It must have been familiar with us all to have observed, that the certainty of our view of an object has depended very principally on the light in which it was set; and that our enjoyment of a prospect has been greatly determined by the way by which we approached it.
I venture thus to introduce my observation upon the transfiguration of our blessed Lord on the Holy Mount, because, as I judge, the way by which He was led there has not with sufficient care been traced out and preserved by those who since, in faith, followed Him there. The road was much longer to Him than we generally. suspect; and yet, to be on the mount with Him, so as to enter rightly through the Spirit into the design of His being there at all, we must be patient in marking the way which conducted Him to that secret place of His heavenly glory. We will then, trusting His guidance, track this way after Him somewhat more carefully.
It was apostasy in Israel that prepared “the place that is called Calvary;” and, under the determining hand and counsel of God, there erected the cross: so that the Lord Himself said to the Jews, “when YE have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He” (John 8:2828Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (John 8:28)). For the Son had been sent forth to preserve and reign over the house of Israel forever; but Israel would none of Him. Of course in all this the purpose of the counsels of God was only effected; but still the cross is the witness of Jewish unbelief; as is said, “For of a truth against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27-2827For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. (Acts 4:27‑28)).
The cross therefore directly led to the casting off of Israel as God's people on earth; and to the consequent present call of the church out from among the Gentiles. Accordingly, in the progress of the Lord's ministry, as the Jews were at times betraying their unbelief, so was the Lord ever following this with the intimation (either to themselves, or in secret to His disciples) of the judgment for which this unbelief was preparing them; or of its further results in the call and edification of His body the church.
And if we but carefully trace His ministry, we shall at once discover this as one of its characters, and be led in this way: and I will say only in this way, justly to apprehend the purpose (most gracious in Him and blessed to them, and to the whole church with them, as it was) for which He ever took His favored disciples up to that heavenly hill with Him.
The Gospel of Matthew (as confessedly the completest narrative of our Lord's history) is that through which we will trace Him until He reach the mount of transfiguration in chapter 17; for I am assured that there is to be discovered, through all this part of His ministry and the circumstances attending it, that which was opening His way to that mount.
Everything previous to the imprisonment of John will be found to be only introductory to our Lord's ministry—i. e. all that is recorded by our evangelist, down to chap. iv. ver. 12. But the tidings “that John was cast into prison” drew Him forth; and we read, that “from that time, Jesus began to preach.” Then did light spring up to them, which sat in the region and shadow of death; then did the Shepherd of Israel begin to feed the flock; and, unlike those who had come before Him, to strengthen the diseased, to heal the sick, to bind up the broken, and to seek the lost (Matt. 4:23-2523And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. 24And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 25And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. (Matthew 4:23‑25), Ezek. 34:44The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. (Ezekiel 34:4)).
In the three following chapters we have the sermon on the mount; the purpose of which I judge to be this—to reveal the Father in heaven (from whose glory the Son had come down) in connection with Israel; to exhibit the necessary characters of a people brought into this blessed connection; but at the same time, on the ground of the corruptions and hypocrisy of their present accredited fathers, to disclose, though as yet but darkly, the mystery of Israel's full apostacy and rejection, and the consequent call of an election from among them, and the opening of a new scene of blessing to them.
In chapter viii. the Lord pursues His ministry of mercy, and as yet He pursues it unhindered. Every step in His bright path of blessing, leaving behind it the traces of One who had come as “the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.” Chapter 9 however presents to us, for the first time, the enmity of the blind guides of Israel, “because their deeds were evil” against the light of Israel. The occasion for this first manifestation of their enmity and unbelief is very specially worthy of our notice. It is the case of the man sick of the palsy, who had been let down through the roof in order to meet the eye and compassion of the blessed Jesus; (see 9:1; Mark 2:1-41And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. 2And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. 3And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 4And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. (Mark 2:1‑4)) “and Jesus,” as we read, “seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” Here then the Lord, witnessing the faith of this little band of His people, at once proclaims remission of sins in Israel, and consequent healing—power on earth to forgive sins now manifested. The Jehovah of Israel now appeared among them, “forgiving all their iniquities, and healing all their diseases.” Every sickness and every plague had through disobedience been brought upon them (Deut. 28:6161Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. (Deuteronomy 28:61)); but He who had once led them out of Egypt, was saying to them again, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” (Ex. 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)).
He was, as it were, renewing His covenant with them, His covenant of health and salvation; He was taking away from them all sickness and dispensing healing through the land (Deut. 7:1515And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. (Deuteronomy 7:15)). Faith would have rejoiced and begun that song of praise prepared of old for repentant and believing Israel, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name; bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases” (Psa. 103). But Israel's guides and rulers, now thinking evil in their hearts, whispered, “This man blasphemeth." The enmity of the rulers thus, once awakened, worked more and more as the gracious Shepherd went on to gather “the poor of the flock.” Thus we find Him immediately afterward calling Matthew the publican, and sitting at meat in company with sinners, and the rulers rebuking Him for this grace that was in Him. But it was that grace of the divine physician which they all equally needed: yet, ignorant of this, they were vainly and fatally to themselves making sin the occasion of judging, and comparing as among themselves, instead of knowing and confessing that “the whole head was sick and the whole heart faint.” They had now been smitten according to the curse on disobedience (Deut. 28:2828The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: (Deuteronomy 28:28)) with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart, as every city and village of theirs, through which Jehovah their healer was now passing, witnessed, but knew it not. The Lord their God was even now showing them that He would not contend forever; for though He had seen their ways and the frowardness of their hearts, yet that He had come to heal them (Isa. 57:1818I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. (Isaiah 57:18)). He was now showing that for the hurt of the daughter of His people He was hurt, and that balm was now to be found in Gilead, and a physician there; but the daughter of His people was refusing health (Jer. 8:21, 2221For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? (Jeremiah 8:21‑22)). The enmity still working, the fairest and most favored portion of Israel next came forward with their challenge, “the disciples of John;” they who had been under the ministry of him, than whom, among those born of woman, there had not risen a greater—the burning and the shining light of Israel in his day. In answer to them the Lord darkly intimates the mystery hid from ages and from generations, and for the full disclosure of which the unbelief of Israel was thus gradually making way. He speaks to them of the strange act of the bridegroom's removal (Israel having heard out of the law only of Christ's “abiding forever"); and with this gives them notice, as by a parable of Israel's apostasy and consequent rejection as an old garment, and as a vessel in which there was soon to be no pleasure; and the Lord's consequent election of another witness of His grace and blessing (Matt. 9:14-1714Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? 15And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. 16No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. 17Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:14‑17)).
Chapter 11 begins by telling us that when the Lord had thus given them this commission, He Himself in like manner departed “to teach and to preach in their cities.” But that chapter does not close until we listen to Him, in all the grace of ill-requited and as it were disappointed love, upbraiding those cities “because they repented not.” “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (ver. 21). But sad to His soul as this view of the unbelief of Israel must have been, He finds His relief in the consciousness of the stability of the Father's purpose; in this, as Paul did afterward, that the foundation of God still stood sure, and that therefore there would be still a gathering to Him of all those whom the Father foreknew, and who should hear His voice as the good Shepherd, saying, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.”
In the next chapter we see the Jews still further manifesting their unbelief, by the Pharisees holding a council against Him how they might destroy Him; (ver. 14); and again by saying of Him, the gracious physician who was forgiving all their sins and healing all their diseases, spending His love and His strength upon them throughout all their coasts, “This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils:” (ver. 24); and again, by desiring to see a sign from Him (ver. 38). In the course of His reply to this last expression of unbelief, our Lord gives them solemn and full warning of the judgment they were hastening upon themselves, shutting them up under the condemnation of the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Jonah is, generally, the witness of burial and resurrection. Thus does He set forth the mysterious history of the blessed Son of Man Himself— “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (ver. 40). But the sign of Jonah equally sets forth the history of Israel; inasmuch as that nation is now doomed to the judgment of death and the grave: but in the purpose of the love of God, it is destined to be called forth from under the power of death, and to rise again into the life and liberty of God's people (see Ezek. 37:1-141The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, 2And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. 3And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. 4Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 7So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. 9Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. 10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 11Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. (Ezekiel 37:1‑14)). But for the present they are in the grave; that unrepentant generation which was thus challenging the Lord for a sign was laid there; for there the Lord solemnly consigned them when He thus gave them the sign of the prophet Jonah. And when He had thus delivered them over to the judgment of death and the grave, He discloses to them, in the parable of the unclean spirit, that fullness of iniquity which they were to accomplish, and which would mature them for the full judgment of God. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation” (vers. 43-45).
Israel had been once possessed with an unclean spirit. Before the Babylonish captivity, the idols had defiled that land where Jehovah had set His own name and the witness of His presence; but this unclean spirit had now gone out of Israel: the house was swept, and emptied, and garnished; the altars, and the groves, and the images were no more. But this was all. God had not been restored to His place there: idolatry had now yielded to the spirit of scorning and unbelief. The Lord came, but there was no man; “He came to His own, but His own received Him not” (John 1:1111He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:11)). And thus into this empty house the full, or sevenfold, energy of Satan had entered—the unclean spirit had taken with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and was preparing to dwell there;; and so has he since dwelt. The god of this world has blinded the nation to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; and they continue to this day to deny the Son of Man, and to leave their last state worse than the first.
The next chapter begins to present our Lord as a teacher with a new style and manner; He opens His mouth in parables and utters dark sayings of old, and on being questioned by His disciples, why was it thus? He answered and said unto them, “Because it is given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given; for whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand; and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias which saith, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive; for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” This change of manner in the ministry of this blessed and perfect master in Israel was thus awfully judicial: He had spoken to them plainly, and spoken no proverb; but when He had thus called, there was none to answer, and now, as the Lord in judgment, He began to pour out on them the spirit of deep sleep and to close their eyes, that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith, “And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed: and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, read this I pray thee, and he saith, I am not learned” (Isa. 29:11, 1211And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. (Isaiah 29:11‑12)).
We are too careless in marking all the actions of the blessed Jesus: Among ourselves the eye and ear of a friend will discover in little things the heart of him with whom friendship has made us familiar; and how does the Holy Ghost trace for the saints the less discovered paths of the Spirit of Jesus when oil earth, so that when once let into the secret of communion with Him, we may see Him where the sharpest eye of this world's wisdom would never have discovered His path! “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him” (Psa. 25:1414The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14)). Now we read after this (chap. xiv. 13), that when Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, “He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.” This action of the Lord is full of meaning. The murder of that righteous man was a chief matter in filling up the measure of the nation's sin; it was the sure witness of their deep revolt from God. They had done with God's servant “whatsoever they listed,” served the last of their own evil hearts upon him, instead of receiving him as the messenger of the Lord of Hosts to them. And what ripeness for judgment was just then exhibited among them! Only mark the scene in Herod's palace at that time, what a living in pleasure was there and being wanton! what a nourishing of the heart as in a day of slaughter, did the court of Israel's king then present!
(To be continued.)