The seventh and eighth chapters are of profound and especial interest, from the very full way in which the moral glory of Christ, linked as it was with a lowliness of spirit, deeper, if possible, than the humiliation of His outward position, and never for a moment abandoned, is brought out in them.
This glory was independent of the testimony of man, or even of miracles, it was its own witness for every opened eye. The Witness and His testimony were one (John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25), JND). Nothing like this had ever been known upon earth.
By its own pure light, we can see what the heart of man had failed to perceive, how God, lost for the heart, was replaced in the conscience of His professing people by His own ordinances, their zeal for which was the measure of their departure from the living God. “Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples” (Hos. 8:1414For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. (Hosea 8:14)).
The same principles have been largely developed in the history of Christendom, with the same results, and are rife in our day, a sure token that judgment is at the door — it begins, we are told, at the house of God (1 Pet. 4:1717For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)). You find the same thing in the history of the judgment of the nations. It begins with the judgment of Judah and Jerusalem, then follows that of the Assyrians, Babylon, Moab, Egypt, and Tyre.
An attentive study of the chapters before us, will show the state of ripened iniquity of the Jews. In the Lord’s mind, both the people and the Jewish system were already judged. In the tenth chapter He leads the sheep out of the ancient fold, henceforth “there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” The desolation of the house and the dispersion of the people soon followed.
But to proceed with chapter 7: “The Jews feast of tabernacles was at hand” (vs. 2). The preceding chapter commenced with the announcement of the approach of the Passover. In the mind of the Spirit, they were now simply feasts of the Jews, when instituted, they were divinely-named feasts of Jehovah; here, on the same authority, termed feasts of the Jews, in the sense conveyed by the words, soon to be heard from Jesus Himself, “Your house (house of the Jews now) is left unto you desolate.” The heart of Judah, more desolate still, clung to the shadows, and cast the glorious substance away.
Their moral state is laid bare, in a wonderful way, in these chapters; for nothing could be hid from the Light that was shining in their midst. Yet there was nothing new in this state, save that it had reached its last development: in Matthew 13 we find the judicial blinding of an impenitent people. It was, morally, the same generation addressed by Isaiah, in the word of the Lord. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord . . . when ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me, . . . your appointed feasts My soul hateth.” In its alienation from God, the heart had given itself up to all the forms of piety. Religious hypocrisy characterized the people at both epochs; this was what the Lord could not “away with”; even the “solemn meeting” was iniquity (Isa. 1:11-1411To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. (Isaiah 1:11‑14)).
This state is the precursor of judgment; it is not one of weakness, ignorance, or ordinary failure; but of rebellion, when, having chosen their own ways, God chooses their delusions (Isa. 66). “Therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts . . . Ah, I will ease Me of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies” (Isa. 1:2424Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: (Isaiah 1:24)). Of sacrifices, oblations, offerings of incense, Sabbaths, assemblies, appointed feasts, there was no end. “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,” is all that the Spirit of Christ can say to these rulers of Sodom, this people of Gomorrah, “these enemies and adversaries of the Lord.
Thus it is most plainly evident, that no stronger expression of man’s enmity against God can be found, than the piety of the flesh. The identity of the state unfolded here, with that which we find in the chapters before us (John 7 and 8) is very remarkable.
In Isaiah 1, it is the judgment of the Spirit of Christ, through the prophet, who calls heaven and earth to hear the word of the Lord about His rebellious people; but in Isaiah 6, a new departure is taken, the reproofs and the threatenings of Jehovah are no longer heard.
His throne is set up, the time of judgment has come, at first only moral, according to His ways in government; but the glory of God is necessarily intolerant of evil, and judges all that is contrary to itself. The apostle expresses it thus: “and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” This glory, when manifested, is found to be the measure and judgment of evil.
It was given to Isaiah to see the Lord of hosts in the glory of the coming day of His power, when the whole earth will be filled with His glory. His throne was high and lifted up, and above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, their reverence was profound; with twain he covered his feet; their ways were perfect, yet they refused to look at them; one only Object absorbed their attention. His holiness and His glory were the angels theme; but man’s voice was not heard in this celebration, it was seraphim who cried one to another, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.”
The voice of judgment sounded from it now, but by-and-by the healing, life-giving waters will flow from this throne of the Lord in “Jehovah Shammah” (The Lord is there. Ezek. 48). With the praise of seraphim man’s voice was not heard. The tongue of him whose name is “Praise” (Judah), was silent there; could he stand in the presence of the glory of God?
Praise does not flow even from the prophet’s lips, nor aught but the sorrowful cry of, “Woe is me, for I am undone, . . . for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” In the presence of the glory of God, he discerns by its brightness his own moral state, and that of the people in the midst of which he dwells. One makes no mistakes there, the truth is learned at last — we are undone! no one can stand there, all have sinned, and are outside the glory of God.
In John 8, where it is a question of the moral glory of the Son of Man, we see the same thing. In the beginning of the chapter, they go out one by one, commencing with the eldest, no one could stand there: at the end, when He announced Himself as Jehovah, they betake themselves to the last resource of moral weakness, they take up stones to cast at Him. The flesh cannot live in His presence.
Having learned in his vision of the glory of God, the truth of his own state as a sinful man, his iniquity being taken away, the prophet is fitted to be the bearer of the sentence of judgment: “Make the heart of this people fat,” and so on. The sentence was to be in force until the land was utterly desolate, the city without inhabitant, the houses without man.
But I have tarried much longer than I intended over the earlier history of the people, with whom, in His patient grace, He “reasoned together,” having been much struck with the similarity of their state at each epoch. The moral part of the Lord’s judgment began to take effect, doubtless, from the time it was declared; and for seven hundred years was, in the course of accomplishment. The spirit of discernment lost, as in their turning to idolatry — “a deceived heart hath turned him aside.”
But we find in Matthew 13, a most interesting truth in connection with this; that during this long period of seven hundred years, this judgment was never completed. It could not be “filled up” (New Trans). until the rejection of Christ Himself.
It is hardly needful to add, that the Lord of glory, who sat upon the throne high and lifted up, was Jesus — Messiah, who, sitting in a little ship on the sea of Galilee, addressed the people in parables — the proof of the filling up of the prophecy, as He explained to His disciples. What long-suffering on His part, what love unwearied! The rejected Messiah begins His work anew, in the very scene of His utter rejection. In an energy all divine, He rose above His personal sorrows, He would not remember the past, His labor in vain and strength spent for nought, are forgotten in a love that no thought can reach, no tongue can teach. No seraphim with voice of praise were there; no human smiles to cheer.
In scorn, neglect, reviling,
Thy patient grace stood fast;
Man’s malice unavailing,
To move Thy heart to haste.
O er all, Thy perfect goodness,
Rose, blessedly divine.
The secret of such a path as this, Himself alone could tell, the living Father who had sent Him was the source and strength. “As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live on account of the Father.” (By reason of what the Father is, and His living.) May we henceforth, even at this eleventh hour, realize in our souls experience, the latter part of that scripture, “he also who eats Me shall live also on account of Me.”
Nothing can be more evident than the fact, that they were morally under judgment and set aside, as is implied in His own words, “lest they should see with the eyes, and hear with the ears, and understand with the heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” The wise and prudent were already judged, His Father, Lord of heaven and earth, having, hid these things from them. Elsewhere, we read, that Satan blinds the thoughts of the unbelieving, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (See New Trans). The contemplation of His mighty works, when present among men, had produced no effect, and now their moral import is hidden from them. The gospel of grace, when fully proclaimed, in the other case, had been rejected, and now the light of the gospel of His glory cannot reach them, their thoughts are blinded.
How striking and solemn is all this, what a word for the conscience of man, God hiding the import of His divine ways, and Satan blinding the thoughts of the rejecters! So, when predicting the overthrow of the city, He wept over it, He declared that the things which were for their peace were now hid from them, they knew not the time of their visitation.
How dim and dark appear the shadows of the law, as they retire before the brightness of the Light now shining in the midst of Israel! What, was the Passover to the truth set forth in John 6:54, 5854Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:54)
58This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. (John 6:58)? In the shadow, God, regarded as a Judge, was righteously kept out, they escaped the sword of judgment (deliverance was at the Red Sea), but there was no drawing near to God, no song, neither triumph nor joy, the accompaniment of deliverance (Ex. 15).
Now listen to Him, before whose presence the shadows were fleeing away. “I am the bread of life, your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down out of heaven: if any one shall have eaten of this bread he shall live for ever; but the bread withal which I shall give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Read also, verses 53, 58.
One is conscious at once, that the place of images and shadows (in the Lord’s mind) is, abandoned: the co-existence of shadow and substance was impossible. The Man out of heaven, who alone could tell of heavenly things, is here the living bread, come down out of heaven, to be eaten, if one is to live for ever; but this goes on necessarily to death, the flesh of the Son of Man must be eaten, His blood drunk, otherwise eternal life is not in us. Here, if anywhere, we are out of the region of shadows. “My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink.” Could such language be used of divinely appointed sacrifices under the law? Food indeed, drink indeed! Or, will any one say that this had reference to the sacrament? though it be true that the sacrament looks back to this. Here, neither the wisdom nor the reasoning of man avails anything: the faith that appropriates its Object, spiritually discerning and entering into the meaning, as before God, of the death of Christ, bears away the glorious prize — life for ever — eternal life. Was this discoverable amidst the shadows of the law, or not rather brought to light by the gospel?
And mark the kindred truths, as they stand together in the same all-blessed revelation. “He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood dwells [abides] in Me and I in him.” This characterizes the believer (he is an eater of the flesh). And thirdly, “As the living Father has sent Me, and I live on account of the Father” (by reason of what the Father is, and his living, the Father owned as source of life to Him as Man), “he also who eats Me shall live also on account of Me”; realizes, in feeding on Him, and communion with Him, in His walk down here, Christ as source of life. May our divine Teacher and His precious doctrine, have an ever deepening place in the hearts of His own.
In John 7, the Tabernacles, a feast of the Jews, was near. The Passover and Tabernacles, were the first and last respectively of the feasts of Jehovah, unfolding His ways in relation to His people. Could it now be said of any one of them that it was other than a feast of the Jews? The Tabernacles shadowed forth the rest to come, but it was also a memorial feast On the 15th day of the 7th month, when the harvest and vintage [symbols of judgment] were ended, the people were to go forth and gather the branches and boughs of goodly trees to form booths to dwell in during the feast, “That their generations might know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
But this feast alone, had an added eighth day, first day of the week [resurrection-day]; this seems to bring in the heavenly saints. It looked forward to millennial times, the rest of God in connection with His creatures; the joy of those who shall have entered into His rest will be intensified by the remembrance of former sorrows, then for ever past.
With regard to its celebration in the land, two things are particularly specified; it should be in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all the work of thy hand, “therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.” This was part of that word of truth that cannot be broken, it will have its accomplishment in the highest way, when Jerusalem shall be called Hephzibah, and her land Beulah.
But her unfaithfulness had earned for her other, and far different titles. The day was near at hand when she would be openly known amongst the nations as the “Forsaken One,” and her land “Desolate.” The fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, was rampant in Emmanuel’s land; some were even anticipating that the Romans would come and take away their place and nation. Now, if the Lord had chosen Jerusalem, how came the Idumean king to be sitting on the throne of the Lord, or what had the Roman governor to do in the city of the great King? What, too, was the meaning of the cry, “We have no king but Ceasar”? Even the temple in its present state was built by one who, had it been in the days when the children of the captivity were building a temple unto the Lord God of Israel, would have been told, “Ye have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God; but we ourselves will build unto the Lord God of Israel.”
In a word, the moral ruin, degradation, and humiliation of the people (their vine was the vine of Sodom, their grapes, grapes of gall,) was total and complete, the little remnant alone excepted. Yet ecclesiastically, as we speak, all was in order, the “worldly sanctuary” retained much of the ancient splendor; the blood of bulls and goats flowed daily; the golden and brazen altars were in constant use; the incense was offered as in former days; the priest stood daily offering the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins; the feasts of the Lord were duly observed, even the Tabernacles, in which the former deliverance was recalled, when Jehovah, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, made them to dwell in booths.
Never did fairer seeming deck a more dread reality. It seems as if the depths of human degradation, in conjunction with the filling up of all the forms of piety, could only be reached when Emmanuel, Jehovah-Jesus, stood a rejected outcast in their midst. A horrible union surely, the working of which, in principle, had often been seen before, but never in completeness until now.
The same thing we see in Christendom all through its history, a form of piety, united with the denial of its power, but especially characteristic of the last days. In Israel it will be realized, (presented in Matthew) under the figure of a house empty, swept and garnished, a habitation made ready — but for whom? Then he (the unclean spirit) goes and takes with himself seven other spirits worse than himself, and entering in, they dwell there; and the last condition of that, man becomes worse than the first. Thus shall it be to this wicked generation also.” The generation was there already, morally one with those who will be there at the end. How fair it will seem in man’s eyes! Empty, swept, garnished, “how beautiful the piety! How wise in their own eyes the sweepers and garnishers! Satan at least will appreciate all this at its true value.
We have seen that they went up to the feast, but could one eat of the paschal lamb while the living Lamb of God was present, despised and rejected in their midst? Bitter herbs and bread of affliction, expressive of what their state should be, were surely not eaten at the feast now; of course I mean spiritually! Could any one in communion with the Lord’s mind at that moment think, save with anguish, of Jerusalem as the place the Lord had chosen to place His name there? He had once done so, and would choose her again; but now the Lord was going to cast down from heaven unto the earth, the beauty of Israel. In a very little while all that passed by would clap the hands and wag the head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men call, The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?”
Think of any one proposing to do His will in going up there, on the ground that He had chosen it. He Himself being rejected! In His mind it was already judged. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children . . . but ye would not.” The things that were for her peace were hidden from her henceforth she was to be known as the Forsaken, not chosen, One. Yet He “shall choose Jerusalem again” (Zech. 2:1212And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. (Zechariah 2:12)).
Again, if it was to commemorate the Lord’s bringing them out of the land of Egypt, would it be possible for a people in bondage, to a far more formidable power than that of the Egyptians, to think, except with humiliation of spirit, of the deliverance from the Egyptians? The result of all past deliverances being present subjection to the Roman yoke.
In fact, if the mind of God in the ordinance be in question, there was not a single element in it with which they were, or could be, in communion. The same remark may be made in reference to the “Tabernacles.” Think of a people, in the state just described, “surely” rejoicing, “because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands”!
But what did the cursing of the fig-tree mean, on which the Lord found no fruit, but leaves only? Was not that Israel under the law? And His telling them also that the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and pronouncing the desolation of the temple, together with the overthrow of their city. In the mind of Christ, everything was already judged. “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida!” “Thou, Capernaum!” “O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!”
But what did all this signify to a people themselves under judgment? The ordinances of the flesh “(Greek), the worldly sanctuary, the temple ritual, were still there, might they not glory in these? They did so! and at the same time denied the holy One and the Just, killed the Prince of life, and desired a murderer to be given unto them. Thus they themselves showed, of themselves, unwittingly we may be sure, their true character. The mask of carnal piety, in which they sought to hide, it may be from themselves, their real character, fallen to the ground, they stand exposed before the ages as true children of the murderer and the liar.
It is a marvelous history, a great and serious lesson, which 1800 years have not sufficed but for a small part of Christendom to learn, the compatibility of fleshly piety with hatred of the true God. That indeed is the mind of the flesh (Rom. 8:77Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7)), the pretensions and assumption of men notwithstanding. In fact God’s mind in the ordinances being lost (together with God Himself, for heart and conscience), they hid themselves, as it were, from God behind His own ordinances, as Adam, in the garden, sought to hide himself behind the trees which God had given him as good for food, and as pleasant to the eyes. Indeed, to fill up the measure of the evil state of that adulterous generation, but one thing was wanting, the presence of the overflowing power of Satan, when the unclean Spirit shall take seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state shall be worse than the first.
But of all that met the eyes and smote the heart, of the blessed Son of Man, nothing appeared to awaken His holy indignation so much as the deep hypocrisy displayed in the maintenance of the forms of fleshly piety by that adulterous generation. It was not possible that He, who was holy and true, should be regarded by them save with feelings of hatred and fear: “My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred Me” (Zech. 11). “Ye serpents! ye generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
The persecuting, murderous spirit would continue to manifest itself in putting to death those whom He would send unto them. “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation” (Matt. 23:34-3634Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. (Matthew 23:34‑36)). This has fully repeated itself in the history of Christendom. (Compare Rev: 17:21-24.)
Such was the scene into which the Lord of glory descended. We see Him, found in fashion as a man, identified in thought, purpose, and object, with Him from whom He had come; while God Himself found His rest in, glorified and delighted with, what a human heart brought forth, a heart consecrated with all its fruits of love and devotedness unto His service, praise, and glory. But having thus unmasked and set in their true place that hypocritical generation, the holy sorrow of His own heart is expressed in the lamentation over Jerusalem.
But all is different in John. Here he speaks as from moral heights out-topping all dispensation. It is not characteristically the Man of sorrows we find here, but the conqueror of the world, in its divine Savior — not the Son of David or of Abraham (inheritor, as such, of the promises); but Son of God and of the Father. There is no proclamation of a coming kingdom nor expectation of fruit from fig-tree or vine; all was gone, failure from the beginning; the world that was made by Him knew Him not; by His own rejected. Outside Himself — the shining Light — all was uncomprehending darkness. The scene once more is that of a fallen world, where life and light were wanting; therefore He is presented at once as the Life and the Light. The application of creative power was what was wanted, and moral light, the child of Adam must be born anew, “child of Abraham” had lost its significance with the loss of Abraham’s faith.
Then we have the cross, its necessity. The Son of Man must be lifted up (not man putting Him there), and God’s gift of His Son, that man believing might have life eternal; all is anew from God, Christ is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
If man had sinned from the beginning, the Father and the Son had wrought “from the beginning.” “For His name’s sake,” too!
The Son quickens even as the Father. He would give Himself even unto death, that believers, apprehending its meaning before God, might have eternal life.
What ordinance or vessel in Israel could hold such truths as these? “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. “Living water,” and “never thirst again”! The present portion of faith. Was a human channel of communication indispensable for these living waters? The thought is not found in “thou wouldest have asked,” and “He would have given.” Is it not simple? yes, the simplicity of God! Where is man’s? At least, what should be his answer to this word of grace? A basis indeed for all this out-flowing love divine, that it might be righteous, pure, and holy, was necessary. In the mind of God, it existed already, provided in the Lamb of God, foreordained before the world’s foundation, and soon the precious blood would be shed, that these living waters might flow forth.
It would be easily understood, that from the moment those blessed words were uttered, “If thou knewest, thou wouldest have asked,” the time of shadows was virtually ended; for God Himself was there. God in Christ was reconciling the world — His lost creatures — to Himself; He wanted them for Himself. The Jewish altar had lost its meaning when these words were heard; and henceforth the ministry of an earthly priesthood was but the ministration of a sordid priestcraft.
He had commenced to unfold these blessed truths in John 3, with the statement that one must be born anew; but this was the same thing as being born of God, our beginning here is wholly from a divine source; from God Himself; “of water and of the Spirit” — the word in cleansing power, as applied by the Holy Spirit. Man is looked at, here, as the recipient, not channel, the beginning of life is from Himself: His word and Spirit the means.
Again, the woman of Samaria, with newly awakened interest, inquires concerning the true place of worship. The beginning here also is from God, true worship must be according to what God is. The answer was a revelation of the mind of Christ at that moment, an entirely new truth.
Is it not a precious privilege to know the thoughts of that mind, while the dispensation is hastening to its doom — the execution of judgment by “His stretched out hand”? What an expression of the favor and acceptance in which the faithful stand individually, what deep blessedness is communion with that mind, when His testimonies have been rejected, and all that was entrusted to man has slipped away from his feeble hands.
Did not the apostle know, that the precious truths he was communicating, would for the most part be neglected, forgotten, lost? How many in our day, in two-thirds of Christendom, have retained or ever possessed the blessed foundation truths of the righteousness of God, justification by faith, or of what he calls “my gospel”?
Did he not know that the church, looked at as the public professing body, (not in its aspect as the body of Christ,) would be cut off, not having continued in the goodness of God? (Rom. 1). See what he says of the latter times and last days (1 and 2 Tim., and in 2 Thess.)
Whence then and how did he gather strength for labor, apparently fruitless? My answer would be, he had learned from the Lord, before the crisis referred to arrived, His ways in dispensation; His counsels in Christ; in a word, the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2). It was in this sphere, where failure could not come, that he lived in his inner life of communion; his soul nourished by the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord.
As I have referred to Romans 11, see the effect on the heart of the apostle of the solemn and wondrous truth it unfolds; the setting aside of dispensations in judgment, that God might show mercy to all, how it comes out in that glorious outburst of praise and worship from a heart filled till it overflows with delight and wonder, in the contemplation of divine ways — “O depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! . . . For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever, Amen.”
With this we may compare the outflow of Christ’s Spirit, in the day of His rejection. The portion of Tyre, and of Sidon, and of Sodom, in the day of judgment, would be more tolerable than that of those who had witnessed His mighty works, and had not repented. “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight, All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father.”
Had aught of the counsels of the Father, Lord of heaven and earth, failed, or the brightness of the glory of the Person of the Son been dimmed in His presence through man’s rejection — the Son whom no one knew but the Father!
Did He not know already, in the day of His rejection, what the crisis, which must come, would bring, when the King of kings and Lord of lords would show Him — the glorified Son of Man — to the world, entrusted with and the executor of all judgment, because He is the Son of Man? (John 5). “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth”; “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” Blessed triumphant joy filled the heart of the divine Master, as of His servant also. The scene was this poor world amid the wreck of dispensations, and the ruin of everything committed to the feeble hands of man! What “comfort of the scriptures” is here for His suffering people in these last and evil days.
But to return to chapter 6. “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Jerusalem is as Gerizim, and Gerizim as Jerusalem. The hour is come when the true; worshipers must worship God according to His nature, (He is a Spirit,) in spirit and in truth, the Father sought such. Let us mark the connection of these words, true worshipers, and worship in truth. Are they not connected in His mind with the new hour coming or come? (Compare also the expression in chapter 6: “My flesh is truly meat, My blood truly drink.” )
The teaching of this passage as to worship is most important, and as lucid as its importance, demands. The divine Teacher alone at that moment knew, or could know, the full import of His words, they involved the judgment of the whole earthly Jewish system.
According to the divinely established order of that system, the yearly feasts could only be kept in the place which Jehovah should choose to place His name there. (See Deut. 12:5, 115But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: (Deuteronomy 12:5)
11Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord: (Deuteronomy 12:11)) “Then there shall be a place, which the Lord your God shall choose, to cause His name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices,” and so on (See also Deut. 16.)
In 2 Chronicles 6:5-65Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel: 6But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. (2 Chronicles 6:5‑6), we read, “I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that My name might be there: . . . but I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name might be there.” (See also vss. 20, 40). For an Israelite to have chosen another place to keep the feasts of Jehovah, and to bring his offerings, would have been apostasy, the sin of presumption, for which there was no forgiveness; but when Jehovah-Jesus, He who had chosen Jerusalem, places the fallen city on the same ground with Gerizim, revealing at the same time, the spiritual nature of God, and that spiritual worship alone could be pleasing to Him, it is plain that the earthly system, of which the city and the house were the center, is set aside. See the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the two-systems are in contrast from the beginning to the end of the Epistle.
A spiritual mind, in one that trembles at His word, would, without doubt, learn from Matthew 17 where the Lord places His name now, (how great the blessing of knowing it!) But the worldly mind will have it that the Lord still places His name in the “worldly sanctuary,” that Jerusalem is not as “this of perdition sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 4).
A worldly sanctuary then, ordinances of the flesh, ritual and ritualistic worship, so called, and holy places, are not of “the hour that now is”; but of that which is past. Who will deny that, in the Lord’s mind, the only holy places now that His Spirit owns, are in heaven? where also is the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Heb. 8).
But to whom were these great truths revealed? Of a truth, O Lord, Thou hast “chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise, and hast chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are!”
Now who, of the men of Jerusalem, of all the priests, doctors, lawyers, and Pharisees, would or could have received such a truth as this? Who, but God, could reveal God? He was there, indeed, in the person of the Son, the eternal Life, divine Light, and Love: yet the veil remained upon their hearts. Had any one eyes to see, it would have been perceived that in the institutions of the law no link of life between their own souls and Him could be found.
In fact, that which was provisional belonged to the hour now virtually past, the hour of probation: that which was eternal, to the hour now setting in. The law could not give life, nor consequently, righteousness for God: made nothing perfect: was not faultless, found fault with by Him who gave it; took away no sin; perfected no conscience; came in only by the way; was added for the sake of transgressions; (not to produce sin, but to bring into evidence the sin already there), had grown old; as such, was ready to vanish away. But this was of the hour then passing away. With the hour coming in (now come) is associated, not the probation of man (that terminated at the cross); but the full revelation of God. All takes its departure from Christ at the right hand of God, Head of the new creation. The Second Man is in the glory of God, all believers are in Him. The cross is the judgment and setting aside of the first man, as such; eternal life to him that believes. The life, the light, the glory and the love, revealed in Him, characterize the hour that “now is.”
We shall find that in John all flows simply and immediately from Himself, from what He is, thinks, and does, (all belongs to the new hour,) indeed, what He thinks and does is what He is. (John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25), JND.)
But what were His people, the Jews at Jerusalem, thinking, what His brethren with Him in Galilee? The former were seeking to kill Him; the latter taunted Him, in their unbelief, with doing these things in secret, yet fearing to show Himself to the world; it proved at least where their hearts were — their true moral state. The world could not hate them! Surely such words were never uttered before in proof and condemnation of an evil moral state. The word of faith, the spirit of testimony, were wholly wanting; it had been written of old, “Ye are My witnesses”: these brethren of the Lord were not in the place of witness. Nevertheless, they were all found at the feast. Their time was always ready. Terrible words from His lips! To present themselves there before God, formed no part of the purpose of their heart.
If His brethren spoke, it was as of the world, “(1 John 4:55They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. (1 John 4:5), JND) and doubtless the world heard them. “Go ye up,” said the Lord; there was no reason why they should not go, it was simply a matter of Jews going to a feast of the Jews; why not keep it, in the letter? The letter kills, it is true, while the Spirit quickens. But what knew they of this principle, or, I may add, cared to know? “The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil.” They wanted Him to show Himself to the world; now this is what He will do, but not according to their thoughts. “The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords,” will show, in its own time, the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Tim. 6) spoken of in Titus as the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
His day, the day of glory, will have come then — the time of the true feast of Tabernacles. Jesus was thinking of that day, I believe, when He said, “My time is not yet come,” “My time is not fully come” (vss. 8-10). “Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for My time is not yet full come. When He had said these words unto them, He abode still in Galilee. But when His brethren were gone up, then went He also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it, were in secret.”
He goes to the feast. Was there a single element in the whole scene with which His spirit could have fellowship? How strange His whole action must have appeared to them! His teaching in the temple, how connect that with the spirit of the feast? His knowledge of letters, from whence obtained? as he had never learned, they said.
Of a source beyond that which was natural and human, they had not a thought. True and righteous was such an One, true and righteous His judgments also. His own presence in it was the Light which made His pathway luminous; outside that path all was darkness, uncertainty, confusion, and enmity.
His blessed doctrine and ways, beyond the reach of the carnal mind, united in rendering His Person and Presence amongst them an impenetrable mystery. The Father must plant, the Father draw, or no one comes to Jesus. Intellectual activity (with the absence of faith) invests the whole scene with the character of deepest unrest and perplexity. They know Him, and yet they know Him not.
We are reminded of the words of the apostle, “as unknown, and well known.”
In the midst of all this agitation and clamor, Jesus alone remained unembarrassed. In the light, certainty, and security of the path in which He trod, He alone knew whence He had come, and whither He went. Obedience, lowliness, and dependence, left no place for the distractions of poor fallen humanity: these His blessed spirit never knew. To choose between good and evil, to decide between right and wrong, His Father’s will and man’s will, never needed a moment’s deliberation. Who could understand such a character as this, or who had been in the school where His doctrine was learned? “My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.”
Oh what a Teacher was this! Did He seek the glory of knowing letters, or what was “the will” that wrought in this service? Was it not to make His Father’s glory known? When we hear Him, we put to our seal that He is true, and no unrighteousness in Him.
In another scripture, He tells us, in spirit, that it was God who had given Him His doctrine; “The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the earner.” There never was such a Teacher as Jesus, because there never was such a Learner before, and never was Teacher glorified in the taught, as when God was the Teacher, the Son of Man the Learner.
But mark, how He teaches as He learned: “If any man will do His will, He shall know of the doctrine.” Was anything like this ever heard from the lips of the children of men? A Teacher proclaiming that His doctrine was not His own, and seeking the glory of Him that sent Him, “in the path of self-renunciation the most absolute and complete! Not in this way is doctrine acquired in the schools of men, not after this pattern communicated to others. In the school of God, the things of God are made known, learned and communicated by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:10-1410But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:10‑14)).
It is interesting to compare with this, the way in which Paul speaks of what he sometimes calls, “my gospel.” He says virtually, “It is not my gospel,” as the Lord said, “My doctrine is not mine.” It was not after man, he tells us (Gal. 1:1212For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:12)). “I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” God’s revelation of His Son in Him was the end of conferring with man.
If any man will do His will. I remember the remark of a famous philosopher, who lived centuries ago, that man’s incompetence to judge of the character of God consisted in this, that his will was wrong, being opposed to God. It is remarkable that the only Man who ever sought to hide Himself, that the glory of Him, whom He had come to serve, might shine forth, should be the most known, most celebrated, (as man would say) and even most revered in natural sentiment and feeling, of all that ever lived upon this earth. When the Light of the world was no longer here, then the men who had rejected it, could venture to say what they really thought. Christ present in the world is despised and rejected of men; when turned out of the world, a Christ flattered and commended by men. Philosophers, students, and poets thought they saw in Jesus of Nazareth a hero, a reformer, a martyr; and could admire Him as such. When no longer tormented by the searching power of His words, these dwellers upon earth merged the glory of His divinity in the exaltation of a man like themselves, giving Him a first place, perhaps, as such, and then seeking to exalt themselves in following the ideal of their own minds. This is Rationalism.
Verse 28, “Then cried Jesus in the temple as He taught, saying, Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not.” This knowledge was (at the most) solely external, they knew Him, and yet they knew Him not. They had seen His miracles, and, unable to deny them, had attributed the mighty power that wrought in them to Beelzebub. The words of grace that flowed from His lips, and the authority with which He spake, had filled them with wonder; but that they knew Him not spiritually and truly is evident from the Lord’s words at the end of the verse, “but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.” They did not know God, how could they know Him whom He had sent? Compare with this the beginning of Matthew 2. Herod and all Jerusalem with him, being troubled at the birth of Him who was born King of the Jews, having gathered all the chief priests and scribes together, demanded of them where Christ should be born. “And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: And thou, Bethlehem, land of Juda, art in no wise the least among the governors of Juda; for out of thee shall go forth a leader, who shall shepherd My people Israel.” (New Trans.)
In the former case, though they knew Him outwardly, as a Judas might, they did not know God, as Jesus tells them, “whom ye know not”: in them it was mere external knowledge, in which neither heart, nor conscience, nor the Holy Ghost had any part whatever. In the latter case, the whole company of the orthodox at Jerusalem betrayed, as far as in them lay, the Holy One to the knew scripture as Satan might know it; these betrayers of Jesus! — heads of the Jews religion at Jerusalem.
These two passages, were there no corroborative testimony from other scriptures, show us to what an extent a godless profession may survive the loss of faith, and of every true link between the soul and the living God. The presence of Christ is always the occasion for the manifestation of the thoughts of man’s heart; where that presence is not known, the wit and devices of man serve but to deepen the surrounding darkness, howbeit, he thinketh not so! It cannot be too often repeated, that God, the living God, is the want of the renewed soul, as His creature, man, is the want of God’s heart in its outgoing of grace and love.
When the Pharisees heard that the crowds were enquiring about Jesus, they, with the chief priests, sent officers to take Him. The crowd seems to have been interested; for the religious leaders that was sufficient to draw out their enmity: to send and take Jesus was for them the end of all controversy — the final resort of spiritual impotency.
Verse 35. “Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will He go, that we shall not find Him? will He go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?” The Jews, who are to be distinguished from the crowd, here seemed to have shared their perplexity about the Lord. When it is a question of His Person and claims, the religious leaders head the forces of the enemy.
But we come now to Jesus answer to all the thoughts of these variously exercised human hearts. The great day of the feast had arrived, it did not belong to the seven days; but was the eighth day, or the first day of the week, the beginning of a new period. The meaning of this has been already, I think, referred to. When the day pointed to has really come, Jesus will show Himself to the world, but Pentecost must come before the Tabernacles; and so, in place of His manifestation to the world, we have what touches the heart yet more deeply. The rejected Messiah, having waited for the great day, announces Himself as the source of living waters for every one that thirsteth.
It was only to go to Him, blessed need that leads there! and drink too, for oneself; but thus we become channels of refreshment for others. This spake He of the Holy Ghost, not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Of Himself — as the Rock, smitten that the divine waters might flow forth, One whom Jehovah would bring into the dust of death, a reproach of men and despised of the people, a worm and no man — never a word. His heart must first indeed be smitten and withered like grass, but out of the belly of the believer would flow living waters.
Going up secretly in the middle of the feast, He went, not into the booths, there is no mention of them here, but, into the temple, and taught. If any one wished to do His will, he should know of His doctrine. Again, on the “great day, “His word was, “If any one thirst, let him come to Me and drink.” Let us remember these two words, “If any one wishes to do His will,” and, “If any one thirst.”
It is apparent that He is outside the whole spirit of the feast. It was written, “Thou shalt rejoice in thy feast.” The presence of the meek and Holy One, the true and only Hope of Israel, would only spoil their carnal joy, of which, however, there is little trace here. Perplexity rather, and unrest, and enmity, take its place. His teaching in the temple, and His address on the great day of the feast, unite in giving us a perfect revelation of His mind at that time.
What was the ordinance of the Tabernacles thenceforward, to one who could have apprehended that mind, any more than the Passover, to him who understood Jesus words, “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Thus was life and immortality brought to light. Was truth like this to be found in the ordinance of the Passover, or indeed, in any other? For one who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of Man, while out of his belly flow the living waters, legal ordinances and ceremonies are but the rejected things of a darksome past, to which be, child of the day, no longer belongs.
The ordinances could not be set aside, until all was accomplished in the atoning work of Christ. But what was their value, when He, to whom in various forms they pointed, stood in their midst rejected as Messiah, unknown as Son of Man, the blessed Son of the Father, who was “both seen and hated by His earthly people!”
What I have dwelt upon so much, and what has so greatly interested me, is the unfolding of His mind while the time of shadows was still running its course, but drawing quickly to an end. What an unspeakable privilege it would have been, the conscious possession, however feeble, of the thoughts of that mind! Would they not have raised one in spirit above the dark scenes of approaching judgment, and been a foretaste in the soul of the coming blessings; when, with opened understanding, and endowed with power from on high, (the promise of the Father come) the treasures of that mind, the unsearchable riches of the Christ, would be fully known. To be entrusted with such glad tidings for the nations, was a “grace” to the apostle, which brought into view his own littleness, and was enhanced by the thought of it (Eph. 3:88Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; (Ephesians 3:8)).
It is true that the church would be but a repetition of the same dark story as that of Israel, that there would come an open apostasy, culminating in the revelation of the man of sin, whom the Lord would consume with the spirit of His, mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming. A judgment, similar to that which was fulfilled in the Jews, in the privation of all moral perception, (Lest they should understand with their heart,) would overtake the apostates in Christendom also. Strong delusion would be sent them, that they should believe a lie, who had not received the love of the truth that they might be saved, that all who believed not the truth might be judged.
It will be instructive to compare the apostle’s teaching relative to the apostasy in Christendom, and its doom, with the Lord’s unfolding of the history of the wicked generation in Israel; which: will fall in the day that is coming, wholly under the power of Satan. You will find the same or similar features in both these classes. The cleansing of the outside together with the sweeping and garnishing which will characterize the wicked generation, finds its exact counterpart amongst professing Christians. The same attachment to ordinances, and ritual, and worldly sanctuary, and so on, with the same result in each. Corrupted by their religion, conscience towards God lost, religiously bad, and judicially blinded, the false professors in Christendom will fall a ready prey into the hands of him who will come in his own name, according to the energy of Satan.
In the meantime, and on the way to this consummation, while as yet the moral elements and principles are only partially developed, how great the privilege of the faithful, who cleave to Christ and His word! The strong delusion from God in judgment will never be their portion, the power, signs, and lying wonders of him who comes after the working of Satan will not deceive them. The secret of the Lord will be theirs. The revelations of His counsels in Christ, and the manner of their accomplishment, the unsearchable riches of Christ Himself, the knowledge of His mind all through the prevailing darkness will be the food of their souls (We must not forget that the first resurrection may take place at any moment.)
Those who occupy themselves with shadows, dark as midnight, will have come short of what was Paul’s boast and glory to communicate — the knowledge of the counsels of God, and the unsearchable riches of Christ.
When the apostle says, “We have the mind (vou?) of Christ,” he uses a word which expresses the intelligent faculty with its thoughts, which is realized in their having the Holy Spirit, (their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost.)
I quite believe that these, with other kindred truths, will be wholly lost. They were never found in ordinances, which men are seeking to revive or to well-known and beloved Mr. Simeon who said, referring to the Epistle to the Hebrews, “Christ is the great ordinance of God for man.”