subject of prayer. Oh! the familiarity of scripture! You are not taken Gut of your own world of affections and sympathies. Then he breaks out into his doxology. Now, if we remember what we were saying to one another we shall find here something new and strange. We get the Lord in this Hebrews 13:20 in resurrection not ascension. The great theme of the epistle is, as we have seen from the beginning hitherto, Christ displayed in heaven, but here the apostle does not go beyond resurrection. Why in closing does he bring down Christ from heaven? He has been keeping our eyes straining after Him into heaven, and just at the close He brings Him down to earth. Yes, for it is very sweet to know that we need not travel beyond death and resurrection to come in contact with the God of peace. You have reached the God of peace when you have reached the God of resurrection. Resurrection shows that death is abolished. Death is the wages of sin; and if death is abolished sin is abolished, because death hangs on sin as the shadow on the substance. The covenant is called "everlasting," because it is never to be displaced. The old covenant was put away. The new covenant is ever new, never abrogated. The blood is as fresh this moment to speak peace to the conscience as when it rent the veil. So when we come to daily life we are brought down to he in all simplicity in company with the God of peace that has raised the great Shepherd from the dead by the blood that has sealed remission of sins for ever. So you may forget sin. In one great sense we shall remember it for ever, but as far as that which constitutes your condition before God you may forget it for ever. Then he prays that God may adjust and mould us to do His will. What poor adjustment there is in you and me compared with that verse. We are awkward in our business, as if we were not at home in it. And then, at the last, he just closes by a few common words to the brethren. "Grace be with you all. Amen." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: 05.11. PART 11 - CONCLUSION. ======================================================================== CONCLUSION. We may remember that I have observed several distinct lines of thought running through this epistle. In taking leave of it we may consider it and see how these various lines all meet in harmony and give us in result a conclusion infinitely divine. The lines of thought are these: (1) The Spirit is displacing one thing after another to let in Christ. (2) Having brought in Christ, the Spirit holds Him up in the varied glories in which He is now filling the heavens. (3) The Spirit shows how Christ, being brought in, acts on everything to perfect it; that whatever a glorified Christ touches He perfects; and among other things He perfects our consciences. (4) This being so, on the ground of my reconciliation as a sinner I am introduced to a temple of praise. These four things may be looked at independently, yet it is very blessed to see that they acquire fresh glory when seen in connection one with another. Now I do say there is a magnificence in such a divine writing that needs nothing but itself to tell its glory. I am in contact with something that is infinitely the mind of God, with some of the most wondrous discoveries that God can make of Himself to me. But ere we quit our sweet and happy task we will look a little particularly at these four things. In Hebrews 1:1-14 and Hebrews 2:1-18 the Spirit displaces angels to let in Christ. In Hebrews 3:1-19 and Hebrews 4:1-16. He displaces Moses and Joshua. In Hebrews 5:1-14; Hebrews 6:1-20 and Hebrews 7:1-28. He displaces Aaron. In Hebrews 8:1-13 He displaces the whole covenant with which Christ has nothing to do. In Hebrews 9:1-28 He displaces the ordinances of the old sanctuary with its altars and services to let in the altar where Jesus as the Lamb of God lay. One thing after another He takes up and sets aside to make room for Jesus. This is a delightful task to the Spirit. God knows His own delights. If the Spirit can be, grieved He can be delighted too. Then having brought Christ in, what does He do with Him? He keeps Him in for ever. Christ has no successor. When the Spirit has got Him in he gazes at Him. And what is it to be spiritual? It is to have the mind of the Holy Ghost. Have you ever delighted to get out of the house to make room for Jesus? Indignantly the Spirit talks of the things we have been looking at as "beggarly elements." Have you ever treated them so? The Spirit sees no successor to Christ. In the counsels of God there is none after Him. Is it so in the counsels and thoughts of our souls? So, having kept Him in, He gazes at Him. And what does He see in Him? He sees glory upon glory. In Hebrews 1:1-14 He sees Him seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as the Purger of our sins, and hears a voice saying, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." He looks in Hebrews 2:1-18 and sees Him as our Apostle talking to us of salvation. Then He finds Him as the Owner of an abiding house, as the Giver of eternal rest, and sees Him in the sanctuary above, seated there with an oath, and hears Him uttering the salutation, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec In these various ways the Spirit delights in Christ. Then in Hebrews 9:1-28 we see Him looked at in the heavens as the Bestower of the eternal inheritance, having first obtained eternal redemption. In Hebrews 10:1-39 we see Him seated there in another character, with this voice saluting Him, "Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool." Have you ever in spirit followed Christ up to heaven and heard these voices addressing Him? We want to give personality to the truth. We are terribly apt to deal with it as mere dogma. I dread having it before me as a thing I could intellectually learn. In this epistle it is the Person that is kept before you; it is a living One you have to do with. These are heavenly realities. Moses pitched a temple in the wilderness. Solomon pitched a temple in the land; God has pitched a temple in heaven. And oh! how it shows what an interest God has in the sinner, when for our Priest He has built a sanctuary, and that because He is our Priest and about to transact our interests. Then in Hebrews 12:1-29, when He had ascended, He was received and seated in heaven as the Author and Finisher of faith. That is the second line, and we see how it hangs on the first. The Spirit, having fixed Christ before us, displays Him to us. The third thing we get in this epistle is perfection. If I get Christ perfect as Saviour, I get myself perfect as saved. If I am not saved Christ is not a Saviour. I am not speaking now of a feeble mind struggling with legality, but of my title — and I have no more doubt that I have a right to look on myself as a saved sinner than that Christ has a right to look on Himself as a perfect Saviour. Salvation is a relative thing. If I take myself as a sinner to Christ and doubt that I am saved I must have some doubt of the perfection of His Saviour-character. But we have already looked at the epistle as a treatise on perfection. It became God to give me none less than a perfect Saviour. Wondrous! He has linked His glory with the perfection of my conscience before Him. He has condescended to let me know that it became Him. Does it become you to come and serve me in some capacity? You might do it through kindness, but I should not think of saying so. Yet that is the language God uses. So then, in the third place, we find the epistle a treatise on perfection. Not, however, the perfection of millennial days. Christ will be the Repairer of every breach. But the greatest breach of all was in the conscience of the sinner. There is mischief and confusion abroad in creation still. There is mischief abroad in the house of Israel. Christ has not yet set to His hand to repair that. There is a breach in the throne of David — Christ has not yet applied Himself to heal that. But the mightiest breach of all was between you and God. By-and-by He will turn the groans of creation into the praises of creation; but He began His character as a Repairer by applying Himself to repair the breach that separated you from God; and now we have boldness to enter into the holiest. And then, in the fourth place, we find in this epistle the Spirit doing nothing less now than building a temple for praise. Is He about to tack up the veil again, which the blood of the Lamb of God has torn in two? Is He going to revive the things that He has indignantly talked of as "beggarly elements"? Unspeakably glorious is this fourth and last thing. The Spirit of God has built a temple for you to praise Him — the fruit of your lips giving thanks to His name. What have we not in this epistle? Though we may look on each line of thought independently, yet they do lend to each other exquisite and increased glory. The Spirit is, as it were, making a whip of small cords, and telling all to be gone to make room for Jesus. Of course I know they were willing to go. John the Baptist uttered the voices of them all when he said, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled." Moses, Aaron, angels — all were delighted to be put out of the house for Christ. These things are combinedly serving your soul by introducing you to deeper apprehensions of the Christ of God. What a servant to our souls the Holy Ghost is in this dispensation — as the Lord Jesus was a Servant from the manger to Calvary. I believe we each need individually to be fortified with truth. We do not know how far Romanising and infidel errors may be getting ahead. If we have not the truth, we may be the sport of Satan tomorrow. I will give you an instance of it. The Galatians were an earnest, excited people (and I do not quarrel with revival excitement); they would have plucked out their eyes for the apostle, but the day came when he had to begin afresh with them from the very beginning. "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." There was excitement without a foundation of truth; and when mischief came in the poor Galatians were next door to shipwreck — and this epistle is a witness to the same thing. The Hebrew saints were unskilful in the word. But we must be fortified by truth. A state of quickening wants the strengthening of the truth of God. And now what shall we say? O the depth of the riches! O the height of the glory — the profoundness of the grace — the wonder of the wonders — God unfolding Himself in such a way that we may well cover our faces, while we trust Him in silence and love Him with the deepest emotions of our souls.’ But some of us can surely say, "My leanness, my leanness!" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: 06.00.1 NOTES ON JOSHUA ======================================================================== The Writings of J.G. Bellett: Notes on Joshua by J.G. Bellett ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: 06.00.2. PREFACE TO THE ESWORD EDITION ======================================================================== Preface to the e-Sword Edition When I first discovered the amazing power of e-Sword, I was connected to the internet with a 56k fax modem. My enthusiasm for the program and its plethora of resources motivated me to stay up all night downloading its riches. I spent the next several days exploring the amazing variety of study material. As a busy pastor, I’ve tried to assemble a classic research library. As a busy pastor of a small church, I’ve tried to inexpensively assemble a classic research library. E-Sword immediately added many valuable assets that I hadn’t yet purchased; and those resources that e-Sword duplicated were much easier and faster to use than the paper versions. Since that wonderful first week, I’ve discovered many more treasures through Google searches. Then one day I realized that I owed a debt. I made a contribution to Rick Meyers (Rick - you are the modern day Gutenberg; should the Lord not return in the near future like I believe He will, you will do for Bible study the next 100 years what Gutenberg did in the 1500’s), and then started looking for public domain resources to convert to .topx files. And so my personal journey has come full circle: from the excitement of discovering e-Sword to the excitement of creating .topx files for others. Like Rick quotes from Matthew 10:8, "freely ye have received, freely give." Thank you, Dear Family, for understanding my debt and graciously tolerating my near compulsive computer use for hours on end. My thanks to the creator of e-Sword, Rick Meyers - www.e-sword.net. Thank you, John G. Bellett, for putting your studies into print. A very special thanks goes out to Les Hodgett at STEM Publishing, where I found it! Visit his excellent website (which is chock full of good stuff!) at http://www.stempublishing.com. I would also be remiss to neglect to mention Mr. Jason Briggs, Mr. Ed Sandlin, & Mrs. Pamela Marshall, who have so enriched my own ministry. And of course most of all, thank You Lord Jesus for saving my soul for all eternity. This Edition There have been no changes made to Bellett’s work, except for the following: Scripture references may have been converted to Scripture hyperlinks using the "Format Scripture ToolTip." A few obvious Scripture reference errors may have been corrected, as well as some obvious spelling errors. The copy and paste process may have unfortunately removed some of the italicized print. While the words have not been changed, some of Bellett’s emphasis may be missing. It is with regret that I have not taken the time to correct this. The sense is still accurate. [By the way - would you understand this paragraph without italics? Of course!] Also, the italicizing of the foreign words have been lost. It is my hope that the reader will be able to follow the flow regardless of these flaws. They - the flaws - are mine, not Bellett’s. I am quite sure my edition of Bellett’s work is rather imperfect. I pray that, nonetheless, it will be productively useful in the study of God’s Word. Finally If you enjoy this module, check out my website - www.DoctorDaveT.com - where there are over 100+ modules much like this one: conservative, evangelical, bible believing and Christ honoring. May the Lord bless you as study His word. Dr. David Thomason Florida, 2010 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: 06.00.3. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION ======================================================================== Copyright Information J.G. Bellett died in 1864. All of his works are public domain. Visit the wikipedia page for him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gifford_Bellett The text for this modules comes from STEM Publishing: The writings of J. G. Bellett: Notes on Joshua. An outline study of the book of Joshua. The web page can be found at http://www.stempublishing.com/authors/bellett/Joshua.html Les Hodgett from STEM Publishing has graciously granted permission for the build and distribution of this module. Thank you, Les!! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: 06.00.4 CONTENTS ======================================================================== Contents. 00.5 - Introduction 01 - Joshua Set in Office - Joshua 1:1-18 02 - The Passages of the Jordan - Joshua 2:1-24, Joshua 3:1-17, Joshua 4:1-24 03 - Gilgal - Joshua 5:1-15 04 - Jericho and Ai - Joshua 6:1-27, Joshua 7:1-26, Joshua 8:1-35 05 - The Gibeonites - Joshua 9:1-27 06 - The Conquest of the Land - Joshua 10:1-43, Joshua 11:1-23, Joshua 12:1-24 07 - The Division of the Land - Joshua 13:1-33, Joshua 14:1-15, Joshua 15:1-63, Joshua 16:1-10, Joshua 17:1-18, Joshua 18:1-28, Joshua 19:1-51, Joshua 20:1-9, Joshua 21:1-45 08 - Caleb 09 - The Two Tribes and a Half - Joshua 22:1-34 10 - Joshua’s Last Words - His Death and Burial - Joshua 23:1-16, Joshua 24:1-33 11 - Conclusion "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness . . which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus (Joshua) into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers." Acts 7:44-45. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: 06.00.5. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== Introduction. Coming events, that have importance in them, are said to cast their shadow beforehand; and the arrival of persons of dignity has couriers to announce it. I see this in Joshua. Joshua was to have a great ministry committed to him. He was to lead Israel into the land of their inheritance. He was to witness, as I may express it, the day of glory among the people of God, as Moses had witnessed the day of grace. He was to be the redeemer of the inheritance, as Moses had been the redeemer of the heir. By him God would perfect what concerned Israel, as by Moses He had begun it. He was to lead Israel into Canaan, as Moses had led them out of Egypt. Beforehand, therefore, we see him constantly with Moses. He attends him; as I may say, the inheritance attends on the heir, or the close of a work on the beginning of it. And this constant abiding at the side of Moses, or waiting upon him, was a shadow cast beforehand, of the ministry he was to fulfil, as soon as his day came - for he was to finish, as we have said, what Moses had begun, for Israel; he was to put the inheritance and the heir together. But further, it is not merely in this constant companionship with Moses, this abiding with him and waiting on him, that we see a foreshadowing of Joshua’s future ministry, we see it also in those services which he rendered Israel, while Moses was yet with them. He fights with Amalek, just as Israel was reaching the Mount of God, and he brings out from Canaan a pledge of the fruit of that land which was their promised inheritance (Exodus 17:1-16; Numbers 13:1-33 and Numbers 14:1-45). These are significant. They are samples, as I may say, of the ministry of him who by-and-by was to subdue the nations of Canaan and divide their land as an inheritance among the people of the Lord. And thus did this ministry cast its shadow beforehand. The Joshua of the wilderness may prepare us for the Joshua of the land. Peter, among the apostles, predestined to feed the sheep and the lambs of the flock of God, and Joshua, predestined soon to lead Israel, are both put through their exercises - and indeed that is good for us all, beloved. And here let me observe that Aaron’s connection with Moses was different from that of Joshua. It was co-ordinate, Joshua’s was subordinate. I grant that Moses was rather principal: for the king in divine order is before the priest. Still, Aaron was independent in a great sense. He did not wait on Moses, as Joshua did. He was no reflection of Moses, no successor to him. Their offices and ministries did not admit of such things. But this only as I pass on. The time of the Book of Joshua was the time of Israel’s first love in the land, as the short day of the Book of Leviticus had been their season of first love in the wilderness. In the wilderness the sin of the golden calf had been repented of, and in faith the golden sanctuary, as I may call it, had been raised up. And while that sanctuary was still open, Israel passed the time of the Book of Leviticus around it, and all is in happy, holy order, as between them and the Lord. There is evil, it is true, as in the persons of Nadab and Abihu, and also in Shelomith’s son; but with that, there is zeal in the camp to purify itself. And so now, while we are in the time of the Book of Joshua, Israel carry themselves in a very right spirit. There is evil again, I know, in the person of Achan; but there is zeal again in the people to purge themselves of it. And thus, the book presents Israel as in a season of first love. They serve the Lord all the days of Joshua. We have a like season in the history of the Church. It is seen in Acts 2:1-47, Acts 3:1-26, Acts 4:1-37, Acts 5:1-42. Evil is again there, as in the persons of Ananias and Sapphira. But again, there is zeal to put it away; and the Church, for a moment, for a sunny, unclouded morning hour, like that of Leviticus in the wilderness, or like that of Joshua in the land, is in her first love. Alas, we know that such seasons quickly pass. They are made to shine out for their appointed hour, like Adam’s brief moment at the close of Genesis 2. They witness the hand of the Lord in its holy, beautiful workmanship, and thus they vindicate His grace and wisdom in the varied administration of His name among men - or, in the progress of the ages and dispensations. But man - whether Adam, Israel or the Church - put into stewardship, is quickly found to be faithless. God is justified; we are exposed. God is justified, whether He pipe to us, or mourn to us - but we are found to be an instrument out of tune. We have no answer to the touch of His finger, no dancing to His piping, no lamenting to His mourning, however skilled our heart and hand may he in works and inventions of our own. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: 06.01. JOSHUA SET IN OFFICE ======================================================================== Joshua set in Office. Joshua 1:1-18. Joshua’s ordination, as we speak, had taken place in the time of Numbers 27:1-23. In this chapter he receives his charge, or is set in his office, to do the work for which he had been already ordained. David also had been ordained long before he was put into office. The oil of Samuel had been poured on his head even before his troubles under the hand of Saul had begun. And as we may consider it as belonging to this book, I would look back for a little to Joshua’s ordination; for there was great moral beauty in Moses’ conduct on that occasion, which it may profit the soul to consider. To the deep grief of his heart, Moses was denied entrance into the land. He had forfeited that privilege; and a forfeited blessing is never restored. The forfeiture may make way for a better thing; but the forfeited thing itself is never restored. Moses bows to the fixed purpose of the Lord, which denies him entrance on the land. He says no more about it; but concern for the flock of Israel which he had brought out of Egypt, and which he was now to leave in the wilderness, awakens in his heart very earnestly. He looks on them as with the eye of his divine Master in after days. Jesus saw Israel as sheep that had no shepherd, and He began to teach them, and to ordain others to go forth to the same service. Moses now sees Israel as sheep that were soon to have no shepherd, and he begins to plead for them. He asks the Lord to give them a shepherd. He turns from his own sorrow to the need of the people - and beautiful it always is, when we can think of the distresses of others in the day of our own calamity. The blessed Lord, illustrating all virtue as He did, having moral, as well as personal and official pre-eminence in all things, addressed the daughters of Jerusalem on His way to Calvary, and then His mother from the Cross. So Moses now, in his way and measure. And, let me observe, Moses was a humbled as well as a heartbroken man at that time. Canaan is denied him, and he sees the hand of another and of a younger entrusted with that service and that dignity which were taken from him. But with holy, Christ-like, largeness of heart, he forgets everything, except the need of the people. This was beautiful - and the Lord answers it in great sweetness of grace. He at once tells Moses that He will give Israel a leader according to his desire; but more than that - and blessed it is to read of such grace - the Lord tells him that he shall ordain this leader of Israel, give him his charge in the presence of the congregation, and put some of his spirit upon him. How exquisite in the way of grace all this is! Moses’ grief shall be relieved, and the desire of his heart for the flock he loved and was about to leave, shall be satisfied - and in the stead of being humbled, he shall be honoured. It shall he seen by all the people, the whole congregation of Israel, that he is the "better," and not the "less," blessing their future leader, and putting some, though not all, of his spirit, upon him! This was indeed an occasion full of beauty; the considerateness of the grace in which the Lord dealt with His servant, and the unselfish love which filled the heart of that servant! Intercourses between the Lord and the saints are at times wonderful, in the tone of holy, gracious intimacy that marks them, and this is an instance. Upon this ordination, Joshua is now set in office, or at his work. His commission is then read to him, with encouragements, exhortations and promises. The land in its length and breadth, and boundaries, is also described to him, and the people that dwelt there, that Joshua might know what business was now put upon him, and how it had now fallen upon him to put the redeemed Israel of God into possession of the inheritance promised to them as the seed and children of their fathers. Joshua begins at once to act under his orders, and prepares the people for the passage of the Jordan; and here the recollection revives before the mind, that little things in Scripture are at times very full of meaning. "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you," is an instance of what I mean. Such words convey the impression which was then on the mind of the apostle respecting those two companions of his - and events which quickly followed, vindicated such impressions. It is so here, at the close of our chapter. As to the tribes generally Joshua has but to say, "Prepare your victuals, for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you." They were unencumbered, in travelling order, and had but to know the hour of departure. Like Noah, they were ready for the voyage that was to land them in another world. All that had to be done was to get into the vessel. But the Reubenites and Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh were not so free, and Joshua feels towards them as towards a heavy piece of luggage in this hour of decamping. He has to challenge them; at least he felt that he had to remind them of their pledges to Moses, for they were not, in his sight, as if they had been altogether Israel themselves. In measure, he is to them what the angel who came to Sodom was to Lot. I do not say they were Lot, but they may, in some respects remind us of him. Like him, their history begins with their eyeing the well-watered plains that were good for cattle; and because they had cattle, they had taken up with the wilderness side of the Jordan. This may read us a lesson. Moses, on leading out from Egypt, had said nothing of Gilead and Bashan. They were not parts of "the mountain of the inheritance," of which he and the congregation had sung in their song, nor were they in that "place," to which he had told the Midianite he and Israel were on their journey. But Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had cattle, and in the plains on the eastern side of the river, cattle might feed to advantage. They had no thought of revolting or giving up their interest in the God of Israel; but they had cattle, and Gilead and Bashan suited them. How common a case! This is a large generation. We know ourselves too well to wonder at this. If we read the history of that occasion, we shall find that Moses had been made uneasy by this movement on the part of the two tribes and a half, and he expresses his uneasiness (Numbers 32:1-42). He tells them that their conduct had reminded him of the spies who had gone out, years and years before from Kadesh-barnea, and whose way had occasioned the forty years’ pilgrimage in the wilderness. They explain themselves, and give pledges that they by no means purpose to separate themselves from the fellowship and interests of their brethren; and they do this with zeal and integrity, but Moses has his fears about them. And now Joshua holds this same people in like fear and suspicion. He calls them to him, and addresses them with a special word of exhortation and warning, now that the time of action in the camp of God was beginning. But this is all painful. It is bad when this uneasiness is produced, when the first instinctive thought of a saint walking in the power of the resurrection of Christ, is that of alarm at what he sees in a brother, in one who like Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, while holding to the hope of the people of God, is not in the suited place of that hope. The garment of "linen and woollen," to use a Levitical figure, is on such, and the eye, the priestly eye, which discloses things that differ, is pained. Again I say, How common! But we know ourselves and our heartlessness too well to add, How wonderful! Again, however, they answer Joshua with zeal and integrity, as they had answered Moses. "According as we hearkened to Moses," they say to him now, "So will we hearken unto thee: only the Lord thy God be with thee, as He was with Moses." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: 06.02. THE PASSAGES OF THE JORDAN ======================================================================== The Passages of the Jordan. Joshua 2:1-24, Joshua 3:1-17, Joshua 4:1-24. In these chapters we read of two passages of the river Jordan, one by the spies and another by the whole camp. The first of these was made in weakness. It was therefore the test of faith. Rahab receives the spies, though this was done in peril of her life, in spite of their weakness, as having a title paramount to the rights of every relationship in which she then stood. These three are among the finest qualities of the faith of God’s people. Surely they are the fruit of the workmanship of the Spirit in the saint, so that all the glory is God’s, but they do shine brightly, and the more so when found together as here. They greatly ennoble the soul that is illustrating them, as Rahab the harlot of Jericho did. She set the claim of these strangers, in weakness and danger as they were, above that of her king and country, for she recognised God in them. "He that receiveth you receiveth me." This was like Abigail, or Joel, or Jonathan, who, in their several days, made more of God’s witnesses, than of husband, or guest, or parent. This was faith, and she accounts for her faith, just as faith must always account for itself. A report, tidings of what the Lord had done for Israel, was her warrant. Faith comes by hearing. Grace then shows itself ready to answer faith, as surely it always does. It pledges security to all who will use its provisions, and it gains a sure token; only requiring that there he faithfulness to them in this the day of their weakness. If we noticed the fine qualities of faith illustrated in the way of Rahab, surely all this in the spies tells us of the excellent ways of grace. The cross has been left in this judged world as the sure token of salvation to all who will use it and take shelter under it ere the day of judgment come. Only we must be faithful to it, have no other confidence, but hold it fast, our only refuge and plea, to the very end. The spies may have exceeded their commission. They had been sent by Joshua from the camp in the wilderness to spy the land, and not to shelter the people. Be it so. But grace is "a sea without a shore." It is "a fruitful bough by a well whose branches run over the wall." They who know it, need no ordination to publish it, and He whose it is has never told them that they are to wait for orders, ere they pledge it, and the fruit of it in life and justification to all they meet in the highway of this world, ruined and condemned as it is. And then, the sureness and decision with which the spies, though in their day of weakness, pledge and promise salvation to Rahab, is very blessed in its grace and meaning. It reminds me of that word of the Lord Jesus, "But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins." There is no future to settle the great question of our souls. It is to be done here, and at once ours is a present salvation, and so was Rahab’s. "More happy, but not more secure" is the language of the believer touching himself and the glorified. And what strength and weakness meet here! The men who were lying under stalks of flax to hide them from their pursuers, assure safety to all who will take it from them. The Son of Man, the despised One of Galilee, Jesus, the rejected, seals the forgiveness of a sinner. What gleams of Christ do we get through the chinks and openings of the Book of God from its very beginning! The faith of this woman of Jericho, thus answered by the grace of the spies from the camp of God, is also quick to avail itself of the pledge of salvation. She hangs out the mystic line from her window as soon as the spies had departed; and this is another fine quality of faith. It runs to its refuge. It parleys not with probabilities nor does it suffer delays. It knows its safety in its refuge, but knows it nowhere else. David was afraid to stir from the threshing-floor where mercy had rejoiced over judgment, and where God had had respect to his offering. All this has character in it. And then by her faith, Rahab condemns the Canaanitish world - for all the inhabitants of that land had felt the report of what God had done by Israel, as well as herself; but she alone had acted upon it (see Joshua 2:9 and Hebrews 11:7). One cannot but be moved by the goodness of giving us such a narrative as this, at the opening of such a book as this. We are about to witness the doings of the God of judgment, but ere we enter upon that we are given this rich and precious sample of the ways of the God of grace. It is, as we speak, the eleventh hour - yea, and all but the last minute of that hour - but as its day is not quite spent, as its sun has not yet gone down, grace is itself still and will show itself unwearied in the greatness of its ways. Its earliest moment revives in all its strength and freshness, here at its last. Exodus 12:1-51 is read again in Joshua 2:1-24. The blood is sprinkled on the lintel again for the redemption of the sinner - the scarlet line preserves the household of faith in devoted Canaan as the sprinkled lintel had done in judged Egypt. And the work of Grace is done with its own proper attributes, and in its own excellent style. All certainty marks its pledges which it gives, and they are rendered with a ready heart. The moment also, yields an attraction to this work which no other could have done. It is, as we have said, all but the last moment of the eleventh hour of its day, and yet it serves and is active, displaying thus its divine unweariness. Surely, we may well take up and enjoy this story of Rahab the harlot of Jericho; somewhat set forth, as the story of Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor, a pattern of all long-suffering in the grace of the God of Salvation. And happy is it again, I may say, to get such a scene as this in such a book as this, that while the judgments we are now about to witness are His needful work, the grace which we here witness, is His own dear and welcome work. "His wakened wrath but slowly moves, His willing mercy flies apace." The second of these passages of the Jordan is altogether of another character. It is made in strength and is full of glory. It is "the Ark of the God of all the earth," that is now crossing the river, at the head of the hosts of the Lord. The divine presence is making itself known in majesty. The Lord is about to prepare His throne for judgment and to take His Kingdom. All is greatness. As soon as the feet of the priests who bear the Ark touch the brim of the water, it retires. "What aileth thee, O Jordan, that thou art driven back?" The presence of God was felt. In calm undistracted majesty, in the consciousness of nothing less than divine strength and title, this passage is now made. The hills had but yesterday been a hiding place for the spies, but now the water itself shall stand up as an heap in the service of the camp. There is, accordingly, no appeal to faith now, as there had been before, no weakness, no seeking countenance and shelter, no apparent degradation, as of one hiding himself on the roof of a house under stalks of flax laid there by the hand of a woman. All is strength, rendering rewards to them who had been faithful; delivering those who had received the word of grace; and judging those who had feared, but who had not acted on their fears. It was the day of glory redeeming the pledges which grace had already left in a judged world. It was the day of power and of the Kingdom, erecting a memorial to itself in the Place of the inheritance, which had but lately been the place of the enemy. These are the characteristics of the second passage of the Jordan recorded in these chapters. And when we look at the two passages, so different as they are, we cannot but catch the image of the two advents of the Lord into this judged world of ours; the first addressing itself in weakness, in faith, and pledging redemption, in faith - the second, in strength, asserting the rights of the God of all the earth in the judgment of a world that had filled up its measure; giving the promised deliverance to those who had received Him and trusted Him in His day of humiliation; and establishing the honour of His deeds as by a Pillar of twelve stones, the praise of all His saints, in the place of their inheritance. How full, how clear, how simple! What a scripture do these three chapters furnish! Have we, like the harlot of Jericho, so accepted the grace of the first advent, that we are ever standing with a welcome for the glory of the second? Do we know that perfect love that is in Him now, so that we have boldness in the thought of the judgment yet to be executed? But in closing my meditations on these chapters, I cannot refuse to add how much I admire the action of this book taking by way of introduction this deliverance of Rahab. It strikingly recalls to mind the redemption of the heir, now when we are about to enter on the great action of the redemption of the inheritance. We have in this story of Rahab in Jericho, a vivid remembrance of Israel in Egypt; and again I say it is so beautiful that we should have this picture of the salvation of a sinner, just as we are about to enter on that scene which will so tell us of the kingdom or the glory! for, in principle, there is but a step - just as the two passages of the Jordan lay near each other. "Whom He justified, them He also glorified," as in the twinkling of an eye, the believing thief on the cross was the saint in paradise with Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: 06.03. GILGAL ======================================================================== Gilgal Joshua 5:1-15. In the first moment since the days of the patriarchs, the elect of God, the children of Israel, now touch the land of promise. It was a long interval, more than two hundred years; and that interval had been occupied by them very much to their shame as well as their sorrow. A sunny hour had shone on their path in the time of Joseph; but since then, the brick kilns and taskmasters of Egypt, and then the forty years’ pilgrimage in the wilderness, had told of their sorrows; and their idolatries in the land of their captivity, their unbelief when God rose up for their deliverance, and then their many provocations along the way by which they had now come to Canaan, told of their sins. And before that course of sin and sorrow had begun, it was their iniquity that separated them from that land at the first, which now they had just regained. They had sinned against Joseph, and thence was their captivity. In spite, however, of all this, here they now are again. Their feet do now tread the land of their father’s sepulchres, the land of the promise and covenant of their God. The nations of the land feel the power of the moment. It was like the cry which is still to be heard, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh." The Master of the house had now risen up. Israel had crossed the borders, and it was too late to cry, "Lord, Lord, open unto us." They felt the moment in spite of themselves, and their heart melted. But the camp is made to feel another thing. The generation which had been born in the wilderness had not been circumcised, for they were in a strange condition. But now they have, as it were, revived or reappeared in proper character, and circumcision becomes a needed thing. Canaan was theirs only as they were Jehovah’s, and they must wear their token of being His. They are circumcised, and thus become a new people. All is left behind, "the reproach of Egypt" as is here said, "the shame of their youth" as Isaiah says (Isaiah 54:4). All is cancelled.* "This day," says the Lord to Joshua, when the circumcision of the people had taken place, "have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." He was beginning anew with His people. This was circumcision, as it were, the second time, as though the Lord were now beginning with the nation, as He had in early Abraham days, by the first circumcision, begun with the family (Genesis 17). And a very fine expression of grace in its rich, abounding glory, this was. Israel may now keep the Passover as in the night of their redemption from Egypt, in Exodus 12:1-51. - for the Passover belongs to a circumcised people. For, whom God sanctifies, that is, separates to Himself as by election, He redeems, and would have His redeemed know and celebrate their redemption (Exodus 12:45). *Mark also under what new conditions the child of Moses had to be circumcised (Exodus 4:1-31). And the inheritance then, in due order, follows the redemption, as the redemption follows the sanctification or separation. Accordingly, the land now yields them food, since they have now kept the Passover after their circumcision. As we read here, "they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn, the self-same day; and the manna ceased." And this savours of the inheritance. It was the land which yielded them their cakes and this parched corn. Wilderness-fare, which the manna was, was not needed in the land. It is truly, too precious ever to he forgotten; and therefore an omer of it shall be kept for a memorial in the very ark of God (Exodus 16:33), but still, wilderness-fare is not needed in the land of the inheritance. As, in like spirit, Israel shall make booths in the feast of the tabernacles to remind them of wilderness-life; but booths were not needed in the midst of Israel’s cities and towns and villages in the days of the kingdom. Remembrance of past sorrow does but enhance present joy. The basket of first-fruits recognises this. That basket was the witness of present fulness, but the confession which accompanied the presentation of it, recalled to mind the day when Israel was but a perishing stranger. So we in spirit now, as the second of Ephesians shows us. We remember that we were Gentiles, as without God and without hope, though now in the liberty of a people consciously brought nigh. And so in glory by-and-by, as now in spirit or by faith. For the harps of the harpers in heaven will he telling of the past condition of sin and ruin. Here, I might say, the kingdom or the millennium shines out for a short, mystic moment. The Jordan has been passed, the wilderness being left, and the people of God sit down in a fruitful land of promise and of glory. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: 06.04. JERICHO AND AI ======================================================================== Jericho and Ai. Joshua 6:1-27, Joshua 7:1-26, Joshua 8:1-35. Having entered the land and assumed their circumcision, that order of sanctification which suited the inheritance, and the presence of the God of Israel, the subjugation of the land begins. The Lord now puts Himself at the head of the army, that He may order the battles, as Israel’s Captain, as through the wilderness in the cloudy pillar He had put Himself at the head of the camp, that He might order their journeys as Israel’s Guide. Here, however, I would look around me for a few minutes. The Lord stood as a soldier under the walls of Jericho, and in the presence of Joshua. But Joshua did not discover Him. This was like Gideon afterwards in Judges 6:1-40, and like Manoah in Judges 13:1-25. Joshua had to enquire after Him as they had to do in their day. But it bed not been thus with Abraham in Genesis 18:1-33. He discovered the Lord at once, and bowed before Him, treating Him as the Lord. But Joshua has to challenge Him and to ask Him as One who did not know who He was, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" But this will never do. Christ cannot go on with those who have depreciating thoughts of Him. It was thus with Martha in John 11:1-57. She said, "Whatsoever Thou askest of God, God will give it thee." This would not do. And Jesus lets her know at once that it will not do. "Thy brother shall rise again," He says to her in reply. Not in answer to His asking of God should Lazarus rise, as Martha’s words suggested, but on His own personal authority, as in the exercise of His own proper rights, He pledges this, that Lazarus her brother should rise again. And so, when in the darkness of her own thoughts she spoke again and said, "I know that he shall rise at the last day," the Lord, again resenting her, says "I am the resurrection and the life." He would have Martha’s mind right towards His glory. And so here with Joshua. "Art thou for us or for our adversaries?" says Israel’s leader. "Nay," says Christ, "but as Captain of the Lord’s host am I now come." He resents Joshua’s thought respecting Him, a thought which regarded Him as possibly on the side of Israel, but knew Him not as the head and in the front of Israel. He must have a right mind in Joshua as in Martha, touching His glory. Yea, in all of us, beloved. And surely we may each of us pray - "May we ever apprehend it without a cloud, and confess it without a falter." And happy it is to see how quickly the mind of Joshua gains its right place. He worships the Stranger whom just before he had challenged. He is now the Captain of salvation in his eyes, and He is trusted as the One that would lead the sons of Israel to victory. We may need instruction in the various glories of the Son of God, and wait to have them unfolded to us, but every saint carries a mind prepared for them, and at once, or instinctively is quick to rejoice in them. But this, as we pass on. The battle being now the Lord’s, it mattered not what the weapons of war were. An ox-goad, a sling and a stone, lamps and pitchers, or jaw-bone of an ass would do. And so the shout of the soldiers and the blast of a trumpet of ram’s horn shall now prove sufficient; the walls of Jericho fall, and that city, as the first-fruits of the land, is taken. Faith did it and not force (Hebrews 11:30) - faith which brings God in, and bringing God in, faith, if need be, cannot only pull down walls, but remove mountains. But the world must be judged. The kingdom must be cleared of all that offends and does iniquity, ere it can be taken and ruled by Christ. Jericho is devoted to the sword. It stood forth as the sample of that which was to be judged, and all that were in it, or that belonged to it, except the household of faith which was under the shelter of the scarlet line, were to be cut off. That household, but that alone, was redeemed in this day of judgment in Canaan, as the house of Israel themselves had been in an earlier day of judgment in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-51). But further. All the gold and silver was to be the Lord’s, the vessels of brass and iron. Does this surprise us? One wedge of gold was enough to defile a whole tent, and bring the judgment of God in awful, mighty ruin upon it and all that were of it, while the Lord Himself could take and put into His treasury all the gold that might be found in the city. Again, I ask, does this surprise us? Well, God is God and not man. Christ can touch a leper; no Israelite, let him be who he may, priest or king, or even Nazarite could. The wrath of man shall praise God. God can use it, but we are not to exercise it. Even those who preach Him in contention and ill-will, Christ can use, but we are to cleanse ourselves when we take His Name upon us to publish it. Jericho is now the representative of the world to the camp of Israel, of that thing which was to be judged; let every man of the camp keep himself apart from it, and all that belongs to it. And therefore, further, as we read here, the people are warned not to touch anything that was of that place, even, as I may say, though it was as "a thread or a shoe-latchet." It was to be as Sodom in the sight of Abraham. And further still, as marking it, like Sodom again, for perpetual burning, Joshua adjured the camp at that time, and said, "Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho." For that indeed would be a Nimrod-act, a defiance of the God of judgment, an Amelek-act. It would be acting again the part of the Cain of Genesis 4:1-26, returning to the earth which God had cursed, reviving what God had sentenced and doomed to destruction. The cursed thing, however, in defiance of all these solemn words, is taken. It was, of a truth, a presumptuous sin. No sacrifice could stand in atonement for it. "There is a sin unto death; I do not say that you shall pray for it." A wedge of gold and a Babylonish garment are coveted and taken, and hid in the midst of Israel; and Israel, the camp, becomes, in the sight of God, for a time, a Jericho. The curse which had of late rested on that city of the uncircumcised, now rests on the camp of the people of God. The leprosy of Naaman is put upon Gehazi - and by righteous reason of all this, Israel is defeated in their second battle at Ai.* *What a character of ripened iniquity Jericho had reached by having the ware of Babylon in her. Surely she was ready for the judgment. And here, let me say, this has been done under every trial of man - the cursed thing has been again and again and ever taken. God’s creature, His responsible creature, has linked himself with pollution, that is, with the very thing he ought to have judged. Such an one was Adam in Genesis 3:1-24 - such is Israel now, and such again in Judges 1:1-36 - such was Solomon in Judah, and such Jeroboam in Israel - and such is the Church or Christendom as in 2 Timothy 2:1-26. This occasion tells us of this. Joshua ought to have known the secret of Israel’s defeat. He ought to have known the mischief to be lurking within, and that Israel was not straightened in God but in themselves. "For this cause," as an apostle speaks, for the cause of something within-doors, "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." And also from Joshua 6:18 he ought to have known where the occasion of this disaster was to be found. But he seems to charge and challenge the Lord, and, like David in the day of his bad temper because of the breach upon Uzziah, Joshua has to learn that the fault was all his own. Instead therefore, of the victories of Israel, the purification of Israel must take place. Instead of going on from strength to strength, first works are to be done again. If we do not judge ourselves, the Lord will, that we may not be condemned with the world. The camp of Israel shall not be as a Canaanitish nation, though for a moment it may be as Jericho. The sin and judgment of Miriam had once delayed the progress of Israel through the wilderness, the sin and judgment of Achan must now delay the progress of Israel through the land. But it is only delay. Discipline does not revoke grace; it only maintains holiness. The valley of Achor is a door of hope (Hosea 2:15).* *So now, judgment upon Israel, all through this present parenthetic age, has again delayed or interrupted the orderly history of the earth and of Israel. But the age of judgment will end and Israel be Israel again. And happy to know, a restored soul is always a blest soul. So is it here. The camp go a second time against Ai, and Ai is taken, not indeed with the ease and honour by which Jericho had been reduced; but still it is taken, as in the experience of our own souls, for though pardoned and restored, and put on the way even to richer, higher blessings, still the soul finds some new elements in its history. It has exercises to go through which might have been spared it had it walked more evenly. But in the end, most surely, Israel is blest. Ai falls and its cattle and spoil are the property of the people, as the gold and the silver, the brass and the iron of Jericho had already been the property of the Lord. The altar is then erected. God is at once owned, as He had been by Noah, when he stepped out from the ark upon the new world - and as Abram had owned Him, when he reached the place which the God of glory had told him of - as Israel had owned Him as soon as they had got beyond Egypt and the Red Sea - and as Solomon owned Him when he took the kingdom. Whatever the mercy, the pillar and the altar are to follow - the mercy is to be the occasion of testimony and of praise. At the end of these chapters the covenant which put Israel under law is inscribed on its proper pillar, and read in the audience of the people; for the law was the condition on which the inheritance which had now been entered was to be secured and enjoyed, as we may see, by-and-by, in Joshua 23:1-16. And in glancing back at these chapters for another moment, let me say, if the Lord judge this in the world, He will surely not pass it by in His saints. If the cursed thing of Jericho be found in Israel, the hand of God shall rest on Israel as on Jericho. A difference there is, while the controversy of holiness is alike judged in both, for in the saint, sin is judged as by discipline for purifying; in the world it is judged for destruction. And all this is exhibited here. Jericho is destroyed, the camp is purified. Jericho is no more, the camp is on its way to fresh conquests. In the case of the saint, the valley of Achor is always a door of hope. Tribulation works hope through patience and experience. The Lord does not leave His people in that valley. We are judged of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. But here, I would suggest a truth which I hold to be morally of great importance, and which we ought always to have in remembrance when following the course of Joshua’s victories, viz., that those victories were the judgment of God upon a people who had been borne with for centuries, and who had now, ere the sword of Joshua was unsheathed, filled up the measure of their sins (see Genesis 15:1-21). The iniquity of the Amorite was full, and judgment was executed. The sword of Joshua was one of judgment, rather than of victory. He is to appear before us as a judge, not as a conqueror; and it relieves the heart, when surveying the slaughters of this solemn history, to have this in remembrance, that the wars of this Leader of Israel are never to be regarded as the mere invasions of a weaker country, by the unprincipled and unbridled strength of a superior army. Joshua was God’s minister, and "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: 06.05. THE GIBEONITES ======================================================================== The Gibeonites. Joshua 9:1-27. In this book of Joshua, fruitful in various moral illustrations, we are now introduced to the Gibeonites, and through them to a very serious and important lesson. It was faith which led Rahab of Jericho into alliance with Israel, as we saw in our meditation on Joshua 2:1-24, and as we learn both from James and Hebrews 11:1-40. For she accepted the people of God in their day of weakness, while they were yet in the wilderness - like Ruth afterwards who would fain go with Naomi still in exile and poverty, or like Abigail who owned David in the day when he needed a loaf of bread. This is faith. This is accepting the Son of Man under the sign of the prophet Jonah. But this is not the way of the Gibeonites. During the interval from Rahab to them, Israel crossed the Jordan. In words of Scripture, "the Master of the house had risen up and had shut to the door." Judgment had begun to take its course. It was too late for faith to exercise itself.* Israel was no longer distant, but arrived; no longer unseen, but in the midst. Their day of strength had come. It was, therefore, fear for themselves, and not faith, which moved the Gibeonites to seek a league with Israel. It was like the cry, "Lord, Lord, open unto us" - and we are told that such is a vain cry. *What is said of the Gibeonites in Joshua 11:19-20, may lead to a qualified acceptance of this interpretation. Contrast with that of Rahab. It does not represent faith, as hers does. Fear because of the presence of a strong, victorious one, was their spring of action. The Gibeonites had heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai; that is, they heard of judgment in the land, after Israel had crossed the Jordan, or as we said, when the Master of the house had risen up. Rahab had heard what the Lord had done at the Red Sea and in the wilderness (see Joshua 2:10; Joshua 9:3). But this makes a great difference. It is easy to be gracious when pangs come upon us: but such graciousness is not of faith, but of fear. It is natural, nay, necessary. The Gibeonites pretend that they were moved by the same report as that which had moved Rahab (Joshua 9:9-10), but this was false, as Joshua 9:3 has already shown us. They were like the multitude who followed the Lord, not because they saw the miracles, but because they did eat of the loaves and were filled. They sought Joshua for what they could secure, or get, or make, by him; they sought him for themselves, for the deliverance which they now found they needed, since judgment had overtaken them. This was the moral standing of the Gibeonites. It was not in them, faith acknowledging the God of Israel. Joshua should have been alive to all this, but he slept, and tares are now sown in the field. The princes make a league with these men of Gibeon, and the uncircumcised get a place in the midst of Israel. Israel may now do the best they can, under the conditions and results of their own carelessness, but the tares cannot now be rooted up, and there, in the fields of Israel they are, destined by-and-by to give trouble enough to those who let them in (see 2 Samuel 21:1-22). Surely we read in all this a serious lesson. We learn the difference between faith which forms such present alliance with Christ, as He will own in the future day of His glory - and fear which seeks Him after the day of judgment has set in. It is in this age of His weakness that faith owns Him, and then the hour of judgment, and the eternity of glory in their different ways, are both ours. We learn also, the danger as well as the evil, of being careless in the service of the house of God. "While men slept, the enemy sowed tares." Our carelessness works mischief, the bitter fruits of which may be gathered after many years. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: 06.06. THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND ======================================================================== The Conquest of the Land. Joshua 10:1-43, Joshua 11:1-23, Joshua 12:1-24. The land, as we have seen, has now been entered in the name of the God of all the earth. Rahab, who had faith, has been delivered. The camp has been purified from the curse which made it for a moment a Jericho or a Babylon. Jericho and Ai have fallen. The Gibeonites have got entrance or a settlement, like tares among the wheat, in judgment upon the men that slept, and now, the sword of the Lord and of Joshua is about to complete the conquest of the land. It is a day of judgment. The vengeance of righteousness is to be executed on the Amorites, who had now filled up the measure of their sins. The long suffering of God had now no longer to wait (Genesis 15:16). It is a day of judgment on these nations, as the day of Noah had been on the world before the flood, or the day of Lot on the cities of the plain, or the day of Moses on the land of Egypt. Joshua’s sword, as we have already said, is to be interpreted as that of a judge, rather than that of a conqueror. The giving of their inheritance to the children of Abraham may appear to be the principal cause of this great action, but it is really grounded on the fact that the iniquity of the Amorites was now full. The sword of conquest for Israel is the sword of judgment on the Canaanites - and the people of the Lord had to wait on the ripening of the nation’s sin and the judgment of the Lord, ere they could attain their inheritance (see Genesis 15:16). This is exactly what is known at this very moment. The Millennial kingdom, which is the inheritance of Christ and the Saints, will not be reached till the world has filled up its measure and the sword of judgment has visited it. That which judges the world, clears the way for the kingdom and the inheritance, as once the sword of Joshua did. Listen to the different voices in the early verses of Revelation 14:1-20. But further this being so, the sword of Joshua being really the sword of the Lord, the victories of the great Captain of Israel, being really the judgment of God, we see the Lord God Himself directly interfering. Hail-stones are cast down from heaven in the battle of Gibeon, and the sun and moon are stayed in their course till Joshua has avenged the Lord upon His enemies and has won the victory for His people. It had been thus in the day of other and earlier judgments, for "vengeance belongeth unto God." God is the Judge; as was signalised at the very beginning. For it was the Lord Himself who took in hand the punishment of Cain (Genesis 4:15). It was the Lord Himself who let out the waters of Noah. It was the Lord Himself who rained fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was the Lord Himself who sent plague upon plague on the land of Egypt, and at last looked through the pillar of the cloud, and overwhelmed the hosts of Egypt in the Red Sea. And so, if we read the Apocalypse which writes for our learning the judgment of the world just before the glory or the kingdom comes, we shall find that it will he the Lord Himself who will open the seals, and let out the visitations of wrath; and at the last, as the Rider on the white horse, overthrow all the confederate, apostate strength of the world. That Rider, coming forth from heaven in judgment upon the Beast and his army is like the Lord looking through the cloud on the host of Egypt. Very strikingly indeed, does Joshua appear to have caught the character of the moment. The hailstones, I grant, may have told him that the Lord in heaven was making the battle his own. But the history of other days of judgment, such as those I have referred to, as of Cain, Noah, Lot and Moses, was abundant to let him further know that He was the executor of judgment Himself, and Joshua would, therefore, now put the weapons of warfare and the instruments of vengeance into His hands. He beautifully caught, again, I say, the character of the moment. He reminds us of the John of the gospels. John represents that spiritual taste and sympathy which made quick, and all but instinctive, discoveries of his Lord. And Joshua now utters his celebrated oracle, as in the hearing, and for the observance of the great ordinances in the heavens, without any reserve or check in his spirit, as with all freedom and authority. "Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon." He knew that judgment was God’s work, and he would put it into His hands. He knew that God fought for Israel, and he would put the battle upon Him. This tone of decision, because of distinctness in the light and knowledge of the mind of Christ, is something very fine. The spies, in Joshua 2:1-24, were not reserved or doubtful in pledging safety to Rahab. They did not first re-cross the Jordan to get Joshua’s warrant. They knew their title to pledge salvation to her, sinner though she was, and Canaanite though she was. They had the spirit of faith, and were vessels of the light of God. They "judged in themselves." They knew what was the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, at such a moment; and so here, in the tenth chapter, Joshua does not tarry or hesitate, but acts promptly and with decision, and that, too, somewhat beyond what might be deemed the highest prerogatives of a creature, even in grace. He spoke to the heavens, commanding the sun and the moon. Wonderful! The Spirit, recording such a moment, pauses to admire it. "And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man." A great occasion indeed; but there are kindred days afterwards, and yet no wonder is made of them. Jesus commands the winds and the waves. He stays the forces of nature, whether they belong to the heavens or to the earth, but the Spirit, who records those deeds also, makes no wonder of them, for indeed it was no wonder. Joshua’s was but "the voice of a man, as we read, Christ was "God over all, blessed for ever." But this moment may be full of admiration for us. Joshua knew the battle was the Lord’s in behalf of His people, and that judgment or vengeance also belonged to Him, and he would have the sun and the moon to wait and give space to the Lord till He should finish His works, His mighty and His strange works, His works of mercy and of judgment. And as we further read in these chapters, the Lord hardens the hearts of the Canaanites now in this their day of judgment, as He had before hardened Pharaoh’s heart in his day of judgment, and as He will, by-and-by, dement the world ere He judge it, sending out strong delusions. The heart of these nations of the Amorites was now hardened to come against Israel to battle, and rush upon the thick bosses of the Almighty’s shield, as we read; or as we read again, to kick against the pricks in the infatuated spirit of self-destruction. And we likewise learn from these chapters that the conquering army of Israel returned to Gilgal, where the camp lay. Gilgal had been the place of their circumcision, and circumcision was the sign of their new condition.* It had rolled away the reproach of Egypt. All that is past, is past to a circumcised or baptized people. Such have renounced themselves. Circumcision bespoke Israel’s laying down of all that was their own, and their taking up of the Lord as their spring of confidence and strength, and the secret of all virtues in them. "We are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." It gainsays and discloses flesh, and glories in the Lord. And when can such a thing be more fittingly called to mind, when can Gilgal be more seasonably revisited, than after the victory? Victory may puff up. It is hard to use a flattering day with modesty. Harder to use a victory than to gain it, as it has been said. Abraham used it well. In spirit he returned to Gilgal after it. And so the host of Israel here. "When ye have done all, say that ye are unprofitable servants." The honours they had won were laid on the altar of God, or at the feet of the Lord. Their circumcision was remembered, themselves were renounced, they were now a host of circumcised conquerors. Their victory was His. "And Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal" (see Joshua 5:9; Joshua 9:6; Joshua 10:6; Joshua 10:43). Shiloh will be the place of the tabernacle presently (Joshua 18:1-28); Gilgal is now the place of the camp, and also of the army after their victories. *The catalogue of the kings and their countries now reduced, closes this section of our book - "And," as we read, "the land rested from war." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: 06.07. THE DIVISION OF THE LAND ======================================================================== The Division of the Land. Joshua 13:1-33, Joshua 14:1-15, Joshua 15:1-63, Joshua 16:1-10, Joshua 17:1-18, Joshua 18:1-28, Joshua 19:1-51, Joshua 20:1-9, Joshua 21:1-45. The division of the land follows the conquest of it. It becomes the inheritance of Israel, as soon as it is taken out of the hand of the Amorites. The time of the judgment of the people of the land had come, and together with that, the time for the putting of the children of Abraham into possession of it. If the Amorites had now filled up the measure of their sins, Israel had now filled up the measure of their bondage and their pilgrimage. The vessel is cleansed, and then the treasure is put into it. This is ever so. It must be so. These are the demands of holiness and of grace, and such demands must surely be answered. This is the image of God’s way, necessarily so, from first to last. Why, the work of the Creator at the very beginning, if the rest of the Creator were not to follow? And why, the judgments which at the very last are to clear the earth of its oppressions and corruptions, if the kingdom and glory be not to follow? A millennial day is to come after the judgments, as the rest of the Creator succeeded His work, or, as the new world came forth from under the judgment of the old by the flood; or as the lot in the day of Joshua succeeded the sword, the division of the land, the conquest of the land; or as the victories of David made way for the sceptre, the peaceful sceptre of Solomon (see Numbers 33:50-56). This is all sure and simple - holiness and grace, as we said, make these demands, and such demands must be answered in God’s most perfect ways. But there is more. The land, now taken out of the hand of the wicked, and made the portion of the elect of God, must have certain new and suited characters engraved upon it. This must be so likewise. If the Lord work, it is to conduct Him to rest; if He judge and clear away iniquity, it is to lead to the kingdom; and then, as soon as He has entered His rest, or taken His kingdom, His rest and His kingdom will have characters stamped upon them, such as are worthy of His hand and presence. The new world after the flood witnessed His worship, and His government, Noah’s altar and sword telling us this. They gave character to that new world. The days of Solomon bore their suited marks in like manner. Under their vines and fig-trees, Israel were eating and drinking and making merry then, as many as the sands on the sea-shore; the temple was built; peace flowed as a river; and the distant kings of the earth waited on the King in Jerusalem; and so, as we know, the millennial world will have the traces of the presence of the glories of Christ everywhere. It will bear its own characters deeply and brightly upon it. It will be a world redeemed from man and Satan and made the Lord’s; and as the Lord’s, it will have its own new fruits and features, thick and full and blushing and blooming upon it, that shall tell whose it is and what it is. And thus is it seen in the progress of these chapters. The land of Canaan being now in the possession of the people of God, wears many and many a badge to bespeak its new conditions, such as the Amorites never did and never could have put upon it. Thus it becomes a sanctuary, the scene and witness of the worship of God. The tabernacle is set up at Shiloh. Through the length and breadth of it, it is made, as we speak, a religious world, the seat of a religious establishment, the ministers of God being endowed and settled in all parts of the country, waiting continually on the service of God. Through the length and breadth of it also, provision is made for the maintaining of righteousness between man and man. The institution of the cities of refuge tells of this, for there the innocent was to find shelter till a doubtful question between him and his neighbour might be settled, according to truth and righteousness. Such were among the great and suited characters engraved on the land now rescued from the uncircumcised and made the portion of the people of God. They constitute the full expression of a religious world, of the earth brought back to God. Canaan was now purified by judgments, given among the tribes of the Lord, made the scene of divine worship, the church and state united, and the ends of the holiness of God, and the ends likewise of justice as between man and man are secured. It was a little world, made God’s - a sample of the earth restored, or brought back to Him - a shadow of good days to come, when the whole world, the earth in its length and breadth, taken up by the Lord, shall have the tokens of its sanctification, the knowledge of His glory covering it as the waters do the sea, the name of Jesus rising with every morning and evening sacrifice, and the sceptre of righteousness keeping all in holy order throughout all conditions and relationships of men. We get, however, something of another kind in the actual condition of things. The land was not yet fully conquered, though it was fully divided; and this was so, because Israel was to be tested. They were put into possession of the land by the grace of the God of their fathers, but they were to keep it as a people bound to obedience, under the law which they themselves had challenged, or at least undertaken, at Mount Sinai. In one sense accordingly they were now in possession of their inheritance, in another they were not. And, therefore, in the progress of these chapters, we read such different language as the following. It may sound discordant and convey the sense of inconsistencies, but all is morally and beautifully correct, when we, in due way, acquaint ourselves with the conditions of the people now in the land. The language I refer to is in these two passages. "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto their fathers, and they possessed it, and dwelt therein, and the Lord gave them rest round about according to all that He sware to their fathers - and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand." And again - "Now Joshua was old and stricken in years, and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old, and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." Now these passages, and others which might be cited, sound as discordant, and would seem to be historically inconsistent; but morally, or according to the conditions under which Israel were now in their inheritance, all is right and intelligible. They were not straightened in God, who was now ready to establish them fully, but they might he straightened in themselves and lose the land. Some of the land was left unconquered, but all was divided, in order that Israel might be tested. So that the whole state of things is simple and easy to be understood. God was faithful, and would manifest the fulfilment of all His gracious undertakings. Israel had still to prove their faithfulness.* *We learn how they failed at once. The Bochim of Judges 2:1-23 tells us that. The land wholly divided may tell us how the Lord was true and gave them all that was promised, as we read here - the inhabitants only partially subdued, may tell us how Israel had still to be proved, and that they were not yet in full possession, as we also read here. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: 06.08. CALEB ======================================================================== Caleb. Have we paid as much respect to Caleb, or attention to his history, as we ought to have done? We lose sight of him in the broader lines and brighter light of Joshua. But this is not as it should be, for he shines in his own sphere in the heaven of Scripture, and leaves traces of himself behind him, which we may well desire to have reproduced or retraced in ourselves. We see him in Numbers 13:14, and find him there, rather the more earnest of the two. At any rate, he there earns as good a degree as Joshua. Surely grace will be sovereign; and a very blessed thing it is, when we can bow to its sovereignty, though in its high-prerogative arrangements it may treat us in ways which nature would resent, and give us only a Manasseh or left-hand blessing. Therefore, Caleb dare not complain for a moment that Joshua is put nearer to Moses than he; but for the relief of his heart (if it suffered under such a trial as this) he might have remembered that before the day of Numbers 13:14, even in the time of Exodus 17:1-16, Joshua had stood by Moses, and that on that occasion he himself had not been with him. Still we can understand full well that nature might have felt a sting, when, after Moses, Joshua becomes principal in the camp, and he becomes subordinate, as we see in our fourteenth chapter. But he bears it beautifully, and I ask myself is it not as beautiful to rejoice in the fruitfulness of another, as to be fruitful ourselves? Without envy or grudging soiling his spirit, Caleb seeks the patronage of the man of whom in early life, he had been the associate and fellow-workman. He uses him instead of envying him. He cares not to have this word addressed to him, "Give this man place." The song. "Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands," found him prepared. It did not move him. Such a thing has great moral beauty in it. We have another sample of it in Peter, in John 13:1-38. Peter sees John lying on the bosom of the Lord; but instead of grudging him that nearer place, he uses him in it, asking him to get the secret of that bosom, where he, though the elder of the two, was not lying. And so Caleb here in Joshua 14:1-15Joshua 14. He uses Joshua instead of envying him. Indeed I might have noticed the like grace in Moses, when Moses heard that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp, he at once goes to the camp that he might hear them himself. He rebuked the resentment that would have envied them for his sake. Strange, I grant, that we should have to stop and admire such things, but we know we may do so. Corruptions are of a deep and hateful character in the soul, as we all right well know, and these samples of extrication or of victory cannot but he our admiration. But again, Caleb was great in another characteristic. He was faithful among the faithless. He had been so in the wilderness, and he is so now in the land. He seems to have been the only one of all the tribes of Israel who refused to form alliance with the native Canaanites. Just as he had stood with Joshua faithful among the spies in the wilderness, so is he still faithful among the tribes in the land. He goes on, sword in hand, till he had expelled all whom he found there, from his possessions in Hebron (Joshua 15:1-63). And still further, he valued his inheritance. His heart was set on what God had promised him. He was strong and courageous to take it, and then he was earnest and happy in enjoying it. These are fine qualities of "an Israelite indeed." Caleb humbles himself to God’s way and appointments to get title to his portion; he sets his heart upon that portion; he is earnest and valiant to hold it in the face of all that withstood him. Fine tokens indeed of a saint of God! And surely, I may say again, good and profitable, and withal pleasant it is, to pay a little more attention to this distinguished Israelite, than has been commonly done among us. He is the very contradiction of his faithless brethren. Instead of forming alliance with the Canaanites, giving sons or daughters in marriage, he publishes this noble proclamation - "He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife." He kept "the way of the Lord" as purely as ever Abraham had. No husband for his daughter save one of the Lord’s appointments. He would not build up his house as with wood and stubble. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 72: 06.09. THE TWO TRIBES AND A HALF ======================================================================== The Two Tribes and a Half. Joshua 22:1-34. The army may now be disbanded. It had been enlisted in chapter 1. It had served faithfully in the wars of Canaan, but the country being now conquered, and the land divided, there is no further occasion for the army which had been hired for this service. The Reubenites, Gadites and men of Manasseh, may now re-cross the Jordan and feed their flocks in peace in the mountains of Gilead and Bashan. They may turn their sword into a shepherd’s crook. This is as though the sword of an earlier David had sheathed itself in the presence of the peaceful throne of Solomon, or as though David’s armour had been hung up in the temple of God (see 2 Chronicles 23:9). It savours, too, of that still future day when the host that is to accompany the Rider on the white horse in the day of the judgment of the Beast and his confederates, having done their service as the armies of heaven, were laying aside their weapons of war to take their place of peaceful, glorious sovereignty in the world to come (Revelation 19:1-21 and Revelation 20:1-15). The army of the two tribes and a half now became the cultivators of their fields and their flocks on the eastern side of the Jordan, but there, in their own portion, they continue one with their brethren in the land of Canaan, the witnesses and the worshippers of the God of Israel. And in meditating on the scene connected with this, I would linger a little; for if I mistake it not, it has a word for our souls. The ark had gone over, conducting and sheltering the Israel of God, and Israel and the ark had remained there, but the men of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had re-crossed the Jordan, returning to settle where their brethren had but wandered. Ere they had set out, Joshua had again, as we saw in Joshua 1, been uneasy about them, and as soon as they make the passage, and touch the place which they had chosen, they begin, evidently, to be uneasy also; and under pressure of this uneasiness they raise an altar. This is full of language in our ears. An Israelite in the land of Gilead at this living day of ours understands it. Jehoshaphat understood it when he saw himself on the throne with Ahab; he was, after this manner, disquieted, and under pressure of his soul, he asks for a prophet of the Lord. And all this was the language of the renewed mind in a foreign land, or in the place of the uncircumcised. So the two tribes and a half now raise an altar, and call it "Ed." It was a witness as they purposed of this, that Israel’s God was their God. But why all this? Had they taken up their portion in Canaan they would not have needed this. They would have had the original and not a mere copy; but they were in Gilead and not in Canaan; Shiloh was not in view, and they had, therefore, to give themselves some artificial, some secondary help to sustain their confidence, that they and the Israel of God were really one. All this is full of meaning, and is much experienced to this day. Some witness of what we are and who we are is craved by the soul and called for by others, when we get into a position in the world with which the call of God does not combine. Some extraordinary testimony is felt to be desirable - the countenance or acceptance of others, the examination of our own personal condition, reasonings with ourselves or restless action in the soul, remembrances of better days; something of all this has to be invoked or gone through, where there is not consistent singleness and fidelity; and this is the altar called "Ed"; this is the writing on that pillar in the land of Gilead. Lot’s wife, the pillar in the plains of Sodom. has a writing upon it, and the divine Master has deciphered it for us; and I doubt not, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, would have us under His anointing, read the writing on this pillar in the land of Gilead. It may warn us if we love quietness and assurance of heart, not to return and find a settlement where the Church of God only finds a pilgrim age. An Israelite in Gilead does not make his calling and election sure. Does my soul read this lesson? Every heart knows its own humiliation. These disturbances of spirit, this demand of Jehoshaphat for a prophet, this altar of Ed raised by the Reubenities and their companions, bespeak such exercises as a more single-eyed attachment to Christ would surely spare us. But grace aboundeth as ever; so here, for in spite of all this I feel that I can say that I know not that the people of Israel ever present themselves in more moral beauty and healthfulness than just at this time. It was happy to hear their song on the banks of the Red Sea, and happy to observe their good order while crossing the Jordan, and well, as I have already noticed, to see them and their ways reflected in the Book of Leviticus; and generally all through this book of Joshua. But of the times of Israel under Joshua, this was still the brightest, palmiest hour. The heart, perhaps, takes more delight in surveying them in the twenty-second chapter of Joshua, than at any moment whatever. The jealousy and fear of the tribes on the western side of the river, as soon as they heard of the altar set up by their brethren in the east, has every expression about it that can satisfy us; and the answer which the Reubenites and their companions give to this jealousy is equally perfect in its way. Jordan, which threatened to be a partition-wall, becomes, rather, by such exercises as these, a link between them. If it be a veil, it is a rent veil. In heart, and in the sympathies of their common faith, all must have been more firmly and happily bound together than if nothing had happened. Each must have valued the other the more, because of the witness they had liberally borne to their common Lord. The fears and jealousy of the one must have been welcome to the other, though they themselves had awakened them - the earnestness and simplicity of the eastern tribes must have been most refreshing to their brethren in the west, though it rebuked the groundlessness and unworthiness of their fears. "To the Lord," they, each of them, did what they did - and that is the strength, as well as the title, of fellowship. It reminds me of Romans 14:1-23. New Testament brethren are there as on either side of certain partition walls. The eating and the not eating of meats, the observing and the not observing of days, is like a Jordan rolling between them. But when they make enquiry under the light and conduct of the Holy Ghost, they discover that these partitions are really links, that the veil. is a rent one, and that as the one observes the day to the Lord, and as the other observes not the day to the Lord, as the one eats to the Lord, and the other eats not to the Lord; since the Lord, His name, His glory, and His Pleasure is everything to each of them, they are only the more closely knit together. The longer the cord that binds them, by its very length proves its strength. Happy thus to speak, whether of Old Testament or New Testament brethren; and I have not the slightest misgiving but that we may speak thus. There is, however, I grant, another light in which to read the conduct and the character of the two tribes and a half; and it is a warning, as this view of them is a consolation. I have referred to this already; and here I would add that nothing is more common than this, that many and many a saint of God looked at personally in his own spirit and behaviour, may well be the joy of one’s heart; looked at in his position, may as easily grieve and surprise us. In our own day, this is proved abundantly. It is illustrated here in the story of the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh; and precious indeed are these divine unities, which are traced everywhere throughout the Book of God, and which may be traced between His words in the Book and His work in the saints. I am in Romans 14:1-23, when reading Joshua 22:1-34, and I am in the midst of brethren in the Lord Jesus all around me at this living moment, when reading either the one or the other of these chapters. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 73: 06.10. JOSHUA'S LAST WORDS ======================================================================== Joshua’s Last Words. Joshua 23:1-16, Joshua 24:1-33. Things under the hand of Joshua are now closing. The land has been partly conquered and wholly divided. A strange condition, as I have already noticed. But so it is. The unconquered parts are left that Israel might be tested, whether indeed they would be obedient or not; the Lord being pledged by His servant to prove Himself able and ready to conquer what remained still in possession of the Canaanites, and make it actually His people’s, if they did but stand in their allegiance to Him. But Joshua warned them that if they went back from following the Lord, then the unconquered people should be plagues to them, scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes, until they themselves were destroyed from off that land which had now been given them. This is now recognised by Joshua as being the condition and standing of Israel in the land of Canaan. It is like Adam’s condition in the land of Eden. Adam was there, surrounded by the witnesses of God’s goodness to him, and by the perfection of his own estate; but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was in the midst of the garden, was there, to be the occasion of testing his obedience - and a warning and a threat were pronounced, and the penalty of death, if the injunction not to eat of that tree, were despised. The resemblance, the moral resemblance, between these two conditions, Adam in Eden and Israel in Canaan, is perfect; and we might have expected that it would be so, because we know from the teaching of Romans 5:1-21, that Adam was put under law in the Garden of Eden, and that Israel were put under law in the land of Canaan. Grace had conducted them hitherto. It was the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, Who had brought them out of Egypt, and had carried them through one wilderness after another, till, having crossed the Jordan, they are now planted in the Canaan promised to the fathers; but grace having thus set them in the land, as God of old in goodness had set Adam in the Garden, they must now hold it upon terms of their own covenant, or on condition of obedience. It is thus, I may add, with the throne of David afterwards. In grace God chose and exalted David. He sustained him and gave him victory upon victory, till there was no evil or enemy occurrent. He set his throne in peaceful glory, in the person of his son Solomon, but then the family of David had to keep the throne of David on terms of obedience; and we know they lost the throne, as the tribes of Israel lost the land, and Adam the Garden. Being set upon these terms, Joshua exhorts them. He would fain have them faithful, and obedient, and happy. He repeats his exhortation. He is concerned for them. He was not merely officially over them, but personally of them and with them. He was not an hireling, whose own the sheep were not - he felt his own deep interest in them. He exhorts them, first, in an assembly of the people, with their elders and rulers and judges, after the Lord had given them rest, and when he him. self was now well-stricken in years, and about to go, the way of all the earth, and again, in a still fuller assembly, the people all solemnly presenting themselves before God. And here he rehearses too, in the name of the Lord, all the Lord’s doings for them, from the day of the call of Abraham down to that hour. It is blessed to mark all this - the fervency of spirit, with which this aged servant of God and this full-hearted friend of Israel, thus closes his ministry. It may remind us of Moses speaking to Israel on the edge of the wilderness, in the words of the book of Deuteronomy - or of David counselling his son, his nobles, and his people, as he was about to leave them, in 1 Chronicles - or of Paul exhorting and warning the elders of Ephesus, when seeing them, and as it were, his ministry, for the last time in Acts 20:1-38. True affection, the love that makes the interest of others our own, dictated all these occasions, the Spirit of God using them, whether in Moses, in Joshua, in David, or in Paul. In distant, separated parts of the word, are these occasions found, but how does one Spirit fill His vessels with like treasure, and quicken them, and the same gracious, serving affections! The people accept the exhortation and pledge obedience. Joshua warns them not to be confident. They persist in giving their pledges, and that too, again and again. For they are the same self-trusting, and boastful generation, which they had been in the day of Exodus 14:1-31; the same when now they had ended their journey and experienced what they were by the failures of 40 years, as they had been on their starting. They are still confident in their own sufficiency, and desirous still to stand upon a title made out by themselves. They had said, under Mount Sinai, "all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do," and now it is, "the Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey." Literally one generation had passed and another had come, but morally they are the same generation. And the same generation has not passed away even to this day (Matthew 24:34). After all this, the Covenant is settled between the Lord and the people in this conditional character; their confidence in themselves in their early day under Mount Sinai having led to this, and their renewed pledges here at Shechem binding them afresh, and reminding them of their responsibilities. Now, after all this, I ask, can they wonder at the judgment which has now overtaken them. or complain of the desolations and captivities which they are enduring? They must be speechless, like the man in the parable of the marriage of the King’s son; or like the Jews after listening to that of the wicked husbandmen - they must pronounce sentence upon themselves. They are without excuse. They undertook to answer for themselves and they have ruined themselves. They left God’s hand and got into their own, and their own hand has betrayed them - and as always, so in the judgment of Israel, we may say with David and with Paul, to God, "that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest" (Psalms 51:4; Romans 3:4). A stone is then raised, not as on the banks of Jordan, in the beginning of the book, in witness that the God of salvation had brought His people through all that intervened and hindered, to the land of promise, but as a witness that the people had now taken these covenants and obligations upon them - "O foolish people and unwise!" Joshua then dies, and is buried in his own portion in Mount Ephraim. Moses had died in the wilderness, and the Lord had buried him; Joshua dies in the land, and his brethren bury him. But Moses passed from his grave in the wilderness to Heaven, Joshua rests in the land in the hope of a resurrection-inheritance of it. I speak of mysteries, of Moses as signifying the heavenly destiny of the church, of Joshua as pledging the earthly promises of God to Israel; and together giving samples of that dispensation, when, in the fulness of times, all things both in Heaven and on earth shall he gathered together in Christ (Ephesians 1:10); and this is the same as was exhibited long before these times in Enoch and in Noah, and long after these times in Elijah and Elisha, so that all times, the times of the patriarchs, of Moses, and of the prophets, might in their several ways, rehearse beforehand the glories of the world to come. According to all this, it is Moses and Elijah that reappear there in the heavens. They are seen in glory with Christ on the holy mount, while Peter, James and John, occupying mystically the place of Noah, Joshua and Elisha, are still as citizens of the earth in their own persons or in their unglorified bodies, gazing on the heavens that are shining in their excellency before them and above them. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 74: 06.11. CONCLUSION ======================================================================== Conclusion. In taking leave of this Book of Joshua, I would say that I read it as occupying morally very much the same place in the Old Testament which the Apocalypse occupies in the New. This may sound harsh and strange, but it is not so. Joshua is the book that reads to us the judgments of the Lord upon the land of the Amorites. The Apocalypse reads to us the judgments of the Lord upon the apostate nations of the last days. Joshua, likewise, is the book of the inheritance, telling us of the division of the promised land among the children of Abraham and the setting of God’s name and worship there, as a land brought back to God out of ruin and pollution. The Apocalypse in a New Testament or heavenly character is the same. The seven-sealed book is there opened and the judgments which follow, clear the scene for the glorified Bride of the Lamb to descend and take her connection with the earth beneath. As Joshua brought in the tabernacle of God into the possession of the Gentiles, so the city of glory, the holy Jerusalem, is seen, in Revelation 21:10, to descend, having "the glory of God" in the midst of her, that the lordship of the world to come may he taken, and the throne of God and the Lamb set up over the redeemed creation. . . . . . . . . . A solemn thought it is, that in the history of this world, God is displaying righteousness, as well as manifesting and dispensing grace. In the Scriptures we have samples of this, as in His dealings with the world before the flood, with the cities of the plains, with Egypt, with the Amorites, with Israel and with Christendom. God makes His power known and shows His wrath on the vessels which have fitted themselves for destruction, as He displays the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He has Himself prepared for glory. But it is solemn, though needed. When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness, learn that there is righteousness with Him (Exodus 7:1-5; Isaiah 26:9; Revelation 15:4). Grace has been already proposed, the purposes and provisions of it are brought forth and revealed; but grace being despised, judgment enters, and righteousness is taught by judgment. Then grace having gathered its own, and judgment having cleared the scene, glory will be revealed and set up, and the kingdom will be the place of living, practical righteousness. The sceptre of it will maintain righteousness - and beautiful, let me say, will this be. Grace will be celebrated in a scene of righteousness; redemption will he had in everlasting remembrance in the place where all will be truth and holiness. The grace of redemption will have been introduced to a region of cloudless, unspotted purity. What a bright and perfect combination! Grace is known; entire debtors are we to it for what we are and where we are; but it is not taken advantage of, as we speak. It will not be wronged. It shall be known and gloried in when all around is righteous and pure, and where nothing will enter that can defile. Such will he the coming kingdom in the moral realities of it, and such in spirit is now our place in the Gospel. The grace of God has brought salvation, but it has also taught us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly. It is a simple further reflection upon this book that now the covenant was made good which gave the land wherein the fathers had been strangers. the land of their pilgrimage, as an inheritance to their children (Exodus 6:5). We are not to forget this. The place that once witnessed pilgrimage and strangership is now the scene of citizenship and inheritance. Significant indeed this is - a child may read the story, and as he reads the story, interpret the parable or draw the moral. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 75: 07.00. SHORT MEDITATIONS ON ELISHA ======================================================================== STEM Publishing:J. G. Bellett:Short Meditations on Elisha Short Meditations on Elisha By J. G. Bellett. "Tell me, I pray thee, All the great things that Elisha hath done." 2 Kings 8:4. This is a 19 chapter work on Elisha. Contents Chapter 1 The Translation of Elijah 2 Kings 1:1-18; 2 Kings 2:1-25; 2 Kings 3:1-27; 2 Kings 4:1-44; 2 Kings 5:1-27; 2 Kings 6:1-33; 2 Kings 7:1-20; 2 Kings 8:1-29; 2 Kings 9:1-37; 2 Kings 10:1-36; 2 Kings 11:1-21; 2 Kings 12:1-21; 2 Kings 13:1-25 Chapter 2 The Waters of Jericho Healed Chapter 3 The Judgment of the Scoffing Children Chapter 4 The Armies of the Kings Supplied with Water Chapter 5 The Widow’s Oil Multiplied Chapter 6 The Shunammite Chapter 7 The Deadly Pottage Healed Chapter 8 The Multitude Fed Chapter 9 Naaman the Syrian Chapter 10 The Iron Made to Swim Chapter 11 The Syrian Host Struck Blind Chapter 12 The Famine in Samaria Chapter 13 The Shunammite Again Chapter 14 The Prophecy of Hazael 2 Kings 8:7-15 Chapter 15 The Anointing of Jehu 2 Kings 9:1-37; 2 Kings 10:1-36 Chapter 16 Joash, King of Judah 2 Kings 11:1-21; 2 Kings 12:1-21 Chapter 17 Joash, King of Israel, and the Arrows 2 Kings 13:1-19 Chapter 18 The Dead Man Quickened 2 Kings 13:20-25 Chapter 19 Conclusion Introduction. The ministries of Elijah and Elisha occupied the days of the family of Ahab, of the house of Omri; the time of the deepest corruption in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. The testimony of the Lord about those times is this: "And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him." It was in those days that Hiel the Bethelite dared the arm of the Lord by rebuilding Jericho; an act which, affronting the truth and power of the Lord, looked with infidel boldness, and said, "Where is the God of judgment?" (Malachi 2:17). For Ahab’s days were days of man’s proud provocation and temptation again. At such a time, just on the act of Hiel, Elijah is called out (1 Kings 16:34; 1 Kings 17:1). And in him, we see an entirely independent call of God, and energy of the Spirit. He is quite in the Lord’s own hand. He does not belong to the Priesthood. He never seeks the Temple. He never consults established oracles, or walks orderly according to the statutes or ordinances of Israel. But the Lord takes him up, and fills him with light and power altogether His own, not reaching him by any prescribed channel at all. And so Elisha. He was independent of all that was already instituted in the land. The hand of the Lord uses him, the Spirit of God fills him, without respect to the Temple or the Priesthood. And we get the common, and yet most blessed instruction of Scripture, out of this — that when man had corrupted and righteously lost everything (as in Ahab, and in his times), the Lord finds occasion by that, to bring forth His own resources. Man’s wilderness was Christ’s storehouse (Matthew 14:15-21). But though there is this common character and moral in the call of these two prophets (and indeed, in measure, of all the prophets), yet their ministries are, in detail, very distinct. Testimony against evil, and consequent suffering, mark the history of Elijah; power, and grace in using it for others, mark that of Elisha. Both are seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose shadows, of course, they were. In one aspect of His history on earth, we see the suffering, driven, persecuted witness; the world hating Him, because He testified that its works were evil; in another we see the powerful, gracious, ready friend of others, all that had sorrows or necessities getting healing and blessing from Him. More, too, than even this stands reflected in the histories of these prophets; for Elijah’s sorrow here, and rejection by the world, ends in heaven; Elisha’s power carries him ahead of all that might resist, and keeps him in constant honour and triumph on the earth. And these things foreshadow the heavenly and earthly things of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and King of Israel. I would now pass through the history of Elisha given to us in 2 Kings 2:1-25; 2 Kings 3:1-27; 2 Kings 4:1-44; 2 Kings 5:1-27; 2 Kings 6:1-33; 2 Kings 7:1-20; 2 Kings 8:1-29; 2 Kings 9:1-37; 2 Kings 10:1-36; 2 Kings 11:1-21; 2 Kings 12:1-21; 2 Kings 13:1-25. I do so, however, only rapidly, though in this little journey noticing each detached scene in order, and seeking to draw forth something of the divine counsel, and the divine moral, having found it a scripture of great interest to my own soul. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 76: 07.01. THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH ======================================================================== The Translation of Elijah. 2 Kings 1:1-18; 2 Kings 2:1-25; 2 Kings 3:1-27; 2 Kings 4:1-44; 2 Kings 5:1-27; 2 Kings 6:1-33; 2 Kings 7:1-20; 2 Kings 8:1-29; 2 Kings 9:1-37; 2 Kings 10:1-36; 2 Kings 11:1-21; 2 Kings 12:1-21; 2 Kings 13:1-25. These verses give us the first distinct portion. Long before this, Elijah had invited Elisha into ministry with him (1 Kings 19:1-21) by passing by and casting his mantle upon him; but Elisha was not then quite prepared. He pleaded his father and mother. "Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father, and my mother, and then I will follow thee." Upon which Elijah, as it were, withdrew his mantle from him, recalled his invitation, saying, "Go back again, for what have I done to thee."* *The Lord seems to refer to the call of Elisha, in Luke 9:62. Elisha was then at the plough, but seemed to look a little back. (See 1 Kings 19:19-20). This was significant. For though Elisha is for a moment seen ministering to Elijah after this (1 Kings 19:21), yet we do not again find him expressly in company with his master, till now that his master is just about to be taken from him. And to what end is he now seen with him? Just to abide the fire, just to stand the test, whether indeed he were, or were not, fully prepared for the mantle. Elijah can leave his mantle behind him. He needed it not in the heaven to which he was going. As soon as he entered the fiery chariot on which the whirlwind attended — as soon as he was borne by angels (Hebrews 1:7) up to heaven, he may, and must, disrobe himself. The mantle must be the instrument of power, the gift for service here - and the servant lays that aside when his service is over; just as the sinner at his conversion, when his old estate is passed, can cast away his garments (Mark 10:15). "We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." But though Elijah may now dispense with his mantle, is Elisha prepared for it? That is the question. And this trial is made by two instruments, Elijah himself, and the sons of the prophets. Both were used by God to prove if indeed Elijah’s mantle were chief in Elisha’s esteem, whether he carried within him the spirit of a true Levite, of one with whom the Urim and Thummim might be, being found able now to say to his father and his mother, "I have not seen him" (Deuteronomy 33:8-9). This was the test; the Lord was weighing Elisha’s value for glory; He was ascertaining how heavy a share with the joy and honour of being one in the spirit and ministry of Elijah was in the scales of Elisha’s affections. And he stands the test; nothing slackens his hand. He silences all temptations; he declares plainly that he coveted the mantle, the double portion of the Spirit. He turns his eye from every object but the glory. It is no more his father or his mother behind him whom he would return to kiss, but it is his father in the faith, his kindred in the Spirit, he clings to, and towards whom, and whom alone, he looks upward and onward. "My father, my father," says he, as Elijah was ascending, "the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." This was enough. There was a slight flaw in his title to the mantle at first (1 Kings 19:1-21) as we saw, but now his title is perfect. He is a true Levite. "He knows no man after the flesh," and the mantle is his. And this is a holy lesson for us. For how little do our hearts, surely we know, value the mantle, value the honour of serving Jesus, or a share of His coming glories! This tested not the prophet’s title to God Himself, or salvation. Elijah had no doubt that Elisha was the Lord’s: but this was trying his estimation of glory. And that is properly our only question. We are to examine ourselves whether we be walking worthy of the Lord’s glory — whether we value a share in it. And well for us if discipline lead us to covet it, as it did Elisha: well, if nature, which is so tenacious of its life and its rights in us, be rebuked, and while it says, go back and kiss father and mother, we rather listen to the voice of the mantle which tells us to go forward after the prophet of God. And humbling it is to know that the heart, left to itself without the Spirit, cares not for God or His glory. It once sold him for a mess of pottage, then for a herd of swine, and then for thirty pieces of silver. And would still for anything. The chariot may go back to heaven empty for aught we care. This is the language of the heart. But oh for grace to value a portion with Thee, blessed Saviour! Oh for power in our souls to long for a seat with Thee in that heavenly chariot that shall separate us from earth, and its interests, and take us in Thee, and with Thee, and through Thee, to the height of glorious bliss! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 77: 07.02. THE WATERS OF JERICHO HEALED ======================================================================== The Waters of Jericho Healed. There are different elevations amongst the Saints. Lot did not stand on a level with Abraham, nor did the 7,000 hidden ones with Elijah. But all were, equally, the elect of God, known to Him, and reserved by Him. So here; Elisha and the sons of the prophets illustrate the same thing. We have just seen the one pressing through all hindrances after heavenly honours, but now we are to see the other with a mind too sadly formed by the earth. These sons of the prophets were, Nicodemus like, slow hearted to believe. Their thoughts do not rise above the mountains and valleys of the earth. They have never seen a heavenly chariot. They cannot think but that Elijah is still somewhere here - and they search for him here. Elisha would have led them at once to his place of light and elevation; but they must be taught through their own mistakes. Elisha can, however, own them. Weak and inapprehensive as they may be, and in the power of the Spirit far below the prophet of God; still they share his company, and his blessing. The city where they dwelt had been under a curse (Joshua 6:1-27) But he brings healing to it. "There shall be no more curse," was the language of the prophet over Jericho, as it will be the language of the Lord over the inheritance (Romans 8:1-39, Revelation 22:1-21).* And this is comforting while it is humbling to us consciously weak ones — to us who, from what we know of our poor souls, stand more with the sons of the prophets round Jericho, than travel, in the strength of the Holy Ghost, with Elisha through the Jordan. It should humble us to think that we are not on his level, while it may blessedly comfort us to know, that the Lord is still ours. The small and the great stand before Him. *If it be not too bold a thought, I would suggest, from the history we get of it in scripture, that Jericho may be looked at as a sample of the whole earth. The curse was at the beginning pronounced upon that city (Joshua 6:1-27); that curse was executed on it (1 Kings 16:1-34); but at the end it becomes a healed place, suited to the habitation and joy of God and man again. Is not this the parable of the earth? But here I would observe, that from the moment when our prophet took up the mantle of his master, God was all he had; but he found Him enough for all he needed. His need, however, like that of Jesus, was not his own. It was for others he occupied his resources and strength in God. He was rich, but not for himself. Thus — he meets the inconveniences of nature — without a purse he relieves the poor — without a commisariat he feeds armies — the deadly thing he makes harmless — without bread he gives food to a multitude and gathers fragments — without medicine he heals disease — without arms or soldiers he defeats enemies — in famine he supplies a nation — though dead he communicates life. All this tells us of Jesus. For Jesus had nothing, yet made He many rich. He had the worlds of nature and of grace for the needy children of men. And His ways shine in the reflections of His servant Elisha. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 78: 07.03. THE JUDGMENT OF THE SCOFFING CHILDREN ======================================================================== The Judgment of the Scoffing Children. Another meditation is suggested here. Children of Bethel are another order of persons altogether. If Elisha present the strong one in Christ, the true Levite, who had turned his back on all but the glory, and the chariot of fire to conduct him to it, and if the sons of the prophets are the weak ones, still, however, by divine grace, in the same company and blessing as Elisha, these children of Bethel, on the other hand, are the mockers, or infidels. They despise the word of the Lord. They mock the thought of ascension. "Where is the promise of his coming?" say they (2 Peter 3:1-18) The whole mystery of God, made known for salvation and glory, is their sport. They put the Son of God to open shame. "Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head," they say to Elisha, as reproaching the thought that Elijah had already, gone up. And here the curse falls. Ministers of wrath come forth; the bears on the children of Bethel, and the eagles on the carcase, to vindicate the divine truth against the gainsayers. Creation, it is true, is not to groan for ever under the curse which our sin has put on it, but shall be delivered from bondage into glorious liberty (Romans 8:1-39), as Jericho had just been here but the curse will rest on the Cain, the children of Bethel, who despise God’s remedy for the mischief. And it is written of such mocking, infidel children, children of disobedience, whether of Babylon, of Bethel, or of Edom, "happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Psalms 137:1-9)* *Bethel may well stand in company with Babylon and Edom. Its history savours of full apostacy from God. There the idols were set up (1 Kings 12:25-33). There, as we saw, Hiel was born, (See Introduction.) And here we learn that it was the native place of these scoffing, infidel children. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 79: 07.04. THE ARMIES OF THE KINGS SUPPLIED WITH WATER ======================================================================== The Armies of the Kings Supplied with Water. We do not find Elisha the sport of wicked kings as Elijah had been. No rude hand of theirs prevails against him; but their fate, the rather, hangs on his word, and the power of God that was with him. Without him, we have seen three of them brought to the brink of destruction with all their armies. But the word of the Lord, by him, changes the scene, and distress of nations, with perplexity, is turned into victory and spoils. But in the progress of this, we have something to notice. The King of Judah is here found in bad company. This confederacy with the apostate house of Ahab was a symptom of sad unguardedness in Jehoshaphat. Nay, it was more — it was conferring with flesh and blood in a very evil way. But, in the divine grace, occasions are allowed to manifest the hidden life that was in him. Trouble surprises him, and then the voice of his better nature is heard. "Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may enquire of the Lord by him?" This shows the uneasiness of the renewed mind of Jehoshaphat in such a scene as the present, though in an unwatched moment he had consented to it. And it was in the Lord’s goodness to send the trouble, that the life which was indeed in him might appear (see 1 Kings 22:7). This is comforting to us. But there is something further in this narrative. Elisha finds, when in the presence of these kings, that he cannot readily prophesy. Jehoshaphat may claim the word of the Lord from him, it is true, for Jehoshaphat is the Lord’s servant: but Jehoshaphat is not where he should be, and the Spirit in Elisha is checked. This is solemn. A minstrel must be brought ere the Spirit in the prophet can have His full and graceful flow. What a rebuke to the king of Judah was this! What a rebuke to any saint, that another finds the Spirit in him restrained in his presence! Is not this often so? Does not our fleshliness interrupt the fine, free, and easy current of the Spirit, and has not the minstrel still to be thus called for? Some delay, some effort, something incidental, is to be exercised or suffered by. those who are spiritual, before all can be in tune again. So was it here, and so ofttimes is it yet. This was the symptom of Jehoshaphat’s bad condition, but of Elisha’s heavenly-mindedness. Had Elisha been less in communion, he would not have stood in such need of the minstrel Had he been in the flesh, and not in the Spirit, he would not have felt the breach that Jehoshaphat, now in the flesh, was occasioning. His heavenliness of mind may be known by this sensitiveness, and the need that he had of restoration. Jesus had continually to call for the minstrel. His communion met its constant hindrance here, even from His own, who understood neither His joys nor His sorrows. He had to leave them; He had to rise before day, to continue all night, to go into a solitary place for prayer to God. It was the perfectness of His communion that made this necessary. He needed the minstrel. Had He been on ground nearer the earth, He would not have been so quick in feeling the earthliness of all around Him but He knew it all by the deepest contrast with it all in His own soul; and the charm and melody, of His own converse with the Father restored Him — in that sense restored Him. Such was the blessed Master, the pattern of all perfections; and such, in his measure, was Elisha His servant. A mere instrument of divine power, or of a spiritual gift, may perform its part or exercise itself anywhere with equal freedom. Balaam is not hindered by the presence of Balak and the altars, from uttering His prophecies. For he is merely an instrument — a carnal material, as it were, through which another breathes. But where a renewed mind is the instrument, this cannot be. It will be alive in its own proper affections and in its own sensitive holiness, all the while it is used as an instrument of power. And such was Elisha. He cannot but be grieved at the scene before him. Jehoshaphat ought not to have been there; and Elisha must let him know that he himself must enter it in another way altogether. A saint is called to serve or testify, in places of deepest defilement. But he can never be there with his sympathies, or the fellowship of his soul. It was Elisha’s praise, as a saint, to be thus like his Lord, to be quick in feeling the weight and pressure of such a scene as this, where another saint was walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit. And how should we covet this, beloved! How should we so live, and move, and have our being in the sanctuary, that the unclean could not touch it unperceived! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 80: 07.05. THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED ======================================================================== The Widow’s Oil Multiplied. "According to your faith, be it unto you!" was the Lord’s word to the two blind men. Wondrous and blessed indeed, that thus in any wise our faith, or patience, or expectation of hope, should be allowed to measure the active and bounteous power of our Lord! but so was it. "According to your faith, be it unto you;" and again, "As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee" (Matthew 8:1-34; Matthew 9:1-38). And this is the voice of the miracle wrought here through the hand of Elisha. For as long as the poor widow produced her vessels, the pot produced its oil. The oil waited on the vessels. The vessels were the measure of the oil. In other words, divine power waited on faith — faith measured the active resources of God on the occasion. This was like the Lord, of old, standing with Abraham. For as long as Abraham stood interceding, the Lord stood promising. (Genesis 18:17-33). This blessed grace of God has its illustration here. But there is another thing. "What hast thou in the house?" said the prophet to the woman. As Jesus afterward said to His disciples, "How many loaves have ye?" — or, as He had said to Moses at the hill, "What is that in thine hand?" For it is suitable, that whatever we have should be put to use. It may be quite unequal to the necessity, but whatever it be, it should be occupied. It may be but a shepherd’s staff, and Israel has to be redeemed; — it may be but a pot of oil, and the creditor, who has a right to sell children and all, has to be paid; — it may be but five barley loaves, and five thousand hungry ones have to be fed. But still, let what there is be occupied and brought forth. "She hath done what she could." And, accordingly, the word here is, "What hast thou in the house?" And then, on bringing forth the pot of oil, the all of the house, let faith count on the power of God, and His word of promise, and not only shall the creditor be discharged, but life sustained for many days, over and above the payment; not only shall the multitude be fed, but fragments gathered; not only shall Israel be redeemed out of Egypt, but the same shepherd’s rod, now God’s rod, shall feed and keep the flock to the end of the desert. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 81: 07.06. THE SHUNAMMITE ======================================================================== The Shunammite. Here we have another exhibition of the power of Elisha’s walk through the earth. This is very, glorious; savouring, as we shall see, very strikingly, of the energy and authority of God that was with him. And yet, though walking thus in such power towards others, he had himself, all the while, nothing. Poor indeed, while making many rich: seeming to possess all things, yet really having nothing. Receiving bounty and care in the ordinary need of life, from those in whose behalf he, at the same time, is opening resources which were altogether beyond man. And beside — he walks alone in the world, and yet all wait on him. All this gives us a strong expression of the ways of One who could call Himself Master and Lord, receiving the homage of faith, even while He had not where to lay His head. In all this our prophet is marking out for us, as in a reflection, the path of Jesus in one of its most striking, remarkable characters. The woman whom this passage introduces to us was evidently, one of the godly seed in the land. She lived in the distant tribe of Issachar, and does not appear to have personally known this mighty prophet of God. But she quickly apprehends something of the Lord about him. She had been already taught of God; her religion was that which discerned God’s mind and way in an evil day, when apostacy was clouding everything. New moons and sabbaths, as her husband wrongly judged, did not constitute her service, or mark out the path of her spirit with God. But Elisha, who was at that day the channel of divine grace and power apart from the temple and its ordinances, was her object and hope, as he was God’s object and instrument. She accordingly prepares him a place of sojourning in her own house. And her intelligence of him is further and strikingly marked by the preparation she makes for him. It was but a little chamber, with its bed, its table, its stool, and its candlestick. All was in the simplicity of a man of God, who stood apart from the world, a stranger in the midst of its corruptions. She knew him because she was like him. One spirit was in them both. She understood his pilgrim thoughts and habits, just because she was exercised in them herself. And this is the only way really and divinely to know either the children of God, or God Himself. It is by the union and mind of the same spirit. She dwelt among her own people, and cared not to be spoken for either to the King or to the Captain of the host. Even as Elisha; who, though he had the ear of the King and of the Captain of the host (as well he might after feeding their armies in the day of battle), yet would he be a stranger and pilgrim in the land, and lodge in a little chamber, with a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick. These are the sympathies in the spirit between the children of God. She could receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, according to the tastes of a prophet. And the great prophet of that day, God’s witness in the land, the vessel of fullest divine treasure that was then, in the name of the Lord, shedding it blessing wherever it was borne in the might of the Spirit, is of one mind with this unknown and distant daughter of Abraham in the borders of Issachar. Precious the traces of one Spirit thus quickening and forming every elect member of the same household. And we shall find, not only Abraham’s daughter, but something of Abraham’s house and Abraham’s faith, in this honoured and interesting place. This woman had no child, and her husband was now old. But as the Lord Himself had once said to Abraham, "according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son;" so now, the Lord’s prophet says to this Shunammite, "according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son." And so it was — as with Sarah, so with this woman. The quickening power of God entered her house, and, as it was promised her, she embraced a son. More, however, than even this is to be witnessed in this house; she is to learn, through the hand of Elisha, resurrection, as well as quickening power; just as in the house of Abraham, it was learnt from the Lord Himself. Isaac, who was at the first quickened in the womb of Sarah through the power of God, was afterwards received as from the dead. And so here. The sentence of death is laid in this child of promise, but the same power of God, through Elisha, raises him from the dead. This is Abraham’s house again, and a distant woman of Issachar is thus noticed, thus honoured, and graced, by the Lord God of her people. This makes this house of the Shunammite a sample of that glorious mystery in which we are all concerned, a witness of every soul where the power of God is known; for it is there a quickening and resurrection power, which calls up those who were dead in trespasses and sins, to live in the life of the Son of God. Faith possesses itself of this. Faith, which apprehends death in ourselves, but life in Jesus. The simpler, the happier. The more unquestioning, the more according to God’s mind. It was so in this Shunammite. Her faith, as we saw, was ready at the first to apprehend the prophet; it was ready to know that all was well, or should be well, even when death had entered the house. And it was ready, in spite of all tempters, to cleave to God’s prophet, God’s object and instrument, and to him only. This was precious simplicity of confidence. And throughout the trial of her faith, to which she is now put, as was her father Abraham in his day, I observe the same calmness and certainty. When the Patriarch was ordered to take his son, and offer him up for a burnt offering he went forth to the trial, without the least disturbance of soul. The ass and the young men were at once put into readiness; and the knife, and the fire, and the wood, were all prepared. Faith counted on resurrection. Abraham reckoned on God being able to raise Isaac from the dead, as of old He had quickened him in the womb of Sarah: and Abraham was undisturbed. And so, when the deliverance did come, and the voice from heaven announced the substitute for Isaac, Abraham is not amazed. He does not wonder, or suspect, or ask again, whether indeed this be so, but he looses his son in the same repose and certainty that he had bound him. O what depth and character there is in that calmness! Faith had anticipated resurrection. And altogether in the same spirit, is the path of faith trodden here by this dear and honoured daughter of Abraham. Death was in her house again, but she knew of a quickener of the dead. And therefore the ass and the young men are again got ready, and "it is well," is the language of her faith in sure and certain hope of resurrection of the dead. And at the end, life is no amazement to her. She received her dead brought to life again (Hebrews 11:1-40) She can loose her son by faith, as well as bind him. She falls at the prophet’s feet, and bows her head. She owns in thankfulness and humiliation the precious gift, but she bears it away without amazement. It was no wonder to her. She does not curiously examine the child, whether indeed it were alive again. Faith had counted on such an hour, and already had received her child as in resurrection, and her soul had only to know that her loved one was warm and lively in her bosom again. Indeed, all this is the pattern of a sinner’s faith. Should it be thought a thing incredible with us that God should raise the dead? "Is anything too hard for the Lord!" faith is to say. "With God all things are possible." And we are to go forth from a state of death in trespasses and sins into life and liberty — from the spirit of bondage and of fear, and from under the guilt of an unpurged conscience, without amazement or suspicion, because the Lord has done it. "Once was I blind, but now I see," may be the calm, happy, thankful certainty of the sinner, who has met the Son of God in the healing virtue of His blood. But there is still more in the faith of this dear soul. I find her faith tried in the two ways that the faith of Elisha had before been tried. The sons of the prophets on the one hand, the word of Elijah on the other, had put the faith of Elisha to sore trial, as we saw in 2 Kings 11:1-21; but it prevailed, and onward he followed his master till the chariot of Israel separated them. And so here. The thoughts of her husband first, and then the way of Elisha, both rise as tempters of the steadfastness of her soul. "Wherefore wilt thou go to him today?" says her husband to her, "it is neither new moon nor sabbath;" and Elisha is for Gehazi satisfying her, and would have him go forward and lay his staff on the face of the child. But the woman’s faith silences both. And she presses through the hindrance in the same decision and fervency that Elisha himself before had done, saying, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee" (2 Kings 2:2; 2 Kings 4:30). The great enemy and deceiver, that old serpent, often proposes some delegated virtue — some servant and his staff. But faith ever withstands. Through his subtlety and darkening of divine counsels, confidence in ordinances was prevailing in Galatia, but Paul clung to the cross, and cast the bondwoman out of the house. For the trial of the soul, even the Lord Himself, like His prophet here, can make some such offer. "It thou wilt enter life," says Jesus to the young ruler, "keep the commandments." But faith would have answered, "Lord, thou hast the words of life." The young ruler, however, may try the proposed remedy, and take the servant and the staff with him, and go his way, but Paul, and faith, and this dear woman of Issachar, must cling to Jesus only. There is a greatness in the work of the Spirit in her soul, that is indeed blessed. Elisha had been already known to her in the quickening of her dead body. She had learnt him, or God’s power through him, in that, and to that she now clings, in the face of every temptation. She holds fast the beginning of her confidence. Elisha, the Lord’s witness at that time, was her object at the first, and so shall he be to the last. And so with the sinner and Jesus. The sinner who believes has learnt the Son of God in His quickening power. He has understood the mystery of death and resurrection. He has been at Calvary, and at the empty sepulchre. There he has seen things, and known the meaning of them, for the full clearing of the conscience towards God. And no ordinance, as people speak, can take the place of them in the believer’s soul. One may talk of new moons and sabbaths; another of the prophet’s staff in the hand of a vicar, or delegate; but the faith of a divinely taught sinner apprehends nothing but the precious, unchanging, imperishable virtue of Him who was dead and is alive again; from whom, as this dear woman did from Elisha, he had learned where alone quickening, redeeming, saving power is of God to be received and enjoyed. Sweet and fruitful indeed is this spot where the feet of the prophet ofttimes tarried, and where our thoughts, wearied with ourselves and the world, may as often turn to get refreshing in God! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 82: 07.07. THE DEADLY POTTAGE HEALED ======================================================================== The Deadly Pottage Healed. The incidents of our prophet’s life are like so many emanations of glory through the cloud of his apparent poverty and nothingness in the world. And this was one character of the life of the Son of God on the earth. Here we have a very bright expression of his ways, and of the ways of Him whom he foreshadowed. There was "death in the pot;" death indeed where life should have been; death invading the place where life looked for its support and strengthening. But the prophet has the remedy for death here, as he had for the curse at Jericho. We know One of whom we sing, "Where He displays His healing power, Death and the curse are known no more." And here, our prophet, the shadow of Jesus, has meal to cast into the pot, as before he had salt to cast into the waters, and both are healed. Moses typified this also at Marah, where he had the wood for the bitter waters. For the Son of God has cast Himself into the scene of death and intercepted its course. He has come with His healing cross, and "destroyed him that had the power of death." "By His stripes we are healed." There is a cry at the discovery of the death that has entered, but the Son of God has answered it. We eat of what in our wilfulness we have gathered, but Jesus changes the feast, and gives us meat indeed and drink indeed, on which we live even in the time of dearth, or in the regions of death. Death and the curse are altogether at the disposal of Him who has cast Himself into the scene and action of this world on our side. "I have the keys of hell and of death," says He; and His strength shall rescue even creation from the curse, and cast death itself into the lake of fire (Romans 8:1-39; Revelation 20:1-15). Why, we may ask with amazement of soul, did we ever gather our wild fruit and bring death in? Why did we not sit at the feast as it was first spread for us? For what a miniature picture of the whole great mystery does this little incident give us! What has Adam done? What has Christ done? Have we not the answer here? The prophet prepared a feast. Though it were a time of dearth, he had resources. He had pottage for his guests, and the pot was seething on the fire. But there was some one, it matters not who, save that it was neither the prophet nor his servant, who thought to improve the feast, and officiously and intrusively gathered some wild gourds. But his gourds brought death into the prophet’s pot. And what did Adam but this? The Lord, the Creator, had spread a feast, rich and dainty, and abundant for him, in Eden, but Adam must needs improve it. He gathers wild fruit, something that the Lord had not ordained for the table, something in addition; but he spoils everything, and brings death into the pot; death upon that board which the Lord had loaded with the sweetest, richest, food of life! The prophet, however, had the remedy, and heals the pot, and then his guests retake their seats at the feast with only fresh appetite to still more savoury meat. It is now a healed table, and not a spread table merely. They may admire and love the man and his resources, who could then, in unupbraiding grace, restore their good things, the good things which in their wanton pride they had thought to improve, but had utterly ruined and defiled. Is not this Jesus and ourselves? I ask. Do we not sit at a healed table? "The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." We are at a happier table than the bowers of Eden would have ever shaded. We sit at the feast of the Redeemer with new affections. We admire the healing as well as the creating virtue of His power, and lose ourselves in love and praise at the thought of the unupbraiding grace that has thus repaired the mischief. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 83: 07.08. THE MULTITUDE FED ======================================================================== The Multitude Fed. In the preceding little narrative we saw in our prophet a bright expression of the power of the Son of God in meeting the power of death. It was as the stronger man entering after the strong, to spoil him — the power of life casting itself into the place of death, to clear away death and destroy it. Here we have a gentler expression of the power of the same glorious Jesus. It was still the same time of dearth as before (ver. 38). But with twenty barley loaves and some ears of corn, the prophet feeds a hundred men, to the amazement of his servitor — as afterwards Jesus fed five thousand with five barley loaves and two small fishes, to the amazement of His disciples: and fragments were left after both meals, that we might know the aboundings of our Father’s house, that there is there "bread enough, and to spare." For we have to go to Him as one who has overflowing treasures as well as overflowing affections. We are straitened neither in Himself nor in His resources. "His love is as large as His power" (and I may add, His power as His love), "and knows neither measure nor end." There is a difference, however, not only in the size of these two miracles, if I may so speak, of Elisha and of Jesus, but in the style and bearing of them. Elisha feeds the people "according to the word of the Lord;" Jesus by His own word. Elisha says, "Thus saith the Lord, they shall eat, and shall leave thereof;" but Jesus says, "Make the men sit down." The glories are thus diverse. Jesus was "the word," according to whom Elisha fed the people. Elisha carried the name of the Lord with him, but Jesus was Himself the Lord, and bore about with Him, and exercised, the rights and authority of His own name. We know the Son of Man in Thee, Lord Jesus, but we know also God over all, blessed for ever! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 84: 07.09. NAAMAN THE SYRIAN ======================================================================== Naaman the Syrian. Various, as well as striking and significant, are the glories that shine along the path of our prophet. Every stage tells out some great and new secret of God. In this history we have, it seems, all the leading truths of the mystery of God’s grace simply, yet strikingly illustrated. It is a parable of very rich instruction. In the person of Naaman we get man in his best estate. Naaman must have been the world’s envy, the great favourite of the day. He was made much of, as we speak, by every one, by the king himself, and all the nation. The Lord in endowments and providences had greatly signalised him. But "he was a leper." There was a stain on all his glory which no hand but God’s could remove; and let the world flatter him as it might, it was a witness, a constant witness, to himself, that all was not right. There was a worm at the root of the wide-spreading gourd. And such indeed is man. Let him be advantaged as he may in circumstances, or set off as he may by embellishments and attractions, there is a witness against him still. He carried it in himself; he is conscious of it, though he may be silent as to it. In the little captive whom we next see, we get just the opposite of Naaman. All was against her in circumstances. She had been dragged from friends and home, and was a bond-woman in a stranger’s house and land: but she carries a secret, the very opposite of Naaman’s secret. She had the witness of God for her, as he had His witness against him. She knew the healing, while he felt the sore. This was a mighty difference; yea, all the difference, if God be considered. To have Him for and not against us, is surely the grand circumstance after all. And so it was here. And so is it with every true Israelite like her: in the knowledge of the same secret, in the knowledge of the healing of God, they can say, if God be for me, who can be against me! She reminds one of Paul before Festus and Agrippa. There the Apostle was poor indeed in circumstances, but rich indeed in God, and, like this dear woman, desired all good and blessing for those who had bound him. These are valuable lessons in this parable. But we have others. The king of Syria is next introduced; and he represents man in his loftiness of thought and self-esteem, even in religion. He judges, to be sure, that nothing can be done for the divine healing of his favourite captain, independently of him and his resources. Who but he? who but the king? was the language of his heart. He therefore prepares his silver, his gold, and his raiment, and writes a letter with his own hand on this business to the king of Israel. A king to a king. For nothing less than such patronage can give fair promise of blessing. All this is worldly religion, man’s thoughts about God’s ways. But there is nothing that the king of Syria does that is not simply "labour lost." His own personal patronage and gifts, and the countenance he sought of a brother king, all is religious vanity. And the king of Israel, who had the advantage of God’s revelation in his country, is able to refuse to take his place, or act his part, in this grand purpose and thought of the king of Syria. There is, however, one higher than the king in all this, though the Syrian knows nothing of him. Elisha had, of course, passed the notice of this great man of the earth. But Elisha, who is now, also, in his turn, introduced to us in the history, is Naaman’s only hope in this day of his leprosy. And Elisha, conscious that the power of God was with him, makes no stir, or difficulty, as the king had done. He has not, like One afterwards, the authority of his own word to cleanse away the stain, but he is in the secret of God’s ordained remedy, and he can, with authority, preach that to the leper. For here I may notice how Jesus shines above all. When the leper comes to Him, it is not as with the king, "Am I God, that I should heal a man of his leprosy?" nor is it as with the prophet, "Go wash in Jordan, and be clean." No; but He reveals Himself at once in the place and power of God. "I will, be thou clean." Elisha was but a Preacher of Jesus to Naaman; Jesus was the leper’s cleansing, healing God. Elisha did not venture to touch the leper. This would have defiled him. But Jesus touches him; for Jesus, with the rights of God of Israel, was above the leper, and could consume and not contract the defilement. What pre-eminence in all things marks Him! John, or the brightest of them, is but the bridegroom’s friend; Jesus is the bridegroom. And then, in this same picture, we see another ,object of the deepest interest to us. I mean the poor convicted leper passing through is cleansing. At first, nature is strong in him. He resents the remedy which grace had provided — a remedy most simple but most humbling. So simple that there was no mistaking it, and no difficulty in applying it; saving, indeed, the difficulty which man’s pride and previous thoughts had opposed to it. But these give battle at once. Grace, however, can plead with a slow reluctant heart, as well as provide for a tainted leprous body. Grace can use a ministry, as well as open a fountain, for sinners. And that ministry, like the remedy, is simple and artless, and as such fitted to its end. Naaman’s servants, in their way, met the risings of nature in their master, and their word or ministry is blest; the proffered fountain is tried, its virtues are proved, and the flesh that was leprous became like that of a little child. It is more than restoration. It is resurrection. Jordan was a true baptism to this Syrian. He dies and lives again, he is buried and rises again, and comes forth, not merely as a healed, but as a new creature. And what is the fruit of this new condition in which he finds himself? Here we trace the parable still, and get the principle of God’s way still illustrated. 1. He stands before Elisha with all his company. It is not now the proud but the humble Naaman. Sweet fruit this of the new man that Naaman had become! He is humbled because he is washed. 2. He makes a goodly confession to the one only God. He takes him for his God: he had learnt Him through the health and salvation He had given him. And this is the way that the new creature ever learns Him — the only, way He can be learnt, or known, in this world. 3. He presses his gifts, whatever he had, on the prophet — not now, as the king his master thought, to purchase the healing, but because of the healing. He had been forgiven, and therefore he loved. He was relieved and happy, and therefore he could be generous. 4. He will henceforth know no other God — and in order to that, he seeks materials to raise Him an altar. God must be his God, even in the midst of infidel Syria, where he is returning,. Him and Him only will he worship. For this "mule’s burthen of earth" was for the end of erecting, as it were, another Ed beyond the Jordan (see Joshua 22:34). It was to bear witness in the distant land of Syria, that this citizen of that country belonged to the God of Israel — that, like the Ethiopian eunuch, he had cast in his lot with Israel; or had come, like Ruth the Moabitess, to trust under the wings of the God of Israel. 5. And lastly — he gets a renewed conscience all quick and sensitive, of the least, even apparent, departure from the God who had now blessed him. He dreads the appearance of evil. He would not have it thought that any tendance of his on his master was recurring to the old principles of Syria, and the house of Rimmon. Such he had left, and left for ever, through God’s grace, and would now, at the very entrance of his new creation in Christ Jesus, enter a protestation against everything that might even look otherwise. The prophet sends him away in peace. The Ethiopian had left Philip "rejoicing" — the Syrian leaves Elisha under his seal of peace. This narrative, therefore, which thus occupies an important place in the ministry of our prophet, and is the scene in his labours taken up and referred to by his divine Master afterwards (Luke 4:1-44), is one of extensive value to us, so clearly, and fully exhibiting the dealing of God with each of us. Let us, with all simplicity of heart, assure ourselves, that all was written for our learning — that our God has from the beginning been allowing things to happen to others, that we might be admonished and comforted by them, through the records which His Spirit has given us of them. But there is one other object in this scene which I observe. I mean Gehazi. The prophet (Luke 4:26) does not challenge him on the ground of his having lied to Naaman, but on quite another form of evil that was in his conduct. And there is, I believe, great force and beauty in this. "Is it a time," says Elisha to his servant, "to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men servants and maid servants? " This was an ingredient in the sin which belonged rather to the Spirit to notice — the lie was of common moral apprehension. The Gentile had just been learning the grace of the God of Israel. The talents of silver, and pieces of gold, and changes of raiment, which the king of Syria had sent into the land of Israel, had been despised by the prophet, and Naaman was bearing them all, to the utmost "thread or shoe-latchet," home with him again. He had gone to the waters without money and without price, and was the witness that the gift of God was not to be purchased with money. Terrible, then, was it to have all this testimony confounded. Well might the prophet ask, was this a time to take the Syrian’s money? Could anything be more grievous to the Spirit? The lie, it is true, was abominable — the lie first to Naaman, and then to Elisha himself — it was all abominable. But what shall we say of this sad counter-testimony, this clouding of the brightness of the grace of God, this giving occasion to them that might seek occasion? This was the offence which the Spirit noticed, and the prophet challenged. Gehazi had sold the honour of the rich and free grace of the Lord of Israel to the reproaches of an injurious world. At least, he had done all he could to this end. His money must therefore perish with him. He must be put outside the borders of the camp; for he who could thus falsify the God of Israel, was unfit to be of the Israel of God. The parable of the unmerciful servant reads the same warning to us. The grace of the Gospel was there insulted — and the man that exposed it to reproach was cast into outer places like the leprous Gehazi. It was the energy of the dear Apostle, on the other hand, to reflect and set off that grace continually. Read his ways, in Acts 20:33-35. For the reasonable service is this: — "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father that is in heaven is perfect." "Maintain the family character," as has been the paraphrase of that lovely word; but Gehazi was not jealous of its honour and praise in the sight of the nations. Did he not count himself unworthy of a place in it? This is the serious feature in this otherwise happy picture. And it is serious — that a man, like Gehazi, who had companied so long and so intimately with such a servant of God as Elisha, should have been so distant from his spirit! This part of the story, however, brings out what, on the other hand, is comforting and encouraging — that the soul of the Syrian, though it has now passed the hour of its first love, and he is on his journey to his distant home, has not lost the generosity of that first hour. He alights at once on seeing the prophet’s servant behind him, and without suspicion and without reserve, lays his treasures at the servant’s feet, as he had on the first moment, offered to do at the master’s Oh that on our journey the power of the first hour may continue to be felt! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 85: 07.10. THE IRON MADE TO SWIM ======================================================================== The Iron Made to Swim. This is a simple domestic scene, and yet, according to the same wondrous ways of Elisha, calculated again to call the doings of the Lord Himself to mind. For whether it be Peter, or the iron, that stands on the face of the waters, both are equally contrary to nature. Neither is there any natural alliance between the cause and the effect, between the casting in of a stick, and the swimming of the iron, as there was none afterwards between the putting clay on the eyes, and the restoring of sight; for it is neither the skill of the workman nor the fitness of the instrument, that is to be considered, but the excellency of the power of God. How natural and easy was the behaviour of our prophet here! In a moment he is one of a company that are busied about the simplest domestic concern! The great apostle of the Gentiles would gather sticks to help to make up the fire; and the Lord of prophets and apostles, even after he had risen from the dead, would get ready the dinner on the sea shore! And yet what august power lay in their hands all the while. The apostle shakes a venomous beast into the very fire he was kindling, and the prophet makes the iron head of the axe to swim on the face of the water! Oh the beautiful, godlike condescension of real power! But I read another lesson here. It has been observed, I believe, that, properly speaking, there is "nothing either great or little with God," — His nature opposes the thought. That may be so. But we are less able to infer consequences or truths from God’s nature than from His revelation. Indeed, we dare not assume to know His nature, but from His revelation. From His revelation, however, we are led, in some sense, to see this to be a truth, that there is nothing either great or little with Him. We may trace some expressions of this in all His ways. At creation, so to illustrate it, the wing of an insect was framed with the same care as the heavens or the earth. The small and the great, in that way, then stood before Him. In settling the nation of Israel, protection for the roof of the houses by battlements, lest blood should be shed, was ascertained by a divine oracle, with as full and clear decision as the services of the sanctuary or the allotments of the tribes. Jesus, in His ministry, would take the little children in His arms, as He would His most honoured disciples up to the mount of glory. This was still of the same character. So, in feeding and ordering the churches afterwards — the details between men and women, old and young, with other relations, are attended to by the same Spirit, who was at the same time revealing mysteries kept secret from the foundation of the world. He gives directions about taking a little wine for the stomach’s sake, as He would unfold the inheritance of the Father of glory in the saints. And it is the grace of the Holy Ghost, in this equal care about the great and the little things, which has especially dwelt on my heart at this time. For though His due, yea and happy work is to take of the things of the Father and of Christ, and to show them to us, still He turns to matters of discipline for the comfort of the weakest of us. And is not this done, to speak after the manner of men, at some personal cost? "Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, to go to be promoted over the trees?" The blessed Spirit’s joy is to deal with Jesus, But in His grace, He consents to deal with all the possible exigencies of the saints. And thus indeed it is: Whether the divine action be in creation, in providence, or in redemption — whether it be in Israel, or in the churches; whether dispensationally it be the Father, the Lord, or the Holy Ghost, still we see the big and the little equally the care of God — the great and the small standing alike before Him — as we read again and again in the Apocalypse. This is to be observed also in more private actings of our God. By His prophet (as we have it in this passage), he will raise an axe’s head from the water, because the recollection that it was borrowed was distressing the mind of one of the prophet’s companions. So the Lord (as another once observed) encourages His people to pray that "their flight might not be in the winter," simply, of course, because flight in that season would be the more uneasy and difficult; thus showing His care about the most ordinary conveniences of His saints, as well as about their troubles and anxieties. The little scene in this passage, as I have said, is one illustration of this. And what is all this? It is not merely the condescension of power, though that is beautiful, but the grace of benevolence. It is because these little things concern our comfort and present well-being, that they are thus waited on. And we, in our measure, should be imitators of this. It may not be the delight of the spiritual, nay it cannot, to forsake the sweetness, and good fruit of the doctrine of the Father and of Christ, for matters touching the discipline of the saints — to be promoted over such thorns and briars as they are — but still, this pattern of divine benevolence, which thus parcels itself out on things, be they great or small, provided they do but concern others, puts it upon us as our duty. "Be ye imitators of God," it is written, "as dear children." "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 86: 07.11. THE SYRIAN HOST STRUCK BLIND ======================================================================== The Syrian Host Struck Blind. Have already observed, that testimony against evil, and consequent suffering, marked the history of Elijah — power, and the gracious use of it, the ways of Elisha. According to this, many instances of combined power and grace in Jesus stand reflected in the doings of Elisha. In the scene that lies before us here, we have recollections of our Lord strongly brought to mind. He had twelve legions of angels at command, had he pleased, and so a mountain full of horses and chariots wait on our prophet. And the simplicity of his faith is very remarkable. He needed not prayer for himself; he had already seen "the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof" (2:2), and rested in the certainty that they were, at any time, ready or his use — and now in the time of his need, he knows that they are at hand. He has not therefore to pray for himself. All he does is to desire for his servant that he may stand on the same elevation of faith. Elisha had seen, as I said, these horses and chariots of Israel already. He knew that the God of Jeshurun rode on the heavens for Jeshurun’s help, and he would have his servant’s thoughts, in the present hour of danger, full of the same sense of this divine security. These chariots and horses of fire which fill the mountain, and which in the day of the translation of Elijah were accompanied by, a whirlwind, were, I doubt not, a host or constellation of angels those heavenly creatures, which, excelling in strength, stand in the presence of God, or go forth to minister on account of those who are heirs of salvation. For of them we read that "God maketh His angels spirits (winds) and His ministers a flame of fire" — and again, "the chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of angels." At the divine behest, they get ready to serve in whatever the exigency of the saint, or the occasion under the throne of God, may require. They formed a travelling chariot to convey Elijah to heaven, and to carry Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom. They now form chariots of war, when Elisha is beleaguered by the hostile bands of Syria. Either singly or in company they visit the elect on earth, and either alone or in concert celebrate the joy of heaven in the audience of the earth. They have drawn the sword to smite a guilty city, or with the strong hand of love dragged the too reluctant one forth from the doomed city. They are either as winds or as fire. They are messengers of mercy, and executors of judgment, as "the Lord," who "is among them," may command. They attended on Mount Sinai when the law was published, and they hovered over the fields of Bethlehem when Jesus was born. And here, in their order and strength, they are as a wall of fire, a wall of salvation, round about our prophet. Very blessed all this is. And still more blessed to know, that ere long, the hidden glories, which are now only known to such faith as Elisha’s, will become the manifested things; and the threatenings of the enemy, the noise and the din and the clang of arms, which are the present apparent things, full of fears and sorrows for the heart, shall have rolled by, like the past thunderstorm, but to leave the sunshine the brighter. But there is more than this calmness and certainty of faith. We have traces of the power and of the grace of Jesus in this path of our prophet. "When the wicked, mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell." Thus David spake concerning Jesus (Psalms 27:1-14). And accordingly, in the garden, when the band of men and officers came to lay hold on Him, "as soon as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground" (John 18:1-40). So here with our prophet. The bands of Syria came to Dothan to fetch him, but the Lord smote them with blindness, as they were making ready to make him their prey. Thus the glory of power in the Lord was reflected in Elisha. But the measures of this glory were again, as we have seen before, diverse. Elisha sought the Lord’s power in this, Jesus stands in that of His own person, and the enemy equally bows before it. "As soon as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground." But there is the grace, as well as the power, of the Son of God here. The Lord, in His day, refuses to break the bruised reed, or to quench the smoking flax. He refuses to use His strength and authority even for the righteous judgment of His foes (see Matthew 12:1-50). He will not strive nor cry, nor let His voice be heard in the streets, but, "suffering thus far," He overcomes evil with good. And so Elisha. He had the bruised reed, the smoking flax at His mercy, but he will not break nor quench it. "My, father, shall I smite them?" says the King, as he had the Syrian bands caught in the net of Samaria. But the prophet answered, "Thou shalt not smite them; set tread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master." Blessed and precious expression of the mind of God! What constellations of moral glories shine in His ways! And these ways of the Lord, in combined power and grace, get their image in these ways of this honoured prophet. How much he was in the intimacy of God, if I may so speak! How fully in His friendship, knowing His secrets! And how largely does his history illustrate those words, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). He knew of mountains of strength and salvation that were altogether invisible to others; he knew of abundance at the doors tomorrow, though today all was famine and death in the city. And if he be not told everything (such was the marvellous condescending love of the Lord to him, and with which his soul was familiar), it is rather his wonder (see Amos 4:2-7). And so of each of us (not honoured prophets, but the weakest saints), it may as really be said, "We have the mind of Christ." Oh for power in our souls to value such goodness in Him, and such dignity and blessing in ourselves! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 87: 07.12. THE FAMINE IN SAMARIA ======================================================================== The Famine in Samaria. We have in this portion of our prophet’s history, something of very peculiar significance. The richest ways of divine grace are illustrated in this striking picture of Samaria’s misery and deliverance. The siege of that city by the army of Syria reduced it to the extremest wretchedness. An ass’s head was worth eighty pieces of silver, and mothers were compelled to feed up their offspring. One need not draw the picture of misery to greater length than this. Here it is in all its horror. It reminds one of Legion in the Gospels: another picture of what the unmitigated and unchecked power of the great captor could do with all of us. But man is further disclosed in this history. He is seen in the character of his mind, as well as in his misery and state of captivity to his ruthless destroyer. "God do so, and more also, to me," says the king of Israel, "if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day." This was man charging on God (or His servant the same thing), all the mischief that was occurring. It was like Adam at the beginning of our sin, — "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." It was like Cain — "Am I my brother’s keeper?" It was laying the sin and the sorrow on that head which was alone clear and free of it all. This was the accomplishing of sin. Like the cross of Christ, this was the height of evil. This was just the moment of Samaria’s fullest iniquity. But like the same cross of Christ, this same moment was just the occasion for the display of the divine grace. The ruin was complete, and without hope from man. Then it is that Elisha’s lips are opened with a promise, and he delivers a word from the Lord. For if the power of Israel be gone, and there is none shut up nor left, will not the Lord repent Himself concerning His servants? (Deuteronomy 32:36). If God see that there is no man, no intercessor, will not His own arm bring salvation? If the enemy come in like a flood, will not the Spirit lift up a standard against Him? (Isaiah 59:16-19). And such was this moment in Samaria. Such a moment was the moment of God’s glorious grace — that where sin abounded, there grace more abounded — that, as in the cross of Christ, man was at the height of his rebellion and God was also at the height of the glory of His goodness, so now, when the sin and misery of Samaria were at the full, the cup of divine blessing was also about to flow over. "Then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord, tomorrow about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." "In the gate of Samaria!" Truly precious that thought is to the needy soul — blessed notice of the grace of the gospel! Salvation is not to be sought for either in heaven above or in the depths beneath. It has come to us. The sin offering lies at the door. The Israelite need not leave the lintel of his own house to accomplish the full security of that house from the sword of the destroyer. Grace brings the relief which grace has provided. The fine flour and the barley were to be had by the famished people at the very gate of their city! (See Romans 10:6-8). How are the shining foot-marks of the salvation of God to be traced in all this, beloved. "Mercy for fetching," as one of old said, "nay, for desiring, nay, for nothing but receiving." This appears to me to be very striking indeed. And this was Elisha’s glory in this scene; he knew the mind of God. The wicked heart of man was working its worst. The king of Israel was laying the mischief, as I have observed, on the only one who was really clear of it; as the high priest, Caiaphas, gave counsel that one must die for the people, lest the whole nation perish, and that One must be He who alone was unguilty of all the nation’s sorrow. (John 11:1-57) But then it is, that God’s remedy reveals itself. Then it is, that grace abounds. And instead of the ass’s head being bought for eighty pieces of silver, a measure of flour and two measures of barley should now be bought for one shekel in the gate of the self-destroyed city. But if we have, thus, before us the height of human evil met by the aboundings of divine grace, we have also the varied way in which this grace is entertained in the world. It meets with rejection from some. The nobleman exhibits that to us. He would not believe that God could do all that His prophet was now pronouncing. There was a lion in the way. If windows were to be opened in heaven, this might be; but who ever heard of windows in heaven? And this is all said just in the spirit of unbelief; in the evil temper of the heart of men who refuse to receive good tidings from God; who will not have happy thoughts, nor entertain filial, holy confidence towards Him; but who, when He speaks of pardon and blessing, reject the grace, and will rather cleave to their own hard notions of such grace being a thing impossible: so ignorant, so alien from the life of God, is the heart of man. There is a generation, however, who have no other hope, — a people who have spent all on physicians for the healing of their plague, and are not a whit better. There are lepers outside the camp still — poor convicted sinners, "too bad for any but Jesus," as one of them once said. Death is before, behind, and around them. The Syrian host, as they judge, before — the famishing city behind — their own diseased leprous dead bodies encompassing them around. To such this grace comes in suited needed time. They find that it is all to them. It is either certain death for them, or this last, this only resource in God Himself. And such arise, and take the spoil. Their necessities throw them into the place where Christ has gained the victory, and on the storehouse which God hath both filled and opened. Like the four lepers here. They had no help for it. Their very necessities, pressed in by deaths oft, death all around, threw them into the camp of the Syrians, where the Lord, all single-handed and alone, had been gaining a victory. For it was the Lord who had made the Syrian host hear a noise of chariots and horses, and thus alone had put them all to flight. Of the people of Israel there are none with him. It was "the day of the Lord." Israel was dying in Samaria. The lepers were dying without. And God meets the Syrian host alone. And the poor lepers have nothing to do but to arise and share the fruit of the Lord’s triumph. As the sinner, now. It has been entirely and altogether the victory of Jesus. None stood with Him, or for Him. Alone He met the enemy — alone He suffered the penalty — He drank the cup alone — and three hours of darkness fell from heaven, because He was made sin — He alone hung a curse upon the tree. And the gospel is the publishing of all this strife and triumph of Jesus, that sinners, dead as lepers, may come and feed, and live for ever on that feast, that spoil of glorious war, which Jesus has won for them. And what does their own joy communicate to them? a desire to divide the spoils. They tell what a Saviour they have found. They spread the good tidings which they have themselves received, and by which they live. And there is no temper of soul that the spirit of the renewed mind more thoroughly condemns, than the selfishness of our old wretched nature. The working of it is too well known by some of us; but the working of it is so contrary to the glorious and generous grace of God in the gospel, that it leaves, when indulged, the tinge of fear behind it in the soul. "We do not well," said one of these lepers to the other, "this is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace; if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household." And they publish it at once, as in the high places. All this exercise of heart is easily to be understood by the renewed mind which has tasted of, and been formed by, the grace of the gospel. But there is more in this striking picture. We see weak or slow-hearted faith in the king. He reasons about the good tidings. He does not, in the bold unbelief and scorn of the nobleman, at once refuse them. But he reasons about them. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." But grace abounds. Grace, as in the case of Naaman, can provide a minister as well as a treasury — and the slow-hearted king, as well as the readier lepers, shares the spoils of the glorious victory of the Lord. And all the famishing city follow. "The lame take the prey." None come short but the unbelieving nobleman. Distrust of the divine bountifulness alone cuts off in the day of this feast of Israel. All is accomplished. The measures of flour and of barley are sold in the gate, and the nobleman perishes alone in his unbelief. The great things of the gospel of God are thus illustrated in this very striking picture of Samaria’s misery and deliverance, materials for our holy, profitable comfort and admonition. But may it be our purpose not merely to investigate and admire these skilful ways of the divine wisdom, but to mark and digest them, that our souls may be refreshed and our faith in the gracious provider for all our need, and all our delights for eternity, be blessedly strengthened! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 88: 07.13. THE SHUNAMMITE AGAIN ======================================================================== The Shunammite Again. 2 Kings 8:1-6 From this short notice of another path in the ways of our prophet, we see again how intimate he was with the mind of God. For here we are reminded again of that scripture, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." The famine must be told to Elisha now, as to Joseph, and Agabus, and others, in older or more recent times. "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" was the language of the same gracious Lord who thus treats His people as friends. It was the mind and the hand, the counsels and the strength of the Lord, which this prophet so gloriously carried with him. And we find all His riches still used in grace to others. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." Abraham used it to the profit of others; and, knowing the purposed judgment, interceded for the righteous remnant in Sodom. So Elisha here. He heard of the coming famine, and he warned the godly woman of Shunem to provide for her household against it. Her circumstances are changed from what they once were. This loved and honoured woman has, apparently, become a widow; her little child, the gift of God to this daughter of Sarah, has grown up. But the famine has separated them from their home and their fields in the land of Issachar. (See 2 Kings 4:1-44) And she had once loved her mercies there. She "dwelt among her own people." She valued not the court or its patronage then; nor does she now seek it, save to be restored to the same simplicity of her home and her own people. And, surely we may judge, that "the little chamber on the wall" helped to draw back her recollections and desires to that loved place, where she had known the quickening and resurrection strength of her Lord and Saviour, by the hand of His chosen servant. Gehazi is in other circumstances also. It may be that the root of the matter was in him; "but he is a leper." He is separated from the prophet of God now. It was not famine, however, but covetousness that did this. He has now only to recollect, but no longer to witness, "the great things" of Elisha. Happy, if in repentance he can tell of them with holy delight to the king, — happier, had constancy in faith and in the spirit kept him still in company with his master. But he had wronged his own soul, as we all do in our way and measure, beloved: "Blessed is the man that heareth me," says Wisdom, "watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my door; for whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord; but he that sinneth against rite wrongeth his own soul." And gracious it is in the Lord, to give us this parting look at him. We may hope that as he had once pierced himself through with many sorrows because he would be rich (1 Timothy 4:1-16), so now, that money is no longer the thing on his heart or on his lips, but recollections of Elisha. For the Lord here graciously seems to use him again, and make him helpful to this dear and godly friend of the prophet in the day of her necessity. Happy is it to receive from the hand of the Lord such a pledge of His restoring grace, though His Spirit be so grieved with the backslidings of His people! Oh that we may praise Him for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!* *I am aware that this introduction of Gehazi may not be favourable to him, in the judgment of some. They may think that it is a symptom of his being still a man of the world, and covetous, because he is found here attached to the court, and apparently in some confidence with the king. It may be so. But still I rather gather the above impression from the scene in which we here find him taking his part. "A word spoken in due season, how good is it," we may almost say of the incident in this little passage. Gehazi and the king were talking of the Shunammite, as the Shunammite came up to the place where they were. And how often have we occasion to notice like happy coincidences! There are scarcely any who have not to recount such things, at times, in their history. "We were just speaking of you," has been again and again said to one suddenly making his appearance in the midst of a little knot of friends. And faith will own the mercy of such harbingers casting up the highway, and making straight the crooked paths, which lead to some desired blessing, as in this case before us. And faith will not complain that it is not always so. For faith says "It is well," when providences either help or cross us. ’Tis well when at the throne, We wrestle, weep, and pray; ’Tis well when at His feet we groan, Yet bring our wants away." ’Tis an equal hand of love that takes the thorn out of the flesh, or leaves it there. If left, it is only made to work further good. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 89: 07.14. THE PROPHECY OF HAZAEL ======================================================================== The Prophecy of Hazael. 2 Kings 8:7-15. We have here another instance of the intimacy of the prophet with the counsels of the Lord. What daily communications there must have been between them! — indeed, in the history of the Church of God, glorious revelations have been vouchsafed to those faithful ones who stood obedient, witnessing, and suffering remnants in evil times. Thus to Ezekiel and Daniel among the captives. What extended visions of divine purposes were opened to them! So when Zechariah, Haggai, and their companions, began, in honesty of heart and in spite of enemies, to work at the house of the Lord as His faithful remnant returned out of captivity, what thoughts and scenes of coming glory are made to pass before them! As still more marvellously afterwards, in like manner, before John in Patmos, where he was a companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus. And Elijah and Elisha were of the same. They were, each of them, in his season, the godly remnant of their day, and had very preciously the eye, the ear, and the lips of the Lord opened to them. But from this passage in his history we find that Elisha had honour beyond the limits of Israel. We see him in Damascus, and his arrival is soon reported to the king, and honoured by him. The case of Naaman may have given him this introduction to the honour and confidence of the Syrian court, and is some evidence of the testimony which that healed leper, that converted sinner of the Gentiles, had borne to the name of the God of Israel, so that at least the Syrian king does not now again look to the king (see 2 Kings 5:5), but to the prophet of Israel. But there is another point of moral value to our souls that shows itself here. I mean in the character of Hazael; and I must notice it. Hazael had come to Elisha with an inquiry from the Syrian king his master, about the disease under which the king was then suffering. Elisha tells him to say to his master, "Thou mayest surely recover." But having given him this answer to the king’s inquiry, he adds another word, addressed merely to Hazael himself, "Howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die." On hearing this, we read that Hazael "settled his countenance stedfastly until he was ashamed." This was hypocrisy. Under the eye of the prophet, before the truthful mind of the man of God, this show of his countenance witnessed against him. He feigned sorrow at this prophecy of Benhadad’s death. The prophet himself, during this little moment of Hazael’s practising grief, appears to have been following the course of divine inspiration through his own soul, and weeps at the prospect of all the evil which this Hazael would do to Israel when he got into power — for into such scenes the inspiration he was now under was leading him. But this sorrow was genuine, as Hazael’s was hypocritical. It was the unforced fruit of a heart made sorry at the divine vision which his eye was then resting on. But after a little more intercourse between them, which I will not notice, Hazael returns to Benhadad, and misstates to him the prophet’s answer to his inquiry. The prophet had said, "Thou mayest surely recover" — thereby intimating, that there was nothing in the disease itself which was fatal; and then he added, "the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die," — thereby intimating that Benhadad was to perish by other means than the disease. Hazael, however, now tells the king that the prophet had said, "he should surely recover." Here was the mis-statement or the lie of this hypocrite. But the end strikingly shows the full unmixed truth of the prophet’s words, for the disease does not kill the king, but other means, — the hand of this murderous Hazael. And thus he might have recovered, but he surely dies, as the prophet had spoken. This enigmatic style of the answers or oracles of the Spirit are worthy of our admiration. There was something like it in our prophet’s word upon the unbelieving nobleman — "Behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof." For however strange this might sound in the ear, to the letter it was made good. "So it fell out to him, for the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died" — i.e. in the very act of bringing their barley and their flour under his own eye, the crowd crushed him to death (see 2 Kings 7:1-20) So here — the words "mayest recover" and "surely die," are made true by the event, though they sound strange to the ear. The case, however, of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, is still more remarkable. Jeremiah had said of him, that his eyes should behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and that he should go to Babylon. (Jeremiah 34:3). Ezekiel had said, that he should go to Babylon, but should not see it, though he should die there. (Ezekiel 12:13). Almost on the verge of impossibility all this seemed to be. But to the utmost jot and tittle all this was accomplished. They were the words of the lips of Him whose hand is wonderful and mighty, and sovereign in its operations. (See Jeremiah 39:1-18). This, however, only as we pass. In the history of this scripture, on which we have now been meditating, we have indeed an awful picture of human selfishness and hypocrisy. And it is admonitory to us all. A look may be deep hypocrisy, as a word may be. And our watching and prayer should be, that the searching Spirit may find truth in the inward parts, and truth about us everywhere, in every look, in every word, and motion. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 90: 07.15. THE ANOINTING OF JEHU ======================================================================== The Anointing of Jehu. 2 Kings 9:1-37; 2 Kings 10:1-36. Our prophet is not the principal object here. But he is seen. And the whole history being one of very deep moral value, I would not pass it by. It is another solemn lesson. It affords us an awful illustration of the doctrine of scripture, that the Lord may use, instrumentally or ministerially, those in whom personally He takes no delight. This is a solemn fact. Balaam could never have stood in the mind or sympathies of God. But Balaam the prophet is used, as is also Saul the king, and Judas the apostle. Our souls may well pause over truth like this, and be admonished. "Have we not prophesied in Thy name? I never knew you." No communion in spirit, though the hand or the tongue may have been used by the Lord. And this clearly shows itself in Jehu. The hand of this captain is used, but there is no communion between him and the Lord. He goes through his service. He executes his commission to the full. But there is no expression whatever of a soul exercised towards God. He takes up and lays down most solemn and important transactions, and all of them, too, in the name and at the command of the Lord; but there is no exercise of heart as in the sanctuary, or presence of God. And this is just what marks the man whom God can use ministerially, but in whom he can have no joy personally. All may be used in this dead way: knowledge as well as services may be taken up — taken up by a dead intellect, as in a dead hand. For what is knowledge, if used as a mere material? Jehu had both. He had knowledge and strength; he had an understanding that could apprehend the divine decrees touching the house of Ahab, and a hand ready to execute them. But it was a dead intellect and a dead hand. No divine life or grace filled or moved either. And with us, knowledge will be but the same, if it be not the occasion of awakening divine affections. Jesus’ knowledge ever made Him enter into and reflect the divine counsels. But there is nothing of this in Jehu. He can talk of God’s purposes, and execute them; but there is no communion with God through all his actions. And here I would turn to look at something in full moral contrast with all this, and which shines beautifully in the spirit of Elisha. He told his messenger, that as soon as he had poured the oil on Jehu’s head, he was to open the door and flee, as though he were to have no communion with Jehu. Like the man of God who was not to have sympathy with the place he was sent to curse. (See 1 Kings 13:9). He had a business to do with Jehu, weighty business; but that was all. And in this, Elisha blessedly stands in kindred feeling with God Himself. We have already seen how gloriously he carried in him both the mind, and power of God, revealing the one, and exercising the other; but in this case he shows that he carried the tastes, the senses, of the blessed God also. Like Matthew the publican, I may say, who strikingly shows that He understood the sympathies and tastes of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 5:29). This is truly to be desired by our souls. We are much to covet this holy attainment. God had no personal joy in Jehu, though He may use him, as I have already noticed. So, Elisha had no personal joy in him, though by divine command he anoints him. And in this, Elisha stands distinguished from Jehonadab. It is not that Jehonadab. was not faithful. It is not that he was not a separated one, a saint of God. But he is not in Elisha’s elevation, as Lot was not in Abraham’s, or Obadiah in Elijah’s. Jehonadab. has not this divine sense of what Jehu, was. He gets up into his chariot. He strikes hearts with him, if I may speak so. He rejoices in his work. But Elisha and the Lord have no delight in him. "Open the door, and flee, and tarry not," was the prophet’s word to his messenger. But this may turn to holy admonition, and lead us earnestly to desire of our God this precious sympathy with Himself; this companionship with the divine enjoyments, tastes, and loathings. This was a deep work of the Spirit in the prophet’s soul. He had much beside; the mind and the power of God, as I have said, were with him. But oh this introduction of his soul into the divine sense of things and persons! This was a beauteous fruit of the Spirit’s path and husbandry within him. This was divine. He could, like God Himself, travel the whole course of Jehu’s action, and yet take no personal delight in him. But so it was not with Jehonadab. The senses of the spiritual mind were not so lively in him. And these differences we see continually. This character, however, in Jehu, is very solemn. There is no fragment of a broken heart — no outgoings of desire — no sense of the divine honour about him. He can even remind Bidkar of the day in which they both rode after Ahab in the days of his blood and covetousness (when the Lord laid the righteous burden upon him), with an unmoved soul. His soul takes no part in the recollection. He has no sense of share in all the evil. So unlike Daniel or Nehemiah, who, rehearsing the sin of their people, their kings, their priests, and their prophets, still take their own place and share in all the mischief. So unlike David also; who, though the judgment of another was making way for him to reach the throne (as the judgment of Ahab’s house was here preparing the like of Jehu, could see only the dishonour of the Lord’s anointed — had no eye of joy for that throne which sparkled before it, but an eye of tears over that shame and fall of others which lay before it. Thus is Jehu, contrasted with those who are "of God" in similar scenes. And such contrast is that which lies between the flesh and the spirit, between a soul moved only by the corrupt principles of the world, and a soul ordered by the power and grace of God. Still, however, it was a divine commission which he executes. But how awful in its character! On what a fearful journey does it send this sword of the Lord! From Ramoth to the vineyard of Naboth, from thence to the going up to Gur, from thence to Jezreel, from thence to the Shearing house, and from thence to Samaria, and all the road marked by blood! blood, too, appointed in righteousness to be shed. For though the sword that shed it, cared not for righteousness, yet in its action the Lord was pleading with the flesh of Ahab and his house, as, by and bye, He will have a greater pleading, even with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many. And what shall be the rapidity and the stretch of the divine judgment then? What will be the journey of the sword of the Lord, or "the grounded staff" in that day? when "as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." We may look at a moment of righteous judgment in this journey of Jehu, It is like the day of the Flood, or of Sodom, or of the Red Sea. Our souls, beloved, may afresh prize the precious blood that shelters us, while we own also, with reverence, the way of Him to whom vengeance belongs. Jehu, executes the divine commission, it is true, but it served himself. The decree of God concerning Ahab was just that on which Jehu could get forward in the world. Like a true Pharisee, he would trade on religion, or use godliness as gain. Beyond that, it had no beauty for him, or power over him, and thus, what religious zeal brought him, religious declension shall preserve to him. If he could give up Baal to get the throne, he can now give up Jehovah with as much ease to secure the throne. He can return to the calves of Jeroboam, after he has abolished the prophets of Ahab, that, as Jeroboam said, "the kingdom might not return to others." Oh the deep and serious lesson! May our souls ponder it — and seek an exercised heart and conscience in all service, and all knowledge, lest all be dead in our minds and hands! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 91: 07.16. JOASH, KING OF JUDAH ======================================================================== Joash, King of Judah. 2 Kings 11:1-21; 2 Kings 12:1-21. Elisha is not seen in these chapters, for the affairs of the kingdom of Judah are introduced. But they are incidental to the affairs of Israel in this respect, that they give us an account of a great apostacy in that kingdom, and its judgment, just as the chapters which precede them gave us, as we saw, the judgment of apostacy in the kingdom of Israel. And being very important in opening the counsels of God to us, I will consider them, though Elisha, our principal object, be not before us. These chapters give us an account of that interruption to the enjoyment of the throne of Judah which the house of David suffered. And I doubt not it is expressive of the time now present, when the same thing may be said — that the seed and house of David are not in the occupation of the throne and power of David. Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and of Jezebel, and, as I may call her, the Jezebel of Judah, was the instrument of accomplishing this iniquity. A murderer, idolater, and usurper, she completes the sin here, as Ahab and Jezebel did in Israel, till the wrath of God visits and removes her, as it had visited and removed them. The seed royal was the object of her murderous design, in order that she might seize the crown as her own, and (as she judged, perhaps, with infidel boldness) overthrow the divine promise to the house of David. (1 Kings 2:4). Her act was like Ahab’s in Samaria towards the vineyard of the righteous, or like that of the whole nation afterwards towards the Lord of the vineyard, or the Heir of the kingdom. But there is a secret purpose and power of God that frustrates all this. He has the resurrection of Jesus in order to bring to nought all the devices of the enemy; and so here, Joash, a child of resurrection, is used as His instrument for the like end. The sentence of death had gone out against him. He was as much involved in it as any of them who perished by it. But the Lord had deliverance prepared for him, as He had great purposes to accomplish by and in him, and he is therefore drawn out from the place of death, like Moses in such a case, by the daughter of a king, Jehoshabeath, who had married the High Priest Jehoiada. It is however, much to be observed, that, being drawn thus out of the place of death, he is hid by the priest of God in "the house of the Lord," and that, too, "till the seventh year." This is a striking picture of the distant purposes of God concerning the true Heir of the throne of Judah. For Jesus, being drawn from the place of death by resurrection, is hid during a whole age in the house of God, the heavens having now received Him as the High Priest of the present house of God; the concealment of this former heir of David for a time thus standing a fair and full expression of the present hiding of Jesus in the heavens. Surely I may say, this is "a sign and a wonder," something to be treated as a type or a mystery. But Joash is not to be always where the hand of Jehoiada had now secured him. In due season Jehoiada prepares a remnant in Judah to favour him, with whom he makes a covenant in the house of the Lord, and to whom he shows "the king’s son." And after preparing them he uses them: he fits them out with weapons of war, and harness, for the day of battle, from the armoury of David, and sets them all in order, to hurl the bold usurper from the throne. And this is done with the same perfect and holy intelligence of God’s mind, as the concealment in the sanctuary had been. No blood is to stain the Temple — the wicked are to be cut off in this day of righteous judgment without mercy — and "the king’s son is to be brought forth from the house of the Lord. These three things are to be carefully observed on this great occasion. The king is to be enthroned, the wicked to be slain, but the Temple to be kept undefiled. All this must be done according to God. And then, accompanied in all due solemnity by the power of his kingdom, the righteous in whom he could trust, and on the Sabbath day, the day prepared for his showing to Judah, the king comes forth from his hiding place. Jehoiada, who, as the priest, had been the guardian of the young king during the time of the usurpation, orders the whole matter of his coronation and manifestation. He marshals a line of body guard from the house of the Lord to the house of the king, from the sanctuary to the palace. Their business was, to watch the king from his exit to his entrance, and along the whole passage from the one house to the other. And the king is, accordingly, brought forth from the Temple; and just outside it, at the pillar, he is proclaimed amid the acclamations of the people, the testimony as well as the crown being given to him; the one signifying to him his subjection to Jehovah, the other his sovereignty over Israel. Athaliah the usurper is then slain — but beyond the ranges of the Temple. For even to the restoration of the king and the peace of the kingdom, the priest will not sacrifice the sanctity of the Temple. Beautiful witness of the Lord maintaining all His glories in all His ways, never clouding one during the shining of another. The covenant of all the people is then made, they accepting the king, and the king adopting them. All things that offend and do iniquity are taken out of the way, the house, the altars, the images, and the priests of Baal. And at last, the king passes through the line of body guards, all joyful in their attendance upon him; and, like another Solomon, in peace and dignity, full of honour and of the gladness of the people, he sits on the throne of the kingdom, the throne of the house of David. Can anything more beautifully express the return of Jesus from His heavenly sanctuary? For is He not to appear then in the midst of the strength and righteousness of His kingdom? and is not that to be a time when a Sabbath is again preparing for His Israel, and for the whole creation? Will it not, likewise, be the day of visitation on them that have shed the blood of the righteous, and corrupted the earth? Heaven will be opened, and that will be the day of Jesus’ crowning, and His people’s gladness; as here, the priest anoints Joash, puts the crown on his head, the testimony in his hand, according to the ancient ordinance of God (Deuteronomy 17:1-20); while the people cry, "God save the king." The king shows himself in his beauty, and as alive from the dead; and the wicked one, the usurper, and the murderer, perish in his presence. Nothing could more exquisitely give us the distant glimpses of our true David than all this. We see, as it were, His descent from heaven, the house of the Lord, in power and glory. And it was the suited moment for such a type. For this usurpation of Athaliah was the full apostacy of Judah, the time for the Lord to come out again, as at Babel’s and Gomorrah’s iniquity of old, to punish the earth for its iniquity, and as the result of that, to take to Him His own holy power and honour. And the land is now again full of David. Not only had the guard of the king been armed with the spears and the shields of David, which had been kept apart, and allowed, as it were, to rust for want of use while the heir was hid in the sanctuary; but now, the ordinances of David, and the music of David, are observed and heard. (2 Chronicles 23:18) The priest is careful to fill the scene with recollections of David. And Baal and his servants are put away, and the God of Israel is in His place again. It is Jehovah the Lord, and David the servant, as it will be in the glorious antitype. And a larger covenant is now struck, as we have already observed. It is not merely the priest taking an oath of some in favour of the concealed Joash, and showing him simply to them. It is the priest bringing all the people, the king, and Jehovah, into holy, gracious covenant again, that they should be the Lord’s people, and then showing the rightful heir of all the glory, not to some, but to all the congregation of Israel. And thus was the city quiet, the people of the land rejoice, the king sits on the throne, and he and the priest restore the service and worship of the God of Israel. This was the great restitution of all things. In this way things are totally changed. It is no longer the king hid in the house of the Lord, and a strange woman on the throne, as it were, riding the Beast, with Baal brought in, and the temple of the only true God in defilement and ruin; but the king has been brought forth and owned by his willing people, the usurper is judged, and the sanctuary and worship of the Lord are in honour and observance again. But as with Solomon, so with Joash, this is only for a season. Adam lost Eden, after we get the fair type of Christ and the Church in him and the help-meet given to him. So did Solomon lose the throne of David after he had served (in the hand of our blessed God who ever teaches us to profit) the glorious purpose of exhibiting in type the earthly honours and kingdom of the true Son of David. And Joash now, as soon as Jehoiada is gone, tarnishes all this brightness. But this we see, that as long as Jehoiada the priest lived, the kingdom was maintained by king Joash in its holiness and beauty. And this shows us again in a type, that in the coming kingdom, when we shall see the King and the Priest together, all shall be well. As it is written," He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne, and He shall be a priest upon His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." And because the Priest of that kingdom cannot die, being made "after the power of an endless life," and because the King of that kingdom cannot fail or do wrong, because His sceptre is one of righteousness, and it is said of Him, "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity," therefore this peace and honour will abide through His times, till He have delivered up the kingdom. "In His days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." "The government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever." This is, indeed, a strong expression of the then distant things of Christ’s glory, His return from the heavens, which is the Sanctuary of God, and His taking to Him judgment first, and then His priestly kingly honours, and dominion in the land of His ancient choice. Happy for our souls to dwell on any thoughts of Him; and therefore, though Elisha was not here, a greater than he being here, we have not passed it, nor judged these chapters an intruder on our path. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 92: 07.17. JOASH, KING OF ISRAEL, AND THE ARROWS ======================================================================== Joash, King of Israel, and the Arrows. 2 Kings 13:1-19. We now return out of Judah into the land of the ten tribes, and after an interval, the reign of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, we get a sight of our prophet again. Joash had succeeded his father Jehoahaz on the throne of Israel, and still did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and the rest of the kings before him. But in his days Elisha had fallen sick of his sickness whereof he afterwards died. The longest day has its evening, it has been said, and said, too, of the ministry of this prophet He had gone through the reigns of Jehoram the son of Ahab, of Jehu, Jehoahaz and Joash, having seen also the earlier times of Ahab and Ahaziah. Perhaps he had been a prophet of God for nearly sixty years. But the evening of his day was now come; his sun sets in brightest tints, and with a glow which was worthy of its meridian hour. Joash, we read, came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." This may surprise us. But it is clear that there was no pretence, or mockery, or insincerity in all this. It was nature. Perhaps Elisha had been hitherto much neglected by this king of the house of Jehu, And in the prospect of his being taken away, there was, as was very natural, a quickening of conscience in him, and he accordingly seeks the dying prophet. Even Herod, a worse man than Joash, could do many things, and tremble at the thought of John being alive, as Joash here could at the thought of Elisha dying. This was nature. Joash valued Elisha’s presence in his kingdom. But beside that, he would honour Elisha, ere it was too late; for the remembrance that he had done so, might, when Elisha was gone, hinder some disquiet in his conscience. The prophet’s sanctity, the power that had so often been owned in him, and the name and place he filled, enforced all this on his soul at such a moment as the present; and thus, not in mockery or pretence, but under this strong current of natural feelings, the king visits the dying prophet with the very same salutation with which this prophet himself had hailed the ascending Elijah. But nature is not up to the elevation of the Spirit of God. "Stand fast in the Lord," is the word — and "I can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me," is the Apostle’s only boast. We are not to glory, save in that which Christ works in us. And so, however promising things may be at the beginning of this scene, nature in Joash is not up to the occasion. He could not go through it, as Elisha had before done, in the power of the Spirit. The motions of nature carry us for a season apparently in that track, where the energy of the Holy Ghost would have us; but they will not bear us to the end with those who are in the same track in the Spirit. And so, though Elisha and Joash begin with the same language on their lips, there is distance between them. But let me say, in connection with this admonition, that we must not question the goodness of God, though we may know the weakness and deceit of our own hearts. And there is this tendency in us. We are prone to suspect the sources of light or joy or strength, that may be in us at times. Our reasoning will tell us that simple nature and not the Spirit of God is in these things. We do what we can to take the praise of our blessings from God, and to reason that good gifts come down from sources short of the Father of lights. But this should not be. The heart is deceitful indeed, but God is good. And in simplicity of faith we should accustom ourselves to trace our light, or joy, or strength of soul, to His Spirit, without the darkening and troubling reasonings of our own hearts. All this may teach us. There is warning against nature, but consolation for us in God here. But there is something besides. At the bidding of the prophet, the king takes bow and arrows, and does with them according to the word of the prophet, the prophet interpreting the action to him. Then the king, having taken the arrows by themselves, as Elisha bids him, is ordered to smite the ground with them But on doing so only three times, the prophet rebukes him. The man of God is wroth, and rebukes him, for he was grieved and disappointed. But why was this? Why this heat in the soul of Elisha? The reason is beautiful. He had just told the king that "the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, and the arrows of deliverance from Syria," were in his hand: had his soul been in unison with the prophet, had it glowed with thoughts of that glory which was thus brought so nigh to him; had his heart sparkled at the sight of the Lord’s own quiver then in his hand, how lustily would he have smitten the ground at the bidding of the prophet. Had Joash but valued the Lord’s arrow as Elisha had valued his master’s mantle, all would have been harmony of soul between them. But the king had not in spirit fallen into that current which was then bearing the prophet along. The spirit in him was not in the same fine flow that it was pursuing through Elisha, and therefore, with slack hand he smote the ground but thrice. And oh! how much of this we know! Where is the fine rich fervency of heart which we find of old, the glow of soul, and power of utterance, which were known among our tried and suffering brethren in other days? What smiting on the ground again and again was there then, in company, as it were, with the soul of Elisha! But our hand is slack. The unction and the zeal, and the earnests of the Spirit, express themselves in far feebler lines now, than they were wont to do in other days. Elisha had cried out as Elijah was leaving him, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof" — but he also took up the mantle of the prophet and smote the waters as the prophet had smitten them, to divide them hither and thither. The king can now come to Elisha as he is leaving him, and utter the same words, but there is no kindred smiting now. The king’s heart is cold, and his hand is slack, where Elisha’s had been fervent and bold. "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known." We stand but little now-a-days in the rich and fervent power of the Spirit of God. At least one feels this for oneself too sensibly. There may be extension in the field of vision, or multiplied truths dwelling in the thoughts, but the deep unctuous virtue of truth itself is less felt. Again I say, one speaks this at least of oneself, according to the well-known coldness and narrowness of one’s own affections. So that we may still say, "O Lord, revive thy work!" As another has sung - "The ancient days were days of might, In forms of greatness moulded, When flowers of heaven grew on earth Within the church unfolded. For grace fell fast as summer dew, And saints to giant stature grew." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 93: 07.18. THE DEAD MAN QUICKENED ======================================================================== The Dead Man Quickened. 2 Kings 13:20-25. This is the closing expression of the power of God in our prophet. But the way of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, is reflected here still. For by His death we live. To touch the dead body of Jesus, that is, to have faith in His blood, is to be justified and live. But it is not so much in that general way, as belonging to all sinners, that we get Jesus here. It is as in connection with Israel, whose prophet Elisha was, and the earthly man also, who takes his course in power through Israel and on the earth, after Elijah the heavenly man had been translated to his place on high. For so with Jesus. He will be for the succour and life and kingdom of Israel in the latter day, after He has accomplished His mercy and His purpose with the Church, His heavenly witness. And as the man of grace and power for Israel, we here see Elisha doing his last service. Israel was now in confusion before the face of their enemies. They were put to the worse by the Moabites. The most they can do is to bury their dead, and we know, that is the service of the dead — "Let the dead bury the dead." This is shortly, but strikingly, marked as their condition here. But one that was dead already carries life, unlooked-for life, for them. This is shortly but strikingly marked here also. The power of reviving lay in the sepulchre of this mystic prophet. And so with Jesus, the Messiah and Lord of His Israel. Things will be seen in Him according to this pattern; when it shall be said, "The Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants; when He seeth that their power is gone, and that there is none shut up or left, He shall say, See now that it is I, even I, and there is no God with me; I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal." Then, according to Ezekiel, the dry bones shall live; then the Lord will open the graves of His people and bring them out of their graves. "At evening time it shall be light," we read. And again, "He turneth the shadow of death into the morning." Of these holy and august powers, we have faint touches in our prophet’s history. For in the evening of his days, when he was adying, we saw a light shining, as in the case of Joash and the arrows, that was worthy of his life’s meridian hour. And now, after his sun is gone down, even in the night of the tomb, the full power of the returning morning appears. And all has still a mystery in it. It is mystic ground as well as holy ground that we tread through these histories, and in the spirit of our minds we must tread softly, as ever, with unshod feet, but still be in company with happy thoughts of Jesus and His ways. _______________ Thus have we closed the story of "the great things that Elisha" did. Great things they surely were. We have, however, if I may so call it, a short appendix to it, which I read as very characteristic and significant. I mean the notice taken in the last four verses of this chapter, of the times of Jehoahaz and Joash. (See 2 Kings 13:22-25). We are told that Hazael of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz but that the Lord was gracious, and had respect to His people, remembering in their behalf His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he gave Joash three victories over the son of Hazael, according to the sign of the arrows, which by command of Elisha, he had struck on the ground; and he took out of his hand the cities of Israel which his father had lost to Hazael in war. Here we get the God of the fathers of Israel and His covenant of blessing, in company, too, with the mystic arrows of our prophet, strikingly owned. And this is, as I observed, very significant and characteristic. For Elisha’s ways had been ways of grace and power towards Israel, shadowy or typical of the ways of Messiah in the behalf of His people. And now that those ways of our prophet had all been run, as we have seen, and even in death he had given life, and sent the prisoner from the pit, and made the buried ones to go up from their graves, in a little postscript we get this mention of Abraham’s God and His covenant, by which Israel was to be secured and blest, in spite of all that was against them. Is not this like the moral of the whole story? Is not this, as it were, the key to the mystery, or the sense of the parable? Do we not thus learn that the Lord has pledged, in all this history of Elisha, succour and strength and grace and revival to Israel in the latter day? It is Israel delivered and blessed, as of old, that we get here; and nothing less. It is the ancient days of Israel’s mercy in Egypt that are again before us. For there, when they groaned under the rod of Pharaoh, and sighed by reason of the bondage, God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, as He does here; and also, as He does here, had respect unto them. (Exodus 2:23-25). Hazael may be as Pharaoh, but the God of Abraham is the God of Abraham still, and He can pledge deliverance and blessing by Elisha, as once He brought it by Moses. It was long ere now that we heard of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in connection with the ten revolted tribes. Yea, did we ever before hear of Him as with them, save on the lips of our prophet’s kinsman, as I may call him, Elijah? ( See 1 Kings 18:36.) But now Elisha has been the witness of His grace and power in the midst of them, and the God of grace, the God of the fathers, can now be owned over them and for them. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 94: 07.19. CONCLUSION ======================================================================== Conclusion. We have now gone through the actions of Elisha, whose name signifies, "salvation of God." It has given us many an expression of the marvellous power and abounding grace of Jesus — some faint, but true, traces of the Son of God, in that divine mystery of strength, and divine tenderness of goodness, which manifested Him in the days of His flesh. All of Jesus, it is true, is not seen in him. Where should we find that? As a suffering witness against the world, Elijah, as I have before said, the rather reflects Him. But in His ways of power and grace we see Him in Elisha. There was no suffering for Elisha, I may say, after his master left him. It was not with him, as it had been with his master, the wrath of the throne prevailing to exile and harass him. But chief captains wait at his gates, and kings send presents to him. He discloses the secrets of one of them, disappoints the purposes of another, gives pledges of victory to a third, and grants supplies to the combined armies of them. Every path he treads wears after him some trace of the greatness of him who had been travelling there. Chariots of salvation fill the mountains, attending on the prophet. Famine, disease, and death own him. Nature again and again changes its course at his bidding. He goes onward in the Lord from strength to strength, and even his dead body puts forth strange and surprising virtue. All this is seen in the ways of Elisha. And the goodness and power that was in him of God was very well-known among the people, as the words of the little captive in the house of Naaman may easily assure us. (See 2 Kings 5:3). And yet the while, he was personally nothing in the world. The more like Jesus. Elisha received bounty and care in the ordinary need of life from those, in whose behalf he was opening resources which were altogether beyond the reach or range of man’s ability — How like was he made to Him, who though He Himself was "an hungered," again and again fed thousands with a few loaves and fishes. And though He sends the springs into the valleys that run among the hills, and measures the waters in the hollow of His hand, and though He had a little while before turned water into wine, and entertained the guests at a marriage feast with it, asked for a cup of cold water from a woman at a well., and took the loan of an ass’s colt from its owner, though the cattle on a thousand hills are His! (John 2:1-25; John 5:1-47). Remarkable it is, that in the dark realms of the kingdom Israel, the place of revolted tribes, the Lord should have raised up such prophets as Elisha and his master. Lights they were truly in dark places. Judah, which had still the sanctuary and the priesthood, was never so visited. A rich unction of the prophetic spirit was known in the waning hours of that kingdom, or after its sun was set, as in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others. And the same spirit had been there in earlier days, as in the person of Isaiah. But none of these were in the scene of action, working miracles, executing judgments as well as pronouncing them, ministering mercies as well as publishing them, as Elijah and Elisha were. "A prophet mighty in deed and in word," is said of the Lord Jesus by one of His disciples. Elijah and Elisha, were prophets mighty in deed. We have no book of either the prophet Elijah, or of the prophet Elisha, as we have of Isaiah. But there was no greatness about Isaiah, as there was about them; he was in no way important in the history of his day, as they were. In no sense was he a type of the Lord, though His prophet. But Jesus stands foreshadowed in them, in the most distinguishing features of His history. They tell of Him as the suffering witness who ends His course in heaven; and as the gracious, powerful, but self-emptied Friend of Israel, who went about dispensing the virtues of life and salvation through their cities and villages, and giving a pledge, through His death, of their quickening in the last days. These are "the great things" which cast a strong and bright light over the whole path of our prophet, every little spot in which bears the trace, as we have seen, of grace to Israel. And may our souls rejoice in the prospect of their final joy! that when the heavenly people have been removed to their heavenly places, the earth shall be the scene of the power and grace of the God of Elisha, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then, "praise ye the Lord from the heavens — praise the Lord from the earth," shall be the burthen and chorus of universal gladness. For in the dispensation of the fulness of times, God will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him. And" at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Blessed anticipation! Can we lay out ourselves and our talents upon it, beloved? Jeremiah, in faith of God’s truth, spent his money on an expectation, though for the present it seemed to have been thrown away, for the Chaldeans were at the gates, and the fields of Anathoth were part of their plunder. (Jeremiah 32:1-44) Precious faith as well as brilliant prospect! And hope can celebrate it now, till "the nobler sweeter song" be heard in the presence of it. "Joy to His ancient people! Your bonds He comes to sever; And now ’tis done, The Lord has won, And ye are free for ever! Joy to the ransom’d nations! The foe, the rav’ning lion Is bound in chains, While Jesus reigns King of the earth in Zion. Joy to the church triumphant! The Saviour’s throne surrounding - They see His face, Adore His grace, O’er all their sin abounding, Crown’d with the mighty Victor, His royal glory sharing, Each fills a throne, His name alone, To heaven and earth declaring," Our meditations began with Elijah, whose translation to heaven, after a life of suffering testimony on earth, tells us of that elect body, who, having continued with Jesus in His temptations, are to share His throne in the days of the kingdom; and as their representative, in company with Moses, we see him glorified on the distant heavenly hill (Matthew 17:3). And now they have ended with Elisha, after a ministry of grace and power, quickening the dead estate of Israel, and bringing back the covenanted mercies of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to their seed in the land of their inheritance. As in a mystery, the tale of the heavens and the earth is told, and their divers glories are pledged. And the coming millennial days will verify this wondrous tale, and redeem these precious pledges. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 95: 08.000. SHORT MEDITATIONS ON THE PSALMS ======================================================================== Short Meditations on the Psalms, Chiefly in their Prophetic Character. J. G. Bellett. (Rouse 1892) "All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me." — Luke 24:44. "David speaketh concerning Him." — Acts 2:25. Introduction. The Book of Psalms is a collection of Meditations, Prayers, and Praises, uttered by various persons under various circumstances; all, surely, under the moving of the Holy Ghost. It bears this title, "The Book of Psalms," by inspired authority. (Acts 1:20) The Psalms themselves are either commemorative or prophetic, or expressive of the present passage of the soul. They have all the variety of confession, supplication, and praise; of doctrine, history, and prophecy. The Lord Jesus is seen and heard in them, either personally or mystically. Among them there are some to which we can attach a time and place in the history of the Lord, reading them, therefore, as the utterances of His heart under some given occasion. Such, for instance, is Psalms 22:1-31. But there are others to which you cannot so distinctly attach such specific character; they are meditations or experiences more free and undefined. And this is just what is known in the communion of the saints with God. At times it will be suggested by circumstances, at other times it will be more free and desultory, resulting, not from present conditions, but from general knowledge of God and of His ways abroad, or of His dealings with themselves. The life of the Lord Jesus was one of constant unbroken communion. His spirit or heart was the altar on which the fire was ever burning. (See Leviticus 6:1-30) And thus, if no peculiar circumstance directed or formed His fellowship with God, yet His soul was in the sanctuary; still the fire was alive from its own necessary virtue. The solitariness of our Lord in worship is much to be observed. As it is said of Him, He got up before day, or went out into a solitary place, to pray, that He might be marked as alone in prayer. So it is said, He withdrew Himself and prayed; He continued all night in prayer; He was alone praying. Nor is He once seen in prayer even with His disciples, though He owned their praying, both teaching them and encouraging them to pray. Why, then, was this? If He taught and encouraged them to pray, and also prayed Himself, why did He not join them in prayer? This may be the answer. His prayers had a character in them which none others could have had. He was heard "for His piety." (Hebrews 5:1-14) He needed no mediator, but stood accepted in Himself. He pleaded no one’s merit; He used no mercy-seat with blood upon it. This was the character of His communion in prayer; but into this there was no entrance for any worshipper but Himself. He prayed in a temple erected, as it were, for such a worshipper as the Son of God, who offered prayer at an altar the like of which was not to be seen anywhere; it had no pattern on the top of the mount. He was a worshipper of a peculiar order, as He was a priest of a peculiar order, or a servant of a peculiar order. He did not owe service, but He learnt it; He did not owe worship, but He rendered it. He was the voluntary servant (Exodus 21:5; Hebrews 5:8) and the personal accepted worshipper. Thus He prayed "alone." But there is no intention of asserting that all the Psalms are utterances of the Lord Jesus. There is no necessity for such a thought as that. For instance, Psalms 1:1-6 is not His language, but the divine description, God’s description, of the blessed or prosperous man. Jesus is, I doubt not, in the complete and perfect sense, the happy one there described; but the Psalm is not His utterance. And I am free to own that I do not see Him personally so much in the Psalms as I once did. The Psalms are commonly spoken of as David’s: and properly so; because, though Moses, Ezra, and others may have been the penmen of some of them, David was principally used in them. And beside, David was more rich and varied in his experiences (through the Holy Ghost, the real "master of the Hebrew lyre,") than any of the saints of old. He knew all the sorrows of righteousness and of sin, or the trial of a martyr and a penitent. He knew, too, the varieties of humiliation and of honour. His changeful life gave the Spirit the largest occasion to exercise his soul. And from all this such a book as that of the Psalms would have come forth. And further, the Lord seems to recognize David as the writer of them in Matthew 22:43. And in connection with this, I would notice 2 Samuel 22:1-51 and 1 Chronicles 16:43 as instancing something of the manner in which many Psalms were originated. Those chapters contain several of the Psalms. And from this we learn that the conditions, circumstances, or Acts 1:1-26 David, or others of God’s people, became the occasion of the Holy Ghost breathing through them utterances and revelations which were suited to the time or the circumstance, but which reached in their full import beyond it. David is delivered from Saul, the ark of God is brought into the tent prepared for it, and the Spirit uses those events as His occasion; in the range and compass of the inspiration (knowing as He does the end from the beginning), He takes in larger and still distant scenes. So again Hannah’s song may be called a Psalm of this character. The event of her becoming a mother is an occasion for the Holy Ghost to use her as His vessel or organ, and He inspires her with an utterance which, while it indulges or celebrates her present personal joy, anticipates the interests and joys of the kingdom of God in other ages. (1 Samuel 2:1-36) This, if I may so express it, is the parentage of many of the Psalms. This is the history of their birth, the place and time of it. And David is specially used by the Spirit in this way. And as he was closing his very memorable life, distinguished by the hand of God as well as by the Spirit of God so wondrously, he says of himself and of his songs, "David the Son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel said, the Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and His word was in my tongue." (2 Samuel 23:1-2) Thus he was used, — he was the singer, but the Holy Ghost was the composer of the music. David’s songs were "the songs of the Lord," and by them he prophesied according to the mind of the Spirit. His tongue was "the pen of a ready writer." The Lord, as the apostle speaks, was "saying in David." (Hebrews 4:7) And I would further say upon these "songs of the Lord," what has dwelt on my mind with interest before now, that there is great moral value in learning prophetic truths in or through the Psalms; because they are not there treated as mere doctrines, but are handled and felt there by the varied passions of the soul. Thus, St. Paul teaches us that "blindness in part is happened to Israel," or that "the branches were broken off." This is a proposition or doctrine to be understood and believed. But the same truth is conveyed in the Psalms (see 65) in the words, "iniquities prevail against me;" not, however, as a mere doctrine, as it is given to us in the more didactic style of the epistles, but as that which was, as it were, breaking the heart of a poor Jew when he thought of it. So, "all Israel shall be saved," is another teaching or doctrine of St. Paul. But it is conveyed in the same Psalm in this style — "our transgressions! thou shalt purge them away" — not, therefore, simply as a proposition, but as the exulting anticipation of the same poor broken-hearted Israelite. And thus it is, that there ismoralvalue in learning truths through the Psalms. For there is a tendency in us to apprehend truth as an object or a proposition by the mind, and then just to talk about it. But in the Psalms, truth is delivered in company with the passions of the soul. The Psalms are, if I may so speak,the heartof the divine volume. They lie in the midst of the body; and there the pulses are felt; there the blood emanates and returns; there the affections of the renewed man find their seat and exercise. And it is safe to be there at times, yea, and to use other scriptures according to the manner learnt and practised there. I need not say that some of the Psalms are dialogues some of them introduce even more than two speakers and some of them are, so to speak, soliloquies. Again: some of them will be found to follow in order, as the chapters of a book; whilst others are to be read singly and unconnectedly. But into a right discernment of these and of such things, the spiritual senses had need to be exercised. (Hebrews 5:1-14) The mind of God can profitably and holily be known only by the Spirit of God. But still, in this world, to the end it will be with any of us but a knowing in part." (1 Corinthians 13:9) There is nothing more proposed in the following sketches, than to give a little help to the apprehending of the mind of the Spirit in these blessed utterances, in either their prophetic or moral sense, or in both. For well the soul knows that it is but a draught or two of these fresh and living waters which it has ever reached. But one thing we may all with desire seek after, that they may at least pass our lips unmuddied and undisturbed, for the refreshing of others of the flock of God. Be it so, blessed Saviour! NOTE. — The word "Remnant" will often occur in these meditations. I would just observe, though it may not generally be needed, that this word is used both by Prophets and Apostles, and the people it expresses often intended where the word is not used. Generally this word refers to the true Israel of the last days, that faithful band of Israelites who, in those days of the nation’s complete apostasy, will adhere to the Lord, and to the truth and promises of His covenant, and who, therefore, in the time of the divine judgments upon their nation, because of the full transgression, will be preserved, like Noah, for the earthly places, and finally become the seed or centre of the accepted, blest, and worshipping nation in the days of the kingdom. See this word "Remnant" used (among other Scriptures) in Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 10:21-22; Isaiah 11:11; Ezekiel 14:22; Joel 2:32; Amos 5:15; Micah 2:12; Micah 4:7; Zephaniah 3:12-13; Zechariah 8:12; Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5. This Remnant has had its type, or its sample, in every age of the nation’s history. They are largely spoken of by the Prophets, and described in their trials, their repentance, their faith and obedience, their discipline by the Spirit, and under the hand of God, their cries, their experiences, and their deliverance; and with all this the Psalms have, I believe, very largely to do. See, among other Scriptures, Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 25:1-12; Isaiah 26:1-21; Isaiah 27:1-13; Isaiah 33:15; Isaiah 50:10; Isaiah 59:9-15; Isaiah 65:8-9: Isaiah 66:2, Isaiah 66:5; Jeremiah 31:1-40; Ezekiel 6:8; Ezekiel 7:16; Hosea 2:14; Joel 2:28; Zechariah 12:1-14, Zechariah 13:1-9; Malachi 3:16. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 96: 08.001. PSALMS 001 ======================================================================== MEDITATIONS ON THE PSALMS. Psalms 1:1-6 JESUS, the Son of man, is here presented in His personal holiness and integrity, and then in His rewards, as "the tree planted by the rivers of water." (See Jeremiah 17:1-27) These rewards awaited Jesus in His resurrection, and will still await Him in His kingdom or the "judgment," and there the righteous will share His rewards and the wicked be no more. This psalm is very soothing to the soul. It is the godly man in the care and leading of God,. whom we see before us. No other intrudes to disturb the rest and security of the righteous one; but on he goes, in his proper undistracted path, to his reward. And it is gracious to see this book, which is the great depository of the exercises of the soul, open with so tender and soothing a picture as this — the godly man’s portion in the favour of the Lord, finding his happiness there. And our souls should ever move on in the like happiness. The Israel of the last days, the godly remnant, will have their place here also. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 97: 08.002. PSALMS 002 ======================================================================== Psalms 2:1-12 Here, however, the soothing influence of the previous psalm is not felt; it is altogether broken up; for the world enters the scene. It is no longer the privacy of God and the godly man. That path is in this psalm trespassed upon by the rude and wild foot of an evil persecuting world. It is "suffering and glory" that we get here — the rage of man against the Lord’s anointed; but the Lord’s triumphant exaltation of Him. Jesus, the Christ of God, is presented in His grace and power, and consequently the vanity of resisting Him, and the blessedness of trusting in Him. The confederacy, which is here anticipated, was formed when Jesus was crucified. (See Acts 4:1-37) He will punish it when He returns in His kingdom. (See Luke 19:1-48) It is still in principle existent, being the course of this world already judged, but spared through divine long-suffering. It will be fully developed in all its forms of evil in the last days — those days which the Psalms so generally belong to. It acts on the old desire, and the lie of the serpent. (Genesis 3:5) It would dethrone God. For the present, however, He that sits in the heavens laughs at it all; as was expressed by the angel rolling away the stone, and sitting on it, while he put the sentence of death into the hearts of its keepers. (Matthew 28:1-20) What was all that but the Lord telling the confederacy which had crucified Jesus that He had them all in derision? In like spirit the Lord Jesus from the heavens challenged Saul, the persecuting zealot, in Acts 9:1-43. But there is much more than this present laughter; for the decree of God touching the Christ is the great counter-scheme, and will of course prevail. And that decree, as here announced by the Lord Himself, gives Him Sonship and inheritance: Sonship is already His by resurrection (Acts 13:1-52); inheritance will be His in glory by and by. NOTE. — Looking at these Psalms together, it is Jesus under the law, approved of God and earning blessing by His righteousness, whom we may see in the first: Jesus in testimony or as anointed, resisted by man but exalted by God, and securing blessing or executing judgment on others, whom we see in the second. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 98: 08.003. PSALMS 003 ======================================================================== Psalms 3:1-8 This Psalm is the devout meditation of an afflicted servant of God. It was probably the experience of David, but the Spirit of Jesus breathes in it. It is a morning meditation or prayer, and the afflicted one appears to take courage from his now awaking in safety; anticipating from this, as a pledge or sample, the morning of His kingdom, when all His enemies shall be taken away. This morning rising of the godly man, as the pledge of the opening of the kingdom, is sweet and striking; for the kingdom will be near at hand when those "last days" have come, and the remnant are manifested. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 99: 08.004. PSALMS 004 ======================================================================== Psalms 4:1-8 This meditation is the companion of the preceding one. It is aneveningprayer of the same godly man. He appears to have passed through a trying day (as was every day to Jesus more or less), but to have been sustained and refreshed in it. The godly man, as here, may go to bed and sleep (v. 8); but he warnsothersto go to bed, and there commune with their hearts, and search their spirits (v. 4). He knows His own full title to rest in God undisturbed; for "God giveth His beloved sleep." The Lord Jesus realized this, though winds and waves tossed the ship on the sea of Galilee. (See Mark 4:1-41) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 100: 08.005. PSALMS 005 ======================================================================== Psalms 5:1-12 This Psalm is still in connection. It is a meditation bynight.(See verse 3) Thus it follows the preceding. In it the same godly man looks on the evil powers that war against Him, but anticipates His victory and deliverance. But whether it be morning, evening, or night, these Psalms show the pattern of a full faith in God. Different fruit because a different season. As Jesus could "weep" and could "rejoice in spirit." Every season found in Him its due fruit, and all was beautiful; for all was in its season. He knew in what spirit to take His journey to the holy hill in Matthew 17:1-27, and in what spirit to set Himself on the road to Jerusalem for the last time. (See Mark 10:32) He knew how to be abased and how to abound, and each perfectly. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-john-g-bellett-volume-1/ ========================================================================