IF we desire to know God, as God, it is very important to observe His early comings-forth as the " I am " into the midst of Israel, by the form of " the Angel, in the flame of fire " at the hush; as well as in the manner " of the cloud;" and as " the glory of the Lord;" whether their goings be in Egypt, or in the wilderness, or in Canaan. We may then better add to these unfoldings of Himself their typical meaning and application for ourselves, as united through His own purpose and grace, to " a glorified Christ," by a heavenly calling and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Before God was manifest in the flesh, " the flame of fire," " the cloud," and " the glory," were the three witnesses, if we may so speak, of " I am's" presence in the midst of His people Israel, when He came down in delivering power to take them out from "the fiery furnace" and "the house of bondage." They make for themselves their own histories moreover, either in performing their distinctive missions, or else in their combined and effective actings, ere the twelve tribes are settled in Immanuel's land. For us, as believers in an ascended Lord and Head by His accomplished death and victorious resurrection, they necessarily carry their significance much further than this earthly rest.
(The unconsumed bush.) The entrance of " the Angel of the—Lord, and the flame of fire," by the way of the burning bush, " which was unconsumed thereby," was also the manner of the " I am's " introduction to their deliverer, and the mode by which Moses became acquainted with " Him who dwelt in it." " The good will " would tell its own wondrous tale " on the head of Joseph, who was separated from his brethren," in its proper times and seasons.
Moreover, this commission of divine interposition to Israel was handed out to Moses from its midst, as a suited token, and a kind of first fruits of the coming harvest field. The " I am hath sent me unto you " could be nothing less than this to him, and meant to the eye of faith, that God's holiness and grace would go hand in hand together, to open out the way by which He could descend, and go along with a. people, who in their own nature " of flesh and blood " were consumable, and yet not be burned by the destructive fire. This secret, or the beginning of " the mystery of God," was opening itself out before Moses, when the Lord saw that he turned aside " to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned, and God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and Moses said " Here am I." This was his meeting place with the " I am," as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: and Moses hid his face, and was afraid to look upon God. Imperfectly as this lesson of sovereign grace was apprehended by the leader and commander of that day, yet was it to prove a mine of undisclosed wealth to untold generations when the " Interpreter " between God and men should pass that way. In such a presence, Moses drew his shoes from his feet, at the bidding of Him who had sanctified the ground on which he stood and made it holy, but who nevertheless spoke to him out of the fire, in sovereign power, as " the living God."
Beyond this commission and warrant to Moses, to go forth as the deliverer of the people' out of Egypt, " the angel of the Lord, in the flame of fire," had to make good His own mighty errand, by acts and deeds, in the midst of the Israelites. In due season He moved onward with them in their journey, and began His work at their tent doors, by means of "the sprinkled blood " upon the lintel and the side posts, to shelter them on " that night, much to be remembered," when the Lord spared them, but smote all the first-born of the Egyptians. " The Angel and the flame of fire " justified themselves for such diverse acts, by " the lamb slain," and could therefore become in undisputed righteousness salvation to these, but destruction to Pharaoh and their enemies. Even the " I am " sanctioned this difference and contradiction between the blood of the lamb and the destroying' angel outside, so that the beginning of ".the feasts of the Lord " with Israel was founded on its basis, and bears along with it the unfailing name of " the Lord's passover." The unconsumed bush was verified on that night, when the Lord passed over His blood-bought people in sovereign grace.
(The flame of fire.) But " the flame of fire " had like-wise moved onward into that hour of darkness and of judgment to teach them other lessons, and to lead forth the paschal lamb, that the whole assembly
of the congregation might kill it, and find their food in the flesh thereof roast with fire. The loving kindness and the almighty power of the " I am " had passed over them, and fed them with the mighty's meat, and preserved them for His own glory. The fruits and effects were morally in beautiful harmony with these early lessons of redemption taught them at the doors of their houses, and in the depths of the Red Sea; for Israel on its exodus saw on the morrow " that great work " which the Lord had wrought in their salvation, and " they feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses."
Other services yet remained for " the Angel of the Lord, and the flame of fire," in order to establish relations between Jehovah, and the people whom He had redeemed out of Egypt, and brought to Himself for blessing in Canaan. These found their occasion when the tabernacle was reared up, and all its altars and sacrifices were appointed. On that day it was, that " the flame of fire " could further justify itself between God in His holiness, and His people in their failures, by entering in at the door and doing its work at the " brazen altar," with the bullock as a whole burnt-offering to the Lord, and point out the place where " righteousness and peace might meet together, and mercy and truth kiss each other." These were the Sanctuary revelations to faith in order to maintain his worshipping people in communion with God, for " the flame of fire " had brought forth the " sweet-smelling savor " from the unblemished sacrifice, by which God was glorified in holiness and in majesty. Moreover, the law of " this house of the Lord" was, that the fire was never to go out, either by day or night, like the blood on the door posts of the other house, which was never to lose its value in their remembrance before God.
The Angel of the Lord which had saved them at the outset, and redeemed them, changed His character after the sin of the golden calf, and becomes " mine Angel" to go before Moses, and to lead the people into the place of which the " I am " had spoken. The record of these journeyings and the loving sympathy and faithfulness of this Angel is touchingly related eight hundred years after by Isaiah, who justifies Him before Israel, in the day of their declension. " In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them and carried them all the days of old." Nor was the Angel less observant of their welfare in the day of danger, when the enemy came in like -a flood, and the hosts of Sennacherib threatened to destroy them, for then it was " that the Angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and four thousand; and when they arose in the morning they were all dead corpses."
Although " the flame of fire, and the unconsumed bush," began thus the typical history of redemption, yet did it also contain the secret of resurrection, though this was not brought out till " the prophet like unto Moses," and yet greater than he, declared it when challenged by the Sadducees, who neither knew " the living God," nor His power. Jesus threw them back upon " the bush," and the " I am," for a proof that the dead are raised up. " The God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him." Jesus pointed out still further, and carried on the fulfillments of the bush, and of the Angel of the Lord, into the glory of the coming " kingdom of God," where the patriarchs and prophets and the " children of the resurrection " are to be finally settled and seated as His witnesses. In the day of its full display, when Messiah their King shall have been welcomed to the throne of the kingdom of David, and shall sit moreover " as Son of man, on the throne of His own glory," the burning bush will take revenge on all who have refused its guidance, and cast them into the fire, " prepared for the devil and his angels." (The migratory cloud.) " The cloud " in like manner had, a way of its own, not meeting the
people of Israel at the beginning of their journey out of Egypt, but waiting till the time should come for them to be " baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Accordingly, the Angel of God and the cloud are in company, like the Angel of the Lord and the flame of fire were at the bush, and the lesser follows the direction and ways of the greater. When the children. of Israel, for example, were to turn and encamp between Migdol and the sea, the Angel of God and the cloud were as extraordinary in their doings as the bush that burned, and was not consumed; for " the Angel which went before the camp, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face in like manner and stood behind."
Nor was this enough to display its character and purpose on behalf of God, for it came between the Egyptians and Israel, " and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all night." But beyond these friendships and animosities of " the cloud," it came to pass that in the morning watch " the Lord looked through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, so that they fled from the face of Israel, because the Lord fought for them."
When " the Angel of God, and the cloud," had fulfilled their respective missions. in the conflicts of Egypt, and had put them beyond the enemy's territory and power, the Lord took possession of the cloud and prepared_ it as His chariot for the wilderness journey, and thus " the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light; to go by night and by day." He took not away the cloud as His witness from before the people.. The faithfulness of the cloud was not more remarkable in their traveling days, when the camp was on a journey, than when it tarried, and the tribes halted at the sounding of the silver trumpets, which called the assembly-together at " the door of the tabernacle " for the worship of God, as their Jehovah. Indeed, when Moses had reared up the court round about the tabernacle, and the altar, and set up the hangings, and finished the work which was given him to do, " then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." He then moved from His chariot into the holiest of all, between the cherubim, making that mercy-seat His dwelling-place, inside the veil. Externally " the cloud of the Lord " was upon it still and waited upon Him, or moved as He bade it, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all the journey. (The mystery of the cloud.) Nevertheless " the ways of the cloud," and of Him who rode there-in held its mystery, as well as the flame of fire and the burning bush. Redemption by blood and by the rod of divine power are to make a path for the redeemed, in their proper and seasons, into "the glory of the resurrection," as we have seen, and into the royalties of " the kingdom of God," as well as into the presence of " heavenly Majesty." The Lord Jesus, who opened the mystery of resurrection from the dead, out of "the book of Moses," by interpreting what God had really said to him at the bush, likewise unites the Christ and the mount of His transfiguration, and the " Son of man coming in his kingdom," together. " I tell you of a truth, Jesus said to his disciples, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."
The cloud had long waited upon the bidding of Him who dwelt therein, till the reasons of its departure from the earth to the heavens were declared in the failure of Israel, and their forfeiture of Canaan through transgression, like Adam originally lost the lordship of creation. The cloud went up from the earth and tarried for the brighter moment of the transfiguration when its Lord should ascend in righteousness that "high mountain," which was the sign and seal from God, that He had reached by perfect obedience on the earth the highest place out of the heavens, " His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light, and there appeared two men, Moses and Elias, talking with him." It was on such an occasion as this, and upon such an interview that " the bright cloud " returned, and took possession of that intermediate scene between the kingdom and the church, and overshadowed them all. The disciples " feared as they entered into the cloud: and there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him." The momentous conference between the heavens and the earth was ended, and the two men in glory were parted from them. The cloud likewise went its way, to wait for its Lord on the morning of the third day, at the Mount of Olives, when His victorious resurrection " out from among the dead " should be no longer a secret purpose of Him who cannot be " the God of the dead." The risen Christ gives a title to God now, as the God of the living, for " all live to him." Jesus also came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, having accepted as the result " His decease," and its accomplishment for the eternal glory of God and His own, in Jerusalem and upon Mount Calvary. After His crucifixion, and the darkness of death, and the grave were over, for He could not be holden by the one or the other, He was raised by " the glory of the Father," and renews His acquaintance with the heavens and the earth, in the new title of accomplished redemption for us. His own glory by resurrection put Him in possession of all. And then came that mysterious interval in the reckonings of time, those forty days during which our Lord stands in the midst of His disciples, " the doors being shut," or goes up and down, it may be, between " the things that are seen, and the things that are not seen." Never observed again by the world, yet going in and out amongst His redeemed ones for forty days -but no longer known upon the earth as Messiah-and saying, " Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." An interval which had more to do with the new things than with the old ones, out of which, yea, and into which, His death and resurrection had carried Him. In effect, old things had in His person passed away, and all had become new, for all things were of God; and another history of man, and of " men in Christ," was to come forth after those forty days when He Himself would not be " known after the flesh." A period, we may say, which connected Him more with "the times and seasons which the. Father had kept in his own hand," and of which He was about to be made the visible center in the heavens, than with the expectations of His disciples touching " the restoration of the kingdom to Israel," or " the restitution of all things." Nevertheless, He spoke to them of " the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," in these new relations with Himself. " The cloud " that waited on Him, and waited for Him, was ready to receive Him up out of their sight, and to part Him from them, giving them other hopes even as to earthly blessing, when " this same Jesus " whom they had seen taken up to heaven in the cloud, should " so come in like manner, as they had seen him go into heaven."
But an interval of ten days followed these forty, as mysterious for the disciples whom He had left behind as were the forty days to their ascended Lord, and which was to fashion and form their hearts in communion with Himself on high, by the descent of the Holy Ghost. The angel of the Lord, which appeared to Moses in a flame of fire, or the bush which burned and was not consumed, had revealed " the good will of him who dwelt in it," by the great mystery of godliness, namely, " God manifest in the flesh," and had accomplished its typical meaning also, by the way of " resurrection from the dead," through the power of God, who could not be " a God of the dead."
True to its import, Jesus had lifted the veil before its time and showed them the patriarchs and prophets, and the children of the resurrection, as seated and at home in the kingdom of God, " for all live to him," on the other side o death and the grave; with Christ. (The return of the cloud.)
The Angel of God and the cloud had traveled in company with the tabernacle of testimony through the
wilderness, and then it parted to go by the way of the Mount of Transfiguration, till He to whom it pointed took His place thereon, as greater than Solomon, in the power and majesty of the throne of the Son of man, and the greatness of His kingdom, by " the voice from the excellent glory." The cloud which
covered that mount parted company with our Lord when He laid aside this earthly, dominion for awhile, that He might descend and pass through the dark and mysterious pathway of " his decease," in order to reach by His sufferings the center and seat of all glory, at the right hand of God. " The cloud " tarried for
Him at the Mount of Olives, and was the witness, not merely of resurrection into the kingdom of God, which the burning bush had been commissioned to be, but of His ascension to the throne of the majesty on high. " The cloud " found its earthly fulfillment at the mount where Jesus was transfigured, and in the highest glory which promise and prophecy could lead Him into. It waited for its crowning fulfillment elsewhere, after the death and resurrection of its Lord; when the marvel of His ascension to the highest place, and His installation as bearing the highest name in heaven, was to be manifested "to principalities and powers," who had their dwelling therein.
" The cloud " that received Him when He was taken up had duly and faithfully accomplished its unmistakeable errand from first to last. " The promise of the Father," after those fifty days or " seven weeks " of Sanctuary computation were fully ended, would introduce a Pentecost to the hundred and twenty men of " the upper chamber," who were riot of the world, and yet who waited up on the earth till they should be endued with power from on high to " shine as lights" therein. " The Holy Ghost shall come upon you," were the parting words of their Lord, when He was taken up; moreover, "they were to be witnesses to him unto Jerusalem and the uttermost parts of the earth." The cloud had done its work like the bush, and other times and seasons were now to break forth in heavenly light upon the world by the presence and action of the Holy Ghost. Men on whom " the promise of the Father " rests, and who, under this anointing, are the appointed witnesses of another revelation, by which to gather men out from the world itself to Christ by faith, as the second man, and "the beginning of the creation of God." The burning bush and the cloud could do no service in these ministries, though they led to them, and would be out of place. The mysterious " forty days " and the ten, or the seven weeks of Old Testament prophecy (when Jehovah kept His feasts with His earthly people Israel, by such reckonings) have begun their heavenly relations with the Father and the Son, and date their history from " the glorified Son of man" there.
(The ar pearance of the glory.) " The glory " and its mission is necessary to complete this three-fold cord, which was to draw the people of Israel out of Egypt through the wilderness and into Canaan. Historically the glory has more to do with the ultimate purpose of God and objects of faith than with the fiery furnace" or "the house of bondage." Moses and the rod of God's power were sufficient to bring them out of Egypt, just as the cloud waited on them for their journeyings through the desert. Their first acquaintance with "the glory " is equally distinct as was that of the cloud or the bush, and could only
be made as" they looked toward the wilderness," on the occasion too of their murmurings against Moses and their lustings after the flesh-pots of Egypt. " The glory," so to speak, beckoned them through the wilderness into the dwelling-place which God had chosen for Himself and for them, in " a land flowing with milk and honey." "The glory," like the cloud and the flame of fire, though connected strangely with the demands of Sinai dispensationally, and its thunderings and lightnings, in external government between God and the works and ways of the people, yet took the hidden path of the tabernacle, and made each for themselves a way into the secret thoughts of God under the new covenant. It traveled along therefore by the altars and veils, by the blood and the incense, to " the mercy-seat," where the cherubim spread their covering wings out over and beyond " the holiest of all." " The glory," however, exceeded the fire and the cloud in this, that it irradiated the high priest of the Sanctuary likewise on the great day of atonement; and after this consecration of Aaron, by " garments of glory and beauty," it claimed for itself a pathway therein and "a dwelling-place " with God. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and "the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle," putting its seal upon the finished work according to the patterns originally given to Moses, and thus taking the initiative as to its purposes and objects. So also, when traveling days were over, and the tabernacle gave place to the temple, the glory took possession in the name of the Lord, and filled it from the innermost place to the outermost, and, we may thankfully add, this is God's order, carried out to perfection with His worshipping people still.
Wonderful as the moving tabernacle was in its migratory character through the wilderness journey; and illustrious as the temple was in its place of rest under King Solomon, in the days of prosperity and peace; yet the glory, like the cloud and the flame of fire at the bush, soon turned aside into a path for itself, and departed from rebellious Israel, to wait for Jesus and the resurrection. Who of us has not read the history of its ways by the prophet Ezekiel, till finally it went back into the heavens? Who does not recall the lingerings and the reluctance of " the glory of God " to leave the vineyard of the Lord of hosts? The typical griefs and the sorrows, so to speak, of the glory, its hesitation, and its halting at the door posts, and upon the house top, and over the city, till there was no remedy but to carry the sad tale back to God, of its own rejection and refusal.
In brief, the burning bush revealed the secret ways of the everlasting " I am," as the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, by the resurrection, and opened the gates for them into the kingdom of God, with the children of the resurrection, waiting upon Jesus, as the forerunner and fulfiller of all their hopes in this path, the " One who liveth and was dead, and is alive for evermore."
The cloud in like manner tarried till it could come back again, and bear witness to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, as the King of 'kings, coming in royal majesty and honor into His kingdom, where the patriarchs and prophets and the elect children are yet to meet and hail Him. The bush had opened the way for faith and seated the citizens in the kingdom in expectation of their King, and the cloud then welcomed the Son of man in power upon the Mount of Transfiguration into His kingdom; pointing onward, as we have seen, to the day of His ascension, when the cloud was as to carry Him up for higher honors and other glories to " the right hand. of God." (The extension of the glory.) " The glory " had its own prerogative, and upon this it eventually took its stand, waiting for " the fullness of the time" when God should send forth His Son, born of a woman. The glory had patiently traveled its earthly path, with men in the flesh, testing and trying and encouraging them, but without effect. Hesitatingly at first, yet decidedly at the last, it refused to go along with mere flesh and blood, and became a stranger betwixt God and men, till the mystery of the incarnation drew it forth from its hidden place as the fit investiture of the young child, " the unspeakable gift " of God to mankind! " And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them," so that there was one outburst of harmonious song between the heavens and the earth, and between angels and men, " of glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good pleasure to men."
But " the mystery " of the incarnation must needs develop itself for dire necessities (which, alas, we as sinners well know) in the glory of redemption, and redemption by the further glory of resurrection, and resurrection by the crowning glory of ascension " to the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens," where the Son of man now is, having reached " the glory of God," and being in it.
The history and ways of the glory outrun those of the cloud or the bush, and cannot be confined to the kingdom of God, or to the glory and honor of " the Son of man " coming into His dominions in millennial days, though each be faithful to Him that appointed them their respective courses, and each be perfect in his times and seasons as they ran them. (The glory in the heavens.) According to the divine counsels, " the Son of man in the glory " in the heavens was to be the birth-place of spiritual blessing and of eternal blessedness for us, as truly as the earth beneath had become the birth-place of sin and death through Adam, and all the powers of Satan superadded, which separated mankind from God in untold misery and woe. No power could extricate, nor could any one deliver, who was unable to make an end of sin by being made sin for us, and going down into the grave, yea, lying in the belly of the earth, and yet not be holden of it; and where was such an One to be found? Moreover, the glory of God and His essential holiness and majesty demanded this, by His flaming sword at the garden gates, or else it never could have been sheathed. Yea, more, who could go over the pathway of the burning bush with God, and verify its meaning to the full, as the "I am" in the kingdom, but He who offered Himself without spot as a sacrifice by means of " the flame of fire," that nothing but a sweet savor might ascend up to God?
Who could travel with the cloud through this sinful world and only halt upon the Mount of Transfiguration, for " a drink by the way," ere He pursued His journey by the path of His own sufferings on the cross into the horror of darkness and death, till the morning of that third day committed Him to the care of the cloud, which received Him up and carried Him to " the throne of God," by a way that the vulture's eye had not seen, nor the old lion or his whelps ever trodden?
The bush and the cloud had done their services for God, and for Christ, and for faith, and now " the Son of man in the glory" was to begin a new creation from the position He had reached with " the Father of glory above," according to the purposes of God, before ever the world was. He will also deliver in due season this old creation, " which was mad subject to vanity not willingly," from the bondage of corruption under which it is groaning into " the glorious liberty of the sons of God." But besides and far beyond the deliverance by redemption of this creation, (into which sin entered and death passed upon all men, because all have sinned) or the formation of a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, lay the promise of the Father to glorify His Son, and through the Son to the " many sons," whom God was likewise " bringing into the glory." The unspeakable gift of " the Son of the bosom " had been registered in heaven, though refused and rejected by the earth. " The world seeth me no more," were
His parting words to it, as He took His place on the Father's throne till the prince of the world should be actually cast out. (The Holy Ghost from the glory.)
" The gift of the Holy Ghost " yet remained bright in the records of inspiration and promise for the children of God by " faith in Christ Jesus," and was to come down from the Father and the Son when Jesus was in " the glory at the right hand of God." The Holy Spirit, unrestrained by the times and seasons which govern us, had anticipated the great day of Pentecost, and descended in the form of a -dove first of all to bear witness to Jesus as the anointed man, and to accompany the voice from heaven which claimed the incarnate One as the Son of the Father in whom He was " well pleased." The Holy Ghost had thus identified Himself with a Man upon the earth, leading this " Son of man " over the paths and places of our defeat and disgrace and of God's dishonor, as well as of Satan's success, that He might re-assert and maintain the rights of the insulted Majesty in heaven by His obedience unto death, and turn our Golgothas and Aceldamas into the places of His triumph and of God's glory.
" Led by the Spirit " into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, He overcame him, and said, Get thee behind me Satan. " Justified by the Spirit," He surely was against all the contradiction of men and the gainsayings of their leaders and governors throughout His wondrous ministrations in their midst. When His presentations to Israel's faith and acceptance as the antitype of the voice out of the burning bush, or of the migratory cloud on its mysterious journey, or of the glory which beckoned them upward, were over, and the hour was come that He should present Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of a people who, instigated by the devil, would not have Him, it was "through the eternal Spirit that he offered himself without spot to God."
In the New Testament history, and ways of the Holy Ghost towards us, it is indispensable that He should come forth from " the glory " out of the holiest of all, where God dwells, and by the way of the " opened heavens." The Holy Ghost was not yet given, " because that Jesus was not yet glorified; " nor were the heavens opened to us, because the Son of man had not been taken up by the cloud into them; nor was the way into the holiest yet made manifest for us through the rent veil, that is to say His flesh, because the High Priest had not passed through. (The Son of man in the glory.)
Another Genesis had thus begun with " the Son of man in the glory of God " in heaven; and another Exodus was to commence on the earth, by " the descent of the Holy Ghost " into the midst of that new-born company, who had hitherto been keeping " the feasts of the Lord in Jerusalem," and to lead them out into this new fellowship of the Son of God after the new pattern of the " promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me." Our new order as born from above, yea, born of God, is, " If any man be in Christ he is a new creation: old things are passed away, and all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ."
In fact, a new race of men were coming out in the life and righteousness of the second man, and in whom the Holy Ghost had come down to dwell, making their bodies " the temple of God," till the day when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, " and we put off the image of the earthly, and put on the image of the heavenly man," and are caught up to be forever with the Lord. The first creation with its Adam, the man made out of the dust of the ground, into whose nostrils God breathed the breath of life, was mainly provisional and serving as the pattern of that which was to come. The second man in the glory of God is the witness and seal of the Father's love to Him and to us, and is now become the channel of all that precious love; moreover, He is manifested as the center of all His purposes from everlasting and the Head of the new creation of God. He is also the model and likeness to which as men in Christ " we are predestinated to be conformed, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." The Spirit of glory and of God resteth now upon -us as Christians, yea, as sons of God, " shining as lights in the world, and holding forth the word of life." Or, as one of the heavenly family has said, "for me to live is Christ," and again " that Christ may be magnified in me, whether by life or by death." (The glory our "birthplace.)
The grand object of the Holy Ghost's ministry, as sent forth from the glory by the Father and the Son,
is to reveal to " the elect of God " as the " beloved of the Lord," all the purposes and counsels which were hidden in God from before the foundation of the world, and by which we enter upon our heavenly relations in life, as children of the Father by "the Spirit of adoption." Besides, these revelations of the Father's love are the operations of the Holy Ghost, who, ever true to "the Son of man in the glory of God," glorifies Him, takes and of the things which are Christ's to fashion our hearts and form our affections, yes, and to satisfy them in the conscious enjoyment of what satisfies our blessed Lord. It is actually and practically by the Holy Ghost thus come out from the Father's love and the Son's glory that while here upon this earth " we are baptized by one Spirit into the one body," of which the risen and exalted Lord is the Head. In virtue of this new order of baptism it is, that we enter likewise upon our church relationships as individually united to Him and to one another, as " members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," which the Lord in His faithful love nourishes and cherishes as being Himself.
What a portion is ours, as thus one with a glorified Christ in such marvelous, because such intimate associations! Indeed, it is these church and bridal relations that form in us the sweetest affections, of which as new creatures we are either conscious or capable; because they lead us forth to the very object of Christ's own most precious love and delight. For what, we may ask, would. the delights of the Lamb be without His Bride? Or what would the exalted Head in the heavens be without His body? Could such an One " abide alone "? (The love from the glory.) Indeed, this love between the Bridegroom and His Bride, and betwixt the Head and the body, His members (which so exceptionally and emphatically form its very nature), takes its rise in " the glory of God," where the Son of man now is. It reaches us where we are, and like the love of God is " shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost." Love like His must be perfect, and to be perfect must be mutual. Such love as this, and in this new order of relationships, is nevertheless not too unearthly and high to be reciprocal, though to be reciprocated by us it must needs be through the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us.
In this wonderful " little while " of the Bride's preparation and the church's completeness out of this old creation, our Lord knows how to manifest himself to His own as He does not unto the world. Yea, the Father can come and the Son also to make " their abode with us," and definitely, and very distinctly, does Christ, as the Head of the body, " dwell in our hearts by faith; that we being rooted and grounded in love," and reciprocally, "may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled into all the fullness of God." His own love has thus perfected itself in us by leading us to the fountain of His own delight, and filling us with all the fullness of God! He who once as the good Shepherd led His sheep into green pastures, and beside the still waters, when on the way up from the washing has made us know and drink, yea, be filled from the springs that meet His own thirst, in " the fullness of God." (The fruit of His glory.) Yet, once more, as touching the reciprocity of His love, which perfects itself in its own objects. He co-operates with the witness of the Holy Ghost, (which has descended from the glory " to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,") by claiming a place for Himself in our hearts and dwelling there as " Christ in you the hope of glory," for which Himself and we together wait the manifestation. By His own most faithful and precious love, by the faith to which He confides Himself in our hearts, and by the pledge of reciprocated confidence which gives Himself as " the hope of glory," He has done all that perfect love could do to make love perfect on our part towards Himself till He come to call His Bride away, and to " present the church to himself a glorious church." What a present and what a future is ours!
Any further applications of these three subjects with which we started, namely, the burning bush, the traveling cloud, and the resident glory on high, which have respectively their issues in " the kingdom of God," or through the heavens " to the right hand of the throne," or lastly "the Son of man in the glory of God," would be out of place, and ought to be, except to constrain our love by His own. Yet how practical and full of meaning they are for us whose " citizenship is above." The Spirit of God from the kingdom of God, the Holy Ghost from the ascended Lord on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, the promise of the Father, sent down from the Son in the glory of God, are not only the several witnesses of the distinctive spheres of Christ's glory, whether above or below, but operate in us, if ungrieved on our part, to form and fashion us in true consistency, like the sun-dial to the sun. In the light of the divine presence, and under the sweet and constraining influence of the love of Christ, may each judge himself down to death by the cross, or be encouraged " not to live to ourselves," but to Him who is in the glory of God, and is coming again to take us there.
In conclusion, a word or two upon another point may be in place; for some Christians begin their journey, and rightly enough, with " the angel of the Lord, and the flame of fire at the bush," but merely travel along by the way of resurrection at the last day into the hope of final blessing in heaven.
Others accept " the journeyings of the cloud" as well, and follow Jesus through the world into the heavens by faith, where He sits at the right hand of God. The word of promise and prophecy defines their expectations, and connects them therefore much more with the coming kingdom, and with the reign of Christ upon the earth, than with the knowledge of Him as the second Adam and the beginning of the new creation of God.
Others again combine " the ways of the glory " with the cloud and the " I am " of the bush, as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and so embrace (with all these millennial prospects to Israel and the Gentiles at the second coming of Christ, as the King of kings, and Lord of lords) the other and higher glories which belong to Him as " head of his body the church," and the present operations of the Holy Ghost on earth, in calling out and, fashioning " the Bride " for the approaching marriage of the Lamb. Upon this nuptial day, when " the Lord shall present the church to himself, a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing," all else hangs. The restitution of all things, the deliverance of a groaning creation, the thousand years of blessing, the time of prosperity, and universal peace and joy upon the earth, all wait for and upon the " Bride adorned for her husband coming down from God out of heaven, and having the glory of God." The partner of His joys!
Stopping short " of the promise of entering into God's rest " is, alas, the characteristic of many, who started by way of the bush, but have come very short of the heavenly calling and strangership upon the earth. Others, again, who began with the cloud " fear as they enter into it," or "build tabernacles" contented with their own experiences on the mount, and so lose Christ, as " the hope of glory " for the way and all that lies beyond.
" Christ dwelling in the heart by faith," that we may enjoy His own sweet love that passeth knowledge, is the secret but well-known power by which His own are led forward into " the unsearchable riches of Christ," and " into all the fullness of God."
J. E. B.
WHENEVER you get sanctification and justification mentioned together, sanctification comes first.
(J. N. D.)