CHAP. 12.
I have no doubt there is a connection between the “rest” of the previous verses and the sabbath that now follows in this twelfth chapter. God's rest in creation was disturbed by sin. It is striking there is no mention of any sabbath after that for 2,500 years. When we consider the book of Genesis and all that we get there—the germ of almost all that we get in other parts of scripture—how remarkable that we have no mention of the sabbath till the giving of the manna in Ex. 16, a type of the lowly Lord Jesus! It was impossible for God to rest, as far as man was concerned, in a scene of sin and misery (for God is love). “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” The “rest” of chap. 11:28 is gratuitous and free, then follows the “rest” to be found. There is a great distinction between “finding his yoke-rest, and getting the rest that He “gives.”
For a lesson of industry the Spirit takes us to the ant; for valor to the lion; for prudence to the serpent; but for meekness to the Son. And as we learn, we find what a contrast there is between Him and ourselves. We read in the O.T. of Moses as the meekest man in the earth; yet he lost his temper and spoke unadvisedly, and so was a loser thereby. We are not all alike. But I had rather be a man with a bad temper who mourned over it and tried to control it, than be a sweet tempered person satisfied with it. The great thing is for us to have confidence in God and no confidence in the flesh. And I suppose, in learning of Jesus, it is learning that the Father's way is always right, and we yield submission of soul to the Father's will, bowing to His dispensations. We are in a scene of contrariety and opposition. But look at the Lord. There was no failure in Him or His love, yet He was the rejected of men. Learn of Him. Compare 2 Tim. 2:8-13.
It is well to see the connection of Rom. 8:28. We look around and see a groaning creation. We know it will be delivered, but we do not know how to pray about it, how to propose a remedy for it. We long for the Lord to take the reins and put it right, but we can groan in sympathy, for it is those who have the Spirit who groan according to God. But though we know not what we should pray for, we do “know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” etc.
Does it not seem a paradox-the yoke easy, the burden light? But the Lord is always right. If we are walking along with Him we find the yoke is “gracious,” and the burden “light.”
There is a rest for the conscience and that is given to us; a rest for the heart which we find in learning of Him; and there is a rest that remaineth into which we have not yet entered. Of this last the sabbath is a type. Heb. 4:3 is often misunderstood “we which have believed do enter into rest.” The force is we who have believed are the enterers into the rest that remains to the people of God. We have not that rest now; when the time comes we shall enter “into His rest” (see vers. 1-11).
Taking up our chapter (12:1) the opening words “At that time” make it very sweet, and show the connection. It is called by Luke (6:1) “a second-first sabbath” —a singular, but appropriate expression. The first sabbath was the day when the wave sheaf was offered before Jehovah: this was the second, so the disciples were perfectly right in using the corn for their need (Lev. 23:14). If instead of rejecting the King, His people had received Him, those that formed His court would not have been in this strait—hungry and glad to eat the ears uncooked. Of old as now God's anointed had been rejected! In David's day, by their sin, their treatment of the rightful king, the holy bread had been profaned and made common What are all ceremonials when sin is tolerated? David was the rejected king, and so is brought in here.
The sabbath is not the first day but the seventh day of the week. There is no such thing as a “Christian” sabbath. “The sabbath” or seventh day was connected with the old creation, the “first day” with the new. The N.T. unites with the Lord's name, the first day, and also the supper; for the adjectival form of the word used in 1 Cor. 11:20 “the Lord's” supper is indentical with “the Lord's” day in Rev. 1:10, and these two places form its only occurrence. The first of the week is constantly spoken of in the N.T. People make so much of the uniform seventh day—a certain 24 hours—but this cannot apply all over the world, because while it is mid-day here it is midnight at the antipodes. But in a limited area to a people “folded” off it exactly suited. The sabbath is incorporated in the law of a carnal commandment; the Lord's day is a day of holy liberty. “He that regardeth the day,” has no reference to the Lord's day. There were Jews who regarded certain days as still of God's appointment; to such those who knew their liberty as risen with Christ were to be gracious. We ought to be on our guard to avoid legality. We are under grace and ought to be jealous of it.
If you take up for instance the subject of baptism and make it an ordinance or command, you are off the lines of scripture. It is a privilege. The command is to the evangelist to baptize. But it is a holy, blessed privilege to the believer. “Behold, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized?” or, as Peter said, “Who can forbid water that these should not be baptized?” Such expressions could have no force if it were a command to be baptized. The evangelist ought either to baptize or see that his converts be baptized.
The perfect law of liberty belongs to the saint of God, liberty to serve God and His saints. The desire to do God's will is bound to go with the new nature. The way the hortatory portion of Romans (chap. 12) commences is very beautiful, and is the language of grace. If you please the Lord you do well. Although these people were so fastidious, how blind they were to the glory of the One they hated without a cause! You get three “greaters” in this chapter. As to the Person, He was greater than the temple; He was greater than Jonah type of death and resurrection, and He was greater than Solomon in the glory of the kingdom (vers. 6, 41, 43).
“At that time” is different to “immediately.” I suppose the verse shows us that if the claims of the temple required that the sabbath should be profaned, they would not have judged the Lord, who was greater than the temple, had they been aware of His true glory; “greater than the temple"; the glory of His person. What gave the temple its importance was the glory, and that which will give it its importance, in the future, is the glory coming back; but here was God present with them manifest in flesh. And they did not know the true character of God although their scriptures were full of it. They will know in future that He will have mercy and not sacrifice, a quotation from a millennial psalm.
Then there is that important verse (8), “The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath day.” He is not only greater than the temple but He who in grace became the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. If He is Lord you see He is the One to regulate, and to order, and to say what should and should not be. David was the anointed king, and if he was so circumstanced that he had not food, what was the value of the shewbread to God if His own “anointed” had need? If that was true of the type, what of the Lord Himself?
Then the Spirit of God calls for our attention by another “Behold.” “And when he was departed thence he went into their synagogue: and, behold, there was a man there which had his hand withered” (vers. 9,10). We can see ourselves in this man; he had no ability to hand up anything to God, or to extend a hand to others. It is very nice to see that the priest is the worshipper. He is the one who goes in before God. Consecration means filling the hand. We must receive from Him first. We come in our helplessness, empty-handed. He fills the hand, and then we hand what He gives us, back to God. On a Lord's day morning we are here as worshippers. What we gather up all the week should be handed back to God then. At the prayer meeting we come to get; on Lord's day morning, to give in worship.
They watch Him, dog His steps, seek to get an opportunity against Him. This is the first time their design is named. They ask, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days?” There was an abuse of mercy, hardness of heart. But He is the stone on which all who fall are broken. We shall see that all are broken here. Whether Herodians; Pharisees, all who come to break Him are broken themselves. He said, “What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep; and, if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?” Why instinctively a man would know that it would not be of God to leave a poor animal suffering; but their selfishness also comes out; it is their own sheep. On both counts they are condemned. In preaching the gospel, what a beautiful subject this is! We were in the pit, and the Lord went down into a horrible pit to rescue us. It is beautiful where we come in, in the 40th Psalm. It is in connection with the new song. It is all personal and singular up to that, but “He hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise unto our God.” A new song is always about redemption. All is done for us there except the song itself.
A sinner more readily learns that he is a sinner than that he has no strength, no ability to move a straw out of his way to God. I might learn to be disgusted with myself, but could never learn that I was lost without a revelation. Repentance is real submission of soul to God. It is very beautiful to see the three things dealt with in John 3, 4, 5. In chap. 3, man's nature won't do for God; in chap. 4, we find a bad character; and in chap. 5 no strength. It was pure mercy here, but man had no strength to avail himself of it. Nature, character, condition—neither will do for God.
No word of His is void of power. Power went with the command. We must beware of philosophy, which would say, 'If man be dead, he can't hear.' Dead, yet “Hear and your soul shall live.” Israel limited the Holy One, and we do also, alas! too often. We have not to preach to sinners that repentance and faith are God's gift; that is no part of gospel testimony. It is but seldom that the Lord speaks of the sovereignty of God in blessing in public testimony; only twice, and both times grace had been rejected. In Luke 4, first, they wondered at His words of grace, then they despised Him. Then He tells them of God's sovereignty in blessing, “Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias... but unto none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.” And, “Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.”
The other occasion is in John 5, when He heals the impotent man. This and the incident of our chapter were a testimony to Israel, He Who could heal the one, could do likewise to all. The miracles that He did were samples of what He will do on a grand scale when He comes to reign.
“Then the Pharisees went out and held a council against Him how they might destroy Him” (ver. 14). It does not say they were bent on destroying Him, but what they took counsel about was how to compass it. They would rather cling to their own thoughts about the sabbath than listen to His teaching.
“He healed them all.” What a plenitude of grace and power! There is no persecution so bitter as religious persecution. “He withdrew himself": they could not touch Him until His hour was come. They took up stones, but they were never allowed to touch Him until He gave His back to the smiters—until He could say, “This is your hour.” The Lord never took a doubtful step, or a step in the dark, and He never sought popularity. He went to other villages.
The scripture order no doubt is, He chose twelve first, that they might be with Him; secondly, He sent them forth; thirdly, they came back to tell Him. The Lord never gave anything to anybody to make anything of man. No flesh shall glory in His presence.
Verse 18: Here we get the word “Behold” in another sense, “Behold my servant whom I have chosen.” “Look upon my servant” is the force here, the only perfect servant; and “my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.” Judgment here is discriminating grace. That is a remarkable expression in Hag. 2:7. “The desire of all nations shall come.” It is not that they are intelligent, but the nations have the sense that things are wrong, and they want someone to put them right. Whatever efforts are made, as in the case of the man possessed with demons, all are futile; he is a picture of the whole human race, and of the inability of man to tame it; but the Lord's personal presence will put all things right.
Verse 19: What a testimony to the Lord's gentleness and grace— “He shall not strive nor cry"; how gentle and unobtrusive!
But verse 20 is often misunderstood. A bruised reed is very weak, and smoking flax easily quenched. “Until” —He is going to do it in judgment by and by. What people mean in the way they quote it is all right, He is tender and gentle to any poor thing; but He is going to deal with man in judgment. The reed and the flax are fit for judgment. The flax was “smoking,” but He would not interfere then. Man, a poor bruised thing, was ignorant of it, and yet was not afraid to stand up against the Lord. So His grace is brought out here, but it will not be always grace; He will not always be So gentle. Smoking flax speaks of something fit for judgment; we usually put it out, He left it alone.
“On his name shall the Gentiles hope” (ver. 21). It is the same word as in Rom. 15:12. Hope is for something not yet come, but not an uncertainty. God can, and does speak of things that are not, as though they were. It does not say “shall be” in Isa. 53:3. It is language put into the mouth of the remnant by and by. Their stony heart did esteem Him “stricken and smitten of God"; but when the veil is taken away, and they have a heart of flesh, they will see it was for their sakes. But God speaks of it prophetically.
Then was brought unto him one possessed with a demon (ver. 22). Blind to the true glory of the Lord, this man was like the majority of Israel; dumb for the praise of Him, and blind to His true glory. “He was in the world and the world knew him not.”
“Is not this the Son of David?” (ver. 23). There they were and the question was raised, and this angered the Pharisees. The people had sought an open mind which the Pharisees would not allow. They said “This fellow doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.” The most awful thing they could say. There is no forgiveness for this in any age. It is a question of the person of the Lord. I have no doubt there is a connection between this and the 37th verse. “By thy words thou shalt be justified, etc.” We should not know this was the sin against the Holy Ghost but for the Gospel of Mark; for to attribute to the chief of the demons what the Lord did in His grace and love, is the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. There is an acknowledgment here that the demons have only one chief. How suitably, simply, and convincingly the Lord deals with their various objections! He knew their thoughts.
There is something very solemn in what the Lord says in verse 26. There is a kingdom organized and ruled in the spirit-world by the devil. What we know as modern “spiritism” is nothing new. We have it in the O.T., necromancy, having to do with the dead, pretending to speak of the future. It distinctly speaks of some that they have “a familiar spirit.” Then again what a question to put to them: “If I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?” It would be strange indeed to attribute one case to the devil, and another case to another cause! What the Lord did was by the Spirit of God.
If, as we have observed, we have in chap. 11 the rejection of the Lord's Galilean ministry, and hence judgment on those cities, here it is His rejection by the religious leaders of Jerusalem. The final break was the crucifixion of the Lord, and the subsequent destruction of the city. We have noticed already, and shall see it more clearly as we proceed, that if the Jews reject Him, grace goes out to the Gentiles. The stream of grace flows from God's heart; they might shut it from themselves, but they could not hinder its flowing out wider and wider to the Gentiles.
“All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men” (ver. 31). What grace! In Heb. 6, the sin was going back to Judaism from Christianity. The Lord's glory was veiled, and there is an open door left for ignorance as to that. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The apostle Paul tells us “I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” Yet what had he not done, striving to get others to blaspheme? Those contemplated in Heb. 6:6 as “falling away” had been received into the assembly, had had all the privileges of Christianity, but had never been born again. They had everything but life! They knew not “salvation” (ver. 9).
Neither in this age, neither in the age to come (ver. 32) is a scripture which the Millennial Dawn people make use of. They try to make out that some will have another chance in the millennium; but this verse crushes their teaching. It says, “It shall not be forgiven him.” Think what the Lord's testimony had been in this land of Israel, and for these Pharisees to attribute that to Satan! How awful! “Either make the tree and its fruit good,” etc. So what they were doing was just showing their tree was bad, and the fruit corrupt. “Offspring of vipers” John said, when the Pharisees came to be baptized. “Offspring of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” In their animosities and persecutions the religious are the most bitter. The learned and religious leaders of Israel were the most bitter against the Lord. That is a solemn word and shows up the condition of their heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” What my heart is occupied with, is what forms me.
Verse 35: The connection between the treasure and the heart is what the Lord had shown previously. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The apostle says, “If there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things.” I suppose you know from experience that what your heart is set on and engaged with, that is what you speak about.
“Every idle word that men shall speak.” An idle word is what has God in contempt. It is a lesson to show the solemnity of the right use of the tongue. It is an unruly member, but God can keep it in check. There is a proverb that says, “He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.” The heart and lips go together. While we are speaking of that, I should like to say that as far as words are concerned, if we say anything wrong we should judge it. But before the word is the intention, and it is better to judge intentions than words; before the intention is the thought, and it is better still to judge the thought in the light of the word of God which is living and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
“Master, we would see a sign from thee” (ver. 38). The word Master is “Teacher,” they acknowledge Him as such. “We would see a sign,” that discovered their condition most solemnly. Were they blind to all He had done? But what was the sign they asked for? If we look back to the O.T. we see frequently the sign of God's approval was fire from heaven; and, unmistakably, we know what Elijah did, and the effect was they acknowledged Jehovah was God. The scribes and Pharisees ask the Lord for a sign, and He says in John 5, “I am come in my Father's name and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” So in Rev. 13:13 the one they receive gives the sign to them—a sign they wanted to have-and fire comes down from heaven; but it is deceptive and Satanic. We identify this second beast of Rev. 13 with the “man of sin” of 2 Thess. 2:3, 4. I quoted Acts 2:22 just now, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, wonders, and signs” —these very same words are used in connection with the Apocalyptic “beasts coming up out of the earth,” but then “signs and wonders” are Satanic imitations. Yet the nation will be deceived. To serve the fixing of it on our memories we may characterize by words beginning with the letter “P” five men in scripture whom God “answered by fire.” Abraham the Patriarch, Gideon the Patriot, David the Penitent, Solomon the Potentate, Elijah the Prophet.
“An evil and adulterous generation.” Idolatry is adultery. The sign of Jonah is death and resurrection and turning to the Gentiles. On His rejection, Christ turns to the Gentiles after His resurrection. It is anticipatory, but we get the same thing in chap. 16:4. There, there is something very interesting, but perhaps we ought to reserve it. There is a wonderful play upon Jonah of the O.T. and the son of Jona, in the N.T., and some peculiar parallels between them. They were both Galileans; both were sent to the Gentiles and both unwilling to go; both were found at Joppa. The hearers “repented” at the preaching of Jonah; so too when Peter returned to Jerusalem from Caesarea they said “Then hath God to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” But we shall see more when we come to the chapter.
If we were preaching the gospel from this passage, we should seek first to have the conscience cleared. Jonah was a type of the death of the Lord Jesus “Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.” “Justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not only greater than Jonah, He is also greater than Solomon. The queen of Sheba had a satisfied heart. God has given us the work of the Lord Jesus to clear our conscience, and the person of the Son to satisfy our hearts.