(Concluded).
To the Samaritan is given full liberty and confirmation of his higher path by the Lord’s next words, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” The mountain of ordinances, or the tree of wild fruit, is gone, and the once leper stands clean and now walks in the liberty of grace. The priests are left behind in this higher sphere of liberty and grace of the gospel, and this is God’s place for all believers now. Alas! how few enter into it; how many tarry behind in the fleshly attractions of Judaism, instead of joying in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation. Again we may repeat the question, Where are the nine? Can the soul be satisfied without communion with the Father and the Son? Is our privilege, inside the veil as worshipers, the person and glory of Christ revealed to us not better than all men’s arrangements? Why allow our spiritual senses to be dulled by that which ministers to the flesh? Since the Lord Jesus can be known, and enjoyed in blessed reality as the delight of God, and our delight now, too, through grace, let us set our hearts to find our satisfaction in His presence, in this new sphere of liberty of grace.
Verses 20, 21. In answer to the Pharisees’ expectations of a kingdom set up in outward display, the Lord answers, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation (outward show): neither shall they say, ‘Lo here! or lo there!’ for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within (or among) you.” The King was there; they should have recognized Him, even though He had come in lowly guise, for He had manifested His perfect grace and power to bless, hut this did not accord with their fleshly minds. His love to the poor and needy, His forgiving love to the guilty, His self-sacrificing greatness were seen in all His ways, but sin had blinded their minds to all that was beautiful and of God, so His wonderful ways were lost to them.
Verses 22-37. To His disciples He said, “The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it, and they shall say unto you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.” This shows the godly remnant of Israel in the tribulation period, rejected and suffering because Christ is rejected and the enemy trying to deceive and lead them astray. They would long for the presence of the Son of Man as when He was on earth, but that could not be. They were not to hearken to these seducers, for the next time He would come suddenly as the lightning, shining across the sky, where all would see Him, but He was to suffer first many things and be rejected of this generation. It is easily seen this is not referring to the Christian period, nor what follows to Christ’s coming for His church. It is the coming of the Son of Man in judgment, like the days of Noe when the flood came and carried away all the ungodly; or like the days of Lot, when God rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Men will be occupied with business and pleasure when the Son of Man will be revealed from heaven. What a surprise, when the world is having its own way, suddenly called to meet the God they despised. And none in that locality can escape, whether in the house or out in the field, whether by day or night, whether at rest or at work, this judgment will find out the wicked of Israel and carry them off to eternal judgment. The disciples ask: Where? And the answer is, Where the dead body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. The instruments God will use will find each one out.
Is the present time in Christendom not like the world then? Alas! in many things it is, despite God’s dealings with the world, His voice speaking to men in the famines, the wars, the pestilence, the so-called accidents, the many troubles that beset the countries and their governments. Yet men have hardened their hearts, business and pleasure now fill their minds, and the lie of the arch enemy Satan, that deceives men, is hearkened to. Men who once professed to regard God’s Word have given it up. As Isaiah the prophet said, “Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. (Isa. 59:14, 1514And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. (Isaiah 59:14‑15)). And what is to happen: The coming of the Lord, soon, suddenly, secretly (1 Thess. 4:15-1715For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15‑17)), will take place, and the doom of thousands is sealed, and they are lost forever—salvation neglected, if not despised.
Reader, are you ready? Are you saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?