WE will now read from ver. 11 of chap. 19. to ver. 18 of chap. 20. We are putting those parts together that seem to belong to each other, though the chapter 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, joy, and peace;" 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 to 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 chap. vii. of Daniel 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 the Jew is now the enmity of the world at large, that has let the Lord Jesus know it will not have Him for a 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 a King, 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 on Him here are so many fresh claims on our affection? Service, to be of 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 that the Lord has received.
Then He returns and gives the rewards. There is such a secret as rewards. When the kingdom comes to be parceled 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 thou not 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 rate own me, and put my money in 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. Now He beautifully 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 was 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 Sion in glory.. He was demanded to get 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 fullness thereof." Jesus took the place of Jehovah-Creator in Psa. 24 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 expressing 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 you 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 Sion, but the Daughter of Sion was not prepared for Him, so He weeps over her, and announces the judgment she had 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. (chap. xx.) 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 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 got 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." "But when the husbandmen saw Him, they reasoned among themselves." Ah,! TAKE CARE 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 together these two parables, you will get a beautiful sketch of God's dealings from the days of Joshua till the Lord's return in glory. The laborers 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 coining, 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 the 110th Psalm links itself with both these parables. There He is expecting till His enemies are made His footstool, and here His enemies are made His footstool. These are the beautiful luminous fragments that Scripture throws 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.
Luke 20 AND 21.
IN our last meditation we reached ver. 19 of chap. 20. 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, they come to Him (ver. 21) with a subtle question. There were three great representatives of the people, the Herodians, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. The Herodian was a 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 moral of the occasion, He approached it. "You come to lay a snare, not to have a difficulty solved. 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 any one ever had in the world; but He never used a mite of it for Himself. "Now," said He, " tell Me whose image and superscription is this? They answered and said, Caesar's." Very well-the Lord was not going to treat Cesar 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 Cesar's coin passing through the land, He saw in it Israel's shame, not Cesar's usurpation. How beautifully He escapes the snare of the fowler! "Render unto Cesar 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, " Do you judge whether we ought to obey God rather than you." 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 will try his hand, in the. Sadducee. " Now, Master! here is a 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 you 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 that Paul lets them know in 1 Cor. 15 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 puts a question that baffles 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 also 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. These were the fruit of His own labor; but, from the moment He leaves Jericho and meets Zacchaeus, and up to the thief on the cross, these were cases on which He never spent a moment's toil. They were consolations provided for 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. / will bring refreshment to an untoiling Jesus." He had not expended a thought on Zacchaeus, 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 are 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 ver. 24, He calls the whole age "the times of the Gentiles,"-in which the Gentiles are supreme; and Israel has no lands or heritage in the earth. Look in ver. 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 chap. 19., when they thought the kingdom would immediately appear? The Lord here anticipates the very same thing. He says: "Now, don't 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 patience possess your souls," not in false expectation. " When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the destruction thereof is nigh." That day has come, and Israel has been led captive into all nations. In ver. 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 ye 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 draweth 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 re-settled. 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 mend 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 every one. Do not you live as if this world were your portion. The life you nourish in this world is a very different thing from the one you will have to cherish in the next. It will be something so contrary that it 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.