It is well for us to remember that we have a divine selection of events in the Gospels—a small selection according to John, but all of divine arrangement. In Matthew the several incidents are arranged dispensationally, or, at any rate, to bring out dispensational truth. Where we begin today was not the first time these disciples had come in contact with the Lord Jesus. We get the Baptist's ministry in John 3, and we find these disciples in John 1. The first four chapters of John had taken place before the events here. It was a wonderful testimony of John when he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” He could give it because of what he was, but we are nobody to start with, so we cannot decrease. He only took the place of a voice. This was very beautiful for him. Nevertheless, there is always occasion for us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. John and Moses were both special servants.
It is beautiful to see how we have (I was going to say) a humanizing testimony to the Lord Jesus, “when Jesus had heard!” As a divine person He knew everything. We know how advantage has been taken of a verse in Mark 13 to belittle the Lord Jesus. While He was perfect man He was also God, and there was that which is essentially unique in Him; He was the God-man. All He did had a quality that you and I have not. He could weep; there were never tears like His; ours may be often superficial and selfish, never so were His. He took a divine view. How He felt the betrayal of Judas, “Mine own familiar friend!”
The various events recorded here, no matter how brought about-the going down to Egypt or here to Capernaum, were all to fulfill the word of God. Israel's greatest privilege was to be custodians of the word of God.
He identified Himself with the poor of the flock, those in the greatest danger, bordering on the Gentile world. In that place of darkness light sprang up. Yes, they were farthest from that which was intended to be the center of light. In the millennium it will be recorded, “this man was born there,” not in darkness. The light always becomes darkness if we refuse “the light of life.” Whatever belittles the Lord must bring in darkness. “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.”
In ver. 17 the Lord Himself announces the kingdom. John had called the people to repentance; now the Lord takes up the same word, and announces the kingdom at hand, and in the same words as John, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” There could not be moral fitness for the kingdom without repentance. The repenting ones form the remnant, and the Lord identified Himself with them. Acts 3 shows that on the nation's repentance the kingdom would have been set up. His blessing is “in turning each one away from your iniquities.” John preached the baptism of repentance for remission of sins, and called for fruit worthy of repentance that so it might be seen to be real.
How very different this King is to Saul! Saul means “asked,” and he was “asked” of the people; Samuel means “asked of God.” Saul would “take” (see 1 Samuel 8:10-1810And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. 11And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 12And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 16And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. (1 Samuel 8:10‑18)); this King will “give.” Yet He will receive. “Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.” He will receive from the Father.
Satan had for the first time met one stronger than he; he was spoiled, not yet annulled. With the Lord's word there was power. If He said, “Follow me,” there was power with it, and those who left all to be identified with Him formed the remnant. If we don't see that, many things the Lord said will be quite puzzling. Four hundred and ninety years were determined on the people, but the church has gone on for nineteen hundred years, so there arises a gap somewhere in that prophecy. We frequently find gaps in the Old Testament. This one comes in between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week, in which time is not counted. So the Lord speaks to His disciples as if they might then be living just before the millennium. He identifies Himself with them in marvelous grace, and now gathers them to Himself.
We get here the first quarternion of the disciples. Wherever the twelve are mentioned, they are always in three fours. Philip is always the first of the second four, and James the less the first of the third four. Andrew was one of the two that heard John speak, and followed Jesus, and then found his own brother Simon. This is a real call to service. They did not give up their business and turn to the Lord's service because it was a decaying trade. They had never had such success as fishermen before. This made it the greater test. Why leave this to turn to a less profitable employment? The great thing is to have the Lord's mind. It was unmistakable here. The Lord may call us to leave prosperity for spiritual service; but when they say, “we have left all,” we wonder what the “all” was. We do not get a hundred percent, but a hundred-fold. We can plead for others as we cannot for ourselves; there is nothing for us but the ground of grace. They made a mistake who bargained for a penny a day. God is righteous always, yet He is sovereign and can be gracious.
Exodus is divided into three parts, pure grace, pure law, and law and grace mixed. How happy the people were under pure grace! yet poor human hearts put themselves under law! We are in a place of liberty to do the will of God in contrast to Jewish bondage.
The kingdom of God includes the kingdom of heaven; there is a sense in which God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, but the kingdom of heaven could not be till the Lord was in heaven. First it is in mystery, then in open manifestation. The Lord could say “the kingdom of God is among you,” because Himself the King was there. The kingdom of heaven is always spoken of as “at hand,” or “drawn nigh"; its use is guarded. In chapter 13, where we have the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, it is not said that the parable of the sower was a similitude of the kingdom of heaven, because the Lord was there the sower of the seed. Nicodemus was told of the kingdom of God. The very scriptures which in Matthew speak of the kingdom of heaven, in Mark and Luke call it the kingdom of God. But many other scriptures which speak of the latter could not speak of the former. Where the kingdom of God is looked at morally it excludes evil. Luke 13 so far corresponds with Matthew 13. I should take leaven as defilement put in the household's food. Leaven leavens the whole lump, gives character to the whole lump, brings it under its influence; and if you don't put it out, you are a prey to its power.
“I will make you fishers of men” had not been abrogated, so the disciples had not the Lord's mind when in John 21 they went a fishing. Here is shown the effect of influence. In John 20 John comes first to the sepulcher; impetuous Peter comes up and goes in, John follows he is influenced. Now in this chapter (21.) Peter comes forward and they all follow. There is a force in good example as in evil. “Your zeal hath provoked many,” the apostle could say of the Corinthians.
Psalm 103 brings before us the effect of the Lord's presence on the earth, “Who healeth all thy diseases” as well as “forgiveth all thine iniquities.” This is not so now, as it will be in the coming day, when healing and forgiveness will go together. True He does heal now at times, but still He allows sickness to affect His people. Then the healing will not only be wholly, but connected also with forgiveness. Some people think the grand thing is to have faith in God's power. He has only to speak, and the worst disease can be healed easily; but He is training us. Sometimes sickness is sent as a preventive, sometimes as a corrective; we ought to have faith in His love as well as in His power, and in His wisdom too. Have faith in God, not simply in His power. Here Job shines. Perhaps we have not thought adequately of his sufferings— “though he slay me yet will I trust in him.”
The grand truth in our chapter is that before we get the principles of His kingdom as enunciated in chapters 5-7. His fame has gone over all the land; and it is a precious testimony to His mercy, the plenitude of grace in Him, that He healed them all. These were samples of what will be done in the millennium. What He did here, He can and will do for the whole world. Syria may be used typically here.
“He'll give these bodies vile
A fashion like His own;
He'll bid the whole creation smile,
And hush its groan.”
“Straightway” does not characterize Matthew as it does Mark, but you get it sometimes here. His acts of power are not the most important thing. They were His credentials. Nicodemus acknowledged this, but faith in Him as a miracle-worker did not give life to the soul. “Many believed in Him when they saw the miracles which He did,” but Jesus did not believe in them. His preaching was the most important thing—His words gave life.
The Lord never does anything without a purpose, never a useless thing, and even judgment is beneficent to others. All is in keeping with His nature. Light and Love are the only two words that express His nature. All other attributes are relative—towards others—and flow out of what He is. “The powers of the age to come,” in Hebrews 6, are sometimes misunderstood, as applying to true saints of God falling away; but the Spirit of God reckons up in that chapter all the privileges that might be enjoyed, which yet fall short of life. Saul was changed into another man, but never had divine life. “Partakers of the Holy Ghost,” is sharers, i.e., who come into that corporation (so to speak) where the Holy Ghost works. “Partakers” of the Holy Ghost is not the same as being “sealed” with the Spirit. It won't do to put service instead of Christ. I may be thoroughly deceived about another as to the possession by him of divine life, but “the Lord knows them that are His,” spite of the confusion of “a great house.” Philip was deceived by Simon Magus; and some will say to the Lord in that day, “In thy Name we have cast out demons, and in thy Name done many wonderful works"; yet the Lord will say, “I never knew you.” He will never say that to one who pleads, “I am only a poor guilty sinner but trusting in thy blood.” That foundation cannot break down.
Many people think the uncondemned woman in John 8 was forgiven, but there is nothing to show that. It was the action of light, which makes bare, for all things when reproved are made manifest by the light. They thought they had the Lord on the horns of a dilemma, but they were in the presence of Him who gave the law, and it showed the Lord's present attitude. He came in grace—not to condemn.
James and John were pretty well off comparatively. Other partners were with them, and servants with their father. They left their father as well as the ship. Each service has its place; some were “mending” the nets, others “casting” the nets. Some seem to think casting is everything, and that no mending is required. If you don't look after your nets you won't catch fish. Unless you read, and grow in the truth, you are exposed to danger. We don't want to be but a conduit pipe, but to get a good share for one's self. The twelve were privileged ones, the Court so to speak, the princes which should decree justice, who will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and He is able to delegate power to them. But it is a solemn truth as to ministry that the only recorded time the Lord spent the night in prayer was before He chose the twelve. In any kind of service, however small, there must be the being with Him before we are sent forth. We need to be “sent” and by Him.
I suppose all the diseases existing among Israel were direct evidence of their unfaithfulness (see Exodus 15:2626And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26)). Their condition was evidence of their national unfaithfulness. They ought not to have needed the pool of Siloam. It is very sweet to read of His fame going forth! Psalm 72:11-1311Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. 12For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. 13He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. (Psalm 72:11‑13) shows this worldwide fame, and then the beautiful picture of the reign of great David's greater Son.