The Lord uses this form of words at the close of Matt. 13 when he had been, in the ears of either the multitude or His disciples, anticipating the kingdom of heaven under new conditions.
The kingdom of heaven, that is, the rule of the God of heaven among, or over, the people of the earth, was no new thing. Daniel had already told us of a day when the God of heaven should set up His kingdom, all nations and languages, and people serving him. The Prophets, generally, I might say, anticipated the day of the scepter of Messiah, when the king of Israel shall he the God of the whole earth. But the kingdom of heaven, in such conditions as the Lord had been presenting it in that chapter, was altogether a new thing, foreign to all the thoughts and intimations of the Prophets. The name and word of Him who had ascended the heavens, preached and known abroad in all the world, while Israel was nationally under judgment, this was a new thing in the treasures of divine wisdom. Blindness of eye and hardness of heart, executed upon Israel as the righteous answer of God to them, who, when He called in grace and in healing, had no answer for Him; and upon this, the truth of God and the energies of His Spirit, found abroad in “the field,” which is “the world,” this was new, unknown, untold, by any of the prophets—at the very least, under such conditions as the Lord had been here anticipating.
But new things never gainsay old. This could not be. “The scripture cannot be broken.” The former things of the Prophets may open to let in other counsels of God, and thus there may be enlargement; but there is no canceling. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance—so that all that has been promised to Israel shall be realized. The light may shine brighter and brighter to the perfect day—so that the supplies and additions which we get from the new testament scriptures, may be a precious filling up of the intimations or revelations of the old.
“In vetere Testamento, novum latet— In novo Testamento vetum patet.”
A striking and just sentence.
I would now give a few instances of what I mean.
From Psalm 8 we learn of three conditions attaching to “the Son of man” in His wondrous, blessed history— humiliation, coronation, and dominion. These conditions are commented upon in Heb. 2 and each of them given a deep and extended sense.
The humiliation of “the Son of Man” is declared to be for “the suffering of death,” so that, in the grace of God, sinners might be reconciled, and the creation itself brought back to God as a ransomed, redeemed thing. The coronation of this same Son of Man” is what the Apostle says we now see. His dominion over the works of God’s hand is what, he further tells us, we wait to see.
This commentary in the new Testament sets off the word of the old Testament in fresh and bright and marvelous fullness. The intimations of the old were faint indeed giving us only the three conditions themselves in their simple nakedness—the divine purposes in these conditions are disclosed in the new scriptures.
This same Psalm is taken up also in 1 Corinthians 15. The Psalm had told us, that all things were to be put under the foot of the Son of man, such as the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea. But 1 Cor. 15 tells us, that among the “all things” thus to be put in subjection, is “death” itself, as well as “all rule, and all authority and power.” And there was a great beauty and fitness in introducing “death” among the “all things” which were to be put in subjection to the Son of man, because the whole chapter was upon the resurrection; and the resurrection is the Lord’s victory over death, a victory which He achieved when He rose Himself, and which He will share with His saints in the day of their resurrection.
And further. This same chapter, 1 Cor. 15 also tells us that this state of universal lordship in the hand of Christ will be given up in due season, and that God will be then “all in all.” This was another of the “new things.” Of this mystery, this secret in the storehouse of divine counsels, we knew nothing till apostles had taken up, in their day, the wondrous tale which prophets had begun to tell us.
Thus, without annulling a single jot or tittle of the word, we get a rich influx of light. Apostles, like scribes instructed in the kingdom of heaven, bring in the new things to shine with the old. They fill out what had been left as sketches in outline.
But I will make one further inquiry, upon the ground of these two scriptures, Psalm 8 and 1 Cor. 15 The prophet in the Psalm tells us that, while the Son of man exercises His dominion on the earth, the Lord Himself has set His glory above the heavens. I ask, on the authority of what the Apostle in the Epistle tells us, will not the risen saints, who are to be translated and glorified with Christ and like Christ, form part of that glory which is thus set above the heavens, when it is displayed in the day of the power of the Son of man? I only, however, ask this.
But to pass on to one further passage.
In Psalm 110 we see the Lord seated on high at the right hand of Jehovah, under promise that His enemies shall be made His footstool. The New Testament abundantly confirms this, not disturbing it in the least. (See Matt. 22; Acts 2; Heb. 10)
Glorious enlargement of the mind, this is, as we by faith look up to the place of the ascended Jesus! Faith apprehends and realizes these things. We may therefore have to say, faith is but a feeble thing in our souls. Let us own this, and be humbled; but still let us say, faith realizes truths as well as apprehends them. As we read of the Patriarchs, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them.”
I allude to this in the midst of these thoughts on these scriptures, that our souls may be kept lowly, in the sense of the blessed way in which faith deals with these great things. It embraces them as well as apprehends them.
And truly the things of scripture are great things. For to return for another moment to what we are meditating on, the conditions of our ascended Lord, we may suggest this further; that whether the words, “till I make thine enemies thy footstool,” imply destruction or submission, whether they intend that the Lord’s enemies shall perish in the brightness of the day of His judgments, or be brought into willing subjection in the blessedness of the day of His glory, whichever of those things they may purpose to convey to us, or if they would convey both, still the risen glorified saints are to be with Him. For scripture teaches us, that they are to be with Him, both in the act of judgment or destruction, (Rev. 11:27; 19:14,) and also in the place of government, when the millennial earth is to own His scepter and lordship. (Matt. 19:2828And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28), &c, &c.)
Here again is enlargement. His saints are to be with the Lord, in the day whether of His judgments or His dominion; and for such ends they have surely passed through the moment contemplated in 1 Cor. 15:5151Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (1 Corinthians 15:51), and in 1 Thess. 4:1717Then 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 4:17). They have surely risen, and met Him in the air. Does not this, therefore, teach us, that the eyes of the saints are to be out towards that moment? Can either of these great prophetic actions, judgment or government, the exercise of the sword or of the scepter, the act of cleansing the kingdom of offenses, or of ordering the kingdom in righteousness, be accomplished by Him, till His saints are with Him? The wondrous, brighter light of New Testament revelations, shining full upon such a word as this in the Old Testament prophecies, “till I make thine enemies thy footstool,” warrants our putting these questions, and encourages us, beloved, to take up that beautiful Thessalonian attitude, “Waiting for the Son from heaven.” Ο for power to do so, unhindered by the spirit of this world!
“Ο blessed hour! when all the earth Its rightful Heir shall yet receive; When every tongue shall own His worth, And all creation cease to grieve.”