But the grace of God will make them anew, “a generation to come.”
The Lord will judge the unbelievers at last, dealing with them righteously after His immense long-suffering, but delivering a godly remnant in His grace. The Lord has great things in store for Israel. There will be this double action—that is to say, the mass of them filling up the cup of iniquity which their fathers began to fill; and the remnant, who will be the holy seed, the Israel of the millennial day. Of the former He speaks when He says that “this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled. Of that day knoweth no man, not the angels even, but my Father only.”
The next comparison (verses 36-42) is not to the fig tree or anything else taken from the physical world. A figure is taken from the dealings of God in the Old Testament, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be; for as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left.”
Instead of being an indiscriminate slaughter or Captivity such as the Jews had executed upon them by the Romans there is a direct contrast to this. Here there is discrimination: one man shall be taken and the other left; one woman taken and another left. The Lord will deal with perfect discernment in each case; not so did the Romans; not so any army that ever took a city. We know there is no time, no thought, no desire for discrimination. It is wholesale bloodshed or slavery. Thus it was when Titus took the city; so alas! it too often is unto this day. But when the Lord Jesus comes it will not be so.
Then the Lord winds up this part of His prophecy by saying, “Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” There, I believe, closes the portion of this prophecy which refers to the Jew. He began by referring to the Jewish disciples, because the disciples were really Jews then, though believers. He took them up just as they were; and we know they subsequently became Christians. They passed into a new relationship. Not that they had not faith; but (instead of looking for the Lord's blessing them upon the earth) when He rose from the dead, and went up to heaven, a new state of things was founded in connection with Him then and there.
Hence the same disciples merged into a new form and power of relationship with God. They were brought no longer to expect the Lord's restoration of the kingdom to Israel as their proper hope, but, contrariwise, that the Lord would come to receive them to Himself, and take them to the Father's home in heaven. This is the Christian's hope; this is what they wait for. The Lord is calling them out from everything on earth to Himself. They had been expecting the Lord to come and establish them on the earth up to the day when the. Lord Jesus went up and sent down the Holy Ghost. Christianity comes in as if a drawbridge had been opened and then let in an entirely new thing. The disciples at the beginning were on one side of the bridge, the disciples at the end would be at the other side. The drawbridge opens, and Christianity passes through. It is the calling of the Christians out of the world, waiting till Christ comes to take them up to heaven. The Lord Jesus having accomplished redemption, has Himself first taken His seat in heaven; then the disciples become heavenly, and are being transformed spiritually: finally, at His coming, the Lord Jesus will take them completely out of their natural condition, conformed to His own glorious body. The state of things on earth since redemption, till He come to take us to be with Him on high, is truly to be called Christianity.
I do not deny that the saints of old, before Christianity came in, will share in the resurrection, when they too are to shine in the likeness of Christ. Only there is this enormous difference meanwhile. We are brought, since His cross, into salvation and new relationships, and the Holy Spirit gives a fresh and infinitely greater power to those who are now gathered to His name. I am persuaded that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were far more faithful than many, perhaps than any, among us. Here we cannot take high ground; but we can boast of what Christ has given us. This is to bring in truth which will make our faithfulness more manifest; for the greater hold Christian privileges have on you, the more your unfaithfulness will be measured; and you ought to submit to this measure and be ashamed.
From this point the Lord begins to open out a new thing, namely, what the disciples were going to become. And evidently this is the proper order. The Lord had begun with them as they were, and then He leads on to what they were to become, with the new relationships of Christ dead and risen, when also fresh power was given by the Holy Ghost. As a mark of this, you will see that the Lord drops all allusion to Judaea, and all reference to the temple, prophets, and sabbath. The Lord opens out now into parables of a general and comprehensive nature, which would be equally as true at Timbuktu as at Jerusalem—it does not matter where. They belong to Christianity. What Christ died and rose to establish, by the mission of the Spirit, is not one of your narrow systems of men, nor your loose worldly associations. Christianity is exclusive of nothing but sin; it is the practical expression of Christ. The Lord here shows us this opening out into wider principles of a moral nature, which embrace all the true disciples, wherever they might be in this world, at any time till He comes. Hence we find three parables which apply to this.
The first parable is the wise servant contrasted with the evil one. It is a question of faithful service in the house, the duty of the highest and the duty of the lowest, not of intelligent activity in trading with goods given as in the parable of the Talents (chap. 25.). The form is very striking. We have, as you see, a double profession; and this in relation with the Lord, not with Israel as before.
This was not the case in the nation. In Judaism there was an enormous unbelieving mass in former times getting into idolatry and all kinds of wickedness, always persecuting the believer. But one of the characteristic marks of Christendom is that all are professors of Christ, whether truly or falsely. The Lord in the parable says the faithful and wise servant is to be made ruler over all his goods. But the evil servant says in his heart, “My Lord delayeth his coming"; it is not a mere notion. One may always have his notions; and one is none the better for them. But the Lord refers to what was deep and real, the heart's indifference to the appearing of Jesus. The evil servant says in his heart, “My Lord delayeth his coming"; he believes what he likes, and what he likes is that the Lord should delay His coming. If you love anyone, you want to see him. The absence of the person you love is trying to you. There may be the wisest reasons for delay, but the delay taxes your patience; and your hope of the speedy return of the one you love is the greatest joy to your heart.
The Lord gives this feeling and strengthens it. Grant that it may be hindered by false prophetic notions: yet there is in the heart of all true Christians a desire for the coming of Christ: only, when the soul is not in peace through a full gospel, it is afraid. And those who give them this kind of gospel are responsible for it; those who keep souls in fear do the greatest possible injury to the church of God. I am not speaking of such as set forth Christ or His work falsely, but even of those who do not preach it fully, who fear to set forth the full value of the sacrifice of Christ, and the perfect deliverance which His death and resurrection have wrought for the believer. The result of this defect in teaching is that Christians are apt to be alarmed instead of rejoicing at the thought of the coming of Christ.
They do not own that the acceptance of Christ is the acceptance of a Christian; they do not believe that the Lord by His death has not only put away their sins, but judged their sinful nature completely; and this in order to their walking now in the Spirit, to be followed by a perfect conformity to Christ's image in resurrection at His coming.
You cannot exaggerate what Christ has wrought for the believer; if you are resting on His redemption, all difficulties Godward are taken away. Then there is nothing left but the duty of serving Him now, and the delight of seeing Him then, as also of worshipping both now and forever.
He has done all for you to bring you to God, and to take you out of every evil. How can the believer not rejoice in this? I believe in my heart that all Christians, I care not where or who they are have joy and delight in the prospect of His coming.
Notwithstanding all their imperfect notions, I am sure all Christians love Christ here, and I grant that they are waiting for Him too. I may shock some of my zealous pre-millennialist friends; but I believe this hope belongs to every Christian.
There may be false prophetic views which hinder; but as the new nature does go out towards Christ, so it longs for the day when it will be ever with Christ. Waiting for Christ supposes longing for His coming; but if put in certain forms and propositions, this may never be found out. If you want to show that men do not look for Christ's coming, you can have abundant grounds for working on, On the other hand, I think God will give you sufficient evidence that all who are His really look and long for His coming.
Only let the children of God get clear of those clouds of noxious and unwholesome vapours that are constantly rising up between the Lord and them.
If you bring in a millennium at the present time, it is hard to see Christ's coming clearly; it acts as a cloud, which dulls the hope of that day. It may not destroy the hope, but one thus looks for the Lord's coming in an imperfect manner.
If you bring in a great tribulation first, this would enfeeble the hope greatly; it tends to produce a depressing effect, and to fill the heart with trouble.
The one puts a mistaken hope between you and the coming of the Lord, giving meanwhile a dreamy excitement in waiting for that day. The other case gives you a sort of spiritual nightmare, an oppressive feeling in the thought that you must go through so dreadful a crisis.
I believe, my friends, that the Scriptures deliver us from both the dream and the nightmare. I believe they entitle the believer to wait for Christ as simply as a child, being perfectly certain that God is true and our hope blessed. Again, I believe there is a tribulation to come, but not for the Christian. When He is speaking about the Jew, you can understand it well: for why does this great tribulation come upon him? Because of his idolatry; it is for him a moral retribution, with which the Christian has nothing at all to do. It is the judgment of God on the Jewish people; they who were called to be witnesses against idolatry at last fall into the dreadful snare of allowing the abomination to be put into the sanctuary of God: then the tribulation comes upon them. There is no connection between this and the Christian looking for Christ; and here the prophecy of the blessed Lord drops all allusion to anything of the kind. What He presents is, that when He returns, it is as Son of man, a title which is always used in reference to His coming in judgment, as in John v. 27 “The Father hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the. Son of man.” When He comes as judge, He deals with the evil servant, cuts him asunder, and assigns his portion with hypocrites.
Then comes the parable read to-night. I call at your attention particularly to it. I have been ng in coming to the ten virgins; but it is only right to disengage the Christian from the thought that the early part of this prophecy belongs to him: such an idea completely perverts his judgment.
But we have also in our day to do with another and opposite error, an error that takes away the parable of the virgins from properly applying to the Christian. Now I affirm, on the contrary, that it has nothing to do with the Jewish remnant directly, who, as they are not called to go out to meet the Bridegroom, so they could not have oil, and lastly, will not be exposed to the temptation of going to sleep. But many an one might have been Jewish disciple and then have ceased to be a Jew; practically such became Christians, in the true sense of the term, as Peter uses the word in his First Epistle, and Luke in The Acts. In this parable, then, the Lord shows the kingdom of heaven to be likened unto ten virgins. They all went forth to bear their testimony to Christ; the lamp was to give light. They were to shine as lights in the world: each taking her lamp went forth to meet the Bridegroom.
Now this is characteristic of the Christian. The Israelite did not separate from the world of which he was head. The Christian goes forth to meet Christ, who is gone to heaven. If he be a Jew, he leaves his ancient glories behind. Whether the greatest grandee in the Gentile world, or of the poorest condition, he alike abandons his old obscurity or his old grandeur. He willingly forgets all that is of the world. He is called out of every snare which can fascinate or arrest the heart of man. He has got a new and all-absorbing object in Christ; and Christ in joy and blessedness. It is not the Judge coming to deal with the wicked. If a Christian goes forth to meet the Bridegroom, does such a parable fitly bring images of terror? The Christian knows well that the same Jesus who is the Bridegroom is the Judge; he knows well that Jesus will be the Judge of those who oppose Him; but He is not the Judge and the Bridegroom in the same associations, or to the same persons. Where would be the sense of such confusion? The Lord purposely brings in the bright figure of the Bridegroom to those who are waiting for Him.
But there are other elements of moment. Here are persons true and false. They are not presented as one object: consequently the idea of the bride is not the thought. When we talk about Christians, real or professing, we do not fix our mind on unity; we think of individuals who go forth. He was about to show profession, and so brings in foolish, as well as wise, virgins. It is Christ looking at Christians professing the Lord truly or falsely, not as the bride of Christ. The Christians are all characterized by quitting every object on earth to meet the Bridegroom. Even the Jew, attached as he was to the old religion (and they had a religion which could boast an antiquity before which all others grow pale)—the Jew leaves all to go forth unto Him, as says the apostle in Heb. 13, “bearing his reproach.”
Here you have the same principle. As the Christian, even though a Jew, was called to leave all the old things behind, so here they went forth to meet the Bridegroom. Five of them were wise, and five foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps, but no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Is it true that the Jewish remnant at the end of the age are to have oil in their vessels? They will never have oil in their vessels till the Lord Jesus comes and pours the Spirit on them. We must remember, oil symbolically means the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not merely the washing by the Spirit—even were it vitally: I grant you the Jewish remnant will have that. They will be really cleansed by the word in the heart. The disciples who will be found at the end of the age will not receive the outpouring of the Spirit till the Lord appears; they wait for that day.
(Continued from page 288)
(To be continued)
[W.K.]