1
Collected
Writings of J.N.
Darby
Expository 2
By John Nelson Darby
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Contents
A Few Words on Elijah: 1 Kings 17-20 ..........................6
Brief oughts on 1 Chronicles .....................................12
Notes on 1 Chronicles 13-17 ........................................18
Notes on 2 Chronicles 18-20 ........................................24
e Work of the House of God and the Workmen
erein: Ezra 3 .....................................................29
On the Book of Job, Especially Chapter 9 ..................... 34
How the Lord Accepted Job: Job 42 .............................45
Heads of Psalms ............................................................49
e Psalms .....................................................................69
Psalm 4 ..........................................................................99
Psalm 8 ........................................................................103
Christ’s Association of Himself With His People on
Earth: Psalm 16 ..................................................106
oughts on Psalm 16 .................................................115
Psalm 25 ......................................................................120
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Psalm 40 ......................................................................126
Psalm 42-72.................................................................134
Psalm 63 ......................................................................148
On the Psalms, Especially 110: Psalms 90-102 ...........151
Psalm 72 ......................................................................160
Psalm 84 ......................................................................169
oughts on Psalms 91 and 102 ..................................173
Psalm 93 ......................................................................178
God’s Comforts the Stay of the Soul: Psalm 94 ..........186
Practical Reections on the Proverbs...........................191
Song of Solomon .........................................................215
General Remarks on the Prophetic Word: Isaiah; Minor
Prophets; Matt. 24; 2 ess. 2 ............................. 223
oughts on Isaiah the Prophet...................................230
Remarks on the Prophetic Word: Jeremiah - Malachi .328
Notes on the Gospel of Matthew ................................341
oughts on the Revelation .........................................430
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A Few Words on Elijah: 1
Kings 17-20
1 Kings 17-20.
THESE chapters set before us several important
principles; and we see there pointed out several very
dierent characters; we learn in them also the ways of God.
Ahab and Jezebel appear on the scene; Elijah prophesies;
Obadiah is seen and the seven thousand men of God
mentioned in chapter 19: 18.
e character of Ahab is presented to us in chapter
16: 2933. Ahab, Jezebel, and the four hundred and fty
prophets were at the head of the apostates of Israel, who
at that time worshipped Baal. And Obadiah and the seven
thousand were mixed up with the people (chap. 18); not
that they served the idol, but they were friends of Ahab. As
for Elijah, he was the friend of God, and, separated entirely
from the apostasy, he was the only witness of the truth in
the midst of all the evil.
Let us distinguish then these three dierent classes of
persons: Ahab and Israel, apostates on one side; Elijah, on
the other, the faithful servant of God; and again, somewhat
dierent, Obadiah and the seven thousand connected
always with the evil. Now let us examine the dierent
characters of these persons.
What were the circumstances of Elijah? is feeble and
poor man had no force and strength save what he found in
the Lord, his only support (chap. 17: 1-9). He was a man
of faith and prayer; and, keeping before the Lord, he could
A Few Words on Elijah: 1 Kings 17-20
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boldly testify against the apostasy of Israel and announce
the judgments of God.
It is said to him (chap. 17: 3), “ Get thee hence and turn
thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that
is before Jordan “; then in verse 5 we read that he obeyed
this command. We see already then that Elijah had no
power, but had faith in God and knew that all blessing is
in obedience. Also from the moment that the word was
addressed to him, he submitted to it and went to the brook
Cherith where he learned to depend on God.
Ahab and all Israel were the enemies of Elijah (chap. 18:
to); but God was his friend, and in each step that he took
in delity to the Lord he learned the delity of the Lord
to him. By this means he was more and more strengthened
for the mission on which he was about to be employed
(chap. 18: x). God sent him to be with a poor widow who
entermined him during the famine, after he was fed by the
ravens at Cherith. During all the time that he was cared for
by the ravens at the brook, and by the widow at Sarepta, he
learned to know the riches of the love and grace of God.
It is there precisely that we learn to know ourselves also in
all the circumstances in which we are placed by the Lord.
We see then in chapter 17 the simple and entire
obedience of Elijah. Whether the Lord sent him to a brook
to be fed by ravens; whether he was sent to a widow during
the famine; whether he was sent before his real enemy
Ahab (chap. 18), he made no objection, but counting
on the Lord he did that which he was ordered. He was
nevertheless a man subject to the same passions and to the
same inrmities as ourselves (James 5:17, 18); but he had
much of that faith the power of which is innite. By it he
could say that there should be no rain, and there was none;
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by it he could raise the son of the widow, and overcome
Ahab the king and the four hundred and fty prophets of
Baal. ese circumstances show us clearly that Elijah was in
the place where one is blessed, namely, in that of obedience.
Men were his enemies; Ahab had sent everywhere persons
to nd him out: but the Lord was his refuge, and he had
learned to trust in Him.
Let us examine now what concerns Obadiah (chap.
18: 3, etc.). He feared the Lord greatly, but, spite of this,
he was in the service of Ahab’s house and did not bear
testimony against its evil. He did not suer the reproach
of Christ. He was not like Elijah, pursued and chased
from country to country. He did not know what it was to
be fed by the ravens or the widow; that is to say, he lived
little by faith, and knew little of the ways of God. He lived
at his ease in the world. Ahab was his lord. But who was
Elijah’s? Jehovah. Compare chap. 18: to and 15. O what
a dierence! Obadiah knew the good things of the earth;
Elijah, the good things of heaven.
Let us read now verses 7-11. All the thoughts of
Obadiah were about his master, whom he dreaded; but all
the thoughts of Elijah were centered on the Lord, his only
Master. e superiority of his position to that of Obadiah
is further indicated by this circumstance, that the latter fell
on his face before Elijah when he met him (v. 7). And when
Elijah tells him to go and announce to Ahab, Obadiah is all
frightened. Yet Obadiah was a child of God; he had even
hid the prophets; but he had no strength whatever to bear
testimony to the Lord, because he was associated with evil.
As to Elijah, he could say fearlessly to Ahab and to all the
people, “ If the Lord be God, follow him,” v. 21. Whence
did, therefore, this boldness and power come, as seen in
A Few Words on Elijah: 1 Kings 17-20
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Elijah, a poor and weak man, who had been straitened
to this point, that he depended upon ravens and upon a
widow for his food? From the fact that he stood aloof from
the apostasy, that he lived by faith and had a single eye
xed upon his God. O how far better his position was than
that of Obadiah!
ere is in these things an application for us to make to
ourselves. Let us gather from them this lesson, that since
the Lord is God, it is He whom we must serve, and that, in
order to be faithful to Him, we have to separate ourselves
from all the principles of the apostasy by which we are
surrounded.
We know how Elijah triumphed over his enemies: there
is therefore no need of repeating the issue of the scene on
Carmel. But let us observe that, when Elijah prayed the
Lord that He might give him the victory, what he asked
was, that it might be known that the Lord was God (v. 37).
All the desire of his heart consisted in these two things,
that the Lord might be gloried, and that His people
might know Him. ere was not in him the least desire to
lift himself up, to exalt himself; it mattered not to him if
he was nothing, provided that God might be gloried and
His people brought to know Him. O that the same desire
may be in us, and that all thought of vainglory may be cast
far, far away!
Let us now read chapter 19. Poor Elijah! he had a lesson
to learn, which we ourselves, weak and poor as we are, need
to learn also. When Elijah stood before the Lord, he could
by the Lord’s power stop or send rain to the earth, raise up
the widow’s son, etc. But when he stood, not now before
the Lord, but before Jezebel, he was then without strength,
and this ungodly woman was able to cause him to fear.
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Downcast, Elijah therefore goes into the wilderness, sits
down under a juniper-tree and asks the Lord to take away
his life (v. 4). How dierent he is here from what he was in
the chapter before! How little did he remember what the
Lord had done for him; how little did he enter into the
mind of God, and expect that chariot of re which would
shortly take him up to heaven! (2 Kings 2: I).
So is it with us. We are downcast, discouraged and weak
in ourselves as soon as we fail to live in faith and prayer,
and then we cannot say, as Elijah in chapter 18, “ e Lord
before whom I stand.”
In chapter 17 Elijah by faith could make the widow’s oil
and meal last; but here he is weak, and needs that an angel
come to strengthen him and give him some food. (Read
chap. 19: 5-8.) He eats, drinks, and like a man without
strength lies down. But the Lord sends the angel back
again, for He is plentiful in grace and mercy; He watches
over all our ways and feeds our souls according to all our
wants and according to all our circumstances. e Lord
therefore bore with Elijah and succored him, and it is also
what He is with respect to us. As He was aicted in all
the aiction of His people (Isa. 63:9), so is He with us in
ours now.
In chapter 17 God was leading Elijah and telling him
where to go, and Elijah obeyed. But in chapter 19 Elijah,
fearing Jezebel, ees away and does not wait for the Lord’s
commandment to go into the wilderness. See therefore
what a sad message is sent to him, as recorded in verse 13, “
What doest thou here, Elijah? “ In verses 11 and 12 we read
that a wind, an earthquake, and a re are sent; but Elijah
did not nd. the Lord in these things, and they could not
bring comfort nor strength to his soul. God was appearing
A Few Words on Elijah: 1 Kings 17-20
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in His grandeur and power; but what Elijah needed was
the still small voice, what he wanted was the manifestation
of grace and communion with his God. When, therefore,
Elijah had heard the still small voice, he wrapped his face
in his mantle and stood ready to obey the Lord. By the
power and strength that he had found in this voice he was
once again enabled to obey the commandment of the Lord.
What we have said on these chapters is very incomplete;
but we believe that the chief thing is to bring out of them
the principles calculated to give the intelligence of what the
chapters contain. Let us therefore be mindful of avoiding
the position of Obadiah and the seven thousand, who were
taking their ease in the midst of apostasy, but who were
without strength to bear testimony against evil. Let us also
remember that, though Elijah was despised and rejected of
men, he was nevertheless in the place of blessing. And if
like himself we are brought to realize our weakness, let us
remember that communion with the Lord can alone give
us afresh zeal and devotedness and joy.
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Brief oughts on 1
Chronicles
CHAPTERS 11-17
THERE is a great dierence between the David of
Chronicles and that of Samuel. e king in 1 Chronicles is
the David of grace and blessing according to the counsels of
God. e king in Samuel is the historical David exercised
in responsibility.
In Chronicles we do not nd the matter of Uriah nor
that of Absalom. Even Joab with all his crimes, who is not
cited in 2 Sam. 23, is here mentioned because he took the
stronghold of Zion. is makes us understand what value
Zion has in the eyes of God, and in what way the Chronicles
regard the history. ere is absolutely no evil reported, save
that which is necessary to make us understand the history.
In the book of Kings it is the history of Israel and the
conduct of the kings under responsibility. In the books of
Chronicles it is a question of God’s mind, and in chapters
11 to 17 of the rst book as to placing David in Jerusalem,
chapter to having given us the fall of Saul.
CHAPTER 11.
David begins to reign over all Israel with the desires
of the people; he begins at Zion. Afterward we have his
valiant men, and their joy at installing him as king.
CHAPTER 12.
Here we see the heart of Israel returning to David, as
it will return to Christ when He shall have established the
throne in Zion. It is the heart of Israel which concentrates
Brief oughts on 1 Chronicles
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itself round the Beloved of God. Certain persons came
when he was a stranger; now it is all Israel.
CHAPTER 13.
en it is a question of putting the ark of God in its
place. Before this the ark had been taken. (See Psa. 78:59-
72.) It is sovereign grace which returns. He chose the tribe
of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.
1st. God was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel, so that
He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, and delivered His
strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s
hand.
2nd. With David God takes up His people and
sanctuary. David re-commences all the history of Israel.
en, if Psa. 132 be looked at, this feature will be seen
as to the ark: it was the sign of the covenant nally, and a
new thing to be set in Zion. When Moses in Numbers to
said, “ Rise up, LORD,” he did not add “ into thy rest.” e
tabernacle in the wilderness could not be the rest of God.
But Zion is the place that Jehovah chose for His rest. He
desired it for His habitation (v. 13). And David enters into
the mind of God. Compare verse 4. (“ I will not give sleep
to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until,” etc.) We
see in the Psalms generally all the deep feelings in the heart
of David for God. On the other hand God makes Himself
respected, as we see in His dealing with Uzza.
We have thus as a summary of all this: rst, that
God had rejected His tabernacle, Shiloh; and, secondly,
that meanwhile He gives prophets to sustain sovereign
relations with His people till Messiah comes. Samuel had
truly begun prophecy, which is not anything established,
but only serves meanwhile. See the song of Hannah who
gures the remnant there. Prophecy declares that God is
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all, come what may, and that He sustains all things till
He have raised the house of His anointed. irdly, at last
in His anointed He accomplishes His mind e people
no more wished to have God working by prophecy than
when He wrought by priesthood. ey demand a king, and
God gives Saul. Meanwhile God prepares His anointed by
aiction. Heb. 2 is just the counterpart of David’s history.
So, too, Jesus will reign over Judah before reigning over
all Israel. In the Chronicles we have no history of David’s
reign in Hebron.
CHAPTER 14.
David king over all Israel renders himself terrible to
the nations (v. 17), as the Lord will in due time (Zech. 9;
Mic. 5). Victory follows dependence and obedience; and as
the blessing of Jehovah comes, the fame of David goes out
everywhere. Psa. 18 nds its place here: in taking it all, one
must place it a little later.
CHAPTER 15.
David now has no rest till he has prepared a resting-
place for the ark of Jehovah; even as the Lord also, in the
midst of conicts, will have no rest till He establishes the
tie between God and His people.
Knowing that the tabernacle was abandoned, David did
not dream of putting the ark in the tabernacle. is would
have been to restore things on the spoiled footing of the
law. e external routine had quite fallen short of God’s
glory. e king takes the lead, as priesthood had failed; and
the ark is put in the seat of kingly power; as Christ the
deliverer in grace will order all by-and-by in Zion, whence
the rod of His power is to go forth.
en (v. 16) David institutes choral worship or
psalmody: Heman, Asaph, and even David himself in an
Brief oughts on 1 Chronicles
15
ephod of linen danced and played. It was he that recalled
the due place of the Levites, and summoned the priests in
their due order, who also had the singers appointed with
instruments of music, psalteries, and harps, and cymbals
sounding by lifting up the voice with joy. All is new here
and in relation to David’s mind touching Zion, the center
chosen, after having left aside the tabernacle at Gibeon
and all the order established primitively by Moses. “ So
David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over
thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of
Jehovah out of the house of Obed-edom with joy. And it
came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the
ark of the covenant of Jehovah, that they oered seven
bullocks and seven rams. And David was clothed with a
robe of ne linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark, and
the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song with the
singers: David also had upon him an ephod of linen. us
all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah
with shouting, and with the sound of the cornet and with
trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries
and harps. And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant
of Jehovah came to the city of David, that Michal the
daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David
dancing and playing; and she despised him in her heart,”
v. 25-29. Nevertheless David was not king and priest like
Solomon, though it be true that his faith made all the joy
of the people of God. It is a sort of anticipation of the true
Melchizedek.
CHAPTER 16.
is song is composed of several Psalms. We nd here
all the principles on which God founds the blessing of His
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people for the last day. But there is a remarkable dierence-
that
He does not put them in the denitive blessing. ere
is, to begin, a part of Psalm 105. He shows how He kept
Abraham. He recalls the faithfulness of God toward them
until then and bids them recollect it. Only He bids Israel
be mindful always of His covenant without saying yet that
He remembers it, because it is not yet the full blessing.
From verse 23 we have Psa. 96 It is always an invitation.
It is not yet Psa. 98 where all is accomplished. e temple
is wanting. From verse 34 we have the beginning of the
Psalms which celebrate the faithfulness of God, 106, 107,
118, and 136. Psalm 106 is His goodness, faithful forever,
in presence of all the unfaithfulness of Israel. Psa. 107 is
that which He has done to gather at the last day. Psa. 98 is
the celebration of the Messiah come back. It is the psalm
in which it is said that the stone rejected by the builders is
become the head of the corner. Psa. 136 is the celebration of
God’s goodness which begins from the creation, and goes
through to the millennium. In this psalm mercy occupies
the place from one end to the other. After this (in verses
35, 36) he cites still the end of Psalm 106. One sees by
verse 35 that at this moment, as in Psalm 106, all Israel is
not yet brought back and everything not yet restored. Only
the pledge of the covenant is there. All the scene of the
re-commencement of the relations of God with Israel is
found in the Chronicles.
In verses 39-43 the altar was still with the tabernacle
at Gibeon. It was a high place which one had to condemn
in following David who had the fresh truth. Faith did so,
though Solomon did not, but clung to the altar. However,
David with the priests to oer burnt-oerings established
Brief oughts on 1 Chronicles
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Heman and Jeduthun, etc., to give thanks to Jehovah
because His mercy endures forever. It is thus that one can
judge what is old system in the church; though we can
also say, His mercy endures forever. e altar there was a
testimony to the fallen state of the people, for the ark was
not in the tabernacle.
It is touching to see that the Chronicles were written
in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. At that time it was
less necessary to tell all the sins of the people than to say,
His mercy endures forever. A basis is laid for all in Christ’s
death, and by His resurrection all are sure mercies to be
displayed at His coming and kingdom.
CHAPTER 17.
Here the condition laid upon the seed of David is not
found as in 2 Sam. 7 God did not allow David to build the
temple; because, when He would glorify Himself in the
midst of the people, it was necessary that it should be in
peace and that there be no more enemies. e warrior was
the character of David, though at that moment there was
rest all around. Because of that David could not build the
house of Jehovah. Nevertheless as depositary of promises
he learns that Jehovah will build him a house (v. x o), and
that his son should build Jehovah a house, as He would
establish David’s house for evermore (v. 12-14). How
touching is the prayer of David on this occasion! (v. 16-27).
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Notes on 1 Chronicles 13-17
GOD is graciously pleased to reveal Himself in
dierent ways and at dierent times. He formerly made
Himself known by prophets, but in these last times He
has manifested Himself in His Son; and in whatever way
He has chosen to reveal Himself, He has been rejected in
them all.
For instance, the ark was the sign of the presence of
Jehovah in the midst of His people. Well, the ark was
abandoned (1 Sam. 7:2); just as to-day the Holy Spirit,
by which God is in the midst of His people, is despised.
God was then present by the ark as He is to-day by the
Holy Ghost, and as He was rejected by the abandonment
of the ark, He is rejected to-day in as far as the Spirit is not
honored.
But although the people might thus have forgotten and
despised Jehovah, David could have no joy nor rest until
the ark was brought back, and the presence of the Lord
recognized. He knew that peace and blessing are only to be
had where God is, and longed ardently for His presence.
We have the cry of David’s soul in Psa. 63 “ And let us
bring again the ark of our God to us; for we inquired not at
it in the days of Saul,” 1 Chron. 13:3.
e king’s great occupation was to seek how he could
accomplish that which he had in his heart; and we see in
verses 1 and 4 that he consulted all the people, and that they
agreed to his proposal. But although it was a holy desire
in David and in Israel for the return of the ark, it ought
only to have been accomplished according to the will of
Notes on 1 Chronicles 13-17
19
God, who alone could teach them how they ought to set
about it in order that His name might be gloried. But
David’s having consulted the people, instead of consulting
the Lord, caused the ark of God to be brought upon a new
cart from the house of Abinadab, “ and Uzza and Ahio
drave the cart,” v. 7.
All this was bad, for it was against the commandment
of the Lord, and God could neither recognize nor bless
this act. He had said that the ark ought to be borne by the
children of Kohath, that is to say, by the Levites (Num.
4:15); and if David had consulted the Lord, he would
have been taught about this, and the ark would have been
neither placed on a cart nor conducted by Uzza and Ahio.
But David took counsel with the people and they executed
their holy desire according to their own thoughts, and not
according to God’s. Uzza acted also on the same principle;
he was not led by the Lord to hold the ark, but by his
own judgment. He was not a man who felt his weakness
and who allowed himself to be ruled and guided by the
Lord; and consequently he put forth his hand and touched
the ark. us every child of God who puts his hand to the
Lord’s work, presuming that he is able to act in his own
strength, resembles Uzza. It is God alone who is to be
gloried, and it is He alone who can say how He wishes to
be gloried; and if David had inquired of Him, he would
have learned that God would glorify Himself.
We see in verse to what were the sad consequences of
Uzza’s conduct, and in verse I 1 we see that David was
greatly aicted at the breach the Lord made upon Uzza;
but it was needful for him in this way to learn, that we have
to wait and let the Lord do His work in His own way. May
we also keep this instruction, of which we all have need,
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and not act in our own strength! Let us remember that
Uzza drew upon himself the wrath of God by putting his
hand to the ark. All the work was spoiled by his folly: the
ark instead of being brought in triumph was put aside and
placed in the house of Obed-edom; and all this because
in the rst place David had not consulted the Lord, and
secondly Uzza acted himself instead of letting the Lord
act. ese circumstances were calculated to humble David
greatly: he was rst aicted, then afraid of God (v. 11, 12);
but all that happened taught him wherein he had failed.
us we see in the following chapter (14) that he acted
very dierently. e Philistines having spread themselves
in the valley of Rephaim (v. 9), did David assemble all his
army and prepare immediately for battle? No, he consulted
God, saying, Shall I show myself against the Philistines,
and wilt thou deliver them into my hand? “ Now it is no
more the people that David consults, it is the Lord • thus
the consequence is very dierent from that of the rst
circumstance. In chapter 13: 11 the breach is made in the
midst of David’s people; but here it is made in the midst of
his enemies, for God acts for him (chap. 14: 11).
We may be very zealous for the glory of God; but the
greater our zeal is, the more harm it will do if it is not
according to knowledge; we shall spoil everything, like
David in chapter 13, if we do not understand our incapacity
and dependence; and we can only acquire the knowledge
that we need, in order that our zeal be not destructive, by
consulting the Lord.
A remarkable thing is, that trials and chastisement are
always needed to bring us back to God’s order: it was in
the midst of much aiction that David learned God’s
intention, and these aictions served to make the lesson he
Notes on 1 Chronicles 13-17
21
had received penetrate deeply into his soul. In chapter 14:
13, 14, we see that, the Philistines having again returned,
David again consults the Lord. is time the Lord does
not tell David to go up to the Philistines and that he will
have the victory, for God wished to prove him still more.
God told him not to go up to his enemies, but to wait for
a noise in the tops of the mulberry trees. What had the
mulberry-trees to do with the battle? Nothing, but God
wanted to be recognized: this was the lesson that David
further learned. He obeyed the Lord; and we see the
consequence was, that the Lord was gloried and David’s
reputation spread abroad. David having owned the Lord,
the Lord could everywhere own David.
What magnicent instruction is found in these
chapters? May we keep it and be led by it every day in
order that God may be gloried in us. Let us remember to
leave God to do His own work, and if He wish to use us
for something, what we have to do is to consult Him about
it, and not so-and-so. us, instead of putting obstacles in
the way of His work, we shall be blessed in that which He
will do through us.
In chapter 15: 2 David says, “ None ought to carry the
ark of the Lord but the Levites.” He remembers his fall,
and the lesson is learned; he applies himself now to act
according to God’s intention. us we see, the work of
man no longer spoils that of God, and God is gloried,
the people are joyful, the ark of the Lord has again taken
its place in their midst, and the blessing is so great that the
psalms which they sing are those which will be sung in the
millennium, when the Lord will return to Israel (v. 25-29).
In chapter 16: 8-22 they sing Psalm 105 and from verses
23 to 33 they sing Psa. 96 How dierent are the results
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which we nd in chapter 13, where David acts by himself
without consulting the Lord, and he and all his people are
plunged into aiction! But, here, where it is God who acts,
the blessing is so great that David and all his people call on
the heavens and earth to rejoice at it.
In chapter 17 we again see a holy desire in David: he
wished to build a house for the ark, but was this the will of
God? Nathan told David to do all that was in his heart (v.
2). Ah, Nathan had not learned the lesson, for he answered
without learning from Jehovah His intention, and in the
same night God charged him to go and tell David, “ ou
shalt not build me an house to dwell in.” David wished
to give something to Jehovah, but Jehovah was going to
give to him. David wanted to build a house for Jehovah,
but Jehovah was going to build one for David (v. 10). “
For it is more blessed to give than to receive,” Acts 20:35,
and giving is God’s part. is is another lesson that David
learned. e Lord does not need us to bless Him, but He is
pleased to bless us: what He asks of us is to sit at Jesus’ feet
and receive the abundant grace He bestows on us. From
verse 16 to 21 one sees that David has understood this
lesson; his thoughts are no more, as at the beginning of
the chapter, occupied with the construction of a house, but
with God Himself (v. 20); and he is humble and grateful
before Jehovah. All that he says in these verses shows that
he has learned of God; he thinks no more of himself, nor
his zeal, nor his projects, he has forgotten all that is of
himself in thinking of Jehovah. Oh let us imitate David
in this! May our thoughts center in God and we shall no
longer be occupied with ourselves, nor with what we wish
to do (v. 5, 6-8).
Notes on 1 Chronicles 13-17
23
Let us remark another very touching truth in these
verses. So long as Jehovah’s people crossed the desert and
had enemies to ght, Jehovah had no resting-place on the
earth, and journeyed in the tabernacle with His people, “
In all their aiction he was aicted,” Isa. 63:9. And it was
only when His people could rest that God allowed them to
build Him a house wherein He might rest.
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63066
Notes on 2 Chronicles 18-20
WE have seen in 1 Kings 17; 18, that Ahab and Jezebel
worshipped the idol Baal, and now we read the judgments
of God on Ahab and apostate Israel.
It is necessary for us to know the circumstances
mentioned in this chapter, as they are of grave importance.
Let us consider in it especially the characters of Jehoshaphat
and Micaiah. is last was separated from Ahab and
apostate Israel; he entered into God’s thoughts and was
declaring to Ahab and Israel the judgments which were
ready to come upon them. Read verses 16-23. In verse 26
we see the consequences of his delity: Ahab and Israel
are his enemies, and he is put into the place of aiction.
Jehoshaphat’s circumstances were very dierent; he was a
child of God as well as Micaiah, but he was rich and great,
and had made alliance with one of God’s enemies-with
Ahab. Ahab knew him to be a child of God, and, in order
to tranquillize his conscience, caused sheep and oxen to be
killed for him in abundance. It mattered not to Ahab what
he did if he succeeded in persuading Jehoshaphat to go
with him to Ramoth-Gilead. But Jehoshaphat’s conscience
was not satised by the sacrice of all these sheep and
oxen; and he said to the king of Israel, “ Inquire, I pray thee
at the word of Jehovah to-day.” Ahab then assembled the
four hundred and fty prophets who cried, “ Peace, peace,”
although God’s judgment was ready to break over him and
apostate Israel; but the words of these false prophets did
not satisfy Jehoshaphat’s conscience any more than the
sacrices. us it is ever so when the child of God is found
Notes on 2 Chronicles 18-20
25
in the midst of evil of any kind: although four hundred and
fty prophets and the whole world would seek to satisfy
his conscience, they could not attain this end. See what is
said of false prophets in Ezek. 13:1-16.
But the king of Israel was satised with what the lying
prophets said; and, as God punished Pharaoh by giving
him up to a delusion, He did the same to Ahab. And the
same thing will happen to many others at the end of this
dispensation; men will preach “ peace, peace,” and judgment
will break forth upon them (Rev. 16:14; 2 ess. 2:7-13).
Here is a solemn truth. is is why we ought rst to be
very grateful because the Lord has revealed Himself to us;
then we ought to take care not to become like Jehoshaphat
who “ joined anity with Ahab.” How good the Lord was
to put it into the king of Judah’s heart to seek counsel of a
prophet of Jehovah! It was a means by which he might have
been instructed about the judgments which were going to
happen, and have been able to warn his people. But alliance
with evil blinds to such a degree, that Jehoshaphat did not
discern that Micaiah was a true prophet of Jehovah; and
he did not believe his word, but went in spite of it all up to
the battle in which Ahab was to meet with the judgment
of God. O may we be separated from evil in order to be
capable of judging all things and to hold fast that which
is truth!
We have also to remark Micaiah’s faithfulness: although
he was engaged by the messenger to speak the same words
as the false prophets, he replied, “ What my God saith, that
will I speak,” v. 12, 13. Micaiah told Ahab that he should
be killed in the battle; but the latter, thinking to escape by
his own prudence, disguised himself, and told Jehoshaphat
to wear his robes (v. 27-30). O what a magnicent proof
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26
we have of the love of God in these verses! Jehoshaphat is
surrounded by the Syrians on all sides, but he was a child
of God; and although he had joined with Ahab, nothing
could separate him from the Lord whose faithfulness to
His own endures notwithstanding their unfaithfulness.
Jehoshaphat cried to the Lord who became his protector;
and although, humanly speaking, it seemed all over with
him, nevertheless his enemies were not allowed to touch
him.
But as surely as the child of God will be preserved by
the love of his Father, so sure is it that the judgment of God
will fall on those who reject His mercy. We see this in a
remarkable manner in this chapter. Ahab, notwithstanding
his precautions, could not escape; he might have disguised
himself from the Syrians, but he was not able to hide
himself from God (v. 33). us it is with poor sinners: even
if they should succeed in not being seen by man, the eye of
God will nd them. May the Lord make this example of
use to us!
It is well to consider how much more advantageous
Micaiah’s position was than that of Jehoshaphat. It is true he
was aicted and persecuted by Ahab and the false prophets,
but he was not like Jehoshaphat to be found in the midst
of God’s judgments. e latter was as ignorant as Ahab of
what was going to take place; be it that even Micaiah had
announced it to them, and that these judgments were, as it
were, suspended over their heads, yet Jehoshaphat did not
expect them. And why? For he was a child of God as well
as Micaiah. Had he not the Lord’s thought and a clear view
of His intention? It was because he had joined himself to
God’s enemies and that his aections were with the things
of the world, whilst Micaiah had separated himself to the
Notes on 2 Chronicles 18-20
27
service of God. O how ashamed Jehoshaphat ought to
have been, to be thus found amongst the Lord’s enemies!
and how grateful he ought to have been for the gracious
help which he so little merited!
We see in chapter 19: 2, that, although Jehoshaphat
had been delivered by the compassion and love of God,
he was spoken to in words of reproach, after which the
Lord encouraged him by adding, “ Nevertheless there are
good things found in thee “; which shows us, that if God
disapprove that which is evil, He owns the good which
He has put into His own people. In Jude’s Epistle, which
speaks of the apostasy of the present dispensation, we see
at verse 23 something similar to that which happened to
Jehoshaphat. Like Lot, he was saved so as by re.
All these circumstances in Jehoshaphat’s life were
calculated to humble him deeply and teach him the
incomprehensible fullness of God’s mercy. He ought to
have drawn from these experiences deep instruction both
about God and himself. Let us read in 2 Chron. 20:2-13
what were the fruits of these instructions. Jehoshaphat is
here very dierent; he is not now in anity with Ahab,
he is depending on God alone in whom is his strength
and his joy. “ Our eyes are on thee,” he says to Jehovah.
Will Micaiah be now separated from him as he was in
the preceding chapter? Let us read from verse s to 18 of
chapter 20. In the preceding chapter Jehoshaphat is found
in the ranks of God’s enemies, and he is only saved by the
intervention of Jehovah; but here we see him dependent
upon God and blessed, not afraid, and knowing that
Jehovah is with him. He goes to the battle, and God orders
it all in such a way that he has no anxiety (v. 17). What a
precious lesson he had received in all this! And should we
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28
not be disposed to think that from this time forth he would
keep near to God and in separation from His enemies? He
had learned by experience the grief there is in sin, and it
seems impossible that he should fall again into the same
fault which had brought him into such trouble; but we see
in verses 35-38 that it was not so.
e lesson which we may take from the second fall of
Jehoshaphat is that, although we may have been punished,
we fall again into the very same sins if we do not keep in
communion with the Lord.
e Work of the House of God and the Workmen erein: Ezra 3
29
63070
e Work of the House of
God and the Workmen
erein: Ezra 3
e books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah
hang together. In Ezra, we get the temple built and
worship restored; in Nehemiah, the restoration of the city;
Haggai opens out the secret of the hindrances to the work
• in Zechariah we have truth presented by which God
strengthened the hearts of the remnant.
Truth meets persons in our days in external things; it
is common to see Christians opening the scriptures and
being struck with the fact of how unlike the things there
presented are to what they see around them. Man would
set to work to put things in order. God’s remedy is to meet
practical departure in oneself, to begin with self. We have
“ the word of the Lord,”
1
are we bringing our consciences
to it-not asking for increase of light, increase of power,
but more honest, holy obedience to what we know, just
doing that, in all our weakness, which God teaches us to
be right?! read Phil. 2:13, “ It is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure “; if I am waiting
for more power, before I work out that which it is His will
I should do, I am denying that He is working in me to
accomplish it by His power-to will and to do.
1 ere was a moral appeal to conscience in the Jew-” you know
what Moses says, and, you have departed from it “-” how came
you Jews out of the land? “
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30
We are to walk, step by step, as God gives the light.
Some will say, “ Yes, when the door is opened, as it was
for the Jews-when power is put forth, as it was for the
Jews, then we will go forth, not seeing that, when the
Jews walked disobediently, God raised up enemies from
without, standing by to sanction their captivity.” e Jew
could say, “ We must be in bondage until the years of the
captivity be ended.” Not so the Christian. God has set him
free from all captivity, in Christ. If he get into bondage,
through the lust of the esh, the lust of the eye, or the pride
of life, the moment God gives him light to see where he is,
that moment the word to him is, “ Cease to do evil, learn
to do well.” e
question at the Reformation (and so now), was, “ Is the
word of God to be obeyed or not?-the Lord hath spoken,
and shall not we obey? “ It is for God to see in us obedience
to His word, so far as we know it, and more knowledge will
be given” to him that hath shall more be given.”
But, here, it is necessary for us to see that conduct
may go beyond faith. If it does, it will break down. Right
conduct on a wrong motive must fail. In Ezra 3, we have
the Jews working for God, and that from the written word;
for what Moses commanded, they observed (v. 2), and what
David did, they set themselves to do (v. 10). But they failed.
e adversaries of Judah came and stopped the work (chap.
4). Looking at the outward form, we should have said, “
Now here is obedience.” But God’s eye saw through it all.
Self complacency was there; the corrupt heart was there.
Haggai furnishes the key. e heart was unpurged. ese
adversaries, what were they? e remnant had escaped, had
got into the land, had begun to build-and why did they
not go on? God was using the adversaries of Judah, as the
e Work of the House of God and the Workmen erein: Ezra 3
31
occasion, to show the cause of their failure. Circumstances
bring out the cause of failure; but occasion and cause are
constantly confounded. e cause of failure was not in the
adversaries of Judah, but in the hearts of the people which
were set upon their own things and not upon the things
of God, upon their own ceiled houses, and not upon the
house of the Lord. And so, we nd, through the whole of
the word of God, the occasion one thing, the cause another.
at which is not done to the Lord, is not done in faith.
Have we a purpose?-Jesus had a purpose to which He
ever turned. O how little purpose of soul have we for God!
e Jews had plenty of thoughts; but, when diculties
sprang up, they had no purpose. God, therefore, had to
teach them purpose, to teach them whether it was His
energy, or their own, they were walking in, to teach them
to trust in Himself. Action, in the time of diculty, is what
God expects from us, as knowing and acting in the strength
we have in Him-to go forward in the purpose of God, as
the channels for His energy to ow in, to show that there
is strength and energy in Him, far beyond all the hindering
circumstances, which may come to try our purpose.
Divine energy will never lose its purpose for God.
Human energy will say, “ the time is not come, the time
that the LORD’S house should be built,” (Hag. 1:2), and
will be amusing itself with its vineyards and elds and
houses, squandering the time, instead of carrying on with
untiring energy, the settled purpose of the soul, amidst all
the diculties and dangers which may threaten or oppose.
In Hag. 1 nd God acting; and there, I get a lesson for
myself, for I have to do with God. I see the hypocrisy of
man, doing a right thing, but not doing it to God, doing
it from a wrong motive. Whatever is not done in faith, to
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32
God, will fail. As soon as there is confession, when the
people “ did fear before the Lord,” there is the gracious
answer, “ I am with you, saith the Lord.” us, we have
three great points brought out:-
1st. -Are we walking in what we know, up to the light
we have?
2ndly.-e course of the conduct the light brings into,
will not do for the esh to walk in, but the energy of faith
alone.
3rdly.-Whatever connection the circumstances of
providence may have with the things of God, they are not
of power in the work of God. e providence of God may
open the prison-door, lead the people out, raise up Cyrus,
Zerubbabel, etc.; but, when they want power for action, we
nd the Spirit of prophecy opening their eyes to see their
departure from God, telling them what was in their own
hearts, and then telling of the grace in God’s heart towards
them, and the glory that awaited them. (See Ezra 5:1, 2.)
By the mercy of God, the government of this country is
favorable; the quietness we enjoy, the privilege of meeting
together without fear of interruption or violence has been
the boon (under God) of the government. is, to us, is a
great responsibility. But there is nothing of real power in
service, but a “ thus saith the Lord.” ere is no power in
the oating topics of religion, it must be the truth of God
in our own souls-knowing the truth of God, as God’s truth,
and then our action, action for God. Are we searching
the word of God to nd God there? What is the value of
seeing all the scenes pointed out in scripture-things past,
or things to come-and not seeing God in them? ere are
two marks of spiritual experience in scripture. First, having
studied such a portion, have you seen God as presented in
e Work of the House of God and the Workmen erein: Ezra 3
33
those circumstances? have you met God there? If so, you
have been bowed down and humbled; and, if humbled, you
have got rest. Secondly, a spiritual reception of scripture
will ever produce corresponding action, a going forth, a
“ Here am I.” If one say, I cannot understand-when the
Spirit is teaching, He takes us to what we can understand.
Power for service is learned in the presence of God, and
there alone; for, in the presence of God, we get humbled
and rest in His grace.
Is my study of scripture a drawing out of God’s word of
what I am, and of what God is?
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63071
On the Book of Job,
Especially Chapter 9
I SUPPOSE every reader is aware of the circumstances
of this book, of the trials of Job, sent him of God for his
good, under which his faith broke down at last.
It just teaches us how good is to be got, how blessing
comes and must come, that is, in the real knowledge of
self. Men speak of God’s goodness; but their only thought
of God’s goodness is His passing over sin. Were half the
people around us put into heaven, they would get out as
fast as they could. What is in heaven is not in accordance
with them: nothing they like is there, and nothing is there
that they like. Not one of us naturally would nd a single
thing according to our mind in heaven. So that the Lord
says, “ Ye must be born again.”
e goodness of God does not pass over iniquity, but
brings us to the distinct denite knowledge of what we are
and of what we have done. Hence being good, He is above
all the evil and can bless us in Christ. Here we are walking
in a vain show, and are aware that everything around will
not last. Everybody knows that the fashion of this world
passes away, and yet people are occupied with it.
“ While we look not at the things that are seen, but at
the things which are not seen.” What is “ seen,” everybody
knows, will all go to nothing. ey must leave it any way
(1 Tim. 6); and then their whole life and objects will be
entirely done with. eir conduct they will not have done
with, unless it be put away by the blood of Christ. You think
On the Book of Job, Especially Chapter 9
35
God has given a revelation; but do we want a revelation of
this world? According to our intelligence and ability we
know the world ourselves; but when we pass beyond this
world, we want God to tell us, to bring down to us, a sure
and certain testimony of what will become of us. is He
has done. He has given a full revelation of what our state is
and what His holiness is; and He has given a sure, settled
and certain foundation for blessing so that there can be no
doubt about it.
God would not have us walking in uncertainty; for
uncertainty is misery. “ We have not received the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption whereby
we cry, Abba, Father.” Believing in Jesus we know our
relationship with God, we are “ joint-heirs with Christ.” “
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God.” God was dealing with Job;
but he had to learn himself. What makes Job so interesting
is that the book comes before all dispensations.
When I nd what I am and cannot tell what God is,
of course, I am in misery. When God is plowing up the
ground, this is not a crop. Plowing comes before harvest.
“ In all this Job sinned not.” ere was none like Job in
all the earth, but he did not know himself: a spirit of self-
righteousness had been creeping over him.
Supposing God had stopped there, what would have
come of it? Job might have said, “ In prosperity I was eyes
to the blind; in adversity I was patient “: and the whole
case would have been worse. He goes on till his friends
come, and then, perhaps from pride, or because he could
not bear their sympathy, he breaks down. e process
was a trying humbling one. “ O if I could meet God,” Job
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36
says, “ He is not like you: there is goodness in Him.” His
friends stood on utterly false ground; they took this world
as the adequate witness of the government of God. is
only makes Job the more angry: the world is no adequate
testimony of the government of God.
ere you see a soul rising under that which is upon
him, striving and wrestling, the esh breaking out so that
he should know himself. Job, having been thus wrought in
and exercised and plowed up, passes through all the various
considerations as to how he could meet God. roughout
there are certain true sayings, as “ e righteous Lord loveth
righteousness “; but are we righteous? is is another story.
Are you in a condition, if you had to do with God this
moment, to say “ I am righteous “ before Him? Many a
one looks at the cross and says “ I am a poor sinner, and I
have no hope but the cross.” But can you say, “ I am a poor
sinner, and the judgment-seat just suits me “?
When we have really known Christ as our righteousness,
there is no place where the soul is so clear and bright and
certain about the matter as for the day of judgment: we shall
be in glory then. Where the heart has not been broken up,
the soul does not understand as a present thing what it is to
be before God now. You will nd in this chapter naughty
expressions, but in the main what Job says is true. ere
was a mixture, that his wrong thoughts might be judged.
“ How should man be just with God? “ e instant the
soul is awakened, it sees with God’s eye: and this is the
only way of seeing right. When this is the case, the soul in
the light of the judgment of God says, “ I could not answer
him one of a thousand.” God is innitely good; but His
way of goodness is not that of allowing evil. Could you
On the Book of Job, Especially Chapter 9
37
answer for yourself in the day of judgment for everything
you have ever said or done?
We were all living in a vain show. I may have a character,
which God cares nothing about; but He cares about
conscience. Before the day of judgment He says “ ere
is none righteous, no, not one,” “ that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
Job goes through several of these cases; then his wrong
feeling breaks out. “ He … lleth me with bitterness.” en
he gets more right, “ If I justify myself, my own mouth shall
condemn me.” Can you justify yourself in God’s presence?
If you cannot justify yourself there, what is the good of
doing so anywhere else? You could not stand in the light
as God is in the light, and you know it. How comes it that
the thought of God makes a man melancholy? He nds
out that he is not walking with God. en, it is impossible
to go on longer in that way: we all naturally have got a
conscience of good and evil. e crust of the heart has to be
plowed up-the “ fallow ground,” as Jeremiah calls it.
en comes another case: “ If I wash myself with snow
water and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor
me.” us, if a man had been brought up in a dirty cabin, he
does not feel it to be so. us men have habits of thinking
according to men, not according to God. You will nd that
sins against man are thought a great deal of, such as murder
and robbery: suppose a man commits sins like these, he is
intolerable, not t for society; but suppose he hates God,
men say, Oh! that is his own aair.
Go through the history of all religions: do you see a
Mohammedan ashamed of his religion? Do you nd a
follower of Juggernaut ashamed of his religion? Where is
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38
it ever seen, when a man has a false religion, that he is
ashamed of it? But take a Christian, a real Christian, and
he is ashamed of it.
How comes it? What a tale it tells of the world! Man
may sing songs in the street, but hymns-that will not do.
If I talk of washing myself “ with snow water, my own
clothes shall abhor me.” is is where we are brought, all
of us. “ ere is none righteous, no, not one.” If that were
all, I could not stand here and speak to you, for we are all
the same.
You see Job could not answer God, and he is struggling
under this: what does he say he wants? “ Neither is there
any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand upon
both.” O I have got no daysman! “ Let him take his rod
away from me and let not his fear terrify me.” What Job
said he had not got is exactly what we have now in Christ.
Was Christ a terror in this world? e law was this exactly;
there were thunderings and lightnings: even Moses said, “
I exceedingly fear and quake,” and the people, “ Do not let
God speak to us.” e law struck with terror, but it produced
no real change in man, and no condence in God.
e law does not give life, it does not take away sins, nor
does it give an object for the heart. e man in Rom. 7 says,
“ I hate sin.” “ So do I,” says the law, “ and this is the reason
that I curse you.” Does this inspire condence? e law is
very useful, it brings the knowledge of sin (what Job was
getting here, not that it was law but the same principle).
ere was no peace, no rest, but it was sin brought upon
the conscience, which never gave condence.
In Cain we see utter insensibility to man’s having been
driven out of paradise, to sin, to the curse: he brought to
God the very sign of the curse. Man left God and listened
On the Book of Job, Especially Chapter 9
39
to Satan; therefore he is under judgment. People talk as
if God had made man as he is. Suppose I make a desk
and then judge that desk, what do I judge? Myself. By our
sin we turned God into a Judge instead of a Blesser. Abel
comes to God, and brings his victim, oering the fat of the
lamb. He felt, If I do not get something between me and
God, I cannot come near God.
If we look at Christ, we shall nd that He exactly
meets the need that Job felt. I cannot answer God one in a
thousand; but what do I nd in Christ? God in His person
came to me in this world because I could not do anything.
e blessed Lord did not wait up in heaven, but came to
these unrighteous people. He never said “ Come to me,”
until He had come Himself.
I see in this Daysman God showing me that He is above
all my sin. He is light to make everything manifest now;
but when He has done that in man’s heart and conscience,
He puts it all away. In the world, where men were sinners,
“ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.”
I have God that visited me, but not to hide my sins. God
came to me, to the woman in the city that was a sinner, to
Mary Magdalene. I get Him coming and talking to the
Samaritan about a fountain of water springing up unto
everlasting life. I have Him saying to the woman, “ y
sins are forgiven thee.”
It is God Himself in this world, not terrifying us, but in
perfect blessed love as Man amongst men; the holy One,
the undeled that used the undelableness of His nature
to carry the blessed love of God to us. is blessed One is
the Daysman. God has visited me just as I am; He came to
me just as I am: I know God is for me. But if He comes to
the sinner, He lets him feel his sins; “ You are so bad you
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40
have nobody you can trust; you cannot show your face to a
decent person; then come and show it to Me,” says Christ.
is is the way of God’s dealing. Will He wait for the day
of judgment?
e beginning of all sin was losing condence in God: “
He is keeping back that tree.” If I do not trust God, I must
do the best I can for myself: then follows lust, transgression,
ruin. Christ comes into the world of sinners and says, “
Now you can have condence in Me.”
How blessed it is to trace Christ’s life in this world!
He says to the woman at the well, “ If thou knewest the
gift of God! “ and He came to bring the blessing. ese
two things I get hold of: that God is giving, and who it
is that has come down so low as to be dependent on a
poor woman for a drink of water. Instead of waiting for the
day of judgment He has come down into this world to say,
“Now if you just trust Me! You cannot answer in the day of
judgment, but I am come in the day of grace.” Did you ever
see any terror in Him? Terror to the Pharisees you might
in a certain sense see; but did you ever see, when God was
in the world (Christ was God in this world), anything but
love to sinners? Never. is is what I nd in that blessed
One, divine love. Who put it into God’s heart? Did you?
Nobody but Himself; His own heart was the source of
it. I get to know God far better than I know myself; the
moment I receive the true blessed testimony of His love,
I know Him; I have my Daysman (“ I and the Father are
one “), who has come into the world of sinners just as they
were, passing through this world of sin to meet every want.
Well, He goes on. In the cross it is not God before
men in this world, but Man before God made sin. In the
perfectness of this same love He oered Himself to God:
On the Book of Job, Especially Chapter 9
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He stands before God made sin for us that He might be
dealt with according as it deserved. is was the reason He
prayed, “ If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He
did not speak this of outrages and insults from man, but
He could not take the wrath of God thus. If any of us was
to be saved, this cup must be drunk. Just as God came out
in love to us down here, so Christ has gone up as Man to
God up there.
I nd all these people that He had met in blessing
saying, “ Crucify him, crucify him “; the priests, who ought
to have pleaded for weakness, crying out against Him; the
judge condemning the innocent Man; and His friends who
had been with Him continually-one betraying, another
denying, and all deserting Him! I nd Him setting His
face as a int, bowing to His Father’s will. I nd Him, if my
faith follow Him there, drinking the cup on the cross there:
I brought Him: my sin, my wickedness, my neglect of Him
for years, brought Him there. What of my sins now? ey
are all gone. What is there like that atonement? People talk
of Him as an example, which we know He was; but if you
take Him only as an example, what do you nd? e one
righteous Man in the world declaring He was forsaken of
God at the end! What sort of testimony is that?
e moment I see Christ there, and all the darkness
around, and Him made sin for us, the work done alone
between Him and God; there only was obedience fully
tested, there was the one spotless victim, the blessed Son
of God. ere is no glorifying God perfectly except in
the cross. ere I nd the whole righteous judgment of
God against sin, no patience, no gentleness; Christ was
really drinking the cup. If God could pass over sins, where
would be His righteousness? Here I nd God’s perfect
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righteousness against sin and His perfect love; I get the
whole enmity of man rising up against God, and, where it
carries out its purpose, God’s perfect grace. You never get
positive sin dealt with outright before God except in the
cross, and perfect love doing it. I nd Christ there alone
with God. I see Him in innite unutterable love. He is in
the presence of God for me, always in the value of what He
has wrought; and when I go up to God now, I go into the
holiest as white as snow, because I could not go in there
except by the work of Christ.
I go on to the day of judgment: whom do I nd there?
e very person who put away all my sins. It gives this
blessed rest to the heart now; and, when I stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ, there is the Man who bore -away
my sins! How do we get there? When Christ appears, what
will He do with me, with you? He comes and changes this
vile body: “ It is sown in corruption, raised again in glory.”
To get before the judgment-seat we must be raised or
changed: Christ comes Himself, and He raises or changes
us, and takes us to Himself.
e rst coming of Christ was about the putting away
of sin. “ Christ was once oered to bear the sins of many,
and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second
time without sin unto salvation.” What you want is God-
given faith in the person of our Daysman. He brings out
love to me where I am, and He has gone in as Man in
righteousness to God. e question with me is, whether
in that dark hour when all were shut out He nished the
work God gave Him to do, and gave His life a ransom for
many; and I believe He nished it: do you believe? Now
He is sitting there, having nished the work, and God has
raised Him from the dead; and I know, not only that He
On the Book of Job, Especially Chapter 9
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has accomplished the work, but that God has accepted it.
Like Abel I come to God with His Lamb in my hand.
“ If I wash myself with snow water … yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch “; I shall be like a man come out
of a ditch. But I have got my Daysman, and God rests
in Him; and we are in Him, the Holy Ghost being sent
down that we may know it. “ At that day ye shall know
that I am in the Father and ye in me and I in you.” en
I learn what the Lord Jesus says in John 17: “ at the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I
in them.” If I look at my Daysman, I have got to the very
spring of God’s heart. He has given His Son. Glory is but
a natural consequence. And if I nd He is a righteous God
who cannot look at sin: well, I say, He has looked at it on
the cross and judged it fully.
Christ has accomplished the work: God has accepted
it; and Christ sits there at His right hand till His enemies
are made His footstool. When I say I am in Christ, there
is this other blessed truth that Christ is in me. If Christ
is in you, walk worthy of Him; being reconciled to God,
Christ being your life, you are to glorify God in everything:
“ Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do,
do all to the glory of God.” You are not you own at all; if
you want to be your own, you are not Christ’s. What we
have to do is to detect the evil in the heart, and thus not
dishonor Christ before the world. I am no longer my own
at all, but the epistle of Christ. People are to read Christ in
you as the ten commandments in the tables of stone.
Redemption is perfect; Christ is our righteousness; I
have got my Daysman. e Holy Ghost coming down
and dwelling in me, my soul is in the consciousness of the
value of what Christ has done, and I am waiting in earnest
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desire for Christ to come and take me there. It is a perfect
nished work, and the only part I had in it was my sin.
e Lord open your hearts and turn your eyes on that
blessed One; and if you have your heart open, if you are
struggling like Job to lay your hands on the head of the
Lamb, the Lord give you in this day of salvation not to
neglect so great a salvation.
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63074
How the Lord Accepted Job:
Job 42
WE see in Job’s history the workings of God in the soul
in bringing it to Himself, and the exercises the heart passes
through when learning itself in the presence of Satan and
in the presence of God Himself.
“ e Lord accepted Job.” It does not say that the Lord
accepted his acts, or his works, or anything connected with
him; but that He accepted himself. And that is just what
we want. e moment our souls are really awakened to a
sense of what God is and of what we are, we then want to
know that we are accepted of God. Till that is known, we
may try to bring our acts and our works to clothe ourselves
with them; but when we have really come into God’s
presence, we clothe ourselves with nothing, and then we
get the sense of the divine favor.
e converse of this is also true. We know that our
works are unholy; and when our souls are truly awakened,
we look at ourselves as being the spring of these unholy
works; and thus we learn that in heart and spirit and nature
we are far from God. en I am grieved, not only for my
sins, but because it is I who committed them. And this is a
present thing. If I am looking at my works, I may put them
o till the day of judgment; but for myself, personally, I
cannot be satised without the sense of the present and
immediate acceptance of God. I must know that I am at
this moment standing in His favor.
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It is not said that God accepted Job till the end of his
trials. And what had his friends done for him during the
sifting through which he was passing? Well might he
say, “ Miserable comforters are ye all.” ey had no true
apprehension of God’s character, and so were unable to
understand His dealings with a soul. ey had no proper
sense of sin, and therefore knew not that, if God would deal
in blessing with man, it must be entirely on the ground of
grace. ey did not know how to meet his case; and though
they had said many true things, yet they had not said one
single right thing in its application to Job, for they did not
understand him.
Job had never really been brought into the presence
of God. ere had been a certain work in his soul, which
produced fruits. But in chapter 29 we evidently see that he
had been walking in the sense of blessings from God, and
in a measure in the sense of the fruits of grace produced in
his heart. He was resting in what he was to others, and not
in the favor of God Himself. He owned God, it is true, and
bowed under His hand; but notwithstanding he had never
been truly in His presence, and consequently his heart had
never been searched out. It was not a question of fruits, but
a question of what he was. So God goes on dealing with
Job, till in the very thing in which Job was most famous he
is brought to nothing Job, the most patient man, curses the
day of his birth. Why is this? Because we must be broken
down-we must be brought to the sense of what we are,
as well as of what we have done; and then God can deal
with us out of His own heart. us God’s dealings with
us are intended to bring out really what we are before our
own eyes in His presence, in the presence of that eye which
looks on while we see what sinners we are. us God went
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47
on dealing with Job till Job was brought to say, “ I am vile,
I abhor myself.”
In chapter 23, we see Job’s condence in God, and his
desire for God, although the stroke was bitter. He said, “
Oh! that I knew where I might nd him! “ He did not
attempt to keep away from God. He had that kind of sense
of what God was that he wanted to get to Him, “ even to
his seat.” It is true he speaks of “ ordering his cause before
him “; but in chapter 9 where he is speaking of man being
justied before God, he says, “ If he contend with me, I
cannot answer him one of a thousand “; and again, “ If I
justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me.” Here we
nd that Job was thinking of being in God’s sight. ere
was not the wretched hypocritical attempt to keep away
from God; there was the consciousness of having to do
with God; and in heart he desired to get to Him, though
his conscience kept him away. us there was much more
truth in Job than in the see-saw truths of his friends; for
conscience was in full exercise in him, and not at all in
them.
ere was also more grace in Job’s heart now than when
he was oating along in prosperous circumstances. It was,
in truth, trying and miserable work; but still he was nding
out what was in him. And what grace it is in God that He
should take up a heart, and thus wring it out, that the soul
might be brought, such as it is, into immediate dependence
on Himself!
e sinfulness of Job was brought out, so that he could
not say it was not there. e sinfulness of his heart was
brought upon his conscience; it had come fully out; and a
terrible thing that is. We know what it is to the unconverted
man; it makes him reckless in iniquity. Let a man think
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that he has lost his character, and he will then run loose
in wickedness. When a man comes to this, it thoroughly
breaks him down. It is one thing for a man to lose his
character with himself, but it is another and a very dierent
thing to lose it with his neighbor. But when Job has lost
his character, when it is entirely gone, then God comes in.
After all the sifting, Job is brought into God’s presence,
and then “ Jehovah accepted Job.” In God’s presence his
mouth is stopped; then he said, “ I am vile “; “ I will lay
my hand on my mouth.” But Job must be brought farther,
because God is to bring him to Himself; he must be brought
to confess not only that there is no good in him, but that
there is a great deal of evil. And this he does, as in verse 3,
“ I have uttered that I understood not.” For now it is not
a question of condemnation but of sin. When the sinner
has judged himself, the fear of condemnation has passed
away. “ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but
now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and ashes.” us Job takes God’s side against
himself. He laid himself before God, and abhorred himself;
and then he repents in dust and ashes; for it is only in the
presence of God that we learn repentance. In its fullest
sense true repentance is, when our sin is so thoroughly
brought out that we are taking God’s side of the question
in judging ourselves, and in justifying Him. en it is that
He justies us, and makes us accepted in the Beloved. en
it was that “ Jehovah accepted Job.” And blessed is the man
whom the Lord accepteth. May we indeed feel the need of
Him, and not rest in the hypocritical quiet of keeping out
of His presence!
Heads of Psalms
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63064
Heads of Psalms
BOOK I.
IN the rst place we get, in Psa. 2, the righteous man;
and, in Psa. 2, the counsels of God as to Messiah. en, in
general, Psa. 3-7 are the suerings of Christ in the remnant,
whether from enemies or from a sense of their own state;
and in result, Psa. 8 is the Son of man set over all the works
of God’s hands.
In Psa. 9 and to we have particulars of God’s executing
judgment against the heathen in Zion, in favor of the needy;
and, in particular, the ways of the wicked one, the man of
the earth. en follow, in Psa. 11-15, the sentiments and
spirit of the remnant-the moral movements of their heart
in this time of trial.
Psa. 16 is the place Christ Himself takes in His
dependence, trusting in the time of humiliation, but
ending in His joy in God’s presence in resurrection. Psa. 17
is His appeal to right, which ends in His being displayed
in glory-as man, of course; a lower kind of thing, but still a
part of His glory.
In Psa. 18 the suerings of Christ are made the center
of all God’s ways in Israel, from Egypt to the manifestation
of the glory of Messiah.
Psa. 19 is the testimony of creation and of the law;
according to the letter of which the remnant presents itself
in conscience before God.
In Psa. 20 the remnant prophetically see Christ in His
day of trouble, and in His suerings from man; in which
God hears Him, in order to His establishment in His royal
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rights. In Psa. 21 He is answered with length of days forever
and ever, and excellent majesty; and judges His enemies. In
Psa. 22 He is in sorrow, in which no remnant can enter; in
which, through all the concentration of evil from without,
He nds the forsaking of God within, instead of answer
to His condence. But, when He had drunk the whole
cup, He was answered in resurrection, and all ows forth
in unmingled blessing: rst, to the remnant, immediately
consequent on His resurrection saluted as “ brethren,” with
whom He unites Himself in spirit, as He says, “ In the
midst of the congregation will I praise thee “; then, to all
Israel; then, to all the ends of the world, the testimony of
that which is done going down to other generations.
In Psa. 23 He takes the place of the sheep on earth; in
Psa. 24 He is saluted as “ Jehovah of Hosts,” and “ King of
glory.”
Psa. 25-28 are, in general, the exercises of the renewed
heart (in the remnant always): condence in the Lord;
consciousness of integrity through grace; consciousness
of sin; and earnest desire not to be drawn away with the
wicked, counting on the Lord’s having called them to seek
His face.
Psa. 29 is God’s voice (not the still small voice) the
answer to it all. Psa. 30 and 31 are enjoyment in the sense
of this interference of God (still though in the trouble).
Psa. 32 is forgiveness and guidance (still in the remnant).
In Psa. 33 creation and the counsels of God in favor of His
people give condence. In Psa. 34 what God has been for
them in their suerings gives condence. In Psa. 34-39 we
nd them in the presence of the power and prosperity of
the wicked, with the sense of having deserved judgments
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and having been under chastening, though their cry is to
the Lord who chastened them.
Psalm 40 is Christ undertaking the accomplishment of
the divine will in perfect obedience: His perfectness shown
in waiting, etc. In Psa. 41 which is the last psalm of the
book, we see all the humiliation and bitterness to which
He exposed Himself in the accomplishment of it; but in
which He is assured to be set before God’s face forever.
ere is a very distinct principle brought out in the
Psalms, that while in connection with the Jews, yet the
nation is not the thing owned. e distinction is made
by moral character, and not by nation. It is a certain elect
remnant in the midst of the mass that is owned, of whom
Christ becomes the representative; Psa. 1
As a general principle the government of God is looked
for, and that that government will sanction and establish the
righteous, in contrast with the ungodly. Another principle
comes up-the counsels of God as to His Anointed, in spite
of the heathen who rise up against them.
Psa. 2 As soon, however, as we get these principles laid
down, we nd that, outwardly, it is not happening so at all.
Hence the discussion of this question in the Psalms that
follow.
Psa. 3 is faith in what Jehovah is. In verse 7 he sees
prophetically that He has done it; therefore he gives praise.
Psa. 4 is dependence in calling on God. Verse 3, the
godly are marked out, not the nation.
Psa. 5 and 6 are a great deal more the remnant. In Psa.
5 there is more sense of the evil that is pressing on them;
in verse 9 Christ’s judgment of the then condition of the
wicked. It goes on to the last days. Psa. 6 is quite in the latter
day in Israel; it is a question of cutting o. Verse 3, “ How
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long! “ is the spirit of prophecy in the remnant. (See Isa. 6)
e cessation of this is indicated in Psa. 74, there being no
one who knew “ How long.” ey were in circumstances
like as if cast o forever; and faith, knowing that it cannot
be so, says, “How long! “ Verse 4; in the psalms in which
the remnant speaks, mercy comes before righteousness. In
Psa. 4, where it is more the Lord Himself, righteousness
comes before mercy.
In Psa. 3-7 it is much more introductory, and certain
general principles. It is Messiah who rst speaks, because
He has rst fully taken, nay, He alone could rightly take
apart the place of the remnant, as apart from, and in
contrast with, the people. Others had felt it-as having His
Spirit, and, as prophets, had portrayed it in Him-but He
alone could rightly take it by intrinsic righteousness. Yet
in Him it was as forced to it; that is, this righteousness
forced out the wickedness in the others, and He wept over
Jerusalem when it was done; but then He entered into all
that concerned Israel, according to the purpose, love, and
revelation of God. e Psalms are the perfect display of
all that a divinely perfect heart in the circumstances could
feel of, and as to, the relationships of God with Israel, and
Israel with God.
Psa. 9 is more the heathen-man; Psalm To is more the
wicked one among the Jews.
Psa. 11-41 are the development of faith in Christ, or the
remnant as associated during the time of tribulation; but
before the last half-week. erefore Psa. 9, To come in as
a general preface. Psa. 11:2. It is not “ privily “ in last half-
week. Verse 4 is the answer to verse 3.
Psa. 12 is the holy wisdom of owning Jehovah. In verse
6 the words of the Lord are a stay, when everyone speaks
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vanity with his neighbor. In verse 7 the second “them”
should be “ him.”
In Psa. 16 Christ comes in to give its full character to
hope and faith. is psalm is like a stake in the midst of all
these psalms. e moment we get Christ, we get the spirit
of calmness and grace.
Psa. 17 Specially Christ in the beginning. In verse 11
the remnant comes in.
In Psa. 16 we have Christ’s own joy in God; Jehovah
shows Him the path of life, and at His right hand are
pleasures for evermore. Psa. 17 In presence of the wicked
and the prosperity of the men of this world He beholds
God’s face in righteousness, and is satised in waking up
after His image. Most interesting is it to nd that we have
what is analogous in the church-the taking up for its own
joy, and the display in glory as the reward of righteousness.
Psa. 18:4-6 is evidently the death of Christ. e words
may have an application, used hyperbolically, to Israel in
Egypt. Verse 15 is the Red Sea.
Psa. 19 e creation testimony is used as a gure of that
now given by the gospel, inasmuch as it is universal. e
testimony had been given of God, whether man saw it or
not. (See Rom. 1.) ey did not see it as we nd. Verses
12, 13, they are kept in detail, and so kept from the great
apostasy.
In Psa. 20; 21, we see human enemies, and judgment, but
in Psa. 22 divine wrath and perfect grace. In verse 12, bulls,
that is, violent men, who do their own will; in verse 16, dogs,
that is shameless ones. In verse 21, the lion’s mouth, that
is, Satan’s power over death. Verse 22 is the congregation,
that is, the remnant, which afterward became the church;
only here looked at as the remnant of Israel. In verse 25 is
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“ e great congregation,” as in Solomon’s day. Verse 30, is
the remnant who pass through the trouble. Verse 31, is the
millennial people.
Psa. 23 esis-Jehovah is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
It is not-He has given me good things, and I shall not want;
but Jehovah is my Shepherd, etc. Verse 3 is the weakness of
man, which needed restoring. We need restoring, because of
sin as well as weakness.
Psa. 24:3, 4. “ Who? “ Verses 7-xo show the King of
glory; verse 6, the remnant coming in when the earth is
the Lord’s.
Psa. 25 is important as showing that the remnant do
not ignore sin, but look from it to God.
Psa. 26:2. Examine me, O Lord, etc. Verse 3. For y
loving kindness is before mine eyes.
Psa. 27:1-6 is the thesis; verse 7 and onward, prayer
founded on it.
Psa. 29 In the midst of all these exercises of the heart of
the remnant, God comes in. e voice of Jehovah comes in,
and puts everything in its place.
In the psalms that follow, they have more to do with
God; they are more occupied with the Lord Himself than
with the circumstances.
Psalm 30 is more God’s anger, and so confession; Psa.
31 is the enemies, so insisting on integrity. We constantly
nd these two things.
Psa. 32 “ Be glad,” not in the forgiveness, but “ in the
Lord,” etc.
Psa. 34 A call to the remnant to bless Jehovah in their
worst sorrows, “ at all times,” not when they get the blessing,
but now.
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Psa. 35 is Christ’s spirit, in its perfectness, supplying a
vent for their feelings in their weakness.
In Psa. 36 the wickedness is such that there is no
conscience in the adversary. Verse 5. e answer-God is
above it all.
Psa. 37:34. “ Wait on Jehovah, and keep his way.” e
whole secret of what we have to do.
Psa. 38 An important principle in this psalm-the
diculty of looking to the Lord for deliverance from
the wicked, when sin is on the conscience. Nevertheless,
God is the refuge from the enemy. It is beautiful to see
this integrity of heart, when he has not a word to say for
himself.
Psa. 39 is leaning on Jehovah, with faults, breakings
down, and everything, is very beautiful.
Psa. 40 Beautiful how, in the midst of all these exercises
in the former psalms, waves of every kind, Christ is brought
in; and He says, I will tell you how I got on. Verse 17, as
in Matt. 5, Christ is just giving a description of Himself.
And herein is the dierence between Matthew and Luke.
Matthew tells who enter; Luke says, Ye are the very ones.
He gives them the place of the remnant. In this psalm
Christ sets aside the Jewish gures, and lays the ground of
righteousness Himself.
Psa. 41 is more the Spirit of Christ than Himself
personally, though applied to Him in the treachery of Judas.
BOOK 2.
e second book begins not with Christ, but with
the condition of the remnant; and hence has more for its
subject the facts of the latter day, Israel being driven out. It
is not going through all these states of soul, so that Christ
might be brought in. It is like the position, when Christ
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went out to a place called Ephraim. (John 11:54.) ere
was a kind of hoping for good, from the multitude before;
but now He has done with the wicked, and come out. So
now it is not Jehovah, but God. One is cast more simply on
God. He is not trusting in the relationship, but in God, in
the nature of Elohim.
Psa. 42 and 43. In the two rst psalms of this book,
Christ takes the place of the godly remnant as cast out
of all Jewish privilege by the power of the enemy and the
apostasy of the Jews themselves-a nation “ Lo-chasid; “-
ungodly.
Psa. 42 is more the Gentiles.
Psa. 43:1. “ Ungodly nation,” more than Jews. “ e
deceitful and unjust man “ is Antichrist. e whole of this
book is applicable to the period during which Antichrist
has been received, that is, the last three and a half years.
In Psa. 44-48 we have the appeal of the remnant to
God, as the One who, at the beginning, had delivered them,
with all the consequences consequent on the intervention
of Messiah in Psa. 45, Psa. 49 being a moral comment on
human grandeur in view of this.
In Psalm 50 God has summoned all in judgment, and
shines out of Zion, owned the “ perfection of beauty.” Psa.
51 e Jews own their guilt in connection with the death
of Christ.
In Psa. 52-58 we see the wickedness and violence within,
that is, among the people. In Psa. 59, it is more the heathen
without come against them at the same time. But in Psalm
60 in the midst of this distress, there is the assurance that
God Himself will interfere, and claim His own rights in
the midst of them.
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In Psa. 61 Messiah identies Himself with the outcast
remnant; and, in Psa. 62, expresses His condence in God
so as to lead theirs, and that of all men.
All these psalms are to God, and not to Jehovah; that is,
they depend on what God is in Himself.
In Psa. 63 it is the earnest desire of the godly soul after
God, as he has known Him in the sanctuary. Psa. 64 is the
condence of the Spirit of Christ in God, though obliged
to wait for Him till the judgment is executed. In Psa. 65
his faith is pressing: God has only to give the word, and
He will have the praise that waits for Him; while in Psa.
66 God’s intervention in judgment is celebrated, and their
state described until it come. In Psa. 67 the face of God,
shining on His people, carries His saving health among
all nations. In Psa. 68 the heavenly exaltation of Christ is
the source of the blessing of His people. In Psa. 69 is all
the depth of His distress as man-not exactly the cup of
wrath, though it is on the cross. In Psa. 70 he looks for
deliverance; and that those who seek God may be able to
praise God because of it, however needy he may be. In Psa.
71 he speaks as the representative of the family of David-
all dying out. In Psa. 72 we see the son of David in his new
glorious reign on earth. is closes the book.
Psa. 44 is the cry of the remnant. eir present
condence is in God, through looking for Him to take the
place of Jehovah.
In Psa. 45 Messiah comes in. Verse 6: His divine title
is owned. Verse 9: when we have the kingdom on earth,
Jerusalem is the bride. Verse 14: the virgins are the cities of
Judah. In verse 16 the old thing is not remembered; but the
new, which grace has introduced.
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Psa. 46 e remnant nd that they are owned as the
nation, when they have settled in Zion. Messiah having
been introduced, God is the God of Jacob.
In Psa. 47 He is subduing the peoples under their feet.
e consequence of God’s establishment in Zion is His
stretching out His hand over the nations.
Psa. 48 Zion takes her place. She is established in
blessedness. Verse 8: “ As we have heard, so have we seen.”
It is not merely that He has come there, He is settled there.
Not “ I had gone with the multitude,” but, “ in the midst of
thy temple.” Verse 10: “ According to the name,” etc. ey
had trusted the name, and now so is it. Verse 14: Unto
death-that is, all their life long. Death not destroyed. e
desire of Psa. 42; 43, and 44 is fullled in Psa. 48
Psa. 49 is a moral sermon; a kind of “ improvement “ of
Psa. 44-49 Verse 15 is resurrection, or preservation from
death.
Psalm 50. ey now come into the covenant “ by
sacrice “; not by obedience, as at Sinai. Verse 3 is the way
He gets to Zion.
Psa. 51 eir confession. Verse 19: When the heart is
set right, their “ sacrices of righteousness “ are acceptable.
Mercy coming before righteousness is always a sign of the
remnant.
As in Psa. 42 we had Israel cast out, and in Psa. 45 the
temporal deliverance; so in Psa. 51 is the deliverance within.
e secret of the whole we get in Psa. 68 and 69 on to Psa.
72 In Psa. 50:6, the heavens declare His righteousness: in
Psa. 68:18, we nd that Christ has ascended there; in Psa.
69 we learn how He got there: whilst Psa. 72 gives His
royal place in Zion as Solomon.
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As Psa. 52 gives faith in God’s enduring goodness for
the righteous whilst He would destroy the wicked, so in
Psa. 53 we see the wickedness of the people judged by
God; and Psa. 54 is the cry to God as such for deliverance,
before His name of Jehovah is praised.
Psa. 55 is the horror of Spirit of Christ at seeing the
total iniquity at Jerusalem-Judas and Antichrist. Verse 10,
Jerusalem. Verse 20, Antichrist.
Psa. 56 is more outward. Verse 8, “ wanderings “; that is,
up and down, not knowing what to cry; as Psa. 57 directs
to heaven for the true source of deliverance.
Psa. 58:11 is the meaning of judgment, establishing
God’s government of the earth.
Psa. 59:6. Not within the city yet.
Psalm 60: 3. “ Hard things “ shown the people. Verse 4, “
a banner “ given to them that fear, that it may be displayed
because of the truth.
Psa. 61 All is outside; when Jesus went beyond Jordan
and abode there-the hill Mizar and Hermon.
Psa. 62 is the cry of condence in God.
Psa. 68 is the cast-out king; and (v. 2) the desire is not
as in mysticism after a thing never known, but “ to see thy
power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee,” etc. Verse 3:
his life was all sorrow, yet, “ because thy loving kindness is
better than life, my lips shall praise thee.”
Psa. 64:3. “ ey bend their bows to shoot their arrows “;
but (v. 7) “ God shall shoot at them with an arrow.”
Psa. 65:4. e Jews are blessed; verse 8, then all the earth.
Psa. 66 shows righteous intervention before all; and Psa.
67 the blessing of the remnant as the way of blessing for
the nations.
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Psa. 68:18 is the secret of it all-Jehovah received up into
glory-the mystery of godliness.
Psa. 69 is the utmost distress of Christ in the midst
of Israel. Verse 26: e fact of atonement, though not
directly stated as such. He is looking at sorrows from the
reproachers (not as in Psa. 22), and therefore the judgment
of men.
Psa. 72:16 does not touch heaven; so it is not the Son of
man’s dominion, but the King’s Son’s.
BOOK 3.
I think that the third book gives the ways of God with
Israel, not with Judah merely (“ unto which [promise] our
twelve tribes hope to come “); the result being, Psa. 73,
that God is good to Israel, but to the clean-hearted among
them; while the prosperity of the wicked is a long sore trial
to faith. Hence, in Psa. 74, all that on which their natural
hopes rest is smashed and broken down. Flesh cannot
build up what God has put under the power of judgment;
but faith can wait on God, till He glories Himself. Psa. 75
His judgment is clearly unfolded, and Messiah declares the
principles on which He will govern in respect of God. Psa.
76 thus God is known in Judah, His name great in Israel,
and Jerusalem the seat of His power and glory. Psa. 77 the
believing heart blames all distrust of this, as its inrmity,
and remembers the previous days of God’s right hand.
In Psa. 78 all the perverse ways of Israel are discussed;
and the electing grace of God, in the house of David,
presented as its only resource.
In Psa. 79 the excesses of the heathen, in the latter days,
are brought under God’s eye, that He may favor His people,
and not remember their iniquities against them.
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In Psalm 80, the connection of God, as the dweller
between the cherubim of old, and the manifestation of
His power as Son of man, are brought together as the
deliverance of the vine once brought out of Egypt.
Psa. 81 On the reappearance of Israel, that is, on the
new moon, God shows the rectitude of His ways with that
people in judgment.
In Psa. 82 He judges among the gods.
In Psa. 83 we have the last conspiracy of the Assyrians,
and those that dwell within the limits of the land, where
judgment displays that Jehovah is Most High over all the
earth.
Up to this, we have had God, in His nature and character,
as such. Now, in Psa. 84, the people in connection with Him
as Jehovah think of the joy of going up to His sanctuary,
that is, to worship Him.
Psa. 85 In the favor He has shown to His land, mercy
and truth, righteousness and peace, have all been veried
and brought together.
Psa. 86 is a celebration of the character of Jehovah, in
respect of the needy, bringing all nations up to worship
before Him.
Psa. 87 e excellency of Zion is celebrated as a deance
to the whole world, specially because Messiah is reckoned
amongst her children.
Now we come to what Christ gets amidst all this. Psa. 88
is the curse of the broken law, which rests on the remnant,
entered into by the Spirit of Christ: while in Psa. 89 all the
mercies of God are centered in Him.
In the rst Book of Psalms we get Christ more as an
object: for example, Psa. 2; 16; 20; 22; 40 In the second
book, He is presented more as an answer. So it is more
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the remnant, and how they are to be delivered; there is as
much of Christ, but more in the way of Deliverer. In the
third book, it is more entirely the remnant, for it is not
David, but Asaph. ere is a great deal more of grace here,
than of righteousness, for the remnant, and not so much of
Christ. We get Israel in the old associations of Egypt, and
not Christ Himself in the midst of the thing.
Psa. 73 is Israel beloved for the fathers’ sakes, modied
by the necessity of personal righteousness. It forms a kind
of thesis for the whole book.
Psa. 77 is exercise of soul in this state of things. Verses
13, 19: if you get into the sanctuary, there you will be sure
to nd God’s way; but if you look [for it] outside, it is “ in
the sea.” Verse 16 is the Red Sea.
Psa. 78 is an account of how they behaved under these
mercies. Verse 67 is the natural heir refused. Even if God
is good to Israel, it is God who is good, not that Israel has
claim. Verse 68, He chose Judah.
Psa. 82 If all the deputy-judges go wrong, God judges
among the gods.
Psa. 84:4 is the “ house “ and “ praise.” Verse 5 is the “
ways “ and “ strength “; both “ blessed.” Verse 6, “ Baca “ “
weeping “; so, “ rejoicing in tribulation.”
Psa. 86 is David. A great deal more personal; the
consciousness of standing in the gap for Israel.
Psa. 89:1. “ Mercies “ celebrated. Verse 19 shows them
summed up in the person of Christ. Verse 49, Israel is cast
over on the certainty of mercy in God’s promise to David.
BOOK 4.
In Psa. 90 Jehovah has always been the dwelling-place
of Israel; and His greatness, and their nothingness, are used
as a plea for His compassion towards them: while in Psa.
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91 Messiah comes in, and owns the God of Israel, even
Jehovah; and all the blessings of the name of Almighty and
Most High are manifested in connection with Him.
is brings in Psa. 92, the celebration of His name in
the rest-the Sabbath-of Israel.
e from Psa. 93-100, we have the thesis of Jehovah’s
reigning brought out from the cry of the remnant, who
seek deliverance from the wicked one; the call to Israel
to listen; the call to the heathen; the coming in glory to
judge; the execution of the judgment; God’s establishment
in Zion between the cherubim the summons of the world
to come and worship there with joy.
en from Psa. 93-100, we have the thesis of Jehovah’s
reigning brought out from the cry of the remnant, who
seek and to the inquiry how He, who was cut o in the
midst of His days, could have part in the re-establishment
of Zion, it is revealed that He is Himself the everlasting
Jehovah.
In Psa. 103 he blesses Jehovah as the Forgiver and
Healer of His people; in Psa. 104 as the glorious Creator;
in Psa. 105 as faithful to His covenant with the fathers, and
to His promises.
In Psa. 106, we see His dealings with them in chastening,
but His abundant readiness to hear their cry which they
now address to Him.
Psa. 90 is a supplication for mercy-a kind of introduction
to the book. Verse 9: We are poor and fading things. Verse
14: Make haste to mercy.
Psa. 91 Now comes the deliberate statement of Messiah’s
taking up the case of Israel; not merely His being found in
the position, but a kind of public announcement of it. Verse
I: Whoever takes the secret place, gets the Almightiness.
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Verse 2: Messiah says, I will take Jehovah as my refuge, etc.
Verse 3: e Spirit declares the consequences of this. In
verse 9 the remnant address Messiah. In verse 14 Jehovah
comes in, and sets His seal on the whole.
Psa. 102 shows the consequence on earth of the trust
of Psa. 91
Psa. 93 has for its thesis, “ Jehovah reigneth.”
Psa. 94 Mercy of the remnant.
Psa. 95 is the summons to Israel. “ To-day “ goes on till
Christ comes.
Psa. 96 is the summons to the heathen-the everlasting
gospel of Revelation.
Psa. 97 He is coming.
Psa. 98 He has come, and executed salvation or
righteousness in favor of Israel.
Psa. 99 He is actually sitting between the cherubim,
taking His place on the throne.
Psalm 100. Gentiles are called to worship Him. “
Rejoice, ye Gentiles,” etc., is fullled.
Psalm 101 is a kind of supplemental psalm, showing
how Christ will guide His house when He takes it.
BOOK 5.
In Psa. 107 we get the celebration of the ways of the
Lord in the restoration of His people (it is not what they
are looking for), which they are specially called to notice;
together, with Psa. 1°8, the celebration of His praises as
their Redeemer.
We have then, Psa. 109, at once introduced the
suerings of Christ under the apostasy, whether of Judas or
Antichrist: while, in Psa. 110, He is called to sit at Jehovah’s
right hand, until He makes His enemies His footstool, for
the accomplishment of the purposes of this redemption-
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when His power shall go forth from Zion-while, because
of His humiliation, He is exalted for the destroying of him
who elevates himself against Him.
Psalm Ito: 6. “ He shall wound the head over a great
country.”
Psa. 111; 112. en the Lord is praised for this
redemption, and the display of His character in it; and the
portion of the righteous consequently.
His majesty and grace are celebrated in Psa. 113, as high
above all, extending everywhere, and considering the poor
and needy. In Psa. 114 God’s presence is the real strength
of His people. Psa. 115 in contrast with idols, all the glory
is given to His name.
Psa. 116 e aicted one now praises the Lord before
all, whom he had trusted in the time of his distress, when
brought low. e Spirit of Christ, in the midst of His
people, is especially shown.
Psa. 116:10. In the presence of death, He goes in and
speaks. So Paul in 2 Cor. 4
Psa. 117 e nations are then summoned to praise the
Lord, because of His abiding mercy and truth to Israel.
In Psa. 118 Christ takes up the son of Israel in the great
congregation, declaring that “ His mercy endureth forever.”
e enemies encompassed Him, the adversary beset Him,
Jehovah had chastened Him, but not given Him up. Israel
now owns that the stone which the builders had rejected
has become the Head of the corner, and their heart is
prepared to say, “ Save now,” “ Blessed be he that cometh in
the name of Jehovah “; and they worship with joy.
Psa. 119 e law is written in Israel’s once wandering
heart.
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Psa. 120-134 en we get, in the Psalms of Degrees,
various thoughts and feelings of Israel as now restored,
whether as looking back and enjoying the blessing; or under
the conviction of sin; or as David (that is, really Christ)
establishing the sign of Jehovah’s presence in full blessing
in Israel- the people being gathered in unity-closing with
the blessing of Jehovah from the sanctuary.
Psa. 130 In this psalm they get into the depths, not
from circumstances, but from sin. Instead of speaking of
enemies as in Psa. 124 (“ when man rose up against us “),
it is between him and God. It is after the new moon they
have the day of atonement.
In Psa. 135 and 136, we have the celebration of
Jehovah’s praise for His election of Israel, in connection,
on the one hand, with the original promise to Abraham,
and the mercy connected with His judgments on the other
(compare Ex. 3 and Deut. 32); with the formal declaration
that His mercy endures forever.
Psa. 137 Babylon and Edom come up in judgment
before God; and Psa. 138, God’s word, the condence of
His people, is gloried in His ways towards them.
Psa. 139 None can escape the searching out of God; but
if God creates for blessing, we can praise Him.
Psa. 139 e searchings of God throw you back on
the thoughts that God had in meeting you in grace; and
therefore you can ask God to “ search,” etc. We are the
creatures of His thoughts, as well as the subject of them.
Psa. 140 We have the cry for deliverance from the evil
and violent man; the head of the faithful is covered in
the day of his conict, for God maintains his cause, and
delivers him.
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Psa. 141 e Lord is trusted to guide them-that is, the
poor-in a right path, according to His mind, so as to avoid
the snares of the wicked. In the utmost desolation he trusts
Him. en, Psa. 142, however overwhelmed, God knows
his path.
Psa. 143 He pleads not to enter into judgment, for no
man can be justied, for the enemy has trodden down his
soul; but he still looks to the Lord, and trusts that He will
guide him in uprightness, and looks to Him in mercy, to cut
o all his enemies, that, Psa. 144, full blessing may come in.
Psa. 144 is dierent from Psa. 18 in not having the
death of Christ as a center; and, moreover, the heathen are
not brought in.
Psa. 145 Messiah describes the millennium in the
interchange of Jehovah’s praises between Him and the
people that are blessed.
en we get the great Hallel.
Psa. 146 Jehovah is praised as the God of Jacob, as the
Creator of all things, the Keeper of truth, the Deliverer of
the oppressed, and of all from aiction and distress. He
shall reign as the God of Zion through all generations.
Psa. 147 en He is praised as the Builder up of
Jerusalem, taking pleasure in them that fear Him, ruling
every element by His word; but giving His word, His
statutes, and His judgments, to Israel.
Psa. 148 All creation is called upon to praise Him; who
exalts the horn of His people (Israel)-a people near unto
Him.
Psa. 149 Israel, above all, is called to praise Him in a
new song. Judgment is put into their hands.
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e last Psa. 150, is a kind of chorus. In His sanctuary,
the rmament of His power, everything that has breath is
called to praise Him.
In this book we have either the explanation of the Lord’s
ways, or hallelujahs. It is a kind of sermon.
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e Psalms
INTRODUCTION.
THE ve Books of Psalms are divided thus:-
First, from Psa. 1 to Psa. 41; Second, from Psa. 42 to
Psa. 72; ird, from Psa. 73 to Psa. 89; Fourth, from Psa. 90
to Psa. 106; and Fifth, from Psa. 107 to the end.
e subjects of each are dierent, and may be thus
briey distinguished.
In the rst book the Jews are not driven out, but go up
to the temple, and mix with those in the land. e name
of Jehovah always occurs. He is in recognized relationship
with them.
In the second book they are driven out, and only a small
seed is left. e Gentiles combine with the nations against
the godly who ee to the mountains. It is Judah driven out.
“ God “ is used here, except when hope is expressed.
In the third book it is not Jews in Jerusalem, or driven
out, but all Israel are taken up. e ways of God with the
people, as such, are found here.
e fourth book begins another range of subjects. While
they own Jehovah the dwelling-place, the bringing of
Christ into the world again is celebrated; the progress of
His coming in glory; His sitting between the cherubim;
and the nations coming to worship.
en the concluding or fth book is a review of all,
winding up with a chorus, which consists of thanksgivings
for the blessings brought in, of which Israel is the earthly
center around and under the Messiah.
BOOK I.-PSALMS I-41.
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ere are two great subjects laid hold of from one end
of scripture to the other, founded on the relationships in
grace: the government of God; and the church of God.
When I speak of the church of God, I speak of His grace,
that which stands only in grace; and when Christ reigns,
the church reigns with Him, the weakest and feeblest saint
is taken up, and put in the same place with Christ. Grace
is conferred on those who least deserve it. ere is also
the government of the Father for those in the church, but
this is quite dierent from the government of God in a
general sense. It is true that gracious principles come in
there; but the church is the body of Christ, members of His
body, etc. To be His brethren is another relationship. God’s
government of this world is quite a dierent thing from
that. It is interesting for us, because we have a personal
association with the Lord Jesus in His humiliation and
His glory, and there is nothing connected with Christ but
should interest us.
e immediate government of God is brought out
in connection with Israel, and the Book of Psalms has a
peculiar character in relation to this. e Psalms express
the feelings and thoughts of those who nd themselves
in the circumstances that give rise to them. When under
government, the power of evil must be set aside, in order for
those who are separate from it to get free of their suerings.
With us it is quite dierent. We leave the evil, and rise into
the glory. ere is also the dierence of reigning and being
reigned over. e government of God for earth is entirely
connected with Israel-our home is elsewhere. ey are on
earth, and government is connected with earth.
In Israel God gives certain laws. Now grace reigns
through righteousness which Another has accomplished.
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ere will be righteousness on earth when He comes
again. Now it is exactly the contrast. Righteousness is only
in connection with heaven now. Christ is exalted in heaven,
but rejected on earth. e principle on which all God’s
dealings with the Jew go is government, although you nd
mercy put rst.
Two things are connected with the Jews in Psa. 1 and 2;
God’s law written on their hearts (Psa. 1), and their Messiah
coming to them, God’s king set up on God’s throne (Psa.
2). ese are two fundamental principles connected with
God’s people on the earth.
In Psa. 1 we have the eect of godliness, present blessing;
and in Psa. 2 the place Christ has as King.
In the rst is the application of God’s government on
the earth, on the godly and the ungodly ones. ere will
be the cutting o of the ungodly ones like cha, and those
who remain are the godly. ere is a godly remnant in the
midst of the ungodly, and the ungodly are to be cut o.
at is the basis of all we have in the Book of Psalms.
e rst characteristic of the godly ones is in contrast
with the ungodly. ey delight in the law of Jehovah.
ey have tasted the sweetness of the principles in God’s
word, and know a Christ come down from heaven. e
law characterizes all the moral condition of the godly man
(Psa. 119). e remnant in the latter day are associated in
character and circumstances with the remnant who believed
and followed Christ at His rst coming. e ungodly shall
not stand in the judgment, which is spoken of as a present
thing. e godly are in the midst of the ungodly in the
presence of judgment, which brings in the day of the Lord.
Psa. 2 is the time when the judgment is ending, and
government is made good by the power of the Son exercising
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His wrath. “ Be wise now therefore, O ye kings,” for if the
Son’s wrath be kindled, all will be over with you. is has
nothing to do with the gospel of God’s grace. e kings of
the earth are not in relationship with the Father and the
Son, but in rebellion against Jehovah and His Christ. It is
a direct question of judgment-the closing scene-distinctly
brought to the last day, the day of Jehovah. He is setting up
the king of Israel, never mind what the kings of the earth
do. God’s king shall laugh at them. When Christ was born
into this world, God had this purpose in view; and when
the King is brought in, the eye will be turned to Him who
was before born into the world. He is to be set up King in
Zion, and He is to have the heathen for His possession.
But what does He do? He breaks their bands in sunder.
I can understand this if it is government, but not if it is
gospel. Matt. 10 shows the gathering out of a remnant, and
passing over this time to the end, when the Son of man
will be there. All connected with the gospel is left out, and
the kingdom is the subject-those “ worthy “ (Matt. 10), not
sinners. It is the witness of the kingdom that is carried on
to the time when He comes.
In John 17 Christ says, “ I pray not for the world “ (I
ask not for the heathen now), “ but for those whom thou
hast given me out of the world.” He is gathering these
now, but He will have the heathen. He is asking for those
who are to be with Him, the results of redemption-work;
nothing about the world, not even breaking the nations to
pieces. Again, in John 20, He says to Mary Magdalene, “
Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended,” etc. e time
was not come for Him to be King, but He would make His
brethren know the relationship into which He brought
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them. He was not coming to take the kingdom yet, but He
would give them the same place that He had.
Rev. 2:26, 27 alludes to this psalm. Under the government
of God there is law for rule (Psa. 1). Psa. 2 declares that,
in spite of all the world, He will bring His Son in again,
and set Him King. In the one psalm we get what are the
principles of His government, and in the other what are
His counsels. e godly ones are exercised amongst these
ungodly ones who are in power.
en, remark that Psa. 3; 4; 5, 6 and 7 express the exercises
of the godly. In these psalms we nd the righteous remnant
in the presence of the judgment, looking for the Lord’s
coming to sustain their faith, and make good His word: but
they go through all sorts of trials. Christ is not yet reigning,
evil not yet judged; yet the trials and exercises of the godly
remnant before God’s judgment on the ungodly help their
faith. God is standing back, as it were.
Psa. 8 is of another character. Jehovah is to be gloried
in this earth, and His glory above the heavens. He has never
been so yet. e Father’s name is gloried in the hearts of
His children, but Jehovah is not gloried universally.
Corinthians 15 shows Christ as the Head of the new
creation; government in the kingdom is to come in, and, as
in Colossians it is to be as Head of the church, He will take
the kingdom as Son of man. Psa. 8 presents Him as thus
coming. It is not yet fullled. “ We see not yet all things put
under him, but we see Jesus,” etc. He is now gathering the
church, who, when He comes, comes with Him. e only
thing in which I can separate myself from Christ is, where
He became sin. Looking at His glory is looking at our own.
In Luke 9:21, 22, being rejected as the Christ, He
therefore would not set Himself up as the King. en He
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takes another name-” Son of man,” and as such He must
suer. He drops for the time the title of Christ, as in Psa. 2,
which sets Him forth as the anointed King, and takes the
title of Psa. 8” Son of man.” But He must suer. “ Except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,” etc. As Christ
they may say nothing about Him then. As Son of man
He is to have all under Him, not only is He to be King
in Zion. at will be accomplished too; but, according to
Isa. 49:6, He is to have the Gentiles also. He is to be over
everything; and as a man He is to take all things. God
will gather together in one all things in Christ, we being
in the heavenly part, and Satan under our feet. In the
Psalms we get the Christ we are associated with, but not
our association with Him. e scheme of the government
of God has never yet begun. It has not yet been the new
covenant, but the old. Christ is to be King, and this is
prophetically, not historically, given in Psa. 2; He is also
Son of man in Psa. 8, which is prophetic.
Psa. 9 looks at the wicked as not yet put out. e time
is not come for righteousness to be made good. Divine
righteousness is accomplished through His death, but
government in righteousness not yet established. Psa. 2 is
not fullled, only the opposition of the kings, etc. In Psa.
10 there is distress for the remnant until the interposition
of God comes.
Psa. 11 to 15 disclose feelings of the remnant; but there
is condence in God in time of trial. Christ puts into their
hearts just what they want in the circumstances. Psa. 12 is
the extremity of their distress-a godly man scarcely to be
found. Psa. 13 is deeper distress of soul because of a sense
of its being from God. e faith of God’s people cannot go
on forever; they cry, “ How long? “ “ Art thou treating us as
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if given up? If it goes on thus, I shall faint under it! “ Psa. 14
is the character of the wicked to be cut o, as Psa. 15 is the
character of the remnant who stand. e practically godly
remnant will have the blessing when Christ comes. ere
is in Psa. 9; 10, the history of the tribulation- the fact of
judgment; and then in Psa. 11, 12 and 13, their condition,
thoughts, and feelings; and Psa. 15, the character of those
on the holy hill, in contrast with the wicked set forth in
Psa. 14
In Psa. 16 Christ is the link between Jehovah and the
remnant. He is passing through this world so as to be able
to speak a word in season to the remnant in the last day. He
could not go and associate Himself with them in that way
without the atonement being made. We have the gure in
Aaron going into the holy place on the day of atonement.
We are associated with Him within. Isa. 53 “ We hid as it
were our faces from him “ is the expression of the Jews in
the latter day, linking themselves with those who rejected
Christ when He was here the rst time.
In this rst book of the Psalms the godly remnant
are not driven out of Jerusalem. is applied to Christ
personally. He was on this side Jordan, with the poor of the
ock, He was walking with them-His path in life. ere is
more personal association of Christ with the remnant in
the latter day. ere is more appeal to Jehovah in this book
than to God, which characterizes the second book. Jehovah
is the title God has especially connected with the people
of Israel, the seed of Abraham; and their relationship with
Him in the land is thus acknowledged. It is better to read
“ Jehovah “ instead of LORD, which we have very vague
and undened in our minds generally, though it is a most
blessed title.
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In Psa. 16 Christ, before taking His place on high, has
experimentally “ the tongue of the learned.” “ In thee do
I put my trust.’ is is quoted in Heb. 2 to prove Christ’s
humanity. ere are two things make perfection in a
man- dependence and obedience. ey were in Christ, the
contrast of what was in Adam when he sinned. His heart
could be moved with compassion, and not only could He
show His power to work miracles, but He could take this
place of the dependent and obedient One, and it is there
the heart gets food.
God has His food in the oering, but there was the meat
oering, and part of the peace-oering, which the priests
ate. He says, “ erefore doth my Father love me, because I
lay down my life, that I might take it again.” en we feed.
e Father has given us the very object He delights in for
the object of our aection.
In this psalm He rst denitely takes His place with the
excellent of the earth. He is thus the comfort of His people
in sorrow; and when we have peace, He is the food of our
souls-the heart has the perfect good to feed on. He is the
object before the soul-He is properly the food of our souls,
not in glory, but in humiliation, as here. “ I am the true
bread that came down from heaven.” It does not say, the
bread that went up to heaven. en His esh is needed for
life, we must know Him as dead. We cannot feed on Him
as the living and gloried Christ, but as the dead Christ.
What draws out our aections to Christ is, what He was
down here, going through all the diculties, making
His passage through everything about which He has to
intercede for us now. “ ou halt said to Jehovah, ou art
my master.” Now I take the place of a servant; I am my
Master’s-I am taking the place of dependence, leaning on
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ee, looking to ee. Christ is the Jehovah of the Old
Testament, not excluding the Father and the Spirit (John
12; Isa. 6). “ My goodness extendeth not to thee ‘; I am not
taking a divine place now. He became a babe-was growing
in wisdom and favor- anointed to service-has the tongue of
the learned; then comes fellowship with the excellent. He
takes His place as identifying Himself with them (Phil. 2);
that is, “ to the saints that are in the earth, and the excellent,
in them is all my delight.” If His soul disclaimed the one,
it had joy in the other. e saints cannot have a sorrow, a
diculty, that is not mine. Prov. 8 “ My delights were with
the sons of men.” In the rst movement of spiritual life
in them, however poor and feeble they are, He goes with
them; they are the excellent, it is not what they had, but
what they were. During His life He was going with them-
at the cross He went for them, they could not go there. If
they begin to live for Him, He lives with them; not one
diculty on the road but Christ has gone before in it; and
as to sin, that He has borne. “ When he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them.” He met the lion on the
way, and destroyed him that had the power of death. Every
step that the Spirit of God in a man treads through this
world, Christ has gone. I cannot get into a trouble that
Christ has not been in before.
“ ou maintainest my lot.” is is just what the poor
saints will want in the future day. Could the Man of sorrows
say that? “ ou maintainest my lot; the lines are fallen
unto me in pleasant places.” Yes, He knew who had given
Him all. “ e Lord is the portion of my inheritance and
of my cup.” Jehovah was His portion, and always He could
say it. is truth of Christ’s entering into all our sorrows,
when the Spirit of God works, He going into it, and as to
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our sins, helping against them, is immense comfort. I get
all the sympathies of Christ in this way.
ere is not a step of the path of life that Christ has not
trod, Jehovah showing Him the path of life up to blessing.
“ ou wilt show me the path of life.” ere was enough in
Christ, and He did draw out the aections of the Father as
a Man down here (of course as the eternal Son also) in this
path of life. How dependent for everything! He does not
say, “ I will rise up,” but, “ ou wilt show me.” He passes
through death in dependence on His Father; there was the
blessed perfectness of a Man with God; and at the close of
His career, knowing that the Father had given all things
into His hands, and that He came from God and went to
God, etc. He could go back unsullied to the throne of God,
and take man back with Him into the glory out of which
He came: there is manhood now in the presence of God.
Matt. 3 gives John’s baptism. ey came to him,
confessing their sins-” fruits meet for repentance.” e
beginning of all excellence is to confess we have none; “
fruit “ was confessing they brought forth none. e instant
the Spirit of God is working, Jesus goes to be baptized with
them (not having any sin to confess, of course, but) doing
His Father’s will. He takes His place with them. He had
come for that, and the consequence is that He takes His
place after death and resurrection to praise in the midst of
the congregation.
“ ou wilt show me the path of life.” It is most blessed
to hear Christ saying that. It is the path of holy death in
verse 10: how did He nd that of life? Adam found the
path of death in his folly and his self-will, but back from it
never! e tree of life was never to be touched in the garden
of Eden; he had taken the other path. ese two trees set
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forth that which men are always puzzling themselves
about-responsibility, and the gift of God which is life. All
that man does ends in death, but it is too late to warn of
this now, for he is “ dead in trespasses and sins.” But Christ
came, bringing life into a world that drove Him away,
where Satan, the prince of it, reigned, and everything was
bearing the stamp of his guilty dominion. In this place of
death Christ makes out a path for us. He is shown by His
Father “ the path of life.” He was “ the Life “; but then the
path of life had to be tracked through the place of death,
where no one thing testies of God-one wide waste, where
there is no way. Christ has Himself gone there before. It
is for the Christian I am speaking now; the gospel shows
He gives it to those who believe. He had to make out the
path of life through a world of sin and wretchedness, in
obedience, up to God. It must be through death, if for us,
because we are sinners; Now he says, “ If any man serve me,
let him follow me.” We must take up the cross. e cross to
Him was atonement; that was the path.
As He came for us, it must be by the cross. He has gone
through it perfectly and absolutely.
What is the consequence? e end is, “ in thy presence
is fullness of joy.” He would rather die than disobey. Notice,
death is gone to us, the end is gained: we have to tread
this very same path that He trod, up to His presence,
where there is “ fullness of joy.” Why all this It was for His
Father’s glory, doubtless, but it was for these “ excellent
of the earth.” His identifying Himself with them involved
this.
Psa. 17; 18, show the results of His thus taking His
place with them. Psa. 17 is the controversy with man in the
path; “ Let my sentence come forth from thy presence “;
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and the end is, “ I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I
shall be satised when I awake with thy likeness.”
Psa. 16; 17, give us two great principles of divine life-
trust and righteousness, or integrity; and we nd them
running all through the Psalms, and any godly person’s
life, as well as that of the Jew: but this does not give the
foundation fully on which we stand, according to the New
Testament. You do not nd in Psa. 17 the foundation of
God’s righteousness at this time. Souls in the condition of
having divine life, but not knowing their standing in divine
righteousness, nd the suitability of the Psalms to express
their experience.
In Psa. 16 it is divine life in dependence, obedience, and
communion. e rst characteristic of divine life is trust-
Christ putting His trust in Jehovah. As a man He does it. We
see Him praying, the true expression of dependence; and in
Luke’s Gospel this is especially brought out. en another
principle of divine life is the consciousness of integrity,
there may be both these-trust in God and consciousness
of integrity, without peace with God. Job said, “ ough he
slay me, yet will I trust in him “; and he pleaded his own
righteousness against God. “ Till I die I will not remove
mine integrity from me.” He had the consciousness of sin
and the sense of righteousness, integrity in himself at the
same time. e soul cannot be at peace in this state. Job was
wrong in making a righteousness of his integrity.
is second principle of divine life we have in Psa. 17 It
is the kind of righteousness the Jews will have in the latter
day-the same which they had of old. God stays up the souls
that trust in Him until they see Christ. Having a promise,
they trust, but cannot say, “ I have the righteousness of
God.”
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Christ having taken up their condition, and borne it,
they have the consciousness of integrity through him;
and it is the stay of their souls, but not peace. ey will
nd such utterances as this, “ Out of the depths have I
cried unto thee,” suit their own experience; they will be
comforted by nding the word of God giving expression
to their thoughts and feelings; it will be a prop and stay to
them in the midst of their exercises, but they will not get
peace in it. is Psa. 17 applies to the remnant surrounded
by their enemies-ours are spiritual enemies. Here is the
reality of enemies pressing round Christ. e remnant will
nd every imperfectly formed feeling of their hearts has
been perfectly gone through and expressed by Him, He
having put Himself in their place. In trusting, and in the
consciousness of integrity, He has been before them.
In the Psalms mercy always goes before righteousness,
and they never meet till Christ appears at the end to the
remnant. It cannot be said, “ Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other “ until the perfectness of redemption is
known. I may get hope, but I cannot get peace until I get
righteousness. It may be said, “ Righteousness and peace
have kissed each other “ for the Jew when Christ comes
again. A Jew under law would put righteousness before
mercy-that is the law-and Israel stood on that ground.
ey had made the golden calf before the law was given
to them; then God retires into His own sovereignty, and,
to spare any, mercy comes in. It was the resource of God
when wickedness came in. ey have been going about
to establish their own righteousness, they would not have
Christ who is the end of the law for righteousness, etc., and
when they come back, it will be on the ground of mercy
and hope.
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We, on our proper ground, are not like those who refuse
to believe until they see Him; we have the end of our
faith now, even the salvation of our souls. We know that
righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Christ has
gone into the holy place, as the Holy Ghost has come out
to us, the proof of it, and we are certain Christ is received
within, the full accomplishment of divine righteousness.
Rom. 3:20: “ By the deeds of the law there shall no esh
be justied.” But it is said, “ In Jehovah shall all the seed of
Israel be justied, and shall glory.” It is not “ shall “ to us,
but “ being [that is, having been] justied by faith.” God
had been forbearing in mercy with the Old Testament
saints, because He knew what He was going to bring in.
Now it is declared. It was not declared then.
“ Not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister
the things,” etc. “ To declare at this time his righteousness.”
ey could say, “ being fully persuaded that what God had
promised he was able also to perform.” I do not simply
believe that He is able, but that He has raised up His Son
from the dead. I may trust He will help, but not be conscious
of being helped yet; that was the patriarch’s portion. Yet I
do not expect Him to do it, but know that He has done it; it
is the ministration of righteousness. I have the knowledge
of accomplished righteousness; righteousness is declared
to faith. I am not merely hoping for mercy, trusting, and
having consciousness of integrity. ey could not judge
sin in the same way when they had not righteousness as
a settled question, which it now is forever for those who
believe. e Spirit of God now demonstrates righteousness
to the world by setting Christ at God’s right hand. Christ
said, “ I have gloried thee on the earth “; God says to Him,
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“ Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool.”
As regards the believer now, righteousness is on the
right hand of God for him. e aections ought to be
more lively now that there is the certainty of accomplished
righteousness.
ere is another thing connected with righteousness
here; righteousness is appealed to on the ground of
promises, as well as that mercy goes before it. In their state
there must be alternation of feeling, in the sense of hope in
His mercy- trusting in God; in the consciousness of sin-
down in the depths. Yet they will nd One has gone down
into the depths for them. e Spirit of God in Christ going
through all these things shows that not one place, from the
dust of death to the highest place in glory, but He has been
in-sins and all having been gone under.
e weakest saint now knows more than the apostles
could when Christ was on earth. ey trembled and ed at
the cross. We feed on that which frightened them-a dead
Christ. When once founded on righteousness, our position
is so dierent. It is sad to see a saint crouching down on
the other side of divine righteousness, instead of having on
the “ helmet of salvation,” having communion with Him in
the ecacy of His death.
ere is another thing to mark in these Psalms-the
character of HOPE running all through them. Christ
looked onward to being in the presence of God, where is
fullness of joy; this was the reward He looked for as the
end of trusting in God’s love (Psa. 16).
e reward of righteousness is glory: “ I shall be satised
when I awake with thy likeness.” Christ looked to return
into the same glory He had left for the path of humiliation
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down here; the reward for it would be glory as a crown.
e reward of walking with God in communion is joy in
His presence (end of Psa. 16); the reward of faithful walk is
the place in glory (end of Psa. 17). It is the same dierence
for us. Paul looked for the crown of righteousness, but his
highest hope was to win Christ.
Christ will come to set everything to rights in power;
judgment will return to righteousness, and all the meek of
the earth shall see. is has never been known yet. When
Christ comes in power, judgment and righteousness will
go together. Power will be given to the Judge, who will act
in righteousness. e great hindrance to our understanding
the Old Testament scriptures is our putting ourselves into
them. God’s faithfulness, of course, is always true; but when
the Spirit of prophecy speaks of the people, and state of the
people (for example God hiding His face from them), we
know it does not apply to us literally. He cannot hide His
face from us. His face is shining on us in Christ. Does He
hide His face from Christ?
Psa. 18 Here are Christ’s suerings even unto death.
e death of Christ is the ground of all Christ’s dealing
with the people from Egypt to glory.
Psa. 19 is the witness of creation and witness of the
law (v. 7, etc.). Whatever man touches he deles; but the
heavens maintain the glory of God-they are what man
cannot reach. Law is broken. Man cannot change it, but
he has broken it.
e Psalms that follow, namely, Psa. 20; 21, and 22, are
all connected, and show the result of the position Christ
takes in Psa. 16, where He takes the place of caring for
“ the excellent of the earth,” etc.; as though saying, e
old world, the people in the esh, I have done with, and
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now all My delight is with the excellent. ese are they
who have received Him. e connection of that, as we
have seen, is that He must go through death. He must be
the resurrection Man. ere must be atonement. Peter was
reproved for desiring this to be avoided. Flesh cannot go
there; Christ alone can and does. “ Whither I go thou canst
not follow me now.” e moment He has to do with us, it
must be Hades, or death. He cannot bless man with union
with Himself in the esh. In the millennium He governs;
and we are blest now, but it is all in virtue of this-He has
died and risen; therefore we are told to reckon ourselves
dead. e life has come into the world that had power to
go through death; the life has gone through death, and
risen out of it.
Psa. 20 e remnant sympathize; and, looking on Him
in His trouble, pray for Him.
In Psa. 22 the excellent of the earth come to this terrible
conclusion-that they must give their Messiah up as to the
esh. ey never could understand how it was to be. In
the history we know the result of this when He was on
earth; they all forsook Him, and ed. en mark, we have
the character of His suerings brought out-suerings
from man. ey hated Him. “ eir soul abhorred me,”
as Zechariah says. e history of the Gospels is that they
would not have Him. ey sent a message after Him, “ We
will not have this man to reign over us.” All this was from
the hand and heart of man. One betrayed Him, another
denied Him in the hour of trial, even of His disciples.
en look at the priests: what heartless indierence and
unrighteousness in Pilate, who was afraid of the Jews, and
washed his hands to be clean of His death! Christ looks
round for companions, but nds none, for righteousness,
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none! for sympathy, none! for intercession, none! Mary at
Bethany was a single exception; a gleam of light was there
in the midst of the darkness. She, spending her heart on
Him, was an appropriate witness to the Son of man-the
Son of God! All except that was darkness. e more perfect
His feelings, the more He suered. It was a deep mire in
which He was standing. He had to prove the wickedness
of the human heart, that it is open and complete enmity
to what is good. Such is esh. Christ experienced what it
is on His own person. e result of all that suering from
the hand of man is judgment on man. (See Psa. 16) “ ou
hast given him what he asked of thee.” (See Heb. 5 also: “
He was heard for his piety.”) “ ine hand shall nd out all
thine enemies.”
ere are two very distinct characters in Christ’s
suerings. ere was His suering in the world, and
especially in connection with Israel; and there was this
other-He came to give His life a ransom. “ is is my blood
of the new covenant, shed for many”: and it is outside all
dispensation. We “ were by nature children of wrath “;
ALL are one as to that condition. ere was a ministration
“ of the circumcision for the truth of God, to conrm the
promises,” etc., and the Gentiles were the objects of mercy;
but through Christ’s coming into the world there was the
end of promise. ere are blessed promises made good to
us as Christians, and God will fulll all He has said for
earth, but this will be in the world to come. Christ came
as the vessel of promise. He came into the world, and the
world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. en there was a third party: “ As
many as received him,” etc. e world knew Him not; His
own received Him not. But some did receive Him; these
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were born of God. It was a new thing, not from the rst
Adam. Every Christian knows we are born anew. It is no
modication of the rst Adam, but a new life. “ e life
was manifested, and we have seen it,” etc.; and in chapter
2 of John’s epistle it is said, “ which thing is true in him,
and in you.” In chapter 1 of the Gospel he had said, “ the
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not.” John the Baptist drew attention to the “ Light “; the
Light comes into the world, and the world knows Him not.
en, again, He comes among the Jews with everything to
attract; but they saw nothing in Him to desire Him. is
gives a double character to Christ’s coming into the world.
He was connected with all who came of Adam, being born
into the world. He was the Life and the Light of men.
He did not receive life-He was it. He was the Life from
heaven. God has given to us life, and that life is in His Son;
not life in ourselves. is divine Person comes into the
world, “God manifest in the esh.” is is the rst thing-
He tries human nature, that is, the world and the Jews. He
was a minister of the circumcision, bound to come because
of the promises.
Christ’s coming as God manifested in the esh tests
man. en, secondly, He became the last Adam (I am not
now speaking of Him as Head of His body, the church,
but as risen man) the Head of everything, the First-born
from the dead. In the last Adam-Christ-we have the Man
of God’s counsels; as Zechariah has it, “ the man that is
my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts.” is is a dierent
thing from His merely testing the old thing, which, even in
Him, ends in death. True, He said, “ Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.” Even then He could
speak of resurrection, and in that resurrection He becomes
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the Head of a new thing, and He will be that forever.
is new position He never took on the earth. It was in
resurrection. We could not have had it with Him without
death-” Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and
die, it abideth alone,” etc. Such is the essence and center
of all our relationships with God. If man could have had
connection with God in the esh, on this side death, it
would prove esh good for something. It is the best thing it
could be if it could delight in God; but all testimony shows
us this is impossible.
Christ was here in perfect graciousness, speaking as
never man spake, bringing out all His resources to meet
the need of men; but the result of all this is entire and utter
rejection. e history gives us Him presenting divine grace
and graciousness, but His rejection in consequence. Not
only has man broken God’s law-that he had done already,
made a calf, etc.-but now the question was raised between
the display of God’s heart and man’s heart. He says, For
my love I have hatred “ they hated me without a cause.”
at is the whole history of the esh-God was reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them. It is this gives the true character to the world now.
Christ has been here, and has been rejected. e people
were prepared by prophecy, promise, etc. Messiah came in
by the door, was feeding the hungry with bread, doing all
things well, as some were constrained to acknowledge; but
they would not have Him.
John begins with His rejection; there is no genealogy
given by him. e other Gospels give us the history of His
rejection, but in these three verses of John 1 we have the
results of what is told in the rest. e Jews are treated as a
reprobate people; Christ is taken up as the rejected One.
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is is the starting-point with John, but grace is brought
out. e result of man’s treatment of Christ will result in
judgment on man.
e result of His atoning work is exactly the opposite.
Why did He suer from man? It was for righteousness.
When He suers from God, is it for righteousness 1 Just
the opposite. He suers for sin under the wrath of God.
He was made sin! Aye, and He suers for sin. e moment
He was made sin, He had to do with God about it. He was
absolutely alone in this; there were none to look on, man
could not contemplate. We have not such an expression
as that we have in Psa. 20, “ Jehovah hear thee,” in this
Psa. 22 e disciples were even as the world-they could not
go there. e ark must stand in the midst of Jordan until
the people are over. ere was Satan’s power, God’s wages
against sin. When He appeals to God for deliverance, He
is not heard on the cross. He tasted death for every man.
He must drink the cup of wrath-it is between God and
Himself. If He had had the least comfort from God, He
would not have drunk the cup. Man had nothing to do with
it. If man had been there, it would have been damnation;
He must be alone when suering from God. In the thought
of this suering from sin He prayed against it. Could He
say of that, “ My meat is to do the will “? etc. No! not on
the cross. is was the power of death, and in prospect of
it, in the garden of Gethsemane, He said to His disciples, “
Tarry ye here and watch “; and to God, “ If it be possible, let
this cup pass,” etc. en He takes the cup from His Father’s
hands. When on the cross He cries “ My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? “ He is forsaken of God. His
soul drinks the cup of wrath due to Him when He is made
sin. We have His thoughts and feelings expressed where
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the facts are going on. In the Psalms we have the privilege
thus of knowing how He felt when under them. Psa. 22
gives, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “
His feelings-the fact was atonement.
All that was closed in the death of Christ, and now it is
another thing, a new thing. He comes out free, discharged,
clear of all He bore on the cross, and is the resurrection
chief, the heavenly Man according to the counsels of God.
It is into union with Him we are brought by faith-a place of
unmingled and perfect grace is the result. Verse 19 shows
what was the peculiar character of Christ’s suerings
through the place He took in this world, and then the place
before God which results in this full blessing to us.
“ Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard
me from the horns of the unicorns.” He was transpierced,
not saved from it, so as not to be on it; when on the horns
of the unicorns (a gure expressing the awful suering of
that moment), He was heard. “ ou hast heard me from
the horns,” etc. “ He hath appeared once in the end of
the age to put away sin,” etc. All is judged, and this new
resurrection Man is now in the presence of God, instead of
the sinful man cast out of the presence of God; the risen
man heard from the horns of the unicorns. en He came
to give testimony of the place into which we are brought as
delivered. Angels had never seen such a thing as this I God
had now a new character as Savior-the Savior-God. Christ
had thus manifestly revealed it. It is not now responsible
man; which has been gone through and settled in the death
of Christ. Man would not have Him; then there must be
judgment on enemies (not only wicked people): this is the
result. Now God says, “ I am going to do something in the
second Adam.” “ What is the exceeding greatness of his
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power to usward who believe, according to the working
of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead,” etc. “ And you who were dead in
trespasses and sins “ hath he quickened, etc. “ Not of works,”
etc. “ We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works.” ere is the responsibility of Christians.
is new name of God, Savior, so often mentioned in
Timothy, is made known by that Man who is set at His
right hand by divine power, giving new life. God came
down in the person of Christ, who went into death and
rose again. He is the Savior. What is the rst thing He does
after His resurrection? He comes and tells His brethren
of the full deliverance He has wrought. He comes to tell
them, You are saved-you are brought before God-by virtue
of this that I have done. en He says to Mary Magdalene,
Touch me not; I am not here among you as a King, but “
I ascend unto my Father, and your Father.” He puts them
into the same relationship as Himself. “ I will declare thy
name unto my brethren; in the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee.” When He has told them of the
blessedness of being saved, the full joy of the deliverance,
He is not going to let them praise alone. e rst thing is
to reveal the new relationship, and then to praise in the
midst of them. What is the character of His praise? Can
a single note jar in His praise? If He praises, it must be
in the power of a full redemption, a nished complete
deliverance; and everything not founded on this does not
answer to His note of praise.
Speaking of our answering to God on the ground of
this redemption, what position are we to take? We can take
none but what He has taken. He comes and declares His
name to His brethren, and He leads the praise Himself, so
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that we must in worship acknowledge the full blessing into
which He has brought us. We have to follow Him in His
praise in this new relationship, not in esh but in risen life.
People say, But I must be humble! Nothing is so humble as
following Christ, and He has left sin behind-death behind;
and, blessed be God for it! there is no other position for us.
“ Ye that fear Jehovah, praise him.” is goes on to the
end of verse 24. But we come in verse 25 and following
verses to millennial time-” in the great congregation,”
when all Israel shall be satised. Not only they are meek,
but they praise Him. “ ey shall praise Jehovah that seek
him.” People now are often sorrowful and unhappy in
seeking, but not then. Verse 27. All Israel will not do, but
“ all the ends of the world shall remember, and turn to
Jehovah.” Verse 31. “ ey shall come, and shall declare his
righteousness, etc., that he hath done this “ (borne their
sins).
All this latter part (v. 25-31) as we have seen refers to
millennial blessing on earth; but we know our position is
spoken of as “ sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
He has suered from God, and there is not a word of
judgment afterward; He has suered for sin, and exhausted
it. He is the exalted Man, and as such He will execute
judgment as the result of His being rejected of man. As
to the saints-” the excellent “-His connection with them is
the key to all the blessing for us. Two things are connected
with this: rst, unbounded grace; and, secondly, the place
we are practically set in-a new footing. We have new life
from God; we are not of the world, and should be nothing
in the spirit of grace, because not of it.
Psa. 23 Jehovah is the Shepherd, going before the
sheep in the path. We cannot say Christ was a sheep: He
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is Jehovah; but He emptied Himself-went before them-
passed through every diculty and trial yet more than the
sheep.
Psa. 24 e consequence is that He is found to be the
very Jehovah; the One who in humiliation was trusting is
received on high, and owned in His glory.
Psa. 25 Here another point comes in. Up to this there
is no mention of sins; they are a tried remnant, but there
are no sins confessed till now. is is what makes the great
dierence for any soul. at they are sinners is a farther
part of the history. But atonement and grace come out in
Psa. 22 e remnant, before they trust in Christ, cry to
Jehovah. ere is not integrity lost, but sins are confessed.
Christ has combined the expression of confession and trust
together. ey can look for mercy, expect mercy, and confess
their sins. ey will be trusting, and yet not knowing how
they can trust. e soul is brought into the thorough and
deep consciousness of what God is-despairing and hoping
(we are the same when under law) alternately. e state
of the Jews will be this-not having the application in the
conscience of what the cross reaches. All needed is brought
out in the cross; but what the cross has done in bringing out
to light righteousness and love is not seen all at once. With
us it is often by little and little that the blessed picture seen
in Christ makes its way into the soul. en it is all light;
but darkness may come in afterward. At rst there is only
reckoning on the blessedness of Christ. When that reaches
the conscience it brings bitterness: what at rst attracted the
heart did not reach the elements of good and evil. When it
reaches these, it does not minister peace, because the man
has not learned the thing to which it applies in his own soul.
It is. a wonderful thing to see Christ coming, and saying, “
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My sins.” Christ made Himself one with me, taking all my
debts upon Him- my Surety! He has gone down into the
depths. “ My iniquities “; any one of the remnant might say
that. ere is the remnant’s voice in it, but there is Christ’s
rst. He has taken them. ey suer from them, never for
them-it would be eternal condemnation if they did. “ He
was wounded for our transgressions,” etc.
In this psalm there is confession of sins, and sense of
integrity (v. 5). “On thee do I wait all the day,” etc. Integrity,
coming back with the consciousness of sins, but condence
of pardon: “ Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” God brings
in the question of living righteousness, and therefore gives
the consciousness of sins: “ For thy name’s sake pardon
mine iniquity, FOR it is great.” is is strange reasoning,
according to man’s thought: men say it is a little sin, but
when taught of God we see how great it is.
Another thing is, truth is in the man, because he feels
the sin is great; he has given up any thought of justifying
himself, “ My iniquity is great.” If God does not forgive me
for His own glory’s sake, He cannot do it at all; and not one
spot of sin will He leave, for the comfort of my own heart,
or the glory of His name. So we see for Israel by-and-by in
Isa. 44:22, etc. ey are made to rest in absolute mercy, in
sovereign grace. Grace is perfect in getting rid of the sins.
e psalms following Psa. 25 give details of these
experiences, as they are going through this time of trial.
Psa. 26 gives the other side of the repentant soul, not
condence in grace, but integrity. In Psa. 27 Jehovah is the
desire and refuge, as He had bid them seek. In Psa. 28 evil
is felt, judgment looked for, in separation of heart to the
Lord. In Psa. 29 the mighty are reminded of the Mightiest.
In Psalm 30 trust in prosperity is contrasted with Jehovah,
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who is above the power of death. From Psa. 31 Christ could
quote the words of departing condence in His Father (not
Jehovah only), though it be about the godly and redeemed
remnant. Psa. 32 is the answer to Psa. 25 “ Blessed is the
man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
“ Covered “ is an allusion to the mercy-seat covering. Sins
are put away, no more to be remembered. is is held out
before them as hope. ey will have the consciousness of
forgiveness when they see Him. “ In whose spirit there is
no guile “; in the forgiveness the guile is all gone.
Psa. 33 follows this up with the joy of full deliverance by
Jehovah’s intervention, and Psa. 34 shows the soul praising
at all times because of the unchanging God who governs
all. Psa. 35 appeals to His judgment against cruel crafty
persecutors, as Psa. 36 sees good and evil in His light,
followed up by Psa. 37, which exhorts the godly to wait on
Jehovah in meekness, undisturbed by the passing prosperity
of the wicked. Psa. 38, and 39 own Jehovah’s chastening
because of their sins; but they are open before Himself,
and silent with man, but cry for His help. e latter goes
farther and more deeply than the former, the vanity of man
being realized rather than their personal feelings.
en we have the introduction of One who changes
all in Psa. 40 “ I waited patiently,” etc. Here is the reason
why the remnant should trust Jehovah. HE has been
delivered from the horrible pit and the miry clay (chewing
resurrection). ere are some special psalms connected
with Christ round which others seem clustered; this is one
of them. Here is Christ’s actual connection with the people
on earth, not only in their sorrows, but bearing their sins,
so that all who looked to Him might be blessed with Him.
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“ I, poor and needy, the Lord thinketh upon me.” “ Let all
those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee.”
Christ did not take one step to save Himself. He might
have had twelve legions of angels, but He was waiting upon
God. He appeals to God as Jehovah, not Father, because
that relationship had not been brought out as now it is. e
Jew did not know the Father as He is now revealed, and
Christ was taking the place of a godly Jew among them,
therefore He takes up the relationship known to them.
One or two verses often bring out the subject of the psalm,
and the rest are the development of that. What He did in
the position He was in is the great point here-what He
went through-what He felt. e grand principle is that He
waited on Jehovah. He is undertaking the cause of the poor
remnant, goes through all their sorrows, and bears their sin.
In the last it is FOR them, not with them; and He gives
them the comfort of being taken up to the same position
of praising with Himself. Many shall see it, and fear, and
shall trust in Jehovah.”
en there is the great central truth: “ Sacrice and
oering thou didst not desire “: “ Mine ears hast thou
(Jigged! ‘ “ He taketh away the rst that he may establish the
second.” Christ came to do God’s will. Everything centers
in Christ. All blessing is connected with relationship to
Christ, whether outcast reprobates (Gentiles), or God’s
people who had broken the covenant. All is set aside; and
Christ, who says “ Lo, I come to do thy will,” becomes
everything.
“ Mine ears hast thou (Jigged “ is not the same thing as
is spoken of in Isa. 50, “ He wakeneth mine ear.” It has a
peculiar character. He is oering Himself before He came.
In Phil. 2 we read that He becomes a man, taking the form
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of a servant, having ears, doing nothing but what He was
told, listening to every word that came out of God’s mouth.
“ By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God
doth man live.” He had ears to receive it. Christ had no
desire to do anything dierent from God’s will. God’s will
was His motive. Never to stir but as another will guide you
is perfectness as a man. Christ waited for the expression
of His Father’s will before doing anything Christ on earth
was in the form of a servant. How did He get there? By
putting o all the glory of having a will-oering Himself
before He came. It was His will to come: His love brought
Him. “ Lo, I come to do thy will.” is was will, but it
was the Father’s will. He learned obedience by the things
which He suered. He told His disciples, in going forth,
to say, “ Peace, and if the son of peace be there, your peace
shall rest upon it; if not, it shall turn to you again.” So it was
with Him. He was obedient, because He oered Himself
to obey. ere was nothing but obedience (power, of course,
in Him); He is in the place of perfect obedience. e rst
word is not from God, “ Do you go,” but from Christ, “ Lo,
I come.” In the counsels of God it was written in the book.
is gives us a knowledge of Christ, His intercourse with
God, before He came. Here is Christ, the divine person,
the source of all the blessing, taking the place of obedience.
He is the Servant now! What is He doing for us? Bringing
out God to us, to our eye. He has brought God right down
to our heart.
“ I have preached righteousness in the great
congregation.” He made perfectly good God’s character in
the world, and this cost Him His life. He went out to all the
people, declared God’s faithfulness, was not hindered, did
not hide and got into “ miry clay “ in consequence, under
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all that could press a man down. Christ has not failed to
bring all that God is to us. How we want it in a world that
has got away as far as it can from God, with its artices,
etc., like Cain! Others talked about the thing, but Christ
was the thing. In every word and act they might have seen
the Father, if they had had eyes to see. Christ can say, I
know the world, what it is; I have gone through it all, like
Noah’s dove, and never found an echo: now you come to
Me! I will give you rest. ere is never any rest for a human
soul, but in Him. One then learns of Him in the meekness
and submission of His soul.
Psalm 41 closes the book with the blessedness of him
who considers the poor, not the proud but poor, of the
ock, as having God’s mind. is Christ understood fully,
as He was it perfectly, and availed Himself of a sentence
in it about one who was as far from this mind as could be.
But as the wicked do not triumph in the end, so Jehovah
favors, even upon the earth, the despised for whom plots
are laid, upholds them in integrity, and sets them before
His face forever.
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Psalm 4
DAVID, the instrument that God employed to give us
the Psalms, as also the other Psalmists, passed through the
circumstances of which they speak. Hence there are found
in them more experiences than prophecies. ey are all
prophetic no doubt, but at the same time characteristically
give us experiences. It is the Spirit of Christ which by means
of the prophet thinks and speaks of these experiences.
e prophet meets with like circumstances, and the Holy
Spirit gives him to express his feelings. One knows the
circumstances which occasioned several of the psalms; but
the Spirit of God has an object to which the circumstances
correspond. e rst verses of the psalm contain ordinarily
the summary.
David, seeing his glory defamed, gures the Messiah
here. e circumstances are like those of Jesus before
Herod. David is in a strait. e proofs of the power of God
with respect to Israel fail him; he was also according to
man in despair. All the authorities were against him. He
had lost all with those who followed him. e Amalekites
had swept everything away. David had nothing left but the
Eternal. e soul and the church nd themselves in like
circumstances.
e latter half of verse 6 is the answer to the demand, “
Who will show us any good? Jehovah, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us.” When the soul rests entirely
on the Eternal and has nothing but God, it enters into peace
and joy. It is easy to bless God when the circumstances
are as we wish. But if God leaves us there, He leaves us
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far from Him, preoccupied with the things that perish.
Eden is now impossible. If man is content with what he
nds here below, he is content with death, with that which
passes away. e soul is ever pushed to the point of saying,
Who will show us any good? “ ere is nothing that abides
as the stay of the soul. One nds oneself outside Eden;
God seems not for us; Satan is against us. One must be
driven there to understand that all around is far from God,
without seeing any good in self or any resource outside it.
If God reveals Himself to the soul, it feels its condition,
and that, instead of escaping from God, it must nd
Him. Outside Him is no rest. It is then the soul can say,
“ Lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.” If
the soul withdraws from God, it occupies itself with
things here below as its object. God exercises discipline
to recall from such a state. Faith nds in Him the same
answer. When the soul gets back to God, it no more has
other resources or other desires. It says, LORD, lift thou
up, etc. It is entirely satised with being in the light of
God’s countenance. When in the midst of hankerings and
dicult circumstances the soul turns to God, a great work
is already done in the heart. Sin is come into the world,
and there is nothing that is not infected with it. God can
nd nothing in the world to enrich us with, nothing that
does not ll the hand of death which seizes all. He gives
and makes known Christ, and thus sets apart the godly for
Himself with the condence that He hears us (v. 3). us
by Him we learn the truth as to all.
e moment Christ is thus recognized by virtue of the
Holy Spirit, the heart attaches itself to Him, and nds its
treasure in Him, seeing that there is nothing good in itself.
e more one sees in man the ignorance of spiritual things,
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the more also one feels the necessity of knowing what
we are. is discovery of the state of our souls makes us
understand that all is vanity by the revelation of that which
xes and attaches us to God in His unchanging goodness.
For as Christ has been judged for all that was evil and vain
in us, so God discovers to us all that He is in our favor. We
have always the assurance, founded on Christ, that God
will lift on us the light of His countenance. ere is in
Him no variableness nor shadow of turning; and we know
that He has before Him the Beloved, and has chosen us in
Him, and we cannot seek peace in vanity.
After creating all, God rested from His work; but sin
has spoiled it all and turned it into vanity, so that God
cannot any longer rest there. ere is one only man, Jesus,
in whom He nds His good pleasure. He does not change
the world, but chooses the Beloved before His face. ere
is the rock of our assurance-Christ and His work on our
behalf. Faith nds its rest and peace in God, whatever be
the diculties. To enjoy the favor of God and the light of
His countenance is our sole good. is goes deep into the
heart-whether we are content with all if God lifts upon us
the light of His face. ere is what gives uprightness.
If I look to the countenance of God, the opinions of men
do not shake me. If we think there is any good thing in us,
we are still in rebellion against God. e world is content
to receive good things from God; but the moment they
cease, the heart’s rebellion and ingratitude are manifest.
It is in Christ alone that God has all His complacency,
because the world is all alienated from Him. He is also our
Beloved, for He has reconciled us to God. e Son of God
loved me and gave Himself for me. e Beloved of God is
my Beloved.
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Am I content whatever the circumstances provided that
God lifts upon me the light of His face? If we are not, there
is still in us something which the Holy Spirit condemns. If
the heart acts on the circumstances, happiness is lost when
they change, and one cannot say, LORD, lift ou upon me
the light of y countenance. When the heart is attached
to Christ, we nd in Him all that can be conceived, yea, all
that God can reveal of blessedness. A Christian ought not
day by day to desire any other thing than Christ. en we
enjoy the light of God’s countenance shining on us and
reject all that is inconsistent with Him and His glory.
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Psalm 8
IN Psa. 1 we saw the righteous man, delighting in the
law and the normal results of the earthly government of
God as to just and unjust. en Psa. 2 declared that, spite
of all the world, He will bring in His incarnate Son, and set
Him as king on the holy hill of Zion; the latter exhibiting
the counsels, as the former did the governmental principles,
of God. Psa. 3-7 express the exercises of the godly
amongst the ungodly who are in power. In these psalms,
consequently, we hear the righteous remnant looking for
the Lord’s coming in judgment to sustain their faith and
make good His word; but they pass through every sort
of trial, for the circumstances suppose that Christ is not
reigning over the earth, and that evil is not yet judged. God
is standing back as it were; nevertheless He turns these
trials of circumstances and exercises of heart of the godly
to their prot, a blessing much deeper than if the judgment
fell at once on the ungodly.
Psa. 8 is of another character. Jehovah is to be gloried
in the earth, as well as His glory to be set above the heavens.
As a whole, we know this has not been yet. e Father’s
name has been declared, and is now, to the hearts of the
children. e Son of man is gloried, and God is gloried
in Him. But never yet has the name of Jehovah become
excellent in all the earth. Our psalm announces that it is to
be universally gloried here below. It will be when Christ
takes the government of the universe. But this depends
on His coming Cor. 15), when the dead saints rise, and
the living saints are changed. He is head over all things
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to the church, which is His body (Eph. 1). is we do not
yet see with our eyes; but we do by faith see Jesus already
crowned, the witness and pledge of all the rest (Heb. 2).
e church meanwhile is being gathered. When He enters
on the kingdom, we shall come and reign with Him. e
only thing in which, as a Christian, I can separate myself
from Christ, is where He was made sin. To look at His
glory is to look at our own; and He, the gloried man, is
exalted above all creatures, and has dominion over all the
works of God’s hand.
From Luke 9 we learn, that, being morally rejected as
the Christ or Messiah, Jesus would not set Himself up as
king. en He takes another title-” Son of man,” and as
such, He must suer. He does not permit that He should
be proclaimed any more as the Christ of Psa. 2, but falls
back on the name of “ Son of man,” as in Psa. 8 He must
suer before the glory, and be exalted in heaven, before He
takes the earthly crowns. “ Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit.” As Son of man, He is to have all things
under Him, and not merely the throne of Zion. at is to
be accomplished too; but, according to Isa. 49, He is to
have the Gentiles also. Yea, God will gather together in one
all things in Christ, whether things on earth or things in
heaven; and we shall be the heavenly Eve of the last Adam-
the Lord from heaven. In the Psalms we nd the Christ we
are associated with, but not our association with Him. e
scheme of divine government there supposed has not yet
begun. Christ is to be king, and this over the earth. Psa. 2
and 8 are prophetic. He has not yet broken the nations with
a rod of iron. His anger is to fall on the rebellious kings
before the predicted reign of blessing commences. We are
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now, as it were, associated with Aaron in the sanctuary,
before He comes out to the deliverance and salvation of
His earthly people.
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Christ’s Association of
Himself With His People
on Earth: Psalm 16
Psa. 16
I NEED hardly say that there are many aspects in which
we may consider the character of our Lord Jesus Christ; for
He is the summing up of all possible beauty and perfection
in Himself. But He is more than this. He is the means and
measure by which we can judge of everything besides. If I
want to know God, I must learn Him in Christ. If I want
to know what man is in perfection, I learn it by Christ. In
a word, all real truth is learned, and learned only, in or by
Christ. Whether it be man, or sin, or death, or life, or love,
or hatred, all is manifested in Christ, or by Christ Hence
the importance of having the soul occupied with Christ, of
feeding on Him, since He is the only transforming power,
and the only standard of excellence, and the light by which
all things else are made manifest.
It is not the joy of deliverance that is presented in this
psalm, nor the work by which deliverance is accomplished;
but rather the Deliverer in His humiliation and walk on
earth, drawn out as the attractive object of our souls. For
Christ is an object in a double way. He is an object in glory
to attract our souls upward from the earth, as it is said,
“ seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
at the right hand of God.” But He is no less an object in
His humiliation as presenting the embodiment of all moral
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excellence before God, and that in a world through which
we are called to pass.
If we contemplate Christ in glory, this gives us the
deniteness of that hope to which we are predestinated,
for we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of
God’s Son. “ We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is.” is awakens the energy of hope, of joy, and gladness. If
we are delivered from death, through the blood of Christ,
we are also planted in Him as the objects of God’s delight.
Christ’s position before the Father, and His relation to
Him, mark our position and relationship through innite
grace; for He says, “ I ascend to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.” We are like Him in the sight of
His Father, and our praises should not jar with His.
“ We wait [it is true] for the hope of righteousness by
faith “; not for “ righteousness by faith,” because we have
that, or rather in Him are that; but we wait for the hope
that belongs to it; and we know what that is, for it is
that which has now in glory. And we are to be “ changed
into the same image from glory to glory.” Christ is our
righteousness, and we have it, or rather we are it; “ we are
made the righteousness of God in him.” But we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness. e Spirit was
sent down to witness that Christ is gloried; and hence He
becomes an object to us in the glory.
It is not good for the soul only to contemplate Christ
as an agent, important as this is in its place. No question, if
I am feeding on Christ, dwelling on Him with admiration
and delight and joy, as the object of my soul, it pre-supposes
a knowledge of Him as an agent accomplishing redemption
by His death, and having taken His place on high for us,
and so maintaining the integrity of our position before
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God and our communion with Him. But if I am looking at
the priesthood of Christ, precious and necessary as it is, He
is still before me, more as an agent than the object of my
soul. As priest, He is a servant in grace. To see Him girded
thus for service doubtless draws out the aections, and
gives power and energy, and brightens our hearts all along
the road. But then all manner of exercise of heart comes in
here; because Christ deals with us in this according to what
we practically are. e priesthood of Christ has to do with
weakness and inrmities, with the ever-varying exercises
of the soul: and hence it is said, “ we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Righteousness ever
abides in God’s presence, and hence the ground of the
restoration of communion when it has been lost. If any
man sin, we are not driven to a distance, but the soul is
restored because Christ has prayed for us. It is not that we
have to ask Him to intercede, or to exercise His priesthood
for us, but that He has done so; for the movement of grace
is always on His heart. e priesthood of Christ is for
those who are righteous, who are redeemed, in order to
carry them on through the wilderness of this world. He
is their Advocate, constantly carrying on their aairs, and
the Holy Ghost is spoken of by the same title (for “ the
Comforter “ is indeed the Advocate).
us Christ applies, in divine wisdom, to the heart, all
that we have by virtue of His intercession. He is perfectly
cognizant of all that is in us, and knows how to meet it.
It is not the idea that I am going to glory, but that, God
having set me in perfect righteousness, He teaches me by
the priesthood of Christ to discern between good and evil
according to His light, or according to His nature. I am
utterly dependent in my condition, and He feeds me day by
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day with manna as I need. As He said of Israel: “ ou shalt
remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee
these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to
prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou
wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled
thee, and suered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that
he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread
only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of the Lord doth man live. y raiment waxed not old
upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years,”
Deut. 8:2-4.
He never forgot Israel for a single day, because all their
supplies in the wilderness depended on His remembrance
and faithful care; and His care as our High Priest and
Advocate is the same to us now. In all this Christ is an
agent; but in this psalm He is an object-an object in His
humiliation, and, more properly, the food of our souls. He
is not our food in glory, but in humiliation. We feed on
Him here, as a living and dead Christ. Christ does not say
in John 6, “ e bread of God is he “ which went up to
heaven; but “ He which cometh down from heaven and
giveth life unto the world.”
at which especially draws out our aections is the
tracing of Christ’s passage through this world, through
everything down here about which He has to deal with us.
When He was on earth, the Father could delight in Him
in the beginning of His path, on account of His inherent
excellence; and at the close, because of His developed
perfection. He could say, “ is is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased “; and God has given us for delight, the
very same object in which He delights. What do we say
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then? Why, in weakness and poverty, it is true, yet surely,
with unhesitating condence, we say the same! We cannot
indeed reach His perfectness in our thoughts; but then
the very sense we have of the poverty and weakness of
our apprehensions is because the Father has shown us
something of His perfectness.
e Father, in communicating His own delight, does not
say, is is My beloved Son in whom you ought to be well
pleased, but in whom I am well pleased. How marvelous
that the Father should tell us what His thoughts are about
His Son, and what His delight is in Him! It was not what
was true about Christ that attracted the poor woman in
Simon’s house (Luke 7:37-50), but it was the beauty and
attractiveness of Christ Himself that absorbed her heart.
She loved and admired Him for what He was, before she
knew what He was for her. When she knew this, she could
reect upon it, and this would give the ground of constancy
to her aections and delight. Jesus commended all she did-
her tears-her aection-her silence; because all were drawn
forth by her contemplation of Himself.
But, before we can properly feed on Christ as our
food, we must know Him as our righteousness. Some are
attracted to Christ for a while, and have joy in Him, but
for the want of a knowledge of righteousness lose their
joy, and know not how to nd it again. Righteousness sets
us in peace before God, and then we have fellowship, and
can speak of it; as the apostle says, “ truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” And
on the same ground we have fellowship one with another.
Connected with this there are three things: 1st, Walking in
the light as God is in the light; 2nd, consequent fellowship
and communion one with another; 3rd, being perfectly
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cleansed by the blood. When the soul has the sense of being
perfectly cleansed by the blood of Christ, and His death is
thus entered into, there is the ground for feeding on Christ,
and occupancy with Him as our object. And this the Lord
reckons on as a result of His love. He says to His disciples,
“ If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go to the
Father.” He reckons on their aections making them glad
on account of His joy; and He only refers to His joy, to
show how He looks for their sympathy to be engaged with
what concerned Himself. is however cannot be until
salvation is known. But Christ should be our object; and
dwelling on what He is, the food of our souls.
Two things form perfection in the creature before
God: dependence and obedience. Independence is sin-
necessarily so. All eort after a freedom of this nature is
but an attempt to break away from the sense of creature-
dependence on God. e action of our own will is sin.
When Christ became man He took the character of a
dependent, an obedient one. His Father’s will was not only
His guide in all He did, but His motive in doing it: and
this was His perfection. Observe the place of dependence
He takes in verse I of this Psalm: “ Preserve me, O God!
for in thee do I put my trust.” It is beautiful to see His
obedience, and beautiful to see it in dependence too.
Whenever the Father has His rightful place in our
aections, He has it in everything. “ Whatsoever ye do,
do all to the glory of God.” Take the example of a child
in pleasing a father: love makes it a matter of perfect
indierence to the child’s heart as to what the thing is that
is to be done; it is done to please its father, and this is
motive enough for anything. And how does the heart look
back with delight, and trace this in Christ, in all His ways
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in His pathway through this world! He had all power, but
never used it to serve Himself. From the manger to the
cross it was the embodiment of the word, “ Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God! “ Because He was above all evil, He
was able to go through all evil, unassailable by it; while at
the same time He was capable of touching and dealing
with those who were in it.
In the words, “ I said unto Jehovah, ou art my Lord,”
Christ takes the place of the servant to God; and there is
not a step in the path of life-divine life-but He trod it, in
order to show it to us. Surely it was enough to draw out the
delight of the Father to see the Son, as man, walking down
here, in everything dependent upon His pleasure, and in
everything obedient to His will. And we know indeed
that it was so, from the opened heavens at the baptism of
John, and from the voice from the excellent glory-” this is
my beloved Son.” In everything He manifested a blessed
and perfect dependence. He came out from the Father,
and carried back into His presence, a man with the stamp
of the same blessed perfectness which He had with the
Father before the world was.
He says, “ ou wilt show me the path of life “; and He
passed through death in dependence on the Father. Adam
found the path of death in his folly; but back to the path of
life he never could get. e trees of knowledge and of life
to this day are perplexing the minds of men; but no reason
nor philosophy of man can reconcile responsibility and the
gift of life. Man cannot make it out. From the beginning he
has tried to stand in responsibility, whenever the mind has
been awakened to acknowledge the claims of God, without
a knowledge of His grace. But in everything he has failed;
and all that he has done by it is to earn death. Christ comes
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into the place of ruin and death, and makes out and shows
us the path of life-that “ path which the vulture’s eye hath
not seen.” He was the life; and He tracks a path for us in
the wild waste-” in the wilderness,” as it is said, “ where
there is no way.” He nds it and shows it to us, and we have
to learn to tread it in dependence and obedience. To Him
it must be through death; therefore He says, If any man
will follow me, “ he must take up his cross.” Christ would
rather die than disobey; there is His perfectness. We have
to tread in the same steps; but Christ before us is the One
we have to look to, to think on, to feed upon, in this wild
waste of sin and death. It is not the quantity we do that
marks our spirituality; but the perfectness with which we
present Christ.
“ In thy presence there is fullness of joy.” ere
are two parts of blessedness-being with Christ, and
being like Christ. If we were constantly before God in
the consciousness of being unlike Him, it would only
distress. But we shall be with Him and like Him; and the
consciousness of this is blessedness. With Him we shall
enjoy the Father’s countenance; crowned and sitting on
thrones, but delighting to cast our crowns down before
Him, and to say, “ ou art worthy “-our souls being lled
with the excellency of Him who is in the midst.
e saints, the excellent of the earth, with whom Christ
associates Himself, are all His delight. No matter how
feeble or how failing; He says they are the excellent, and
His delight is in them-not in their state, it may be, but
in them. And He must have them with Him. “ Father, I
will that those whom thou hast given me may be with me
where I am.” He would have them with Him! He will be
in company with them in the glory, in the presence of His
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Father, where is “ fullness of joy.” And oh! may it rest on
our minds in what way Christ associates Himself with the
excellent down here; and may our hearts dwell on God’s
delight in Him, and on His perfectness down here, that we
may make it our delight to trace His footsteps, weigh His
words, and feed on Him.
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oughts on Psalm 16
As Psa. 15 gives the character of those who will have
their portion with Christ in His kingdom, when God. sets
Him as King in Zion, so in Psa. 16 Christ Himself seems
to say, I have come down from that place God Himself
had assigned Me, and taken My place in the pathway of
faith-the very same that you are in-the place of rejection, of
sorrow, of suering, the place that the godly remnant nd
themselves in. erefore is His cry to God. He used not His
own divine power to escape any suering; and, remember,
it was not suering for sin, not chastening, but the path
of faith-as He says, “ ou wilt show me the path of life.”
erefore had He His ear opened morning by morning. He
fully entered into the sorrows of the wilderness. ere is not
a sorrow comes upon a saint, not a trial of faith in which
we can nd ourselves, but Christ can fully sympathize with
us in it. If we only set our foot in the narrow way (it is with
the new nature He sympathizes), then we nd this blessed
One has been before us. It is astonishing how much we
are sustained by circumstances, how we lean upon the
circumstances that the Lord never had in His path. Much of
our joy is derived from a thousand things that Christ never
had joy in, and that gave Him not a moment’s sustainment.
We may nd ourselves losing, or in danger of losing, not
a few things by faithfulness. What then? We shall only be
brought nearer to the Lord Himself. If the path becomes
rougher than ever it was before, surely we shall nd only
the more of the sympathy of Him who has trodden it in all
its roughness. erefore can He be called “ the Author and
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Finisher of faith,” because He has run the whole course of
faith. He has suered every kind of suering and trial that
besets the path. We may each one of us have this or that
peculiar trial or sorrow. Ours is but a taste of that which
He drank to the dregs-like a shade of that which in its real
depth of grief He knew. e contradiction of sinners beset
Him on every side.
We may know somewhat of it in any little measure of
faithfulness we show. We may be called to give up father
and mother, or, as the Lord says, to “ hate father and
mother,” etc. But what had He to comfort Him from any
such sources? Everything like a prop here was gone, yet
could He say in the face of all that, “ e lines are fallen to
me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. ou
wilt show me the path of life.” Suppose death comes, Jesus
could say, “ My esh also shall rest in hope.” Hezekiah
knew and said in his trial, By all these things men live, and
in all these things is the life of the spirit.
ere is chastening, and the like, needed by us; but
Christ never sought to do anything but to please God. His
suerings therefore proceeded only from His walking in
the path of life. All that could try faith came upon Him,
while He was without anything which we have so fully that
could sustain nature. Still we nd Him in death trusting in
God. “ ou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither,” etc. e
path of life was perfectly opened out to us in Christ. ere
is a deep joy in entering in spirit into Christ’s paths. e
remnant enter into it in Psa. 20 e thorough realizing of
what Christ was as a man down here. ere is nothing lays
hold on the heart, nothing feeds it, like that. Every sorrow
that the heart of any can go through, as walking in the path
of righteousness, Jesus knew in His path. is renders His
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sympathy so peculiarly sweet. Any exaggeration would be
dangerous on this subject, thus taking away our portion.
It is true fellowship with Christ’s suerings that gives
the energy of hope. is is drawn out by the glory being
unfolded to us by His suerings. I am more and more
struck in reading the Psalms thus as connected with the
Jews.
When I look at the church, I can only say it is nothing
but sovereign grace that picks up wretched sinners and
links them with Jesus, giving them the same place, the same
portion, “ heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” I can
only gaze with wonder and adore. It was the counsel of
God from everlasting-His sovereign grace. I cannot then
talk of God’s government or His dealings with us, since
no principles of government could make us members of
Christ’s body, etc. It was all sovereign grace. e church is
the fullness, the body, of Christ. Once lay hold of that, and
what is the consequence? It draws out wonder, admiration,
worship.
But that is not all; there is another thing for us. What
mercy to know that my salvation is secure! But now as set
free from anxiety about myself I am to be occupied with
Him by whom all this wondrous work was wrought. I nd
there is not a sorrow or diculty in the pathway of life
which He is not interested in. is is other knowledge
than the knowledge of salvation. It draws out trust and
condence and love, as Job says, “ough he slay me, yet
will I trust in him.” We nd Christ Himself going through
it all-not suering for sin indeed, but for righteousness.
Only on the cross did He know what it was to suer for
sin-our sins. ere indeed He knew the forsaking of God.
If I suer as a saint, I nd the full sympathy of Jesus. If
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for sin, the Lord has no sympathy with sin, though He
Himself needed to suer for us, and thus to become known
to us not as the Bread that came down from heaven only,
but giving His esh for the life of the world (John 6). Do
you thus feed upon Him? Do you know Him as thus made
the food for your souls, that which turns into the substance
of life? en feed on Him. is is what the knowledge of
Him leads to. It is another thing from the energy of hope.
e eect of being occupied with the glory, where Christ
now is, is to enable us to overcome the diculties that
obstruct our way and to reach forward.
Occupation with His walk as a man shows us the path
of godliness. We see Him taking it in His baptism. When
those whose eyes were opened to see the principles of the
kingdom (conscious that they were bearing anything but
the good fruit) took the place of confession, Jesus was there.
e One who had so fully taken the place as man as to say
to God, “ ou art my Lord,” says also of the saints, “ In
them is all my delight.” We nd this in Heb. 2-” He is not
ashamed to call them brethren, for both he that sanctieth,
and they who are sanctied are all of one.”
“ Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,”
etc. His state was not having a will to do something or other
that must be stopped; no, He could say, “ Lo, I come to do
thy will.” Such is christian obedience, and true liberty, not
to require checking in our wills, but to have the same kind
of obedience as Christ’s. He stands alone in His suerings
in our stead. Nothing equals the glory that He will have
as the Savior of sinners. Other glory we share with Him,
but in that He is alone. In His walk He sets us an example.
In His trust in God, etc., He never takes a single step to
get the reward of obedience, but asks of His Father, as in
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John 17, “ Father, glorify thy Son,” etc.; and here, in the
simplest condence, “ ou wilt not leave my soul,” etc.
Patience with Him had its perfect work. He never stirs
even when they told Him, “ he whom thou lovest is sick.”
He waited patiently till the right time; and now His desire
for His people is that they might have His joy fullled in
themselves- that joy which He knew when He said, “ My
meat is to do the will,” etc. He trod the path of sorrow and
rejection here, but He had joy in that very path, as He says,
“ e lines are fallen to me in pleasant places.”
In Psa. 22 we get the cry of the Lord at the cross. No
suering for sin till then, but the great principle of the
communion of Christ with the sorrows of the new nature
in the saints was true before then.
In the measure in which we enter into the path, we get
communion with Christ. e aections of Christ more
known to us, we become better acquainted, as it were,
with the heart of Christ. is is not a question of safety,
but of growing up unto Him. e heavens were opened
over Him when He took the place publicly of identifying
Himself with those who were in reality the godly. When
we get into that place, the Spirit of God can lead us into
the understanding of these things-taking of the things of
Christ, and showing them unto us. But if one say, I am not
there, cannot we delight in tracing Christ in it? Even if
we are not walking in the place as we should be, it is most
blessed to trace His walk in it. It is our privilege to walk in
it, our highest privilege here; and so only shall we be fully
able to enjoy our proper portion, Christ, as led and taught
of the Spirit.
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Psalm 25
THERE is something to touch us in seeing a soul open
out to God without yet enjoying deliverance. It knows well
that he who waits on God shall not be confounded; but
peace is not there though seen from afar. We must remark
the manner in which God receives this opening of heart.
He takes cognizance of all that passes in the soul: fear,
hope, sins, deliverance. God would have us understand that
He occupies Himself with it all.
e Psalms, because of their prophetic character, are the
expression of the Holy Spirit’s operation in the soul before
it nds peace. ey do not give the denitive answer of the
love of God. ere is in our hearts a depth of hardness, of
insensibility, of, levity such that it is needful God should
take pains with them to x them and bring them down to
the feeling of their incapacity. God xes, the soul by the
sense of its wants. We are so miserable that the only means
of giving us the idea of God’s love is by xing the heart
through its wants on the contemplation of what God is; so
that where the sense of want fails the love of God is totally
unknown, as if it did not exist.
In verses 7-11 there is a deep principle. It is only
when we are thoroughly convinced that our iniquity is “
great “ that we feel the need we have of God and of His
pardon. One might think of a little iniquity that one had
just to remedy oneself, or that God might pass it over. e
heart of man upsets everything. He puts the uprightness
of Jehovah before His grace, His truth before His mercy,
and thinks that, if a man walk as he ought, God will be
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good toward him. at is just the contrary of what is
said here. “ Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my
transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me
for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD. Good and upright is the
Lola): therefore will he teach sinners in the way. e meek
will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach
his way. All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth
unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For
thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is
great,” v. 7-It. Jehovah who is “ upright “ loves uprightness;,
but before all He would have the wretched sinner know
Him as “ good.” e ill-enlightened soul that knows its
faults up to a certain point desires to arrive at enjoying the
goodness of God by its own uprightness. It is the proof of
a state of heart which knows not God and which hardens
itself against all the history He has given of man’s heart,
as well as of Himself, in the word. Hardness of heart rises
against the grace of God, and nothing more hinders grace
from acting than the thought that, if one is upright, God
will be good; and this, because the heart is neither lowly
nor softened, and pride is not yet destroyed therein.
Man wishes that one should not speak to him of his
sins. e action of the Holy Spirit, on the contrary, makes
one own and confess sin in detail. We can speak of sin in
general, or yet more of the sins of which we are not guilty;
but otherwise a man does not speak of his own sins. Did
not Peter say to the Jews, “ Ye denied the Holy One and
the Just,” although he had done so himself in a manner
still more shameful? Why did he speak of that sin without
blushing? e Holy Spirit alone could give him to do so
through Him who came by water and blood. Paul when
converted and in peace speaks freely to the Lord Jesus
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of the sins he had done against His name and saints. An
unconverted man can speak of evil or of other sins than his
own, having no condence in God’s grace for eternal life
or remission. A thief may blame a drunkard; but no one
naturally speaks of his own sins, because the conscience
avoids being upright before God. Men would hide their
sins and show their good qualities; they would pass as
honest good sort of people, and get rid of God. In that
case one has no need of the goodness of God. People will
try to meet the goodness of God by a certain uprightness;
but there is no true condence in God, and every hope of
rendering worship to God in this state of things is a fraud.
God begins with what we are; He takes us such as we are;
and man will not have it so.
God presents to us in the Bible the most extraordinary
things. He lays out all His counsels and all His resources
for the evil state in which man is found. We see then all
the eorts and the pains God has taken to put Himself in
relation with the heart of man. It is the greatest hardness of
heart to see, without being thereby touched, all that which
God has done, and the action of His Spirit in those who
are saved. One sees hearts with God’s goodness out before
them, yet abiding far from Him, such as they are. e hard
heart sees all that and goes its own way. e heart that is
thus has not yet received the least seed of life.
But one may also be convinced of sin and seek to recover
before God the place one has lost. is soul believes that
there is some means other than pure pardon. It has not
yet true relations with God. It cannot any longer seek the
world; it observes the Lord’s day; it attends meetings, and
rests on the like. But then the soul is not convinced that
God is love, any more than it is in the presence of God with
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a true knowledge of itself. Not being humbled, it chooses
itself a way to arrive at God, and cannot say, “ I wait on
thee,” as in verses 5, 21. It is when we are convinced there
is no question of getting to God, but that we are in His
presence and lost, that we can say, “ For thy name’s sake,
O Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” ere
is no more thought of bettering the conduct in order to
get to God; there is no more a way to pave. We no longer
desire then to avoid God, but we see ourselves before Him
such as we are. If God is revealed, we have to understand
that which He is Himself, and then comes the knowledge
of His grace. It is a question of knowing what God is in
respect to the sinner who is always in His presence. God
is always “ good,” and He will not sanction the wickedness
of man in leaving him quiet though hardened. Instead of
reproaching with the sin, God brings to the conviction of
sin in making it felt that He has seen the sin, that He has
thought of it, and that He has found a means of pardoning
and of teaching sinners the way they should follow.
“ For thy goodness’ sake,” “ for thy name’s sake “: there is
ground on which the soul founds its condence. Impossible
that God should fail His own name (John 17:6). He is “
good and upright.” What does the goodness of God to a
trembling and miserable sinner? It does not cast up to him
his misery, but takes cognizance of it to inspire him with
full condence and give him courage. God would deny
Himself if He failed in His goodness in this case. God
cannot do otherwise; He sees to His own name, His glory,
His truth, His grace, in a word to all that He is, as we read
in the father of the prodigal son (Luke 15:20-25).
God makes us understand that He occupies Himself
with our sins long before we ourselves were occupied with
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them. If the goodness of God is occupied with them, it
must be that He is so to get rid of them altogether, and
He has given Jesus for this purpose. To blot out our sins
completely-there is what God’s goodness would and must
do. But if one would arrive at pardon by progress in holiness,
it is to choose the road for oneself. God puts the sinner
at his ease in His presence by showing him his sins on
the head of Jesus. His glory would not be complete if the
believer were not justied. It is a salvation accomplished
forever that God presents to us, and the soul is in peace. All
this is for His name’s sake.
If the soul is assured of the goodness of God, would it
love to keep some sins? No; the conscience set free from
the thick layer of old sins becomes more delicate. If we
are truly quickened, what we nd in ourselves after our
conversion is much more painful to us than the sins were
before conversion. But Jesus is dead, knowing what we were
and because of what we are. Such as I am, God loves me;
His name is here in question, and His name in goodness.
God has condemned sin in the esh (Rom. 8:3), in that
Christ, having become man, was made sin for us (2 Cor.
5:19-21). He has been sacriced for us (Heb. 9). e name
of God who is love is thus revealed by everything that God
has done for us in Jesus.
God is upright also, and He teaches the sinner and
leads him. is comes after pardon. e rst is He is good;
then comes truth, though man’s heart thinks the inverse.
If we are in relation with a God of goodness, how will
that appear? Up to what point should He be manifested
to us? He will show in the ages to come the exceeding
riches of His grace in kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus (Eph. 2:7). God has before Him the most wretched
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of sinners (take the robber on the •cross); and what will He
do to display to the angels, etc., in heaven the riches of His
goodness? He will take us, once wretched, and set us in the
same glory as Christ Himself.
It is in us God shows what He is. You who say you are
most feeble and miserable, it is you God would choose,
if He would show the immense riches of His grace. He
cannot stop in this goodness; and it is not humility to
put limits to His goodness by saying we are too little and
unworthy. He forgives for the sake of His own name (1
John 2:12). He restores and leads for His own name’s sake.
He begins, continues, and nishes up to heaven itself and
always for the sake of His name (Phil. 1). ere is the only
thing which makes the soul upright, sincere, and open
before God, because there remains no subject of fear with
regard to sin, and there is never uprightness in the heart
till our consciences have seen and felt what we are before
God as sinners pardoned. e moment that the soul says, “
For thy name’s sake, O Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity; for
it is great,” it cannot but be that God manifests Himself.
One then makes progress in Him, and one nds the sweet
assurance that God is ever good and upright for the sinner.
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Psalm 40
THERE are some special Psalms connected with
Christ, round which others seem clustered. is is one of
them. Here is Christ’s actual association with His people
on earth, not only in their sorrows, but at length bearing
their sins, so that all who looked to Him might be blessed
with Him. “ I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh
upon me.” Christ did not take one step to save Himself.
He might have had twelve legions of angels, but He was
waiting on the Lord.
He appeals to God as Jehovah, not Father, because
this was not then brought out, as it is now. e Jew did
not know the Father as He is now revealed; and Christ
was taking the place of a godly man made under the law
amongst them. erefore He is spoken of in terms suiting
the relationship known to the Jews.
One or two verses often bring out the subject of the
psalm, the rest being the development of it. What He did
in the position He took up is the great thing here-what He
went through, what He felt. e grand principle is, that He
“ waited patiently for Jehovah “-the relationship in which
Christ as a man was standing on the earth as connected
with the remnant of Israel.
It is clear that the dierent names of God have a most
important meaning, because they are the revelation of what
He is to all. If I call Him Father, I own what He is to me
as His child. If “ Jehovah “ be employed, it is what He is in
caring for and keeping His earthly people, whom He had
called out in order to show His ways in government. If “
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God Almighty “ be used, it is as protector of His pilgrims
as Abram, Isaac, and Jacob in going from one country to
another, or abiding in presence of hostile races in Canaan.
For us it is Father. “ Holy Father, keep through thine own
name,” etc. It is important for us to know our position, as
well as to see what position Christ was in when expressing
these Psalms. In Matt. 5 He says, “ Be ye perfect, as your
Father in heaven is perfect.” He teaches us that we are to
show forth grace and not law, as the Father was doing in
Himself. erefore we have to act after the same character:
and nothing else suits those who belong to the kingdom of
heaven and have the revelation of the Father’s name.
Here, in Psalm 40, His heart is with the poor remnant.
He undertakes their cause, going through all their sorrow
and bearing their sins. In the last it is for them, not with
them; but He gives them the comfort of being taken up
to the same place with Himself, putting a new song into
their mouths, as Jehovah had into His. “ Many shall see
it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” But, moreover
He says, in verse 6, “ Sacrice and oering thou didst not
desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt oering and sin
oering hast thou not required.” ese are all put aside. “
He taketh away the rst to establish the second.” Christ
came to do God’s will. Everything centers in the Son. All
blessing is connected with relationship to Him, whether
for outcast reprobates (Gentiles), or for God’s people, the
Jews, who had broken the covenant. e Levitical system
vanishes away as not meeting God’s desires any more
than man’s need. Christ, who says “ Lo, I come to do thy
will,” is everything. en He “ preached righteousness
in the great congregation.” is cost Him His life. He
made perfectly good God’s character in the world-went
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out to all the people-declared God’s faithfulness-did not
hide His righteousness within His heart, and got into
miry clay in consequence, that is, all that can press a man
down. “ I have gloried thee on the earth.” “ I have not
concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the
great congregation.” “ Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me,”
for I have been declaring what ou art in faithfulness;
withhold not ou y tender mercies from Me. en He
goes farther (v. 12), for He came to suer not only with but
for us. “ For innumerable evils have compassed me about:
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me.” Not merely our
there, but “ MINE.” If speaking amongst the remnant He
might have said our; but when taking them on Himself,
standing alone for their deliverance, He says “ mine.”
Next, there is judgment on the enemies alluded to in
verses 14, 15, in contrast with verse 16: “ Let all those that
seek thee rejoice,” etc. It is no more clouds and darkness,
fearing the Lord and walking in darkness, not knowing
such a thing longer, but rejoicing as well as seeking; for
He has met all against us. When we are not rejoicing in
the salvation of the Lord, we have not found it; we may be
seeking it, but have not found it.
In the Psalms we have the thoughts and feelings of
Christ expressed, when the facts are going on. We have the
privilege thus of knowing how He felt when under them.
“ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “ His
feelings are here. e fact was atonement. When suering
from God He was absolutely alone-none to look on. When
He appeals to God for deliverance, He is not heard (on the
cross). “ He tasted death for every man.” If He had had the
least comfort from God, He would not have drunk the cup.
Never was He so precious to God. Never was obedience so
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perfect as at that moment. Divine love was mightier than
all the suerings- mightier than sin-mightier than death,
Satan, or wrath of God. It was not so with Peter, who was
full of joy when going out of the world; and Stephen says,
“ Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” without any suspending
of the favor of God. ere was no wrath on them: Jesus
bore it all for them-for us. e eect of the cross is a
throne of unmingled grace, and it will be open to all in the
millennium.
In Psa. 23 Jehovah is the Shepherd; we cannot say Christ
was a sheep. He is Jehovah, but still He emptied Himself-
went before them-passed through every diculty and trial.
In Psa. 24 He is Jehovah received on high.
In Psa. 25 sin is confessed. is is what makes the
dierence for any soul in the present time. e remnant,
before they trust in Christ, cry to Jehovah. How can I go
to Jehovah when I have been sinning? How can a man
trust Jehovah with a bad conscience? Here is combined the
expression of confession and of trust together. ey can
look for mercy. God never allows absolute despair in His
people, though it is often very like it. In Judas it was absolute;
and he went out and hanged himself. en all is brought
out to meet this state in the cross. If there were only love
where would be the righteousness? If righteousness only,
where the love? Both are combined in the cross. When the
cross comes in, all is perfectly clear. e righteousness is
proved to be as great as the love, and the love as great as the
righteousness. is is often not known all at once; but by
little and little the blessed picture seen in Christ makes its
way into the soul. en it is all light; but then the man nds
darkness comes in perhaps. At rst there is only reckoning
on the blessedness of Christ, and, when that reaches the
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conscience, it brings bitterness. What at rst only attracted
the heart did not reach the elements of good and evil-it
was all joy; but when light reaches these, he nds it does
not minister peace, because he has not learned the thing to
which it applies in his own soul. e state of the Jews all
through these psalms is this-not having the application in
the conscience of what the cross teaches.
It is a wonderful thing to see Christ coming to the cross,
and saying, “ mine iniquities.” Christ made Himself one
with me, taking all my debts upon Him; my surety, He has
gone down into the depths. “ Mine iniquities! “-any one of
the remnant might say that. ere is the remnant’s voice in
it; but there is Christ’s rst. He has taken them. ey suer
FROM them, never FOR them. If they suered for them,
it would be eternal condemnation. “ But he was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” “
For Christ also hath once suered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
God brings in the principle of living righteousness, and
therefore gives the consciousness of sins. “ For thy name’s
sake pardon mine iniquity; for it is great,” Psa. 25 is is
strange reasoning according to man’s thought-” for it is
great.” Men plead that it is a little sin; but when taught
of God, we see how great sin is. Another thing is, truth
is in the man, because he feels the sin great, he has given
up any thought of justifying himself. My iniquity is great:
if ou dost not forgive me for ine own glory’s sake,
ou canst not do it at all. And not one spot of sin will He
leave, for the comfort of my own heart or the glory of His
name. In Isa. 43:22, etc., Israel are made to rest in absolute
sovereign mercy. Grace is perfect in the getting rid of our
sin in Christ.
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131
us Psalm 40, “ I waited patiently,” etc., gives the
reason why the remnant should trust Jehovah. MESSIAH
has been delivered from the horrible pit and the miry clay
by the path of resurrection. en there is the great central
truth” Sacrice and oering thou didst not desire,” etc.
e Levitical system vanishes as inecacious. “ Mine ears
hast thou (Egged.” It is not here the same as Isaiah 50,
where “ he awakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. e
Lord God hath opened mine ear,” etc. is has a peculiar
character. It is His oering Himself before He came. So in
Phil. 2 we read He becomes a man, taking the form of a
servant, having ears, doing nothing but what He was told,
listening to every word that came out of God’s mouth. “
By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God
doth man live.” He had ears to receive it. Christ had no
desire to do anything dierent from God’s will: this was
His motive. Never to stir but as another-God-will guide
you, is perfectness as a man. Do you say, What! am I never
to do what I like? Oh! I answer, you want to have your own
will, which is sin.
Christ waited for the expression of His Father’s will
before doing anything. Christ on earth was in the form
of a servant. How did He get there? By putting o all the
glory of having a will of His own-oering Himself before
He came to do God’s will. His delight was to come; His
love brought Him. “ Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.”
If that was His will, it was the Father’s will. He “ learned
obedience by the things which he suered.” He told His
disciples, in going forth, to say, “ Peace … And if the son of
peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall
turn to you again.” So it was with Him. He was obedient.
He oered Himself to obey, and there was pure and
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constant obedience all through. ere was power, of course,
in Him, but He came into the place of perfect obedience.
e rst word is not from God, Do you go, but “ Lo, I
come “: it was from Christ, “ in the volume of the book it
is written of me.” is gives us a knowledge of Christ and
His intercourse with God before He came. Here is Christ,
the Son of God, a divine person, and the means of all
blessing, taking the place of obedience on earth. Nay, He
is the servant now, too: what is He doing for us? Bringing
out God to us, to our eyes; yea, He has brought God right
down to our hearts. “ I have preached righteousness in the
great congregation,” not concealed thy faithfulness, etc.
Christ has not failed to bring all that God is to us. How we
want it in a world that has got as far away as it can from
God, with its articers like Cain and his seed!
Others might talk about the thing, but Christ was it. In
every word and act they might have seen the Father, if they
had had eyes to see. Christ can say, I know the world-what
it is; I have gone through it all high and low; I have traced
it all through, and, like Noah’s dove, never found an echo.
Now you come to Me: I will give you rest. ere is never
any rest for a human heart but in Him. One then learns of
Him in the meekness and submission of His soul.
“ Let all those that seek thee rejoice,” etc. “ But I am
poor and needy: the Lord thinketh upon me.” I and the
others-
I have taken the sorrow for them, and they must rejoice.
Can you say, “ Let the Lord be magnied “? He says, I
have taken it all on myself, I have done it all. “ By the
obedience of one many shall be justied.” If you have not
been broken down to, feel your iniquity is great, you cannot
have peace; you are mixing up something of your own. If
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you get Christ instead of yourself, because you yourself are
so bad, then you can say, e Lord has put away my sin; I
am accepted in the Beloved. Are you emptied of yourself
so as to say, Christ is everything for me? He has been made
sin: is righteousness between you and God now, instead
of your sins? Whence did it come? By the love of God
owing in through the Spirit. By Him He says, “ eir sins
and iniquities will I remember no more.” All the emphasis
is on “ no more.” ey are not to be brought up another
day. Only believe in Christ and rest in grace so truly divine.
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63084
Psalm 42-72
BOOK 2
ESPECIALLY PSALMS 45 AND 68
IN the Second Book of Psalms we see the remnant
entirely cast out of Judaea; this gives a dierent character
to their state. In the First Book we have seen it was the
exercise of patience in the midst of evil that characterized
them. at is now over, and they are as a whole cast out,
with the exception of a few. e woman ies when the
abomination is set up. e extremity of evil has arrived,
and they are looking for judgment to work out deliverance
for them.
As a general thing, we nd more connection with the
person of Christ in the First Book. When in the world,
He remained in Jerusalem for a time, then He went out;
and when He went back, it was to be crucied and slain.
omas dreaded this when he said, “ ey sought of late to
stone thee, and goest thou thither again? “ Christ had been
declaring God’s righteousness, in the great congregation,
not “ refraining his lips.” ey rejected Him for it; but,
before man was allowed to lay his lawless hands upon
Him, God gives a public testimony to every part of His
glory. In the raising of Lazarus there was testimony to
Him as Son of God; riding into Jerusalem on an ass, there
was testimony to Him as Son of David; and then when
the Greeks come up, there is testimony to Him as Son of
man. All this led to His crucixion, and, in the end, to the
judgment of the Jews.
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135
Psa. 42 is the utterance of those cast out of Jerusalem.
Compare verses 5, 9, etc.
Joel 2:17 shows they have got back again after this, and
after the destruction of the beast. ose in Zion are calling
for a fast, but the putting down of enemies is not nished.
In Ezekiel we read of the Northern and Eastern armies
coming up, and they nd the Lord there. Sennacherib
represents the northern army, not the beast.
Joel 2:20, “ His stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall
come up, because he hath done great things.” “ Fear not, O
land, for the Lord will do great things.” ere is not only
apostasy judged in the beast, but there is the government of
the Lord Jesus coming in over the rebellious nations. us
there are two characters of judgment. He overcomes the
beast (that which was antagonistic to what was in heaven)
making “ war with the Lamb “: that which is apostate from
what is heavenly goes in rebellion against what is heavenly.
Christ comes from heaven and breaks that. en there is
the great northern army: Gog comes up and nds Him
there. ere are those feeble Jews there, and what are they
to do? e man of the earth has all in his hand; but God is
going to prove He is God of the earth as well as of heaven.
It seems to the tried remnant as if God had forgotten
them; but no! He is there to destroy this army, as well as
the apostate king who had been already consigned alive to
the lake of re. e Lord comes and says, “ Here I am,” and
the enemies are destroyed on the mountains. But the same
feeling has come out in this case as in the other: they say “
Where is thy God?”
ere is more historically brought out in this book of
the Psalms, and not so much of Christ’s suerings (there
is that too in Psa. 69), and more of His sitting in judgment
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over them. ere is the entire dominion of evil allowed,
and then the coming in of power to set it aside. Here you
have “ God” more than Jehovah. e link is broken, for
they are out of the land. See the dierence between Psa.
14 and 53. In the one it is Jehovah, in the other it is God:
contrast also Psa. 14:5; 53:5-the “ righteous “ and “ him
that encamped against thee.”
Psa. 43 refers to the apostate Jews, as Psa. 42 to the
rebellious Gentiles, from whom they are suering. Psa. 44
goes back in spirit, “ We have heard with our ears,” etc.
ey did not see, because driven out; but they hear. It is the
past contrasted with the present desolation. Verse 9 is their
condition; verse x 1, “ sheep appointed for meat “; verse 17,
sense of integrity; verse 23 is not Jehovah, but Adonai.
In Psa. 45 Messiah comes in; in Psa. 46 all is entirely
changed. Psa. 47 is a call anticipative of victory. Psa. 48 is
descriptive of how it comes about that the King is there.
What they said in Psa. 42-44 you get the answer to in
Psa. 48 All they have heard of they now see. It comes to
pass again, and more than ever. “ We have thought of thy
lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple “-just
what they are longing for in Psa. 42 “ According to thy
name.” ey praise according to what they know He is-
they can trust. “ y right hand is full of righteousness.”
ese titles of God, Almighty, Most High, and
Jehovah, are connected with God’s government on the
earth. e rst is connected with Abraham; the second
with Melchisedec coming to Abraham. It is a picture of
God’s taking possession of heaven and earth in Christ-
Christ being King and Priest- Priest on His throne. He
will gather together in one all things in Christ in heaven
and earth. We know God as Father, who hath “ blessed us
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with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
We shall reign with Him; we are associated with Him in
suering (little though we have) and we shall be in the
glory. Christ is to inherit all things, and we with Him; but
the best part is to be with Himself, being children of the
Father. Now Christ is sitting within the veil in heavenly
places, we in Him, and we shall be associated with Him
when He comes to take possession-we shall come out with
the Great Heir of all things.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s history we nd God spoken of as
the “ Most High.” In Psa. 91 whoever dwells in the secret of
the Most High (not Father) is safe. en Christ addresses
Jehovah, and in verse 9 the remnant speak and Jehovah
answers. All this is when God takes the government of the
earth; but He is our Father. Now we may be put to death,
and yet not a hair perish. Now is the time to suer. He is
not yet taking to Himself His great power and reigning.
Blessed that it is so, because now is the time of His long-
suering; the joint heirs are being gathered. He will reign,
the Prince of peace. Melchisedec was praising from the
Most High God and praising for Him. So it will be in
Christ, in whom center all titles of glory. As Jehovah He
will be faithful to His promises.
In 2 Cor. 6 He who is Jehovah says, “ Ye shall be my
sons and daughters “-I will take a new character towards
you. When we have the Father’s name as now, we have the
Father’s house also in prospect.
In Psa. 45 Christ is making good His title as God’s
King. In Col. 1 we see His rights as Creator to be heir
of all, and as Son of man in Heb. 2 Here it is the King.
In Deut. 32 the Most High, in dividing the lands, makes
Israel the center for the government of the earth. As the
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church is the center of blessing in heaven, Jerusalem is the
center on earth.
ere are two things to remark in connection with this:
rst, it is part of Christ’s glory; and, next, God wills that this
world is to be made, under Christ’s rule, a place of peace. It
is not so now, though “ the powers that be are ordained of
God.” Christ Himself said, “ ou hast no power against
me, except it be given thee from above “; and there was no
worse use of power than Pilate’s, when he verily washed his
hands of Christ’s blood.
When the Lord was rejected, the world was not set
right. It was more wrong than ever. When Christ went on
high, the Holy Ghost came down. Does He set the world
to rights? No! He, does not interfere with the evil, but
says, “ be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life.” Grace comes in, but God does not take His
great power and reign. Christ granted the request of the
Syrophenician woman; but this was an exceptional case of
going beyond the children.
It is not an exception when the Holy Ghost comes
down: grace is the character of His acting. e proving of
man has been closed, Christ is accepted in heaven, and,
by the Holy Ghost’s coming down, the barriers (confusion
of tongues occasioned) are not broken down; but grace
overrides those barriers in the gift of tongues. Christ will
take to Himself His great power and reign, and He will set
things to rights. Many think to set things to rights now,
some with Christ and some without; but they will not do it
either one way or the other: Christ Himself will do it. If I
stop at redemption truth, I am as it were making Christ to
act on the world, but He is not; He is in heaven, and links
saints with Him up there.
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139
All Christians are saints, not sinners. In ourselves we are
all sin; in the esh is no good thing; but we are not in esh,
but in Christ. When we come in by that door, Christ, we
come to sit down in heavenly places. If not come in there,
we must remain on earth. Heaven is opened: rstly, for the
Holy Ghost to testify of the Son of God on earth; secondly,
for angels to minister to Him as Son of man; thirdly, to
let Him forth in judgment on the white horse (Rev. 19);
fourthly, for a man full of the Holy Ghost, Stephen, to look
straight up into heaven; and so should we.
Psa. 45 is earthly: Christ is judging enemies. e
King, Messiah, is God; but He is man also. “ ou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness “ applies to His
humanity. Heb. 1 quotes it, where He says He “ makes his
angels spirits.” He makes them such; but unto the Son He
saith (He does not make Him anything) “ God, even thy
God anointed thee above thy fellows.” Directly there is His
manhood, He has fellows. A poor remnant is there ready
to suer with Him. Zech. 13 See contrast there: God calls
Christ His fellow in His humiliation. Verse 5, “ I am no
prophet,” but I was man’s slave from my youth. He came to
be our servant as man. Verse 6. e Jews-He was wounded
by them. en (v. 7) Jehovah speaks, and, passing over His
humanity, calls Him His fellow.
e kingdom is founded and is taken in a man. All
the gures of Oriental splendor are used in speaking of it.
It is Jerusalem on earth that is meant in the Psalms. e
Lamb’s wife is the heavenly Jerusalem. e king’s wife is
the earthly Jerusalem.
Verse 10. “ Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s
house.” at is what the Jews would not do in the time of
grace. It was what Christ Himself did when on earth. “
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Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round
about on them that were about him, and said, Behold my
mother and my brethren.” Under the old covenant they
will get nothing. ey cannot take the blessings even on
the ground of promise- all has failed. ey must come in
as a Ruth to take shelter under the shadow of the God
of Israel. ey have no more title than a Gentile. Christ
came as a minister of the circumcision, and they rejected
Him, so that they have no claim to anything. God will
accomplish all on His own account, but they must give up
claim entirely, and come in on the ground of grace. Verse 9.
“ King’s daughters “ are companies of Judah.
Verse 16. “ Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children.”
If you look to your fathers, you have no claim-you must
break with all the old thing. You must come in, not as the
mother of the Messiah, but as the daughter. As to the old,
you have lost everything: God in His faithfulness must do
it. In Rom. 3:7, “ God’s faithfulness gloried by my lie “ is
the true interpretation of that passage.
Psa. 46 is a strain of great condence, spite of threats
and danger. In God is their refuge and deliverer. God is
there, whatever men say; Jehovah Sabaoth is with us.
Psa. 47 anticipates Jehovah’s reign as a great king over
the earth, but withal Israel’s king specially.
In Psa. 48 Zion is celebrated as His city and the
answer is triumphant to the distress of Psa. 44 and to the
circumstances of Psa. 42; 43
Psa. 48 is “ an improvement “ of all.
Psa. 49 closes the little series from Psa. 42 (not the book,
which does not close till Psa. 72).
Psa. 50 and 51 are distinct in their character.
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141
Psa. 50 is God summoning all the world-pleading
with His people on the ground of wickedness. He will not
accept their ceremonial oerings, but the ground of His
controversy is their not keeping the law.
Psa. 51 is confession of sin, and goes a great deal farther
than David’s confession, when Nathan went to him and
charged him. It is the nation’s confession of their guilt in
the death of Christ, not only their breach of the law. You
have the same thing in Isaiah 40-the esh is grass, etc.
ere is failure; and He takes them on the ground of their
being distinct from those worshipping idols, yet guilty
of idolatry. From chapter 49 onwards it is controversy
concerning Christ.
ere is a dierence between the Jews and the ten tribes,
which are Israel. Israel were never guilty of rejecting Christ.
ey have been cast out for their rebellion and idols. Zech.
13:9, Jews; Ezek. 20, ten tribes.
In Psa. 51-68 we have the thoughts and feelings of
the remnant-the expression of their cry to God and their
condence in Him.
Psa. 52 is the expression of faith in God as to the lawless
one in power; as Psa. 53 about the wicked Jews in general,
the many, for God remained what He is, if they can no
longer call on Him as Jehovah (cf. Ps. 14). Psa. 54 is a cry
to God for deliverance by His name from strangers and
oppressors alike, when His name of Jehovah should be
praised. Psa. 55 from without deplores the wickedness in
their Jerusalem, yet God is trusted, Jehovah shall save. Psa.
56 speaks of the tears of the righteous suerers in God’s
bottle, but owns Him in hope as the Most High, the name
of millennial supremacy, and trust displaces fear: in God
and in Jehovah would he praise His word. Psa. 57 follows
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up in the sense of evil, counting on God as a refuge, but
triumphing in the end. Psa. 58 owns that nothing but
divine judgment can meet the case, and so looks for the
unsparing but just vengeance of God in the earth. Psa. 59
pursues this judgment on the outside enemies who shall be
scattered by God’s power.
en in Psalm 60 the remnant acknowledges that God
had cut them o, but pray for His turning to them again,
and are assured He will tread down their enemies. Psa. 61
is a cry of depression, but of trust in God that He will
hear, if they cry from the end of the earth; as Psa. 62 is
a still stronger expression of condence in Him, and this
growingly. Compare verses 2, 6.
In Psa. 63 we see that they are able to nd blessing
when cast out. When there are no dispensed blessings, they
look to God through all the tribulation, longing to go up
to the sanctuary. All dispensed blessings fail, but the source
cannot
dry-
In Psa. 64 the crafty enemy is brought before a God of
judgment, and then the righteous rejoice in Him.
Psa. 65 shows praise waiting there. When He has
accomplished the victory, praise will ow out. All nations
shall be blessed. eir faith had reached the point-trusting,
when in circumstances which are against us, is real faith.
But once the great deliverance is achieved there is no stint
of praise.
Psa. 66 sets forth God’s righteous interference; and men
are called to come and see His works (v. 5), to come and
hear what He has done for the soul. (Verse 16) He has
turned away neither the remnant’s prayer nor His own
mercy.
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143
In Psa. 67 the blessing of the remnant is viewed as the
way of making God’s way known to all nations; so that all
the people should praise God, and all the ends of the earth
fear Him.
Psa. 68 Here we have Christ in glory, as Psa. 69 is Christ
in suering, upon which the glory is founded.
ere is a remarkable connection between the beginning
of Psa. 68 with Num. 10. e ark going before, instead
of being in the midst to be guarded and honored by the
people, God bends to their need by going before them to
nd out a place in grace, and He meets all their enemies.
(Verse 33) Israel’s enemies are scattered by Him. e Lord
is coming at their head when there is no help.
It may be well to notice the character of judgment here.
ere are two kinds of judgment, sessional and warlike
judgment. In the end of Revelation we have the two kinds.
In chapter 18 we have the destruction of Babylon by God;
in chapter 19 Christ executes warlike judgment; in chapter
20 is sessional judgment. “ I saw thrones and they sat on
them.” In sessional judgment we are with Him, as indeed
the saints are seen on high from chapter 4.
e Messiah that appears is Jehovah, and then they not
only mourn for sins that they have done, but they mourn
for Him, etc. “ ey shall look on him whom they have
pierced,” etc., and say, “ Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of Jehovah.” ey never see Him till then. ey call
on Jehovah about all the sorrow, and when the Messiah
comes, they nd it is Himself. With us it is the same. e
deepest sorrow is not that we have sinned, but for Him.
It is the consciousness of what we have done to Him that
grieves us most. When we have received Him, repentance
has lost its legal character. It is for love to Him, and all
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144
the sweetness of His love poured into the heart makes it
see what sin is, and detest itself for not having received
Him fully. en the soul is free to understand the real
relationship that exists between us and Him. ere is not
merely the consciousness of deserving righteous judgment,
but self-loathing, and sense of His judgment more and
more. ey crave His interference, and it comes.
Dan. 7:21. e horn wars with the saints, and prevails
against them until the “ Ancient of days,” Christ, shall come.
God cannot let evil be paramount. “ As wax melteth before
the re, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.”
He comes in the character of judgment. “ rough the voice
of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down … and in
every place where the grounded sta shall pass,” etc. (Isa.
30:31, 32.) It is for the deliverance of the poor despised
remnant, and it is the proper character of judgment when
He will come to be gloried in His saints, etc. It will be the
execution of judgment, not the distinguishing character of
it, which goes on now. ere is to be a judgment of the
quick, as well as of the dead. “ e wicked perish at the
presence of God.”
Verse 9. “ Plentiful rain whereby thou dost conrm thine
inheritance when it is weary.” We are not the inheritance,
we are heirs. Israel is the inheritance. We have the same
He (Christ) has Himself-peace, love, glory. He has the
preeminence. “ is is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased.” We see this Psalm is prophetic of His taking His
place in power, not only in title. e Lord gave the word-
great was the company of those that published it. is is
a company of women [feminine noun] publishing victory
like Miriam, not proclaiming glad tidings (v. II).
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Verse 12. Warlike judgment: “ though ye have lien
among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove,” etc.
He is coming to take His place in Zion.
Verses 14-17. God has magnied Himself: it is no use
for you to magnify yourselves; God has done it, and there
is an end of you.
Verse 18 is the deliverance of Israel in that day by Christ
who ascended on high-” received up into glory,” r Tim.
3: 16. Wonderful to say of Him who is going to execute
judgment, He is “ received up.” “ He that ascended is the
same that descended,” etc. It is Christ Himself. e law set
up the middle wall of partition. Christ broke it down by
His death. It could not be broken down in any other way.
We see, rst, the incarnation of Christ; next, we have a man
rejected, spit upon, who could say, “ before Abraham was, I
am “; and then He goes up on high.
In Phil. 2 this blessed One comes down taking the form
of a man-this was the rst way of His, emptying Himself.
He proved He had power in the man to deliver this world
of all its misery, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting
out devils; but He did it all as a servant; and then, lastly,
He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death-the
death of the cross.
It is “ received gifts in the man.” Part of this is quoted in
Eph. 4, showing its application to the church. e last part,
“ for the rebellious also,” refers to what will be the portion
of the remnant when Jehovah God will dwell among them.
ese delivered ones, the fruit of the travail of His soul,
became the vessels of His power against Satan. It is only
after the cross that Satan is called the god of this world;
but the church is now the vessel of the agency of God
against Satan by the Holy Ghost sent down, the witness of
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grace, not of judgment (though judgment was within, for
example, on Ananias and Sapphira). We are all (believers)
the living witnesses of Christ’s victory, while Satan is going
about in the world. How far do we realize this?
Verse 21. “ Enemies “ are to be destroyed. e church
does not call for judgment on enemies, but the Jews look
for the destruction of enemies, because they are to remain
here. ere is to be glory recognized-complete deliverance
for them. Christ is gone on high as Son of man. He is set
in a divine place at the right hand of God, and we are made
partakers of the divine nature, and sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise. So too we are to be caught up to meet
Him above, instead of being like the Jews delivered by the
execution of those who despise us here below.
Here it is the joy and deliverance of Israel on earth. e
beauty of holiness reappears on better and more enduring
ground-Messiah’s grace and the new covenant, not their
own vain pledge to the old. e tribes come up to the
sanctuary, kings bring presents, princes come from Egypt,
Ethiopia stretches her hands to God. “ Sing unto God,
ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord;
Selah: to him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens,
which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a
mighty voice. Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency
is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. O God, thou
art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he
that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be
God.”
Verse 34. He has taken His place in the “ cloud “ again.
e “ cloud “ is indicative of His presence, the Shechaniah
and the pillar of cloud by day. And on the mount of
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transguration they “ feared as they entered the cloud.”
Christ will come in the clouds.
Psa. 69 is the righteous One, not here forsaken of God
in atonement for sin as in Psa. 22, but crushed under man’s
hatred and reproach, enemies without a cause in the face of
the zeal for God’s house that has eaten Him up. Yet all is
taken from God’s hand; and as He owns Himself smitten
of God, so He looks and prays for vengeance, not grace.
Psa. 70 expresses what the Spirit of Christ in the remnant
will then desire in respect of both foes and friends; as Psa.
71 gives the link with God’s dealings from the rst, and
prays for His faithful care at last, in order that their lips
may show forth His praise. Finally Psa. 72 presents their
desires fullled in the reign of peace and blessing under the
true Son of David on the earth.
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Psalm 63
GOD wants every thought and desire of our hearts.
at is the eect of His coming down to us, and is very
blessed. ere is another thing, and even a better, that is,
His lifting us up to Him where He is. When God meets our
thoughts, wants, and feelings, it is His answering according
to the measure of our need; in the other He surpasses all
the desires of our hearts and minds. See it in Psa. 132 when
certain blessings are asked, and each desire is surpassed.
See verses 8 and 13; verse 9 answered in verse 16; verse to
in verse 17. ere is trial of faith: He suers His people
to hunger, etc., that they may know the value of being fed
by Him as He will. ere is personal relationship between
the saint and God” mine and thine “ in John 17-which
connects itself with what He is for us.
To Abram God said (Gen. 15), “ I am thy shield,”
because he wanted protection, “ my exceeding great
reward.” It did not go beyond Abram’s want-he wished
an heir. is is dierent from his delighting in God.
What God is bringing us to is to delight in Himself. See
Abraham in Gen. 17:17: “ I am the Almighty God.” is
is quite another thing. It was God’s revelation of Himself
to Abraham. True, all kinds of blessing are connected with
it; but it is a higher thing, because it revealed God, and led
him up to communion with Him, while the other threw
him back on his own need and wishes.
It is a dierent thing to have the joy of the relationship,
and to have the fruits of it. “ O my God, early will I seek
thee.” ere is activity of soul thus seeking God. e soul
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athirst for God seeks-there is diligence in seeking God for
Himself-the mouth is open for everything. e Psalm does
not speak of seeking for water; when a man is thirsty, he
seeks for water; but here it is more thirsting for Him who
gives the water.
e conscious relationship was founded. “ O God, thou
art my God.” e more he enjoyed God, the more it was felt
to be a dry and thirsty land-not dry because of the weariness
of the way. What does it matter, the dry and thirsty land,
if I have the living water in my soul? I do not think about
the dryness then. It is not being at home yet either. It is the
wilderness in Rom. 8 If I know I am to be in the same glory
with Christ, what will aect me here? What! people going
to be with the Lord in glory; and yet the slightest thing
can upset me now! I feel the wretchedness, because I have
got the glory-I am not acquiring it, but seeking it because
I have it. ink of a person who had seen heaven-knowing
all the blessedness of it-going through such a world as this!
at is what it was to Christ. What made Him feel it was
the joy? “ Because thy loving-kindness is better than life,”
this world is a wilderness.
“ y loving-kindness is better than life “; but it brings
death upon one. No matter: “ In everything give thanks.”
What! in sorrow? Yes, to be sure, we have the key to the
joy in having Himself. “ y loving-kindness is better than
life; therefore will I praise thee while I live.” “ My soul shall
be satised as with marrow and fatness.” What! in the
desert? Yes, that is the very place, because God Himself
is His portion. “ My mouth shall praise thee with joyful
lips.” Now we often praise, when we are not very joyful
(there is a certain pressure on the heart), and it is right to
do it at all times; but here the heart is so full of the blessing
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that it is pressed out of him. We learn from Psa. 42 that
the health of my countenance is the eect of the light of
y countenance. e heart is lifted up above the sorrow
because occupied with God Himself.
In Psa. 63 the soul is in the state in which Psa. 42 ends.
It is not an oppressed heart looking out for what would
make him joyful, but rejoicing because the spring is there.
“ erefore I will bless thee while I live.”
ere is help in God (see v. 7) for the diculties of the
way. It is not here the enjoyment of God Himself, but His
protection. Do I look forward to my life to come? I defy
anyone to know anything but that His window is open.
God, then, is the only certain thing. I have no certainty
that there will be a to-morrow, but there is God. Because
the heart is in heaven, we can rejoice in the thing itself we
have got for all times. “ Jehovah is my Shepherd: I shall not
want.” It is not, He has put me in certain circumstances,
and I shall be happy there; but it is something to depend
on, to know He is my Shepherd. en there is earnestness
of purpose in following after. (Verse 8.) So Paul: “ I press
toward the mark,” following hard after Him in a “ dry and
thirsty land.” Paul in prison was pressing on toward Christ,
and rejoicing in the Lord; he had nothing else to rejoice in.
In nothing too should we be terried by adversaries, which
is to them an evident token of perdition (v. 9, 10); as on
the other hand Christ and they that are His alone shall be
exalted forever (v. 11).
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On the Psalms, Especially
110: Psalms 90-102
THE character of the fourth book of Psalms is marked
by the bringing in of the “ only-begotten “ into the world
again. But rst He is cut o, and He who was cut o is
Jehovah the Creator. e fth and last book is the only
one which speaks of Christ as Melchisedec. is is the rst
psalm which speaks of Him as man after the restoration.
He now takes His throne as Priest. e last psalms are the
hallelujahs.
After Psa. 102, which is the center of book 4, we nd
the people repassing all the ways and dealings of God,
when they gather round Him their center, the Messiah.
All the blessings cluster round Him in this character of
Melchisedec. Psa. 103 is a review of God’s moral dealings
with the people; Psa. 104, of dealings with creation,
celebrating Jehovah, God of Israel, in connection with
creation. In Psa. 105 we have God’s positive, special favor
to them as His people, and in Psalm 106 their failure under
it. “ Gather us from amongst the heathen “ refers to the
last day, etc. ere is a summary of all God’s dealings with
them, as to forgiveness, creation, special favor, and their
failure and cry to be brought forth in mercy.
ere is one remarkable feature to be noticed in these
psalms; namely, the manner of their connection with
Christ. Psa. 102 shows the way in which He was the poor
man cut o, yet Jehovah; and Psa. 103 begins, “ Bless the
Lord, O my soul, … who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who
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healeth all thy diseases.” ere is especial interest in seeing
how this is connected with Christ in the Gospels. Jehovah
is the One who forgives and heals. is is just what the
Lord does with the paralytic. It was an example of God’s
governmental dealings with man. He healed the palsy, and
besides, He forgave the sins. ey say, “ Who is this that
forgiveth sins also? “ He proved that He was the Jehovah
who forgave them and healed their diseases. e Gospels,
while most simple (the rst three especially) in many
ways, have the greatest depth in them, if you get below
the surface. ey show what He was, if searched into; and
it is most blessed to see who He was that thus walked
amongst men, going about doing good. In the Epistles the
Holy Ghost gives the explanation of the value of Christ’s
work, and until I get peace I want that which will settle
me on that point; and when settled there, I can turn back
and see who He was, and the heart nds more food than
even in the Epistles. We nd Christ Himself. But there is
also much relative to Christ in the Psalms and in special
connection with the remnant of Israel. He calls Himself
the Son of man in the passages about the paralytic referred
to; but what He did proved Him to be the Jehovah of the
Psalms. We have in them either His own experience; or He
is in sympathy with those there (that is, in connection with
the remnant).
e fth book has a peculiar bearing, because it rehearses
the circumstances of the remnant, after their restoration. It
is their retrospect of all that has gone by. Hence it begins
with this formula (107) “ Give thanks unto the Lord, for
his mercy endureth forever.” at was the set phrase for
the celebration of the faithfulness of God in Israel. David
used it when he brought the ark back (1 Chron. 16); and
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again they used it when they came from Babylon (Ezra 3).
“ Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,” etc. is refers to
Israel brought back, and goes back to their history in the
wilderness- deliverance from Egypt; “ they that go down
to the sea in ships,” Psa. 107:23. Israel is being brought
back; and it ends in God’s setting “ the poor on high from
aiction.” What we get as a sort of preface to the book
is that all these are gathered from dierent places, in the
midst of humbled circumstances. ey are minished and
brought low-enemies are in the land; and the result of all
is, that God pours contempt upon the proud, and iniquity
in the earth is entirely cleansed.
In Psa. 108 is praise in taking possession. “rough
God we shall do valiantly”-” ou art the glory of their
strength.” e subject then turns back to Christ’s sorrow
in the wilderness, Antichrist literally being represented by
Judas. See how Christ got Himself in spirit into the very
same circumstances in which they will be in the latter day.
ere are but few of the psalms apply wholly and entirely
to the Lord in His personal sorrows. Psa. 22 applies thus
exclusively to Christ, as also Psa. 102, but not many others.
ose referring to His glory at the end of course are dierent.
ere are a great many in which some passages apply to the
Lord and others to the remnant. For instance, Psa. 69 (“
ey gave me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink “), refers to Christ; but the subject of
Psa. 69 is rst Israel. In verse 5 He speaks in the name of
His people. e one in whom the Spirit works takes up the
sorrows of the remnant. It is the Spirit of Christ; but some
are the expression of what Christ Himself went through.
In Psa. 22 you have not only what exclusively belongs to
Him, but atonement-that which man could have nothing
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to do with, except in needing and getting the blessing of
it. When we nd His Person as Creator and His atoning
work, we nd Him alone; but in all others, others could
come and do come into them. No sorrow was like His,
even that besides His suerings in making the atonement.
Psa. 69:26 shows how others are brought in. “ ey talk to
the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.” is is the
same psalm in which He speaks of “ reproach hath broken
my heart “; and we all know the accomplishment of that in
the Gospels. Yet in the other verse there were some who,
however insignicant, had a part in it.
ere is a character of suering owing from the
activity of divine love. ere is another kind-anxiety and
distress for sin, both of which we may go through, not in
atonement as Christ did, whose alone it was to be there.
But Israel will feel the distress of their sin in the last day.
What is the foundation on which He can sympathize with
sinners now in any way? Atonement.
In Psa. 22 you get, “ My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? “ “ I cry in the day time and thou hearest not,”
etc. But in this Psa. 69, which approaches nearest to that,
we get the suering very dierent in principle. “ Save me,
O God, for the waters,” etc.; “ but as for me, my prayer is
unto thee in an acceptable time,” though going up to death;
whereas in Psa. 22 He is forsaken, bearing divine wrath
for sin. ere are dogs around and “ my soul like wax,”
He says, “ but be not thou far from me.” He is far from
Him, entirely alone. He could not then speak of “ those
whom thou hast wounded.” He does bring in the church at
the end of Psa. 22 “ in the midst of the church will I sing
praise.” e judgment being completely and fully borne,
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and atonement made, He sings praise to Him who heard
Him, resurrection being the proof of it.
In Gethsemane, in prospect of the cup, He experienced
man’s weakness and the power of Satan. He sweat great
drops of blood, and cries to His Father, “ Father, if it be
possible,” etc. He had not got the cup then, though He
was thinking of it. e moment He has got the cup He
says, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “
e remnant may dread the wrath of God for sin; but they
never endure it: He has endured it for them.
We may go through and feel the reproach of Christ
in our little measure, a privilege Paul had, in scourges,
reproaches, etc. He was wonderfully like his Master; but
would he have thought it a privilege to bear the wrath of
God for sin? e power of Satan and the power of wicked
men might be all let loose upon us; but that would not be
like the suering in atonement. e sorrow and suering
on account of sin He can feel with us, for He felt it in
bearing it, and so could say, “ Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee “; but in the activity of divine love He can feel
with us, and we with Him. e other thing into which we
can never enter is what He endured for us. e historical
circumstances of Christ were just what Israel will have to
go through in the latter day- circumstances in a smaller
sphere, but in greater depth of feeling. He went through
all in spirit and through some in fact. Psalm 109 is Judas’
betrayal personally, but not conned to Judas-” them.” “
Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut
o the memory of them from the earth,” v. 15 -” them that
speak evil,” etc. (v. 20). What a wonderful provision God has
made for the comfort of the remnant in that day! Suppose
them reading these words! Christ made the atonement and
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has put words into their mouths, expressing for them their
cry, speaking of their sins, etc., and they will say, “ is poor
man cried, and the Lord heard him,” and thus they will be
encouraged to think He will hear them. ese two things
will give them encouragement when they nd out their sin;
otherwise they might say, What will become of us? and get
into despair.
When all come up, as recorded in Matthew, asking
what authority had Caesar, the Lord puts a question. ere
was a solemn process going on between them and God;
they were with “ the ocer “ in the way. en He refers to
this Psalm He speaking of His exaltation on high (Matt.
22:44), “ Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies,”
etc. is is the time He is sitting there-doing nothing for
Israel, though He is their great High Priest within, and
“ the gifts and calling of God are without repentance “;
but their whole condition, since the day of the cross till
He comes again to earth, is that He is doing nothing for
them. is is not the time that He is making His enemies
His footstool, but He is gathering the joint-heirs, while
He is sitting on the throne of God. How remarkably this
comes in as connected with making our peace! “ When
he had by himself purged our sins “; that was part of His
divine glory. He could not sit down without it, and the
work is complete; “ He forever sat down,” referring to
completeness in perpetuity. Every believer has immutable,
unchangeable perfection before God in Christ. He sits on
the right hand of God, and, consequent upon His sitting
down there, He has received the Holy Ghost. ere is now
no true christian state, but that of unclouded assurance in
the presence of God-absolute brightness there. ere is no
continual cleansing with blood; the water is for practical
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purifying. us in 1 John 1, “ e blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanseth us from all sin “ refers to our place or
standing before God.
Remark, Jehovah says in verse 1, “ Sit thou on my
right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool.” He is not
treading them under His feet. When He comes forth, we
come with Him, not to triumph upon them; that He does
alone, and the time not come yet. Our actual condition
will then be with Him. It is now by faith with Him. We
have association with Him as a heavenly Christ. Now
they are giving a place to this Jehovah on earth, who was
the rejected man. “ e Lord send the rod of thy strength
out of Zion.” We are going back to the fulllment of Psa.
2 He has set His King in Zion. “ y people [Jehovah’s
people] shall be willing,” etc. (v. 3), but not before the day
of His power. ey were not willing in His weakness; a
little remnant were, and they became the nucleus of the
church. But now “ y people shall be willing in the day of
thy power,” that is in contrast with “ sit thou on my right
hand until I make,” etc. In verse 3 “ dew of thy youth,”
means of these youths, the generation just come in, and “
the womb of the morning “ is the opening of the new day
just coming in. e people that shall be born are the dew
of the morning. e Jew elsewhere is compared to dew, and
to a lion too-strength, and not tarrying for man. “ e Sun
shall arise with healing in his wings “ for this earth; that
is, in the “ day of the Lord.” We shall be with Him in the
heavenlies then. We watch for the Morning Star; it is those
watching in the night who see this.
e Lord in verse 5 is not the same as Jehovah, it is
Adonai.
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“ e Lord shall strike through kings in the day of thy
wrath.” It is not the day of His wrath now at all, but when
that time comes He will strike through kings. e beast
will be destroyed rst-Gog and these kings; no human
power will stand before Him. “ He shall wound the heads “
(it is rather the head) over a great country (v. 6).
“ He shall drink of the brook by the way,” etc. (v. 7).
is is according to the grand principle of God’s moral
government. ose who humble themselves shall be
exalted, while those who exalt themselves shall be abased.
Christ was always the dependent One. He drank of the
brook by the way. He took whatever refreshment God sent
Him-took it as He could get it by the way. As Christ wept
over Jerusalem, so He went out really in heart giving it up,
nds a poor Samaritan, and He says, “ e elds are white
unto harvest.” He had meat to eat, He drank of the brook
by the way, in perfect subjection He took it as He could “
by the way.” He did not keep what He had to save Him
from the sorrow of the way; but He emptied Himself, to
be entirely dependent.
“ e head over a great country “ is a follower of
Nebuchadnezzar. What will he have when the humbled
One comes in? He will be smitten. He has exalted himself,
and he will be abased; and that other Man, who humbled
Himself-took only what God gave Him, He shall be
exalted. It is a future scene.
How blessed that God should give us Christ’s history in
this way! If I look at Him as in the bosom of the Father, as
Jehovah come in moral glory, the One who was humbled,
if I look at the springs that moved His heart, His suerings
under the hand of God, His glory in the latter day, what
food it gives me! “ He that eateth me, even he shall live
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by me,” and “ If ye abide in me, ye shall bring forth much
fruit.” He brings us by faith into another world altogether,
where striving together, and jostling one another up and
down, are unknown.
e Lord’s walk on earth is good for us. If we believe on
Him, we must then abide in Him. e rst thing He will
do for us, when He comes for us, will be what He speaks of
in John 17, “ Father, I will that they also whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory.” May we learn in dependence on the Lord what will
never have an end, the depth and blessedness of what is in
the Son; and so walk with Him as that the Holy Ghost
need not occupy us with ourselves, which He must do if
we walk badly!
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Psalm 72
THE second book, of which our Psalm is the last,
closes with the blessing of the whole earth: “ e prayers
of David … are ended.” It supposes and treats of the
relationship of God with Judah just at the end of the age
when forced to ee. e third book is not so much connected
with the personal history of Christ as either the rst or the
second. It is occupied with Israel, and the circumstances of
Israel are entirely dierent from Judah’s because they were
not in the land when Christ was there, and so they had
no actual part in His crucixion. e second book is more
historically prophetic than the rst, and not so much the
suerings of Christ.
In Psalm 72 we have the Solomon reign, not the Davidical
state. e true Son of David is, no doubt, much greater
than Solomon. Here Christ is King. is takes us back to
Psa. 2 Jehovah’s determination is to set His kingdom in
Zion. e kingdom is not conned to this setting up of the
King. In Matt. 13:43 we have the “ kingdom of the Father.”
ere we get its heavenly character, not setting aside the
kingdom on earth, which is to be established; but it goes
farther and higher. “ Every scribe instructed … brings out
of his treasure things new and old.” e scribes had the old
things concerning the kingdom, but they stumbled at the
Christ having to suer. If they had received Christ, man
would not have been proved to be such a sinner. But they
hated both Him and His Father, and so proved there is
no good in esh. ere would have been something good
in esh if they could have received Him. e kingdom
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was not set up then through their not receiving Him. Two
things came out after that: the mystery of the kingdom of
heaven, and the church. What is the kingdom? It is very
simple, if we take the word as it is. It is the sphere of the
reign, or where the King reigns. If I take the word church
as “ assembly,” which it really means, I can never confound
“ church “ and “ kingdom.” Compare the word “ reign “
with “ assembly,” and the dierence is easily seen.
Another thing, often not understood, is the dierence
between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God.
If the kingdom of God had been accepted on earth, it
would not have been the same as now, not the actual form
of the kingdom of heaven. Matthew takes up the change
in consequence of the King’s rejection, and speaks also of “
the Father’s kingdom “ for the heirs who follow Christ in
His rejection; because He takes it from His Father when
rejected. He is set down, not on His own throne (and so
the judgment in this Psalm brought in), but for the present
on His Father’s throne. Divine righteousness is shown in
God’s setting Him there and justifying us according to all
He had accomplished. ere was righteousness due to set
Him on the throne of God. at is what we have. “ I have
gloried thee on the earth, I have nished the work which
thou gavest me to do; and now, O Father, glorify thou me,”
etc. Christ then sits down there; and there is no judicial
kingdom at all now-it is postponed, and known only to
faith. e kingdom of the world is not become that of our
God and of His Christ. e kingdom of heaven is likened
to a sower, etc. He has altered the ground on which He
deals with the people-He sows; He brings something with
Him, instead of seeking something from man. e King
is obliged to take this mysterious character of sowing in
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the world. en, mark, He does not sow only on Jewish
ground; as to outward nearness to God, that was gone.
God does not look for fruit. He is going on ground that
is settled by judgment. erefore He is not seeking fruit
from man. is goes against man’s good opinion of himself.
Man is cut down as the good-for-nothing tree, spite of all
culture from God. e trial has been made of all men in
the Jew. All esh is grass; and the grass is withered. He
sows; He is not exercising His royal title in sowing. It is
a new work, dierent in kind. All are given up (Matt. 12)
and He sows (Matt. 13). e eld is not the Jewish people,
but “ the world.” God goes outside guilty Judah to begin
a fresh work everywhere. e time of the harvest is the
judicial time of the kingdom-not the sowing time. Christ
lets all go on as if at the beginning, and He saw nothing
of the corruption; but then He begins a judicial character.
Personally He deals with it on earth. at is the kingdom
in the mysteries of it, or hidden. Its outward character is a
great tree; the sowing is in the world. Pharaoh was a great
tree, and the Assyrian was another. Christendom is now a
great tree-an inuential power in the earth. It is ruled from
heaven, if it be the kingdom of heaven, but the sphere is
this earth. e sowing- the eld-the harvest-the search for
the treasure or the pearl-the net-are not in heaven, but on
earth.
When the joy of the kingdom is spoken of, it is the
kingdom of God. “ e kingdom of God (not of heaven)
is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” e
kingdom of heaven is dispensational; the kingdom of God
is sometimes a moral thing. Another thing connected with
the kingdom is power and not merely law. ere will be “
the law written in their hearts,” but the kingdom brings in
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power. It is the setting up of a person in the character of
king. e kingdom spoken of in the gospel is in “ mystery
“ during this time; but the thing predicted by the prophets
is “ a king shall rule in righteousness.” It is the kingdom
in manifestation. Power and righteousness were entirely in
contrast when Christ was here. He said, “ is is your hour
and the power of darkness.” ere was Satan’s power, but
righteousness in and as to Christ. Judgment had not then
returned to righteousness at all. It was the close of all hope
of it for the time, when Christ was rejected. Up to that
moment it might have been looked for; but this was the
setting aside of God’s kingdom from the earth. e Son
came and they said, “ is is the heir: come let us kill him,”
etc. Christ is not taking possession of the kingdom on the
earth now. He is not sitting on His own throne at all yet. It
is the Father’s throne where He is. He is perfectly accepted
in divine righteousness, which is now being ministered by
the Holy Ghost to faith, and which is better than any other
portion, but there is no execution of judgment. If He had
executed judgment when He went away, there would have
been no dealings in grace. He must have extinguished the
wicked from the earth at once.
e word is, “ Sit on my right hand until I make thy foes
thy footstool.” ere He is sitting down and doing nothing
as to the kingdom, but sowing, etc., in this mysterious way.
Meanwhile the mustard-tree, in which the birds of the air
(the emissaries of Satan) may lodge, is being produced; the
leaven is spreading in the three measures of meal (that is,
formal doctrine extends itself through Christendom). At
the close Christ brings in the execution of His power. is
has nothing to do with the church. Instead of His having
immediate power on earth, He is “ expecting till his enemies
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be made his footstool.” During this time of waiting the
church is being gathered; and when He comes in judgment
His gloried ones come with Him. He has accomplished
righteousness before this gathering began, and sent down
the Holy Ghost, by whom we have the revelation of that
righteousness. “ We are made the righteousness of God in
him.” is divine righteousness is established on the throne
and revealed to us in the gospel and therefore by faith.
As High Priest, Christ has gone up within the veil
(which indeed is rent), having nished the work for His
friends, and waiting for the due moment to put down
His enemies. Until He comes out, the Jews do not know
that the oering is accepted. Here are the king and priest,
represented by Moses and Aaron (Lev. 9:23), but they
stand without till His coming out; and while He is within,
to them as a nation He is unknown (to the Jews). e Holy
Ghost is sent down to make us know it is accepted. Such
is the place the church has-pre-trusters in Christ while
unseen in heaven. Righteousness is gone as to earth, but
is in the person of Christ exalted on the throne in heaven;
and there we know it and are made it in Christ by the
grace of God. Compare 2 Cor. 5 with John 16. While the
kingdom is in abeyance, the Holy Ghost has come down to
make us know the righteousness of God in Christ, which
is t for the throne of God. We share that righteousness;
we do not sit on the throne of the Father, where He now is.
is seat He has by virtue of His personal title as the Son
of God, and God Himself indeed.
e kingdom of heaven in mystery takes in all
Christendom, professors as well as true Christians. Now
there are no signs of the kingdom. What sign is it for a
king to suer? But if we suer with Him, we shall also
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reign with Him. Suering is no sign of a kingdom at all,
but it is likeness to the King. e same thing that made
Him suer on earth made Him gloried in heaven. So is
it with us. But instead of His reigning over the church, the
church will reign with Him.
He is the Bridegroom of the church, not the King of the
church. His right and power will be put forth for the earth.
Adam could give names to everything brought before him
(a proof of his dominion, such as is often shown in the
giving of a name; for example, Nebuchadnezzar giving
new names to Daniel, that of Belteshazzar, etc.); but when
Eve came, he called her Isha, from himself, Ish because she
was part of himself. He gives her the same name, even as
God called their name Adam. We have the same place as
Christ Himself, and when we shall see Him, we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We could not now
see Him as He is, and live; but then we shall be like Him,
and therefore can see Him. “ We shall appear with him “-”
be gloried together with him.” e heavenly saints are to
be like Christ and be with Him forever. We shall take the
heavenly places, which spiritual wickedness has now (Eph.
6). We shall be “ caught up to meet the Lord in the air.” In
the parable of the talents, in Matt. 25, there is no allusion
to the rule of the kingdom; while in Luke, the use of the
pounds is rewarded with cities to reign over. In Matthew,
all the servant’s reward centers in “ the joy of their Lord.”
Jude speaks of the Lord coming with ten thousands
of His saints. So in Rev. 19:14, “ e armies in heaven
followed him on white horses.” e saints come with Him
when He comes to execute judgment. (So chap. 17: 14).
ey are associated with Him in the glory He brings, as
also in what is much better, in the Father’s house. While
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He is on the Father’s throne, the church has no throne,
but suers with Him. When He takes His own throne, we
shall be with Him, and share His glory when He appears.
It is wonderful to be associated with Him in His glory,
but better to be associated with Himself. It is better to be
thinking about Himself than about Him as a King or a
Lord, important as this too may be. When Christ comes to
reign, there will be human righteousness perfect, because
Christ will execute it; but now it is divine righteousness,
ministered by the Spirit in grace (2 Cor. 3)-grace which
associates us in the eect of divine righteousness. When He
comes back as King, at rst it will be the David character of
reign. So Psalm Ica, “ I will sing of mercy and of judgment
“ (always mercy comes rst).
is Psalm states prophetically the character of Christ’s
kingdom. When He takes the kingdom, all will be judicially
set up in righteousness. It will be seen by all that God has
laid hold upon this mighty One for His people’s salvation
and the world’s blessings. ere will be real righteousness
here below, but human as to its measure, and divinely
ministered. It will be Messiah and the new covenant. e
law will be written on their hearts. e law never required
the death of Christ; this is entirely outside and above all
that the law could righteously demand. By the grace of
God He tasted death. Did the law require an agony from
the blessed and holy One? What did that prove? Man’s
righteousness? Divine love was in it; God (not law) “ made
him to be sin for us.” It was the unspeakable, unfathomable,
love of God who was gloried in it about sin. For God
to be gloried, everything in God was to be made good
in spite of sin, yea, and in respect of sin. No doubt, the
elect angels have been kept by divine power; but what a
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scene for angels to witness- the way men treated Christ in
this world! When Daniel prayed there was an order given
to answer him, and the angel could not for three weeks,
because opposed by the prince of Persia. What a scene is
this world! Is wickedness God’s glory? Is misery His glory?
No wonder one of old said, “ is was too hard for me
until I went into the sanctuary of God.” When I see the
end of these men, that will set it right, of course. God will
justify righteousness by judgment, which, long severed, will
then return to righteousness. Where, how, would love be
manifested, if all His enemies were destroyed now? e
cross glories God above all law. e announcement of the
Man who was God, dying for sinners, is that righteousness?
No, it is beyond right; it is love-innite, divine, and
sovereign love.
Psa. 94 God does not strike until there is conscience
awake in the hearts of those stricken. With the remnant
there will be tabrets and harps, wherever the grounded sta
shall pass. en the Solomon reign begins, “ He judgeth
among the gods,” that is, those to whom He has given
power. “ In his days shall the righteous ourish.” en the
kingdom is set up in power. Psa. 72, “ Prayer shall be made
for him continually,” that is, the desire of all the people is
expressed, that the king should prosper.
Psa. 67:7: “ All the ends of the earth shall fear him “;
and Psa. 72:19, “ Let the whole earth be lled with his
glory.” It is the close of all the prayers of him that had the
promises as to the blessing on earth. Verse 20.
e execution of judgment, on those found to be His
enemies when He appears, is dierent from the time when
God will judge the secrets of men’s hearts-that will be for
the heathen as well, who have not had special testimony
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about Christ, but are judged by law’s work written on their
hearts.
While things are not set right on earth, we are getting
the full fruit of divine righteousness. While to be oppressed
in the world, as He was, is the portion of faith; those who
are gathered have the full heavenly blessing. When Christ
was suering for sin, it was not to bring in government on
earth, but to work out divine righteousness, by which we
might have association with Him. His suering from God
for sin was to make innite grace ow out.
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63059
Psalm 84
THIS Psalm is the expression of the desires of those
who had long been deprived of the joy of being in the
courts of Jehovah during the captivity. It is the expression
of the joy of seeing them again, and of taking the road
which leads there, even by the valley of weeping, of Baca.
e church also moves forward toward the tabernacle of
God, but it is that which is not made by human hands.
e subject of each Psalm is ordinarily expressed at the
beginning in the rst verses. e tabernacles of Jehovah are
His house. e faithful is there at home in His rest. One
cannot nd oneself at rest when the object of the heart is
still beyond the point we have reached, even if the place
we have stopped at be the most desirable in the world. e
rst thing which is here presented to us is that the house
of Jehovah is the Israelite’s resting place (v. 1-4). “ Blessed
are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising
thee.”
But blessed also is “ the man whose strength is in thee;
in whose heart are the ways,” that is, the ways to Jehovah’s
house. Verse 4 contains our joy in hope; verse 6 contains
actual experience along the way. Passing through Baca,
they make it a spring; the rain also lleth the pools [or, with
blessings]; “ they go from strength to strength, appearing
[each] in Zion before God.” When we begin our course
here below, we know God, we learn also more to know Him;
it is a feeling which grows and strengthens by communion.
God has thereby bound the hearts of Christians. It is the
manifestation and accomplishment of His love. e more
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I know the perfectness of God, the more I know His love,
the more also I feel how precious He is to my soul. If my
knowledge of God is separated from the knowledge of
the love of God, I have not the life of God. e highest
perfection of God is manifested to the heart by the rst
visit He makes to the heart of sinners, and in this respect it
cannot be known more by the most advanced child. Here
below the heart of man does not answer to the praise of
God. One could not praise Him in the streets of a town:
the heart of man is enmity against God. e children of
God together enjoy God and prepare to go into a world
without an echo to raise the voice of the gospel. It is the
desire of the converted heart that God may be praised; and
he will be fully satised in the house of God. Impossible to
nd repose of soul till God is praised unceasingly by those
that surround Him.
“ Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.” If I
have a diculty, I in my feebleness have need of strength
to sustain me in patient endurance. Peter without this
strength denied Jesus. We may be weary when we act in
our strength, for what is the strength of the esh? When
we act in the power of God, it is impossible. No creature
can separate us from the power of God or the love of God.
What is stronger? Jesus ever dependent was the strongest,
and overcame the world. God has set our rest at the end of
a path that we are treading; and it is good for us in order
that we may make the experience of our own heart. It
is those who are already redeemed who are on the road
toward the rest of God. e word of God renders the thing
surer than any other testimony could. It is a dele to pass
on the other side of which is the glory. Into this dele we
must go down. One may there lose sight of the glory; and
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the way be dicult; but we have the certainty that it is the
road to the glory. God has told us that in this road we shall
be despised by the world and in conict with Satan. He has
told us these things before that, when they come, we might
believe His testimony to be true.
Here below we nd not the rest but the way; but the
way should be in our heart. us the valley of Baca, a ruined
earth, is changed into a fountain. If we are in communion
with God, every diculty becomes the occasion for the
display of the glory of God (2 ess. 1). e timid child
nds joy in the assurance of its mother’s love when some
danger presents itself. We are often overwhelmed because
our strength is not in God, who would have His grace
sucient for us; which is more precious than the removal
of the thorn in the esh. “ e rain also lleth the pools.”
It comes not from the earth but from heaven, to which we
should be attached and whence we may expect everything.
ere is no such source of refreshment here below that
I may know that God takes extra care of me, to give me
water and manna and strength, and in a word everything.
It is a blessing that we should be thus brought low: He has
not done so either to the Egyptians or to the Canaanites.
We ought to live on that which cometh out of the mouth
of God (Deut. 8:2-5).
e eect of these things is to make one “ go from
strength to strength.” e diculties are meant to make
us know new strength on God’s part. We are not actually
capable of enjoying all that there is in God. Also all is not
yet given us. God gets more place in our hearts. e empty
or hard places of the heart are manifested; and God has
to ll or clear them. e Lord God of hosts, that is to say,
the God who governs all things, He who is faithful to His
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promises, and who has all things at His disposal, the God
of His people, God ever the same. God presents Himself in
three dierent ways: Jehovah or the Eternal, God of Jacob,
and God of hosts. “ Behold, O God our shield, and look
upon the face of thine anointed.” ere is that assurance,
the pledge of divine favor. God regards us in Christ; and all
that we ask of Him in the name of Jesus He will do. Better
be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the
courts of the world. If our condence is in man, we shall
nd ourselves sooner or later where man will fail us; and
there is what Satan waits for in order to sift us. To trust in
God is the hardest thing, as it lays the esh under our feet,
and self can gain nothing by it, but it is inexpressible joy
for the heart.
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63060
oughts on Psalms 91 and
102
THE thing we have to learn is Christ. We may learn a
good deal in ourselves, but all that is for blessing will be in
Christ. is is what the apostle means (Heb. 6:1) when he
speaks of going on to perfection. It is vain to learn the rst
principles over and over again; if we have learned that, let
us go on to learn Christ-learn Him in all His characters,
and in all our exercises. To know Christ is to know Him
in all His various glories. At one time we have to look on
Him as Jehovah; at another, as a suering Man.
Here comes a testimony concerning the Most High.
We have in this verse 1 a general truth: the person that
dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. Verse 2. e words of
Jesus are brought out: I will say of Jehovah He is my refuge
and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust. e apostle,
in Heb. 2:13, refers to this and other parts in the Psalms
as the words of Christ. e apostle declares, I will put my
trust in Him, to be our Lord’s expression whilst walking in
the midst of trial on the earth. en (v. 3-13) we come to
the testimony of the Spirit concerning Jesus. Verse 9. is
was true in its perfectness of the Lord Jesus; it applies in all
its extent only to Him. In verse 14 we get the declaration
of the Father, “ because he hath set his love upon me.” is
was true, and true only of Jesus. He was the only One who
set His love on God. We love Him because He rst loved
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us. In our Lord’s suerings we learn the principle and
fullness of love.
“ e prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in
me, but that the world may know that I love the Father;
and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.”
He was showing this principle of love to the Father. ere
is deep blessing in seeing our Lord thus. “ Wherefore God
hath highly exalted him “ (Phil. 2:9).
He knew His name. God’s greatness is shown by
despising nothing. His love is so great that not a sparrow
falleth to the ground without His knowledge. Christ
always trusted Him (Psa. 20; 21). In the case of Jesus is the
practical exhibition of this truth-He dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High; in us in measure. Being one with
Christ, we are able to appropriate this to ourselves. All His
actings on earth came from the perfectness of communion
with the Father. e promise was, He shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty. I do always those things that
please the Father, and abide in His love (v. 2). What He
calls for is complete recognition of Himself, then come all
the promises. e one thing we have to do is to own God
in all His fullness. Imperfectly, but in principle, we dwell in
the secret of the Most High. Why we are often in trial, etc.,
is because we are not dwelling in the secret of the Most
High. Verse 4, “ He shall cover thee with his feathers,” etc.
As His power covers and shelters us, so His truth is our
shield and buckler. God’s truth always comes to us in Jesus.
Just so far as we are in the secret of the Most High, we are
under the shadow of the Almighty. If we are going our own
way, we shall have chastening and trial, and in mercy too.
What we have to seek is to make the Lord our habitation.
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He leadeth us forth in the paths of righteousness for His
name’s sake.
is psalm (102) is one of peculiar strength and
blessedness to the believer, as it brings, in one point of view,
the identity of Christ in spirit with His suering people,
and, on the other side, His identity with Jehovah. His being
Jehovah is the basis of all hopes that belong to the Jews, and
to the saints consequently. Our Lord’s suerings become
the earnest of glory to those that are His. e triumph of
Christ comes to be the pledge of deliverance and blessing
to them. is makes the testimony of His deliverance, when
suering for us, so blessed, because the earnest of ours. “ In
the day when I call, answer me speedily.” e craving of the
godly soul in trouble is the Lord’s hearing him: this is their
anxiety, for otherwise there would be wrath in the case. Of
this the resurrection of Jesus was the great witness.
In this psalm our Lord enters into every protracted
suering of His people. In all His suerings, as a righteous
man on earth, He could say, “ I know that thou hearest me
always.” I watch, etc.-the very opposite of ease. Verses 9,
10: I never nd the deepest sorrow of our Lord spoken of
exclusive of indignation. “ ou hast lifted me up, and cast
me down.” e lifting up here spoken of was true of Jesus
with the Jews. For what nation is so great? who hath God
so nigh unto them? etc. Jesus is looked at as the Messiah,
as coming in the esh, most exalted, as Head of the people,
yet He had to be “ cast down “ for the indignation that was
come upon this people.
He never took the headship, but took the casting down.
e Spirit of Christ in us always takes portion with sorrow.
“ My days are like a shadow that declineth.” en comes
the assertion of strength, of all comfort, the perpetuity of
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Jehovah; “ ou, O Lord, shalt endure; thou shalt arise,
and have mercy on Zion,” etc. Here is contrasted the way
in which Messiah was cast down in the lowest degree of
suering, and, in the midst of it, the certainty of Jehovah’s
taking mercy on His people.
If Zion be set up, all the nations who disbelieved that it
would be set up “ shall fear thy name.” en comes another
positive declaration: He shall appear in His glory. How
Jehovah is to appear brings out the identity of the suering
Messiah with Jehovah. e people which shall be created,
etc.-they shall be new creatures then. Messiah’s prayer (v.
17) will be then regarded, and fully answered; it was not
apparently regarded during His suerings on earth. e
great statements in this psalm are, Messiah cast down, but
Jehovah faithful and will build up Zion. He will regard the
prayer of the destitute, and will look down from heaven on
what takes place on earth. en comes in the repetition of
the suerings of Messiah, next His glory, not merely taken
in consequence of suering, but in virtue of His glorious
person. e secret of all our strength is this unfathomable
mystery-Christ’s being Jehovah, and His identity with
the suerings of His people. It is just the portion of the
church to know the glory is His, that He is the Jehovah-
God who founded heaven and earth, and to understand
how He was on that earth cast down was bruised, was a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and to rest in
the happy consciousness of the perfect sympathy of Christ
in all our trials, in all that in which wrath may appear to us.
In all our sorrows and troubles we must nd, whilst under
them, wrath, although we know it is chastening in love;
it produces in us, not merely the sorrow of the world, but
sense of the displeasure of the Lord under them, and we
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177
shall be looking out for His hearing our cry, just as a child
grieves to see the frown of a tender parent, because of his
displeasure shown in it.
us should we, not only on account of the trouble it
brings us into-then we are thinking of ourselves instead
of God. e great comfort of the believer is, that the
Lord Jesus having passed through all this trial is itself a
witness to us of the love of God in them; and thus we are
more than conquerors, not in carelessness, knowing that
nothing shall separate us from the love of God. We may
ourselves be the occasion of chastisement-then must there
be humbling, but love in it surely. One learns in Christ,
having gone through all, the faithfulness of God in all the
exercises we may have to pass through. We (believers) must
take everything as coming from God: otherwise we do not
give sucient value to our suerings, but give value to
ourselves in them. When wicked men cut our Lord down,
He took it all as coming from God: “ ou hast cast me
down,” etc. Faith always looks to the great source, and not
to casual instruments.
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63061
Psalm 93
I HAVE passed over the third book, as it treats more of
the detail as to the state and condition and circumstances
of the whole people of Israel in the last day. ere is not so
much of Christ in it, Christ as an object of course there is
always, but not so much the expression of His experience
when on earth. It is not merely the residue of people in
Jerusalem where Christ walked amongst them, nor driven
out of Jerusalem, but the whole nation, not exclusive of the
Jews, but taking in all. Psa. 73, “ As for me my feet were
almost gone.” ey are in perplexity until God arises in
judgment. en when He arises all is gone! As soon as the
glory comes in they will be blessed. Verse 24, “ ou wilt
guide me with thy counsel and after the glory receive me,”
and as Zechariah says, “ After the glory, hath he sent me
unto the nations which spoiled you.” ere is a dierence
for us, we get it before the glory, and when He who is our
life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in
glory. ey will not come into blessing till after the glory,
because they have not received Him in humiliation. From
Psa. 73 to Psa. 89 we have the future character of Israel; their
unfaithfulness, tempting God, etc., and in the last Psa. 88;
89, entire failure. Psa. 88 is failure under law, utter darkness
of the law on man’s spirit. Psa. 89 is failure of David’s family,
king as well as people, but the godly remnant, in this state
of darkness, in and where all is gone, nd Jesus who is set
before them in this character of Messiah.
In the fourth book we see the coming in of God in the
way of deliverance very remarkably. He is bringing in again
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the “ rst-begotten into the world,” therefore the preface is
“ Jehovah reigneth.” e everlasting gospel comes after, but
the general announcement and subject of the book is the
reign of Jehovah. Jehovah has never been reigning in the
actual exercise of power until this time comes in. His ways
and dealings with men have not been on that footing. He
is King always, of course, but He has not taken the position
of reigning over man, either in connection with Adam, or
in the giving of promises, or law. In one sense God has all
in His hand, and He says, “ do my prophets no harm,” but
He has never taken His great power and reigned yet. e
patriarchs were patterns of faith, having no possession in
the land. Man was set up as king in David; then because of
Israel’s failure under the kings, their dominion transferred
to the Gentiles, (Nebuchadnezzar). Power committed to
man, there is no knowing what he will do. Nebuchadnezzar
made an image and called on the people to worship it,
instead of God, and then put those who owned God into
the re. When Christ was on earth, things were not set
aside, He said, “ Give to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s.”
Christ became a servant amongst them. Pilate represents
the emperor who has God’s appointed authority.
Here our position is “ Do well and suer for it,” because
the rule of the Gentiles is going on instead of Jehovah’s
reigning. at you see goes on, until the two things meet
again, when the mystery of God has gone on to the open
apostasy, and power comes out under the form of Babylon,
the “ mother of harlots.” All the nations in opposition to
God’s government will then meet up in open rebellion
and nothing can bring in blessing but the Lord coming
in judgment. Jehovah reigns. e place of the saints, now
suering with Him, will be to reign with Him then. We
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shall be called up before He comes, and when He comes to
reign we come with Him to reign with Him. He will reign
over the earth; but saints gone up will reign with Him.
e character of our association with Christ is like that
of Paul, who got his soul into the glory whilst it was in
heaven. Peter had seen Christ’s suerings, he shared the
suerings and anticipated the glory. Paul had the suerings
and entered into the glory by faith, he was lling up the
measure of Christ’s suerings. You get from him not the
fact of glory revealed merely, but our being with Him, the
rays of the glory when it is revealed.
Psa. 90 Remarkable the way in which this book is
introduced. e eye is on Jehovah coming in, and faith
looks back to see the way they have been led. “ Jehovah,
thou hast been our dwelling-place.” Psa. 91 shows what
that dwellingplace was. Turning to Jehovah as coming up,
He had been their dwelling-place. To Him a thousand
years were as yesterday when it is past. He had come to
deliver, but Psa. 91 gives Christ, He that dwelleth. He takes
His place amongst these people whose dwelling-place
Jehovah had been. He takes up the names of Abraham’s
God (Most High and Almighty), going farther back than
Israel to whom He was known as Jehovah, to Abraham the
root of the olive-tree. “ Blessed be Abraham of the Most
High God,” looking on the prosperity of God’s people on
earth. God Almighty is a name God took in connection
with coming out of the world, and He that knows the
secret place knows where to look. God as a Father watches
us, but it is not that we shall always escape suering, we
have something better than promise of that kind. We may
indeed pass through the re, but not a hair of our head
shall perish, but here it is personal deliverance promised,
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and if we look for that we shall make terrible mistakes. “
Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” God will take as
much care of the remnant as of Christ. Whoever gets the “
secret place of the Most High shall abide,” etc.
Christ says, I will take Jehovah for my refuge, not as the
God of the earth yet, and Jehovah comes in as Most High.
Verse 9. Israel speaks, “ Because thou hast made,” etc. Verse
14. Jehovah takes it up, “ Because he hath set his love on
me, therefore will I deliver him.” Christ took the place of
refusing to be the Jehovah on earth, that He might suer
as Son of man. He dropped His title of Psa. 2, that He
might take the place of suering and claim of Psa. 8, and
this is Jehovah’s approval and reward.
Psa. 92 He is in the place where praise ows forth to
this great Deliverer. We get the character of the Most
High brought out. en the Lord reigneth (Psa. 93), the
oods have lifted up their voice, etc. “ Who is this that we
should obey him,” the ungodly say: “ e Lord on high is
mightier than the noise of many waters,” etc., and so it will
be they rise against Him, but He wakes up as the Judge of
the earth, and puts an end to it all. As He stilled the waves
on the lake when they thought He was asleep on a pillow,
so now He stills the raging of the nations.
Psa. 94 e remnant in distress calling for judgment. He
comes in as the Judge of the earth. He has that character,
not Savior, yet the meek of the earth will be delivered.
Wheresoever the grounded sta shall pass, it shall be with
tabrets and harps, Isa. 30:32. In order to their getting the
blessing they must look for the cutting o of enemies. e
“throne of iniquity” must be put down, and the rightful
king set up. Can Jehovah reign with Antichrist? If not,
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vengeance must be executed to put down his throne. Verse
20.
In the Psalms that follow we get the progressive
introduction of Jehovah or Jesus (as Lord) into the place of
government. In Psa. 102 the suerings of Christ on earth
are contrasted with the glory into which He comes.
Psa. 95, 96 to 99. His going on from one step to another
to bring in deliverance. Psa. 95, a solemn appeal to the
Jews, the sheep of His pasture, at the closing moment, “
to-day, if ye will hear,” etc., the solemn to-morrow is not
come. Psa. 96 e last appeal to the Gentiles; leave your
idols and come up to worship Jehovah. Psa. 97 Celebrated
prophetically, see the quotation of this Psalm in Hebrews.
Worship him,” that is Christ, worship Him. Nothing
more shows the divine Person of the Lord than these
Psalms. Here it is Jehovah in the Psalms, and in the
quotation it is applied to Christ. He is here coming to
judge the world. Psa. 98 It is done. In Psa. 99 He goes a
step farther; not only does He display His power, but He
takes pleasure in Jerusalem, and He is sitting between the
Cherubims in the temple.
en comes Psalm too, not summoning them from their
idols, but inviting them to join in the joy of the whole earth
at Jehovah being established. Israel sings this Psalm. us
we get the whole cause of the First-Begotten coming into
the world again, in these few Psalms; then turning back to
the human part in Psalm tot He comes in as Son of David.
He announces prophetically the principles on which He
will govern when He takes the throne as Man on earth.
In Psa. 102 the question is raised, How can He who
was cut o have a part in this reign? It enters in a peculiar
way into Christ’s suerings, as cut o out of the land of the
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living (not atonement), but how can He who was cut o
have part in this land of the living? It takes in the whole
scene prophetically. He had been lifted up as one chosen
from amongst the people to be Messiah, but cast down,
the lowest of the low; God’s wrath against Him. ough
He came as Messiah, with all the blessings in His hand,
He is cast down. “ ou shalt arise and have mercy on
Zion,” referring to the last days, and then (v. 15) the world
is brought in when Israel is blessed. “ He weakened my
strength by the way “; cut o at thirty-three years, how
could He come in to reign? Now we get the answer of the
Spirit. “ y years are throughout all generations “; it is
Jehovah Himself. We get that at the very time when He is
cut o; in the midst of all the glory He breaks in “ but I am
cut o,” the answer breaks in as suddenly, “ y years are
throughout all generations.” e very Jehovah that founded
everything (Heb. 1:10), “ou Lord, in the beginning has
laid the foundations of the earth.”
It is exceedingly beautiful to get the two together in this
way; the casting down and the lifting up. If Christ is the
center of our hearts, we take an interest in all that concerns
Christ Himself. He appeals to His disciples, “ If ye loved
me ye would rejoice because I go to my Father,” you would
be glad of my going away because of what concerns me. If
you love self, you will want to keep me. e moment we
have got peace and are free to think of something besides
self, every ray of glory we can perceive in connection with
Christ brightens up the interest of our souls in Him. ere
is no place where Christ speaks of His desolateness on earth
as in this Psalm, where He is declared to be the Jehovah.
How beautifully the Spirit of God brings out the loveliness
of Christ’s heart in the world! His very love isolated Him:
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He must feel for others; He must feel the sorrow of seeing
them rejecting His love. Dreadful to go through a world so
dead to its own mercies, in rejecting Him!
ere was no sorrow that He had not to go through,
even to His disciples turning away. Suppose all is very
sorrowful with us; if there is any success of the gospel it
cheers our hearts, but there was no such comfort for Him.
He said to His disciples, Tarry ye here, and watch with me:
poorly indeed they watched, for they went to sleep. He was
alone in His sorrow, and alone in His joy. “ I have meat to
eat that ye know not of.” Christ’s perfectness was the very
reason of the way He felt all the path down here. ere
was everything that could add to the cup of human sorrow.
Now, when all the brightness comes in, He says, “ I had to
be cut o “; this very one, who is Jehovah!
What a wonderful way the Spirit of God brings these
divine truths before us! Speaking of being cut o, why it is
the Jehovah! How it breaks in upon all the routing of our
thoughts, that such an object should have come in! Surely
it is enough to take us out of ourselves. e thread that
leads us to it is, the interest that Christ takes in all this. It
puts us in a place where innocence could not have put us.
God Himself has come into all the evil, bringing in grace
above all the evil. at it is which gives the exhaustless
source of all blessing; it is in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. He is presented to us to deliver us out of
all the wretched routine of this world’s thoughts, being
Himself the object for the aections of our hearts. God the
Father has given us the very object to delight in, that He
Himself delights in; one who went down into it all, that
is the reason we can have communion with Him. God is
the only One who could come into such a scene. An angel
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185
would have fallen in taking it; it would have been a fall for
any creature to have come into it!
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63062
God’s Comforts the Stay of
the Soul: Psalm 94
PSALMS 90-100 are connected together, and seem to
me to describe the dealings of the Lord with the Jews, etc.,
in the latter day, on the earth. But I am not going to speak
of that now. We may often derive comfort from principles
which we nd in such portions of the scripture, revealing
to us, as they do, God’s character, etc.; but it is important to
know the mind of the Spirit in the primary sense, as we shall
then be able to discern what God is teaching us through
them with a great deal more clearness and certainty.
e two principles which form the basis of what is dwelt
on here are, that the workers of iniquity are allowed to lift
up their heads and ourish, but that Jehovah is, and will
be, Most High for evermore. ere is the clear perception
of this throughout. Under the temporary exaltation and
prevalence of wickedness, the godly are in a very tried state,
the righteous suer; but vengeance belongs to God (not to
the suerer): therefore the cry in verses 1, 2.
To such a height are the workers of iniquity allowed to
go, that, in the consciousness that Jehovah’s throne could
not be cast down, the question comes in, “ shall the throne of
iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief
by a law? “ (v. 20). So completely has wickedness got place
in the earth, that there is a sort of inquiry raised, whether
the throne of iniquity could subsist in companionship of
judgment with the divine throne. e answer is, judgment
is coming-” Jehovah our God shall cut them o,” v. 23.
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Judgment shall return to righteousness in the place of trial
and suering.
e point on which I would dwell a little at present
is the consolation of the saints during this time of trial-
God’s “ comforts.” In the rst place we have the assurance,
“Jehovah knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are
vanity,” v. 11. en “ Blessed is the man whom thou
chastenest, O Jehovah,”
etc. (v. 12, 13).
As to the pride and purpose of man, it is settled in
a word. e “ thoughts of man “ are not only inferior to
God’s wisdom but they are “ vanity.” is settles the whole
question. All that begins and ends in the heart of man is
“ vanity,” and nothing else. Whatever the state of things
around, though there may be a “ multitude of thoughts
within,” as ‘ what will all this come to? ‘ how will that end?
‘ and the like- every barrier we can raise, all our strength,
all our weakness, whatever the wave after wave that may
ow over us-Jehovah’s thought about it all is, that it is “
vanity.” All is working together to one object-God’s plan,
that upon which His heart is set-the glorication of Jesus,
and ours, with Him. Every thought and every plan of man
must therefore be “ vanity,” because it has not this, God’s
object, for its object; and God’s object always comes to pass.
ere cannot be two ends to what is going on. Let men
break their hearts about it, all simply comes to nothing, the
end of it is “ vanity.” God’s object is, that “ all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.”
Take a man of the world-the shrewdest calculator, the
ablest politician, or the greatest statesman: a poor bed-
ridden saint is wiser than he, and more sure of having his
plans brought about; for the heart of the simplest feeblest
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saint runs in the same channel with God’s; and though the
saint has no strength, God has.
In this Psalm we nd, rst, the tumult of the enemies;
and then, that God has done it. So with the saint constantly
in trial: he sees the work of Satan, then God’s hand in it; and
he gets blessing. All the present eect of these dealings of “
the wicked “ is, “ Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest,
O Jehovah, and teachest him out of thy law; that thou
mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the
pit be digged for the wicked.” e pit is not yet digged, the
throne of iniquity is not yet put down. If, in chastening, the
power of the adversary is against us, the Lord’s end in it all
is, to give “ rest in the day of adversity,” etc.
I speak not merely of suering for Christ-if we are
reproached for the name of Christ, it is only for joy and
triumph and glory to us; but of those things in which there
may be the “ multitude of thoughts within,” because we
see that we have been walking inconsistently and carelessly
in Jehovah’s ways. Still it is, “ Blessed is the man whom
thou chastenest, O Jehovah,” etc. Jehovah does not chasten
willingly, without a needs-be for it. And when there has
been failure or inconsistency that brings chastisement, He
turns the occasion of the chastisement to the working out
of the heart’s evil that needed to be chastened. Jehovah in
chastening, throws back the heart upon the springs which
have been the occasion of the evil. e soul is hereby laid
bare for the application of God’s truth to it, that the word
may come home with power. It is taught wherefore it has
been chastened; and not only so, but it is brought into the
secret of God’s heart-it learns more of His character, who “
will not cast o his people, neither forsake his inheritance,”
v. 14. What God desires for us, is, not only that we should
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189
have privileges conferred upon us, but that we should have
fellowship with Himself. rough these chastenings, the
whole framework of the heart is brought into association
with God. And this stablishes and settles it on the certainty
of the hope that grace aords.
Look at Peter after the enemy had sifted him, though
his fall was most humbling and bitter, yet by it he gained a
deeper knowledge of God and a deeper acquaintance with
himself, so that he could apply all that he had learned to
his brethren.
e Lord gives our souls “ rest from the day of adversity
“ by communion with himself, communion not only in joy
but in holiness. We are thus brought into the secret of God.
Circumstances are only used to break down the door, and
to let in God. God is near to the soul, when He, in the
certainty of love, comes within the circumstances, and is
known as better than any circumstance.
Jehovah never chastens without occasion for it, and yet
“ Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Jehovah.”
ere is not a more wonderful word than that! I do not
say that a man can say this always while under chastening,
for, if the soul is judging itself, there will be often anxiety
and sorrow; but the eects are blessed. What we want
is that all our thoughts and ways and actings of will
should be displaced, and that God should be everything.
All chastening must have in principle the character of
government in it, for it is His dealing with His people in
righteousness (as it is said, “ If ye call on the Father who
without respect of persons, judgeth according to every
man’s work,” etc.), not in the sovereign riches of grace. It is
God’s allowing nothing in the heart inconsistent with that
holiness of which the believer has been made partaker. It is
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indeed most blessed grace that takes all the pains with us,
but that is not the character it assumes.
What we exceedingly need is intimacy of soul with God,
resting in quietness in Him, though all be confusion and
tumult around us. When the man here had God near his
heart, though iniquity abounded, it was only the means of
making God’s “ comforts “ known to his soul; as it is said,
“ In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts
delight my soul,” v. 19. Our portion is not only to know the
riches of divine grace, but the secret of the Lord, to have
intimacy of communion with Him in His holiness. en,
however adverse the circumstances, the soul rests quietly
and steadfastly in Him.
If, brethren, you would have full unhindered peace and
depth of fellowship with God and one with another, if
you would meet circumstances and temptations without
being moved thereby, it must ow from this: not merely
the knowledge that all things are yours in Christ, but
acquaintance with God Himself, as it is said, “ being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing by the knowledge of
God.”
May we, through grace enabling, let God have all His
way in our hearts.
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63065
Practical Reections on the
Proverbs
CHAPTER 7.
IN this seventh chapter we have another aspect of
Wisdom’s ways. It is not open wickedness in which the
will is active against which it directs its remonstrances; it
speaks of the snares laid for those who have no intention
to do evil, but whose lusts and passions lay them open to
those snares. Hence the soul is called upon to be previously
diligently lled with the precepts and counsels of wisdom,
that it may be in no way taken in them.
is is a very important point. It is not sucient (how
often has the Christian found it!) not to have any intention
to do evil, nor even to have the intention to do right. We
are in a world of snares and temptations. We have to watch
and pray, lest we enter into temptation-to have the soul
lled with the divine things of wisdom, and the thoughts
of wisdom guiding the mind and the path, so that the
allurements of evil and Satan’s wiles take no hold upon
us. e mind lives in another sphere. It is indeed another
nature to which evil is oensive, and which detects it in
the allurement itself, and deals with that as evil, instead
of being attracted by it. e precepts and light of divine
wisdom ll and guide the thoughts; and evil is evil-is
contrary to the state of the soul, walking in lowliness and
obedience, not as fools but as wise, simple concerning
evil indeed, but wise concerning that which is good. e
words of counsel, implying, as we have seen, obedience and
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subjection of heart, are to be kept, and the commandments
of a father laid up. And they are to be kept as well as laid
up, and treasured, delighted in, kept before one’s mind,
on the ngers, and tables of the heart, and confessed and
owned as that with which we are of kin, to keep us from
the atteries and allurements of sin.
e young man void of understanding went, notes the
way of her house. It was not a deliberate purpose, as verse
21 shows; but the path of wisdom and her precepts would
never have led him there-would have led and kept him
elsewhere. He followed at least the idleness of his heart.
is is a solemn warning. Nor is there light on this path.
He was not walking in that light in which a man does not
stumble. Nor is the conscience ever really good there. It
is not an actually bad conscience, but a good conscience
is always in the presence of God. “ He that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest
that they are wrought in God.” Here there were passions
ready to be ensnared, without a safeguard; and a conscience
which darkness suited better than light, which was not
walking in the light; idleness of will which had shame, in
a measure, of its own ways. It was not a path in the broad
daylight of God. And, oh, how great a thing it is, and how
blessed a thing! Look at the path of Jesus: where was that?
We have greatly to seek this.
But now we have the boldness of a hardened conscience-
a terrible thing. A deled one with a broken heart Christ
can meet; but a bold one is a shocking thing. ere is no
home to such a heart. But the idleness of passion is no
safeguard against its ways. It can atter, awaken lust, be
ready to minister to it to win its ways. It reckons on fear
in the unhardened, though it has none. It has its means,
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193
however, false, of guarding against it; for one is a mean
thing, even if hardened. ere was no “ good man “ at all.
It was naked vice; but stolen waters are sweet, though sin
lls with fear. And the idle soul is caught in snares its will
did not seek; but it was none the less the path of death. Nor
is it the only snare the idle soul may meet. e soul that
does not watch and pray (that is not lled with wisdom’s
ways and wisdom’s thoughts, kept by God’s presence) will
meet temptation somewhere. Still, here it is the snare of
the strange woman. Her house is the way to hell. She has
cast down many wounded, and strong men are all her
slain. It is not human strength that resists temptation and
passion; and such temptation has been the ruin of many
who in this world were mighty, and even morally mighty.
ey have fallen under the snare, and were ruined; those
who otherwise boast themselves have through this been
weakness, and brought to ruin. e wise man presses it on
him who had ears to hear.
Hebrew scholars make here a word which usually means
“strong” to mean” numerous,” v. 26. I confess I do not see
why, nor how, it can be sound with “ all.” Many wounded
has she made to fall, and strong ones are all her slain. I do
not see the sense of numerous are all her slain; but that
strength is of no avail against the snare, guratively to
chew the danger, and how powerful the snare is. To say that
all her slain were strong ones is every way to the purpose.
However this I must leave to abler Hebraists than myself.
Only the Hebrew word is everywhere else used for mighty,
or strong. e Authorized Version gives “ strong,” but turns
“ all “ into “ many.” I confess, “ strong ones are all her slain
“ is much more to the moral purpose of the sentence than
anything else.
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CHAPTER 8.
Wisdom is not in this world simplicity, but leads us into
it. Simplicity is the blessed result in the highest way, when
God is all to the new nature. But God is wise in His ways
in ordering all things, and we are now in a scene of evil, and
a complication of received good and actual evil in will and
fact, which needs for him who would go aright a path which
the vulture’s eye hath not seen. In truth there is none in the
world in itself. Where all is morally wrong and departed
from God, there can be no right path. Adam did not want
a path. As to him he had only to stay where he was. When
we have gone wrong, and are driven out by God, and so
need a path, none can be found. ere is none. But God
deals with this scene-now with man in it, hereafter with
the scene itself, and has a path and result which was before
the worlds, and which wisdom points out to us, calling
men into it. Where shall wisdom be found, and where is
the path of understanding? It is not to be found in the land
of the living. Destruction and death say we have heard the
fame thereof with our ears. So they have. ey tell us the
vanity of all the scene we are in, and, above all, of man at
the head of it, the sorest place of all. But it is only negative.
is is an immense truth, that there is no way for living
man fallen from God. is is what is described in the book
of Ecclesiastes. Man under the sun, his will works. What
can his will, multiplied in the contentions of many, do? But
God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the
place thereof. He ordered creation; but to man He said,
e fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from
evil is understanding. is, as Ecclesiastes says, is the whole
of man. at book does not go farther, and it is a deep and
immense instruction to get this by itself, the position and
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195
condition of man as such ascertained,..bringing God and
responsibility to him, without reaching Him, but looking
at man as he is here, and without revelation, but knowing
good and evil, accompanied by the declaration of judgment.
Proverbs takes a wider sphere, because it is occupied
with wisdom, not with man simply as he is. Hence we have
always God in Ecclesiastes (save the fear of Jehovah at
the end), Jehovah in Proverbs. e sphere we live in is one
of a perverse will in man, who will not have God, but a
knowledge of right and wrong in himself, of the dierence
of right and wrong, in a scene where nature retains abundant
marks of a wise and good Creator, of almighty power, yet
in this its lower part in a state of ruin and corruption,
away from God, and in what man knows to be corruption
about Him too; so that, when he has not revelation, that
is, the word, he is fain, in hopeless subjection to what is
false, to rear his altar to an unknown God. Such instinctive
knowledge there must be as makes him feel that he knows
nothing of Him-a sad condition for a responsible soul.
Wisdom, the word of God, comes into this scene,
shows what it is, reveals God in it, the way of truth, but
that word shows it existing in God before the world was. It
looks back to creative wisdom, but to a purpose then set up
which will be fullled; but it deals with what it meets with,
and shows with divine light what is the scene and state of
things of which I have spoken. Its utterances are the truth,
and reveal withal the counsels of God. Christ was, and of
course is, this wisdom, but He is more, for He reveals God
Himself; and then comes in necessarily another thing-
grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. is last we have
not here. It was foretold and prophesied of, but could not
be till the Lord Himself came, and eectually for us only
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when redemption was accomplished, and He had gloried
God. (Compare Titus 1:1-3 Tim. 1:9, 10.) But we have
the general truth of the activity of God’s testimony, which,
after all, is grace, His dealing with the consciences of men,
and wisdom in the creation, and in a general way that His
thoughts and purposes of divine delight rested in the sons
of men, accomplished so perfectly in Christ’s incarnation,
proclaimed so blessedly in the angels’ song, “ Glory to God
in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in men “; but
here, too, wondrously set forth, showing the dealing in
truth by wisdom with men, and the unspeakable testimony
of where His delight was before the world was- wisdom
having its delight where God’s delight in eternity was. Its
delight was in the sons of men. Now we say, “ Christ the
wisdom of God and the power of God.”
But the revelation of wisdom and its exercise is in the
midst of an evil world. What wisdom has to say she would
not have to say if the world were not evil; yet it is a strange
thing, and must be wisdom to speak God’s truth in such a
world. And such it is. We read in Ephesians, “ See then that
ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming
the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not
unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
“ Redeeming the time “ means seizing opportunities, as
Dan. 2:8, which I note because it shows the world to
be evil, and, though under God’s hand, still evil to be in
power. And then wisdom has to cry. It reveals surely, too,
all the counsels of God in Christ, blessing beyond the evil.
We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, wisdom
ordained before the world to our glory; but even this is
brought about as to the wisdom of the way by the coming
of evil and redemption. It is divine wisdom bringing good
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out of the evil in accomplishing His counsels towards us.
Sin, weakness, guilt was our state, but through redemption
issuing in glory, according to the display of God in that
redemption, whose love, mercy, righteousness, supremacy
over evil have been gloried in the work of Christ, and
we in righteousness brought into that glory; that as sin
appeared sin, working unto death by that which was good,
the perfect law of right for man, so God might appear God
by the display of all that He is, in bringing us to glory
through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have
it in its elements. We have seen it hitherto as the order of
subordinate authority and parental care, the maintenance
of paternal order. Here we have something more. e
world is evil, and wisdom cries aloud in testimony in the
midst of the world as it is, though revealing the grace that
accompanies wisdom.
“ Wisdom crieth, and understanding putteth forth
her voice.” Wisdom I take to be the gathering up all that
experience can give, so as to judge of all things by it, only
that in God it is intrinsic knowledge of all things, and all
their relations and state. is He furnishes to us as far as
we are capable of it as creatures in His word. Every word
of wisdom is perfect as to that to which it applies. It comes
from a perfect divine knowledge of all, and our path in it,
as God sees it. It applies to what we are in, but it comes
from God, who knows His own mind, in what we are in,
and about it, and that He gives- only we know in part. As
having received it now, we have it all ours. “ Ye have an
unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” We
cannot instruct the Lord, we are told, but we “ have the
mind of Christ.” As addressed to us, it is the perfect light
of God on that of which it speaks to us. e world is in
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confusion and evil. Grace makes God cry to us in that day.
It was present in Christ. (Compare Isaiah 50.)
Understanding puts forth her voice, as wisdom
comprehended all, and brought divine light to bear on
it. Understanding discovered all. Verses 2 and 3 show
remarkably the character of this testimony. She meets man
where he is, lifts up her voice above the roar and confusion
of man’s restless activities in this world, meets him in the
throng, and puts herself forward in the highway of passage
to bring in the light of God, and His claim on man for
his good. She summons man’s ear to hear, and think of
something besides the urging of his own will and the
turbid stream of his passions and earthly hopes. “ To you,
O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man.” So
Christ, the life, was the light of man. Christ, though He
did not lift up His voice in the streets, but only to be so
much the more heard of all that had ears to hear, yet sent
it on the housetops by His apostles, Himself the perfect
subject and wisdom’s self, rather than the proclaimed
of it, yet sowed the word. Christ, I say, was this wisdom
displayed in subjective perfection in this world. Every word
He uttered was a part of it, and the right part when He
uttered it. How He discovered all I need not say. He did
not learn wisdom partially by experience, as that which He
had not (though as true man He grew in it); but was that
which experience is to learn. Sorrows He learned for us,
diculties, opposition; but He was wisdom in the midst of
it. However, God in active grace brings this to bear on the
conscience and hearts of men-says, “ He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear.” e word was proclaimed, on the top of
the high places, in the view of men, in the thronged resorts
of men, and where everyone must enter that belonged to
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a human dwelling-place or home. And her address was to
men. God’s word and wisdom are formed for and expressed
to them. When it was there in life, “ the life was the light
of men “; theirs in divine counsels, and adapted to their
condition.
It came to bring the truth, not to nd it. It came to the
simple and fools; it brought light and understanding to the
simple-the hearing ear, through grace; it brought to the
simplest and most foolish, divine wisdom for themselves-a
light and guide in all the circumstances they were in.
ey were excellent things, for they came from God, and
revealed Him, and they were right things-put everything
in its true moral place with God, and with God’s authority.
For wisdom’s mouth speaks according to the real nature
and state of things, and that as to their relationship with
God-tells the truth of everything, and is equally abhorrent
from all evil itself. is is the great controversy with man’s
pretensions. He has his own mind the center of all the
confusion, leaving out God, and pretending to judge by
it the scene of confusion he is in- yea, even to judge God
Himself, and what He ought to be. Wisdom is bringing, in
applicable detail, the light of God and His authority in it
into the scene of confusion which is so as departed from
Him. e will of man will not have it; his passions and lusts
are dearer to him.
But there is another character of divine wisdom; it is
straight and simple, because it is profound and perfect. It
is itself-itself in the midst of confusion and complication,
but always itself. Human subtlety and wisdom must take
the tortuous course which seeks to avoid the evil which
it belongs to and lives amongst, of which it forms a part,
though it may be a cleverer part; but it must act by the
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motives and passions which govern man, because it has
nothing else to act upon, nor by. It cannot be above the
sphere to which it belongs, though it may see a little farther
into it than the simple and foolish; but it cannot see beyond
present motives-they are its motives. Divine truth and
wisdom brings in God, and what is right, with authority-
is it in testimony, or in fact-if we take it as embodied in
Christ. Hence it is always itself, for it is what comes into
the scene, not what is of it, though light in and adapted to
it, and (acting on conscience, that is) is light to the sense
of right and wrong by bringing in God, the fear of the
Lord, and hence gives a perfect path. e words are in
righteousness, and in righteousness for and in the midst of
the scene of will and confusion sin has brought in.
I take the most common-place outward example: “
ou shalt not steal.” In paradise there was no stealing. In
heaven there will be none. In a perfect state such a thought
could not exist. Yet property and rights of property have
introduced confusion and ill-will and oppression on one
side, and wrong on the other-in all ages a problem that no
man can solve, and that there is no right to be found in. One
form is oppression, another ruin and disorder. Wisdom is
content with what it has, and covets no man’s; it has the key
to a perfect path of its own in the midst of the confusion,
because of introducing God and His fear. It takes the heart
of man out of all the motives which produce the confusion
that exists, and gives it its own path in the midst of it. is
is the most commonplace case, which I take on purpose.
Hence the Lord declines decision (He came not then
to judge) in a case of alleged wrong, and continues, “ Take
heed and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth
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“; and then exalts man’s thoughts above such objects even
as man, and brings in God as known goodness to those
who had faith in Him; and this goes on to the highest
display of the life of Christ in us. It was the law’s place to
mark this path in fact for man, not to reveal counsels or
redemption or the display of God in man, but the path of
man before God. So far it was wisdom, but it could not
display God in counsels or in love connected with them,
or it would not have been a law for man. Now we learn
not man before God, but in Christ God before man, our
rule of life, though this will surely not violate the other-
against such there is no law. us there is nothing tortuous
(froward) nor twisted (perverse), winding through the evil
ways and corrupt motives of men to nd an advantageous
path through them.
2
Hence he who walks by divine wisdom is counted a
fool- told he will be a prey to the world, for the world after
all reckons on evil and looks to its subtlety as its resource
to knowing more evil and plans to circumvent it. But
obedience to the word is divine wisdom; for divine wisdom,
that knows all things, has formed the path. We have to
walk according to that lovely and divine precept that grace
only could give us-” Simple concerning evil, and wise unto
that which is good.” Hence to him that understands-has
an ear and capacity to receive what is divine, they are all
plain. ey are God’s path, declared by Him, what leads in
a straight and blessed path which is its own-that in which
Christ walked.
He that nds knowledge discerns that they are upright,
right in themselves-the divine mind in us, we can say.
2 I suspect there is more of will withal in perverse, Prov. 8:8; still
it is in the main interwoven, and so subtle and perverse.
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Now the new man discerns the uprightness of this path.
As the Lord says, “ Wisdom is justied of all her children,”
though the world see not or hate it. Plain is that which is
straight before us. “ Let their eyes look right on “; compare
chapter 4: 25, where the word “ right on “ is the same as “
plain “ here, Prov. 8:9; and “ straight “ the same as “ right
“ here. It is all simple to him that takes divine light for
his guidance, in thankful submission to Him who gave it.
e path of Christ is the perfect expression of it: He is the
wisdom of God. In value surely nothing can be compared
with it-to have God’s way, and that a right one, through a
world of evil. But, in a world like this, there is need of not
being fools but wise. And divine light sees everything in
divine light, and detects at once its character. It is of the
profoundest subtlety in this way. It has the discernment
of God. A scene of satanic deceit is perplexing to the
mind perhaps. What is it? e entrance of it is contrary
to the fear of the Lord; the whole thing is judged, though
I cannot account for the hundredth part of it. e soul,
not guided by the fear of the Lord, plunges into a scene
beyond its powers, and is the sport of Satan. e fear of
the Lord and the Spirit of truth, for the simplest mind,
has preserved from and judged it all. But it is really the
subtlest judgment which the humanly wise are taken in.
Wisdom dwells with prudence, the reective judgment,
which the fear of God calls for and produces as seeking
always His will, giving a discernment which judges of the
true character of everything. It is subtle, dwells with it, is
found where this is. It is strange to put straight and subtlety
together;
3
but it is just what divine wisdom does. In the
3 Prov. 1:4, subtlety, and 8: 12, prudence, are the same in
Hebrew.
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witty inventions it is the cogitations of the heart which
nd out these witty inventions. When fully developed in
us, we read, “ e spiritual man discerneth all things, and
he himself is discerned of no man.” He judges all around
him, and whatever he has to walk in; but his motives,
principles, and aims the natural man discerns not; his path
baes the cleverness of him who has not the Spirit. (See
Rabshakeh’s interview with the servants of Hezekiah.) He
is sure of his way, or motives, and principles: unknown to
the unspiritual man, his way is a riddle to him. e result
proves its wisdom to the world. His “witty inventions” (well
considered thoughts) are beyond the ken of the natural
man. is leads to the great principle and spring of it-the
beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord-the bringing of
God in so that His thoughts, not our wills, have authority
over us. Where that is, we hate wrong, the exercise of will,
and selshness, contrary to the relationships in which
we stand. All self-will, and setting up of self, the evil way
and perverse words, wisdom hates. But if the heat and
pretension of will is hated of wisdom, with it is counsel- the
wisdom of a staid reective mind, subject and looking to
the Lord and the resources of sound judgment in diculty,
discernment, and strength. Compare Eccl. 9:13-18, where
mere physical strength is contrasted, and the way wisdom
aords security is spoken of.
We now come to its direct earthly aspect in connection
with God’s government of the earth. Government,
righteous judgment, the rule of the great, depends on it.
us we read of the wisdom of Solomon. ey have to
represent God in the discernment of good and evil and the
maintenance of right by authority on the earth; this they
can do only by divine wisdom.
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But then there is another point applying to all hearts-
loving it for its own sake, and diligence of hears in seeking
it. Real delight in God’s wisdom in itself, and the sense
of obligation to realize it. “ I love them that love me, and
they that seek me early shall nd me.” Wisdom is loved
for its own sake, and diligence of heart seeks it as a duty
incumbent on us. But in the earthly government of God it
brings its reward. is was fully the ground the law went
upon. e God-fearing obedient man was to be blessed in
his basket and blessed in his store. But there is more than
this-riches that do not perish and righteousness that the
heart delights in as its treasure. Wisdom walks in the path
of righteousness, discerns by the action of the conscience
and the word how men are to walk and to please God. It
discerns what is right in all the complicated scene of this
world, gives a sure path in it according to God. Seeking only
to please Him, it gives motives above the circumstances and
thus a path through them. We do what is right in them. We
walk in rmness and a plain path where the circumstances
would aord none. is is a great comfort. We are not
careful to answer in the matter. Divine wisdom is in the
fear of the Lord and uprightness. ere is light, divine light,
on the path, where all is dark around, for divine wisdom
knows its path here by righteousness. is is its path. at
is a light on the path. We cannot do otherwise, though it
may seem folly and trial may accompany it. It is God’s way,
and that turns out right even in this world, though it may
at the time seem a sacrice of everything and bring trouble
upon us. So Joseph; but it led him here below under God’s
overruling hand to a place which, humanly speaking, he
would not otherwise have had. is was not his motive. He
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did what was right and would not do what was wrong, and
it brought him from a captive slave to be lord of Egypt.
I know Christians have much higher objects in hope
and are called by them; but here we are on the ground
of God’s government of the earth, and that government
is carried on now, though not in the direct way it once
was in Israel-a people of His own. Nor does wisdom ever
get out of these paths. She is found only in the paths of
judgment. In all cases and circumstances in which man
has to walk, a way cast up in righteousness is the only one
wisdom can walk in.
4
She is always found in the midst
of them (that is, cannot be out of the paths so formed
and marked out). ese are God’s, these are wisdom. And
where God’s government is exercised in this world and
for it, as wisdom’s place, such a path issues in blessing
and prosperity. Suering in a hostile world may be more
specically our portion now, though from Abel down it
was there. Still there is such a government of which God
has not let loose the reins. “ He that will love life and see
good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips
that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good,
let him seek peace and ensue it: for the eyes of Jehovah
are over the righteous,” etc. It is not only in Job’s time that
it was true, that “ he withdraweth not his eyes from the
righteous.” is is government and the path of wisdom,
an interesting point. But now the Spirit of God comes to
counsels and purpose.
Wisdom has brought light into this world of confusion,
divine light, but existed before the world was in the
thoughts and counsels of God, Christ being the center of
4 When it is said in verse 20 “ I lead,” it is really as in margin “
I walk.” Wisdom is never found out of this path.
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all these counsels, and the object of God’s delight. He is
the wisdom of God, as the power of God when He works.
His works were the scene of wisdom and the wisdom was
eternal-was there before the works and power displayed
in the works, but with a fuller counsel yet. ere is a path
which God treads, so to speak-a path unfolding what is
the fruit of His thoughts; but that path is not mere power
without a plan and counsel; nor is He dealing wisely with
what He nds, as we have to do. Wisdom is precious in
that; but then it is in subjection, and a righteousness which
is true wisdom, but which is obligatory on us: we have to
nd wisdom’s path where we are, by doing right, for we owe
that to God. But God possessed it in the beginning of His
way. e point is not here that there was wisdom displayed
in creation (no doubt there was); but the point is that,
before the world existed, wisdom had its place with God.
We have to nd the path of it in creation, now ruined; but
God’s mind and thought was before it all. is is what is
brought out from verse 22 to the end of verse 29. No doubt
wisdom was displayed when He prepared the heavens
and put a compass on the face of the deep; but before all
wisdom was there. It was there when He did it; but itself
was from eternity. e earth was an occasion for its displays
work adapted by wisdom to the divine glory and the ends
of that wisdom; but it was wisdom, it was itself, before it
found a sphere for its display; and creation was its fruit, but
not its object. It was itself, had its place with God, and its
object on which its purpose rested. e rst statement as
to this is, that Jehovah possessed this wisdom already when
His way began the movement to produce anything outside
Himself- to reveal Himself. In the beginning of His way,
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before His works, wisdom was inaugurated,
5
established
as the authority and order on which, being in the mind of
God, all was to be ordered and established; but, secondly, it
was there in the secret time of eternity. It is in fact summed
up in John 1 concerning the Word.
Jehovah possessed this wisdom (it was the outset of
all things) before the earth-in which His ways have been
unfolded -existed. It was produced from Jehovah, brought
forth as the fruit of His being in itself before creation-what
was outside Himself-existed. And not only this earth, but
when He prepared the heavens, wisdom was there. All this
marks this wisdom as the produce and mind of Jehovah in
itself and in Himself before mere creation (which existed
from His at and word) had begun to exist. It is divine
and in Godhead, as creation exists by His word outside
Himself. No doubt it is spoken of mystically here; but
Christ is it, and its revealed fullness and manifestation.
He who is this was in the Father before the world was,
before anything existed but what was in Godhead itself.
He was God, but, as thus looked at, as subsisting, He was
with God, and all things by Him, as the whole scene of the
wisdom of the divine mind. But there was more than this.
Wisdom was, objectively, the delight of the divine mind
e thoughts it produced were perfect, necessarily as itself,
and the delight of the mind that produced them. ey
answered to it. We do so with our petty minds, and yet ours
answer often imperfectly even to our small minds, and all
is partial. Divine wisdom was according to divine fullness
and perfection, and expressed it as a whole, and was the
divine delight. Christ was all this in His person; but here
5 Literally, “ anointed.” It is the same word as in Psa. 2:6,
translated, “ I have set.”
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it was taken up abstractedly. It was always with God, by
Him, in immediate intimacy of nature and fellowship; One
brought up in love
6
by Him; His delight day by day. It is a
wonderful description.
But not only was divine delight in this wisdom here
fully looked at as a person, but it too (or perhaps we should
now say He) was ever rejoicing before God at all times.
is object of God’s delight was rejoicing itself before Him;
so, subordinately and by grace, we are holy and without
blame before Him in love. But here it was an eternal and
divine object-what was in Godhead itself, yet with God
objectively. Jehovah possessed wisdom as His delight before
anything out of Himself was formed; and this wisdom
was One rejoicing before Him. But there was a purpose
that occupied wisdom before the sphere and scene existed
in which the object of that purpose was to be developed.
Wisdom rejoiced in the habitable parts of God’s earth, and
its delight was with the sons of men. How wondrously
does this come in! ough surely a wise God ordered the
creation, yet wisdom was set on other things-man was the
object in view. at wisdom, whose joy was before God and
who was the delight and joy of God, was not delighting in
the earth but in the habitable part of it. ere was purpose.
A poor trivial part of creation, if merely of creation-if we
look at the vastness of the scene in which he moves, but
the center of all God’s purposes-the object of His thought
6 e Hebrew word has created a diculty. But it seems to be
from a word giving it the force of the “ nursling of his love “;
the character and intimacy of the divine delight guratively
expressed. e word itself is used only here. Hence some (as
Vulg., LXX, Luther) have referred it to another root, making it
mean “the workman or orderer of Jehovah.” Compare Sol. 7:1,
“workman,” or “ artist.”
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before creation-complete in purpose, in whom, according
to the purpose of that wisdom, was to be set up the whole
display of it. e habitable parts of God’s earth wisdom
delighted in, and its delight was in the sons of men. Man
was rst created a responsible being, but as a being, God’s
delight, the center of His ways here below, made in His
image, after His likeness, and the image withal of Him
that was to come. But this (though God breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life so that he was His ospring)
yet was a responsible man as a creature, and as a creature
failed. But after many exercises and preparatory dealings of
wisdom, He who was the wisdom of God and His power,
by whom all things were created, became Himself a man.
Life was in Him, and the life was the light of men-in its
very nature was such. e angels could then, in unjealous
and holy strains, declare that God’s good pleasure was in
man.
7
A wondrous and blessed thought! He who had this
place with the Father was made esh-God’s delight down
here, God manifest in esh; grace to man, grace in man,
man taken into union with God in one person-the pledge
of peace on earth, “ Glory to God in the highest.” But as
yet, as to its eect on others, it was connected with the
responsibility of those around Him” He was despised and
rejected of men.” is unspeakable favor and blessing (for
the creature’s mind was still in question) was rejected and
cast away. But now wisdom’s purpose could come out, and
founded on that perfect work which He accomplished
(through this very wickedness to make it more complete
and glorious), on that which gloried God Himself; the
7 e words translated “ good will towards men,” Luke 2:14, are
the same word (a substantive for a verb) as “ in whom I have
found my pleasure,” Luke 3:22.
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purpose established before the world was, is revealed in
gloried Man, yet righteously in obedient Man, and in
One who had gloried God in all that He was, in that in
which He who did so was made sin for us. He met all the
requirements of God, all the responsibility of those who
came to God by Him, bearing their sins; He manifested
the righteous ground of grace addressed to all, and gloried
God so as to bring many sons-man-into glory, God’s glory.
Now came out the manifold wisdom of God by the
church, displayed even to the principalities and powers in
heavenly places, in the union of man with the very center
of glory, heirs in that, of all which was to be placed under
His hands as man. e proper purpose was our own place
in and united to Him and with Him, but this involved the
dominion which belonged to Him as man (see Titus 1 I,
2; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:3-5 and following, and 1 Cor. 2:6-8);
all the responsibility of the rst man met, for those who
believe, and as to God’s glory, absolutely and completely;
and the foundation for the accomplishment of God’s
purpose in righteousness, according to the full glory of
that purpose: grace reigning through righteousness unto
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Responsible
man came in between the purpose and its accomplishment,
failed as such; and then in the perfect man, the Son of
God, grace nds its free display in righteousness and the
purpose accomplished in glory. When we know Christ, we
know the meaning of that; His delights were in the sons
of men. Wondrous thought! but how true, how simple to
us, when we see the eternal Word and Wisdom a Man!
How sweet, for we are men! How wondrous, to see glory in
righteousness with Him when grace has reigned through
it, when God has been gloried and has gloried our
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Head with Himself; and we soon to have the rest with
Him according to the same righteousness! “ For he that
sanctieth and they who are sanctied are all of one.”
It is because God’s delight is in the sons of men that
wisdom now calls them to hear; and though her ways seem
strange to the pride and pretension of man, boasting of
righteousness because ignorant of God, yet wisdom is
justied of all her children in the solemn call to repentance
on responsibility, and the blessed announcement of grace
in goodness, both the proofs of mercy, of God’s interest
in man; and, indeed, all God’s nature and ways, all His
being, is displayed in redemption and grace. Love, mercy,
holiness, judgment, righteousness, patience, intolerance
of evil, majesty, and tender condescension in grace; the
coming in of evil, its extent, and the surmounting it in
grace, and yet through righteousness, such as naught else
could have done-all is brought out in the work of Christ
and by its eect in the heart of man, so that in him it
should be all displayed, yet all be sovereign grace to him;
for the Son of God being a Man in glory and having died
tells a tale nothing else could tell-divine glory, and death
as made sin, yet death overcome in resurrection, death to
deliver us, death where all was perfectness for God and in
man, and by which God could display all He was. Christ
gave Himself up for that, and is in the glory.
erefore wisdom calls on us to listen to her, for it is
grace: it is because God delights in us. Blessed are those
who keep the ways of wisdom. It is the activity of God’s
goodness calling to that only path which leads to rest and
the peaceful favor of God; and I recall here the distinct
principle of this chapter. It is not the warnings of natural
authority, the ordained channel of wisdom in a relationship
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formed by God. It is the direct call of wisdom, the call in
grace of the divine word itself to man as such, because His
delight is in them, as in the ministry of John Baptist and
Christ, above the natural relationship, and directly from
God to the consciences and hearts of men, bringing about
purpose; but in the righteous, gracious summons of God.
It is wonderful-this direct appeal in grace. It may rudely
break in upon the natural relationships and set ve in one
house, three against two and two against three, because it
is direct and individual from God Himself and it brings
about purpose in result. Hence, though peace on earth even
was to be the result in purpose, yet in present operation
Christ could say, “ ink ye that I am come to send peace
on earth? “ And hence He was straitened till the baptism
in which He gloried God was accomplished, because
the unbelief of man drove back into the recesses of His
heart the love, which, when the work of glorifying God
in righteousness was accomplished, could ow freshly
forth. en the ground for the accomplishment of purpose
according to glory was fully laid, and Christ enters in
resurrection into the fruit of righteousness in glory; and,
when all is accomplished,, He will raise us up at the last
day, responsibility being fully met, yea, God gloried, in
that which did it.
When wisdom came addressing itself to responsibility
it had only to complain. “ Wherefore, when I came, was
there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?
“ But the truth was, the Son was too perfect, too glorious,
to be discerned by man. God “ hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes.” Blessed
those who (in this gracious appeal to children, which
puts God in grace, where nature stood in authority on
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His part-not my children indeed, but “ children,” sons,
interested in them in that character) keep wisdom’s ways,
hear instruction and refuse it not. e rst we have in the
sermon on the mount, keeping wisdom’s ways: the second
in Mary at Jesus’ feet, and in principle in those who knew
that the words of eternal life were to be found nowhere
else. For whoso ndeth her, ndeth life and Jehovah’s favor.
But there is more than pressing men to hear and keep the
instruction of wisdom (compare Luke 11:28; Matt. 13:23);
there is earnestness of heart on our part, waiting upon it,
watching daily at her gates, and waiting at the posts of
her doors. It is not mental eort, the production of the
human mind, but waiting on divine teaching as Mary did,
“ as new born babes desiring the sincere milk of the word.”
It is not here the proclamation of wisdom, but the desires
of the heart towards it thus manifested. Here life is found,
for it is the word of life, and that man nds the favor of
Jehovah: the double aspect of divine blessing in us, life,
divine life, and divine favor resting upon us. He that sins
against it injures his own soul. ere is a path in which
will walks to its own ruin. It is not God’s path. Our own
will hates the path of divine will, which is for us a subject
path, but that ends in death. It is not the causes in grace
which deliver which are spoken of, but the fact of what is
found in result. As the apostle teaches us in Romans, him
that by patient continuance in well-doing seeks for glory,
honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life was to favor. “ If a
man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will
love him.” “ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love, as I have kept my Father’s commandments and
abide in his love.” It was no question surely whether Christ
had life; He was life. But that was the path in which He
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walked in divine favor. It is not here grace saving sinners
and giving them glory, but the path (including the state of
the heart) in this world, in which life and favor are found,
God bringing in testimony in grace of what He is pleased
in, and wisdom showing us how we are to walk and to
please God.
It is for us what we have heard of the word of life. We
live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God.
We have seen the wondrous revelation of the purpose
of God in man, but we must remember that here earth is
dealt with when we come to details. e principle is always
true in every testimony of the Lord now or then. e
immediate connection here is the earth, because there this
testimony came, there it found responsible man. Its most
direct and evident application is in the person of the Lord
Jesus on earth. Only like the parable of the sower, or John
the Baptist even, it is always true when the cry of wisdom
or wisdom itself is gone forth. John was transitional and
pointed to another; that other was wisdom’s self, and John
(Matt. 11) had to come in on His cry. Still the children of
wisdom justied God’s wisdom in him. e law and the
prophets were till John. He led into wisdom’s paths, going
before the face of the Lord.
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Song of Solomon
IF we examine the Psalms, or even the prophets, with
a view to ascertain the character or circumstances of the
residue of Israel in the latter days, we shall nd, after their
undergoing some deceptions through professed friendship,
a distressed and oppressed people. e fowls summer upon
them, and the beasts of the earth winter upon them; Isa.
18:6. at is the state of the nation when the Assyrian shall
be pressing them from without, and the beast oppressing
them within. At the center of their nationality, and where
their hearts have sought rest, will be trouble such as never
was since there was a nation, and never will be again: the
time when God is making short work upon the earth.
ough this will be in the nation at large, the eect
on the wicked and on the saints will be very dierent.
e nation at large will have joined with the beast and
acquiesced in idolatry. Another, come in his own name,
they will have received. e unclean spirit of idolatry, with
seven others worse, will have entered into them. ey have
given up their God, rejected their Messiah, received the
Antichrist, and what have they when oppression comes? “
ey shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their
God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth
and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and
they shall be driven to darkness.”
But we have to do more particularly with the remnant
attached to Israel, to Israel’s hopes, and Israel’s relationship
with Jehovah, but awakened to the sense of the evil that is
going on, and suering on all hands from it where they have
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not ed. e Spirit and word of God are working in their
hearts. ey remember the promise to the people as God’s
people; they seek faithfulness to Jehovah, and are only for
that reason oppressed and driven out, hated by unfaithful
Israel and cruelly oppressed by her oppressors, but brought
to the sense of the nation’s and therein their own sins,
grieved over its ruin, and seeing approaching judgments
and God’s hand already on them in sore chastisement. ey
would hope yet in Jehovah and expect Messiah, though
smitten into the place of dragons and nding it hard to
count on One against whom they have sinned, and whose
hand is out against them and to reckon on promises when
all seems dark. Still the promises are there, and God will
certainly set His King on His holy hill of Zion. From Deut.
32 onward, the prophets had predicted this state of things;
so that, dark and terrible as it is, and humanly speaking,
excluding hope, there was that, even in the very threats,
which sustained hope.
is state of things the Psalms meet, and, as we have often
seen in commenting on them, furnish a divine expression
for the hopes and sorrows of these exercised hearts. It is only
the great principles of these which I would now advert to,
to bring out more distinctly the dierent character of the
Song of Solomon, and what this will furnish to the hearts
and faith of the remnant. ere are two great principles
characteristic of their state in the midst of all their sorrows:
rstly, integrity; secondly, trust in Jehovah. In these the
Spirit of Christ leads them, Himself perfect in both and
by His grace enabling them, in the expressions furnished
them in these Psalms, to express their condence in spite
of all their failure, which rendered it more dicult than
even the deep waters they were passing through. is very
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integrity, and the operation of the Spirit of Christ in them,
leads them, however necessarily, to the confession of sin
and long failure even to blood-guiltiness. It is remarkable to
see in this way how declaration of integrity, and confession
of sins, are found together; so with Job, so even with Peter.
Hence also, in looking to God, mercy always comes before
righteousness in their thoughts. He had shut them up in
unbelief that they might be objects of mercy. No doubt God
was righteous in fullling His promises; but they must get
into the true and right place to have them accomplished, the
place where the interpreter, one among a thousand, could
put them. And this interpreter is just the Spirit of Christ
in the Psalms. He shows them the place of uprightness in
confessing their sin; then they can look for mercy, and so
righteousness. All these are the moral dealings of Jehovah,
most instructive, and most interesting. e Psalms, and the
Prophets too, add, that it will be through the intervention
of Messiah, and the Prophets at any rate tell us plainly it
will be under the new covenant.
But the Song of Solomon seems to me to show us
something further-the drawing out, where the soul is
taught of God (an eect realized in some hidden ones,
while revealed and open for all), of the soul of the waiting
few, into aections here guratively presented, and the
revelation of Messiah’s devoted love for the people; for
Jerusalem, if you please, as the center of it, over which He
wept, when in its folly it rejected Him, so that the humble
and instructed heart should have the consciousness of it,
and conde in it, though not yet revealed.
It begins with a recognition of the blessedness of
Messiah’s love. His name, from the graces in Him, is as
ointment poured forth, and He is loved by the uncorrupted
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ones-those, I suppose, who have guarded themselves from
idolatry and corruption, the same class exactly as in Rev.
14, these evidently therefore also while waiting for Christ
have suered in a certain sense like Him. Next the bride
(Jerusalem) looks to be drawn by Messiah, but says “ we,”
because she really represents all the faithful. e King now
appears, King Messiah. He loves Jerusalem intimately. is
is valued. It is the upright ones who love Him. We have
seen this character of the remnant. Verses 5, 6, tell the tale
of Jerusalem, of Jacob’s long persecution and desolation.
e sun has looked upon her, the heat of trial. Her place
was to be a keeper of nations for fruit; she had not kept her
own vineyard. Next, in verse 7, she would not be anywhere
but with Messiah’s ocks, not be like a dissolute wanderer
with others than He. e paths marked out by those, whom
God owned as guided and guides, the testimony among
God’s people, were to lead her. is brings her to Messiah’s
own testimony of His delight in her; and her consciousness
that thus grace is drawn forth in her (v. 12). What an image
of this, suited to the time, was Mary’s act, which Judas
blamed! is is a kind of introductory statement, which
gives us the aspects in which they stand, and their position,
so as to recognize the bride, her place, and the bridegroom.
Now the action and eect of it begins. Chapter 2. e
bride takes her place, and the bridegroom owns only her.
She is the lily, the rest thorns (v. 2). It is under Christ she
nds herself, she owns Him as the true blessed fruit-bearer.
And His shadow protects her, and she delights in it, and
His fruit is her joy. Jerusalem and Israel are restored under
Messiah, delight in Him, are sheltered under Him.
Now we nd how much more we have than in the
Psalms, the heart’s devoted condence, that His love is
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the spring of delight, her joy, and overpowering her with
blessing. He, too, rests in His love, and in her heart she
weighs and estimates the value of His love; all her delight
is in His resting in His love (see Zeph. 3:17): ‘ he please ‘
(v. 7) I doubt not is right, though I had elsewhere supposed
it otherwise. e remnant are entering by faith into the joy
Messiah will have in His bridegroom-love to them, and
express their own rest of heart in this.
Remark here what follows, for it is a key to the bearing
of this: “ e voice of my beloved, behold he cometh.” is
connection is not accidental, we have the form of verse 7,
also in chapters 3: 5, and 8: 4, and each time it is followed
by His coming, but with progress. Here Messiah comes
revealing Himself. After chapter 3: 8, He comes crowned as
King Messiah, the Son of David, Prince of peace, crowned
in the day of His espousals, as His mother’s (Israel’s) heart
crowns Him. After chapter 8: 3, 4, the bride is coming. back
out of the wilderness with Him, leaning on her beloved.
Here we return to the rst principle of blessing stated in
chapter 2: 3: she was raised up under the apple-tree; there
she was brought forth. It was not under Moses, not under
the old.. covenant, that Israel or Jerusalem could truly
nd their blessing, but under Christ; still less was it under
Egypt: Christ was the source, the tree of blessing and life
to her. Hence-to complete this part of the connection of
thought- instead of vineyards trusted to her, and her not
keeping her own, Christ, as royal Prince of peace, has a
vineyard at Baalhamon, a dicult word. At any rate, it is
now Solomon, Messiah Himself, who has the vineyard.
I am disposed to think it refers to Christ’s universal
dominion over the earth, the peoples, a vineyard which
will now bear its fruit. But there was a special vineyard
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now, once not kept, which was now before the spouse-
Israel, who through grace would now diligently keep her
vineyard; her vineyard was before her. e song closes the
remark with the desire that the Bridegroom would make
haste. e companions hearkened to His voice for her. It
was the desire of the upright ones, but in the character of
spouse she prays to hear it.
All this points out, I think, two things. One is the way
faith, in those whose hearts have been opened, enters into
the perfect delight of Christ’s love in the blessing of Israel,
specially of Jerusalem. e anticipative sense of this is here
furnished to draw out and encourage this faith. It is not the
prophetic statement of moral principles, however deeply
important in connection with Jehovah’s dealings with
Israel they may be, but the sense of bridegroom-love which
Messiah has for His people, for the people and city He has
chosen; not as stones of course, but as the seat of election.
(Compare Psa. 132:13, 14 -indeed the whole Psalm.)
Next, it is only the anticipation of faith: for every time
that she realizes it, and looks to the Bridegroom’s resting
undisturbed in His love, immediately follows the thought
of His coming. She did not actually possess Him. is, as
we have seen, is progressive. In the end of chapter 2 there is
the consciousness that the time was come; the Lord’s grace
was causing blessing to spring forth and bud. (Compare
Psa. 102)
e various exercises of heart connected with it I
do not notice in detail-true aection, yet failure. I only
remark that the Bridegroom speaks to her, the bride of
Him: this is just. Christ can give His approval to those
He loves. e saint, Jew or heavenly, enjoys His love, can
describe His excellencies with delight, but does not take
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221
upon him to tell them to Him. ere is progress also in the
consciousness of the character of relationship. As has been
noticed elsewhere, rst “ My beloved is mine, and I am his
“ (chap. 2: 16); this is the rst consciousness of relationship.
“ We have found him.” He owns, indeed, His beloved (were
it not so, there would be no comfort); and He enjoys with
delight her beauty; but the rst thought is, “ He is mine.”
It is not till after many exercises, failure on her part, and
assurance how precious she was to Him, that she says with
calmer spirit, ‘ I am my Beloved’s,” I belong to Him, though
the other part remains true, with deeper feeling too, for His
worth and title is more felt and better known, and in it all
He is ours, whatever His title over us, and still His joy is in
the beauty and graces of His people.
But, after this, we have not exercises, but the expression
of the Bridegroom’s thoughts; His dove, His undeled,
is but one: there may be nations, and many more or less
connected with Him, but His Beloved is one; Israel only
on earth has this place. But, when He so looks at it, soon
He is carried on their hearts. He goes down to see the
fruits of the valley, whether His vineyard bore its fruits, at
least whether it ourished, and that which represented true
faithfulness, as He delighted in it (as the pomegranates
on Aaron’s robe), was budding forth-Israel showing in its
humiliation the breaking forth of the signs of living fruit.
Or ever He was aware, His soul set Him on the chariots of
His willing people; for such is the force of Aminadab, as in
Psa. 110:3, and Psa. 47:9, translated princes (the Nadibim)
of the people. Hence Israel becomes immediately as two
armies, or as Mahanaim the hosts of God of old.
8
When all
this has taken place, and the Bridegroom has told her how
8 See Gen. 32:2.
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He estimates her beauty, she says again in the due sense
how all ought to be His, and what a blessing it was to be so
in one’s own right place, “ I am my Beloved’s.” He is that,
her Beloved, but she is His, then all her heart could delight
in “ His desire is towards me.”
Now this was the thought into which Israel had to grow
up. Exercises of Israel, right ones, we have in the Psalms; but
this thought of Messiah’s delight in her is scarcely found
there; but they ought to feel it. It opens out a new and
most interesting element of their condition, of what grace
furnishes them with, that all the feelings that grace can
give may be then divinely given to them, and they drawn
on into this blessed condence, and knowledge of Messiah.
It seems to me that, not merely particular images or
expressions, but that the whole structure of this, I admit,
mysterious and remarkable poem points to Israel, to the
remnant of Jerusalem, as the center of all this in the latter
day and (as I have said) gives a further apprehension of
what is provided and in store, for the remnant, than any
other portion of scripture does; though we have seen it
connect itself with many expressions in the Psalms, which
conrm this interpretation of it. It has seemed to me that
the passages I have referred to, with their combination,
give a distinctive clue to the intention of the whole book.
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223
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General Remarks on the
Prophetic Word: Isaiah;
Minor Prophets; Matt.
24; 2 ess. 2
I. OLD TESTAMENT.
THERE is at the outset a great distinction to make
between the prophets. Some wrote before the captivity and
called the Jews to repentance, as hoping that they might
still heed the warning, whatever the solemn light on the
future judgment, but with blessing at last. e others wrote
a little during or after the captivity on the basis of the
judgment of God. Isaiah is in the rst class, Jeremiah and
Ezekiel being transitional; Daniel is in the second, as well
as Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Jonah stands alone as a
sort of nal testimony to the Gentiles while Israel was still
owned as God’s people.
ISAIAH prophesies in general of all the hopes of the
people of God and of the nations in their relations with
Israel. e book is divided into two very distinct parts, the
rst ending with chapter 35, the second beginning with
chapter 40, and an historical portion forming a parenthesis
between those two parts. e former part contains the
judgment of God on Israel and on the nations; the latter
presents the consolation of Israel by sovereign grace and
in view of their guilt, rst by idolatry, next by the rejection
of Messiah, who comes again for their deliverance to the
glory of God.
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Chapter I prophesies about Jerusalem; chapter 2 is
the judging of the nations in relationship with the Jews;
chapters 3 and 4 develop yet more the grounds of the
judgment and its divine character and result; as chapter
5 sets forth Israel’s sin and ruin, notwithstanding all the
goodness and painstaking of God from the rst. In chapter
6 we see a kind of introduction which gives us the character
of prophecy as to the Jews only.
9
e prophecy of chapter 7
does not close till chapter 9: 7. It divides into two sections:
from chapter 7 we learn of Immanuel, from chapter 8 of
Immanuel’s land. en commences a new subject at chapter
9: 8, or rather a resumption of what began in chapter 5,
which terminates with chapter 12.
Chapter 13 opens a series of judgments on the nations,
beginning with Babylon, in chapter 24, involving all the
earth, and concluding with chapter 27. It is to be remarked
here as elsewhere that every judgment ends with blessing,
the glory of Christ being the object of all these prophecies.
From chapter 28 to chapter 35 inclusively are found
special judgments on Israel in the last times.
In chapters 35 to 39 we see foreshown the overthrow
of the Assyrian, the sickness unto death but raising up (in
type) of the Son of David, and the power of Babylon as
carrying away the Jews.
9 Chapter 6 presents the general character of the prophecy.
Ahaz is about to accomplish the apostasy of the family of
David by building an idolatrous altar. Before this happens,
the glory of Christ is revealed; by the same the moral state of
the people is entirely condemned and judgment pronounced.
e fulllment of the sentence is suspended until they have
rejected Christ Himself, as we see in John 12. e promise of a
remnant is revealed at the intercession of the prophet.
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225
Chapters 40, etc., to the end predict the state of Israel,
not externally like those before the history, but internally
and Godward, as tested by their call to witness the one
true God and to await the Messiah, with the grand results
when mercy rejoices over judgment, in glory at the end and
forever.
As for JEREMIAH, we see that, Manasseh having fully
consummated the iniquity of Israel, judgment becomes
necessary. (2 Kings 23:26; 24:3; Jer. 15:4.) is judgment
is irrevocable: Jeremiah is the prophet of it in the midst
of Jerusalem. Up to the end of chapter 24 he does the
pleading of Jehovah against His people to convince them
of sin in every manner.
From chapter 25 Jerusalem (considered as quite
pagan) is judged with all the nations. e new covenant is
introduced in these chapters. e throne of Jehovah ceases
to exist at Jerusalem; but Jerusalem shall surely be so called
once more when all nations shall be gathered to it.
We have in EZEKIEL the rejection of all that was
Jewish or Gentile. He prophesied among the captives of
Israel, not of Judah. He pronounced judgments upon the
nations as a whole, on those who remained in the land
after the captivity, on Pharaoh who wished to help them
and hinder the establishment by Jehovah of the rst of the
four great empires, and he speaks of what will happen to
the nation (ten tribes and all) when the last of the four
monarchies shall have been judged. e restoration of
Israel beings with chapter 34.
In DANIEL we have the history of the four great
monarchies which have replaced the throne of Jehovah for
the earth. ey subsist on His part who reigns by them.
ence it comes that Paul declares all the powers that be
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ordained of God. Kings reign by His sanction; as on the
contrary the principle that it is by the will of the people is
the presage of the anti-christian spirit. What restrains the
manifestation of the lawless one is the presence of God’s
Spirit on the earth in the church. is being the object of
the grace and work of God, He will not let the bridle loose
to the nations for them to spoil and destroy. e presence
of the church on earth hinders then the manifestation
of the lawless one. e Holy Spirit being in the church
recognizes the powers as ordained of God, whilst the
Antichrist will own no man, either God or any authority
whatever. Men are advancing evidently toward this epoch;
but there is something that hinders its manifestation and
holds back the lawless one: it is the presence of the church,
or of the Holy Spirit in the church.
In HOSEA we have the judgment of Israel, though
also that of Judah, and their restoration together in the
latter day. Meanwhile, Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-ammi
tell the tale, Judah being specially in view up to the end of
chapter 3, whilst in general the details that follow from
chapter 4 look at Israel.
JOEL gives the revelation of the great and terrible day
of Jehovah. To announce it the Spirit of God takes the
occasion of some particular judgments at that time.
Amos occupies himself particularly with Israel and the
nations connected with Israel.
OBADIAH predicts the judgment of Edom, which
alone among the nations is to be destroyed without a
remnant.
JONAH furnishes the last prophetic appeal to the
nations before they have assumed the Babylonish character,
to prove the interest God takes in all the creation, although
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227
in His mercy He has chosen a people for Himself to preserve
the knowledge of His name on the earth. e power of
Nineveh was anterior to that of Babylon as imperial.
MICAH prophesied during the period of Isaiah. He
treats of the invasion of the Assyrian and his threats, in
order to present in a special manner the judgment of Judea,
but at the same time Jehovah’s blessing in Christ.
NAHUM is the judgment of the world in general, not
of the corruption of Babylon but of man, of his power
which is presented in the case of Nineveh.
HABAKKUK complains of the iniquity of God’s
people and develops the chastening that will fall on them
to be eected by those still more wicked than they-the
Chaldeans, who, because they give loose rein to their
violence, become in their turn objects of the judgment
of Jehovah. But His glory and His righteousness shall be
manifested in both one and the other, types of the Jewish
people and of the world.
ZEPHANIAH speaks of the awakening that God
in His grace works in the midst of His people so that
judgment should not fall on them. In that day shall be a
time of repentance and salvation for many souls. He proves
nevertheless that the divine counsels cannot be changed,
that evil is always in man now, and that God will gather
all the nations to punish them, but that then the remnant
shall be blessed in every way.
HAGGAI, insisting on the re-building of the temple,
takes occasion thereby to reveal the manifestation of Jesus
in His glory coming to the house of God in the latter day.
ZECHARIAH takes up all the relations of Israel with
the nations after the captivity. He sets out the mutual
rejection of Christ and the Jews at the time of His rst
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coming, and the ways of God toward the Jews and the
nations at the time of His second coming.
MALACHI pronounces the judgment of Judea after
the return to the holy land: and he makes known the
message of Elijah to call the people to repentance before
the day of Jehovah.
2. NEW TESTAMENT.
Matt. 24 up to verse 44 is the judgment of the Jews;
from verse 45 of the same chapter to verse 30 of chapter
25 it is the judgment of those to whom the Lord Jesus has
conded His service during His absence; and from verse 30
to the end of chapter 25 it is the judgment of the nations,
not of the dead but of the quick.
2 ess. 2 shows the mystery or secret of lawlessness,
even in apostolic days already at work, ending, when the
restraining power is gone, in the display of the lawless one
in the power of Satan. It is the same personage called in the
Epistles of John the Antichrist, who is predicted in Dan.
11:36 as the king who “ shall do according to his will “; that
is, his character not moral but political in his relations with
the land and people of the Jews.
After that which concerns the seven churches, the
Revelation presents the government that the Lord Jesus
exercises in the midst of the throne on the earth before
His manifestation here below. e general history of this
government terminates at the end of chapter 11.
Chapter 12 shows the opposition of Satan to the
glory of Christ; chapter 13 lets us see the instruments of
that opposition, as chapter 14 the ways of God after He
begins to act towards the remnant on the earth until He
judges nally the body of the apostasy. ese three chapter
contribute to give us one vision.
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229
Chapter 15,16 are another vision showing us the last
judgment of God (not of the Lamb) on the earth. e
saints were already before God.
Chapter 17, 18, describe the guilt and judgment of the
great harlot, Babylon, the features of her character, and her
relations with the beast or Roman empire.
Chapter 19 reveals the marriage of the Lamb, and
the judgment of the beast, and the false prophet who is
identical with the second beast of chapter 13. Chapter 20
gives us the binding of Satan in the opening verses; then
from verse 4 the reign of the gloried saints over the earth
for a thousand years; next the loosing of Satan for the last
insurrection of the wicked then alive, and their destruction;
and then the nal eternal judgment of the dead, or all the
wicked since the world began, followed by the new heavens
and earth when God is all in all, the mediatorial oce of
Christ being closed, and all evil in the lake of re. From
chapter 21: 9 to chapter 22: 6 is a vision of the state of
things in the millennium; from verse 7 nal exhortations.
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63069
oughts on Isaiah the
Prophet
THE great subject of the introduction to this prophecy is
the way in which Jehovah presents Himself after declaring
their state of ruin. ere is a day of Jehovah on all the earth;
and if there were not a remnant, all the people would be
as Sodom and like Gomorrah. e hand of Jehovah will
be against all that the world exalts. Everything or one that
is lifted up shall be brought low: Jehovah alone shall be
exalted in that day (chap. 2: 17). God will purify the earthly
people by His judgments. e rest will be the object of a
terrible judgment (chap. 2: 18-21).
I desire to consider the character of the prophecy as
given to the Jews. It takes in a circle much greater and
concerns the nations as well as Israel.
ere is an important principle to remark, namely, that
every prophecy supposes ruin of the state of things in which
the prophecy is presented. When all goes according to the
mind of God, there is no need of warning. It is manifest
here in a striking way. Prophecy reveals all the hopes that
belong to the faithful when the dispensation breaks down.
It announces the failures, and the judgments on what man
essays to do because of the evil.
e mass of the Jews is not saved, but there is a remnant
saved in the midst of them. e church is but a remnant. We
begin as a remnant, and where the Jews end. is supposes
that the state of the world is bad and that the world has
not gone on well. God sends threatenings and warnings to
oughts on Isaiah the Prophet
231
the mass, when all goes ill; and He makes promises to the
faithful remnant to sustain and encourage it. When Israel
failed, or the priesthood, in Eli, God raises up a prophet,
Samuel. It was when all failed under the kings even
of the house of David, that God raised up Isaiah. Ahaz
had introduced idolatry into the house of God, and the
testimony of Isaiah was sent to announce, not a remnant
only, but the Messiah. e state of what God established in
presence of the glory of God shows that the people cannot
stand before this glory (chap. 6: 5).
God sends prophet after prophet, and chastisement
after chastisement, during seven centuries, and He only
struck fully when the Son was cast out of the vineyard and
slain. Meanwhile the promise of the Messiah sustained the
hope of the faithful. ey felt the state of things whilst
waiting for redemption. Anna spoke of the infant Jesus to
all those that looked for redemption. e principle of such
immense importance in prophecy is, that because of the
unfaithfulness of the mass God rejects that which He has
Himself established; and He announces that He is going
to replace what is ruined by something which is innitely
better. God in His goodness gives the light beforehand to
brighten up the hearts of the faithful. e goodness of God
treats them as friends and lls them with condence. If
one recognizes the prophecy, one must recognize that God
had judged and condemned that which exists. If God had
not set aside man, there were no need of a new Adam. If
the ark of the covenant had not been in the hands of the
Philistines, there would have been no need of Samuel the
prophet, any more than of Isaiah if the house of David
were not fallen. Wherefore prophecy is called a charge or
“ burden.”
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It will facilitate the understanding of the book if one
point out the divisions of the book.
Chapters 1 to 4 are the introduction, and blessing at
the end, chapter I speaking of the Jews, chapter 2 of the
Gentiles.
Chapter 5 is a prophetic discourse which compares the
state of the vineyard with that which God had done for
Israel at the beginning; interrupted by
Chapter 6, which compares it with the glory of Christ.
It is thus God judges His people. e prophet is installed
in his work.
Chapter 7 to 9: 7 are a prophecy of Immanuel and of
the remnant, of Immanuel’s land and of the Assyrian when
Immanuel is there.
Chapters 9: 8 to 12 resume prophecy about Israel.
Chapters 13 to 27 look at the nations and the
circumstances of Israel in the last days (chap. 18) among
the nations.
Chapters 28 to 35 are details about Israel, each prophecy
closing with a blessing.
Chapters 36 to 39 are a history of Hezekiah and the
Assyrian as typical of the dead and risen Son of David, and
the Assyrian of the last days, closing with a prediction of
the Babylonish captivity.
Chapters 40 to 66 are the restoration of Israel, witness
against the idolatry of the nations but idolatrous, and
rejected because of rejecting the Messiah. Israel is found at
last among the rebellious when Jesus shall come back, the
remnant being kept on the earth for the glory of Jehovah.
CHAPTER I.
We see the summary of the burden of the prophecy in
verses 1-9.
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ere was much piety according to the world. ey
continued in a round of religious forms to render worship
to God, without perceiving the lack of life, of faithfulness,
and of purity by which they were characterized (v. 10-13).
Having a show of godliness they had denied its power.
ey made long prayers at the corners of the streets; but
their conscience was not right with God. ere was a moral
blindness before the judicial blindness. As we learn from
the next chapter, the land was full of silver and gold, with
horses and chariots, full of outward blessings but also of
idols. e multitude of sacrices did not make their ways
true in relation to God. Hence (v. 14, 15) the very things
God had instituted or enjoined became in their hands such
as He hated, because the conscience in His people was not
according to His mind.
e word therefore is (v. 16, 17), “ Wash you, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine
eyes: cease to do evil; learn to do well.” ere is the weighty
matter. Have a good conscience before God: if not, you
become blind of yourselves before you are blinded of God.
God distinguishes between actions. One cannot learn to do
good before ceasing from evil. One cannot have the light
in the conscience, without leaving rst that which wounds
the conscience.
Jehovah imputes not iniquity (v. 18). Moral government
follows (v. 19, 20).
e saddest thing for the heart of God is, not that the
world is wicked, but that the city which bears His name, on
which His eyes rest continually, should be so evil. “ How is
the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment;
righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. y silver is
become dross, thy wine mixed with water: thy princes are
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rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts,
and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless,
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them,” v.
21-23. His judgment begins with His house. We see in
Ezek. 9 that, when the remnant are marked, He causes
all the city to be smitten, beginning at His sanctuary. He
points out afterward the iniquities in detail. We have here
a great present principle: if Christendom has deserved the
judgment of God, His judgment begins with His house to
purify it. In this sense we are with diculty saved. It was
over Jerusalem that Jesus wept.
“ erefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the mighty
One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and
avenge me of mine enemies: and I will turn my hand
upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take
away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the
rst, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward
thou shalt be called, e city of righteousness, the faithful
city,” v. 24-26. He will avenge Himself of His enemies
who corrupted Zion; He will satisfy Himself in dealing
with His adversaries. And when He shall have executed
His judgment, He will restore Jerusalem as of old. But
if judgment must fall on Israel, the consequence will be
that out of Zion shall go forth the law. Jerusalem will be
then more truly than ever the throne of Jehovah. “ Zion
shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with
righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors
and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake
Jehovah shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of
the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded
for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an
oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
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And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a
spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall
quench them,” v. 27-3 I.
us the rst chapter of the prophecy applies to the
state of the Jews announcing the judgment, and gives the
hope across the judgment that God will purge His people
therein. is will be the means of gathering the nations.
CHAPTER 2.
In the last days the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall
be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall ow unto it.
Some might think the law’s going out of Zion might be
by the gospel. But the gospel is not by the execution of
judgment on the nations as here. God will deal with the
nations by public judgment and righteousness on earth (v.
1-4). It is not the church, but the Lord who is spoken of;
and this has evidently never yet been. ey have dreamed
these things for Christianity; but it is the judgment of God
that is to bring all this about. (Compare Matt. 24:6, 7.)
e intelligent spirit of prophecy always speaks as in
verses 5, 6. “ 0 house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk
in the light of Jehovah. erefore thou hast forsaken thy
people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished
from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and
they please themselves in the children of strangers.” e
rejection of the people had not yet happened. Judgment
begins at the house of God, but does not stop there. God
will judge His people; and will He not judge the idolatrous
world?
e nations boasted of their power and of their riches.
ey will be the rst to be judged; but above all, the so-
called christian countries, where profession is found highest,
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must be found at last the objects of the indignant wrath
of God. When He exercises judgment on man’s idols and
pride, He resumes the course of His earthly government
on the earth.
CHAPTER 3.
Divine judgment notices every detail of iniquity,
oppression, and even vanity. All must be brought low.
CHAPTER 4.
God pushes the judgment and the ruin to the uttermost;
but Christ the Branch of beauty and glory shall appear at
that time for the remnant. All the wicked shall have been
cut o (v. 2-4). e Branch of Jehovah shall be beauty and
glory. e glory will be displayed over all the extent of the
holy city (v. 5). Verse 6 describes an active protection on
God’s part. ose who remain after the purifying are saints,
and the glory of God shall be manifested over the city that
He has chosen to place His name there.
One can see in these four chapters the importance God
attaches to the land. He takes cognizance of the iniquity of
His earthly people, cleansing them by His judgment. He
washes away the lth of the nations also.
is does not concern the church which will come
again with Jesus in glory. Such is the position in which
Christendom is found. Meanwhile, since the rejection
of Jesus until He come again, God has visited the world
by His Spirit to gather God’s joint-heirs with Christ for
heaven.
e nature of prophecy, which enters into the mind
of God on the ruin and rejection of His people, is of all
importance. It is what distinguishes the faithful who
have the intelligence of Christ-faithful in the fallen state
of things. eir conduct at the same time is directed and
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governed by the revelation they possess of another order of
things to come.
CHAPTER 5.
ere are two great principles presented in chapters 5
and 6: in the former the judgment God pronounces on the
vineyard in reference to the fruits He must look for from it;
in the latter is the introduction of the glory of the Messiah,
and what this glory demands from the people. Prophecy
supposes a fallen condition, and would be superuous if the
state God established had no need of a special testimony.
God bears witness against the state of things and gives
promise in Jesus.
God considers whether the vineyard bears the fruit
that a vineyard so cared for ought to bear. It is a general
principle that applies to the Jews, to the church, and to
each individual. If the church has received more than the
Jews, God is entitled to expect that it produce more. When
one takes the glory of Christ, one sees what ought to
correspond to that glory. e two principles constantly turn
up. God has formed the state of things, whether among the
Jews or in the church, with reference to Christ.
Here is what God says of Israel: “ Now will I sing to my
well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.
My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and
planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the
midst of it, and also made a winepress therein; and he
looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought
forth wild grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could
have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done
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in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth
grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will
tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the
hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down
the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will
lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there
shall come up briers and thorns; I will also command the
clouds that they “rain no rain upon it.” For the vineyard
of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of
Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but
behold oppression: for righteousness, but behold a cry,” (v.
e “ wellbeloved “ is the Lord Jesus. God asks that people-
even the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah-
should judge between Him and His vineyard. He has done
much for a nation that had a certain responsibility on the
earth. He will accomplish all His counsels, but rst of all
He proves Israel to see if they will make good themselves
the design of God.
But man always fails for what God expects from him,
and He would have it seen what man is. God does all
that man could ask, and this only manifests the ill-will of
man. Sacrices, temple, service-God had arranged all. e
people fail in all; and God destroys what He had Himself
made. He breaks the fence. All that the father had the elder
brother possessed. But God destroys what He had made,
and He will accomplish all His counsels (Lam. 2: I-9). e
Lord has cast of His altar, He has abhorred His sanctuary.
His people having been unfaithful to His blessings, the
means He had placed for the blessing of His people He
has taken all away. When the people are far from God,
they attach themselves to ordinances; it is the mark that
all is going to ruin. From the moment that God is of little
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importance to the conscience, ordinances become the
objects of superstition and take the place of God. Here it is,
“ the temple of the Lord! the temple of the Lord! “ When
God is just about to destroy them, it is then men attach
the more importance to them. God conded to man true
privileges; but man fails: God takes all away, and the result
is a judgment.
From verse 8 God enumerates the various sins which
were in the midst of Israel. “ Woe unto them that join
house to house, that lay eld to eld, till there be no place,
that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they
may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine
iname them! Woe unto them that draw iniquity with
cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: that say,
Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see
it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh
and come, that we may know it! Woe unto them that call
evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and
light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and
prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty
to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the
righteousness of the righteous from him! “ (v. 8-11,18-23).
e Israelites despise the warning of judgment; the
wicked take advantage of the delay; just as the like was
to happen in the last days of the christian testimony (2
Peter 3). But God does not hurry His counsel. He is long-
suering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. He knows well that
He must judge at the end. Man attaches himself to his
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own wisdom, and as long as God does not chastise, man
hardens his heart. God has done all for His vineyard, but
this producing nothing but wild grapes; He judges His
vineyard on the earth.
e church is also on the earth under responsibility
here below. It has more light and more knowledge than
Israel. is changes nothing as to the counsels of God, who
commits His glory to the faithfulness of the church here
below. If we do not represent aright this glory, judgment is
impending on the church here below.
Instead of enfeebling the sense of our faults, the more
that we feel the blessings, the dearer will be the glory of
Christ to us; and the more also that we are alive to His
glory, the more do we understand that the church here
below must be judged as an economy here below. If anyone
can say that the church has duly guarded the glory of
Christ in the world, he must have lost the idea of what the
glory of Christ demands, just as an unconverted person has
no notion of what is due to the righteousness and holiness
of God.
CHAPTER 6.
Here it is a question of the glory of Christ, as we see
by comparing John 12:40 with verse 10 of our chapter.
e prophet sees here Christ as Jehovah of hosts who
is manifested in the temple; the Spirit of God, putting
together His glory and the state of His people, judges
this state in reference to that glory. is is the Spirit of
prophecy and of faith.
e unity and the condition of the church, do they
answer to the heart of the Bridegroom? Everything for us
is to be in accordance with God. e state of His people,
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was it according to the glory of Christ which it is my
privilege to share?
“ Woe is me for I am undone.” He judges the state of
the people, his own conscience being touched. en ew
one of the seraphims unto me,
10
etc. God establishes the
prophet. e witness of prophecy consists in the setting
forth of the holiness of God in the midst of His people.
e live coal from o the altar had touched his lips, and his
iniquity was taken away and sin purged.
ere is a moment when the people of God become,
as happened to the land of Pharaoh, the occasion of the
outward manifestation of God’s judgments: a serious and
terrible thought, yet suitable. For where ought God to
execute His righteous judgments if not where His light has
been diused and disobeyed? ere must fall most stripes
(Luke 12). It is Christendom which is now charged with
this responsibility. It is for these times the vine of the earth,
the grapes of which shall be trodden in the winepress of His
indignation (Rev. 14). God will send them strong delusion
(2 ess. 2: 11). It is just so here for the Jews of that day.
“ Make fat the heart of this people,” not the Gentiles (v.
10). Christendom which received not the love of the truth
that they might be saved shall be judged in the same way.
God will send them the working of delusion that they may
believe the lie.
e judgment must go on to an entire desolation (v.
11, 12). ere is a manifestation of glory, the prophetic
testimony of purged lips, judgment on the people and land;
but there is also the spirit of intercession, along with and
by the Spirit of prophecy. Only we must remember that the
10 Seraphim in itself means burners that y, and is found
combined with serpents in Num. 21:6, 8; Deut. 8:15.
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Jews are to be restored on earth, the church will be gloried
in heaven.
e spirit of faith knows that it is impossible for God to
abandon His people forever. He subjects them to judgment
up to desolation; but says the prophet, “ Lord, how long?
“ He knows that there is a term and that nally grace
abounds for the people. ere will be a tenth (v. 13); then
it is over again cropped down; but the holy seed, that is,
the remnant, will be manifested. During winter the tree
seems dead; but in spring, when the grace of God renews
its shining on the people, the tree recovers.
is prophecy was given in the year that Uzziah died,
and iniquity began to draw near under Jotham. e spirit
of faith is pre-occupied with the glory of God, does not
hide sin, but counts on grace in spite of sin. e principles
which apply here are found again also for the church,
though the details of application may not be the same.
e church cannot say, Lord, how long? for the earth; but
the responsibility of the vineyard, cultivated yet bearing
bad fruit, abides. We may desire for our souls intelligence
in God’s ways toward His people, and the application to
ourselves and to the church of these great principles.
Nothing is more important for our souls than the
church as an order of things here below for manifesting the
glory of Christ during His absence. Our judgment on the
state of the church should have as its rule the manifestation
of Christ’s glory as the Head in heaven. I cannot have a
deep feeling of the benets conferred by anyone without
having the sense of the responsibility that results from the
relationship. If we have unclean lips, and dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips, we shall gain nothing by hiding
from us the glory of Christ.
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CHAPTER 7.
In general the prophets date their prophecies from the
name of the kings during whose reign they prophesied.
One always nds in their writings something which gave
rise to their prophecy. Here it is the reign of Ahaz. e
prophecy of Isaiah pertains to his last days.
Prophecy does not appear when the people walk
according to God’s mind. ere might be a walk which
appears good, but which goes little by little into evil. Before
Israel made the fall of the golden calf, there was no need
of a prophet, any more than during the leading of Joshua;
for Israel enjoyed the goodness of God. When the state
of the people is bad generally, God must encourage the
remnant by prophecy, which is not only the revelation of
things to come, but also a testimony given. Prophecy is also
a means of deliverance; it always condemns those in whose
midst it takes place; it is the judgment of existing evil and
the revelation of the method God is going to employ to
deliver. Noah divinely warned condemned the world by
building the ark; he prophesied the deluge for 120 years,
because the wickedness of men was come to its height,
and deliverance was in the ark. at judgment should be
executed on the world, it was needful that it should be
announced beforehand. Such is the principle. Prophecy
is an appeal to repentance, for it is a manifestation which
exists; it is not yet judgment, but still grace. ere is always
necessarily revelation for the faithful remnant from Him
whose strength never fails. It is always Christ, in whom
everything ends without exception: even all the course of
this world concurs to the glory of Christ.
If we examine these two reigns, we see prosperity, and
in part delity. It is said of Uzziah, “ he did that which
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was right in the sight of Jehovah “; and the same of his
son Jotham. God not having yet withdrawn His hand,
there were blessings belonging to them; but look at what
there was below. When the Spirit of God acts, He takes
cognizance of evil and sees what sin is; He does not pass
lightly over things and persons as the heart of man does,
but wishes the good of the people and their conversion.
erefore does He take account of evil, and that before it is
manifested; for He does not withdraw His hand till there
is no remedy.
Such is the place prophecy holds in the ways of God,
but at the same time it nourishes and strengthens faith by
showing in the glory of the Messiah the remedy for all
evil. All the moral power of prophecy is taken away if we
consider the things to come without considering the action
of God for the moment. Anna spoke of Christ to all those
who, feeling the state of things, looked for redemption.
To understand prophecy one must understand what
God says as He says it, just believing simply the things as
they are said. It is because of not following this plain rule
that people nd so many diculties.
ere is one circumstance more, which shows God’s
attitude toward Ahaz and Hezekiah. Ahaz took away the
altar which was before Jehovah and put in its place a pagan
one. At that time the house of David being the last support,
its fall dragged with it and displays the end of Israel; while
Hezekiah who succeeded is like the resurrection for Israel,
and displays the coming blessing for the remnant when
Christ shall appear in His glory.
e Spirit of God thinks always of His people according
to their privileges; when the heart is far from God, it judges
otherwise than God does and according to its actual evil
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state. But God cannot do so. One must see the church as
God formed it for Himself; and God cannot derogate from
His holiness nor from the estimation He has made of it.
Conscience cannot judge soundly if it judge according to
its state and not its privileges; for it is according to our
privileges that God always judges. When God judges, He
compares the state of things present with what was when
He set it up: and He sees only wounds and putrefying
sores, and nothing whole. God judges and thinks according
to our privileges; and we cannot judge soundly save when
we judge as God judges, and this makes us humble.
“ Make the heart of this people fat,” etc. (Isa. 6: to):
when was this an accomplished fact? Seven hundred years
later, after Christ and even the testimony of the Spirit had
been rejected. Before the execution faith judges, and the
judgment is in God’s mind long before it happens. When
the Christian is divinely warned by prophecy of the state
of condemnation before the end, if he wait for it, all is lost.
Prophecy supposes the knowledge of God, who was in
relation with Israel till John the baptist.
Let us now look back and compare all we have had with
chapters 6, 7, and all the rest of the book. When Jehovah
says (Isa. 1:24), “ I will ease me of mine adversaries and
avenge me of mine enemies,” He spoke of those in Israel.
It is most terrible when the people of God take such a
place as is not said of the poor sinner ignorant of God.
ere is a consuming re, for the adversaries (Hebrews to:
27). God’s people come under His judgments. ere will
be a remnant, but for the mass of the people judgment.
Yet Zion shall be restored according to God’s faithfulness.
e separation of the remnant will take place at the end,
judgment will fall on the people, not on the remnant. ose
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that return shall be redeemed by righteousness and Zion
by judgment. It is a great mistake to think that chapter
2: 2-4 is yet accomplished. “ And it shall come to pass in
the last days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall
be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall ow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God
of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk
in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and
the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he shall judge
among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning-hooks: nations shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” ere are
two things: Jerusalem the center, and Jerusalem compared
with what it was. Judgment must be executed; and Zion,
delivered by this judgment, becomes the center of power,
all nations owing to it. In what follows one sees the moral
judgment which was not executed till seven hundred years
after it was pronounced. e day of Jehovah will be against
all that is lifted up, for His Spirit judges all, and His hand
will subject all to His power. It is only His people that are
His enemy-none on earth like those who have not received
the love of the truth that they might be saved; they will
be faithful to Antichrist. ere is nothing so opposed to
God as what is near God, as we see in Judas. ere must
be judgment on all that is proud and lofty. e haughty
looks of man shall be humbled. If there is in our hearts a
single object that we desire to exalt us, it will be judged and
broken. at day is against all the oaks of Bashan, etc.
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Such is the sum given us in this book as to Jews and
Gentiles, the rst four chapters being introductory, with
details in chapters 3, 4. Chapter 5 begins a pleading with
God’s people, chapter 6 interrupting the prophecy to give
the prophet his mission, and chapters 7 to 9: 7 the birth
of Messiah in relation to Israel and the land, the Assyrian
attacks, and the power of Messiah triumphant. Chapter 9:
8 resumes the chastisements on Israel with deliverance in
the end (chaps. 11, 12), for there is always deliverance after
judgment.
From chapter 13 to 35 are the details of judgments on
the nations, and of what will happen to Israel, that is, Judah
and Ephraim, followed by the typical history of Hezekiah
in chapters 36-39.
Chapter 40 begins with comfort for the people from
Jehovah, with their chastening from His hand for their
wickedness, rst, in idolatry, next in rejecting the Messiah,
and ends with glory and blessing when they repent and He
is received. e thought of God does not stop till He has
shown that grace over-abounds and till He sets His people
in blessing. e way in which the Holy Spirit judges all is by
referring all to His blessing if we have not full condence
in His goodness. One cannot have full condence in His
goodness without also having a full conviction of the
sad state of God’s people; if we avoid pronouncing this
judgment on the actual state of things and on ourselves
as sharing the same moral state we cannot know all the
goodness of God. Israel is taken as His witness against
idolatry and also of the rejection of Messiah; so that the
end is to identify the nations with Israel, and all that which
is identied with evil shall suer the eects of evil. Two
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things shall happen together, terrible times and the return
of Christ in power and glory.
We see in chapter 4: 3 that all the escaped in Jerusalem
shall be written to life. ere will be a manifestation of
glory in this world, as in a little measure there was in the
wilderness. “ And Jehovah will create upon every dwelling-
place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and
smoke by day, and the shining of a aming re by night: for
upon all the glory shall be a defense. And there shall be a
tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and
for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from
rain.” v. 5, 6. We have here the judgment of Israel and the
glory manifested. e rst four chapters give us the end of
all as to Israel, but glory at last. Prophecy always supposes
a state of displeasure on God’s part, but blessing and glory
after judgment. It was given to be believed and understood
before accomplishment. If God charges any one by a
message, he must understand it before the judgment, else
for him it is useless: to say the contrary is Satan’s snare,
for in understanding it only when accomplished, the moral
eect is lost. To have God making known His mind in
what does not touch ourselves directly, we have the great
proof of His love and enjoy communion with Him, which
always separates us more from a world about to be judged.
Jerusalem being the center of the things which must
come to pass, one must be at the center to take in the circle.
ere was but one prophet sent to the heathen, Jonah
to Nineveh. God ever sends warning before judgment,
showing also the interest He takes in the creature.
Hear what the Spirit says in chapter 5. It is important
to remark that it is always the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter
1:10, 11). We shall ever nd allusion to Christ; and if we
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read without understanding that it is Christ who speaks or
is spoken of, they are lost for us.
In general, prophecy applies as here to a people with
whom God is in relation. God calling His people to
consider their state, He would reveal His judgments to
them, but begins by making them pay attention. “ My
well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; and he
fenced it,” etc. (v. 1, 2.) It is the plaint of God in recalling
to His people what He has done for them. is applies to
our consciences. God has a right to look for fruit according
to the pains He took, and if there were none, there must be
necessarily judgment. God never stops at what is spoiled
to repair the breaches; He looks at what He did at the
beginning, and compares it with the actual state. erefore
does the Lord say to the angel of the church in Ephesus, “
ou hast left thy rst love,” Rev. 2:4. What God demands
of us is that we look at what He did at the beginning, and
that we compare ourselves, not with the actual state that
is spoiled, but with the fruits and testimonies given at the
start; and if we do not bear these fruits, we are guilty, and
here is the consequence: “ judge, I pray you, betwixt me
and my vineyard.” e principle of verses 3, 4 applies also
to the church.
e fact is that God’s people are reduced to silence.
Israel was placed under responsibility, as is the church; and,
if enjoying all the privileges, they failed, all fails on man’s
part. God has chosen Israel for His glory on earth, and
the church also for His glory in heaven; and we must not
confound ourselves with them. We have failed, but God
will accomplish all in Christ. ere are always men failing
under responsibility and Christ who does not fail; and
God executes by Him judgment on the creature, whether
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Israel or the church. Judgment will come before God
accomplishes His purposes of glory.
“ And now go to: I will tell you what I will do,” etc.
(v. 5-7). Judah was the plant of Jehovah’s pleasure, but it
brought forth wild grapes. God judges the vineyard, as
also Christendom. We have enjoyed superior advantages,
and, our christian responsibility being greater, judgment
will also be greater. God enters into details to show the
righteousness of His judgments. It is not only covetousness
ending in desolation, and corrupt luxury in death and
hell, but excuses for iniquity growing up to contempt of
divine judgment, as we see in the profane indierence of
Christendom, when men have God’s warnings and think
they will never be executed. “ ere shall come in the last
days scoers, walking after their own lusts and saying,
Where is the promise of his coming? “ (2 Peter 3:3, 4). It
answers to the insult of God in verses 18, 19. “ Woe unto
them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it
were with a cart rope: that say, Let him make speed, and
hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of
the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may
know it.”
Another character still is lack of discernment in good and
evil. Satan brings about transgression and hardening of the
conscience; his desire is always to darken the intelligence,
as the desire of the Christian should be always more and
more to judge according to God. It was the prayer of the
apostle that the Colossians (chap. 1: 9) should be lled
with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding. So Eph. 1:17. It is what distinguishes from
those of whom it is here said, “ Woe unto them that call
evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and
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light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and
prudent in their own sight! “ (v. 20, 21).
“ Because they have cast away the law of Jehovah of
hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel,
therefore is the anger of Jehovah kindled against his
people, and he hath stretched his hand against them, and
hath smitten them,” v. 24, 25. God does not strike all at
once. He sends partial judgments, and since they do not
awaken, worse judgments; but there is always before it
forbearance and mercy on God’s part. What God did at
the beginning is the great principle that God recalls to His
people. erefore is He just in His judgments.
In chapter 6 is another principle. God speaks there, not
of what He did at the beginning, but of glory. When I
compare the state of the primitive church, I say, Where are
we?
I can also say, What glory! ere is what God would
give, and He shows the glory of God in His temple. Israel
will be blessed by His manifestation and the enjoyment of
this glory. But if the people are unclean, they must have
only judgment, and not glory. Read verses 1-4 for the
manifestation of the glory of Christ Himself. ey could
not comprehend, because the heart of the people was
grown fat, as we see in verses 9, 10. But where the glory was
presented to Isaiah, he says, “ Woe is me! for I am undone;
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the
midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen
the King, Jehovah of hosts,” v. 5. Such is the conviction
of the prophet before God; he has the understanding of
good and evil, instead of being overjoyed that he had seen
Jehovah. is makes him say, Woe is me! e only thing
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that it becomes one to say is, Woe is me! “ en ew one of
the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which
he had taken with the tongs from o the altar: and he laid
it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips;
and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged,” v. 6, 7.
Because he is thus purged, the prophet is rendered capable
of being a messenger, and says to God, “ Here am I; send
me,” v. 8. “ And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye
indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive
not,” v. 9. From the moment it is a question of presenting
the people, it is, “ Make the heart of this people fat,” etc. It is
no longer a question of repentance. e time of judgment is
come: repentance is for the remnant. is will be infallibly.
Pharaoh was blinded that God might deliver His people;
and for those who refuse to receive His testimony, God
shall send them strong delusion. For He has been patient
to the last degree, but they refuse instruction from Him.
He deals with Christendom as with Israel.
God is long-suering; for seven hundred years elapsed
since the threat till its execution. When He sent the
Heir, every means had been exhausted: I do not speak of
ecacious grace. His people said, We shall have the world
without God if we get rid of the Heir. If the Christian
understands the mind of God, this separates his heart from
the actual state of things, because he sees the course of this
world, which does not understand God. If the Spirit of
God gives intelligence to the prophet and to us, one also
understands that it is not forever. “ en said I, Lord, how
long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without
inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be
utterly desolate, and Jehovah have removed men far away,
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
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But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall
be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is
in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall
be the substance thereof,” v. 11-13. One must own that the
judgment is just, but God is faithful. It is only for a time;
though it will come, and though there be judgments, the
church shall be in glory. So there will be a remnant of the
Jews, but it will be anew consumed; they will come into the
land, but the Gentiles will come also: as the oak and the
teil-tree, which being cut down have still the trunk; “ so the
holy seed shall be their stock.” God guards His remnants.
When the prophet’s mouth was purged, God tells him
the judgment, and then he turns to intercession. We ought
to understand these principles, and apply them, not to
Israel only, but to the church, and to each individual. e
beginning of conversion goes well, but afterward-! One
must judge oneself, or God judges us in His love, for He
is always love. If God saves us perfectly in Christ, we are
brought in to be the objects of His Father by government;
and when a Christian walks for the glory of God, he is
happy, and can say, Send me; for God never fails for those
who trust in Him.
We nd here not only the great principles of the
government of God, but moreover the introduction of
a personage (Immanuel, the Lord Jesus) on the scene of
prophecy, and the consequences of this introduction. God
had raised up to Israel a stay in David. It was the last support
of God’s people on the earth. Before raising up the house
of David, God had tried all means possible to maintain
relations with His people. e priesthood had failed in Eli,
the ark was taken, and God had pronounced Ichabod, e
glory is departed. Samuel is brought in, and God abides by
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His channel in sovereign grace toward His people. Saul (“
asked for “) is unfaithful. Under priesthood, under royalty,
under prophecy, in a word under all forms and all means
that God had prepared, Israel always failed. Yet God
raised up the house of David. Solomon fails. ough more
faithful than others, his family also fails. God had promised
to chastise it, but that He would never entirely withdraw
His favor. Christ Himself has been the accomplishment of
this promise, as of all others. Man always fails to keep his
relationship with God, but all is accomplished in Jesus. e
family of David failed, and it is in Christ alone that the
Jews nd the blessing that is attached to it.
In the person of Ahaz the family of David abandons
completely its delity. Ahaz associates himself with the
king of Assyria, imitates the altar seen at Damascus, and
places it in the very temple of God. When the family of
David itself thus fails, and every hope is ruined, prophecy
introduces the promise of Christ to be the support of the
faithful. is sign was to be in the family of David itself. It
is a fact of all importance. e Messiah, the Son of God,
was to show himself in Israel, and Israel to show itself
unfaithful spite of the presence of Messiah. What is before
us here is the house of David, not Israel alone. By iniquity
the conscience is bad and faith is feeble. Ahaz does not ask
for a sign. He makes a show of not wishing it by reason of
piety.
ough the house of David failed, God does not at all
fail; and He says to Isaiah, “ Go forth now to meet Ahaz.”
He intervenes at the moment the thing is necessary.
Shearjashub signies the remnant will return. e people,
being unfaithful, have no force against their enemies. But
there, in the circumstances where all hope is taken away,
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God presents the promise that the remnant should be
sustained by the testimony of God Himself. He comes
in between the sorrowful circumstances and the faithful,
that their faith should not fail. At the extreme point of
the misery God manifests Himself, and all is light. God
would have it so: otherwise the heart rests on the esh, and
forgets God. If the heart loved God naturally, this would
not be necessary; that is to say, it would not be necessary
for every outward prop to fail His children, if their heart
were only occupied with counting on Him; but the bent
of the heart estranges from God. He had not yet delivered
His people from the Assyrian; but where there is a lack of
faith, the heart is fearful before the enemy, even before a
powerless enemy. God shows comfort to His people. He
has a perfect knowledge of all that is done, and despises the
strength of the enemy. He knows who Pekah and Rezin
are, and that Damascus. is head of Syria. When it is God
who sends our enemies as a chastening against us, we have
no strength against them. God knows all the diculties.
What is wanting is the faith which gives a perfect security
against all the circumstances possible.
God points out the intentions of the two kings (v. 4-6),
intentions which perhaps Ahaz did not know. But God
besides has His king at Jerusalem, and they will not succeed
in setting up another. “ us saith the Lord Jehovah, It
shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head
of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin;
and within three score and ve years shall Ephraim be
broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim
is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye
will not believe, surely ye shall not be established,” v. 7-9.
God knew all the details, as He gives Ahaz to see. Whatever
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Syria, Damascus, or Rezin might plan, it was not what
God willed. On this all turns. What the Christian wants is
consciousness of his relationship with God: then there is
nothing to fear. It is not the strength of the enemy which
the people have to dread, but their own iniquity which
enfeebles them. e danger presented ends in nothing;
but if we seek any support whatever in something of this
world, God abandons us, leaving us to the consequences of
our relation with the support we have chosen. us Pekah
and Rezin had no strength against Judah, for God would
not deliver Jerusalem to these confederate kings: but Ahaz,
fearful and unbelieving, rests on Assyria, and it is from the
Assyrian that Judah must be delivered. Meanwhile the true
Deliverer, the real support, namely Immanuel, is revealed,
when he failed who should have reigned according to God.
erein is a most important lesson.
God oers a sign to the feeble-hearted Ahaz and to the
people seeking a prop apart from God. He would show to
the worldling all that is possible for Him to show of grace
and power; and He would make His children feel that
their incredulity and unfaithfulness are without excuse.
God bids the king to ask a sign below or above (v. to,; but
Ahaz (v. 12) shrinks from being too near God, and having
a real proof that God was there, for fear of being obliged
to follow Him, to abandon the outward supports of his
indelity, and to renounce everything but God. ere is
nothing that the outward people of God dread so much as
nearness to God; though His nearness is a blessing without
limit, the heart dreads it, because it will not quit what God
condemns.
Nevertheless God will not abandon the house of David.
He promises Immanuel (v. 13-15). e application of this
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promise concerns the house of David and the people of
Israel, not here the salvation of the church. God gives the
sign in spite of them. It is the birth of the Messiah. Ahaz
did not wish God to be near him; but God would be with
them, and Immanuel is the sign.
e two kings occasioned fear to Ahaz; but he on whom
he sought to rest is sent as a chastening on him. (See 2
Kings 16.) ere is what one should fear-that God should
take the rod. He will hiss for the enemy, for the y far o
in Egypt, for the bee in Assyria; He will shave as with a
hired razor, so as to sweep all clean (v. 17-20). God would
be our strength: the heart of man never wishes it. e fear
we have of evil befalling us makes us seek support in that
which appears to us a way without danger; and these are
the very things God employs to chastise us. e kings of
Israel and of Syria came against Judah of their own will.
God stops them. Ahaz and his people would lean on the
king of Assyria; and God makes the Assyrian come against
them in the end.
It is always what the will of man seeks that becomes
the instrument of chastening. When the assaults against
the people of God ow only from the will of man, there is
nothing to fear. Beware of dreading the nearness of God: it
is to be far from the source of all blessings.
CHAPTER 8.
Notwithstanding, the grace of God abides toward His
people. e scourge of God comes; but if He brings the
Assyrian, He promises at the same time Immanuel. If
Maher-shalal-hashbaz testies to the Assyrian in making
speed to the spoil,’ and hastening the prey, God cannot
abandon the house of David and Immanuel’s land (v. 1-10).
e Assyrian shall go over, and reach even to the neck,
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but no farther. God thereon vindicates against him the
rights of Messiah, even as it is ever our resource that we are
Christ’s. is people had refused the softly owing waters
of Shiloah; they had despised the house of David, rejoicing
in Rezin and Pekah, not in God’s gentle way, which keeps
the heart ever dependent. If the esh can have a support, it
is in man, in what looks strong; it has no condence if there
be only God for the morrow. From the moment we would
for to-morrow rest on a good thought of to-day, it is our
own righteousness. God would have us be in appearance
the most feeble, that He should be our only strength.
As they despised the waters of Shiloah, the Lord brings
on them the waters of the river strong and many; He sends
against them as their master him on whom they leaned.
Such is the end of man’s wisdom. “ Associate yourselves, O
ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all
ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken
in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak
the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. For
Jehovah spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed
me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people
shall say, A confederacy: neither fear ye their fear, nor be
afraid,” v. 9-12. How busy is human prudence, and how
vain! We are taught of God not to imitate this. e nations
shall do all this, but their counsels come to naught, “ for God
is with us.” e one counsel for the faithful is Immanuel.
“ Neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid.” eir word shall
not stand. e thought of the Assyrian is to do his own will,
not that of God. All depends on this only word, Immanuel.
What avails confederacy against Him? e Lord spoke in
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strength of hand. erefore His word is, “ Sanctify Jehovah
of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be
your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone
of stumbling and for a rock of oense to both the houses
of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall,
and be broken, and be snared, and be taken,” v. 13-15. Give
to God all the holy heed that is due to Him. Nothing then
can shake us, because nothing can shake God. Yet is He
in Jesus for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of oense
to both houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem-this because of their indelity.
ey too did not like to have the Eternal near them. e
introduction of the Messiah is in view of the power and the
invasion of the Assyrian. (Compare Mic. 5) But the result
for the mass of the people is that they reject Immanuel, and
stumble on Him to their own utter ruin.
e remnant is separated, the testimony bound up and
sealed (v. 16). e Eternal came Himself in the person of
Jesus. He is the condence, the sanctuary of those that
believe; He is a rock of oense to the unbelieving. Hence
results a relation more intimate: “ Seal the law among my
disciples. And I will wait upon Jehovah, that hideth his face
from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold,
I and the children whom Jehovah hath given me are for
signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts,
which dwelleth in mount Zion,” v. 17, 18. e testimony
is sealed there, while God turns away His face from the
house of Jacob: nay more, “ Behold, I and the children
whom Jehovah hath given me.” ey are for signs and for
wonders in Israel.
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e people have lost God who disowns them meanwhile,
and, seeking light but nding none, they turn to familiar
spirits and wizards. But the true heart, having Christ
before it, cleaves to God and His word-” To the law and to
the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them.” v. 19, 20. And then we
pass from the anguish and darkness of despair for the Jew
when he refused the Messiah to the last days when light
begins to dawn once more (v. 21, 22; chap. 9: I, 2).
us chapter 7 presents to us Immanuel, heir of
David’s house and hope of the remnant which shall return
(Shearjashub); chapter 8, the land of Canaan in relation to
Him. It is Immanuel’s land. ere the remnant separated;
and the nations in misery and darkness, till the despised
light reappears in glory (chap. 9: 1-7), overleaping the
mystery of Christ and the church of the heavenly places,
after which the general history of Israel is resumed in
continuation of the judgments of chapter 5. Chapters 6-9:
7 are a parenthesis to introduce Messiah.
We have seen in chapters 7, 8, Messiah born to reign.
It is no longer only principles, or reasonings of God with
His vineyard. ere abides the absolute promise of God,
though the son of the virgin, Immanuel, be rejected. Christ
and His disciples, instead of being received, become a sign
in Israel. Incredulity seeks a support, and this support
becomes a diculty and scourge, but there remains for
faith the accomplishment of God’s mind in Christ.
e waters of Shiloah being despised, the Assyrian
comes into the country. e prophet with the two children
is for a sign to the two houses of Israel. e Jews have in
unbelief rejected Jesus, who is become a stumbling-stone
to them, and their chastisement is in anguish and darkness.
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Two consequences result from this. e remnant could not
enjoy the earthly promises made to the Messiah, but they
have the testimony sealed up. ose who have rejected
the testimony wander without light from God in the land
which is trodden under the feet of the Gentiles. e Jews
abide in bondage. Syria attacks Zebulun and Naphtali; it
is the rst invasion. Tiglath Pileser comes into Galilee; it
is the second. But what follows is worse. Nevertheless the
light shines in this land of the shadow of death; but all
becomes graver still by the rejection of this light.
ere is then a new element on which depends the lot
of Israel. Christ has been there (Matt. 4:15), and He has
been rejected. e election from among the Jews is based
on this foundation. All the Jewish election is added to the
church (Acts 2:47), in place of being saved for another end
as in Mic. 5:3.
Christ having been manifested to but rejected by the
nation, they are blinded. A judicial darkness is fallen on the
Jews. His rejection by them opens the way for the election
from among the Gentiles, whilst the elect from Israel are
added to the church. Jehovah hides His face from the
house of Jacob (chap. 8: 17); but the prophetic Spirit waits
for Him to act in favor of Israel. e church anticipates
the faith of Israel when the Messiah is rejected, believing
in Him; and this even becomes the occasion of provoking
Israel to jealousy.
If Israel had received Jesus, Israel would have been
blessed; the wickedness of man would not have been
proved, and Israel would not have lost their right to the
promises. e wisdom of God places Israel under mercy
like the Gentiles (Rom. 11), and opens thus the door to the
Gentiles in accomplishing the promises. Jesus is minister
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of the truth of God for the Jews and of mercy for the
Gentiles (Rom. 15). We have “pre-trusted in Christ” (Eph.
1:12): that is, those of the Jews whose hope was in Christ
before the nation bows at the end when He is seen in glory.
We have believed without seeing, in contrast with omas
and Israel. ose who shall believe when they see Him are
to be blessed, but are not to be in His glory. is changes
nothing as to the promises on God’s part. Israel had lost
all right to the promises; but these abide, because God had
sworn to Abraham, and He is faithful. He judges Israel,
hides His face from Jacob; nevertheless He keeps all His
promises, and Israel waits till judgment falls on faithless
Christendom, as it fell on the Jews. God will resume His
ways with His people, and Israel shall be blessed.
From the rst to the second verse of chapter 9 the
present economy is quite passed over, and we light on the
accomplishment of the promises for Israel. It is a question
of Israel and the world, not of the church. e prophetic
Spirit waits for what God will do, and beholds across the
ages, the glory of Jehovah in the Messiah shedding His
blessing on His people Israel. e rst coming of Jesus
has not accomplished verses 2-7. He has not delivered His
people from the yoke of the Gentiles, the reign of the false
king, or the ecacious lie of Satan. One often sees half a
passage of the Old Testament cited in the New Testament,
because the accomplishment of the other half is not arrived.
us Christ is gone on high and has received gifts for
men, but not yet “ for the rebellious,” that is, the Jews who
will receive the rain of the latter season. All the present
economy lies in the interval. It is no question at present
either of Jews or Greeks, but of man, a new creation in
Christ and called out of the world for heaven.
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e Child was already born, the Son given; but Israel
have not owned Him. When they are renewed, Christ will
be owned, as born “ unto us “ and given “ unto us.” e
church anticipates the people in all this; but for heaven.
ere is here a principle of intelligence for prophecy, to
see how we can employ the passages put in the mouth of
the Jews. In chapter 53: 1-4 it is the Jews who esteemed
Christ “ smitten of God and aicted.” ey said if He were
the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross. Not
so the believer, who enters into the enjoyment of the fruits
of His suering. “ He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities.” “ Jehovah hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all.” It remains true that He died for the Jews
as an elect nation, but also to gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad. ese in the
name of Jesus can say, that God caused the iniquities of
us all to meet on Him. But Gentiles as such cannot say, “
We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and aicted
“; as grafted on the olive, they can now say what Israel will
say by-and-by. e church can say more, for on our behalf
Jesus sits on the throne, not of David, but of His Father.
We shall sit on Christ’s throne, but not on the throne of
David; to it we have no right whatever, not being of David’s
lineage. But we shall be seated on the more elevated throne
of our Lord as the gloried Son of man. We are one with
Christ, the coming King, and shall reign with Him, kings
and priests to God, even His Father. In this sense it is not
for us to say, like Israel, “ Unto us a child is born,” because
we shall not be subjects of the kingdom, but co-heirs with
Christ the King, not the people reigned over, but kings
reigning with Him.
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Christ has not yet the government here spoken of upon
His shoulders, nor is there the increase of government and
peace without end, nor is His name yet called Prince of
Peace as here in the exercise of His functions. He is prince
or originator of life whom God raised up from among the
dead. He has not come yet to give peace in the earth, but a
sword and division. He would have us ght, clothed with
all spiritual armor. When Christ shall reign, He will be
Prince of Peace as Son of David, and peace shall be on the
earth. Christ must have the pre-eminence in all things, and
have every sort of glory, as Son of God, Son of man, Son of
David, etc., all things put under Him, and not merely Israel
or the Gentiles. We shall sit with Him on His throne, as
now He sits on the Father’s. Up to the present we are seated
in heavenly places in Him, not with Him as yet, on high.
But He will also have the throne of David. God loves
the people, and Jerusalem is the city of the great King: Jesus
will have this glory, the church has it not. e Jews will
enjoy it under His reign. It is an earthly state, and more
limited. Jesus is also head of angels, and will have that glory
too. He is personally the image of the invisible God, and
Son of man, Head over all things, as all the ends of the
earth shall call Him blessed (Psa. 72).
Jesus only took up the promises when risen, in a life to
make all sure on the other side of the grave: a mere man
could not do this (2 Sam. 23:5; Isa. 55:3; Acts 13:34). Jesus
must introduce the blessing of God among creation. It is
not here the Father and the Son, but Jehovah and the Son
of David; and there is a counsel of peace between them
both, to the end that creation should be blessed (Zech.
6:12, 13), Israel being restored to their own land.
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We have been instruments of mischief to all creation,
which now awaits for the manifestation of the children of
God for its blessing and happiness too. We are gathered a
kind of rst-fruits of the new creation, while God hides His
face from the house of Jacob. What gracious consideration
in God towards us, for whom, having been in Adam the
instruments of the ruin of creation, all creation waits, that
we should be manifested with the second Man for the
blessing! When Christ shall be Priest on His throne, the
counsel of peace shall proceed for the blessing of the earth.
As to us, identied now with His humiliation, we shall be
identied with His glory; we alone shall see Him as He is
in the intimacy of His love. e Jews will see Him as He
shall be manifested in earthly glory. In the expression of
faith, as in the Psalms, mercy is always before righteousness,
because Israel had failed completely in righteousness, and
there must be recourse to mercy and grace.
We nd in prophecy great principles of truth which
can guide us, Christians, but also circumstances which do
not concern us. Spiritual intelligence seizes the place of
the church and the exaltation that God reserves for His
Son Jesus, that all glory may center in Him. e Christian’s
heart is happy in seeing Jesus exalted everywhere and with
all glory. e scriptures bear testimony to Him, and, in
proportion as we apprehend better the glory of Jesus, the
scriptures become more easy for us to understand.
CHAPTERS 9, 1 o
e Spirit of God has given in the preceding chapters
the Messiah (hope of the remnant and deliverer from the
Assyrian), whose presentation to the Jews changes all the
condition of the nation. He resumes now the prophetic
history of the people of Israel. God has chastised His
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people, but this has not yet dealt with their pride: they
conde yet in themselves (v. 8-12). e anger of Jehovah
is not yet turned away, but His hand is stretched out still,
for the people do not turn to Him that smites them, and
have not discerned His hand. And till this is seen, there is
resistance and a strengthening of self in one’s own power.
ere are three things in the chastenings of God’s
people: rst, the instrument; second, the enemy’s malice;
third, the hidden intention of God. If one looks at the
instrument, it is only to accuse, or to be discontented. But
even behind the malice of Satan there is the goodness of
God. Sometimes the heart avows that the chastening is
come in consequence of known evil, and then would just
reform itself a little. But the hand of God abides stretched
out still because there is no return to Him that smites, but
the eort by a certain quantity of hypocrisy to appease
God. e conscience has not been put in direct relation
with God.
e consequence is (v. 14) His cutting from Israel head
and tail, branch and root, leaders and led. So God takes
away even a Christian from this world as a chastisement
(1 Cor. 11).
When the people of God go wrong, there is always the
spirit of false prophecy which would make them believe
that all goes well. Men in authority love that they should
not be discouraged: see the opposition to Jeremiah in
Jerusalem. To this the false prophet lends help, to hinder
the conscience from turning back to God, who would by
chastening bring the conscience into direct contact with
Him. e spirit of falsehood would persuade that they are
very happy. ey that call them blessed are the misleaders.
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ose that are so called and believe them are swallowed up
(v. 16).
When the people of God are in a good state, they have
at heart the glory of God without which they cannot be
satised. It is not enough for them that there is no evil
going on-this suces man, but not the glory of God. ere
are still divisions and miseries because of their iniquities (v.
18-20). But the people is not yet turned to God, and His
hand is stretched out still (v. 21). God does not crush His
people even when He smites. He leaves some consolation.
Nevertheless His people take up their pride again (chap. to:
1-4). At last God calls the great instrument of His anger.
(chap. to: 5, etc.). e Assyrian is the rod of His wrath.
ere are two phases in the history of the Jewish people.
ere is rst the time when they are owned as the people of
God, who chastens them by Egypt and Assyria, yet owns
them. Later on He rejects them, and the people become
Loammi, Not-His-people. When Israel was carried away
captive, it was Lo-ruhamah, but there was not yet an
absolute cutting o as a people. When Nebuchadnezzar
takes Jerusalem, the people become Lo-ammi. Israel is
rejected. God no more owns His people. He watches over
them still for nal restoration to their land, but “ the times
of the Gentiles “ begin.
Messiah has been presented to the Jews, but not to the
ten tribes which had been carried away by the Assyrian.
All the history whilst Israel is not owned belongs to the
times of the Gentiles. Now in this part of Isaiah we leave
aside the times of the Gentiles to follow Israel. God owns
His people even in chastising them. e Assyrian is the
instrument of the chastisement even at the last.
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We see in Mic. 5 x-7 that, when the Assyrian shall
come into the land, Christ the ruler in Israel will be found
there, “ the peace.” is is not yet arrived. He shall be the
peace then when the Assyrian enters. ere is a remarkable
type of this nal attack of the Assyrian in the history of
Sennacherib against Hezekiah. erefore it is that chapters
36-39 are given. e Holy Spirit takes the actual and
real circumstances of the Jews to bind up with them the
prophecy of the last days. When Sennacherib came, it was
Hezekiah who was in Jerusalem. He is a type of the time
when Christ is to be there.
God employs the pride and iniquity of the wicked for
the chastisement of His people; and afterward He destroys
the instrument. e Assyrian, God’s rod to strike Israel,
glories himself against God, who breaks the rod. So in the
early part of the nineteenth century Napoleon Bonaparte
smote all the people of the Roman empire, but, being
wrong, was after that smitten himself.
When the Assyrian shall have done his work, it is the
ceasing of the indignation against Israel: an important point
in Israel’s history. e destruction of the Assyrian (not of
Antichrist) is the end of Jehovah’s anger. e Antichrist
will have appeared and been judged before. e remnant
shall return, the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God,
who will search out and punish the glory of man’s high
looks on all sides, and shall make a consumption even
determined in all the land. Christ will maintain Israel.
CHAPTER 11.
It is no question here either of Christ as Head of the
church or of the church’s glory. He is presented as Messiah
for the earth ruling, the judgment on the enemy being
executed. He is not here called the Root of David, the
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source of blessing, but a Branch. In Rev. 5 He is the Root
of David, in chapter 22 He is Ospring as well as Root. For
the church He has a suited relation. He is not judging the
earth yet. When He comes again, He will judge, and slay
the wicked. (Compare v. 4 and 2 ess. 2.) Consequently
Christ must be looked for to reign over the earth, ruling in
righteousness and deciding with equity for the meek of the
earth. Actually it is the haughty and unjust who possess
the earth. Christ and His own have not yet His rights here
below.
In verses 5-9 we see the fruit of the curse gone from
the earth, which, by the presence of Christ and the Spirit
poured from on high, shall be full of the knowledge of
Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. Christ here is not
gloried above, nor is it the gospel here below.
Verse to is not at all realized yet. Christ is an object of
reproach, not of glory. But “ in that day there shall be a root
of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it
shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.” He
will be the center, and the Gentiles will seek Him then: now
it is the hour when God the Father seeks true worshippers,
a people from among the Gentiles for His name.
In that day not only will the curse of the earth be taken
away, and the nations ock to Christ the exalted King;
but “ the Lord shall set his hand again the second time
to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left,
from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from
Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an
ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of
Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the
four corners of the earth,” v. 11, 12. As He of old brought
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His people out of Egypt He will recover the remnant of
them from the north and south, east and west. Ephraim
and Judah will not only be re-united as a people, but in
heart also (v. 13), as they never have been.
From verse 14 we learn that the neighboring nations,
which escape the last great Assyrian, or king of the north
(Dan. 11:41), shall become objects of judgment to returned
Israel, when they spoil their more distant enemies. e
comparison of the two prophets shows exactness in
detail, where unbelief sees only extinct races and thinks
accomplishment impossible.
It is plain that verses 15, 16 can only apply to an earthly
deliverance of Israel like that out of Egypt.
CHAPTER 12.
Here we have a song of praise and thanksgiving
for their deliverance. “ ou shalt say,” etc. (v. x) means
unequivocally Israel. God’s anger has not only turned away
and ceased, but He is their salvation (v. 2). For all Israel in
that day shall be saved. erefore with joy they draw water
out of those exhaustless wells and say Hallelujah (v. 3, 4).
But it is Jah Jehovah, not the Father as we know Him now
through the Lord Jesus. e eect of their deliverance is
that His glory as the Eternal is known in all the earth (v.
5). e Father is known in His family, not in all the earth
as such, though by His children everywhere. But here it is
the kingdom, and He is known as the Holy One of Israel
in Zion. Jehovah reigns, and by Israel He makes Himself
known in all the earth.
If we have well seized these two chapters, we cannot
confound what is said of Israel and of the church. Christ
as the Judge of all must have slain the wicked with the
breath of His lips (see chap. 30: 33) in order that the
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blessing should come to pass. Otherwise we confound
the kingdom of Christ’s patience with the kingdom of
righteous government. If one leads the church to believe
that this happy time is come, and that she is to make
good all these things, it is to mislead the faithful and to
encourage unbelievers. For natural pride is increased by
these misapplications of what can only be realized by
Christ’s coming to reign. Our place meanwhile is to suer
with Christ.
Here we can remark the force of 2 Peter 1:20: no prophecy
of scripture is of its own [particular] interpretation. It is not
a question of Nineveh, etc., nor of any other thing in or by
itself, but nally of the glory of Jesus, where all meets and
all ends. It speaks of a vast and connected system of glory
which must be taken as a whole, even as the Spirit wrote it.
In the preceding chapters we have the relationship of
God with His people closed by the manifestation of Christ
in glory. Here begins a new prophecy, which presents to us
the relationship of Israel with the nations. is section of
the prophecy goes from chapter 13 to the end of chapter
27, terminating with songs of joy and deliverance, as in the
rst section.
CHAPTER 13.
e rst of these predictions begins with what is in
contrast with Zion, that is to say, with Babylon, and the
answer to the messengers of the nations, which is in
chapter 14, that Jehovah hath founded Zion, and the poor
of His people shall betake themselves to it, when Babylon
is destroyed.
Babylon is not only the capital of Nebuchadnezzar and
of the habitable world; it is Babel, signifying confusion.
It is there men are united to exalt themselves and make
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themselves a name and a reputation in the world. At the
end all the world sets itself to get exaltation for which
commerce furnishes the means; and everything there,
men’s bodies and souls, will be for sale, as we see in Rev.
18 e Spirit of God taking the city of the Chaldees as an
occasion gives the mind of God on the city of idolatrous
corruption and pride up to the end, and even brings in
here future circumstances of which history presents no
accomplishment, and whose order is in contrast with that
which is already arrived. us the Assyrian, if we follow
the history, was destroyed before the grandeur of Babylon;
whilst the Spirit, speaking of what will happen in the last
days, tells us that the Assyrian is to be destroyed after
Babylon. In the time of the prophet Babylon had not yet
any pretension to be the capital of an empire, but was a
provincial city or at most a secondary power, seeking
independence of Assyria, and at times gaining it, till it at
last became not only aggressive but supreme.
In verse 6 the fall of Babylon is announced as the day of
Jehovah. at which will happen in that day is indicated in
verses 6-12. ere is all that the world has to look for.
One sees in the world either the arrogance of him who
has the upper hand, or the envy of him who is below. God
will cause to cease the pride of man in both ways; He
will punish (as here) not the dead only, but the living, the
habitable earth, all that from which the world draws its
glory. Its great chiefs, its victories, its wealth, ease, luxury,
splendor, what is it but arrogance and self-exaltation? at
day will be blessed for those who are poor in spirit, because
they will enjoy peace; but the destruction will be so great
that a man will be more prized than the gold of Ophir.
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“ erefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall
remove,” etc. (v. 13-22). All this is “ a promise “ to the
Christian. (See Heb. 12:25, 26.) If he is in his place, he
is separate from all the interests of the world, he belongs
to heaven, to Jesus, which cannot be shaken. e world
passes away, and God will make it cease, and this will give
rest. It is for us a “ promise,” as we have seen. Jesus speaks
to us from heaven and makes us this promise of shaking
once more, not the earth only, but also heaven; because
all that which surrounds us is an obstacle which hinders
us from enjoying what Jesus has promised us. Christians
hasten this time by their faith. God would have us wait
for it because His patience is great, and the work of saving
souls still goes on here below (2 Peter 3). If the destruction
of all the world-system is not a promise to us, it must be
that we are attached to what is on the earth. ere is a
kingdom which cannot be moved and which will move
all others; and it is for this that christian simplicity waits.
Can we truly desire, as the accomplishment of a promise,
that God should shake the heavens and the earth? Are our
hearts attached to not one thing which shall be the object
of that destruction? May God make us see the end of it,
that our hearts may be separated from all that is going to
be destroyed!
CHAPTER 14.
When God acts in judgment, there is always care taken
of His people. “ For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob,
and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land:
and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall
cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take
them, and bring them to their place: and the house of
Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants
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and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose
captives they were: and they shall rule over their oppressors,”
v. I, 2. When the devastation of the habitable world takes
place, there will be the deliverance of the people of God,
Israel, who will take possession of the earth.
From verses 3-23 there is a beautiful picture of the fall
of Babylon’s king in its last representative-the beast of
the close. e prophet takes occasion from events at hand
in that day; but no prophecy of scripture is made to be
of its own interpretation, none has been fully or entirely
accomplished. And the reason is that the Holy Spirit has
always Jesus and His kingdom in view. God has always the
second Man in His mind. Even the rst prophecy, that the
woman’s Seed should crush the serpent’s head, is not yet
fullled. All that there is in God’s word points onward to
the glory of Christ.
ere is a crowd of prophetic examples in the word
of God, where but half is accomplished. us Psa. 8 is
not yet accomplished in verses 6-9. We do not yet see all
things put under His feet (Heb. 2). Again Psa. 68 is not
yet accomplished fully. Hence the apostle omits “ for the
rebellious also “ in Eph. 4, because it will apply to the Jews
in the latter day. It would be to lose the purpose of God
to believe the prophecies accomplished on this side of
Christ’s glory; for it would give to prophecy a particular
interpretation.
In verses 12-15 we see that, as long as “ the beast “ is
on the earth, he passes himself o for God. Nevertheless
he is doomed to destruction (v. 19). God has but to give
the signal, and he who broke kings like reeds is himself a
broken reed.
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To the Christian Christ is the true Morning Star; but
“ the beast “ claims to be so. He attributes to himself all
the glory of Christ. All these details here vaunted in verses
12-15 are true of the Lord Jesus; but the last holder of the
power given rst to Babylon’s head, would also ascend into
heaven, and sit too on the mount of the congregation in the
sides of the north, taking possession of Christ’s kingdom
in Zion. Compare for part of the language Psa. 48:2: there
was the city of the great king. e beast would also possess
himself of Christ’s heavenly glory, and be like the Most
High; but He who is Son of God and Son of man will
overthrow the man of the earth, who shall cause no more
fright after that (Psa. 10:18).
e beast and the false prophet being destroyed, Christ
is King in Zion. In due time comes the destruction of
the Assyrian, as we see here in verses 24-27. “ Jehovah
of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so
shall it come to pass: and as I have purposed, so shall it
stand: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon
my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke
depart from o them, and his burden depart from o their
shoulders. is is the purpose that is purposed upon the
whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon
all the nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and
who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and
who shall turn it back? “ e Assyrian is no less senseless
in rising up against Christ associated with Israel, the
Prince of princes. e indignation is accomplished then,
and Israel long chastised is owned of God. When Christ
reigns in Zion, Israel is owned, but all the enemies are
not yet destroyed. at which follows the destruction of
Babylon and the beast is the destruction of the Assyrian,
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or king of the north. It is a mistake to confound the little
horn of Dan. 7 with the little horn of Dan. 8, which last
elevates himself not against the God of gods, but against
the Lord of lords. For the indignation to cease completely
the Assyrian must be destroyed (Mic. 5). He will trample
down the Assyrian in His land, because He owns Israel for
His people. God will assert in the person of Christ all His
rights over the earth.
In verses 28-32 is the judgment of the Philistines, the
remains of the Canaanites. Hezekiah labored for their
submission. e Lord Jesus will nish it by a destruction
more terrible when He stablishes His throne in Zion.
When Babylon, the Assyrian, and the Philistines are put
down nally, the poor and needy remnant shall lie down
in safety, and Zion shall be their bulwark. (See Psa. 132)
Never in God’s word does that mountain mean anything
but itself, being wholly inapplicable to the church.
CHAPTERS 15, 16.
From chapter 13 we have begun to see Israel the center
of all the providence of God in the world, in contrast to all
the other nations. Deut. 32 shows Israel as the center of
God’s ways in the world. In antiquity there is no profane
history of any importance which is not in connection with
the Jewish people. God has a people in the midst of whom
He governs and manifests His ways and the consequences
of His character. is is true of Israel and the church. All
that happens to them is the manifestation of the principles
of God’s government. God abode visibly in Israel, His
throne was there. He abides by the Spirit in the church.
He acts always in government in the midst of His people;
it is there He would manifest Himself and not abide only
in heaven.
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From the moment God is in Israel He identies Himself
with His people. In consequence of this the nations are
treated according as they treated Israel. “ Inasmuch as ye
have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me,” says the King. e moment they touch
Israel, they touch the apple of His eye. In all these chapters
we see the relations of Israel with the nations, and the
nations judged of God because they trod down His people,
though He used them also to punish His people. But
the world enters into God’s mind and assails His people,
because they are (not unfaithful to Him but) hateful to
them, as they would swallow up all they have. When His
people are unfaithful, God sends a testimony to them, as
Jeremiah; but they accuse him of conspiring against them,
of weakening them, etc., because he tells them that in
consequence of their departure from God He will give
them over to the Chaldeans.
Here we have Moab wasted and cut o with bitter
sorrow, the more humiliating after all their pride. And the
very burden which proclaims Moab reduced hopelessly,
declares that David’s throne shall be prepared in mercy with
One sitting on it in truth, judging and seeking judgment
and hasting righteousness.
CHAPTER 17.
Next comes the burden of Damascus and its degradation
from a city to a ruinous heap. In verses 4-6 we see the
judgment of Israel, but gleaning grapes are left there.
God chastises His people till they cease to rest on their
own strength, instead of relying on God alone. Yet when
dwindled down to a remnant of two or three here and four
or ve there, they shall look to Himself, the only source of
strength, the Holy One of Israel. For their idolatry they
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had been desolated. But in the hour of their desperate
grief, when nations seem once more ready to engulf and
overwhelm them, rebuke comes, and the rushing multitudes
are as cha before the wind (v. 12-14).
When God’s people are faithless, they are able to act
even after the prudence and wisdom of the natural man.
When they do not rest on God, they are feebler than the
world; and when they are given over to a chastening, they
are immediately broken to pieces.
e prophet Habakkuk demands the judgment of
God, because He is broken-hearted at seeing iniquity
in the dwelling of righteousness. When God says He
will punish and shows the prophet the desolation of His
people, Holdest thou thy tongue, says the prophet, when
the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than
he? Jehovah then answers, “ e just shall live by his faith.”
Our relations with God, because He dwells in the midst of
us, bring His judgment on men because of what they do to
the people of God.
CHAPTER 18.
It is needful to remember the position of the land of
Israel. e rivers of Ethiopia (Cush) are the Nile and the
Euphrates, which represent the two nations on the frontiers
of Israel that had oppressed them, Egypt and Babylon.
e country here summoned, “ shadowing with wings
“ (v. 1), is beyond those rivers. It was a country unknown
at the time when the prophet lived, and was consequently
in no connection as yet with Israel; but it will be so in
the last days. To shadow with wings is an expression often
employed in the word of the Lord for marking protection.
It will be a powerful nation, outside their ordinary limits,
undertaking to protect Israel.
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e great nations of those days occupy themselves with
the Jews (v. 2). From the time the nations begin to be the
object of God’s judgment, they will be crushed (Zech.
12:1-3).
“ All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the
mountains “ (v. 3): God summons attention to that which
He is going to do. “ See ye when he lifteth up an ensign on
the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.”
“ For so Jehovah said unto me, I will take my rest, and
I will consider in my dwelling-place like a clear heat upon
herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest,” v.
4. We see what God will do when the nations, following
their own policy, will have restored the Jews to their land.
He lets them act, and keeps quiet; but He keeps His eye on
His dwellingplace.
“ For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and
the sour grape is ripening in the ower, he shall both cut
o the springs with pruning hooks, and take away and
cut down the branches,” v. 5. It is not yet judgment, so all
comes to nothing, whatever the promise, as in all human
things where God is concerned. Compare Isa. 6 to.
“ ey shall be left together unto the fowls of the
mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls
shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth
shall winter upon them,” v. 6. e people are brought back
to their land to be given over as a prey to the nations, like
wild beasts in winter or ravenous birds in summer. Such
will be their fate when anew returned to Palestine, for God
is not yet putting His hand to it. Jerusalem will again be the
central object of political schemes for the world, though
the world despises God’s people, and never occupies itself
with them but to exalt itself. e Jew will be oppressed by
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the Gentiles once more in their land; but deliverance is at
hand.
“ In that time shall the present be brought unto Jehovah
of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people
terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted
out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have
spoiled, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the
mount Zion,” v. 7. A present is to be brought of Israel
and from Israel to Jehovah. ey will bring an oering,
and themselves be as it were an oering, to Jehovah, who
will manifest anew His abode in Zion (after all the long
sorrows and desolations), but also His hand in judgment
of the nations. After this will begin His relationship with
Israel for everlasting blessing under Messiah and the
new covenant. e mount of Zion is the place God has
chosen, in contrast with Sinai, the mountain of the nation’s
responsibility and ruin. (See Heb. 12.) At Sinai God gave,
not His promises, but His law; and Israel stood afar o
and fell under its curse. Zion is quite another thing. Israel
failed under Moses and Aaron, the Judges, Eli, Samuel and
Saul, under priest, prophet and king. But David is chosen
in sovereignty and places the ark of God in Zion, which
becomes the display of royal grace on earth, after man in
every respect had failed in his relations with God.
e mountain of Zion is for the earth the same thing
in principle as heaven is (save royalty) for God’s relations
with the church. e majesty of God no more requires
righteousness in man. It establishes itself in grace on the
earth when man broke down in everything. is will be
true in all, though we shall not be there but above. Jehovah
of hosts (that is, the God of government here below) will
place Israel, not the church, in connection with the mount
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Zion. e Father will have us with the Son in His house on
high as His children, instead of governing us as His subjects
on the earth. It is always important to distinguish our part
from that of the earthly people; if not, we necessarily lower
our calling, our privileges, and our responsibility. God puts
Himself in relation with the world as King by means of
His people Israel.
CHAPTERS 19, 20.
ere is a change to be noticed, in that from this point
the Spirit of God does not so much give us the deliverance
of Israel as the desolation of the nations in question. Here
in chapter 20 it is the burden of Egypt, its judgment
and its blessing, when not Israel only but Assyria, their
then conqueror, shall be blessed. If ruin befell that land
meanwhile, if anarchy followed, if cruel lords after this
oppressed, grace will succeed and bless in the end. But
how complete the change when the land of Judah shall
be a terror to Egypt, etc. (chap. 19: 17), a thing never yet
fullled! On the contrary Egypt dominated the Jews under
the Ptolemies, as of old under the Pharaohs. When Israel
becomes at length the inheritance of Jehovah, both Egypt
and Assyria shall oppress no more, but come into special
relationship and blessing from God. Chapter 20 is but the
sequel, marking by a sign in the prophet’s person the vanity
of hoping in Egypt or Ethiopia against Assyria.
CHAPTERS 21, 22.
ese two chapters introduce us to God’s mind by
showing the contrast between Babylon “ the desert of the
sea,” and Jerusalem “ the vision of peace.” e idea of the
Holy Spirit speaking of Babylon is that it becomes a “
wilderness,” the “ sea “ in prophetic language signifying the
mass of peoples.
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It is in Jerusalem that the Holy Spirit sees the glory
and the peace of Christ, Salem as is well known meaning
“ peace.” e confusion is evident historically, if one essays
to consider the prophecy as a whole already accomplished,
however visibly Babylon’s fall is given. It is plainly here a
question of God’s ways in times to come. All the events
are brought together here without any reference to the
chronological order of the past, but in the relation that they
will have among each other to the last days. For Jerusalem
falls after Babylon, the inverse of history. We nd here also
instruction for ourselves now.
In chapter 21 we see God preparing a rod of vengeance
for Babylon, as of chastening in the following chapter for
Jerusalem, where the power of evil was displaying itself
after another way.
How instructive for the soul which like a sentinel
pays attention to that which God is going to do in His
government of the earth! Men are of no value and know
nothing at all: all their wisdom and their prudence only
contribute to bring about the result that God has prepared
for the manifestation of His glory in the person of Jesus,
in the midst of the Jewish people. Prophecy makes us
understand that all is judged in the world, and that all the
world’s course is but “ the desert of the sea.”
In Babylon had the Jews been captive; and there is
found the pride and glory of the world. It has been thought
that Babylon will be literally re-built by the unbelief which
will vaunt itself against God to show that what has been
said of Babylon is not true. But if so, this will draw the nal
judgment on it.
Verses 11, 12. Dumah, or Edom, has a perpetual hatred
against God’s people. His people may be in an extremely
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poor state, and the world say with insolence against them,
Where is your God? Here is the answer of the Spirit of
God to this insolence (v. 12): “ What of the night? “ e
Edomites spoke against Jerusalem, not because it was
corrupt, but just because it was the city of the great King.
For us the night will soon be past, the morning will
come. It is still the night as to the world. For the people
of God the morning comes; it is their hope and their
consolation. But for the world it is a question of the night.
So long as Jesus was in the world He was the light of the
world, but the night is there since Jesus is there no longer.
e insolence of enemies serves to exercise and
strengthen faith; it recalls to the child of God what his
privileges are and his position. If the people of God are
unfaithful, God chastises them, and may call them Lo-
ammi (Not-my-people); but in the presence of the world
one remembers that they are notwithstanding the people
of God. Jacob had often been unfaithful and chastised in
every way, saying to Pharaoh, “Few and evil have the days
of the years of my life been”; yet he blessed the king. Jacob
as God’s servant and chosen, though wretched and feeble,
was in a position superior to that of the king of Egypt.
e feeblest child of God is superior to the world in all its
glory and strength. e church is unfaithful and has lost
the manifestation of the favor of God. is should be a
subject of humiliation. But if the world is insolent, we can
answer to it, “ e morning cometh, and also the night: if
ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come.”
ese are the counsels of God, and the character of God
who acts in His government according to the conduct of
His people. He has manifested His character in showing
an admirable patience till there was no remedy. As to
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this world, where God manifests His way, the church is
responsible and treated according to its responsibility. As
to heavenly glory, the church cannot fail any more than the
grace of God which calls to it.
e burden of Arabia follows in verses 13-17; all the
glory of Kedar shall fail.
In chapter 22 comes the burden of the valley of vision.
What is this that happened to Jerusalem? What is it that
they expect? “ What aileth thee now that thou art wholly
gone up to the house-tops? “ (v.1). To-day also is the world
on the house-tops, looking out; and the church so called
no less than the world, for each feels that all is crumbling.
Verse 4. e prophetic Spirit does not hide the evil, but,
in place of rejoicing over it like Edom, it is aicted, and
weeps bitterly, as Jesus wept over Jerusalem. is is ever the
eect of intelligence in the ways of God. ere is no need
of prophecy but when things go to wreck. It awakens the
aections of the heart. e spirit which is in us answers to
the Spirit of prophecy, which is the expression of God’s
aection for His people. One loves with God; and there
is always a great sweetness in this fellowship of thoughts
with God, where the subject of them is painful.
Verse 5. God demolishes the wall, He rejects His house,
His altar. It is the judgment of God which leaves Jerusalem
a prey to the Gentiles. If there is evil, God cannot manifest
His favor. He can restore His people, but He cannot glorify
them in the world if they are unfaithful.
Verses 8-11. All that the wisdom of man can suggest to
him is to fortify the wall God broke down. ey take wise
measures, they make a ditch for the water of the old pool.
It is very prudent to hinder the water owing outside the
city to refresh their enemies. But with all this wisdom they
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forgot to look to the Maker and fashioner of it long ago.
“ And in that day did the Lord Jehovah of hosts call to
weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding
with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen,
and killing sheep, eating esh, and drinking wine: let us eat
and drink; for to-morrow we shall die. And it was revealed
in mine ears by Jehovah of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall
not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord Jehovah
of hosts,” v. 12-14. Such is the result. e prophetic Spirit
seeing this cannot but weep for the ruin of the daughter of
His people. It is a spirit of humiliation. e history of the
same acts is presented to us in the Chronicles as a proof of
blessing, and it was such on Hezekiah; but the worm was at
the heart, and the people did not return to Him who struck
them, but all went from bad to worse. In comparing this
with the history, there is not a passage which bears more on
the heart than the judgment God here pronounces on the
eorts of man to re-establish what God would break down.
From verse 15 to the end I do not doubt that one should
see in Shebna Antichrist set aside for the Messiah typied
by Eliakim (that is, the God of resurrection). All the glory,
great or small, attaches to Jesus on the throne of David;
and all the power of Antichrist shall be cut o. Till Jehovah
speaks, Antichrist looks strong and sure, and he counts on
the future; but from the moment God speaks, he falls (v.
25).
We have also the judgment of the city. But we see the
fall of Babylon necessary in order that Jerusalem should
appear on the scene, though its state be one of perplexity
and distress, desiring and undertaking to restore things, but
God blowing on all. And all falls with Antichrist, whereon
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God sets up the throne in Jesus and gives His blessing to
all the earth.
We see in these chapters how God destroys the insolence
of man and judges the unfaithfulness of His people. e
world’s insolence as to God’s children ought not to shake
their condence, but on the contrary to strengthen it. For
God takes knowledge of everything; and their cause is that
of God, who will be gloried in them at the end.
CHAPTER 23.
In chapter 23 we see the burden of Tire. e immediate
aim was the capture of this great seat of ancient commerce
by Nebuchadnezzar; but the Spirit of prophecy does not
stop with Jehovah’s purpose then against its merchant
princes, when the honorable of the earth were brought
into contempt, and the pride of all glory stained, and the
ships of Tarshish smitten in their strength. Whatever the
re-appearance of Tire after the overthrow of the Chaldean,
the prophecy looks onward to a brighter day when her
merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to Jehovah.
CHAPTER 24.
Since chapter 13 we have in general judgments on the
nations, and have seen the Jews given up for the Gentiles,
the beasts of the earth, to winter upon them. Here we see
judgment on Israel, and from verse 13 extending to all the
earth and the isles of the sea. At that time the resurrection
will be, and after the judgment blessing. How many
Christians walk as if the coming of the Lord were a fable,
without a thought that the present age is an evil one! It is
sad that through lack of spirituality so it should be with
saints. If their aections were only set on heavenly things,
things here below would no longer act on them.
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e counsels of God are manifested in the ways of God.
One may begin to retire from the world by the precepts of
the gospel; but prophecy conrms these precepts by the
light it casts on the world, when these precepts yet more
separate us, showing their practical value.
It is a question at rst of the men of Judea. But all
nations of the earth will be occupied with Jerusalem and
gathered there where the judgment of God is to fall. From
the land the transition is to the prophetic earth, and then
to all the world (v. 3, 4, etc.)
It is a frightful character in the joy of the world that it
cannot subsist before God. His presence puts an end to all
that the world loves and desires. How terrible the thought
if realized by faith! Bring in the manifestation of God, and
the world’s joy, gaiety, pleasure is all destroyed (v. 7-12). e
Christian ought to abide in complete separation from all
that. It is important that the testimony borne against (not
the world only, but) worldly Christians should be distinct
and positive. With a worldly person, not bearing Christ’s
name, one thinks at least of speaking to him of grace. But
to a Christian who, knowing his privileges, walks with the
world, it is hard to speak of grace, because he abuses it.
Love does not consist in walking with such, but in warning
them. at which gives intelligence is the unction from the
Holy One. It is not possible to walk in the light and in
worldliness. One must show oneself more decided with the
Christian who is worldly than with the worldly man: “ If
any man that is called a brother be … with such an one,
no not to eat,” I Cor. 5: 11. ere is love. If we believe that
God is going to judge Sodom, how could we be at ease in
Sodom with Lot? is is of all importance to-day.
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e latter portion shows the consequence of the vintage
for a little remnant. If one passes across the world, one sees
how God is forgotten. Before executing judgment, God
separates from the perverse generation which is about to
be judged, those who are going to be saved.
If a Christian passes through the world, there is
nothing to nd there which speaks of Christ; and he is
called to confess Christ where no one thinks of Him. Do
you believe that, when the judgment shall have fallen, what
will remain will be only as the gleaning grapes when the
vintage is done? e Holy Spirit reveals to us beforehand
what the reality will manifest, the glory of Christ, the ruin
of the world, the blessing of the remnant. It is evident that
the judgment of God will eect a total separation between
the righteous and the wicked. If the Holy Spirit acts with
power, that is realized beforehand in us. e eect of
judgment is to give a glory and a joy without mixture.
From the moment that judgment is executed, God
appears as the Jehovah-God of Israel (v. 15). Verses 16-18
show the state of the Jewish people. Man may vaunt himself
long against God, but he will not escape judgment when the
Eternal is manifested. “ e earth is utterly broken down,
the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
e earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be
removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall
be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again,” v. 19,
20. Such is the end of all that surrounds us.
But there is more: “ And it shall come to pass in that
day that Jehovah shall punish the hosts of the high ones on
high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.” e high
ones are spiritual wickedness on high, or in the heavenlies,
the source of the evil; the kings of the earth are the chief
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instruments here below. “ And they shall be gathered
together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall
be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they
be visited. en the moon shall be confounded, and the
sun ashamed, when Jehovah of hosts shall reign in mount
Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously,”
v. 22, 23. e glory of Jehovah replaces all the false glitter
of the world.
CHAPTER 25.
is is the song of Israel which corresponds with the
subject. We have need of long patience. e counsels were
of old, and they are faithfulness and truth; they are not
yet accomplished, but they will be manifested in all their
precision and solidity according to God. 2 Peter 3 shows
us the world clinging to visible things: the sun rose to-
day, as it did yesterday and will to-morrow, and with more
prosperity still in hope. Let us eat and drink say they: the
things that are have ever been, and nothing is so permanent;
the earth, the world, goes on forever. So men speak and act.
e child of God, on the contrary, rests on the rmness
of God’s word. By His word the world was made; by His
word it has been judged and will be destroyed. If we judge
by the events before us, as incredulity does, we shall attach
ourselves till the last moment to the things about to pass
away. If I conclude from experience, I try to make the best of
things around me, instead of adhering to the word of God.
It is a principle of all importance. Faith separates from evil,
because it is evil; but it is quite a dierent thing to separate
from a thing because God is going to judge it. One sees
Christians who do not recognize evil until they are injured
by it. But one ought to recognize evil beforehand by the
word of God, in order not to be in the midst of evil when
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it shall be judged. It is not the man entangled by evil who
can put his brethren on their guard.
In verses 2-8 we have the things that God does in that
day. Not only will He put down wickedness and pride, but
He will make unto all people a feast of fat things, that is, a
full blessing; and He will destroy in the mountain of Israel
the covering that covers over all people-an expression very
applicable to the day when judicially God will send men
strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Moreover
He will swallow up death in victory, wiping away every
tear and taking away the rebuke of His people from o
all the earth. is is applied in 1 Cor. 15:54 to the rst
resurrection, of which the apostle treats throughout. All
is presented together in a general way. We may so, for the
Eternal has spoken, and it is our blessedness to believe
God when there is only the word of God for our faith. e
world will think only of what it likes; man believes Satan
and despises God, who demands faith in His word; and we
believe God in the midst of all the illusions, and the wiles
of the devil by which we are surrounded in this world. We
must believe God though encompassed with the eects
of sin. Adam believed Satan though encompassed with
the eects of the goodness of God. Faith gains the victory
over the world, and acts in fact of that which is not as if it
already existed.
Comparing verse 8 of our chapter with I Corinthians 15:
54 we see something dierent in tone from the resurrection
of the wicked, who are to be by rising again plunged into
the lake of re, the second death. We clearly see here
Israel restored at the time of the rst resurrection. All the
brightness of the sun will be as nothing in comparison with
the glory of Jehovah, when the covering of darkness shall
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be removed from the nations. For God will have delivered
the Gentiles to blindness (Rom. 1; 2 ess. 2). In the two
chapters that follow are given the blessing of Judah, and
the destruction of Satan or leviathan.
“In that day “ (v. 1) is an expression of frequent recurrence
which marks the time of accomplishment. “ In that day
shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.” Israel becomes
again the center of God’s government for the earth (Deut.
32:8). At present the nations have the upper hand; these
are the “ times of the Gentiles “; but at length Judah re-
appears on the scene as the object of God’s counsels.
ough Israel has been for a time delivered to the
nations as to erce beasts of prey, nevertheless the nations
are not the direct object of the government of God, whilst
providence directs everything. From Psa. 67 and many
other scriptures we learn that the face of God must shine
on Israel in order that His way may be known in the earth.
When God strikes the nations, they are set aside, and He
resumes the course of His government toward Israel. God
overthrows the power of the Gentiles, and as to Israel
shows Himself to be Jehovah, the Eternal.
“ e way of the just is uprightness “ (v. 7)-of him who
walks faithfully. e immediate government of God takes
place only in the midst of His people. em God judges;
and when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that
we should not be condemned with the world. Every act in
the life of the Christian has its consequence. God judges
immediately, and the unfaithful Christian has not a path of
uprightness. is is what Israel has already proved, as it will
prove more. God smooths the way of him who is faithful.
e remnant of the Jewish people will have waited for
Jehovah, spite of Antichrist and all the diculties. Psa. 44
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shows the anguish of the remnant at this time. God has to
chasten them; nevertheless they are watched tenderly by
God. Jesus perfectly realized this waiting of the faithful
which counts on God, whatever the anguish to which
obedience might bring Him. Never did He turn aside from
the path of obedience, although it led Him on to drink “
the cup.”
“ e inhabitants of the world “ will only learn
righteousness (v. 9) by the divine judgment which strikes
the earth. e Christian ought to take his part in suering;
if he walks with the world, he does not understand the
interests of Christ and is weakened, he has not the desire
for the glory of Christ and does not suer for Christ. “ e
inhabitants of the world “ are not of God; their portion is
on the earth, they enjoy this world. We (Christians) are
the dwellers in the heavens, or at least belong to heaven (1
Cor. 15:48; Phil. 3:20), though too often Christians learn
the ways of the dwellers on earth. God waits till iniquity
reaches its height before striking; meanwhile the wicked
will deal unjustly still.
“ e land of uprightness “ (v. 10) is what is promised to
Israel, Canaan under the Messiah.
e wicked fail to see the uplifted hand of Jehovah (v.
1) until it falls upon them, when they shall see. As to the
result here below, grace does not accomplish the conversion
of the world. Every hope of the world’s conversion by the
gospel is without ground in the word of God; and it is
even worse with Christendom, hardened as it is against the
truth, than with pagans. Christendom as it refuses the love
of the truth will receive a spirit of error.
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e Jewish remnant (v. 12, 13), have nothing but the
name of Jehovah to boast. ere are moments in life for the
saint where nothing but that remains for the soul.
e nations which ill-treated Israel shall not live longer;
their day is over. Not chosen of God for this world, they
have failed in their responsibility; their day of visitation
comes, and all their memory is made to perish.
Verses 15-19. Israel ends by renouncing all hope in
itself; whilst now-a-days we see the Jews in their unbelief
full of hope in their re-establishment. Yet they shall live.
(Compare Ezek. 37.) ey shall rise as a nation.
e remnant (v. 20, 21) are called to hide themselves
during the time of indignation or the day of vengeance. It
is the time when the lawlessness of Antichrist will draw
down the consuming wrath of God. e sole testimony
will then be His judgment.
CHAPTER 27.
We have here another fact of all importance. e power
of Satan in the world is destroyed, a power which governs
and deceives the nations. Israel becomes the vineyard of
red wine that Jehovah keeps, waters, and guards: whoever
would harm it must face His judgment; but He oers
peace with Him, and His strength to make it good. Israel
became the center of earthly blessing. To this the church
has not been destined; and the moment it is her pretension,
it is nothing but pride. In fact the church has failed in the
mission she received of announcing the gospel and of
being the witness of Christ’s heavenly glory; and if she
would after that pretend to it and count on it as a right,
is this any more than pride? Even things which at one
time are of faith are in other circumstances only pride. For
instance Isaiah tells the king in chapter 38 to count on the
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deliverance of Judah from the Assyrian; whereas Jeremiah
tells the king at a later day to save himself by submission
to the Chaldean. In Isa. 51 God tells His people to look
to Abraham, and as He called their father when he was
alone and blessed and increased him; whereas when the
Jew boasted of Abraham in pride, God confounded them,
as in Ezek. 33:24; Matt. 3:9; John 8:39.
In verses 7, 8 we see Israel chastened, not destroyed. It
is a purifying dealing. “ By this therefore shall the iniquity
of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his
sin “ (v. 9) in the very day when judgment takes its course
on the wicked who have no understanding (v. 10, 11).
From verses 12, 13 we see that there will be among the
nations a remnant of Israel to be recalled one by one (Matt.
24:31). Such is the unraveling of the history of this poor
world. All should bid us now stand entirely aloof from its
course. e pride of Israel transfers itself to Christendom
which arrogates to itself what God never gave it. Worldly
mindedness and the hope of gaining over the world always
go together now. When the church thinks of converting the
world (instead of gathering out of it to Christ in heaven),
it allies itself to the powers of the world. ey begin, it
is true, by sincerely desiring the conversion of souls; then
to arrive at this they join the world and fall into spiritual
feebleness. When we rest on the world, we own and arm
its power. Rightly viewed, the conversion of three thousand
in one day in Jerusalem was the precursor, not even of the
conversion of the city, but of the judgment which was
about to fall on it. God abides sovereign, and the Christian
admires His sovereignty, and rejoices in it.
us from chapter 13 to chapter 27 we have seen
judgments falling on the Gentiles, the Jews being found
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there. From chapter 28 to chapter 35 we shall see the
details of what is to happen to the Jews, etc., in the last
days of this age. Each revelation closes with a testimony
borne to God’s glory in Israel.
CHAPTER 28.
In this division chapters 28, 29 show the judgments
on Ephraim and Jerusalem (Ariel, that is, lion of God).
We see there what God thinks of that which inspires most
condence in man, His judgment condemning it all, and
the deliverance of the meek, the remnant of His people.
e rst thing judged is the crown of pride, the
carelessness of luxury, which leaves man intoxicated and
blind. God raises up the Assyrian a mighty and strong one
against those who had abandoned themselves to pride and
excess. “ Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of
Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading ower, which
are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome
with wine! Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one,
which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a
ood of mighty waters overowing, shall cast down to the
earth with the hand. e crown of pride, the drunkards
of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: and the glorious
beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a
fading ower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer;
which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet
in his hand he eateth it up.” After this judgment there is a
change, and Jehovah becomes a crown of glory, and a spirit
of strength for the remnant (v. 5, 6). Pride, ease, luxury, and
the world’s vain glory hinder the word from striking the
conscience; but for the poor, despised, aicted remnant,
God is their resource and strength, and becomes a crown
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of glory. It is very possible that the people of God should
be despised till then.
As to the church there is this dierence, that from the
beginning it is a remnant. “ Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” e ways of God
were not such in the Jewish economy. e nation was the
people of God, and the remnant remained hidden. Elijah
believed himself alone, the remnant was not manifested,
though God knew seven thousand. When the church
began, the Lord added together such as should be saved,
the remnant from among the Jews. e actual principle for
the present time is the gathering together in one of the
scattered children of God. Among the Jews God did not
thus gather His children: they were the elect people that
He owned.
It is a mistake that some Christians make of the church
an invisible thing. Such was the case with God’s children
in Judaism, but it is not the principle in Christianity. For
the Jews there was only individual faithfulness, besides
their common national privileges. But to-day; that is, since
Pentecost, the presence of the Holy Spirit is a power that
gathers the children of God and produces a corporate
testimony in the world. It is a city that cannot be hid.
When Israel departs from God, God sends, as to children,
precept upon precept, line upon line. “ But they also have
erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of
the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through
strong drink; they are swallowed up of wine, they are out
of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they
stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and
lthiness, so that there is no place clean. Whom shall he
teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand
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doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn
from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little,
and there a little: for with stammering lips and another
tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, is
is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and
this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word
of Jehovah was unto them precept upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line: here a little,
and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken,” v. 7-13. God cannot
cease to bear testimony till He has exhausted all the means
to bring back to Himself.
e result of resistance is to bring upon those that resist
a blindness so much the greater as it is proportionate to
the light refused. If the rst testimony is received, more is
always added, for it is given to him that hath, and he shall
have more abundance. ose who bowed to the witness of
John the Baptist received also Jesus; those who rejected it
rejected also the Messiah, and the testimony of John was
withdrawn, and the people blinded. Jesus bears a greater
testimony, the remnant attach to Him. e Holy Spirit bears
afterward testimony and gathers the church; but the Jews
rejected Him, and were rejected. ese testimonies bring
on their judgment. e more God manifests Himself, the
more does the heart’s natural opposition show itself. ose
who receive the rst grace receive the rest until glory, and
go from strength to strength. God did not let judgment fall
on Jerusalem till Jerusalem rejected the Holy Spirit. When
grace is exhausted God sends judgment. e esh seeks
ever to keep the enjoyment of its lusts and would harden
the conscience against the testimony that God sends.
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e Jews would not have their kingdom and their
holy place destroyed; but their unbelief led to a complete
blinding, and Satan pushed them on to destruction, going
so far as to make them say of Jesus, that He cast out demons
by Beelzebub. ere is no blindness like that which results
from resisting the light, and in presence of the light not
renouncing one’s own will.
When Jerusalem sees the judgment on Ephraim, to
escape it they unite more rmly with the power of evil.
“Wherefore hear the word of Jehovah, ye scornful men,
that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have
said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell
are we at agreement; when the overowing scourge shall
pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves,”
v. 14, 15. In the close it will be Antichrist in alliance with
Satan and his instruments. But God gives the remnant a
sure foundation stone in Zion. “ erefore thus saith the
Lord Jehovah, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation:
he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will
I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and
the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters
shall overow the hiding place. And your covenant with
death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell
shall not stand: when the overowing scourge shall pass
through, then ye shall be trodden down by it,” v. 16-18.
In the judgments of God, the question one sees debated
is between the rights of Satan because of sin, and those
of God. It is necessary that the people of God should be
judged on the one hand and on the other, that in the midst
of the judgment salvation should be found, as Noah in the
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ark was carried over the waters of the deluge. It is in the
cross of Christ that faith sees the judgment of God against
our sins, and for ourselves; we are thus saved righteously.
So here also judgment will Jehovah lay to the line, and
righteousness to the plummet, when He lays in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone.
e hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, the waters
overowing the hiding place; but the Stone abides sure
and steadfast. e very same thing-God’s judgment-which
destroys the wicked guarantees the believer against all evil,
for he is made God’s righteousness in Christ.
e foundation Stone has long been laid at Jerusalem.
e blood of the new covenant with His people is carried
within the holiest of all. e church is already laid on this
Stone meanwhile, because it has owned the Stone which
later on is to become the condence of the Jewish remnant.
e church prots by it beforehand, as Israel will doubtless
at a later day. e passages where it is a question of this
Stone are cited in the New Testament, in the past generally
applicable. One often sees passages thus half cited, because
as a whole they do not apply to the present. Judgment is
not yet laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet.
To-day is the time of grace, and not that of judgment.
But judgment will surely come for the earth. “ From the
time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by
morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall
be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed
is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and
the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
For Jehovah shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be
wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work,
his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
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Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made
strong: for I have heard from the Lord Jehovah of hosts
a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth,”
v. 19-22. What is Jehovah’s “ strange work “ and “ act
“? It is the judgment of His people towards whom His
goodness has no bounds. is “ act “ strange to the heart
of God, which made the Lord Jesus weep, is the execution
of judgment on His people, then apostate. It is a thing
God does only when He is forced to it by their extreme
iniquity. e Jews have rejected the Christ, and they will
have the Antichrist. e consumption, even determined
upon the whole earth, will be much more terrible on them.
It is the same principle, but even worse, for Christendom
which had the light but rejected it. e more truly one is in
the light, the more is one necessarily allied to Satan if one
rejects the light. Nothing more terrible than a conscience
hardened by a perverse will, which commences by the most
ordinary lusts. Judas is not the only man fond of money.
e end of the chapter (v. 23-29) shows the wisdom of
God in the smallest things. He gives to man wisdom in
cultivating the earth, in sowing, reaping, and dealing with
the crops. And will He not know what to do best for His
people?
CHAPTER 29.
As chapter 28 gave us Ephraim and Jerusalem, spite of
its evil alliance, taken; chapter 29 shows that a second attack
against Jerusalem, brought to the utmost distress, will fail
through divine power which will destroy its adversaries (v.
1-8).
If Jerusalem is a lion of God, when God speaks of the
judgments He says, “ I will camp against thee round about,
and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise
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forts against thee,” v. 3. e Assyrians were but instruments
in His hand. He would Himself strike, but not exterminate
His guilty people. He does not destroy, but chastens them.
is humbles but it comforts; for love is there. See the case
of Job: there are the instruments of judgment, and Satan
behind them, but God above who directs all for the good of
Job, who at the end is more blessed of Jehovah than at the
beginning, bright as it was. Psa. 118 shows us these three
things clearly. (See v. 10, 13, 18.) e nations surround in
enmity, Satan seeks to destroy, but above them all Jehovah
chastises and sorely, but does not deliver to death. All the
nations of the earth shall be round Jerusalem and opposed
to her, but they shall pass as a dream before Jehovah. See
also Zech. 12:2-4; 14:2, 3; Psa. 108; Micah 4: 11, 12.
But we see here that the most ancient relations with
God serve no good purpose when man lays his trust in
them. When he is far from God, he attaches himself to the
old things that God instituted, to reject what God may be
actually giving. But one cannot deceive God as to right and
wrong. “ Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!
add ye year to year: let them kill sacrices. Yet I will distress
Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall
be unto me as Ariel,” v. I, 2. He says elsewhere, He would
destroy His house, His altar; as He did to Shiloh, so to the
temple, whatever the presumption of His people, because
He will have righteousness and holiness, not the things
He established. God had established the altar, temple,
sacrices, feasts, and priests; but when iniquity is there,
judgment must begin with His house, and its judgment
is only the more terrible if the eects of the Holy Spirit
are not there; the sole consequence of being near to God
outwardly is the more unsparing judgment. Again, the
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more Christendom departs from truth and righteousness,
the more it rests on institutions as being of God. It is not
those who are occupied with the Lord of the temple that
say, “ e temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah are
these.” e more evil the conscience is, the more it attaches
itself to forms.
No doubt sovereign mercy and faithfulness will work in
a remnant, and God will deliver for His own name at the
end. But we see in verses 9-14 at the side of these forms,
that God despises the incapacity of His people judicially
blinded of God: learned or ignorant alike reject the word of
God. To the one the book is as sealed, and the other pleads
that he is not learned: the revelation of God by prophecy
they cannot seize. Yet He reveals all for the blessing of His
people, not that aught should be covered. He has not given
the Bible that it should not be understood. If Christians
say that they cannot take it in, they say just what the Jews
do here, the proof of their state of ruin. ey thus evade the
testimony which would save them from the consequences
of the judgment. But in vain. “ Woe unto them that seek
deep to hide their counsel from Jehovah, and their works are
in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth
us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be
esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him
that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed
say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? Is it
not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into
a fruitful eld, and the fruitful eld shall be esteemed as a
forest? “ v. 15-17.
But babes receive God’s testimony. “ And in that day
shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of
the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
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e meek also shall increase their joy in Jehovah, and the
poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel,”
v. 18,19.
e Lord does not present us here with the detailed
history of His people in the last days. He takes cognizance
of all that will happen to them; He has measured the force
of the enemy; He has not only foreseen all, but makes us
see that light behind all these means.
e state of the people in the time that precedes
destruction is a voluntary ignorance, after which God closes
intelligence and sheds profound slumber. is will happen to
Christendom also. ere will be “ strong delusion “ because
they wished not the truth. It is the same here in verses 8-I.
is iniquity will be like the bowing of a wall about to fall.
ey wish to hear no more vision threatening them with
the terrible things that are to happen. It had been similar
with the heathen who had not kept the knowledge of God,
and were given over to a state of blindness (Rom. 1:22-24).
God had already said of Israel, “ Make the heart of this
people fat,” a word applied for the last time in Acts 28. It is
the case then for the heathen, the Jews, and Christendom,
and it will be yet again true for the Jews. ey have said to
the seers, See not (chap. 30: 10). It is frightful to know the
people at such a pitch that they can no more be extricated.
is obstinacy assumes an appearance of reason, because it
is a strong delusion.
Verses 13, 14. is is not an avowed indelity which
brings on the judgment. e people draw near to God with
a show of piety: they have a fear taught by the precept of
men. It will be the same with Christendom: there will be a
form of godliness; yes, and men will be lovers of themselves
rather than of God. Such is what characterizes the perilous
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times, the show of piety, but no conscience before God (v.
15). en God turns all upside down. Lebanon is turned
into Carmel. e fruitful eld is esteemed a forest, and the
forest a fruitful eld. is is always what characterizes such
a state; but when God turns all upside down, verses 18-24
will be seen accomplished. All that is yet to come.
CHAPTER 30.
Woe is pronounced on the rebellious children who act
according to their prudence, but not counseled of Jehovah
(v. 1-7). is is found too often even with the Christian.
It is folly, even with the best intentions, to take counsel of
oneself. It characterizes the evil in the last times. For the
Christian, is it not to take counsel of God, if one forms a
plan, and then pray for a blessing? Often it is necessary for
us to run back the road so as to return to the place which
one had quitted. All that is time lost.
Israel sought an ally in Egypt strong as the Assyrians
(v. 2). It is to seek strength in the esh. God would make
this prudence vain; He would have His people conde
in Himself. So Abram went down into Egypt without
consulting God (Gen. 12), and found himself the worse
for it. What things have we, dear friends, done to-day
without consulting God? It has been all lost time thus to
act without God. Man would always act; though on many
occasions God would have one keep quietly waiting (I Sam.
15). Whatever be the appearances of reason and prudence,
it is always folly for man to wish to go before God’s time.
God does not slumber, He tries our hearts and intervenes
at last in a suitable time.
Nothing is more despicable than the people of God in
alliance with the world. ey can but add their misery to
that of the world, and the world prots them in nothing
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(chap. 31: 3). Ruin will come on all that the deceivers do
(v. 8-14). ere is no people like God’s when He abandons
them: the evil reaches them, the good escapes them; there
is neither force nor intelligence (v. 15-17).
Nevertheless Jehovah waits that He may be gracious
unto them (v. 18). e Pharisees, who would have made a
heap of the adulteress, disappear; whilst Jesus stays to show
grace, of which they felt no need. (See John 8:9-11.)
“ For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou
shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at
the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer
thee,” v. 19. is is given also in Joel 2:12-14. From the
moment the remnant take the place where God put them,
He listens to their cry. Faith takes the place of the sinner
and humbles itself, and then God answers. If the church is
in a sad state, faith has the consciousness of the state the
church is found in; owns it, humbles itself, and God can
answer. It is what Christ has done for us; He has owned fully
before God the state of sin in which He put Himself for us,
and He has wrought redemption. e remnant will feel the
ruin of Jerusalem, and will cry according to the misery and
the ruin of Jerusalem. Faith gives the consciousness of the
state of ruin in which sin has placed us.
“ And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity,
and the water of aiction, yet shall not thy teachers be
removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see
thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee,
saying, is is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the
right hand, and when ye turn to the left,” V. 20, 21. is is
consoling. e remnant will be in the utmost distress, but
they shall see their teachers, and hear the word of guidance.
Misery may be deep, but God will show the way. Once
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they are brought down to the point where God sees things,
He has always a way for His people, and as they depart
from all iniquity, so He will bless with every blessing on
the earth (v. 22-26). e nations are to assemble in the
power of their will, but God will sift and scatter them in
devouring judgment (v. 27-30), while the remnant rejoice
in their place.
e Assyrian is always presented here as the one with
whose destruction ends “the indignation.” (See chaps.
10: 24; 14; Dan. 8.) When the Assyrian is destroyed the
indignation will be closed. (Compare Mic. 5:5, 6.) Jesus “
shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our
land.” “ For through the voice of Jehovah shall the Assyrian
be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every
place where the grounded sta shall pass, which Jehovah
shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and
in battles of shaking will he ght with it. For Tophet is
ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath
made it deep and large: the pile thereof is re and much
wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone,
doth kindle it,” v. 31-33. e sta of Jehovah shall fall
on the Assyrian. One sees the aim of this judgment of
God. He is full of patience and longsuering. His people
meanwhile are in alarm at the power of the enemy. When
God strikes the enemies, it is always the deliverance of His
people. Tophet, the place of the Assyrian’s judgment, is
already prepared, not for him only, but also for “ the king,”
the Antichrist who shall do according to his will. (See Dan.
11:36-45.) Antichrist will be cast with the Assyrian into
Tophet. “ e breath of Jehovah like a stream of brimstone
doth kindle it.” (Compare 2 ess. 2:8.) He will destroy the
wicked with the breath of His mouth.
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If we listen to our own will, it would put us in movement
according to the strength of man against the evil which
surrounds us. But we have nothing else to do but wait
on God, abiding faithful to Him who will not let us fall
into ruin through the adversary. May God give us grace
to receive His word that this rebellious people would
not receive. For God waits to be gracious to those that
receive His word. “ Because thou hast kept the word of my
patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation
which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell
on the earth,” Rev. 3:10.
CHAPTER 31.
e Lord warns His people against the tendency to
seek aid in Egypt. It is not any longer only taking counsel
without God, but leaning on the esh. It is the tendency
of us all not to have recourse to God unless forced to it.
e prodigal son ate the husks of swine before he thought
of his father’s house. To lean on God one must be in the
truth, having the consciousness of what we are; one cannot
bring lies before God. What often hinders conversion, or
at least retards it, is that one misunderstands what one is
by nature, that is, without strength and ungodly. It is the
same in all our ways, seeking to lean on any rather than
on God. Israel had been taken out of Egypt and carried to
Babylon. Called out of the world one falls into corruption.
Egypt typies the natural strength of the world, Babylon
of the world’s corruption. Israel seeks support in the
natural strength of man. at does not irritate pride nor
unveil what we are. One cannot lean on God without the
beating down of esh’s pride and the learning that we are
nothing. e tendency of sin is to veil sin from our eyes.
Far from God we cannot know what is the power of God,
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though we might have known it at other times. Far from
God we forget what He is. It is not a question only for us
of God in heaven, but of His manifestation in the midst
of His people, mixing Himself with all their aairs, and
accompanying them in all their journeyings (Ex. 29:45, 46).
What is true for the joy of God’s people is also true
for their strength; it comes from the presence of God. It
is also the case with the church which is God’s habitation
through the Spirit. It is true of each Christian individually.
God does not manifest His power in the activity of the
esh. If one acts in the esh, one loses the consciousness
of what God can do. When we see that God acts, one does
not even think of seeking the resources of the esh. In the
activity of the esh, one feels that one has no right to count
on God.
e esh seeks to hide the thing from itself, or to take
its side of going with the world, or to nd somewhere a
resource to hinder chastening. e consequence of this is
that one does not at all perceive when good comes (Jer. 17).
Israel set themselves outside the way, and when the Lord
acts, they do not at all see it; they will then be overthrown
with those from whom they sought succor.
Often the Lord makes one wait long as if He did not
trouble Himself with the lot of His people. But when
they are in the greatest distress, God acts. e extremity
of man is the opportunity of God, the moment favorable
and suited for Him to manifest Himself. It is dicult to
convince man of this-that God loves him enough to think
of him and deliver him. Faith has only God, and God alone
is the resource of the people in the resurrection.
We have already seen that the Assyrian is the last enemy
of the people (v. 8, 9).
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CHAPTER 32.
e moment that God acts, Christ appears. is
chapter is the one God used to open my understanding to
the coming of Christ. We see, rst, Christ coming to reign
in righteousness on the earth; second, an entire change in
the economy, a new Pentecost for the Jews and also for
the Gentiles. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit cannot
be repeated in the present economy. ere are but two
outpourings of the Spirit, the rain of the former season and
that of the latter. e Jews must necessarily have returned
to their own land in order to receive the rain of the latter
season which has been promised them. us there must
be the presence of Christ on earth, and a second eusion
of the Holy Spirit. But this will be a testimony rendered
to the glory of Christ, and no longer a manifestation of
grace. We see in Zech. 2:8 that it is “ after the glory “ the
Jews become a blessing to the nations. e testimony to
the glory of Christ thus manifested is not in this economy.
We see here then the return of Christ (v. 1), and the
Spirit poured out from on high on the Jews (v. 15), entirely
new events. All that has taken place before in Christendom
will be counted only as a forest and not a fruitful eld, or
a Carmel; the hail shall fall on the forest (of the Gentiles),
and “ the city “ Babylon shall be utterly abased.
Verses I, 2. e rst thing is a king who is to reign on
earth in righteousness. e church on the contrary ought
during the actual economy to follow Jesus, righteous
indeed but suering, put to death by a judge who owned
His innocence. e righteous man suers, and injustice
the most agrant is committed against such. Such is
the position of the Christian and the church. It is not
yet a king reigning in righteousness. In the age to come
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righteousness shall reign. Even then it will not be the
eternal state where righteousness dwells in the new earth.
During the millennium there will be the need of a reign
to repress evil. e principle of the present economy is the
suering of the saints though walking righteously: in the
future age “ judgment will return to righteousness,” whilst
at the present time it is opposed to righteousness.
Verses 9-14. Judgment must go on, Zion even be a
wilderness, until (v. 15) the Spirit be poured upon us (the
Jews) from on high: then all should be changed for good,
the wilderness be a Carmel, and what was a Carmel be
counted for a forest.
God, having put man near Himself, above by resurrection
and ascension, pours out from on high the Holy Spirit
upon those who believe, as a Spirit of power, which it is
needful to distinguish from His work in conversion or the
new birth. At the time of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came
down on the converted only. We see that not only does
the Holy Spirit act on us to make us believe, but moreover
when we believe He is therein given to us as a Spirit of
power. All this got blotted out little by little in its eects by
the unfaithfulness of the church, which grieved the Holy
Spirit who dwells there. When the church is caught up to
meet the Lord, the Holy Spirit goes along with it; but after
the Lord returns in power and glory, the Spirit is poured
out afresh as the rain of the latter season, and the world
recommences as a thing quite new. “ en judgment shall
dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the
fruitful eld. And the work of righteousness shall be peace;
and the eect of righteousness quietness and assurance
forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation,
and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,” etc. (v.
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16-18). But it is the moment of the world’s judgment (v.
19), followed by the blessedness of peace on earth (v. 20).
e chapter thus presents us with the complete change
of the economy. It is not here a question of the church. e
relationships and the state of the faithful will be then quite
opposite in character. To-day it is a question of conformity
to the grace of Jesus in suering, then to His glory and
power on earth. e earth cursed because of sinful man will
be blessed; esh and unrighteousness will be uprooted. e
vile person will no more be called liberal, nor the churl said
to be bountiful. Peace and righteousness shall ourish; and
the Holy Spirit will no more have to resist the power or
wiles of Satan who will then be consigned to the abyss. We
see the later history of the Jewish remnant in Psa. 42-49,
especially in the three earliest of these psalms. en Psa. 45
introduces the Messiah, and joy comes. We have here this
instruction to sustain us on the Lord when He does not
manifest Himself. ose who have believed without seeing
are to be specially blessed. is is the church’s portion; and
it applies also to all the circumstances of details. Moreover
the presence of the Holy Spirit is all our strength. It is
when put to the proof that we are tempted to lean on the
esh, and then faith manifests itself in leaning only on
God. But we must be in the truth before Him, and it will
be manifest that the remnant seek not help in Egypt.
CHAPTER 33.
We have seen from chapter 28 the special circumstances
of the Jews in the last days, terminating as always in the
introduction of the Messiah. Here in chapter 33 we see
judgment fall on the last enemy of Israel (it would seem
the Gog of Ezekiel); then in chapter 34 on all nations of
which Edom is the scene, followed by the unparalleled
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sketch of the earth’s blessing, and joy, and prosperity
under Messiah’s reign in Zion, when “ the last end of
the indignation “ is closed. erefore in the midst of the
prophecy is found introduced the history of Hezekiah
menaced by the Assyrian and his deadly sickness turned,
as a type of Messiah and the power of resurrection, and the
destruction of the last mighty foe of Israel in the last days,
but not without the captivity of Judah and its royal line to
Babylon meanwhile.
Edom is another bitter enemy that ever put obstacles in
the way of Israel, and yet to be judged in a particular way,
when his destruction will be so complete as to leave no
remnant. See Obadiah.
We have then in this chapter the judgment of the last
great enemy of Israel, typied by the Assyrian, then of
Edom and the nations gathered there, to introduce the
blessing of Israel and the earth, the land especially when
every curse shall be removed.
e invasion of the Assyrian into Judea was groundless;
he dealt treacherously (v. 1), deceived Hezekiah and, after
receiving his treasure, broke the covenant and besieged
Jerusalem; but the eect of the distress of Israel at the
coming of the Assyrian was that Jehovah rose, was exalted,
and lifted Himself up (v. 2-10). One may remark the spirit
of intercession in Christ for His people, and how He
identies Himself with them: “ Be thou their arm every
morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.” We see
it also very often in the Psalms when He speaks of “ mine
iniquities “ in speaking of those of His people.
Verse 5. “ Jehovah is exalted,” etc. e circumstances
indicated in verses 7-9 show the power of the enemy
unlimited. It is thus faith regards all the power of the world.
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From the moment it sees neither fear of God in the world
nor deliverance for itself, it gives itself up to wait on God.
Faith judges justly of all. Unbelief judges the circumstances
correctly, and the consequences of things visible; it forgets
but one thing, God, who comes in and upsets all these
combinations, be they ever so wise. Faith pierces even to
God across all circumstances and all diculties. It does not
stop to consider, it does not reason on the possibility of
things because it only stops at God, and when man despairs,
faith is perfectly calm and happy. Faith has no need either
of human reasoning or of human prudence. Hezekiah puts
before Jehovah the letter of Sennacherib. e wisdom of
faith is looking to God, doing His will, and troubling about
nothing. When Christ comes, one then sees that the fear of
God is wisdom and treasure (v. 6).
e circumstances which are too strong for us ought
to have no other eect upon us than to make us realize
the presence of God. We see in Psa. 18 how God answers
to the distress of His people. He rises, and all crumbles in
His presence: the full accomplishment of this Psalm will
manifest it.
Verse 14. It is a terrible thing to be found without
faith between the power of the enemies of God and the
manifestation of the power of God when He descends with
devouring re. e hypocrite cannot dwell there between
the two, nor is any one so wretched as a merely professing
Christian or a sinful Jew in those times. It is the position of
the foolish virgins; the Bridegroom comes, and they have
no oil. It is the position in which all Christendom will then
be found, all that which has but the form of godliness; and
therefore during the judgments in the last days they will be
as men giving up the ghost through fear, and saying to the
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mountains, Cover us. Conscience foresees those everlasting
burnings, and that the judgment of God will rise against
every power of Satan.
Verses 15, 16. e remnant will be kept; the devouring
re does not touch them. But further (v. 17) their eye shall
see the King in His beauty. e thunderbolt that falls on
the wicked passes them harmlessly, for Messiah is there.
Peace is established; and men look round freely even to the
most distant quarters of the land, and reect on the terror
which no longer lls them: so overwhelming the danger!
so sudden and complete the deliverance! (v. 18, 19). All
that was dreaded is vanished away.
From verse 20 we see what Zion will be for the faithful
people. It is a peace God has made and given forever, not
an atom to be disturbed any more. Even in the last revolt
when Satan masters the distant nations at the end of the
thousand years’ reign, the enemies may compass the beloved
city and the camp of the saints, but they touch nothing. It
is a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken
down. “ Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine
eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle
that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof
shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof
be broken,”
v. 20.
Verses 21, 22. e condence of Israel is in Jehovah, the
source of all blessing, and withal their unfailing security. “
For Jehovah our Judge, Jehovah our Lawgiver, Jehovah our
King, He will save us.”
e strongest of their enemies was foiled and prostrate,
and a prey to the feeblest in Israel (v. 23), who will then be
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enabled to enjoy the blessing, the curse being gone, all their
iniquities forgiven, and all their diseases healed (v. 24).
CHAPTER 34.
All the earth is called to hear (v. 1); it is very far now
from being willing to answer such an appeal.
e nations will be assembled in Idumea, and there
will be judged. (Obad. 13-15; Psa. 137:7; Isa. 63:1-4.)
e sword of Jehovah shall come down on Idumea, and
on the people of His curse to judgment (v. 5). Edom is
marked out as a center of judgment for the quick. He
has chastened His people to sanctify them; but He will
judge the nations. His indignation against idolatrous
and apostate Jerusalem closes with the judgment of the
Assyrian, and the destruction of the nations in the land of
Edom. In chapter 63 we sec what will happen to them at
this time; Jesus will judge and trample them down in His
fury: a scene which has no reference to the cross where
Jesus was Himself trampled down.
“ e sword of Jehovah is lled with blood, it is made
fat with fatness, and with blood of lambs and goats, with
the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Jehovah hath a sacrice
in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the
bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with
blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.” is terrible
judgment of the living is lost for Christendom. e Jews
had no adequate idea of a judgment of the dead; they
were familiar with judgments on the living by the direct
government of God which exercised visible judgment on
the living, as we see in Korah, Achan, etc. All has been
changed in relationship with God for the church by the
resurrection; and Christians have in great measure lost sight
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of the judgment of the living, because they are used only to
expect judgment after death. But there will be a judgment
of the living as well as a judgment of the dead. ey like
to forget it because the judgment of the dead, being more
distant, does not touch so directly the course in which one
walks on the earth. It will fall on the neighborhood of
Jerusalem as well as on Bozrah.
e rest of the chapter is the detail of the judgment in
Edom.
CHAPTER 35.
We see the full blessing of the land, of which Zion will
be the center. All will be blessed. God does not despise this
earth, nor any creature, though the curse is fallen on all
because of Adam’s sin.
e miracles of Jesus working every sort of cure were a
sample of what His redemption will do for all creation, and
hence called powers of the world to come (Rom. 8:19-22;
Heb. 6). ere will be deliverance when He appears; the evil
will be taken away. Hence also when the disciples rejoiced
over the demons cast out in His name, He predicts the
fall of Satan from heaven. His death breaks Satan’s power
for the believer’s conscience: but though thus emancipated,
we groan and suer in the body still. But the Son of
man’s victory goes much farther than to cast Satan from
the conscience. By His word He takes away every evil, all
suering, for faith. But here it is no question of conscience;
it is a marvelous manifestation of God’s intervention into
all the miseries of man. Jesus will exercise this powerfully
when He returns, but on quite a dierent plan from that
which He exercised in Judea during His ministry. It will be
no more by the Holy Spirit awakening souls for spiritual
joys, but delivering creation from the slavery of corruption.
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“ Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear
not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even
God with a recompense; he will come and save you,” v.
4. e faithful remnant is restored by this announcement.
Is it also for us the greatest source of joy? or would His
coming be a sort of tearing us away from the earth, instead
of lifting us up to set us where our treasure is? e Spirit
and the bride say, Come. Do we?
CHAPTERS 36-39.
ese chapters are the history of the Assyrian invading
and overthrown, of the sickness of Hezekiah and of the
embassy from Babylon with the captivity foreshown. ere
is the outward deliverance (chaps. 36, 37), and the inward
(chap. 38), resurrection power being applied to the sickness
of the son of David, type of a greater who actually died and
rose to bring in the sure mercies of David.
Verse 16 above all explains why God wished Hezekiah
to pass through this trial. It was needful that esh should
be judged as naught, and that the power which opposes the
people of God should be destroyed solely by God’s power.
So will it yet be made good spiritually in the Jew, the
principle of death for the destruction of the esh, that the
nation, deprived of all condence in self, may be delivered
by the power and grace of God. Yet was it but a type now:
Hezekiah was a saint, but not the Messiah; nor had he
learned the lesson of death and resurrection adequately; but
lifted up with pride after his recovery and the destruction
of the Assyrian, he displayed the rich stores of his house
and dominion to the ambassadors of Merodach-baladan,
and hears from the prophet the solemn word of Jehovah
that all should be swept away to Babylon, not only all that
had been laid up for generations by the royal house, but
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of his issue to be eunuchs in the palace of the conqueror
(chap. 39). e historical portion is of the utmost weight
for the elucidation of this prophecy, which it divides into
two very distinct sections, both of which it illustrates, the
earlier being external, as the latter is more internal and
consequently viewing Israel not merely as a people among
hostile nations, but as witnesses to Jehovah as the one
true God and awaiting the Messiah, the elect Servant,
which they were not, while they failed in both respects,
but nally, when bowing to the Messiah in detestation of
their idolatry, they become and are owned as His servants
when His glory appears, and all ends in the blessing of
the faithful and the judgment of the rebellious. Christ will
defend Israel by His power when the Assyrian shall come
into their land: “ is man shall be the peace,” Mic. 5 “ And
they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of
the earth.” Till then it is vain to expect it.
CHAPTER 40.
After this historical parenthesis we have henceforth in
one prophecy a more intimate and detailed revelation of
the relationships of God as to His people and of His ways
toward them.
It is a question of the counsels of God as to Israel
in grace, but in this point of view, Israel is a witness of
God, the only true God, and His servant Christ, comes,
and Israel will not acknowledge Him. For this reason the
remnant alone is recognized and the people condemned by
the judgment which is coming, and the remnant gloried
with Christ.
He speaks of comfort, notwithstanding the many
iniquities of which Israel has been guilty, and He manifests
His positive will to be gloried by His people upon the
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earth. e church glories God before principalities and
powers in heavenly places (Eph. 3). e church is the
means of making known the wisdom of God in heaven;
Israel is the means of making it known in this world to
powers upon the earth. Until the church, the ways of God
had always been in connection with the earth; God’s king
had been seen on the earth; His wisdom on the earth, with
regard to His earthly people. But in looking at the church,
the principalities and powers see a wisdom which is entirely
new, the glory of Christ in a people which God strengthens
by His Spirit, to whom everything is promised for heaven
at least, and which does not consider its own life, in order
to be manifested in the glory of Christ. at is why we see
in Ephesians that the wisdom of God is dierent in every
way. When this purpose of God is accomplished in the
church, He takes up again His ways with the Jews, and
He says as a summary of all that is to follow, “ Comfort
ye my people.” In the preceding chapters, He reasons with
His people, in order to prove to them their sin: Here it is
the proclamation of a new way, and of His positive will
to comfort His people. But in order to do this, He must
enter with more detail into the miseries of His people. He
makes an appeal to their conscience, then an explanation
of the thoughts of His heart. He enters into these special
purposes with His people and shows that He has not
always been able to do so. He desires that the conscience
of the people should acknowledge the justice of His ways,
and enters into the delicacy of their new relations with
God. God makes manifest His way of dealing, and all the
manner of His people’s acting, in order that everything
may be acknowledged, and that the people may understand
that in God all is love. It is continually a question in this
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latter part of the book of Isaiah, not only of the ways of
God with His people in regard to the nations, but chiey
of the coming and the rejection of Jesus-a sin which was
the crowning point of all the sins of Israel.
God had an object, whether it was in calling Israel or in
calling the church. If God wished to glorify Israel on the
earth, He presents His people according to the intention of
God regarding them. He might have said, is is my will,
and have left to man the task of doing it: that is law. He
could produce and accomplish in man what He desired,
and show the resources there are in God for doing it; that
is grace. God did this with Israel. Israel was a people in
relation with the eternal God, in order that the eternal and
only true God might be manifested to the world in all His
ways. is will happen also at the close.
ere are two things true, with regard to the power of
Satan. He got possession of the earth as being the theater
of the government of God, and he got possession of man
and his aections. erefore does the Holy Spirit say, that
the friendship of the world is enmity against God. He
therefore who would be a friend of the world is an enemy
of God; as also the mind of the esh is enmity against God.
e church has been formed and maintained here
below to manifest to the world the victory of the second
Man over Satan and the glory of the second Man seated on
the throne of God the Father, innitely greater than that of
the rst man Adam in Eden. Israel and the church should
have been witnesses of God, one for the earth, the other for
heaven, and this in putting aside the power of Satan.
Before the ood there was no government; since then
a new principle of evil manifested itself, man entering into
direct relation with Satan by idolatry. Man does not conne
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himself only to being wicked and rebellious against God;
he replaces God by Satan. “ e things which the Gentiles
sacrice, they sacrice to demons.” en it is that God calls
Abram in order that His name should be known on the
earth, and His called be witness to His glory. It is grace
that acted; for Abram had been an idolater, like others. He
is chosen, called, and made heir of the promises: grace acted
thus. Later on the Israelites, Abram’s posterity, were placed
as God’s witnesses in Canaan under the law-law which
could not annul the promise. God manifests in Israel the
principle of His government. Israel having not only failed
but apostatized, God had to chase them thence. How
could He tolerate a people which compromised His glory,
having ceased to be a witness against idolatry, Satan’s direct
power in the world? e greatest part of the world is still
under this direct power of Satan besides his inuence on
the heart, for this moral inuence of Satan is quite another
thing. In idolatry the demon is adored to get his protection
or escape his malice; they attribute to him all that God
does. Israel having become idolatrous totally failed in its
responsibility, the ten tribes rst, afterward Judah who has
been yet worse. en God carries them successively away
from the land. With Nebuchadnezzar begin the times of
the Gentiles (Dan. 2:31-34, 37-43).
ere is a particular circumstance to remark. We see in
Isa. 41-48 Cyrus, conqueror of Babylon, marked out as about
to close the captivity by executing judgment on idolatry.
e temple is rebuilt, and Israel enters on a new trial. For
Jehovah comes Himself in the person of Jesus to present
Himself to His people as king; and thus there is a new
responsibility for Israel, or at least the Jew. Cyrus was but a
type of a greater; and the return from Babylon only a partial
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deliverance. Much more was coming. Hence with chapter
49 God enters into a new controversy with His people, on
the ground not of idolatry but of the rejected Messiah. It is
not only that Israel announces to the nations that God had
called the seed of Abraham to be His servant, witnesses
of Jehovah against idols, and that then they utterly failed
and came under judgment, but that after this they were
actually to refuse their own Messiah, the divine king, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who takes the place of His people Israel,
and Himself becomes “ Servant “ of God, a title which
serves to open the latter half of the prophecy. In chapter
42 at the beginning He is just characterized in humiliation
till the end come; but the people are immediately turned
to in their failure, though with wonderful expression of
sovereign goodness to Israel spite of all. So it is in the
second controversy, from chapter 49 to chapter 57, whereas
before, God’s love to Israel is fully set out before the proof
of their sin and ruin. en when Messiah’s humiliation
and atoning death but exaltation have been fully set out
in chapter 53, the result is added for Jerusalem at the close
in chapter 54, and suited exhortations follow in the three
chapters which conclude the sections: free grace even to
the nations (chap 55); the indispensable character formed
and requisite even for Israel (chap. 56); and, whether Israel
or not, no peace to the wicked (chap. 57).
en, in view of divine intervention and glory with its
consequences morally and in every other way, which forms
the closing part (chaps. 58-66), the Holy Spirit opens with
the most extreme denunciation of form and hypocrisy in
Israel, obedience being due to Jehovah. Only He could meet
all, and will by coming as Redeemer to Zion (chap. 59); for
whatever the glory in judgment which will invest Jerusalem
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(chap. 60), He must rst suit Himself to their need in grace
(chap. 61) in order to secure peace and blessing (chap. 62),
though none the less in unsparing judgment (chap. 63).
Lastly the Spirit in the prophet speaking for the remnant
reasons on this, chapter 63: 7 to the end of chapter 64, and
Jehovah answers in chapters 65 and 66, which concludes
the book.
In this chapter Jehovah intervenes and announces that
He is come to comfort His people. Verse 2 is the expression
of His heart which will have it that Jerusalem has received
double for all her sins at His hand. Verse 3 opens the
preparatory warning, but it is of Jehovah’s manifestation. “
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill
shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough places plain: and the glory of Jehovah shall
be revealed, and all esh shall see it together: for the mouth
of Jehovah hath spoken it,” v. 4, 5. e Eternal presents
Himself to His people and the remnant is manifested by
this means. “ e voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall
I cry? All esh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is
as the ower of the eld: the grass withereth, the ower
fadeth: because the Spirit of Jehovah bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass. e grass withereth, the ower
fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever,” v.
6-8. e answer is a sentence on all Israel. e passage is
cited by the apostle of the circumcision to prove that all is
rejected save the remnant. It is also a sentence pronounced
on all that which is “ esh.” For all esh is grass. e power
of the Spirit discovers to our souls that in the esh no good
dwells, it will not submit to God’s law, nor does it love
Jesus, nor is it led by the Holy Spirit. And man who is not
of Christ is “ esh.”
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ere must be submission to the righteousness of
God in order to walk in the Spirit. Otherwise it is just
the esh and worth nothing, whatever the appearance.
But at that time Israel according to the esh was but
vanity. Also, because they were esh, the resurrection was
needful to secure the mercies of David, even to Israel here
below, namely the godly remnant who will own the risen
Christ. Man torments himself vainly by seeking in himself
wisdom, strength, righteousness. All is vanity and vexation
of spirit. God’s word alone abides. e consequence is that
the promises to Israel stand forever, that He will comfort
His people even according to His earthly promises.
e rest of the chapter points out God’s glory in
creation for His people, the sole and true God in contrast
with an idol. If on the one side all esh is withered, on the
other after the ages of sorrow Israel must know that God is
always the same and wearies not. e state of the people has
in no way been unknown to Him during this long interval.
ose who wait on Jehovah renew their strength, He faints
not, but He gives power to the faint. is is a hard lesson to
learn; but it is necessary to believe that the esh is nothing,
its wisdom, good plans, etc., nothing but vanity. What God
does and says abides; man perishes. How important to let
God act, knowing that we are nothing.
us the people of God are to be comforted. Prepare ye
the way of Jehovah; all esh is as grass, but the word of God
endures forever. He takes the people of God for a witness
against idols; the people which He made for His glory.
He takes Cyrus as a type of the deliverance of the people
captive in Babylon, also being a witness to the Gentiles,
and Jehovah, who is to be gloried in Israel. What has just
been said is from chapters 40-48.
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Chapter 41 is full of the righteous man from the earth,
not merely as the destined conqueror, but as the avenger, to
call on Jehovah’s name and execute judgment on idolatry.
But a greater than Cyrus is beheld at the beginning of
chapter 42, who, meek and lowly, shall not fail nor be
discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth: and
the isles of the Gentiles shall wait for His law. At the
end of the chapter Israel are the deaf and blind, perfect in
privilege as Jehovah’s earthly people, but alas! blind. Self-
will and disobedience had darkened their eyes. But grace
will intervene and save them from the ends of the earth
(chap. 43) though they be the blind people that have eyes
and the deaf that have ears. e dealings with Babylon,
which pregure the judgments at the end of the age, show
that Israel are His witnesses, and that He notwithstanding
their iniquities, will blot out all for His own sake. In chapter
44 He promises the full positive blessings of grace, while
exposing the folly of idols and pointing out the coming
conqueror by name; and this is followed up in chapter
45 with plain predictions of Babylon’s fall, and Israel’s
salvation. Chapter 46 declares how the idols of Babylon
must come to nothing through the “ ravenous bird from
the east,” the man to execute Jehovah’s counsel from a far
country, as we see from chapter 47 that the virgin daughter
of Babylon must sit in the dust. en chapter 48 closes
the section by an appeal to Israel, though to those sprung
of Judah, because these would alone represent the people
in those days. We know from the Lord’s word in Matt.
12 that the unclean spirit will return with worse for the
closing scenes of “ this wicked generation.”
Chapter 49 begins the second charge, the rejection of
Christ, not idolatry, and it goes on to the end of chapter 57.
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(Compare the end of chap. 48.) Israel, having rejected the
Messiah, it is said that it is to be of little value. He is put
as a light to the Gentiles, and Zion is to be re-established.
Chapter 50. Manifestation to all esh: indication of the
rejection of Jerusalem (the Jews) because they have despised
the Lord in His humiliation. e remnant hearken to the
voice of the servant and will be in darkness.
Chapter 51 till the end of verse 12 of chapter 52: three
addresses on God’s part to the people; verse 4, His people;
verse 7, in whom is the law; verse 9, the people being
awakened; verse 17, Jehovah.
Chapter 52: 13, begins with the revelation of this
servant. Chapter 53. e Jews (the remnant) who recognize
the rejection of Christ, and God who bears witness to
Him. Chapter 54. Jerusalem, barren, is acknowledged, and
Jehovah becomes her husband.
Chapter 55. It is not only Jerusalem, it is such as are
athirst-grace, the great principle.
Chapter 56 continues the same part; the end is in
chapter 57.
In chapter 58 He begins, as the third part unto the end,
to reason concerning righteousness, Israel, etc.; redemption
comes in at the end of chapter 59, and the promise that the
Spirit shall remain with Israel.
Chapter 60. e terrestrial glory of Jerusalem; the same
thing is said of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Chapter 61. Christ come in blessing, and rejected.
Chapter 62. For the blessing of the earth by His people.
Chapter 63 is the day of vengeance.
Chapters 63 to 64. All this excites in the prophet the
spirit of intercession.
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Chapter 65 is the reply to the intercession of the
prophet; God distinguishes between the nation and the
remnant; He condemns the nation and saves the remnant,
who own Christ the Servant, and become Jehovah’s
servants throughout.
Chapter 66. He condemns the outward form of religion,
and comes to deliver the remnant and to bless Jerusalem.
In Isaiah the Holy Spirit does not speak of Antichrist
but of the judgments of Christ against the Assyrian, etc.
e Assyrian will come rather pushed forward by Gog; but
he comes the rst-Gog will come after (with the power
of the Assyrian, it is true); Antichrist, in his character of
beast, head of the Roman empire, will make war with the
nations.
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63072
Remarks on the Prophetic
Word: Jeremiah - Malachi
(continued) JEREMIAH
Jeremiah is speaking continually in the name of the
remnant. In chapter is, for instance, he speaks for all
Israel, and then he returns immediately to the remnant.
It is the testimony which God gives to His people of its
iniquity, when He is about to withdraw His throne from
Jerusalem, and about to punish them. e covenant in
some sort is terminated, because He has taken away His
throne. Chapter 25 begins the judgment of the, nations, or
rather the judgment which extends over all the earth. He
gives the cup to drink to all nations (v. 15). From chapter
30 there are promises of restoration, and warning to set
forth their iniquity. What follows for the most part is the
controversy between Jeremiah and the prophets; a kind of
history, especially of the fall of Jerusalem; of the ight into
Egypt contrary to the will of God; of the false prophets;
with judgments upon Egypt, the nations, and Babylon. e
last chapter is a history.
LAMENTATIONS.
e wretchedness of Jerusalem; the Spirit of Christ,
which identies itself with the suerings of Jerusalem, in
Jeremiah appealing to the grace of God for restoration in
intercession.
EZEKIEL.
Ezekiel applies himself no more to Israel in its land;
he prophesies in the captivity only to condemn it; he sees
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329
the throne of God leaving Jerusalem, and consequently
the beginning of the throne of the Gentiles. Chapter 11
shows the formation of the throne; he gives the history of
the last king who wished to be the beast (Pharaoh-Necho
of Egypt), but who could not; and it is Nebuchadnezzar
who is the beast. Ezekiel passes over the four empires;
dierent prophecies concerning the dierent classes of
the Gentiles who are not included in the four monarchies,
or prophecies concerning the nations who were not the
beasts. From chapter 26-36 the re-establishment of Israel
(chap. 28 being fall without temptation; it is possible that
it is a revelation of the fall of Satan); the Jews from chapter
10-20. Ezekiel, when the Lord Jesus comes, speaks more of
the ten tribes than of the Jews.
DANIEL.
is prophecy lls up the gap which Ezekiel left, which
stopped with the counsels of God relative to His people,
whilst Daniel prophesies about the times of the Gentiles.
Daniel gives the four monarchies. In the rst six chapters
he is only the interpreter of the general things which
should be revealed to the Gentiles; whilst in the last six he
himself is the vessel which God makes use of to give out
his thoughts. is prophecy is much more taken up with
what will happen to the Jewish people. In the rst chapter
we see the knowledge of God in contrast with the wisdom
of man, the faithfulness of Daniel keeping himself separate
from the spirit of Babylon, in order to exercise his oce.
e last three chapters relate to the Jews.
HOSEA.
e rejection of Israel and of Judah, and their after-
restoration; threatenings specially against Israel (the ten
tribes); judgment upon Israel.
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330
JOEL.
Joel, taking occasion of a famine, announces the day
of Jehovah upon Jerusalem; a call to repentance in order
for blessing; announcement of the gift of the Spirit; the
judgment of the nations, and the re-establishment of Zion.
It is not specially Antichrist who makes havoc in Jerusalem,
but rather the Assyrian.
AMOS.
Amos speaks to Israel and equally addresses all the
nations which lie around Israel: the Edomites, Moabites,
Ammonites, and the two families of Israel. It places the
two families come out of Egypt, as the other nations. After
certain intercessions, the Lord refuses to spare any longer,
and He allows them to be led away captive; He takes
away the tabernacle’ of David, and plants them in the land
whence they shall no more be taken away.
OBADIAH.
is the judgment of Edom (future). e judgment of
Esau will be complete without leaving a grape (v. 5).
JONAH.
Jonah is important in certain respects, being the only
prophet who was sent to the Gentiles. It was while the
throne of God was remaining at Jerusalem and the Gentiles
were not acknowledged. It is a proof that, notwithstanding
principles the most severe, mercy super abounds. Jonah
called Him Jehovah, but he only says to the Ninevites God.
e mercy of God towards the Gentiles, likewise towards
the creation, is here shown; deliverance in death through
resurrection, and then the mortication of the esh; the
breaking of the will in the ways of God.
MICAH.
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331
Summary of the prophet Isaiah; the great principles at
the beginning of Isaiah; the revelation of the judgment of
Jehovah on account of the sin of Jacob, and the manifestation
of the power of God according to election in grace towards
Jerusalem; and then (which is very important) the judgment
of the nations when Christ shall be manifested, according
to His promises to Abraham.
NAHUM.
e judgment of Nineveh and of the world in general as
not being included in the four monarchies, as having been
rebellious against God (opposed to the people of God).
Nineveh was the enemy of the Jews during the time that
the Jews were acknowledged by God, whilst Babylon was
the enemy of the Jewish people whilst it was apocryphal.
It is very important to distinguish the dierence of the
relations these two towns stand in, towards the people of
God.
HABAKKUK.
Habakkuk complains of the iniquity of the people
of God, and asks for judgment; then God shows him
the chastisement of His people through means of their
enemies; why his love for the people of God returns; and
then he cries against the oppressors. God shows that He
well knows the oppressor, and He shows that it is necessary
to wait, and that the just shall live by faith, because
deliverance will come later; then he reveals, on God’s part,
the judgment which falls at the last on the oppressor, and
in a song, calling to mind the deliverance of the people of
God at the beginning, he declares his condence in God,
even when the people of God are not in the enjoyment of
outward blessings.
ZEPHANIAH
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is the day of the Lord on Jerusalem; the judgment of
the nations who are in the territory (the Philistines, the
Moabites, etc.), and judgment on the Assyrian, in behalf of
the remnant of Jerusalem; promises and prophetic history
of the remnant.
e three prophets who follow prophesied after the
captivity.
HAGGAI.
Haggai excites to build the temple by promising the
presence of Messiah in the temple; he announces also the
judgment of the nations when the heavens shall have been
shaken; Zerubbabel was the seed of David.
ZECHARIAH.
Jehovah takes notice of the four imperial nations, judges
them and accepts and justies Israel prophetically but
places it actually upon its responsibility, shows the church
order blessed under Messiah. Judgment against evil, and
the manifestation of iniquity in its true character, and in
sight of all nations, of all the empires of which the second
only had accomplished the will of God. He takes occasion
from this blessing to declare the re-establishment of the
temple by Messiah Himself; this terminates at the end of
chapter 6. ere are only two prophecies in this prophet;
the rst till the end of chapter 6, and the second until the
end of the book. On the demand, if they ought to fast, he
remarks to them how the words of the ancient prophets had
been accomplished, but that they had returned to do good.
He reassures them by saying that He had returned in grace,
but for the present time placing them under responsibility,
reveals to them the glory to come; judges the people who
are in the territory of Israel; takes away strength in order
that He may be their
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ZECHARIAH 245
strength; He makes them conquerors over all the
enemies of Jehovah, and blesses them in His presence as
His ock; He blesses Judah and Ephraim, and gathers
together all countries; He exposes then (at the end of chap.
10) the details of their history in that they have rejected
Christ and have received Antichrist; they shall be subject to
Him (chaps. 12, 13, 14); he speaks of the siege of Jerusalem
in the last days, and of what shall happen to the remnant
or to the people after the death of Jesus struck by Jehovah
as their shepherd; Christ represented ecclesiastically, and
Christ in these two characters (chap. 6: 13); the two olive-
trees; program of the ceremony of this justication.
Chapter 11 of Zechariah has generally been thought one
of considerable diculty; but there are some points in our
Lord’s character, and the unfolding of the purposes of God
in His actual ministry, which I think make comparatively
easy what seems most dicult, and may, perhaps, lead the
way to what is yet unexplained. e strong expression of our
Lord’s mind in Spirit-the full representation of the moral
force in the sight of God of what took place upon His
presence on earth-the breaking up of all God’s purposes
in their present ministration-the immense importance
which we nd consequently to be attached to what in the
eye of reason might seem small circumstances, because the
principles of God’s moral government are involved in them,
and all brought out into relief in the person of the Lord
Jesus; all contribute to attach the deepest interest to this
morally comprehensive chapter, as God’s version of all that
then passed. e glory of the house of Israel is laid low-its
external strength and glory. e glory of the shepherds is
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spoiled-its rulers and guides. e pride of the river of Israel
is spoiled-the national fullness and power.
is is the general statement. e command follows, “
Feed the ock of the slaughter.” eir possessors (though I
have doubted it), I apprehend, must be the Gentiles; their
own people, those that sell them to the Gentiles; Herod
for example, and the preceding chief priests and princes,
or any such characters; someone who owned Jehovah, but
sold His people. e Lord does not think it necessary to say
who they are, as He owns them not at all; they are possessed
by those who slay them, and sold by persons more or less
owning the Lord openly, but loving covetousness, anything
but the Lord’s care as to their present estate. is ock of
the slaughter -their own shepherds (who they are there can
be no doubt), their own leaders and rulers pity them not.
Verse 4 is the delivery of them, under these circumstances,
into the Lord Christ’s hands to feed, or take charge of them.
e next verse shows however, that the body of the nation
then, who inhabited the land indeed, but were not God’s
ock (compare 1 Peter 5 and the corresponding charge to
Peter in John 21 all of which is properly Jewish), would not
be spared. “ I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land-
Israel’s land, saith Jehovah; but, lo, I will deliver,” etc. When
the care was delivered to Him, He would not spare but
deliver them to the fruit of their own ways. Such would be
the general state of the inhabitants of the land, and then,
“ I will feed the ock of the slaughter,” the poor, despised
people. “ Blessed are the poor, and ye poor,” said the Lord,
Himself the feeder of the ock of the slaughter: generally
the nation was the ock of the slaughter; but in His hand
a distinction was made, between those who were identied
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with the slayers, and the real ock of the slaughter, even the
poor whom He saved. In
• judgment He had given up the inhabitants of the land,
every man to his neighbor; He would not be a judge and
a divider over them; and Herod and Caesar alike preyed
upon the land, and they all preyed upon each other-now
especially Caesar their king, “ we have no king but Caesar.”
But He took His two staves, of which words we shall see
the force presently, and He fed them as a good Shepherd,
even them, the poor of the ock: as for their shepherds they
were cut o; between them and the good Shepherd there
was nothing in common. His soul loathed them, and their
soul abhorred Him. He had taken however two staves, one,
Beauty; and the other, Bands; and fed the ock.
en, viewed as in connection with their shepherds, as
a nation which must abhor Him, He would not feed the
ock: as such, they were delivered up to the fruit of their
own will and depravity as it came upon them. And He took
His sta, Beauty, and cut it asunder, that He might break
the covenant He had made with all the people, that is, all
the peoples (the Ammim) Now this was formally done at
the destruction of Jerusalem, and in fact at the rejection or
death of our Lord, when He refused the nation, or when
the nation refused Him; in principle, when they rejected
His word and works. To Him was the gathering of the
peoples (Ammim) to be. All nations were to be gathered
to the throne of the Lord, to Jerusalem; this was the great,
wide, circling covenant, that was made by Christ, made
with Christ. is gathering of the peoples to Jerusalem,
clothing herself with them all, was the great gathering
foretold; it was to be to Jerusalem, but it was of the peoples;
but when Jerusalem rejected Him, to whom was it to be?
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So upon the rejection of Him, He broke the covenant
made with the peoples, and the destruction and rejection
of Jerusalem made the poor of the ock that waited upon
Him know that it was the word of the Lord: they knew
in faith upon His rejection. It was then manifested in
result, for His rejection had proved the rejection of all
their hopes, and they lost the gathering of the nations. e
whole plan was not abandoned but frustrated, that is, in
present ministration (in the wisdom of God’s counsels), in
the rejection of the Lord, who had shown and warned of
all this, and Jesus was the Lord.
Nothing I think, can be more simple, if the gathering
of the nations (Ammim) promised to Shiloh be seen, and
that to Jerusalem, nor than the necessary results as testied
by Him on His rejection, proving as to them who might
be perplexed upon His rejection by the shepherds, who He
was-that very Word of the Lord, and Himself the truth of
all He said. His word in Zechariah was proved true, it was
Himself in all that chapter. But there was another point
incident to the acknowledgment of the Lord. Being thus
refused, He says, “ Well, what do you think me worth? “
is would have been most strange, even after His rejection.
“ You have rejected me, I came for no other purpose, what
do you think me worth? what is your judgment of the
Lord? “ Oh! what condemnation, while they thought they
condemned Him. “ If you think good, give me my price; if
not, forbear.” “ I count myself nothing worth, I put no price
upon myself, you can do what you please.” e fulllment
of this-our Lord indeed became as a servant-is too well,
too little, known in its verity, to need or to be met by verbal
explanation. e transition from all the expectations or
titles of Shiloh in meek submission, when He would not
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337
have Israel, and He the Lord, is marvelous. It is here we
learn what we can learn nowhere else-the strange meaning
of that word, obedience-the marvelous mystery of the
submission of the Lord. It is here, in the contrast from
Shiloh to a rejected slave not opening his mouth even for
the price (may we have grace to own Him in humiliation)
discerned of us. But He was really the Lord in all this,
which is the very revelation of this chapter, and it was the
judicial process (yet saving to the remnant) of presenting
the Lord to them.
ere was another consequence connected with the
acknowledgment of Shiloh, they were to be made one stick;
the union of Israel and Judah was to be in His hand; the
accompaniment of the same headship which involved the
gathering of the Ammi, “ then shall the children of Israel
and the children of Judah be gathered together, and appoint
unto themselves one head, and they shall come up out of
the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel.” And though
Jerusalem was to be the head-the Jehovah Shammai
11
; yet
they were to be no more two, but one in the land; and so
the Lord always owned them. Zebulun and Napthali saw
a great light, and the poor of the ock, “ the lost sheep
of the house of Israel,” indiscriminately met His care,
scattered though they might be, but that unity depended
upon David their king, their one head. His rejection broke
all this; He cut asunder His other sta “ Bands,” to break
the brotherhood between Judah and Israel; and this surely
shall not be united again, till the King be owned again,
and then indeed shall these things be according to the sure
mercies of David; till then, even if in their land, they shall
be a divided and a weakened people; and as I a believe,
11 Ezek. 48:35.
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“ Ephraim against Manasseh, and they together against
Judah: for all which, his anger is not turned away, but
his hand is stretched out still.” Verse Is, and possibly also
verse 17, but surely verses 15, 16, I believe to belong to the
presumptuous shepherd, the fool that says in his heart, “
there is no God “; one who shall come in his own name,
whom they will receive. Lord, forgive them yet and deliver!
e word is not merely “ foolish,” though I have alluded
to that, but the word (eveele) which includes in connection
with the Lord, impiety, folly against God, in a word-
Antichrist. ey are given up after Christ is rejected, the
Gentile history coming in meanwhile. e idol shepherd
does not seem to me to go quite so far, perhaps it applies to
the Jews in that day, who desert the ock when evil comes
12
e shepherd who is nothing-emptiness.
Yet Jerusalem shall be made a cup of trembling in that
day to the nations round about her, but this is the Lord’s
mercy. Having then given what the leading principles
of the chapter appear to me to be, I will not pursue that
which follows, though aording the leading principle of
the whole of this prophecy would be of the deepest interest,
and, I believe, aord much instruction in the testimony of
God.
e following chapters are the results in the latter
day, with which the prophet then is wholly occupied-the
rejection of Christ, and giving up to Antichrist and the idol
shepherds, being the basis on which it rests.
We have then in the chapter the judgment in which the
Lord found the Jews, Israel, and to which, in point of fact,
they were given up; then the history of His assuming the
12 Compare John to. Here the Jewish leaders, I conceive, in the
latter day.
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pastorship, His rejecting, as He must, the exceeding evil
state of them that dwelt in the land, His taking the poor
of the ock, but the rejection by Him of the shepherds,
and of Him by them. He had assumed necessarily in the
pastorship, humble as He might seem, the double rod,
not yet made one, of God’s government; but upon His
rejection by the shepherds, He broke that which involved
the gathering of the nations; and, so to speak, neither He
nor Jerusalem were of any more avail as the then fulllers
of this counsel. It was left to the shepherds to count His
price, and they gave thirty pieces of silver; but Jerusalem
and they were comparatively then given up; He alone
could or would gather them. “ How often would I have
gathered thy children together! “ (Matt. 23:37). en what
was the use of His other sta? He broke that also, even
the bond of Israel itself, that also was gone in Him; they
were then given up to the foolish shepherd, though this
was left future, with a woe upon their own then faithless
one. Subsequently comes the unfolding of God’s unaltered
purpose concerning Jerusalem, and the sure glory of Him
whom they had rejected in His real and gracious character,
in spite of their iniquity.
Brethren, beloved of the Lord, how should we dwell
upon the extent of gracious and marvelous humiliation of
that word, “ If ye think well, give me my price; and if not,
forbear “; even for Him whose all the glory was, “ which
things angels desire to look into,” “ a goodly price “ that He
was prized at by them. Oh! what is man? and what is Jesus
to us? the Lord our God.
MALACHI.
e Lord had left them in Zechariah under their
responsibility. Malachi feels the reproaches of the Lord
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Jehovah on account of their unbelief after their return,
notwithstanding His goodness; he announces to them the
day of the Lord; the distinction between the remnant (the
faithful) and the mass (those who are not so), (chap. 3: 17,
18); he announces the blessing of the remnant, and the
coining of Elijah before the day of the Lord.
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63073
Notes on the Gospel of
Matthew
13
CHAPTER 16.
WE arrive at that part of the Gospel where other ways
of God, other manifestations of His character and of His
glory, are substituted for Judaism. e kingdom and the
form that it would take have been already revealed to
us in chapter 13. However, though the form announced
in the parables was to be new, the kingdom itself was in
view since the time of John the Baptist, though it could
not be established then, Jesus being rejected. Purposes
of God, important in very dierent respects, were to be
accomplished through the death of the Lord. And although
the judgment of Israel had been plainly declared, and the
new condition of the kingdom depicted in the parables of
chapter 13, the power and the patient grace of the Lord
were manifested in the midst of the people, up to the close
of chapter 15. But now all is terminated: the church and the
kingdom of glory take the place of an Emmanuel Messiah
in the midst of the people. e unbelief of the heads of
the nation is manifested in their request for a sign from
heaven; signs enough had been given. It was not genuine
faith, and the Lord reproves them and goes away. ey
knew well enough how to observe the signs of the weather
that was coming; how was it then that they did not see
the far clearer signs of Israel’s condition-signs which were
precursors of the judgment of God? It was nothing but
13 See Expository, Volume 3, for Notes on chapters 1-15, of
which this is the sequel written since.
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hypocrisy: they should only have the sign of Jonas; the
death and the resurrection of Jesus bringing the judgment,
the terrible punishment of the nation, as a natural and
necessary consequence of the scornful rejection of their
Messiah come in grace.
e disciples themselves participate, not in the want of
sincerity, but at least in the want of intelligence, of the Jews.
eir faith understood no more than that of the Jews did
the power that had manifested itself daily before their eyes.
Jesus was to nd nowhere a heart that understood Him.
is isolation is one of the most striking features of the
ordinary life of the Savior, a Man of sorrows in this world.
e Lord introduces what was going to be substituted
for the kingdom in Israel by a question destined to bring
out the doctrine of His person, the rst foundation of
everything recognized by faith.
Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? “ is
is the character assumed by the One in whom God
was proving men according to His own thoughts and
according to His counsels. e heir of all the glory which
belonged to man according to the determinate counsel of
God taking His place among men here below, and before
God the representation of the race, a race then accepted by
Him, although heir He associated Himself with all their
miseries, the true representative of the race alone perfect
before God.
Psa. 8 and 80:17, and Dan. 7 represent Him thus to us in
the Old Testament according to the thoughts of God. Men,
struck by His miracles and His walk, had their opinions;
faith, through the revelation of God, acknowledges His
person. Peter answering the question addressed to all,
proclaims this truth, the foundation of every hope, “ ou
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343
art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It is worth while
saying a word as to the character of the great apostle.
We know what was the burning ardor of this man, an
ardor which placed him in diculties from which his moral
power could not succeed in extricating him and which
even brought him, when God permitted it for his good, to
deny his Savior and his Master. So far as he was sustained
by human strength, this ardor was a continual snare; but
under God’s hand, when grace took hold of the vessel, he
became the instrument of the most blessed activity. I nd
this instructive dierence: human energy cannot sustain
the trials of faith. It may bring us into circumstances
where these trials are found, but the strength of man’s will
cannot make us triumph. If the power of God is there, we
triumph over temptation; the esh which has brought us
into it cannot do so. Nevertheless God can make use of
the vessel which He has formed; then the power of God is
there to hold us up, sheltered from evil by His arms. Now
what I desire to remark here is that God makes use of the
vessel for His glory; whilst, when the vessel alone and the
energy which is in it are at work, it fails in time of trial,
and the energy, which God makes use of as an instrument,
brings us, when it acts alone, into temptation, in which it
cannot cause us to triumph. Sincerity and zeal in that case
only cause us to fall because there is too much condence
in ourselves. Here it is the ardent confession of what the
Father Himself had revealed to Peter. ere are two parts
in this confession-Jesus is the Christ, that is what the
Jews denied. is was the rst thing to be acknowledged
in Jesus. He was the One who had been promised to the
fathers and to Israel; but further, He was of the fullness
of that eternal Godhead, in which was the power of life; “
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the Son of the living God.” Resurrection was the proof of
it in the very place where death had entered. us, at the
commencement of the Epistle to the Romans, He is of the
seed of David according to the esh, and marked out Son
of God in power by resurrection of the dead. e promises
of God were thus not only accomplished in His person, but
the person in whom they were accomplished was Son of
God in a power of life which is in God only; not only Son
of God born into this world according to Psa. 2-Nathaniel
had acknowledged that-but Son of the living God as to His
person. Up to that time this had not been acknowledged;
the Father had revealed it to Peter, the Father in heaven
had made known to him His Son upon earth.
At the same time the Lord also shows His authority by
giving to Peter a name in accordance with the confession
that he had just made, with the truth which (while
establishing His divine person, His relationship with the
Father, and that as a man) laid the rm foundation of what
was above all promises, of what had never been promised
of the new thing, the church of the living God. Against
this power of life in the person of the Son, the might of
Satan, who had the empire of death, could not prevail. It
is not here the death and the resurrection of Jesus, or His
work, and the proof by this power of life that He was the
Son of God in power; it is the essential character of His
person revealed by the Father to Simon Barjona. Christ
also says something to Him. As the Father had revealed
the true character of Jesus to Simon, Jesus also (it is thus
that we must take the sentence) gave him a name and a
position. His person as Son of the living God was the
foundation of the church called to have its true place in
heaven, for it is in this character that it is presented to us
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345
here. It is Christ who builds, and up to this day the building
is not yet completed. What we have here is not what Paul
speaks of in 1 Cor. 3 He, Paul, had laid the foundation of
that house: others brought materials, each one on his own
responsibility, so that wood, stubble, hay, were to be found
in the building. at was what has been built under human
responsibility upon the earth. What we have here is found
again in 1 Peter 2:4, 5, where there is no human architect,
but where living stones come and are builded together into
a spiritual building. e same thing is found again in Eph.
2:20, 21. It is Christ who builds a spiritual house, and the
power of Satan could not touch it. It is the assembly which
Christ builds for heaven and for eternity.
But there was yet another thing. e Lord, Master of
all, gives the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Peter. He
receives from Christ authority to administer the kingdom
upon earth, and whatever he might decree here below would
be sanctioned. It is no question, remark well, of keys of the
church; one does not build with keys. Further, although
Simon may receive the name of Peter, a testimony to his
personal faith, which linked him with the Rock, and an
acknowledgment of the fact that like a stone in its nature he
belonged to the Rock; nevertheless here he does nothing at
all, nor has he any authority, in the church. Christ Himself
builds, “ I will build my church.” No one else has any part
in this. Peter himself acknowledges it in his epistle (1 Peter
2:4, 5), by an evident allusion to this passage; the living
stones come to the “ living Stone.” e administration of
the kingdom of heaven is conded to him. e keys of
that kingdom are conded to him. For, I repeat, no such
thing exists as keys of the church. Christ builds it, that
is all. Now one can see well in the Acts that Simon Peter
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was the chief instrument of God in the work; and no true
Christian doubts that what he established by his apostolic
authority, with the sanction of the Lord, is from heaven.
We must further remark that the only succession in that
authority is found in two or three gathered in the name
of the Lord (Matt. 18:17-20). Christendom has accepted
with strange facility the idea that there are keys for the
church, an idea which is nowhere found in the word. en,
this error being once admitted, another was accepted,
namely, that the church and the kingdom of heaven are the
same thing, an idea also which has no foundation in the
word. e passage that we are considering clearly shows
that they are two distinct things. Christ does not build
a kingdom, He is the King of it; whether as such He be
either hidden or manifested. Further, a kingdom is neither
a bride nor a body, as the church is, and the reader must
remark, that since it is here Christ who builds, He certainly
places none but true living stones in the house. At most
there is a certain analogy in regard to historical limits and
circumstances, with the house of which Paul speaks in 1
Cor. 3 in which were found hay and stubble, the building
in that case being left to the responsibility of man. What is
positive is that in no case are the church and the kingdom
the same thing. Further, to have confounded the church,
which Christ alone builds, and which is not yet completed,
with the house which Paul founded upon earth, is one of
the origins of the Romish system, and of the high church,
wherever it may be.
e church then, so far as built by Christ, is
14
the kingdom
of the heavens replacing the Christ coming to the Jewish
14 Query if this should read “is not the kingdom of the heavens “
[Ed.]
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347
people according to promise, and the disciples receive the
peremptory command not to announce henceforth Jesus
as the Christ. On the other side, the Lord from that time
begins to make known to them that He was to be rejected,
to suer and rise. Peter cannot receive such a declaration.
We see here how one may receive from God a revelation of
the truth and be found in a practical state below the eect
of this truth on the life. Peter had been taught by God
Himself touching a truth which necessarily brought on
the cross. For this his esh was not at all prepared; further
he who had just been called blessed by the Savior is now
denounced as doing the work and as having the thoughts
of Satan. As a natural aection there was nothing to blame;
but it was the mind of the esh, not of God. It is a solemn
thought for us that one may possess a truth as really taught
of God and be opposed to the consequences which ow
from it in the life. In this case the esh is not judged
according to the measure of the truth known, so that the
divine eect of this truth should be produced in us. But the
Lord, always perfect, puts Himself under the yoke of what
was absolutely necessary to realize that which was worthy
of God-redemption. e things which are in the world, its
ease and its glory, are not of the Father. Man is carnal: Peter
savored what was of man. It is terrible to see that it suces
to say the things which are of man to show what was evil
and opposed to God. It is only the cross which is truly
worthy of God. Christ always walked in obedience and in
the love of the Father, which were fully manifested in Him.
Also the earth was for Him a desert land, dry and without
water. He savored always and perfectly the things which
were of God; but this brought on the cross in this world.
Also each of us who would enjoy the blessing of God must
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348
take up his cross and follow Christ. If one spares himself,
one spares esh; one loses Christ so much and nds oneself
in opposition to God. He that loses his life for the love of
Christ will have it with joy when all is according to God.
e soul is not to satisfy vanity and carnal selshness; it is
gained forever in tasting the things of God: such is what
the cross means in a world opposed to God in all that He
is.
ere is besides more than this moral fact; there are
positive ways of God. If the Son of man is actually rejected
by the world, as presenting perfectly the ways and the
character of God in its midst, the time comes when God
will make valid the rights of Him who was faithful, and
when He will manifest it in the glory which is due and
belongs to Him. e Son of man will come in the glory
of His Father; not in the humiliation of the obedience in
which His moral perfection was manifested, and in which,
at His own cost, He perfectly gloried God, but (for He
is Son of the living God) in the glory of His Father, and
with His angels, then He will render to each according to
his conduct.
is gives room for the manifestation of the kingdom
such as it will be manifested when the Son of man will
come in His glory. It is what the transguration meant as
shown in chapter 18. Chapter 16 had replaced Israel and
the Christ in Israel by the church and the kingdom of the
heavens, by a Christ put to death and risen, basis of the
establishment of God’s counsels in divine righteousness,
man being thus placed in a position entirely new.
Chapter 17 replaces the transitory system of the law
and of the prophets in Israel by the kingdom of glory and
by the order of things owing from it. e mountain of
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349
transguration is not Horeb. It is no longer the rst Adam
put to the proof by a law, perfect rule of what ought to be in
this fallen world. It is the last Adam seen in the result of the
trial He had undergone; He, the victorious Redeemer who
could bring other men to the same glory; He the Head of
all, perfectly approved by the Father; a Man in whom He
found all His good pleasure; His Son, His well-beloved
seen in glory, and Moses and Elias with Him. And these
two represent the law and prophecy in its highest order, for
Elijah was not a prophet at a time when the law of God
was recognized.
He was in the midst of apostate Israel, as Moses in the
midst of a captive people. Elijah returned to Horeb to
denounce this apostasy and the refusal of the testimony of
God, whatever had been His patience; for in fact nothing
was then left but the election of grace, and Elijah went up
to heaven after having displayed his grief on Horeb. Elisha
was the prophet of resurrection, having returned across the
Jordan which Elijah had crossed to go up to heaven. People
have wished to see in this the living changed and the dead
raised, and I have no objection. In fact, these two classes
will be with the Lord in the glory of the kingdom. Still
I do not see that this is the chief object of the Spirit, but
rather the putting aside of the law and the prophets, of the
law and the patience of God towards Israel. ey now give
place to the Son Himself, to God’s well-beloved, whilst
they bear witness to Him.
Something is still left to be remarked. A bright cloud
comes and envelopes them: it was the Shekinah of glory.
e cloud had led Israel and lled the tabernacle with the
glory of God, in such a way that the sacricing priests
could not stay there for their service: the word used here
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350
is the same as that used in the Septuagint when the cloud
lled the tabernacle. It was in the cloud that Jehovah came
to speak with Moses at the door of the tabernacle which
he had set up outside the camp. Peter calls it “ the excellent
glory,” 2 Peter
: 17, 18. What is presented to us here, however, is the
glory of the kingdom in which Jesus is recognized as Son
by the Father. e disciples do not enter into the cloud
like Moses and Elias, as takes place, I suppose, in Luke
9:34. at is to say, the heavenly part, the Father’s house,
is not found in Matthew; the glory indeed is, and the Son
come in glory with His own, but not the dwelling near the
Father on high: here we are in relation with heaven, but
not in heaven.
ese words, “ hear him,” present to us the voice of the
Son as the only one which ought to be heard henceforth.
Not that Moses and Elias had not preached the word of
God, but the order of things which they represent is past;
and the words of the Son revealing the Father are those
which we have to listen to. e law and the prophets have
given testimony to the Savior Himself, as it is said; but they
addressed themselves to man in the esh. Now it is the Son
of man after death, raised and gloried: redemption being
accomplished, the counsels of God in grace are revealed.
e former witnesses disappear and Jesus remains alone:
Son of God to whom the Father gives testimony, in whom
the Father reveals Himself. Peter, like so many Christians,
would have wished to mingle the three, but such is not the
instruction of the Father. However, until Christ was raised,
this new testimony had neither its place, nor its cause of
existence (v. 9).
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e diculty, suggested by the opinion drawn from
Malachi by the scribes, the last testimony given (namely,
that Elias was to come before the glorious day of the
Lord), presents itself to the disciples. e Lord conrms
this testimony and speaks of it as a thing which was to
come to pass. Elias is to come rst-the idea is true-and
he will restore all things. e prophecy of Malachi shall
be accomplished, but as Jesus came to suer before His
glory, so too there had come one to go before His face, and
he must needs be rejected like Him whom he announced.
en the disciples understood that He spoke of John the
Baptist, come before the Lord, in the spirit and power of
Elias. For what concerned the kingdom, all in fact, was
only provisional. e king was there indeed, the Son of
God Himself, but for a greater work even than establishing
the kingdom: to save sinners and glorify God Himself
by His death. To establish the kingdom He will return;
but then all was prepared for faith to have its foundation,
and for man to be without excuse. It was for that reason
that the Lord could say, “ Ye shall not have gone over the
cities of Israel till the Son of man be come “ (chap. to:
23), although He was there. However, His establishment
as king has been deferred, the last half-week of Daniel
still remains unaccomplished, and even the whole week
for unbelief. Christ is seated at the right hand of God till
His enemies be set as the footstool of His feet, having by
Himself puried our sins, gathering, as we know, His co-
heirs according to the counsels of God, co-heirs given to
Him before the foundation of the world.
Afterward we nd here, on our way, that which, without
arresting the accomplishment of the counsels of God, made
impossible all idea of the establishment on earth of His
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power, such as it was then manifesting itself. e disciples
themselves did not know how to prot by the faith of this
power to make it eectual; the power of Satan was in the
world, whether directly or indirectly. e Lord was there to
remove all the eect of this power and the consequences of
sin. He had bound the strong man. A case of this power of
evil presents itself to His disciples, and they cannot make
use of the Lord’s power to subdue it. It was then useless
to continue to exercise this in the world if His disciples
themselves did not know how to prot by it. And the Lord
says, “ How long shall I be with you? How long shall I
suer you? “ However, as long as the power is there, Jesus,
unchangeable in His faithful goodness, exercises it in grace.
“ Bring thy son hither.” Great consolation for us! If the
faith of all fails, the Lord’s goodness never is lacking. We
can count on His power and on His grace, as always sure
and indefeasible till all is nished. However the want of
faith in His own is the sign that the patience of God is
on the point of nding no more room for its exercise. e
power of evil brought the Lord to this point: the practical
unbelief of His own drives Him away; it puts an end to
these ways, in regard to which unbelief manifests itself.
Two great principles are laid down by the Lord in
reply to the question of His disciples. First, faith can do
everything, according to the willed action of God at the
moment of its exercise: but to overcome the enemy, where
he shows his strength specially, a life of retirement is
needed, which, in the consciousness of the strife in which
we are engaged, refers to the presence of God, and places
itself before Him in abasement of the esh, and in entire
condence. is condence displays itself in dependence
on Him, owned in order to seek divine action. e Lord (v.
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22) returns to His instructions with regard to His rejection
and His crucixion. Delivered up to men, He must be put
to death and He must rise again. e disciples entirely
ignorant of salvation are deeply pained by it, but at the
end of the chapter the Lord places His disciples, at least
Peter, and according to His grace all of us, in the same
relation with His Father as that in which He was Himself,
whilst at the same time manifesting the divinity of His
person. It is one of the most touching expositions of what
was about to happen through the change that His work
would produce- the revelation of a position always true as
to His person, true as to His relationships, having become
man before God, but which was about to be demonstrated
in a glorious manner by His resurrection. At the same time
He introduces His own beforehand into His own position,
now that He was about to give up the kingdom in Israel
as far as it belonged to Him there; now that He had just
announced to His disciples His death and resurrection as
necessary for introducing them into greater blessings than
those which they enjoyed through His presence.
Peter wished that He should be considered a good Jew.
When the tribute collectors asked Peter if his Master paid
the didrachma (owing by the Jews for the service of the
temple), the disciple answered, Yes. When Peter returns,
the Lord anticipates him, knowing, without having been
there, all that had passed. He asks him if it is from their
children or from strangers that the kings of the earth take
tribute or taxes. Peter answers, From strangers. “ en,” said
the Lord, “ the children are free.” He and Peter, sons of the
great King of the temple, were not liable to pay; but, adds
the Lord, “ that we may not oend them, go thou to the
sea and cast a hook, and take up the sh that rst cometh
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up, and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt nd
a stater [two didrachmas].” en the One who not only
knows everything, but who disposes of creation with equal
power and knowledge, places Peter afresh in the same
position as Himself: “ at take and give unto them for me
and thee.” Peter therefore is also a son of the great King
of the temple. At the same moment in which the Lord
shows that He knows everything divinely, and that He
disposes of everything as Master of the creation, He places
Peter in the same relationship as Himself with Jehovah.
He submits to the prescription of Judaism in order not to
stumble the Jews. But He and Peter are really exempt, as
sons of the great King. What perfect grace! At the very
moment in which He must give up His relationship with
the unfaithful people, He introduces those who follow
Him into a far more intimate relationship with the God
of Israel, and at the same time with Himself. He is Son,
being man, and His own are with Him in the same blessed
relationship.
CHAPTER 18.
e three chapters, 18, 19, and 20, up to the end of
verse 28, form a subdivision of our Gospel. ey show
us from the Savior Himself the principles that ought to
characterize the disciples in the new order of things on
which they were entering-principles of life and conduct,
individual and collective. Nature, as far as established
of God, is owned: but the state of the heart is sounded,
grace and the cross characterizing all the new system. e
rst principles enjoined by God in the christian order are
humility and simplicity.
e disciples, as usual, wished to have a good position
in the kingdom, each for himself, this time however more
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in relation with moral character, with qualities. e Lord’s
answer is limited to calling a child, and placing him in the
midst of His disciples, as an example of the spirit which
ought to characterize them: he who resembled that little
child should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
e child pretended to nothing, and passed for nothing
in the eyes of the world. He who was nothing in his
own eyes should be great in God’s eyes. Whoever should
receive a little child in the name of Jesus had entered into
His thought-into the estimate that He had of the world,
and of the things that were in it. As to the principles of
his conduct, he received Jesus Himself, acting upon the
principles which governed Him. But, further, should there
be in the child faith in Jesus, then, whoever should cause
him to stumble in the way of the Lord, or should put an
obstacle in the way, so that he should not follow Him, was
fastening a millstone around his own neck to drown himself;
and, worse still, there were stumblingblocks in the world,
but woe to him who should place them before the feet of
others. e question between man and God was entirely
laid down. ey were either for or against Him. Neither
was it any longer a question of a captivity in Babylon, of
a governmental chastisement, however severe it might be,
but of being nally cast into hell; it would be better to lose
the best of one’s members than to nd oneself there.
But the special principle of the ways of God which
were then being manifested was grace. e Son of man
had come to save that which was lost-a testimony of
immense range! It was no longer the accomplishment of
the promises made to Israel, nor the Messiah, as Head of
the kingdom, expected by that people, and reigning in their
midst, but a Savior Son of man, but of man lost without
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Him. Man was lost. e dierence between the Jew and
the Gentile disappeared before the total ruin which was
common to them, and before the salvation which was
coming in His person. According to this spirit of grace,
it was unsuitable to despise even the least important of
human beings. Salvation was there, and the little child was
of value in the eyes of God. God, who was giving His Son
for the lost, took account of children. He took an interest in
the happiness of men, and the child was not the least part
of it. e work of Christ was available for them; He had
come to save that which was lost. It is no question here of
bearing the sins of the guilty, but of the general principle of
the coming of the Savior. “ Lost “ speaks of our condition;
“ guilty,” of what we have done: we are all lost together;
everyone will give account of what he has done in the body.
Judgment relates to this latter point; bearing the sins of
many does also; but “ lost “ is the condition common to
all.
15
Now children under the benet of the work of Christ
are accepted of God; “ their angels continually behold the
face of my Father which is in heaven,” said the Lord: a
comforting passage, which gives us the happy assurance
that children who die when quite young go to be with the
Lord- the result of His work.
e Lord uses the image of the shepherd who seeks the
lost sheep, as in the case of other sinners. It is a question
here, not of bearing sins, but of saving the lost. As to
the condition of man, all are together lost; children, as a
condition before God, are the objects of His love; through
the work of Christ they can see His face. e Lord does not
15 It is the dierence, developed elsewhere, between Rom. 1:17;
to 5:11 on one side, and chapter 5: 12, to end of chapter 8 on
the other side.
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go farther than the fact of their position, through the work
that He has done according to grace. Small, and despised
by men (by the learned, great in their own eyes, but who
are, after all, of this world), God set great value on them.
ey had not yet learned the spirit of the age: evil itself,
in them, had not developed itself before the eyes of God;
there was simplicity and trust, so that, as a condition, they
were a model. Nevertheless the work of Christ is laid down
as the foundation of all. It is not man in his pretensions, it
is God in His grace, that we have before us.
e same principle of grace (v. 15) applies to the christian
walk in regard to wrongs which may have been done to
someone. Only what we have just been looking at spoke of
what concerned the individual and sin before God. In what
we are about to examine, we nd our relations one with
another, and along with that the assembly and discipline.
In what precedes we have seen what must characterize
the individual and the counsel of the Lord with regard to
the evil which would exist in the individual himself. We
have seen that man ought to be like a little child, and that,
having to do with God Himself in the light, evil should be
intolerable to him. He must put it away at all cost. With
others evil is not allowed, but the Christian must act in
grace. He warns his brother, if the latter has done him a
wrong; then he takes two or three witnesses with him, in
order that the facts may be conrmed, and that it may not be
mere personal recrimination without proofs, if the brother
does not yield to them. In this case, the complainant will
tell all to the assembly, and the witnesses are there; and
if the one who has done the wrong does not listen to the
assembly, the one who has suered is free to regard him as
a stranger to all common privileges. It is no question here
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of the discipline of the assembly. It may be that the one
who has done the wrong deserves to be put out, but what
the Lord regulates here is the conduct of the individual
who has suered the wrong. e rst object is to gain the
guilty brother. If one cannot do this, one must no longer
act of one’s own accord as judge of one’s own cause. e
facts must be conrmed, as well as the perverse will of the
individual, by others who have no interest in carrying their
own views; then the assembly intervenes with its authority.
Here we are entirely upon new ground. It is not a
question of Jehovah’s patience in grace with His people on
the earth, but of the conduct of those who have part in the
new privileges which ow from the new position taken by
the Son of man. Important principles are also brought out.
Authority resides in the assembly, the authority to bind and
to loose. e true apostolic succession is in the two or three
met in the name of Jesus. It is not in individual successors,
either of Peter or of the other apostles, but in the assembly,
that is found the spiritual authority sanctioned by heaven.
Let the wisdom of an apostle, if there is one, guide them: it
is none the less the assembly which judges as a last resource.
It is the assembly that must be listened to. In it is found
judicial authority- the power of binding and of loosing; and
the reason for this is given, namely, that, where two or three
are gathered to the name of Christ, He Himself is there.
e same principle applies to the requests one presents to
God. Where two or three agree to ask a thing, it is granted.
It is not individual will, nor a purely personal desire. e
two or three being gathered to the name of Jesus, Jesus is
there. e request is the fruit of a spiritual agreement, and
God answers the request. e value of Christ and the mind
of the Spirit are found there.
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is position of the two or three, and the relationship
in which grace has placed them in virtue of the name
and presence of Jesus, is evidently of all importance.
e privilege, which was given to Peter to establish the
kingdom upon earth, falls as a heritage to the two or three
truly gathered to the name of Jesus. ere, and there only,
is the divine sanction put upon what is done on earth. God
can, no doubt, sanction and guide an individual; but an
individual has not the authority which is conferred upon
the two or three thus gathered. e promise made to
the prayer of the two or three thus gathered to the name
of Jesus, and agreed as to what they wish to ask, is also
innitely precious. us placed, Christians dispose of the
power of God. It is a question of the things to which the
Spirit of God leads their thoughts by common agreement.
Now, for a soul which is sincere, and which seeks only the
will of God, to be assured of God’s power being employed
with that object, is a great favor. In what a blessed manner
this associates us with divine activity in love in the work
that this love wishes to do on earth! e basis on which
this favor is conrmed to us is equally precious. Jesus
Himself is present where two or three are gathered to His
name. What encouragement! Now that He is in heaven,
absent bodily, He is Himself present spiritually with those
who trust in Him here below. What an immense privilege
it is to feel that, until the Lord Jesus come to take us to
Himself, we may count on His presence in our midst when
we gather to His name!
e remainder of the chapter (v. 21) presents to us the
spirit in which a Christian must act with regard to the one
who may have oended him. It is no longer a question here
of the way traced higher up, if he refuse to acknowledge his
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wrong, but of the disposition of the Christian to forgive it
him, even if he should often repeat it. e Christian should
always forgive-should never get weary of showing grace
towards the one that may have oended him; for a man
might acknowledge his wrong, and yet repeat it. Ought
this always to continue, and the Christian always to be
ready to pardon? Yes, we must always act in grace. God
has pardoned us much more. In Luke 17 the repentance
of the one who has oended his brother is supposed. Here
the principle is that forgiveness- such a case occurring-
must always be granted. It is the christian spirit which is
established. I do not doubt, although the principle may
be universally established as a christian principle, that
allusion is made here to what happened to the Jews. God
in His ways with the nation having pardoned them the
crucixion of His Son, they would not have grace shown
towards the Gentiles, and were placed in consequence
under discipline, under punishment, until they shall have
paid the last farthing. It is not a question of expiation, nor
of an individual, but of the nation and of the government
of God.
CHAPTER 19.
Next the Pharisees raise the question of marriage, which
gives the Lord occasion to lay down some principles as the
basis of natural relationships, and of grace in the Christian;
then, at the same time, to bring out man’s true moral state
according to nature; and, nally, the consequences and the
principle of devotedness according to grace.
at which God ordered in the beginning is strictly
maintained. God created man, male and female; He united
the two to be but one esh, and this union is indissoluble
according to God. Sin may break the bond, but divorce is
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totally forbidden under any condition but that of the fact
by which the bond is thus already broken. It is God who
has formed this link; man has no right to break it. Since
then a power was come to work in man outside and above
nature, which can put him outside natural relationships,
it can take and endow him with energy in order to keep
him, apart from those relationships, for the service of the
kingdom. e relationship of marriage is fully recognized,
its holiness, its indissolubility; but God has taken possession
of man, so that he might be for Him. In His creation, that
is, God has made marriage; but the Holy Ghost, acting in
power, appropriates to Himself a man, who, from that time,
recognizes marriage, and yet does not marry for love of the
kingdom of God.
Next (v. 13) we have nature viewed on its beautiful side:
little children, and a young man of charming character. In
the Gospel of Mark we read, “ en Jesus, beholding him,
loved him “; but his heart had to be put to the proof. Little
children, with whom malice, falsehood, and the spirit of
the world were not yet in action, furnished the model of
what was suitable to the kingdom of heaven. e root
of evil, no doubt, was there; but it was the creature in its
simplicity and condence, things which the world despised,
and not will bearing fruits of wickedness and corruption.
us their character, being such, served as a model. e
dierence between the amiability of nature and the state
of the heart before God was to be shown in the case of the
young man. Irreproachable in his conduct, he sought the
Teacher, who appeared to his conscience able to give the
most excellent directions for well doing. He comes with
the thought that there is goodness in man, and in his eyes
goodness was manifested more in Jesus than anywhere else.
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He seeks His counsel as to how to gain eternal life by his
doings. He addresses the Lord as a man, a Rabbi, attracted
nevertheless by what he had seen in Him. He calls Him
good. e Lord stops him short, “ One only is good.” Now
the young man did not know Him as such. He had asked
what must be done, not to be saved, but to have eternal life.
e Lord reminds him of the commandments, the rule for
the man who wishes to have life through the law: “ is do,
and thou shalt live.”
Now the young man did not know himself, nor what the
law of God was in its holiness. He wanted to do in order
to gain eternal life. e Lord does not speak of eternal life;
He takes the young man on the ground of the law, which
promised life to those who fullled it. e young man,
irreproachable in his conduct, like Saul, and not knowing
the spirituality of the law, replies that he has kept the law
in everything the Savior speaks of. What lacked he yet? If
he would be perfect, he must sell that he had, and follow
Jesus. e state of his soul is at once made manifest. e
heart of the man, irreproachable in his morals, was under
the yoke of attachment to what he possessed. He leaves the
Lord sorrowful, his heart having been shown out in the
light which poor human nature can never endure. Nature,
however amiable it may be in its character, is morally
entirely at a distance from God. Here is an amiable young
man, seeking to do well, showing what is called the best
dispositions, with the means to do a great deal of good,
as soon as the light comes, convicted of being under the
dominion of an idol-of preferring his ease and his riches to
the One whom he knew to be good, to whom he had come
to seek direction as to the One who could best direct him.
His heart was entirely possessed by evil, by an idol.
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363
e Lord had already judged man, when declaring that
none was good save God Himself; nevertheless He goes
still farther. e disciples (astonished at such a result, and
at that which the Lord had said about riches, which, in the
eyes of a Jew, were the sign of the favor of God, and which,
at all events, furnished the opportunity for doing good
works) cry out, “ Who, then, can be saved? “ If none were
good, and if good dispositions, with the means of doing
good, were worth nothing, if these means were rather a
hindrance, who could be saved? e Savior’s answer is
categorical. If it was a question of man, no one. As far as
man is concerned, it is impossible; good is not in him. Man
is the slave of evil by his will and his lusts. But God is above
evil-He can save. It is evident that we are on an entirely
new ground-on the ground, not of a law which puts to
the proof, but of the truth itself which, while magnifying
what is created by God, declares the entire moral ruin of
man. God can save. is is the only resource. is is the
fundamental truth as to the natural man. Now let us see
what is the eect and the principle of grace, where it acted,
and where men had left all to follow the Lord.
e apostles had done what the Lord had invited the
young man to do; they had left all, and followed Jesus.
What should they receive? e Lord answers by turning
their eyes towards the kingdom established in glory. ey
would be on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
e Son of David, the Son of man, seated on the throne
of His glory, would have His princes over the twelve tribes,
judging them, and themselves also seated on thrones.
But He will be Son of man, and will have taken out of
His kingdom all things that oend, and them which do
iniquity; then princes shall rule in judgment. Isa. 32
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And not only the apostles, but every one that had
forsaken that which nature loves, which God Himself
owns in its place; everyone who should renounce himself
for Christ, renouncing also everything that was dear to
him, should have an hundredfold in reward, and inherit
eternal life. It is not a question of the special position of
Israel, as in the case of the twelve companions of Christ
at the time of His humiliation in Israel; but at all times,
in every place, he who should lose the present life for His
name’s sake should receive an hundredfold, and eternal life.
is is the principle, for we have already an hundredfold
down here, and afterward everlasting life. e Lord says
here, “ eternal life “; to the young man He only said, “ ou
shalt enter into life “; for the law had no formal promise of
eternal life, it only said, “ is do, and thou shalt live.” Life
and incorruptibility have been brought to light through the
gospel; God had promised it before the world began, but in
due times manifested His word through the preaching of
the apostle (Titus 1:2, 3). Eternal life is twice mentioned in
the Old Testament (Psa. 133; Dan. 12), but the two passages
refer to, the millennium. No doubt there were facts, such as
those of Enoch, of Elijah, and passages like Psa. 16, which
gave ground for that belief which the Pharisees had rightly
received. e Sadducees had known neither the scriptures
nor the power of God. But the passage which the Savior
quotes shows how obscurely this doctrine was revealed, save
for a spiritual eye. Christ was the eternal life come down
from heaven (1 John 1). With Him, and specially after
His death, it was fully manifested. is already takes place
here: one renounces the good things of life here below for
oneself; one receives an hundredfold, and inherits eternal
life. When He says, inherits, He turns our eye towards
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that which is properly eternal. I have already said one may
have an hundredfold here below, even with persecutions, as
Mark says; but then the inheritance surely is not limited
to this world, and the eternal life, although we possess it
already down here, belongs to another world, and never
ends. e Lord here reveals it clearly, while carrying our
thoughts to new things, and declaring that this denial of
oneself should bring advantages a hundred times greater.
ere was a danger, as did not fail to happen, that man
might think of a kind of bargain with God: so much labor
and sacrice, and a proportionate recompense. Wretched
principle! but which man is quite capable of inventing. e
Lord therefore adds verse 30, that many rst should be last,
and last should be rst.
CHAPTER 20.
Chapter 20: 1-16 shows, to explain it, that, while
recompensing each sacrice faithfully according to His
goodness, God is sovereign in what He gives; and that if
He judges good, He can nd the occasion of giving to those
who, in man’s estimate, might not have labored so much,
the same reward as to those who wished to gain according
to their labor. e rst workman has for principle so much
labor for so much pay; the others betake themselves to the
good will of the Lord of the vineyard. You shall receive
what is just; and grace recompenses beyond all desert of
labor. Such is the great principle of all true service rendered
to the Lord. ere is the principle in question, and the nal
phrase (v. 16) refers to what was said at the beginning: “
So the last shall be rst, and the rst last.” It is the inverse,
however, of what is said (chap. 19: 30) at the beginning
of the parable, where this sentence refers to the thought
of man, “ What shall we have therefore? “ whilst the nal
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phrase refers to the thought of God who takes pleasure in
blessing, according to the riches of His grace and power,
according to His goodness. It is always thus in every case.
e workman shall receive according to his labor, as that
happened to the rst that was called. God gives according
to His goodness and His grace. ere had not been a refusal
to the invitations among the last (v. 6, 7): God called them
when the moment that pleased Him arrived.
In the last words by which He closes the parable, the
Savior establishes in a formal manner this principle of
grace. Many are called, but few chosen. is principle is
laid down as the foundation of all for many. We nd the
same principle in chapter 22: 14, where it is also laid down
as the basis of all. A single man furnishes the example of it.
A mass of people unite under the standard of Christianity,
giving themselves up to the call of God; a small number
only among them comes under the inuence of the word
of God, and is the fruit of it. It is this sovereign grace which
is the true and only source of all blessing. Here the Lord,
after having spoken of the operation of this grace in the
parable, lays it down in an abstract way as the basis of all.
ere are yet some other moral traits of deep interest
which relate to this in connection with the Savior’s
humiliation (v. 17-28). e Lord warns His disciples on
the way to Jerusalem, that He must be condemned to death
by the Jewish authorities, and delivered to the Gentiles, but
that He will rise again the third day.
e sons of Zebedee (v. 20) raise the question, which is
that of the whole Gospel we are studying, but in a thoroughly
selsh spirit. ey think, for they believe in Jesus as the
Messiah, of the immediate establishment of the kingdom,
since the King was there and they would wish to possess
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367
the most exalted places in it-to sit on the right hand and
on the left of the King. But God was thinking of things of
a very dierent character of excellence which also belonged
to the moral state of man and his relations with God; now
God was revealed in Jesus. ere, moreover, is the key to
the Lord’s history-the Messiah in fact, was there-this King
announced in the promises and prophecies. Now, after the
esh, the Jews were the children of the kingdom and the
heirs of the promises. But the revelation of God, necessary
to the accomplishment of these promises, revealed the
hatred of the human heart against God, and this the more
that the revelation was being accomplished in humiliation
by the grace that saves. Had He come in judgment, all
should have been taken away. He came then in grace. “
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them.”
Farther, there was need of expiation, without which no
sin could have been forgiven. Always, whatever might be
the grace in which God was there, it was always God, and
man would have none of it; and Jesus, the true Messiah, in
whom all the promises were Yea and Amen, found Himself
rejected. But God in His divine wisdom made use of this
hatred to accomplish expiation, absolutely necessary to
save any one whomsoever, or for Israel itself to be blessed;
showing thus the state of man’s heart with respect to God,
and opening at the same time the door of salvation to the
Gentiles.
us the Son of man (a far wider title than that of
Messiah, since it embraces all the rights of Christ in the
counsels of God) was to suer, to be rejected and put to
death, then to arise from among the dead in order to lay
the foundation of the eternal blessing of man and even
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the temporal blessing of Israel, on the assured basis of
the atoning work which Christ was about to accomplish.
ese things could only be accomplished according to the
power of an altogether new position- beyond death, the
power of the enemy, and the wrath of God, according to
the position of man risen, fruit of a work accomplished and
approved by God, and a proof of divine power; a position
consequently unchangeable, and not a blessing dependent
on the responsibility of man, under which all was called
in question, as in the case of Adam, who, in fact, failed in
it. Here the blessing was to rest on a work in which God
was about to be perfectly gloried. He has been, in fact,
put to the proof-this gracious Savior, but only to manifest
His perfect faithfulness and obedience, whatever besides
may have been the depth of His suerings. But then He
must drink the cup; the cross was His lot. Not only so, but
His disciples must follow Him in that path. A victorious
Messiah would place His own on thrones of judgment,
but with a Savior dying on the cross, all that must, for the
moment, be laid aside. He must rst accomplish a work of
far dierent character of glory, and open to His disciples
(with regard to what would result from it here below) a
pathway like His own. ey must follow it; there was the
path which He Himself trod, and which He was tracing
for them to follow Him. e two disciples (their hearts
lled with carnal desire of greatness, their spiritual sight
wholly obscured by the thought of Messiah’s earthly reign,
and only looking at human glory) ask of Jesus the favor of
sitting on His right and on His left in the kingdom of their
desires. But, as in many other circumstances, the folly of
the esh is only an occasion for the Savior to bring to light
the thought of the Spirit.
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In the world this kind of greatness was doubtless met
with everywhere; but this was not Christianity. He who
seeks to be great, and to take the lead among Christians,
has entirely falsied the christian character. He will be the
last of all; and the true way of having the highest place is to
serve, considering oneself as the slave of the wants of other
disciples. It was so that Jesus had done; He was not come
to be ministered to in this world but to minister, and to
give His life a ransom for many. A lesson simple and clear
indeed, but of all importance! e seeking for personal
exaltation is only the selshness of the esh, the spirit of
the world which is enmity against God. Love delights to
serve-this is what Christ did; pride and selshness love to
be served, and to take precedence of others.
In reading of such instructions, we are evidently
beyond the idea of a Messiah come to reign, and we nd
ourselves in the thoughts of a God of love; in presence of
the revelation of grace and the Word made esh, of Him
who emptied Himself, who humbled Himself, and who is
now exalted. is passage is so much the more important
because it terminates all the history of the Lord except His
last days at Jerusalem. All His life of service ends here, and
these words impress an indelible character on this blessed
life, chewing us solemnly, and in a manner as touching as it
is powerful, what ought to be the character of our own-to
serve in love, and, as far as this world is concerned, to be
content to be nothing, while following in the footsteps of
our precious Savior. Oh that His own may learn this lesson
in which the esh could have no part whatever, but which
gives us the joy of nding ourselves following Jesus, where
puried from selshness, our eyes may contemplate the
beauty of that which is heavenly, and where we enjoy the
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brightness of God’s face; where, in a word, the life of Jesus
in us, enjoys that which belongs peculiarly to Himself.
In the rst evangelists, those called Synoptic, the
account of the last days of the Savior commences here.
en in order to present Himself for the last time to the
Jews, He resumes the character of Son of David. Would
Jerusalem yet receive her king?
We may here indicate briey the dierence between
those three evangelists and John. e three are historic:
they relate to us the life and the ministry of Jesus from three
dierent points of view: as Emmanuel the Messiah, as the
Prophet servant, and as Son of man in grace. Moreover, in
these evangelists, His service is accomplished entirely in
Galilee, in the midst of the poor of the ock. e result is
that He is rejected; but He is presented to men in order that
they may receive Him. ey will have none of Him, but He
is there for them. We have already seen that, while there
as prophet and Son of David, He manifested God in this
world. If man, or Israel, had received the Son of David, Son
of man in grace, they could only receive Him with all the
divine features which were peculiar to Him; consequently
they could not but bow before the manifestation of that
which was divine. It could not be otherwise, for God was
there. is is what man did not wish.
In the Gospel of John He is presented at the outset as
God Himself, and consequently as already rejected, as He
is seen in chapter 1: 10, 11. e Jews from the beginning,
and throughout the whole of this Gospel, are treated as
reprobates. e necessity of the divine work in its two
parts, the new birth and the cross, is asserted. Election and
the sovereign action of grace, and its absolute necessity for
salvation, are brought out everywhere. No one can come
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to Jesus, unless the Father, who hath sent Him, draw him.
His sheep receive eternal life and shall never perish. In this
Gospel nearly all takes place at Jerusalem except what is
related in the last chapter.
Let us remember that Jesus presents to the heart of His
own the spirit in which they must walk in this world as the
spirit in which the Savior Himself walked; He, the Lord
of all, meek and lowly in heart, serving the others by love.
e Lord, going out of Jericho (v. 29), accepts from the
blind men the title which He bears in relation to Israel,
to whom also He is about to present Himself for the last
time as having a right to this title. “ Have mercy on us, O
Son of David,” say the blind men. Not lending Himself to
the impatience of the world which would not occupy itself
with the misery of the blind men, the Lord stops to heal
them; and they follow the Son of David, a clear testimony
rendered to the reality of His title. But He presents Himself
here too as the “ Lord,” that is, as Jehovah Himself.
CHAPTER 21.
Arrived at Bethpage, near Bethany, He sends two of
His disciples to the village, where they should nd an
ass and its foal, in order to His sitting thereon, and thus
entering the city of Jerusalem, which was near. Prophecy
had announced this fact: “ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King
cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation [or,
saving himself; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a
colt the foal of an ass.” Remark, however, that these words,
“ just and saving himself,”
16
are omitted here. He was rst
16 e Hebrew phrase is a little hard to render grammatically,
but the sense is, bringing with Him salvation by the power of
God.
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to come in humiliation; later He, the true King of Israel,
should the with power, bringing with Him the deliverance
of people.
Notwithstanding, though in humiliation, He acts
already with royal and divine authority, and God disposes
hearts to own Him. e owners of the ass let it go at the
demand of the disciples. In the Gospel of Luke we nd
more details; here we have the fact that He acts as King.
e crowd, under the divine inuence, recognize Him
also as such, and He enters, in the midst of this triumphal
procession, into the holy city, accompanied by the cry,
Hosanna to the Son of David. All the city was moved, and
the multitude said, “ is is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth.”
Now that He is owned prophet and king (His priesthood
was to be accomplished elsewhere), the hand of Jehovah
displays itself clearly. It was not then the testimony which
failed in the heart of the people. e Lord exercises His
authority in purifying the temple, profaned by the trading
which took place there, and which provided for the wants
of those who had need of animals for their sacrices. is
trac brought in with it another, that of money-changers.
ey had made the house of God a den of thieves. Matthew
only cites the passage. It was the house of His Father, but
such is not the point of view presented here. He is the
King, Emmanuel; also His power is manifested in grace;
He heals the blind and the lame.
All this provokes the hatred of the chiefs of Israel, who
express their sore displeasure. e Lord quotes to them
Psa. 8, which reveals to us the Son of man, according to the
counsels of Jehovah, when the Messiah is rejected of Israel.
It is well to remark the two citations in verses 9 and 16. e
rst is taken from a psalm constantly cited by the Lord and
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373
His apostles, which reveals the restoration of Israel in the
last days, when they shall own Him whom they pierced.
(Psa. 118:25, 26). Hosanna means, Save now, or Save, I pray
thee. Other verses of this psalm are frequently cited. Psa.
8 presents the position of the Son of man, all things being
put under His feet, when (in Psa. 2, which shows Him King
in Israel and Son of man) He has been rejected, but with
the declaration on the part of Jehovah that He will be King
in Zion, spite of Israel and the world, which is invited-at
least its chiefs-to bow before Him. (Compare John 1:49,
50 Matt. 16:20, followed by chap. 17; Luke 9:20-22.) Now
(v. 17) the Lord wishes no more of Jerusalem; He quits it,
goes to Bethany, and there passes the night.
e g-tree (v. 18-22) represents, I have no doubt at all,
Israel, or man under the covenant of the law, who is judged
denitively and forever. ere was nothing but a ne
appearance, without fruit, and there never should be any
more on that footing. But the Lord takes occasion of the
fact, that at His word the g-tree withered forthwith away,
to skew His disciples the eect of faith in them from the
time it was found there. All diculties should disappear.
Not only would Israel under the law wither away, but all
the worldly power which raised itself against them should
disappear under the waters of the judgment of God.
In verse 23 the Jewish authorities raise the question
of that of Jesus, the usual way with those who ocially
possess authority, when God is acting outside of them by
His spiritual power. e Lord, in His divine wisdom, does
not contest ocial authority in its sphere, but He presents
a case which went to put its value fully to the proof.
Divine power does not want authorization, and it had fully
manifested itself; but Jesus answers as in humiliation, and
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morally, as we can always do with His aid, if we cannot
manifest this power outwardly. At any rate God does not
work miracles to satisfy incredulity. e Lord proves, by
their own confession, their incapacity to form a judgment
on what was done on God’s part. John wrought no miracles.
e baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? If it
was from heaven, John had borne witness to Jesus, and why
did they not believe? But they were afraid, because of the
people, to answer, “ Of men.” “ We cannot tell,” said they.
How, then, pretend to judge of the mission of Jesus? But
now they have to be judged in their turn, as well as all the
sections of the Jewish people.
In all this part of the Gospel, Christ being rejected, the
present time thenceforward is bound up, without interval,
with His second coming in judgment, as we have seen it in
the citations from Zech. 9, Psa. 2; 8; 118 Only the Lord lays
down, quite from the rst, the character of this rejection.
In verses 28-32 He proposes to them the case of the
two sons: the rst saying, I will not go, but afterward going;
the second answering, I go, sir, but not going. Such was
the pretended obedience of the Jews, whilst poor sinners
repented of their sins and followed Christ. His interlocutors
owned that it was the rst of the two sons that did the will
of his father. e Lord applies the case to them, and adds
that, though they had seen the repentance of others, they
did not repent one whit more.
en, in verse 33, He sets out their history in the parable
of the vineyard let to the husbandmen. e vineyard had
been carefully put in order, and hedged round about. e
owner sends his servants to receive his share of the fruits.
Such were the prophets; but they were persecuted and
killed, as Stephen too accused the Jews in Acts 7. Last of all
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375
he sent his son. But man [the Jew], with all the advantages
he could enjoy on God’s part, would have the world-
the religious world, if you will-without the Son of God,
without God and His authority, for he who has not the Son
has not the Father. e husbandmen cast Him out of the
vineyard, and kill Him. e Jews said that such miscreants
ought to perish miserably. en the Lord quotes the same
Psalm (118), already mentioned in the earlier part: “ Did
ye never read in the scriptures e stone which the builders
rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this
is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? “ e
kingdom was taken from them, and given to those who
should bring forth the fruits thereof.
en (v. 44) the Lord makes the dierence between the
eect of the judgment which should befall them, and that
which should happen in the last days. ey should fall on
the stone of stumbling, and be broken; whereas those on
whom it should fall in judgment should be crushed, and
ground to powder.
Having heard these words, the chief priests and
Pharisees perceived that He spoke of them; but they were
held back by the fear they already had of the mind of the
multitude; for these regarded Him as a prophet.
What a solemn testimony the mouth of the Lord
renders here of the crisis through which the human race
was then passing, through which the soul passes still,
when Jesus is announced! He who stumbles against the
stone is ruined; but the Lord will come in judgment of His
adversaries, who will be overwhelmed by the power of His
advent in glory. e rebellious authority which rejects the
truth is always feeble, and depends on the opinion of the
world. A bad conscience is always feeble. He who has the
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truth and faith can say the truth; he is in the hands of God,
and knows it. Let us remember that the world in which we
live has rejected the Son of God. e gospel says to man
on God’s part, What have you done with My Son? What
can he answer? God announces grace with long-suering,
until His longsuering would be useless; but the world is
judged, having not only sinned and violated the law when
it had the law, but rejected God Himself come in grace.
Not only has man been driven out of the earthly paradise,
a world (so to speak) which God had created around Him,
but, as far as it depended on man, he has driven God from
this world outside, which sin and lusts had formed around
man. He drove out God, when His love brought Him here
below, where He was delivering man every day from all the
evils which sin had introduced into the world. Man does
not want God; he will not have Him at any price.
CHAPTER 22.
e parable of the husbandmen refers to the
responsibility of man, even when it treated of Christ’s
coining. Now the Lord proceeds to speak of the ways of
God in grace toward Israel and also toward the Gentiles.
In the preceding parable it was a question of seeking fruit
as God was doing in Israel. Here a king makes a marriage-
feast for his son, and invites the guests to the feast. Remark
also that it is a likeness of the kingdom of the heavens (v.
2), whilst in the preceding parable they were seeking the
fruits according to a xed measure of obligation, that is, the
law, though this were by the ministry of the prophets and
the Son, without the kingdom being in question.
ose rst invited were the Jews, and of course also
during the lifetime of Christ (v. 3). Afterward, when all
things were ready He sent once more His servants-the
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377
apostles after His death-to invite them to the wedding-
feast (v. 4); but they made light of it. We nd here the two
characters of men: the pre-occupied whose interest is in
the world, and who do not trouble themselves about the
Lord; and the violent who persecute His messengers (v.
5, 6). Luke, as is so often the case when moral things are
treated of, enters more into detail, whilst for the other part
he recounts in few words a crowd of incidents which do not
make a moral picture. Luke 1 say, enters more into details
for the purpose of showing what excuses men present for
neglecting Christ; then he gives us to see the Lord seeking
in grace the poor despised ones of Israel when the chiefs
would not have the Messiah.
Here we have the great historical fact that Jerusalem
and the Jews as such would not have anything to do with
Him and would persecute those that are His, bringing on
themselves as they have done the judgment of God and
ruin.
Afterward He causes them to seek out the Gentiles,
sinners where they are, and the guest-chamber of the
wedding-feast is lled with people. But then comes a
judgment which is exercised with regard to all these guests.
We have only one example here, but this to lay down
the principle. Christendom gathered by the message of
the gospel is the object of God’s judgment according to
the nature of the invitation which has been made. For a
wedding-feast there must be a wedding garment. One
must have put on Christ to have part in His joy.
We nd here too another principle important and
worthy of remark, a principle which ows from the form
of the parable: the judgment is an individual judgment.
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Here is that which I would say. e rst part of this
parable, of which the subject is grace, brings judgment
on the Jews, who had despised the invitation of the King
acting in grace and summoning them to the feast, who
had evil-entreated the messengers, and who, following
up their refusal to render Him the fruits of the vineyard,
had outraged His servants the prophets, and nally laid
their hands on His only Son and put to death His beloved.
But at the end of the parable, when, the invitation having
been sent on all sides, the house was lled with guests,
though Christendom be cut o like Judaism, another sort
of judgment is revealed to us, an individual judgment,
in which it is a question of knowing if the individual is
in a state which suits the privileges he enjoys. It is not a
question of the destruction of a city and of the nationality
of God’s earthly people, of an exterior judgment which
closes the economy, the existence of the nation under
the old covenant, all the Jewish system. It is a question of
knowing whether the state of him who is present at the
feast suits the marriage supper of the Son, of the great
King: if not, whilst the feast continues, the individual unt
for the marriage-supper is cast into outer darkness where
is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
e principle established, one sees that it applies alas! to
many: many are called, but few chosen.
e parable of the husbandmen is the history of Judaism
up to the rejection and the crucixion of Christ; that of the
marriage-feast is the history of the reception of the gospel,
rst by the Jews, then by the Gentiles, with that which
results from the exterior participation in that grace, and
the sorting which takes place in the very bosom of those
privileges.
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379
In resuming the order of the thoughts from chapter 20:
29 we have seen thus far: the presentation of Jesus as Son
of David at Jerusalem; the state of the Jews laid down as to
the fact in the parable of the two sons; their judgment as
a nation in the parable of the vineyard, a judgment which
besides had been already described in the g-tree become
dried up.
Here it is useful to draw attention to the dierence
between these two cases. In the two it is Israel without fruit,
judged and set aside; but in the case of the g-tree it is Israel
in fact, such as the Savior found them: plenty of leaves, a
fair appearance, but no fruit answering to what the Savior
was seeking, to what His heart wanted; also the judgment
has another and more profound character. e tree was
bad; human nature under the culture of God Himself was
worth nothing. On His entrance into this world there was
on the Savior’s path but one people which had enjoyed this
culture; it was Israel-man having all the advantages which
man could have as placed on his responsibility here below.
Now man according to the esh is condemned; never will
he bear fruit: it is all over with him.
e parable of the husbandmen attaches itself rather to
the nation, as sphere of the ways of God, an economy on
the earth; not human nature under the law, but the chiefs
of the nation to whom the vineyard of God had been
conded. God had had long patience; He was seeking
fruits which were due to Him; and His messengers, His
servants, had been dishonored, ill-treated, and even killed.
ere was one thing more that God could do, and He did
it; He sent His Son. e husbandmen cast Him out of the
vineyard and killed Him; they must undergo the judgment
they had deserved. It is not the incurable evil, the esh
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380
which cannot please God, which perishes before His eyes;
it is an exterior and terrible judgment falling on the nation
which, notwithstanding all the patience of God displayed
toward it in its long career, has crowned its iniquity by
rejecting and crucifying His Son. is people suers the
public judgment of God; it is a body ruined, broken in
consequence of its sin; it will be ground to powder (save
the small remnant God has reserved for Himself) when
in the last days it will be found an adversary and apostate.
After this parable we have the kingdom of the heavens,
the grace which Israel equally rejects, but which, being
spread far and wide, lls the house with guests, Gentiles
as well as Jews. Here we nd also judgment, but bearing
on the question whether the individual is suitable for the
position in which he is found.
Now after these great principles, after these features
which give us the situation, all classes of the Jews, each in
its turn come to be judged, just when they thought they
were to cast divine wisdom into perplexity by questions it
could not answer; for they believed themselves wise and
thought they had to do with a poor unlettered Galilean.
How blind this world, and religious men; and how wicked
the heart of man! e Lord is in their midst in grace, and
these men, the one as much as the other, would show that
He is in the wrong!
First (v. 15), the Pharisees gather together and
take counsel together, seeking to entangle Him in His
words. ey hold strongly themselves to the Jewish self-
government, as being the people of Jehovah who were not to
be subject to the Gentiles. e Herodians, on the contrary,
attached themselves to Herod’s dynasty, representing the
imperial power of Rome which had placed him there as a
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381
subordinate king. ey thought that, if Jesus acknowledged
the Roman authority, He would lose in the eyes of the
people His character of Messiah who was to deliver them
from that yoke; if He rejected that authority, they might
denounce Him to the civil power. It was of small moment
to them that they should be inconsistent, if they could only
get rid of God and His truth. e bitterest foes become
friends to rid themselves of Christ. As Herod and Pilate,
Pharisees and Herodians, Pharisees and Sadducees, all the
world agree for that. e Pharisees and the Herodians came
then together to question Him, and ask, while attering
Him for His integrity, if, yes or no, one ought to pay tribute
to Caesar. e Lord, perceiving clearly their hypocrisy,
points it out to them; then He asks them to show Him
the current money with which they paid the tribute in the
country. Whose image and superscription did this piece
bear? ey say to Him, Caesar’s. Render then, said He,
to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and to God the
things which are God’s. God had subjected the Jews for
their sins to the Gentiles; they should own His hand and
submit to this yoke, until God according to His promise
should free them from it.
Meanwhile they should render to God the things which
are God’s. ey were doing neither the one nor the other.
Rebels against God in all their ways, they were constantly
rising against the Romans. Astonished at the Lord’s answer,
they leave Him to go their way.
e same day the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection,
came to submit to Him the case of a woman who, according
to the law of Moses, had had seven husbands. Whose wife
of the seven, demand they, should she be at the time of the
resurrection? Here a fundamental truth was in question:
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also the Lord’s answer is formal and precise. To put the
resurrection in question was to be ignorant of the scriptures
and of the power of God. Death did not terminate the
existence of man. If God was the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, and of Jacob, He was not the God of those who did
not exist. All live for Him, if they are dead for men; and,
though life and incorruption are only brought to light by
the gospel, the Old Testament suced to show that God
had been, and was, and would be, the God of the faithful,
in order that they should be with Him, not only as souls
but as men, soul and body, even as He had made them;
only risen, a thing necessary after death. When God said,
I am the God of Abraham, Abraham was a man living
for Him and was to be raised. But the Lord treats also
the positive side of the question. In the resurrection all is
changed: it is no question either of marrying or of giving
in marriage; one is as the angels of God in heaven. It is not
the question here of the position one may be found in, but
of the character in which one subsists. e resurrection is a
foundation of the gospel. Our faith is vain if Christ is not
risen: a thing evidently true, for if man rises not, Christ
Himself is not risen. He is then dead also without remedy
or answer; He is vanquished, not victor. e Sadducees are
put to silence, and the two great sects of the Jews have
nothing more to say.
But the Lord having done what the Pharisees,
adversaries of the Sadducees, could not do, the curiosity of
the Pharisees is excited, and they were gathered together (v.
34). One among them questions the Lord; but his demand
has for result that Jesus lays the true foundation of the law
and the prophets, and then establishes clearly the situation
of things, the question of the moment, as God regarded it.
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383
Which, asks the lawyer, is the great commandment in the
law? A question much debated among the Jews, for whom
each commandment had a special value, the observance of
each of them gaining, as in an examination, so many good
marks from God. e Lord seizes the occasion, oered in
the ways of God, to establish the fundamental principles
of the divine law. To love God with all the heart, such is
the rst commandment. e second is like it, ou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. All in man hung on these two
things. It is the summary of what man ought to be, the root
and the measure of human righteousness. It is not in any
way a revelation of divine love; it is not at all a question of
grace, nor of an open way for the sinner to come to God;
but it is the perfect rule of what a man should be, a divine
compendium of the substance of the law, the law on which
the prophets insisted in seeking to recall the people to its
observance.
Now all changes. In His turn Christ questions them.
He had been clear and positive as to the resurrection, clear
and positive as to the essence and the foundation of the
law that man should have kept (and in keeping it he would
have enjoyed the life of God; but he is a sinner). Now He
presents to them the question, grave and decisive for them,
of the judgment they formed on Christ and thus on His
own person. What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?
ey say to Him, David’s. How then, says Jesus to them,
does David in Spirit call Him Lord? saying, e LORD
said to my Lord, Sit ou on My right hand till I make
ine enemies y footstool? is is what was going to
happen. He was about to quit the position of Son of David
on earth, Heir of the promises made to the Jews, to take
His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. No one
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384
could answer Him a word, and from that day no one dared
to ask Him any more questions. All was closed between the
Jewish people and the Lord, save alas! to put in execution
the thoughts of hatred which they had in their heart.
CHAPTER 23.
Without speaking of the instruction it contains, this
chapter is important because it shows the manner in which
this Gospel moves in the relations of God with Israel,
whilst indicating the judgment which the people were
drawing on themselves by the rejection of the Messiah.
We nd here, rst the position of the disciples in the
midst of the Jews, as long as God would endure these
last, and that which, in this respect, suited the servants of
Jesus; then the iniquity and the hypocrisy of the scribes
and the Pharisees; lastly the love and sovereign grace of
Jesus, grace which overows and displays what He is, even
when He is announcing judgment. Hence all this part of
the Gospel is bound up with the ways of God in relation
with His earthly people, as the then moment when all that
was passing is bound up with the last days. All connects
itself with the Jews of that time and with the relation of
the disciples with this people, and thence passes to the last
times, leaving the church aside, save that the mention of
the last times introduces necessarily the responsibility of
those who replace the Jews as servants of the Lord during
His absence, and nally the judgment of the Gentiles.
e disciples are left by the Lord in the relation with the
Jewish chiefs in which they were then found and up to the
judicial rejection of the people at the time of the destruction
of Jerusalem. e Savior places them in the same category
as the multitude. All were subjected to the authority of
the scribes and the Pharisees. ese were seated in Moses’
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seat; and one ought to hear them as to injunctions which
they drew from the law given by his means. Nevertheless
one must carefully guard against following their walk: they
were hypocrites who spoke and did not act. ey made
the law very strict for others and very light for themselves;
they loved to appear before men with the forms of piety to
acquire a religious reputation; they sought the rst places
in the synagogues, salutations in the public places, and to
be called Rabbi, making themselves esteemed in the eyes
of the world by religion.
e spirit of the disciples was to be the opposite of all
that. ey were not to be called Rabbi, for Christ alone
was their Master, and they were brethren; they were not
any more to call others by the name of father, for one only
was their Father, He who is in the heavens; nally they
were not to be called teachers, for Christ alone was He
who taught them. He who would be great in their midst
was to be their servant, for whoever exalted himself on
earth would be abased, and he who abased himself would
be exalted. is is just what Christ has done, whilst man,
having wished to exalt himself and be as God, has been
abased and will be yet more in facing the judgment of God.
(Compare Phil. 2.)
Afterward (v. 13) the Lord denounces the scribes and
the Pharisees, those religious doctors of the day, putting His
nger on the dierent traits of iniquity which characterized
them. ey shut up the kingdom of heaven before men,
and would neither enter nor let others enter; for religious
doctors always oppose the entry of the truth into other
hearts. eir life was a life of hypocrisy. ey sought to
prot through their religious character by the purse of
those whose weakness exposed them to their artices. ey
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made long prayers. ey would be proportionately severe.
ey showed (v. 15) a prodigious zeal for their religion, but
they made their proselytes morally worse than themselves.
ey proposed the subtleties of casuists and neglected the
essential things of the law of God. Exact as to the minutia
of the tithes demanded by the law of Moses, they neglected
justice, mercy, and faith, all that which was really important
in the eyes of God. ey washed the outside, and within
they were full of rapine and unrighteousness. Hypocrites!
they used to build the tombs of the prophets and were
sure that, had they lived in the time of their fathers, they
would not have imbrued their hands in the blood of those
messengers of God. ey testied thus to being sons of
their fathers. Well! let them ll up the measure of their
fathers.
Never did the Lord accuse any as those whom we may
call the clergy of His time, those who, under religious forms,
were the great obstacle to the success of His work here
below. Serpents, ospring of vipers, said He, how should
you escape the judgment of Gehenna? e meek and lowly
Savior, He who had begun His career by describing the
character of those who should be blessed, closed it, rejected
by the religion of the world and of forms, by describing the
hypocrisy and unrighteousness of those who were opposed
to the blessing of their neighbors; and He has done it with
severity so much the more terrible as it was the mouth of
love and peace which expressed itself thus.
Such is the starting-point of these burning words
which put in light, as He could do it, the true character
of the religion which will not have the truth. At least, said
they, they would not have taken part in the persecution
nor in the death of those who brought the message of
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God. But God had His eye on them; they would be put
to the proof in that respect. Christ, for it was the Lord
Himself who judged them thus, would send prophets, wise
men, and scribes (which He did after having ascended on
high); whom they would persecute, kill, scourge in the
synagogues, to maintain religion intact, but (it is God
who pronounces the judgment) in order that the righteous
bloodshed on the earth since Abel up to Zechariah might
come on the generation on which God had bestowed His
last and greatest boon, and which had also shown in the
highest degree the perversity and the iniquity of man. We
know, according to Rev. 18:24, that it will be just so with
Christendom under its Babylonish form.
e very solemn point which is here put in evidence
is that iniquity accumulates. e patience of God waits,
and not only that, but it employs all means to recall to
sincerity and to Himself those who possess the truth and
who have at least its form. e most touching appeals, the
most energetic warnings, the condescension which makes
use of reasonings almost from equal to equal, all this is
rendered useless by the obstinacy of men in despising grace
and in practicing iniquity. Finally, when God has exhausted
all His means of calling to repentance, then comes the
judgment that this divine patience had suspended. It is at
last brought in by sin accumulated from age to age, and by
the hardness of heart which has grown with the despite
done to divine warnings and to grace.
Nevertheless grace overows from the heart of the
Savior who speaks here in His divine character. Nothing
more touching than the complaints of His grief in
apostrophizing Jerusalem, which would neither receive His
appeals nor come to be guarded and sheltered under the
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wings of divine love. e city is just characterized by the
persecution of all the messengers of God; and how often
He would have gathered her children together, as a hen her
chickens under her wings! But now He Himself come in
love is rejected, and “ your house “ (for He does not call it
His) “ is left unto you desolate “-not forever, be it noted, for
the gifts and calling of God are indefeasible, but desolate-
till the repentance of the people manifested in the desire to
see and to salute Him who had been promised according
to Psa. 118, so often cited in connection with those days
and the return of the Savior. is was what the children
had cried in chapter 21, a testimony willed of God and
produced by His power, when the people would not have
their Messiah, true Son of David. e iniquity of the people,
set under their responsibility, was come to its height; but
Jehovah, according to His sovereign grace and according to
His faithfulness, will come again in power as Deliverer, at
least for the repentant remnant, when the iniquity of years,
in this case as in all others, will have wrought the blessing
of Israel according to God’s promises, an act of pure grace
and mercy towards children of wrath (Rom. 11:29-32).
CHAPTER 24.
at which precedes shows how in all this we have the
Jewish people under our eyes. What follows is the history
of the Jews, or rather that of the testimony of the servants
of Christ in the midst of the Jews, in the interval which
separates the rejection of the Messiah, here in question,
and His return in glory. ey are still-or anew-in Palestine;
not yet delivered nor publicly owned of Jehovah, but under
His hand in chastening, if it is a question of those who
are under the inuence of His grace and of His word, and
nally in judgment against those who cast themselves into
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the arms of Antichrist. is statement comes very naturally
following up the testimony of the last verses of chapter 23,
and is connected, as to its contents, with that which is there
said.
e Lord quits the temple, now forsaken in judgment
up to His return, and sits on the mount of Olivet, separated
by the valley of the brook of Cedron from the lofty plateau
on which the temple was seen in all grandeur.
e disciples approach to draw His attention to the
beauty of the majestic building. e Lord does not seek
to turn away their eyes from the object which was pre-
occupying them, but He foretells the complete destruction
of what seemed to be the indestructible palace of their
religion, necessary in fact for the accomplishment of the
duties which it imposed, and the compulsory place for the
oerings which were the only means of putting the people
in relationship with God. All was about to be destroyed,
from top to bottom; and their religion and all their relations
with God, according to the ancient covenant which had to
do with the temple, would be entirely abolished with it.
As far as it depended on the responsibility of man, the
departure of the Savior left the temple void of its God.
e disciples ask Him when these things should come
to pass, and what would be the sign of His coming and of
the end of the age. ey mean the end of the age of the law
by the arrival of the Messiah, that is to say, of Jesus in glory,
for the Jews acknowledged “ this age,” that is to say, the
age of the law, and “ the age of the Messiah,” which should
terminate it.
Let us examine the answer of the Lord. It is divided
into two parts. e rst (v. 4-14) gives a general sketch of
their position, and of what would go on to the end. e
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second (v. 15-21) presents the picture, the application of
which is the development of Dan. 12
is chapter, indeed, of the prophet announces the
great tribulation through which Jerusalem will pass in the
last times, a tribulation that has no parallel in the history
of the world; after which the Savior will appear for the
deliverance of His own, and to gather together from the
four quarters of the earth the dispersed of Israel, that is to
say, the elect of that people. e Lord occupies Himself
more particularly with those who would be witnesses to
His name, whilst describing the condition of things which
so closely aected them. He leaves out of the question the
church and all relating to it, and speaks of witnesses among
the Jews, whom He warns against false Christs.
Now that the true Christ had been rejected, the people
would fall a prey to these impostors, and many would be
deceived. ere would also be wars, and rumors of wars;
the disciples were to be quiet; the end, that is, the end of
the age, would not be yet. Nation would rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom; there would be famines
and earthquakes in divers places. It was the beginning of
sorrows that would end in the accomplishment of the ways
of God.
But in those days of trouble for the nation men would
only become more wicked, and would break out in hatred
against the witnesses for the truth. ey would be killed,
given up to be tormented, and they would be hated of all
nations for Christ’s sake. When once the bridle is loosed,
the Gentiles, like the Jews, will have neither Christ nor
truth. False prophets would arise, who would deceive
the mass, and the love of many would wax cold because
iniquity should abound. In such cases moral courage fails,
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when faith is not in activity to sustain the heart by causing
it to look to the Lord, who is above all diculties, whatever
they may be. e disciples were to persevere to the end, for
deliverance would come in due time. Our business is to reap,
applying ourselves, without discouragement, to the work of
the Lord; for them it is a question of being delivered. It is
true, in a general way, for us also, that we must persevere to
the end. When the word of God speaks to us of the desert
path that has to be trodden, it insists upon perseverance, and
upon the maintenance of condence unto the end, though
there is no uncertainty about the issue for the true believer,
because God will keep him to the end. He is faithful to do
it, but He it is who must do it: there is the way, and we must
walk in it. Danger is there, and we need to be preserved;
but the sheep shall not perish, and none shall pluck them
out of the hand of the Lord. We must, however, go on to
the end: it is our duty to count upon God for that, but here
in the last times there should be a deliverance. e word
of God, notwithstanding the predominance of evil, should
not be hindered; it would go beyond the limits of Palestine,
and would carry to all nations tidings of the establishment
of the coining kingdom. en the end would come. It is
not here the gospel of salvation, such as we have in Eph. 1,
but the gospel of the kingdom, as John the Baptist and the
Savior Himself had proclaimed it. e kingdom of God is
at hand.
All this is a general view of the state of things which
would take place at the end, and which began to appear
immediately after the departure of the Lord-a state of
things of which there would be a foretaste in what was about
to take place between His departure and the destruction of
Jerusalem, of which verses 4-14 give us a general idea.
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e church, as we have already said, is left entirely out
of view, the testimony sent to the Gentiles being that of
the last days when the church will be in heaven, and which
will give occasion to the judgment described in chapter 25.
e destruction of Jerusalem by Titus is not found here
at all: nevertheless this destruction was of great importance,
because it put an end to all relation of God with the people,
as such, until it should be resumed on their return to the
land at the end of the days. Luke 21:24 speaks of the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, adding that it should
be trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the times of
the Gentiles should be accomplished. Dan. 9:26 speaks of
it thus: “ e people of the prince that shall come shall
destroy the city and the sanctuary “; and the desolation will
be there by the judgment of God. At the end the Messiah
will take the kingdom, when Jerusalem and the Jews have
suered to the utmost the judgment decreed by God.
Verse is. e Lord comes now, in the course of His
prophecy, to the moment predicted by Daniel, when the
abomination which makes desolate would be set up in the
place that the throne of God ought to occupy. ere would
then be, as we have seen, a time of testimony in Israel, which
would reach to the ends of the world to all nations; the
servants of the Lord were to possess their souls in patience,
and, although hated of all, to persevere unto the end. But
for those who should be in Judea, the moment would
come when an idol (for this is the meaning of the word
“ abomination “) would be set up in the holy place. is
idol is called the desolating idol; because the condence
placed in it, and the public aront given to God, would
bring about the desolation of the people and of the holy
place. When it should be placed there, the faithful ones in
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393
Judea were to ee unto the mountains. e Lord uses many
gures to show the urgency of the case. He who might be
upon the housetop was not to come down to take anything
out of his house; he who might be in the elds was not to
return back to fetch his garments; the moment would be so
terrible, that it would only be a question of ight. But God
ever thinks of His own. ey were to pray, the Lord said,
that their ight might not take place in winter, nor on the
sabbath-day. When their time of tribulation-unparalleled
in the history of the world-has come, God will consider
the temperature most suitable for the ight, and also the
conscientious spirit that would stop the faithful soul on a
sabbath-day.
is passage clearly shows us that in all this it is a question
of the Jews, and of Jerusalem and the neighborhood. It is
the last half-week of Daniel, “ a time of distress for Jacob,”
but he would be delivered out of it. But woe to the women
with child, and to those that give suck in those days,
though in times of peace such things would be subjects for
joy to Jewish women: there should be a tribulation such as
never had been. But the heart of the Lord thinks of all the
diculties, of all the dangers of His own. For the sake of
His elect He will shorten those days, for otherwise no esh
should be saved; and in point of fact it will but be a misery
prolonged according to man’s will, for in three years and a
half all will be ended.
e quotation from Daniel clearly shows us that it is
not a question of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, for Daniel
informs us that this time of tribulation is without a parallel,
and consequently there cannot be two such. But further,
the duration of the tribulation is twelve hundred and sixty
days, or three and a half years: then followed seventy-ve
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days for purifying everything, and then Daniel, having
been raised, will have his part in these things at the end
of the days. Now, whether you take the twelve hundred
and sixty days as days- as I believe them to be-for a half-
week of three and a half years, which corresponds to Dan.
9, or take them as twelve hundred and sixty years, the fact
remains that nothing happened, either at one period or the
other, corresponding to the Savior’s prophetic words, or to
those of the Spirit by Daniel.
Luke neither speaks of Daniel, nor of the abomination
of desolation, for he occupies himself more with the
present period and with the principles that belong to it.
us he tells us on this occasion that Jerusalem would be
surrounded with armies, and trodden under foot of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fullled.
After that (v. 23) come the great signs. ere will also
be in those last times false Christs and false prophets,
promises of deliverance which hearts will so greatly need
at that terrible moment when all the false hopes of an
unbelieving nation will have passed away. “ Behold,” they
will say, “ he is in the desert; behold, he is in the secret
chambers.” ere will also be those who will work great
signs and miracles, so as to deceive, if possible, the very
elect. e wickedness of men and the deceits of Satan will
again be employed to turn souls aside, and to hinder them
from humbling themselves, and from seeking deliverance
where alone it can be found.
It is the terrible time of the enemy’s power, and of
the judgment of God upon the people, by means of the
instruments chosen by the people to aggrandize themselves,
and establish themselves in their unbelief. It is no question
here of Christians; they know that Christ is in heaven. To
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395
tell them that He is in the desert, or that He is in the inner
chambers, would not meet any need of a Christian, and
would produce no eect on those who might be Christians
only in name. For the Jew, who will undergo the agony
of an unparalleled persecution, and of the anger of Satan,
who, cast down from heaven, will be lled with burning
rage, knowing that he has but a short time; for the Jew,
amidst all this suering, the despair of a heart, bitterly
deceived by the promise of a deliverer already come, will
be an evident snare. It is purely and simply a question of
the great tribulation of Jerusalem in the last days, the time
predicted by Jeremiah (chap. 30: 7), and by Daniel (chap.
12: 1), the deliverance of the remnant which becomes the
nation being foretold in these two passages. e power of
Satan, which develops itself at this time, is shown us in
Rev. 12, the order of the time in Dan. 9
e Lord warns His disciples, for in the whole of this
chapter they are looked at as witnesses in the midst of the
Jews. ey were not to follow any of those will-of-the-
wisps lighted by Satan to deceive souls; for the Lord, the
Son of man, would come as lightning, suddenly and with a
brilliancy which would leave no uncertainty with regard to
His person thus manifested; He would come in judgment
there where the eect of the judgment was found before
the penetrating eyes of God (v. 28).
e Lord makes some allusion to Job 39:30, though it is
a proverbial expression, which one need not go car to nd
the meaning of. Where the carcass of Israel is, there will
the judgment of God descend with the sight and rapidity
of an eagle.
After this rapid and prophetic testimony of the Lord
foreseeing the judgment of the latter days, He announces
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with greater calmness the wide results of the judgment
of God, as well as the grace that will gather together
the residue of the people (v. 29-31). It is not so much a
prophetic transport, placing the mind in the circumstances
which it announces, as the revelation of the ways of God,
given with the calmness and dignity that are suitable to
the One to whom all is certain. All the authority, all the
power, which exists will be overthrown and will fall. I do
not doubt that there will be in the last times extraordinary
phenomena (Luke 21:25); but I think that the Lord is here
speaking of the fall of everything which by exalting itself
governs the world. God interferes, and all the powers then
in rebellion against Him will be overthrown forever.
is will happen immediately after the tribulation
announced by the Lord and by the prophets. e disciples
had asked what would be the sign of His coming. He had
given them abundant warnings, and had declared to them
the true character and dangers of those times; but the sign
of His coming to the earth would be the appearing of
His glory in the sky. He had laid before them what was
connected with the earth, according to the need of those
times. But the coming of the Savior was heavenly, and it
was in heaven that the sign of His coming to the earth
would be seen, the appearing, I do not doubt, of His glory
in the heavens. ey would see the Son of man coming
in the clouds with power and great glory, and then all the
tribes of the land (the land of Israel, I think) shall wail
because of Him, those who had rejected Him, and who
now see Him returning in glory. e faithful sharing in
a general way the fate of the nation, but delivered from
their unbelief, will mourn, we know, in another manner
(Zech. 12:10-14), looking upon the One whom they had
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397
pierced. e rebellious Gentiles, who exalted themselves
against Jehovah, and against His Christ, will be destroyed;
but here, I think, the Spirit has more in view the children
of Israel.
But there is more; not only in Palestine will those who
are written in the book of God (Dan. 12: 1) be delivered,
but the Son of man will send His angels (for now the angels
have become the servants of the One who inherits all the
rights of man, according to the counsels of God) to gather
together all the elect of Israel from the four corners of the
earth, from one end of heaven to the other.
is terminates the history of the Jews and of the
testimony of God in their midst, from the time when they
rejected the Savior up to His return. We have seen the
relation of the testimony of the disciples with the Jewish
people, and the circumstances in which they are to render
this testimony until the Lord’s return. is ends at verse 31
of chapter 24. Verses 30, 31 of this chapter are connected
with verse 31 of chapter 25. e historical portion of the
prophecy is taken up again in this last verse, the throne of
the Lord being established, so that He judges the Gentiles.
Between these two we have exhortations to the disciples,
and the responsibility of Christians during the absence of
the Lord. e general result for Christianity is developed
at the end of chapter 24. All depended on the living
expectation of the Lord. If those should fail, the servant
would take the mastery over his companions in service, and
would tyrannize over them; he would join himself to the
world, in order to enjoy its eshly delights: the consequence
would be, that he would be cut o, counted among the
hypocrites, and cast outside. is gives occasion to more
precise details as to the condition and the responsibility in
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which Christians are placed during His absence, and this
is what we are about to examine.
CHAPTER 25.
e coming of the Savior gives occasion to look at
Christians as ten virgins gone forth to meet the Bridegroom.
e true force of the word is that the kingdom of the
heavens will then have become like to ten virgins thus
gone out. Nothing more solemn and more instructive than
this parable as to the state of Christians. It is a question of
the return of the Savior and of that which will happen to
Christians, to the members of the kingdom, at that epoch.
If the servant said, “ My Master delayeth his coming,” it
would be his ruin, the demonstration of the state of his
heart. But in fact the Bridegroom would delay; and this is
what has happened.
It is of moment to remark the mutual relationships in
which the personages of the parable are found. It is not a
question here of the church as bride. If one would absolutely
think of a bride, it is Jerusalem on earth. Christians are
regarded as virgins gone out to meet Him who was the
Bridegroom. e Jewish remnant does not go out. When
Jesus shall come again, it will be found there on earth in
the relationships in which it will have remained here below.
e Bridegroom tarried, and the virgins, the wise like the
foolish, went asleep, no longer expecting the Bridegroom.
Further, they go in somewhere in order to sleep more
conveniently. Nevertheless there are of them such as have
oil in their vessels with their lamps: it is divine grace which
sustains the lamp of the christian profession. ey are not
surprised. It is a question of those who make profession.
e moral state of the kingdom consists in this, that
all are gone asleep: the coming of the Lord is forgotten by
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all. At an unforeseen moment the cry makes itself heard,
Behold the Bridegroom! God re-awakens souls that they
may think of it; but what a testimony rendered to the state
of Christians! at which should have characterized them,
the thing for which, as a living state of the soul of the
Christian here below, one had been converted (according
as it is written, “ How ye turned to God … to wait for his
Son from heaven “) had been entirely forgotten. ey were
no longer waiting for the Lord; and though there was oil
in the vessels of some, the lamps were not trimmed. It is
the soul that awaits the Lord which watches to be ready to
receive Him. eir lamps shone no longer suitably. ere
might be smoke and ashes; the re was perhaps not extinct;
but there was little light, enough however just to manifest
negligence and slumbering. Where was then the love for
the Savior, when all forgot Him, no more occupied with
His return? Fidelity and love to the Savior were equally at
fault.
One is asked sometimes how it has happened that
those so excellent men of past times had no knowledge
of this truth- were not animated by this hope. e answer
is easy: the wise virgins slept like the foolish. Waiting for
the Savior was lost in the church. And, mark it well, it
is the cry, Behold the Bridegroom! which awakens from
their sleep slumbering Christians. One must not fall under
illusions: the proper state of Christians depends on this
expectation: “ Ye yourselves [it is said], like unto men that
wait for their lord.” Without doubt the new nature that
the Christian receives produces essentially the same fruits,
whatever be the circumstances in which it is found; but
also the character is formed by the object that governs the
heart; and there is nothing which detaches. from the world
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like waiting for the Lord, nothing which searches the heart
like this expectation, in order that there be nothing that
suits not His presence. Nothing consequently introduces
like it the feelings of Jesus in the judgment that it conveys
on good and on evil; nothing like it for cherishing aection
for Jesus in the motives which govern our conduct. Remark
also that in reality it is the same waiting for the Savior, the
fact of watching in waiting for Him, which is in question
here: not at all the service that we have to accomplish
during His absence. Service and the responsibility that
attaches to it are found in the following parable (chap. 25:
14-30).
e same distinctions are found in Luke 12. In verse 27
it is said, “ Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when
he cometh shall nd watching “; then the recompense is
that they will enjoy the blessings of heaven and that Jesus
will gird Himself to make them happy. Afterward (v. 43) it
is a question of the service to render during His absence;
and then the reward is the inheritance.
Returning to Matt. 25:1-13, I think the fact that the
other virgins had to go away to buy oil means only that it
was too late to have part with the Bridegroom, and that the
faithful virgins could not then communicate grace. One
must have it in time for the service itself. I will add that
I do not think the foolish virgins were saved souls. e
Bridegroom says to them, “ I know you not “-what Jesus
could hardly say to those who were His own.
In the parable of the talents (v. 14-30) it is a question of
service. e Lord goes away and condes to His servants
a part of His goods to trade with them. ey are the
spiritual gifts that the Lord Jesus has imparted to those
that followed Him when He went away. It is no question
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401
of that which providence has given us, nor of all men, but
of the servants of Jesus, and of that which He has given
them at the moment of His going away. ere is a certain
dierence between this parable and what is found in Luke
19. In this latter passage the same amount is given to
each of the servants; human responsibility enters into it
for more in the thoughts of the Spirit of God; also the
reward is proportioned to what love gained. Here the
amount is according to divine wisdom, in reference to the
vessel to which it is conded; and each faithful workman
is equally called to enter into the joy of his Lord; he is set
over many things, but he enters into the joy of his Lord.
Faithful to Jesus according to what was conded to him,
Jesus makes him enjoy His own joy. e principle of work
is the condence that the workman has in the master, and
the spiritual intelligence which that condence gives him.
e talents had not been entrusted to them for
doing nothing with: in that case the Master might have
kept them to Himself. ey understood well that they
had been put into their hands in order that they might
trac with them for the Master during His absence, and
they employed those talents, those spiritual gifts, for the
Master’s service. eir heart knew that Master, desires His
prot and His honor, sought no other authority or warrant
for work than the fact that He had conded these gifts to
them, and the zeal of a heart made condent through the
knowledge that they had of Him. What the third servant
lacked was exactly this true knowledge of the Master. In
his eyes He was an austere man. And, mark well, when
there is not the true knowledge of God as He is revealed
in Christ, one has always an entirely false idea of Him.
e heart ever betrays itself by the idea that one forms of
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God, and unbelief always makes of the true God a picture
from which the heart revolts. Knowledge of the rights of
God as well as of His love is lacking. If God were such as
unbelief imagines and His authority were recognized, one
would act accordingly: but when His love is unknown, His
authority is despised. God only reveals -Himself in Christ,
in Christ alone can He be really known.
is case of the unfaithful servant marks also distinctly
the dierence between gifts and grace, and the eect of
grace in the heart. We have no practical example as to
this in the New Testament, yet the principle is clearly
established in 1 Cor. 13 In the Old Testament we have
examples of the Spirit’s power without conversion taking
place-far from it indeed. is is what also explains Heb. 6
Here sloth and unfaithfulness ow from the ignorance in
which the servant is• concerning his Master’s character, as
well as from the false and guilty idea that he had formed
of Him.
Let us remark in our two parables an important fact
which we shall nd again elsewhere. e Lord, in the
teachings which relate to His coming, says nothing which
can give one occasion to think that it must necessarily
be delayed beyond the life of those whom He addresses.
us the virgins who slept are the same who awoke; the
servants who received the talents are the same as those
whose work is taken account of at the end. We know that
many generations have appeared and disappeared since the
departure of the Savior, but He did not wish that they should
be expecting beforehand any delay. In the same way when
He wishes to give the history of the church to the close,
the Spirit of God takes up seven churches which existed at
that moment in order to describe in seven epochs the great
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403
features of that history; so that, although we may recognize
now these features and these periods, there was nothing
when the Apocalypse was ‘ written which announced in
a formal manner any continuance of the church on earth.
ere is another remark I have to make. What is said in
verse 23 seems to me to state a general principle. ose who
possess christian privileges without any living enjoyment of
them, without truly knowing the Lord Jesus Himself, lose
all that they have (this answers to Heb. 6); whilst those who
are faithful to the light they possess acquire more. is, too,
is the explanation given in verse 29. e judgment upon
the wicked servant is executed in verse 30.
We have gone through in these three parables the
judgment of Christendom, of the church viewed as a
divine system established on the earth, but exposed to the
consequences of being established on the foundation of
human responsibility; then of individuals who profess to be
Christians considered with regard to their duty of waiting
for the coming of the Lord, and in relation to their service
during His absence. In verse 31 the Lord again takes up
the thread of what He had already said with regard to the
history of the earth and the things which will happen at
His coming. is verse is linked, as I have said before, with
chapter 24: 31, before which all the relationships of the
remnant with the unfaithful people and with the Gentiles,
rst in testimony, then in unparalleled suerings, had been
set out as preceding the personal coming of the Savior, who
will put an end to these suerings. Now when the Lord
shall appear in these circumstances, it will not be only to
shine and then to disappear, as a ash of lightning; He
will sit on the throne of His glory. en when His warrior
judgment, namely what is executed on His adversaries
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shall be accomplished (see Rev. 19:1), the Lord seated on
His throne will judge the nations of the whole world to
whom the gospel of the kingdom shall have been sent.
is mission is found announced in verse 14 of chapter 24,
which closes the rst part of the prophecy of that chapter.
It is a question there of the gospel that Jesus preached
during His lifetime, as well as John the Baptist; it is not the
gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus (that is to say,
a work of eternal redemption fully accomplished), but the
solemn fact that the kingdom was going to be established;
it is the “ everlasting gospel.” e Lord was about to begin
to break the serpent’s head by the establishment of this
kingdom, to take in hand His great power and act as King.
is testimony is to be rendered after the catching up of
the church and before the manifestation of the Lord. e
testimony rendered to the Jews is found in Rev. 11; but
here we learn that it will be heard also in the entire world
before the end comes.
At the time then when the Lord shall be seated on
the throne of His glory, He will begin to pronounce His
judgment on the nations and to execute it. e word
mentions two kinds of judgment, the warrior judgment,
and that wherein the Judge is in session as supreme and
recognized authority. us Rev. 19 is the warrior judgment.
In chapter 20 begins the judicial session which is held
when the power of the King has established His throne,
and He sits there to judge (Rev. 19: 11; 20: 4).
As to the destruction of the beast and his armies, it takes
place by the coming of the Lord, who destroys his armies
and casts the beast and the false prophet at the same time
into hell. en He establishes His throne in Jerusalem.
After this Gog comes, thinking to have all his own way;
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405
he nds the Lord Himself, and perishes on the mountains
of Israel. en, the throne being established in peace, the
Lord sits there to judge the nations to which previously
the gospel of the kingdom had been sent. e terms of
the judgment chew us that it is no question whatever of
a general judgment, as people commonly think of it. ey
are there judged according to the manner that they treated
the messengers of the gospel of the kingdom. It is of this
only that they here give an account to the Judge; it is on
this only that He questions them. Now, as the greatest
number of pagans have never heard of such messengers,
this judgment cannot be theirs, being wholly inapplicable
to them. Besides at the beginning of the Epistle to the
Romans the judgment of the nations is pronounced,
their guilt established on entirely dierent principles,
namely, that they gave up the knowledge of God when
they possessed it; that they disregarded the testimony of
creation, then that of conscience; nally, that they plunged,
consequent on this voluntary alienation from God, into
idolatry and corruption, who should do worst.
Next we nd here three classes, the goats, the sheep,
and the brethren of the Judge; that is to say, those who
had not received the messengers, those who had received
them, and the messengers themselves. It is the judgment of
the quick, of the nations; a nal judgment. ey go thence
to Gehenna, to everlasting torment, whilst the righteous
possess everlasting life here on earth, but enjoy it with
God. It is the judgment of the valley of Jehoshaphat when
Jehovah shall have gathered the nations, and there shall
be multitudes in this valley of decision. e judgment of
the quick is a scriptural truth as certainly as the judgment
of the dead. Not only so, but the Jews were much more
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familiar, and this according to their own scriptures of the
Old Testament, with the judgment of the quick than with
the judgment of the dead. Doubtless there were in the
Old Testament words which had given the Pharisees to
understand the latter, as also the Lord justies them on
this point whilst He condemns the Sadducees. Yet these
were held as good Jews, and the high priest and his family
were of this sect. Nobody put their orthodoxy in question.
ey were wrong, we know; but when we see the passage by
which the Lord convicts them, we understand how some
who had not the Spirit of God might remain in ignorance
of the truth in this respect. If one did not seize the fact that
God looks at man as having a body as well as a soul, so that
the life beyond death demonstrates also the resurrection,
one has still trouble to seize the force of the proof alleged
by the Lord. For him who knows that the Lord is risen and
that we are to be conformed to Him, the thing is simple.
Death touches only the body; if one subsists afterward,
it is to be a complete man. One thing proves the other.
e soul is happy with Christ meanwhile, but the man is
not complete. He lives, the man who died; after death, all
live for God, they are only dead for man; this last state of
death must cease, but will only cease at the resurrection.
Meanwhile the soul is with the Lord, the witness, since
life is not terminated, that death is not to retain him who
is subjected to it.
Now Christians have trouble in believing a judgment
on the earth, though they profess it in the Creed. But the
word of God is clear thereon. Prophecy speaks of it largely.
ere is a judgment of the quick, as there is a judgment of
the dead; and this judgment we have here, at least the most
formal part, that where the Lord sits on His throne and
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407
personally judges the nations. Elsewhere they are suddenly
destroyed by His glorious appearing, being found, either
gathered to make war on Him as in Rev. 17:14, and Rev. 19,
or surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city
(and here they are suddenly destroyed by re come down
from heaven) as in Rev. 20:7-9. But here the Lord, seated
on His throne, after having already come as lightning on
those who were warring against Him, judges as King all
the nations of the earth, according to the reception that
each shall have given to His brethren the messengers of
the kingdom, counting all that was done to them as done
to Himself personally.
Such is the grand principle of this judgment. “ e
sheep “ disavow all pretension to have had regard to the
King personally; but He takes as done to Himself all that
they had done to His messengers whom He owned as His
brethren. “ e goats,” on the contrary, pretend never to have
failed toward the great King; but on the same principle the
indierence they had shown toward His messengers counts
in the heart of the King for indierence toward Him. us
it is just His judgment of the nations, but it is also a great
encouragement for His servants whom He will send to
the nations; it is also, in principle, an encouragement for
all times. He thinks always of His own as if they were
Himself. “ Why,” says He to Saul, “ persecutest thou Me? “
is goes farther, it is true; for those that Saul persecuted
were members of His body whilst He was in heaven; the
others were His brethren on the earth. I speak of this as
testimony to the great and precious truth that He ever
bears the profoundest interest in His own-interest which
never fails nor slumbers; which can doubtless allow the
trial of persecution if needful, but an interest which, across
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all, holds the reins in His hand and owns the suerings of
His own for His name as a title of worth for the happiness
of the kingdom which will be surely awarded them in its
time.
I have still some remarks in detail to make. e Lord
takes account of all the circumstances of the life of His
own. e great aim of the parable is to show that what is
done to His servants is done to Himself; but He knows
who is hungry, who is in prison, etc. Nothing escapes Him.
Further, it is well understood that His own suer, not only
now, but at every time during His absence. Afterward it
is before the Son of man that the nations are summoned
to render account of their ways. Besides the Father judges
nobody, but has committed all judgment to the Son. Here
it is the Son of man come and seated on the throne of His
glory.
Remark that when He sits on the great white throne to
judge the dead (not the living, as here), He does not come
at all. Heaven and earth ee away from before His face.
is is not to come there. Here, it is, when He comes in His
glory (compare Joel 3:11, et seq.) that He sits on the throne
of His glory and that He gathers the nations. e blessed
put on His right hand are blessed of His Father, but they
are children, not companions of the Judge, like the risen
and the changed; they do not come with Him; they were
mixed up with the goats until the King separated them.
Now this is not true of Christians, for the dead in Christ
rise apart, then go to meet Him with those changed. ey
are risen in glory. Jesus, who was their rst-fruits in His
own resurrection, comes and transforms the body of their
humiliation according to the likeness of His glorious body.
eir resurrection is as a thing wholly apart, and alone the
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409
faithful go to meet the Lord. Here He comes to the earth,
separates the faithful and condemns the wicked who had
despised their brethren, at the same time that He gives to
those who had received them (His brethren) the kingdom
prepared for them by His Father. is is not however the
kingdom of the Father as in Matt. 13:43. Nevertheless
all ows from the Father and from His counsels as the
source and cause of the blessing. It is an earthly kingdom,
the blessing of which ows from the counsels and the
goodness of the Father of Him who was there as Son of
man- a kingdom prepared for them not before, but from
the foundation of the world; the result of the government
of God here below, but according to the counsels of God.
e re into which the wicked are to be cast was prepared
for the devil and his angels.
CHAPTER 26.
Now, having nished that which He had to say when
He had quitted or rather abandoned Jerusalem, the Lord
recalls the attention and the thoughts of His disciples to
His suerings and His cross. Two days later came the feast
of the Passover, and the Son of man was to be betrayed in
order to be crucied. is was not the mind of the sages
of the world, of the great men and the authorities, who
found that the moment was hardly opportune at the time
when there would be such a gathering together of people.
For these, having enjoyed in vast numbers the eects of
His power and His goodness, might stir up a tumult if the
authorities attempted to get rid of Him in a violent and
unjust manner. But in the counsels of God that was to be
accomplished at this time.
True Lamb of God, He was to suer for us in realizing
the type of the deliverance out of Egypt by means of a
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redemption excellent in a very dierent way. Also the
Lord, in the value of His perfection, announces to His
disciples that which was going to happen, making use of
the very plots of the guides of the nation to accomplish
the counsels of God, whilst all their precautions were
reduced to nothing. Now man was suciently wicked,
and the enemy suciently powerful, when God permitted
it, that there should be no tumult. e world shows itself
completely under the power of its prince, and the enemy of
God. As far as tumult was concerned, there were only those
cries, Crucify Him, crucify Him.
All that which follows is the solemn testimony
that, at this supreme moment, the Savior, the Victim of
atonement, the Lamb destined for the slaughter, the Sheep
dumb in the hands of him that shears it, was to nd no
succor, no refuge, no support for His heart, not one to have
compassion on Him though He sought for it. At the same
time His perfection, His grace, are displayed so much the
more that He is put to the proof.
We are going a little in detail to run over the account
of this grace and of this patience. One learns in it the
perfection of the Savior, where it is presented in the most
touching and at the same time the most admirable manner.
e close of the life of the Lord is distinguished in this
respect that it is regarded at a dierent point of view in
each Gospel, as also all the rest of His history, whilst
Mark and Matthew present the same portrait with but
little dierences. But the Gospel of John shows us the
person of the Lord God, the Word made esh, eternal life
in the world. Also in Gethsemane and on the cross, we
nd there neither suering nor humiliation, but a divine
Person who passes through them in His power. In Luke,
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411
it is the Man who in Gethsemane feels more the trial as
man, but who is victorious in it, so that on the cross the
expression of suering is not found. In Matthew, as the
victim of propitiation, He answers nothing if it is not to
make a good confession and render testimony to the truth,
the sole motive of His condemnation. e Spirit of God
shows here in a positive manner the forsaking of men and
even of His disciples, in which the Lord found Himself
without any consolation for His heart; then nally the
forsaking of God on the cross when He cries to Him,
praying that God should not be far from Him, when bulls
and dogs compassed Him. In a word we have, in John, the
Son of God always man; in Luke, the man; in Matthew,
the victim of atonement; but the circumstances are of
profound interest, and we wish to touch on them.
CHAPTER 27.
e death of Jesus being already determined in the
unpremeditated council held at the beginning of the night,
when He had been brought before Caiaphas, the scribes
and the Pharisees held a formal council very early in the
morning to pronounce His denite sentence; then they
lead Him away to Pilate. Here we nd the iniquity and
blindness of all in presence of Him who was about to die.
Judas, who evidently as it seems to me, thought that Jesus
would escape them as He had so many times escaped, as
long as His hour was not yet come, struck in any case in his
conscience at seeing Jesus condemned, comes to the chief
priests with the thirty pieces of silver. Seized with remorse,
he declares that he had sinned in betraying the innocent
blood. Little sympathy awaits him there. ey had attained
their end; their business had succeeded; as to the sin of
Judas, it was his aair. Such is all the compassion that
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remorse nds with those who make use of the iniquity that
produces it. e end is attained; and if their instrument is
lost forever, so much the worse for him; it is his business.
ey have gained their end. Judas casts into the temple
the silver, poor price of his soul; then goes away to hang
himself, sad end of a life passed without conscience near
the Lord. Nothing hardens like this. e cruel and insolent
indierence of the chiefs of Israel, which does not relieve
a bad conscience, pushes to suicide this man, who loses his
life, his soul, and the money for which he had sold it.
But what a picture of the heart of man we nd in what
follows! Men who had no scruple in buying the blood of
Jesus could not put in the treasury the money they had
thus employed, because it was the price of blood. What
a testimony to the blindness of conscience! How much
scruples dier from conscience! Good and evil aect the
conscience, which in itself is the noblest of the faculties. e
scrupulous man is servile, dreads for himself, is occupied
with ordinances, and fears to violate them. e god that the
scrupulous serves is a god who watches over what aects
him; and he abandons his miserable servant who does not
take account of that which concerns the honor and the will
of the master that he fears. It is a false rancorous god, the
god of a heart that knows not the true God, even when the
heart names him the Eternal.
If the heart is but externally in relation with the true
God, it will neglect that which bears upon His true
character (righteousness, true holiness, love), to be occupied
with His ordinances, which man without faith and without
knowledge of God can accomplish, and which he fears to
neglect because he is afraid of God. Now the chief priests
could attach importance to Israel which was being ruined
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413
and which had been rejected before because of its iniquity:
Israel ought not to be deled; but for miserable Gentiles,
to whom the door (closed on Israel) was going to open,
a eld deled by the money which had bought it was
good enough. It is thus that a place of burial is bought
for strangers. All is blindness, pride, and darkness. Light
they would not have. But the counsel of God, declared long
before by the prophet, was to be accomplished. When their
counsel was opposed to that, it came to nothing; but their
own acts of folly were accomplishing the prophecies that
they heeded not, though they were constantly read in their
synagogues.
Now Jesus was standing there before their governor. He
bears a good confession before Pontius Pilate. He is the
King of the Jews. When the Jews accuse Him, He is mute.
He is there to be victim. God gives testimony to Him
by the dream of Pilate’s wife; then the governor makes
eorts to deliver Him from the bloodthirsty malice of the
Jews, proting by a habit they had of releasing a prisoner
at Passover. But the unhappy Jews must consummate
their iniquity; for the moment arrives when God permits
iniquity to have its course even unto the end, in order that
it should be manifested such as it is. us was propitiation
accomplished by the suering and death of Jesus. Pilate
shows only the feebleness of a man who despised all that
which surrounded him; of a man who would keep his
conscience, but had very little of it and still less of the fear
of God; of a man who, when it becomes too inconvenient
to him to maintain righteousness, yields to the violence and
perseverance in evil of a will which ghts utterly against
God and good. In the eyes of Pilate it was not worth while,
for a poor just man who had no human importance, to
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414
compromise both his person and the public peace. He
washes his hands of it, and leaves the responsibility of this
death on those who desired it.
Poor Jews! is responsibility they take on them; they
do also bear its penalty up to this day. “ His blood,” say they,
“ be on us and on our children.” Terrible curse that this
poor people calls on itself; curse which weighs on it until
sovereign grace, in bringing a little remnant to repentance
in which it will feel the sin which has been committed,
changes the blood of a curse into the blood of expiation;
and this on God’s part who will cleanse them from the sin
which they committed in shedding it. e sovereign grace
of God is that alone which can nd in the very iniquity of
man the means of accomplishing the salvation of him who
has been guilty of it. It is thus that we, who have been saved
of this same grace, can render testimony to it everlastingly.
In the work which saves us we have no part but our sins
and the hatred which accomplished it on man’s side. is
poor people was on this occasion to show to what point it
had fallen, abandoned of God. ey chose a robber in place
of the Son of God, a murderer, but a man who attered
their own passions in exciting them against the Romans,
their masters, to whom they were subjected because of their
sins. Now Pilate releases to them Barabbas, and delivers to
them Jesus after having scourged Him already owned to be
innocent; for that which characterizes Pilate here is want
of heart and a proud indierence wholly stamped with
cruelty.
Now the beloved Savior endures all the indignities
which can rise in the heart of man, brutal and free to
exercise a power which nds its pleasure in making those
suer over whom it rules for a moment. For man is a tyrant
Notes on the Gospel of Matthew
415
by nature, and when several are united, there is no moral
force found where the most amiable dispositions exist, and
thus one falls to the bottom of the ladder; one is ashamed
of amiability, and all is on the level of what is the lowest.
Poor fallen creatures! Besides, Pilate, their chief, had given
them the example of it.
Nevertheless, that which especially concerns us here,
that which ought to interest us, is the Lamb destined to
the slaughter, the Sheep dumb before its shearers. e
precious Savior bears the insults and injuries of those who
were only capable of taking joint pleasure in evil and of
acting in consequence. He was not the One who would
resist or do anything whatever to withdraw from it. He
was come to suer and give His life as a ransom for many.
Only we can remark that Jews and Gentiles unite to reject
and trample under foot Him who does not resist them.
e chosen nation and the last beast, the Roman beast to
which God had given the reins of power on the earth, put
themselves in agreement, quite hostile though they were
among themselves, to persecute and insult the Son of
God. If the Jews go on before to demand His blood, the
Gentiles lend themselves to the Jews to shed it. Now all is
accomplished. e Savior is led away to be crucied, the
victim of propitiation for our sins.
It would appear that Jesus was physically feeble, for
they compelled a man of Cyrene, named Simon, to bear
His cross. ey at least would not do so; alone, Jesus could
not. Insolence and tyranny are here in play; in men there
was joy in oppressing and putting to death the Son of God.
Man was getting rid of Him to his ruin. But though these
bulls of Bashan were there, though these dogs surrounded
the Savior, the great and for us the precious gure of the
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416
outline is the Victim silent and mute, the Lamb which goes
to the slaughter. e account has a perfect simplicity; but
the fulllment of the prophecies unrolls before our eyes
in an admirable manner; the spiritual view pierces across
circumstances, contemplating the patient and divinely
calm gure of the Son of God, perfect in His submission.
ey oer Him vinegar mixed with gall, the eect of
which was to stupefy in the midst of the suerings; but
the Lord did not seek such relief. He was there to suer
and to accomplish the will of His Father, not to escape the
consciousness of that which this obedience cost Him. ey
share His garments and cast lots on His vesture, which,
without that, they must have torn. So it was written. Now
the Savior, exposed naked to the derision of the soldier,
was not insensible to the ignominy which He suered,
although He did not turn away His face from it. ere was
no one to have compassion for Him; no one to confess
His name, had not God the Father forced man to render
testimony to Him, for Pilate had inscribed His title on the
cross: “ is is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” e Jews had
wished to avoid this aront; but this must turn to their
confusion without remedy and veil, and He whom they
had rejected must receive His true title in spite of them.
eir King was crucied; but God had taken care that He
should be owned and proclaimed such.
Nevertheless personally He was to be outraged to
the last point. e lowest state in which man could nd
himself left him always man; and at this supreme moment
it was no question of making the dierence between us,
more openly wicked, and another who should have escaped
the degradation that sin produces. It was a question of
placing man, such as he is, in face of the Son of God. Also
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417
a robber it is here on the side of men, associated with them
against a God of love. In that they are together and equal.
is robber could, in concert with the others, insult the
Son of God. All is leveled; Christ alone is abased beneath
man; a worm, as He said, and no man; yet was He God
revealed in man. e Man who revealed God was there;
and the reproaches that reproached God fell on Him. e
Lord suered and accomplished His work, more sensitive
than any man to all that, for in Him was no trace of the
hardness which renders insensible to circumstances, nor of
the pride which conceals them or which at least seeks to
conceal them: He felt all with a sensibility which all the
malice of men could not change; and perfect in patience
appealed to His God from them. “ But thou, O Jehovah, be
not far from me.”
e Jews boasted of having attained their aim. Man
deceived by Satan thought to have rid himself of God
whose presence troubled him. ey wagged the head,
saying, “ He saved others: himself he cannot save.” What
words! To own His power fully manifested, to reject what
was divine, to avow that they actually banished God from
their midst! In fact, He could not save Himself, not being
able to think of Himself: the love which had saved others
went farther and gave Himself for us. Perfect love for His
Father, obedience to His commandments, His perfect
love to us, hindered His saving Himself. He might have
had His twelve legions of angels, but He was come for
others, not for Himself; nally, loving His own which were
in the world, He loved them unto the end. If He was to
save others, He could not save Himself. His love and His
obedience were complete. at which marks the frightful
blindness of these poor priests is, that they cite the words
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which, in the Psalm where His death is described so as it is
here described, come out of the mouth of the godless and
the wicked (Psa. 22:7, 8). In all this it is a question of men
and of Christ; but as I have said, He appeals from them
God. Such is what we nd in Psa. 22 “ Be not far from me.”
Now comes the moment when His position, His relation
with God, must pass before our eyes. “ Now from the sixth
hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour.” us, even by outward circumstances, God separated
His Son from outrages and insults purely human in order
that He should be alone with Him and entirely for His
solemn work. He was alone with God, made sin; nothing
to turn aside the cup of justice; nothing to deaden it. e
power which was in Him. did not shelter Him; it rendered
Him capable of bearing that which weighed on His soul,
the feeling of horror of the curse in the measure in which
the love of the Father was familiar to Him, the feeling of
that which it was to be made sin in the measure of the
divine holiness which was in Him; and neither the one
nor the other could be measured. He drank the cup of the
judgment of God against sin. All forces Him to utter the
cry-a cry which we are allowed to hear that we might know
what passed there, the reality of atonement: “ My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “-a forsaking which
none can fathom, save He who felt it, but which, in the
little measure where its shadow only touches us and passes
over us, is more terrible than all which the heart or body
of man can undergo. In the mouth of Jesus it expressed all
that which His heart, and that heart alone, could feel.
Moreover, Psa. 22, from which it is taken, is the voice
of Jesus Himself. Psa. 20, 21 speak of the suerings of
Christ, such only as man can understand when he sees
Notes on the Gospel of Matthew
419
them. ey are, as it were, inicted by men, and bring about
the consequences which result from them for their victim
and for those who inict them-the exaltation to the right
hand of God of the One who suered; destructive wrath
upon His enemies. But who was the enemy of Christ, in
His character of expiatory Lamb? No one. He suered,
in giving Himself, on the part of God in righteousness;
the stroke itself-the suerings- was the stroke of justice.
Moreover, as to its consequences, in Psa. 22, all is grace and
blessing for all those who are the objects of it, from the
little remnant which thus acknowledged Jesus, and which
became the church, to the millennium and “ the people
that shall be born.” All declare that He has done this.
It is interesting to see all the testimonies of God in these
Psalms (19-22). e creation above (for down here it is too
much ruined to serve as such), and the law (Ps. 19); next
(Psa. 20) the testimony of Jesus, looked at prophetically,
such as He presents Himself to the heart of His disciples;
the answer (Psa. 21); next nally, what Jesus alone can
manifest, that which passed between His soul and God,
that which His soul only was capable of expressing. Now
this was not either weakness or exhaustion, as some men
of petty thoughts have taken into their heads to say; a
materialism to which not only is the christian doctrine
unknown, but which betrays a total want of feeling and of
sound judgment.
Now, not only the work has been accomplished, but
all the circumstances which prophecy had announced as
about to happen, have received their accomplishment.
Moreover He Himself was to give up His life into the
hands of His Father. It was not to be taken from Him. He
gave it up Himself. He entrusts His mother to John; He
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420
then fullls the last prophetic circumstance. A true Man,
absolutely calm, and, as we men say, with perfect self-
possession, He declares that He thirsts as the result of His
suerings, and tastes the vinegar which is conveyed to His
mouth by means of a sponge attached to a reed. All was
nished: atonement, perfect according to God; the work
of redemption; all the prophetic circumstances, absolutely
everything, had received its accomplishment, whether as
to man or as to God. en, with a cry which indicated
at the same time a strength in its fullness and an entire
condence in His Father,
17
He commits His soul to Him
in that critical moment in which death had part, but in
which it lost from that time forward all its power-at least
for the believer. With this cry, which announces the end of
all human relationship with God, save in judgment, and
the end of all the means which God could employ to re-
establish such a relationship with the children of Adam,
Jesus expired.
At this very moment, that which expressed the
impossibility of man’s approaching to God, the veil of the
temple is rent from top to bottom, and the sanctuary, the
holiest of all, where the throne of God is found, is opened.
We can enter with boldness (Hebrews to: 19, 20) by this
new and living way, because of the precious blood which
has been shed. e ancient state of things was ended,
whether as the relations of man with God, or in that which
concerns the very creation. Not however that the new order
of things is yet established, because grace still seeks the co-
heirs of Christ; but, in the rejection of the Son of God, all
relationship of the rst man and of the rst creation with
17 It is this aspect of His death which Luke more especially puts
in the foreground.
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421
God has been ended forever. A new basis has been laid
down in righteousness and by the full revelation of God in
sovereign love, for the eternal joy of man, in the last Adam,
and in the new creation. e veil, which characterized the
state of man as to his relations with God, of man who was
not only a sinner in Adam, but who had always failed, spite
of God’s employing all possible means in order to form
fresh links of relationship with him-the veil which said, “
Man cannot come to God,” is rent; the earth quakes, and
the rocks are rent. e power of death is also destroyed, as
well as that of the devil who possessed it.
Historically it was only after the resurrection of Jesus
that the dead rose and appeared to many in Jerusalem, as a
witness of that which had been wrought. Nevertheless the
fact is here connected with the death of Jesus, because it is
by this death that the work of deliverance has been thus
accomplished which made resurrection possible; a work to
which testimony has been thus rendered in an extraordinary
manner. It is a question of the bodies of saints-a precious
anticipation of the rst resurrection, when death will be
swallowed up in victory. It will perhaps be asked, “ What
became of them? “ None knows, because God has not said.
e fact itself is a testimony rendered to the ecacy of the
death of Jesus. e question only proceeds from the vain
curiosity of man, and God does not make revelations to
satisfy that curiosity.
e Roman ocer who was on guard, consequently on
the sentence pronounced on the prisoners, as well as the
soldiers who were then with him, seeing the earthquake
and all that had happened, are seized with fear, and
acknowledge that Jesus is indeed “ the Son of God.” is
was the cause of His condemnation by the priests and
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scribes. ey had involuntarily borne testimony to Pilate
that He called Himself so, which had alarmed the latter,
whom a bad conscience was already making afraid-so that,
with all that had been noised abroad in Palestine through
the deeds of power He had wrought there, this thought
ran throughout the world; it was known of all. ese
extraordinary facts which accompanied His death, the
cry full of strength with which without apparent motive
He drew His last breath, all the circumstances which
surrounded His departure from this world, bore witness
that His death was more than a human death. e hearts
of those who were taking part, overpowered by such events,
might (even in their natural state) declare that this was the
Son of God. As to the result in themselves, no one can
know anything of it. Here it is the testimony which these
poor pagan hearts, under the inuence of the events which
were passing under their eyes, could not refuse, while
the hardened hearts of the Jews-” his own “-of those to
whom He had come, were rejoicing in His death. Nothing
hardens like religion when the heart is not changed. e
natural heart is evil, not hardened, and facts in which God
manifests Himself can act upon such a heart.
From this time forth it is a question of the resurrection,
testimony which God renders to the perfection of the Victim
and the perfection of His work; to the divine perfection of
the One who went down to death, into the lower parts
of the earth, so that, having ascended on high, He lls all
things, not only as God, but according to the ecacy of
the redemption He had now accomplished (Eph. 4). For
the moment, what occupies us is the part which men took
in these events, but, above all, the part which women took
in them. It is here that the good handmaids of the Lord
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423
have their good portion. e disciples count for nothing
in it; they had ed; and in all this scene of grief, with the
exception of John, they are not seen. Moreover it is Mary
Magdalene who becomes the messenger of the risen Lord,
to communicate to the disciples the privileges He had just
acquired for them. e women had already followed Him
from Galilee, had furnished Him with what was needed
for His wants while He walked as man on the earth; now
they were going to care for His burial, if God Himself had
not anticipated them. Already they had accompanied Jesus
to the place where He was to be crucied, looking from a
distance on the solemn scene which was displayed before
their eyes.
Now Jesus was to be “ with the rich in his death.” Joseph
of Arimathea goes in therefore to Pilate, who delivers to
him the body of the Savior. God wished to honor Christ,
spite of the dishonor which was inicted on Him on man’s
part, and even on account of that dishonor. Joseph puts
Him in his own tomb, wherein man never before was laid,
wrapping Him in a winding-sheet; next he waits, as the law
required, till the sabbath should be past, in order to carry
out the honorable sepulture which he was preparing for
Him; meanwhile he rolls a great stone before the mouth of
the sepulcher. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (wife
of Cleopas) are found there, watching and contemplating,
with the profound interest produced by an ardent aection
and by a bond of attachment which divine grace had created
in their hearts, specially in that of Mary Magdalene, out of
whom He had cast seven demons.
Nevertheless it was not only three blessed women and
Joseph, the disciple up to that time timorous, but whom
the extreme iniquity of the Jews, as often happens, forced
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to show himself, who were occupied with the remains of
Jesus: the chief priests, goaded by a bad conscience, which
always inspires fear, think of what Jesus had said-for they
knew it very well-namely, that He would rise again. With
them it was a xed determination, and enmity against
good and against all testimony borne to its power,
18
an
enmity which left them neither rest nor respite. ey go in
to Pilate, asserting that His disciples might come by night,
take away His body by stealth, then say that He was risen.
ey wanted Pilate himself to secure the body of Jesus.
But they themselves were to serve as involuntary witnesses
to the resurrection of the Savior. Pilate, full of contempt
and not caring to serve their malice, leaves them the task
of guarding against the removal of the Lord’s body by His
disciples. ey place seals on the tomb, besides a guard to
watch against every attempt of the kind. is was only
to make the fact of the resurrection more patent, and to
secure its proof in such a manner as to leave room, where
there should be good faith in man, for no controversy.
CHAPTER 28.
Here the recital becomes rapid and abrupt. Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary arrive at the end of the
sabbath-that is, the evening of Saturday-to see the sepulcher.
en, in the morning of the Sunday, the sepulcher opens, an
angel having rolled away the stone from the entrance. e
glory of this angel terries the soldiers who are guarding it,
so that they become as dead. e same angel comforts and
encourages the women; he shows them where the body of
the Lord had lain, saying, “ Fear not; for I know that ye
18 ey had wished to put to death Lazarus who was raised, a
hardness of conscience and perversity almost inconceivable.
Notes on the Gospel of Matthew
425
seek Jesus which was crucied. He is not here, for he is
risen, as he said.”
at which follows has altogether the character of this
Gospel: it is important to remark this. We nd neither the
profoundly interesting and instructive conversations which
are recounted in the Gospel of John, nor the ascension
which took place at Bethany and is related by Luke. e
angel bids the women to go quickly and tell His disciples
that He was risen, that He was going before them into
Galilee, and that there they should see Him. is makes
conspicuous an entirely new character of His relations with
them since His resurrection. He is still with the remnant,
with the poor of the ock, in the place where the Messiah
was to appear to Israel according to the prophecy of Isaiah.
ese relations are renewed’ on the footing of resurrection.
No doubt He possessed all power in heaven and earth; but
He was reestablishing His relations with the remnant of
Israel, not yet as King manifested in glory to subdue the
nations, but as associated with His disciples, viewed in the
character of messengers of the kingdom, then when Christ,
rejected from Jerusalem, had gathered the residue of Israel,
and had recognized them in grace. Such is the character
which the disciples wear here. e women go to announce
these things to the disciples; they enjoy, by virtue of their
faithfulness and their attachment to Jesus, this special
privilege. ey are the rst witnesses (and that even to the
apostles) of the victory which the grace and power of God
gained over the eorts of the enemy, now conquered for
evermore.
Nevertheless it is not only the angel who sends them.
As they are going to carry the message to the disciples,
Jesus Himself, full of love, comes to meet them, so that they
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426
may be eye-witnesses of His presence on earth: a touching
response of the Savior to their delity, a blessed testimony
which proves that the heart of Jesus is as full of love and
of human condescension now that He is risen, as when He
was walking in lowliness down here the most accessible of
men. He also encourages them. But this fact is related to
other truths which are connected with the position which
the Lord takes in this Gospel, and specially on this occasion.
In John, where the heavenly side and the actual position of
the Savior are in question, He forbids Mary Magdalene to
touch Him. She thought she had again found Him whom
she loved, as come back on the earth to remain there in
His character of risen Messiah. Such was not the case; He
was ascending to His Father and our Father, to His God
and our God. His bodily presence on earth was no longer
to be the object of aection to His own. He had placed
them in His own position before His Father, in the same
relationship as His own-ever a man with God, the well-
beloved Son of the Father. is is why omas will only
believe on condition of touching Him. e Lord grants
him this favor, but makes him feel nevertheless, that those
who believe now without having seen are more blessed
than those who will only believe when they see. Christians,
though now they see Him not, rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory; while the remnant, typied by omas,
will only believe when they look upon Him whom they
have pierced.
e unhappy Jews seek to hide their confusion, without
humbling themselves, without repenting. By bribes they
induce the soldiers to spread the report, even at the risk of
falling under the severity of the Roman discipline, that the
disciples had taken away His body while they slept.
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427
Finally, the eleven go into Galilee to a mountain which
the Lord had appointed them. Doubt still remained in the
heart of some, but they worship Him as soon as they saw
Him. eir doubt is changed for us into certainty, based
not only on the operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul-the
true foundation of faith-but on the clear evidence that it
was neither a fable of their invention, nor a history arranged
beforehand, nor the fruit of an ardent imagination which
only saw what it wished. Some of the disciples themselves
doubt, as we have seen in the case of omas; they believe
only on irresistible evidence, sealed by the gift and the
mighty operation of the Holy Spirit come down from
heaven on the day of Pentecost. I think that there were
present on that occasion other disciples besides the eleven;
perhaps the ve hundred of whom Paul speaks.
Here the mission of the apostles has its point of
departure at the interview in Galilee with their risen
Master; it is a remnant already associated with Jesus; it
is not, as in Luke, a Savior, who ascended to heaven, and
who from heaven begins with Jerusalem, just as took place.
Here Jerusalem is forsaken, and delivered into the hands of
the wicked and of the Gentiles, while the remnant of Israel
is associated with the Messiah rejected, but now risen; then
those who are thus associated with the disowned Lord are
sent to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them to
the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. is mission, up to the present time, has never been
accomplished. e mission to the Gentiles was formally
transferred to Paul by those who were pillars among the
apostles (Gal. 2), with divine authority from Jesus gloried,
and by the direct mission of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:4;
26:16-18).
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428
It is possible the other apostles may have gone later; but
the history which is given us in the word does not speak
of it, unless it be in a very general and even vague verse at
the end of Mark. e apostles remained at Jerusalem at the
time of the persecution which took place after the death
of Stephen; then the gospel was carried to the nations by
those scattered abroad, and later on committed to Paul.
John is found in Patmos, left last of all to watch over the
church in its decline. e last verses of Mark say that they
went everywhere, and that the Lord wrought with them
to conrm the preached word by the signs which it was
granted them to perform. However it may be here in
Matthew, the commission is given them. ey were also
to teach the baptized nations to observe all that Jesus had
commanded the disciples, and He Himself would be with
them to the end of the age. It is not the christian mission
Notes on the Gospel of Matthew
429
properly so called; this is found rather in John 20, Luke 24,
and Mark 16.
19
19 Down to verse 6 of Mark 16 the same history as that of
Matthew is found; in the last verses, that which we read at the
end of Luke, and that which is found in John 20. e discourses
of chapters 13 and 26 of Acts are connected, as those of Peter,
with the mission mentioned in Luke. In the Gospel of Matthew
it is not said they were to go and make disciples of the Jews,
because the remnant is looked at as already separated from the
nation, and associated with Christ. It is a kind of extension of
chapter 10 of the same Gospel, where they are forbidden- at
least as to their mission at the moment then present-to go to
the Gentiles, indeed even to the Samaritans, but are told to
seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Here a wider mission
is given them: they are to go and make disciples of the nations.
is supposes that the work in the midst of the Jews is other
than that of chapter to, and, in some respects, chapter 24 only
explains why the mission which is in question here applies
exclusively to the Gentiles. e mission from heaven for the
salvation of souls is naturally addressed to the Jews as to the
Gentiles. is last is what we nd accomplished in Acts: only
the part which includes the Gentiles was transferred to Paul, as
we have seen.
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63075
oughts on the Revelation
IN pursuing the present explanation of the Apocalypse,
I shall endeavor to give all the light which I may have
acquired; but with the fullest acknowledgment, that many
parts remain obscure; and explaining, what I judge to be
clear, without in all things teaching it as ascertained truth,
as in many parts of scripture the Christian ought to do.
Further, I shall here consider the whole dened period
to be one half-week, not two. e facts and personages,
in this point of view, remain unaltered; it is merely the
relationships of detail as to time, and the particular force
of certain passages which are aected by it. Many treatises
have been published viewing the Apocalypse as revealing
the distinct events of two half-weeks. e comparison the
reader will be enabled to make of the explanation of the
book after the two methods will lead to a fuller judgment
of the connection of the various parts of it.
Besides the direct blessed witness of God’s love and of
personal salvation, there are two subjects which scripture
presents to us as a whole; the government of this world,
and the church. e latter is now, through the Holy Ghost,
the recipient and depository of divine knowledge.
20
20 ose who are its members are the means of spreading it.
e church does not teach. Apostles and prophets rst, and
then teachers in their place, as evangelists in theirs, do that;
the church receives, holds fast, and professes the truth. e
state of the church may be such as to cast the holding fast
and professing the truth on the delity of individuals; but the
church’s duty, in her right and normal state, is to be the pillar
and ground of the truth.
oughts on the Revelation
431
e church’s portion is heavenly: to be in heaven in
spirit now, and when the fullness of times has brought in
the accomplishment of God’s purposes; to be there, in fact,
associated with Christ in the government of the earth. Her
own proper place is the bride and body of Christ. But the
church has also an outward and responsible existence on
the earth. She ought to be the epistle of Christ, known
and read of all men; and to present thus the character of
God before the world. In this respect, she is looked at as
a responsible dispensation in the world, God’s husbandry,
God’s building, where men may build badly, though the
foundation may have been well laid. Christ will build His
own work, through all phases of the church’s existence;
and have the church, as His house, of which He will be
the light and glory, perfect in glory. Against this work on
earth, or its result in heaven, no power of him who has
the empire of death can prevail; but, as intrusted to man’s
responsible service on earth, the church stands in the
position of a dispensation: to be rejected and cast o, if it
does not maintain its faithfulness and manifest the glory
intrusted to it. It is like all the various ways and dealings of
God with men: sinless man at rst, the promises, the law,
the priesthood, the Jewish royalty in obedience with the
law, Gentile supremacy without any, have respectively been
trusted to men; man has failed in them all. All will be set
up in grace, in or under Christ. e last Adam will be there
(of which the rst was but an image), the promises fullled,
the law written in the heart, priesthood in its excellency
made good, Jewish royalty in the Son of David, supremacy
over the Gentiles, in Him who shall rise to reign over
them. e church-though forming no part of this series of
dealings, yet, as the sphere of the manifestation of Christ’s
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432
heavenly glory, by man’s faithfulness on the earth, as the
house of God, through the Spirit-is subject to the same
divine law, rst of responsibility in man, failure, and divine
accomplishment in grace and power. Local assemblies-
candlesticks come under the same rule. In their normal
state, they locally represent the normal state of the church,
that which is manifested of Christ’s body on earth; but, as is
the case with the general assembly, they may be so corrupt
as to require that the candlestick should be removed. ere
is this dierence, that the removal of the candlestick leaves
the assembly in general subsisting on the earth; whereas,
of course, the closing of the responsibility of the whole
assembly removes it as the scene of God’s dealings on
earth. Hence, we are sure, that the latter never can take
place, till the time for the bride and body of Christ to have
a better place in heaven become also.
e Apocalypse reveals to us Christ as Son of God,
or Ancient of days, in His divine title of judgment; and
it contemplates the judgment of the assembly, and the
judgment of the world, particularly of the last apostate
power. In this point of view we must read it, or we shall
never understand it. Hence the communications are
prophetic in their character. e direct relationships of the
Father to His children, and of Christ to His bride and body
are not before us; though, at the close, the bride be spoken
of in order to identify the city with her. e saints have the
consciousness of the grace in which they stand, as also the
church at the end of its own relationship; but these are in
no way the subject of the book, but distinguish themselves
sharply from it. e book is prophetic, because it is occupied
with government and the world; and the assembly itself is
viewed in its responsibility on earth, in which character
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433
it will nally be rejected; not surely as the body of Christ
united to the Head in heaven. It is all-important, not only
in respect to the Apocalypse but as to truth in general, to
enter clearly into this distinction. Without it the church
will never be known; as the knowledge of the church, on
the other hand, makes it instantly and necessarily felt. All
belonging to Christ, save His relationship to the church,
is found in the Old Testament; this could not be. All
was open, publicly revealed, that concerned Himself. e
church could not be. It lay at the foundation of the church’s
existence, that the middle wall should be broken down. It
lay at the very foundation of the existence of Israel and the
law, that it should be kept up. Indeed, the responsibility of
the rst man would not have been otherwise fully tried.
e church, and our relationship to God, repose on the
fact, that that responsibility is closed by our being wholly
lost, and a wholly new place taken by the second Man risen
from the dead; His work being accepted, and thereupon
Himself also accepted and gloried, and we in and because
of Him.
Our responsibility, even, is of another kind. It is to walk
as He walked, not to live up to what Adam ought to have
been, or what the law required; but to let this life of Jesus
be manifested in our mortal body as dead to sin, the world,
and the law; and living in that life which came down in the
person of the Son from heaven.
I must, however, add here, that the revelation of the
Father by the Son, as dwelling eternally in His bosom, is
not to be looked for in the Old Testament. e relationship
of son is, doubtless, found therein, so that the thought is not
foreign to it; but it is sonship employed in a conventional
way (I do not mean, of course, not a true way), or viewed
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434
in time, and not founded in the nature of His person in the
Godhead, but as a relationship formed on earth. “ He shall
be to me a Son,” and “ I will declare the decree … ou
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” is is in time
on the earth, the glorious and true title and character of
Messiah. So, in the passage referred to, “ I will be to him
a Father, and he shall be to me a Son.” “ I will make him
my rstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.” But in
the New Testament we nd the Son in His own proper
relationship to the Father. “No man hath seen God at any
time:
21
the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him.” He has declared, even
when on earth, the Father’s name. He came forth from
the Father. By the Son, God created all things. He puts
us in this relationship of children and sons, adopted no
doubt, but by becoming our life. So that life is never said
to be in us, though we have it, and are said to have it. But
“ God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life.” is leads me to examine,
more nearly, the nature and character of the Apocalypse;
because it is specially John who brings forward this last
point of view, while speaking of the truths connected with
our salvation, especially the presence of the Holy Ghost,
and, in the Epistle, of propitiation. In his Gospel it is the
Son who is come as life, the life being the light of men.
In the Epistle this is taken as the ground-work; and the
life communicated to us, and its existence tested by its true
character to guard us against deceivers. It is remarkable,
that, save in a few passages coming in to complete the truth
21 Compare here, 1 John 4:12, to see the unspeakable privilege
of the Christian.
oughts on the Revelation
435
here and there (and they are very few and short), John never
sees this life carried up to its ultimate result in the purpose
of God; but manifested in this world, whether in Christ
Himself or in us. e fact, that we shall go up on high to
the Father’s house, is blessedly stated in the beginning of
chapter 14, and desired in the end of chapter 17; but it is
no where the general subject.
Paul, who was born out of due time between the rst
and second comings of Christ, who knew Christ only in the
glory in which He was in heaven (man gloried, the result
with God of His accomplished work), who was not to know
Christ after the esh, Paul, who was especially apostle of the
church, the minister of the church to complete the word of
God, who was converted by the revelation of the heavenly
glory of Christ on one hand, and of the union of the saints
with Him so gloried, on the other
22
-Paul puts us, perfectly
accepted, in the glory in Christ, and sees this life in the
risen and gloried One, and in us crucied with Him but
alive; not “ we live, but Christ lives in us.” But John (and
hence the exceeding sweetness of the writings he has given
to us by the Holy Ghost) presents the divine person of the
22 Although this doctrine is found in many parts of Paul’s
writings, it may be interesting to remark, that though in God’s
plans (chap. 8) he sees us gloried, and Christ in heaven
interceding-in doctrine, the Romans presents man as a sinner
and Christ only risen so that the individual is justied-not the
church, save in relative duties. In Ephesians, on the contrary, he
does not see Christ living on earth, nor us as living in sin, save,
as alluding to it as a past history, when speaking of practice.
Christ is rst seen as dead, and God has raised Him and set
Him above all: we, dead in sins, and God has raised us with
Him. Hence, it is wholly a new creation, absolute relationships,
according to this. Hence, we have the church, and our place
before God, as Christ now has it.
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Son in life (and that in grace in esh, divine love showing
itself and the Father), in His blessed superiority to evil, and
as divine love does, adapting itself to the want and sorrow
around it, to everything the human heart could need, yet
light all through. We do not get man taken up to heaven,
so to speak, in John; but we get God Himself in grace, the
Son revealing the Father down on earth. e Gospel and
Epistle, as we have seen, reveal this life in itself or in us;
but the Gospel (for the Epistle gives us the life between
the departure and return of the Lord) gives us at the end a
hint of the apostle holding on a testimony to the coming of
Christ. He did not say he should not die; but if He would
that he tarried till He came. Paul might build the church,
or lay its foundation as a wise master-builder; Peter might
teach a pilgrim how to follow Him that was risen, and had
begotten Him again to a lively hope by it-how to follow
his Master through the wilderness, in which, after all, God
still governed. ese, and others, warn too of coming evils.
But he, who was so personally near to Christ (Jewish in
his relationships and full of them, but in whose eyes, at the
same time as taught of God, [Christ was] a person who
was, in Himself, above all relationship, save with the Father,
and who had a place in which He could be in the Father’s
bosom, yet walk as Man, in the title and manifestation of
the Son, upon earth, and withal a place in John’s heart;
through grace, which attached him to His person, and life
in it); such an one (and such an one was John, the disciple
whom Jesus loved) could watch, with the power of divine
love, over the departing glories of the church on earth in
the energy of a life which could not fail in it. And he could
pass on with prophetic vision to establish the rights of the
same person (out of and on the part of heaven, yet still) on
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earth; rights, whose establishment should bring peace on
the earth, and set aside the evil, and make these rights good,
where the prophet had seen them despised, in One he so
loved, as manifested on earth, and connect the excellency
of the gloried Suerer with the blessing of a rescued
world, which grace could bless through Him, though it had
once rejected Him. e way of bringing about this, with
the failing church’s previous history, is what is given us in
the Apocalypse, with the prophetically known person and
glory of Christ connecting itself, rst with the responsible
assembly on earth, though then judicially, and then with
the earth.
From the beginning of the book we have the revelation
given treated as a prophecy. It is a revelation given of
God to Christ to show what must shortly come to pass.
e churches themselves thus come in merely as a kind
of necessary introduction; their rejection by Christ as to
their testimony on earth, as yet the subject of prophecy and
warning, was needed for Christ’s assuming the government
of the world. Christ sends it by His angel-not exactly an
angel, but one who specially represented Himself-to His
servant John. He bears record. It is the word of God and
the testimony of Jesus Christ, a vision.
23
is sentence is
important. It is, no doubt, the character, except the being
a vision, of all scripture; but it gives us the fact that the
present prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, and the suering
in the time of and according to this prophecy is suering
for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. It gives us,
moreover, what indeed is evident and cannot be otherwise,
but an additional proof of the same, that the prophecy is
23 It is known that it should not be read, “ and all things,” but
simply, “ all things.”
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addressed not to the people of God or saints, as in their
normal state, like the epistles, but is a revelation about
them to another. In the prophets, those who prophesied
when the people were warned carried the word directly
from God to the people immediately addressed by Him.
So in the epistles, though in another form, the Holy Ghost
addressed Himself directly to the saints for their good and
instruction. In Daniel it is for the people, but not to them;
and even in Zechariah, and in a measure in Habakkuk; so
in the Apocalypse. It is something given to John, of course,
as all the New Testament, for the church, but not directly
to the church in its own natural state.
e church on earth is itself looked at as the subject
of prophetic address, and as in relationship with the God
of prophecy who governs the world, not with the Father.
e Son of man who is Judge walks in the midst of the
churches. Grace and peace is wished from Him who is and
was and was coming-from the seven Spirits in which the
fullness of all His attributes in government is developed,
and from Christ as connected with the earth though
risen. But the time of the church as such is left, out in this
greeting of grace, that is, the character of Christ at that
time. He is faithful witness; this He was in manifestation
on the earth; rst-begotten from the dead, He is risen
(that, too, on earth not ascended); then prince of the kings
of the earth-what He is indeed, now, in title, but one in
which the passage springs over from His resurrection to
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His governmental title when He comes again.
24
We have
no church relationship; but all that He was, has been, and
will be, as to the earth, and what gives Him His right in the
kingdom set up in right and power on the earth.
I have no doubt there were these seven churches in
the state thus alluded to; and in the language used, we
must keep this in mind. But I cannot think that, with this
number seven, the character of the addresses, and details of
expression, it is possible not to see that a wider sphere of
thought is before the apostle’s prophetic eye. But subjects
previously spoken of by the apostle call for our attention
rst. We have Christ in three positions, or characters, in
the Apocalypse: walking robed down to His feet in the
midst of the candlesticks; the Lamb in the midst of the
throne; and Christ coming forth on the white horse (not
to speak here of the description of the city, of which He is
the light-bearer).
e character of God here is Jehovah, the Ancient of
days, who is, and who was, and is the coming One. is
is, in fact, the character in which God is revealed, as the
One who is to be a great King over all the earth. He was
Almighty for Abraham-will be Most High over all that is.
But Jehovah is His personal name, in which He takes the
rule as One who had counsels and purposes, would fulll
them by His own power, and has given the revelation of it.
As is said in Psa. 83:18, “ that men may know that
thou, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all
24 It is remarkable, that in John 1, where we have the names
and titles of Christ so wonderfully displayed, exactly those
are wanting which belong to His place in heaven, and present
relationship with the church exclusively. He is neither Head
of the church, nor High priest. is is signicant as to John’s
writings.
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the earth.” So Psa. 87 and 91, where the three names are
brought together so beautifully and strikingly, when the
power of the Almighty is promised to secure him who
knew the secret of the Most High, and it is answered
(by Messiah) I will take the God of the Jews; “ I will say
of Jehovah, he is my fortress,” the psalm then going on,
speaking in the person of the godly Jew, to celebrate the
rightness of the answer, and Jehovah Himself closing it
with His approbation: “ Because he has set his love upon
me, therefore will I deliver him.”
It is in this name that blessing is now wished to the “
seven churches which are in Asia.”
Next, we have it wished from “ the seven spirits, which
are before his throne.” is last word may be remarked. We
are in presence of a throne on which Jehovah is, and seven
spirits are before it. It is not from the Father, and from the
Son, in their communion, and from the divine nature, in its
own blessedness, but from Jehovah, the Supreme Governor,
upon His throne. And the spirits, as the lamps in the
tabernacle, all before the throne. e Spirit itself has His
place as the perfect development of governmental power
in exercise from God. e spirits are the manifestation and
display of this before the throne.
e characters of Christ are also of importance here.
I have already spoken of their being in connection with
the earth; but there is something more. We have all that
was needed to give the rightful place of government over
the earth, with which He is here in connection. He is, but
much more, He was, the Faithful Witness of God upon
the earth.
He spoke what He knew; He testied what He had
seen. He declared righteousness in the great congregation,
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did not refrain His lips (that Jehovah knew); at all cost to
Himself He bore witness to what God was, made good
the witness of it before men. is was an immense service.
He made good the perfect witness of light in the world. “
While I am in the world I am the light of the world “; and
“ God is light “; and that in spite of hatred and opposition
because of it. So that John had to say, “ is is the message
which we have heard of him, that God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all.” And what He declared He was in
manifestation, He was in every sense-a Faithful Witness.
When asked what He was, He could reply, In nature and
principle what I also say unto you, “ Altogether that which
I also say to you,” John 8:25. His words were the witness
and expression of what He was; and this and its rejection is
just the subject of that chapter, and the proof of man’s guilt;
they loved darkness.
No doubt His witness was a witness of life in Himself,
too; for the life was the light of men; but this remained in
abeyance, so to speak, as to its revelation to us, and the part
we could have in it till after His death,
25
when we have
the Spirit, blood and water (which owed out of His side
when slain, as the Spirit came because He went away), as
witnesses that God hath given unto us eternal life, and that
this life is in His Son. e life was the light, and the light
of men, properly of men as such; but except a corn of wheat
fell into the ground and died, it remained alone. Hence He
was straitened till that baptism was accomplished. And the
witness of all this was consequent on His death, a witness
about Him rather than by Him. Hence I do not speak of
25 In chapter to with the sheep the Lord speaks of eternal life,
but He speaks also of His laying down His life for the sheep. It
is after chapters 8 and 9, that is, rejection of word and work.
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the witness that eternal life is given to us in the Son (that
springs out of death, and as to any persons who are such,
His servants are, with the Spirit, His witnesses), but of
Christ Himself as the Faithful Witness. ere is always
this necessary dierence: as for reconciliation, in 2 Cor. 5,
God was in Christ reconciling; then, Christ being rejected,
a ministry is committed to Paul and others, Christ having
been made sin for us.
Christ, then, has made good His title as against the
world for God and as of God, as the Faithful Witness. It
is, when we have eyes to see (that is John 9), an immense
blessing to us. Light has come into the world, yea the veil
has been rent, and we have the light of God Himself, yea
the revelation of God as light (and we are also light in the
Lord, He being our life), so as to walk in the light as He
is in the light. Oh, that that light may penetrate utterly
through us, so that all may be light in communion with
Him! Yet this is a great thing to say, but the perfection of
the Christian, not to say perhaps attained, but seen and, in
the nature given to us, sought after.
But there was more. He was a faithful Man; but there
was an adversary who had the power of death over man,
and ruled the world, and could bring the world against this
witness as having the power of death. No doubt in Christ,
as the Faithful Witness, he had nothing; but then, if Christ
had not subjected Himself to death, He must have remained
alone, as we have seen, having gone to heaven with twelve
legions of angels, in the right of His own perfectness, but
left us out and the world under Satan’s power. But these
were not His thoughts, nor the counsel of God, nor suited
to His glory: the scriptures had spoken dierently, and they
(the expression of God’s mind; and what could give them
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greater authority that this reference to them of the Lord’s?)
must be fullled. “ How, then, shall the scriptures be
fullled, that thus it must be? “ Christ Himself, the Son of
God, was to die; the scriptures, the witness of God’s mind,
the truth, had said it; and He gave Himself, drinking, in
blessed obedience and love to His Father, the cup He had
given Him to drink. But it is the special side of this which
regarded His power and title over the world, and victory
over the prince of it, which we are here to consider. Satan
committed himself completely in the exercise of this power
of death, and dominion over the world; but it was all he
had. He was the prince of this world, and it was the hour
of darkness. And Christ, in obedience, subjects himself
to this last and absolute putting forth of Satan’s whole
power over men and in death, a power sustained too by the
pronounced judgment of God. But it is with the former
we have to do here, though it were nothing without this
latter. But the prince of this world was judged. By death
Christ brought to naught the power of him who had the
power of death. In the resurrection He comes up in that
power of life which left no trace of Satan’s power behind.
Indeed, according to His trust in Jehovah, no corruption
passed upon Him, no moment’s trace of anything that was
not the power of the Holy Ghost. He gave Himself up to
death, His spirit to His Father, and never saw corruption.
In Him, so to speak, resurrection and transmutation were
united. In resurrection, according to divine righteousness,
He took the condition to which power belonged in grace.
He died and rose that He might be Lord both of the dead
and the living, being competent and having the title to
have all power in heaven and in earth.
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In the passage we are considering His ascension is not
touched on, but His coming forth from the whole result
of Satan’s power through sin, through the work which
gave Him the place and power of man in the new estate in
which the power of God would place Him. He is the rst-
begotten from the dead, the Man who has made good, in
this nal and conclusive conict, the title of God in spite of
sin, and against sin; and baed all Satan’s apparent success,
so that God is perfectly gloried in respect of that in which
man has dishonored Him, and in which, so to speak, to
the creature’s view, all that God was, all His moral glory,
was brought into question. Christ has taken thus the place
divinely prepared for man, the headship of man according
to God, the whole question of good and evil having been
resolved by His subjugation to the whole power of evil in
death (in life He had ever kept it at a distance in the power
of the Holy Ghost), and, divine judgment being gloried,
made it possible, yea necessary, for God to bring up Him
(and, blessed be God! all in Him) into the perfect place
of blessing, where divine goodness could have its absolute
ow, and that in righteousness-yea as due to Christ, and
so to others as redeemed. But here, we take it as the place
of power and right, according to God’s counsels, in man.
e head of every man is Christ, and He will take all men
out of the power of death, and Satan’s power, though for
the wicked it will be for judgment. He is the rst-begotten
from the dead.
Our book treats of the throne, and of the government
of the world. Hence the third title of Christ applies to
that. He is the Prince of the kings of the earth. is title
is so plain, that I do not enlarge upon it. e making it
good is, after the letters to the churches, the great subject
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of the book; rst, by God’s power in preparatory dealings,
and then by the exercise of Christ’s own power when He
comes. We may remark, that so entirely is government the
subject of the book, that when the bride itself is mentioned
and displayed in glory, it is as a great city, the capital (so to
speak) of God’s kingdom.
But here the church breaks in. When Jesus is mentioned,
it cannot be otherwise. So at the end of the book (chap.
22: 17), and necessarily, in both cases, with the sense
and feeling of her own place and blessings in connection
with Him. If a general entered in triumph, if a judge was
celebrated as the wisest of his race, the wife’s and child’s
feelings would be, when it was seen or spoken of-” at is
my husband- that is my father.” Such is the necessary eect
of the feelings which the consciousness of the relationship
gives, and it is beautiful to see. “ To him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood! “ He may be
the greatest above all princes of the earth, but that is what
He has done for us. His own blood has cleansed us. He
may be great, but He loves us. He may be great, but He
would have us great with Him, and near Him. “ He hath
made us kings and priests to God and his Father.” is
last is the association with Christ in the royal place He
has connected with the earth. It is not children, sons, His
bride, but kings and priests; royal, and nearest, under God,
to a divine place in government; and nearest in access to
Him, when the world is in relationship with God. It is not
children at home in the house. It is ocial glory, though
in its highest character and conformed to Christ’s own, for
He is King and Priest. e exact words are “ a kingdom,
priests,” as in Ex. 19, and pretty nearly literally as in the
Hebrew. is only conrms the character in which all is
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seen here. e saints ascribe glory and dominion to Christ
forever.
Here, remark, we have John himself, the Spirit in the
name of the saints on earth: “ loveth us.” In the following
verse the Spirit announces His coming to the world, when
every eye shall see Him coming in the clouds of heaven,
the Jews too, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of Him. All this is closed, I apprehend, by the
Amen of God Himself as rst and last-Jehovah, Elohim,
Shaddai.
26
ese are the three names I have already noticed,
and which are the well-known names of revelation in the
Old Testament:
27
God, who was revealed to Abraham
by His name God Almighty (El Shaddai)-to Moses and
Israel as Jehovah. Only He who speaks arms here, as
in the prophets, that as He was at the beginning and the
Alpha of all else, so is He the Omega when all is brought
to completion by His power, embracing all things and
subsisting in Himself, embraced by none. is closes the
introduction; and the revelation of the book itself begins
in what follows.
In the address of John, we nd the same character
of relationships, and order of thought as that which we
have already seen. We have neither an apostle, nor “ he
that is of God heareth.” He is a brother and companion
in the tribulation, kingdom, and patience of Jesus Christ.
His ideas range in the kingdom, and Christ’s waiting
for it. Christ sits at God’s right hand, expecting till His
enemies be made His footstool. At present His saints
26 e reading is this: “ I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord
God, the One who is, and who was, and who is the coming
One, the Almighty.”
27 Compare the use of these names in 2 Cor. 6:17, 18, where He
who bears them takes the place and name of Father with us.
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447
are in tribulation. e persecution of John was for that
which is found through the book-the word of God, and
the testimony of Jesus Christ. All the word is such, but it
takes this character when it becomes prophetic. He does
not say the gospel, though that is, of course, the word of
God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. It would not do
here at all. He is not teaching among the saints, but alone
in the Spirit seeing visions. On the Lord’s day is entirely
dierent, to my mind, from what many take it to mean. It
is the lordly day (not the day of the Lord), the Lord’s day of
the week, the position in which Christianity set us as risen.
And thus, though the apostle’s testimony was prophetic,
it was as personally in his risen place he stood when he
gives it. is is always true. No prophet now can cease
to be a Christian. When he gets out of a christian place,
it is false prophecy. His prophecy may have the character
which belongs to the subject of prophecy, that is, God’s
government of this world; but he is on the Lord’s day. I do
not say this in reference to prophecies given now, as if there
were actually such, unless they be false ones, but as to the
necessary position of one who has been, or should pretend
to be, one in christian times. It is not that the prophet was
in “ the day of the Lord “ (at most chapter 19 is such), but
on the Lord’s day he was in the Spirit. He then received his
commission: “ a voice as of a trumpet,” but now speaking
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on the earth. He does not at this moment see, but hears a
voice “ behind him.”
28
e voice
29
tells him to write what he saw in a book, and
to send it to the seven churches in Asia. He turns to see who
speaks to him, and sees, rst, seven golden candlesticks,
which was the substantive object of the vision; but, for the
moment, his attention is attracted to another object. In
the midst of the seven golden candlesticks he sees One
standing like the Son of man. Here we have the vessel
of responsibility for light on earth, corresponding to the
unfolding of power in government above. e seven spirits
were before the throne; and, later, we nd them as eyes in
the horns of the Lamb. Here we have seven candlesticks
which should give light by one Spirit on the earth. It is not
the unity of the body of Christ: this is perfect, and belongs
to heaven. It is the responsible vessel of light on the earth,
of the state of which, as we shall see, Christ judges. Here is
the key to the apprehension of this part of the revelation.
God’s throne carries on all secretly, and in the time of this
book in revealed ways and power according to the sevenfold
excellency of the Spirit- Christ, too, as taking the kingdom.
e candlesticks are vessels of light. Do they give it?
Nor is it here Christ interceding for the weakness of
individual saints on earth, nor representing them before
28 I am strongly disposed to think this intimates that his real
prophetic position is looking out to the government of the
world as then immediately before him. e church was past;
and, as prophet, he was in times beyond it, but he must turn
and give a rapid and general account of the way in which the
course of the church led up to this time. Prophecy always leaps
over from the present time to the end, and specially does not
know the church; but here it was necessary to give the course
of the church on earth.
29 e rst part of verse 11 is left out by the editors.
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God or the Father. He is standing with no garments of
service (He is clothed to the feet) but taking cognizance of
their state. Next, though the details are important, He is the
Ancient of days. It is remarkable how we are brought ever
into millennial connections, kingdom associations: I do not
say, millennial times. at is only at the end-and Daniel,
with whose prophecy this so closely connects us, is never in
millennial times, but he is always in millennial connections,
only in the times of the Gentiles which precede them-and
then the judgment. We have Christ’s character here, not
His going about amongst the candlesticks. He stand there.
at is His place; and His character is such and such. e
prophet sees one who answers to the idea of Son of man. It
is not, I apprehend, any personal acquaintance of John with
the Lord as an individual, but he sees one in the character
of Son of man: and He is, as I have said, not in service with
His loins girded, but His garments down to the foot. He
is at ease with power to judge; girt under the breast with
divine righteousness. en we nd Him, just as in Dan. 7,
to be the Ancient of days. But further, His eyes are the all-
seeing, piercing, power of judgment; His feet, the rmness
and perfectness of divine judgment as applied to men
according to God’s glory; His voice as the overwhelming
sound of majesty, out of the reach of man’s power. He held
in His hand all subordinate authorities, who represented
Him in light in the church, and the word as judging men’s
hearts and intentions; His countenance witnessed supreme
sovereign glory.
ere is a threefold expression of character and dignity
here. Firstly, the garment, girdle, and the hair of His head
apply to His person and personal state. Secondly, His
eyes, feet, and voice, what He is in divine judgment and
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majesty towards man. irdly, His ocial authority and
glory as man: the stars, the sword out of His mouth, and
countenance like the sun.
Let the reader remark this character and various glory
of Christ here. e apostle-and this also is man in esh
before the glory, characteristic of visional prophecy-falls at
His feet as dead. e reply is the fortifying witness-not of
an angelmessenger, as in Daniel-but of the prophet’s well-
known Lord and Savior, strength for them that are His, in
Him that has overcome. He laid His right hand on him,
saying, “ Fear not.” It is not peace, but dealing with man
on earth, as when Jesus was on earth, only that now He
possesses the dominion. “ I am the rst and the last.” It
is still the Jehovah of the Old Testament, but more, the
Living One. But this is not all; He has the victory over the
prince of evil and weakness. “ I was dead, and am alive for
evermore.” It is Jehovah; but it is man victorious over all
the evil and death itself into which man had fallen; and
He held the place of victory forever. And not only was He
in His person victorious, but He held the power over what
had been the sphere of the enemy’s-death and hades. No
angel could have said this to Daniel. Power-power that
had wrought deliverance-was there; power superior to all
that the enemy could do; and a power which John knew
and now felt to sustain him, and make sure the blessing
which God’s will purposed to bring in, before the evils and
sorrows and trials of the saints came before his mind.
e prophet then receives his commission. ere are
three classes of things which he is to write. “ What thou
hast seen “; “ the things that are “; and “ the things that
shall be hereafter “: but the two rst are closely united
together-” the things which thou hast seen “; and “ the
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451
things that are “; then what is to come afterward. He had
seen Christ standing in the midst of the candlesticks. at
was not “ the things that are “; but the developed state of
the candlesticks is so, and Christ’s judgment as walking
among them; so that the connection is very close. Besides,
this was connected with Christ as John had now seen Him,
and as he knew Him himself: not the highest knowledge of
Him, but a present one-the church on earth; not properly
prophetic, that is, entering into the direct government of
the world, though it might, as moral threatening, foretell
many things as to the church. Still all here was “ things
that are,” belonging to the church period and state, though
to the outward form of it. It has been remarked, that “ the
things which are “ is plural; and “ the things that shall be
hereafter,” singular. is is quite in place here: “ the things
that are “ in detail before the prophet’s mind here; the
future, yet distant, as one short whole.
It may be well to notice here the use made of the
characteristics of Christ in the churches, as conrming
the interpretation of them. e rst two give the state He
was in as Son of man generally; the second that He is the
Ancient of days. Neither of these is specically used; nor is
the sound of many waters, which is also personal greatness
and majesty, nor His countenance as thus seen, showing
in its strength the vastness of His divine majesty, beyond
man’s reach and control, and His personal supremacy as
man. ou applied are His eyes as ames of re, His feet
like burnished brass, His sharp sword out of His mouth,
in His right hand seven stars, and His reply to John when
he fell down-the relative qualities, so to speak, chiey in
judgment, but also in sustaining power. We shall see that
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they are all employed in the rst four churches, and none,
save His title over the seven stars, found in the three last.
30
e angels stand as moral representatives of the churches.
ey are addressed-not the letter sent by them-and they
are owned of Christ. ey are stars (that is, subordinate
authority, but in the character of heavenly light and order
in the darkness) in His hand; so that we must see that which
should stand as a representative authority before Christ,
and in His hand. But the church is that which is judged,
and, as has been remarked by another, whenever judgment
30 It is very possible that John had been visited by messengers
(angeloi) from the seven churches; though, of course, as it is
not revealed, I speak of it, but as suggested by the term angeloi,
and as he was really writing to these churches. Were it even so,
the purpose of the Spirit was not to send an ordinary epistle to
the churches, but to use the occasion for a prophetic unfolding
of the whole scene of God’s ways as unrolled before God’s eyes.
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is threatened
31
if it is not on the angel; it is, in fact, on the
church, or a guilty part of it. e angels stand, therefore, as
the accepted representatives of the churches. Both they and
the churches are seen in the mind of Christ and of God.
e stars are in Christ’s right hand, and the candlesticks
are golden. Both are looked at abstractedly. e candlestick
may be moved out of its place; but, in God’s mind, it is a
golden candlestick of which He speaks.
So the star is that which has the authority of Christ in
the church, and stands before Him as representing it, but
cannot be separated, in idea, from the church itself. I say
this, because I nd “ ou hast left thy rst love.” Who?
31 At least in the rst four. A closer examination of the churches
will lead us to see that in the four rst, where there is blame (in
the epistle to Smyrna there is none) and threatened judgment,
the threat is to be executed not on the angel, but on the
candlestick in Ephesus- or on the guilty parties, as in Pergamos
and in yatira. But in the three last it is not so. In Philadelphia
there is no blame; and here, as in Smyrna, the angel and the
church are not distinguished in the address itself; but in Sardis
and in Laodicea the threatenings are continued as a part of the
address to the angel himself. is, I suppose, connects itself
with the distinction already made between these two classes
of churches; the four rst have a denite church-place, and
the angel, that part which in God’s sight really represented the
church, is abidingly owned at all events, and the judgment is
on the inconsistent part, or what falsied the public testimony.
But, when we come to Sardis, we go back (for yatira goes
on to the end); when speaking of the mass, the better and
witnessing part comes out as witness, witness against Jezebel;
if they are not a witness they are nothing at all. e corporate
constitution is null here. Hence, if there be failure, the whole
thing fails and is judged with the world, and any faithful ones
become a distinctive blessed remnant; because faithful witness
is the whole thing. Hence, when Christ has to become that, the
church so ruined is to be spued out of His mouth.
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the angel: so it is said; but surely the church as such. Yet it
is “thy candlestick,” that is, its public acknowledged status
before the world as light-bearer. So that what the ear that
can hear is to hear is what is said to the churches, but all
is said to the angel. So to Smyrna, “ Fear none of those
things which thou shalt suer; Satan shall cast of you,” etc.
Similar things are found in yatira. So in Pergamos, “
Antipas was slain among you.” Indeed, it is impossible to
read the epistles to the churches without seeing that the
angel and the churches are identied; only that the angel
is looked at abstractedly in its representative character, the
churches dealt with in their actual state, and as composed
of individuals. e whole body is responsible, and dealt
with in detail of judgment; but Christ looks at the ideal
responsible personage: a thought which will be in fact
realized by every one that hears His words. An individual
may be in this, if he be the intelligent vessel of Christ’s
mind, in the midst of an assembly; so all those who are so.
But the assembly is responsible, and all that hear Christ’s
warning.
e history given to us is the moral state of the church,
and applicable to every assembly; and, indeed, to every
Christian at all times, according to spiritual wisdom
in application. is state I shall refer to, and it will, as a
consequence, give its historical application in the succession
of churches. e rst has left its rst love; the last is to be
spued out of Christ’s mouth. ey follow thus:-
(r) Ephesus: the church has left its rst love, and if it does
not repent will be removed out of its place. (2) Smyrna: it
is persecuted. ose who pretend to be the ancient people
of God are specially in view. (3) Pergamos: martyrdom
has been going on, and the church is there where Satan’s
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throne is- the world which has thus persecuted. But
corruption of doctrine and practice is beginning within,
particularly in associating with the world. (4) yatira: we
nd devotedness and labor, but withal, on the other side,
along with it, a sad state of things-Jezebel, who not only
seduces as Balaam, to mix the world with Christianity, but
commits adultery, and begets children. e evil is active
and fruitful in its own way. is reaches to the end; and the
Lord’s coming is the resource of faith. Judgment will be
special and terrible. (5) In Sardis we nd a name to live, but
death; and, if repentance does not come in, its judgment,
just as the outward world. (6) In Philadelphia is little
strength, but faithfulness to the word, and the patience of
Christ. ese are encouraged by Christ’s speedy coming,
and will escape the hour of temptation which will come
on all the earth. (7) Laodicea is to be spued out of Christ’s
mouth as nauseous, being neither cold nor hot; yet warning
is given.
ese are “ the things that are.” I have no doubt that
in the Revelation, as in all New Testament prophecy,
while the prophecy, properly speaking, takes up the close,
when God begins again to interfere directly with the
government of the earth, or at least to prepare the way for
it, what is analogous in spirit is viewed by the Spirit of
God as a matter of His instruction and warning. ere is
Babylon, and what is unmistakably Babylonish, before it is
fully revealed. ere is Antichrist; and yet many antichrists,
the “ power of the antichrist,” 1 John 4:3; of whom we
have heard; and, as Jude presents it, the manifestation in
apostolic days of those of whom Enoch spoke, who are to
be judged at Christ’s coming. Barriers would be taken away
which hindered the public manifestation of the wicked one;
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but the mystery of wickedness was already at work, and
how has it ripened since! is is an undoubtedly scriptural
principle, and I have no doubt it applies to the Apocalypse.
We may take the churches as the then state of the province
of Asia, a picture of the general state-specimens or samples
of all-and God’s history of the world thenceforth unto the
end; or we may take the things really signied, and the
prophetic part, as God’s history at the close of things.
In chapter 12, where a new part of the book begins,
the prophetic character is absolutely according to the form
of Old Testament prophecy, Israel coming symbolically
directly in scene. Christ’s rst coming, as in Isa. 8:10, is
directly associated with His second. e man-child is born,
the church has been taken up in Him, and the last close is
then there. Analogies may be found in what follows, and
identication with subsisting elements under other forms,
as Babylon; but the history is the history of the end.
I return to the churches most rich in moral instruction
and warnings; but have, however imperfectly, treated of
this elsewhere. I now turn rather to interpretation as more
immediately in place.
In Ephesus the Lord appears entirely in His general
relationship to the responsible church. He holds seven stars
in His right hand, has the authoritative control of all in
power, and is occupied with the inspection of all. He walks
about among the golden candlesticks. e failure of the
church is also seen in its rst principle, not in consequent
details. e judgment is the general and absolute one, if
repentance do not come in. e result of overcoming, also,
is the general one of eating of the tree of life in God’s
paradise. is general character of the rst church, its
statement of general principles in every respect, is a strong
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457
conrmation of the successional character of the churches.
It is much commended; but oh how weighty a notice for
all! It had left its rst love. e measure of self-judgment
is its rst estate. It is not a fallen church awakened up to
Christ’s coming, and by it; but a falling church reminded
of its rst planting in blessing. In the responsible church
individual responsibility comes in. He that has an ear is to
hear what the Spirit says to the churches. e promise is
the calm and peaceful one, belonging to a walk with God,
of full enjoyment of the ripened fruit which belongs to His
paradise-not a special one in special danger.
In Smyrna trial sets in, the natural conservative
consequence, under God’s hand, of growing cold; and the
natural portion of the saints, too, yet often not coming till
coldness begins, as God holds the rst planting safe. But
it is measured. e pretension of those who set up to have
a hereditary title to be God’s people is the commonest
feature of persecution, and the church is in a very low and
despised state in such. Of the rest men durst not join them.
But it is rich. Hence of them, the angel representing the
church, as we have seen, would be cast into prison. God
permitted, though He measured, the persecution. Did
death ensue, the crown of life would follow it. Overcoming,
may our souls remember it is still, and always, the path.
ey that did would not be touched by the second death:
of the rst they might. Here Christ-as Satan seemed to
have power against and above the church-is presented in
a divine character, “ rst and last,” and in evident special
application to the circumstances he had been in-dead, and
had lived again. He did not put His people through what
He had not gone through Himself before them. He would
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assure them, in that path, of divine perpetuity and of life
through death.
In Pergamos He has the sharp two-edged sword. Here
worldliness comes, when the rst love had already waxed
cold, and when persecution was over, and a hostile world
had ceased to drive the church from itself, and force a
dierence on the church, though not always driven it into
its own place-into those joys and hopes which were its
own. e motives, the thoughts and intents of the heart
came under the searchingness of God’s word in Christ’s
hand. e church found itself now in the public place of
the world. Not a rst action of the Spirit in living beauty,
but unnoticed out of its little sphere of testimony; not
a Gentile persecution, stirred up because it jostled old
prejudices in its progress. It dwelt now, had a position and
standing, in the world, of which Satan was the prince-
where his throne was. “ Your eets and armies are lled with
us,” says Tertullian. “ If we leave your cities the empire will
become a desert.” Could Peter and Paul have said that, or
those who were of one heart and one mind? It was another
kind of testimony, not a rst love. It had grown to this,
in spite of martyrdom through Gentile persecutions. en
it had stood rm and weathered the storm. Now Christ’s
sword, not Nero’s must be applied. Inward corruption, the
seduction to association with the world, and to lead those
who bore Christ’s name to go in the public path of the
world, away from God, when, as an enemy it could not curse
and destroy them-this was now the danger-more than the
danger. It was going on, and corrupt practice was taught;
deeds Christ hated had become a doctrine. e Lord
would interfere if they did not repent, and apply His own
judicial power within the church, giving His word judicial
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459
action in their midst, against those who sinned, no doubt,
but so as to act on the conscience of all. It was His coming
to the church in judgment though; His war, by the sword
of His word, was made on the guilty. e word, despised
as instruction and warning and correction, becomes
judgment in the power of Christ. He is Son over His own
house. But if the sword distinguishes in judgment, faith
does in receiving the warning and word in the heart, and
receives its reward according to this spiritual faithfulness.
at word, which would come judicially to distinguish and
sever in the church, wrought in the heart of the faithful;
and the spirit and character of Christ was distinctively
realized, and communion with Him in His separate path
on earth enjoyed. To this the promise answers: they would
have the hidden manna to eat; that is, Christ as known in
His walk down here, though now in glory-the corn of that
heavenly land. e hidden manna was not the daily manna,
but the manna which had been laid up in the ark and kept
as a witness in Canaan. ey would have the distinguishing
white stone of Christ’s own approbation, and on it a name,
a term of relationship with Him in this approbation which
they only would know.
We now come, in yatira, to the general public state of
the corrupt church, yet accompanied by long and unwearied
devotedness. Christ, as we see His servant Paul ever doing,
rst notices all the good He can. e saints have done the
same when their hearts were right with God. How have the
sorrows and suerings and labor and painful devotedness
of the hunted but persevering witnesses in the dark ages
occupied the mind and feelings of thoughtful Christians!
Nowhere, perhaps, is there a more deeply interesting
story; nowhere longer and more unwearied patience;
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460
nowhere truer, or perhaps so true, hearts for the truth and
for Christ, and for faithfulness to Him against a corrupt
church, as in the saints of the middle ages. rough toil
and labor, hunted and punished in spite of it, by a system
far more persevering, far better organized, than heathen
persecutions, violent as for a time they surely were; with
no fresh miraculous revelation, or publicly sustaining body,
or profession of the church at large, clothed with universal
acknowledgment as such, to give them condence; with
every name of ignominy that people or priest could
invent to hunt them with, they pursued their hemmed
but never abandoned way, with divinely given constancy,
and maintained the testimony of God, and the promised
existence of the church against the gates of hades, at the
cost of rest and home and life and all things earth could
give or nature feel. And Christ had foreseen and had not
forgotten it. Weakness may have been there, ignorance have
marked many of their thoughts, Satan may have sought to
mix up mischief with the good, and sometimes succeeded;
and men, at their ease now, delight in nding the feeble
or faulty spot, and perhaps succeed too; but their record
is on high, and their Savior’s approbation will shine forth,
when the books ease-loving questioners have written on
them will be as dust on the moth’s wing when it is dead;
and shame, if shame can be where we trust many of them
may meet those they have despised, cover their face. is
the Lord owns in yatira. It made no part of the church
for men then. It makes none for many wise people now. It
is the rst part for Christ. And here we have a larger scene,
a general condition going on to the end.
I do not think at all that this refers, as some have thought,
to the principle of works as found in popery. Verse 19 speaks
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461
of what is approved of; verse 20, of what is disapproved of.
We have now one who takes the woman’s place, symbolical
of a state; not individual responsible activity, but a state,
as long ago remarked in the types of the Old Testament. I
do not think it matters much if it reads “thy wife Jezebel
“ or not,
32
as the name is moral and the wife of the mystic
representative must be the public general state. But those
who were morally responsible, as actively representing
Christ in the church, suered this state of things. It had
grown into a settled system. She pretended to express the
mind of God, to be the authorized expounder of His mind,
having the Spirit; and she deceived, and taught Christ’s
servants to go on in worldliness and corruption. It was
not seducing them when the seducer was separate from
the body, putting a stumbling-block before them. It was
an allowed state; all let to go regularly on. Corruption
and idolatry in worldliness characterized the state. is
had gone on long. It is looked at as the thing with which
God was dealing. He had given her time to repent; and
she would not repent of her fornication; she was teaching
it, but she was committing it. It characterized the public
state of the outward church. She would not repent. It was
the present state. “ I have given her … and she will not.” If
those who were committing it with her (all who entered
into the spirit of her ways, and carried them on with her)
did not repent, they would be cast into great tribulation.
And her children-those whom she had begotten and
formed in these principles God would destroy, and would
be known as the Searcher of hearts and Judge. I do not
take this as necessarily the judgment of Babylon as such
farther on, but the application of God’s judgment to all
32 All the best authorities, read “ the woman.
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the religious part of it; though the scene be substantially
the same. e character of Christ here given (the reader
may see, I believe, justly given) in what precedes, the all-
seeing piercing power of judgment, and the rmness and
perfectness of divine judgment as applied to men according
to God’s glory. “ He that hath an ear “ is here rst seen
apart from the general body of the church, contemplated
apart. Up to this, “he that hath an ear to hear” comes before
the promises to them that overcome; here after.
When the state-the woman-is the thing to be dealt
with in judgment, the ear to hear is not associated in God’s
mind in the same way with that which is judged. e
prolonged state of the professing church is looked at here.
It is not, as at Ephesus, the general idea, “ I come quickly,
and remove the candlestick,” because it does not exactly
answer His mind, and He expected it. is supposes, in a
certain sense, condence that all will be exactly as it ought
to be: otherwise the relationship ceases. Here, as to the
public state, all was very bad, though there was personal
devotedness. And God, the One going to judge it denitely
as bad, and as an object of judgment, has long patience.
Abraham must go down, or his children, to Egypt, for
the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. Moses He
was going to kill, because Eliezer was not circumcised.
is is God’s way; jealous when He admits to condence;
innite in patience when He must take His character of
Judge. Here He is Judge-He gives to everyone according
to his works. How solemn a thing it is, when the public
professing body of the church becomes the direct object of
God’s judgment!
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463
In verse 24, “ to you,
33
the rest in yatira,” that is,
those who had nothing to do with Jezebel and her ways,
her doctrine, who held the church-the woman-to be (no
prophetess, but) apart from the world, and pure for Christ;
they had but to be faithful to this. God did not expect
from them in this darkness, the light of other days. Only
they must hold fast what they had. Remark here, they were
only a numbered and distinct “ rest “; conrming the idea
that Jezebel represents the public state. Not knowing the
depths of Satan, that is, what they called so, I apprehend
to be plain morality and separation from the world. ey
indulged in corruption and idolatry; it characterized them-
pretending to see a liberty which their acquaintance with
the depth of Satan’s wiles gave them; and pretending to
look on the others as seduced by the deep wiles of Satan, to
hold aloof from the church’s path, from what God owned
on the earth, and where He had placed His Spirit and
word, for all this Jezebel pretended to. ey said, that “ the
rest “ did not know the depths of Satan, in making them
think outward morality and holiness was called for in the
church. So the true saints got the character of being led of
Satan; and the instruments of Satan, that of possessing the
word and Spirit of God. ey were to keep Christ’s works:
that was the depth of truth at any rate. Knowledge they
had little of, even in respect of justication by faith. e
saints of that day were very ignorant.
George, who began the practical separation in Bohemia
and Moravia, after the fall of the Hussites, began with
morality, knew nothing of justication by faith as to
clearness of doctrine. It was introduced later among them,
33 Not “ and “ the rest. “ You “ is plural, and means “ the rest.”
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and through much opposition, and alas! through the
Lutherans with great relaxation of practice.
So with the Waldenses; practice was their great theme.
And this was in its place according to God. Not that the
truth was mighty as afterward to deliver countries; but
conscience was found in those holding Christ as the one
foundation, which, through grace, made them suer and
live for Him.
e promises here are important. ey are not simply
special promises for those faithful within, though suited to
them; but the whole scene of promise and millennial glory
to come, as belonging to the whole church. is is notable
and connects itself with the view we have taken of the
passage, as presenting the whole public state of the church
in which corruption had become the mother of children,
and its public state.
e Greek church comes little in scene here, though
partaking of much of the corruption, because it did not
stand before the eye of prophecy (as it has not been, in
fact), as that which represented the church in the world. No
doubt the accession of Russia has given a large population
and importance to it. But this is quite modern; and all
the East was overrun with Saracens and then Turks, in a
word, with Mahommedans; and these stood in God’s eye
as holding the population there-the world’s religion; and
the Western system as that which was the church before
the world. So, we know, it has historically been.
e promises given to the church are the power of the
kingdom, but, besides that, Christ Himself. is is so simple
and distinct, that what is called for is not interpretation
but spiritual understanding. Only remark, that the subject
here is not Christ’s universal power over all things, but over
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the nations. It is the rule of the world, when the outward
church has been the world and falsely “ reigned as kings,”
falsely set up the millennial reign, and faithfulness has
caused suering; and Christ Himself, as the world will
never see Him or know Him, as the Morning Star. As Sun
He will reign over the world; as Morning Star, He belongs
to faith alone, and is never seen by the world. As Sun, the
saints will be seen with Him; as the Morning Star, they
will see and enjoy Him themselves. us, both answer to
the trial of the saints in the church; though it is the general
glory of the church- all glory, save indeed as Christ is over
all things, and such to the church His body. Here it is the
world. e promise of Psa. 2 made to Christ as Son of God
is conferred on the overcomers. But, besides that, there is
the proper christian privilege. at which the watching
eye, he who watches in the night sees, when the sleeping
world enjoys itself and sees nothing, to be awakened by
sudden judgment as a thief in the night-the Morning Star
which Christ declares Himself in this book to be-that is
given. Christ Himself thus known, known to the heart in
the trial and diculty of faithfulness, is given to him that
overcomes.
e reader will remark, that this church professedly
continues on to the end. Here rst the coming of Christ
is introduced. In fact, the others were passing states of the
church. Here God’s loving patience waited, and the saints
were called to hold fast what they had to the end, till Christ
came.
As a distinct form of existence, the Jezebel character
marked it, when there was nothing else. It is the state before
God’s eye without as yet any other (the three last churches
were not yet come up before Him), and to this state the
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instruction directly applies. But, in a secondary way, the
fact that such a state of things would continue comes out,
as the saints are called to hold fast till Christ comes, and
the promises are directly and openly the church’s at Christ’s
coming.
e church of Sardis presents Christ to us in a striking
manner. He is in the very fullness of His power in respect
of His relationship to the church-the fullness of power in
government-the fullness of spiritual energy to work. He
has this; but it is merely the fact. e stars are not seen in
His right hand. It is not the regular formed order in its right
place, but all spiritual power of working not mentioned in
His relationship to the churches, nor what had been seen
in the things that were (chap. 1: 13-20).
But although thus far seen in a general character, and
not a special one, Christ is not presented here as walking
in the midst of the candlesticks. I do not mean that Christ
had ceased to do it; but He is not so presented here. He is
the source of all spiritual power, the possessor of all spiritual
authority; all that actively represents Him on the earth
belongs to Him. But the previously existing relationship is
not expressed.
It is further to be remarked, that the seven Spirits of
God belong to the comprehensive qualities and power of
the Spirit in connection with bringing about God’s will,
not the Holy Ghost dwelling in the church: of this we
have nothing here. e seven Spirits are seen before God’s
throne, and they are seen as eyes in the Lamb. We have got
into new characteristics of Christ, in reference to His own
power and rights, not what was already revealed of Him as
walking amongst the candlesticks. His coming has been
announced, and the outward successional church followed
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to the end. It was a system wholly corrupt, a mere Jezebel, a
mother and source of wickedness. e Spirit now takes up
Christ’s personal character and rights, and, in this respect,
looks out beyond churchscenes.
e story of Sardis is soon told. We have no corrupt
state, though there was much personal individual evil. On
the contrary, there was the reputation of a moral activity
which had delivered from evil-a name to live. But the real
character of the church was a state of death. And here
remark, that the work of the Holy Ghost is itself not, and
cannot be, the object of judgment. is is evident. God
does not judge His own working; nor Christ, the Spirit’s. It
is the result in man’s hands. us the work which produced
Protestantism was God’s work, the action of His Spirit; the
result is the use man has made of this blessing. Some things
remained; and they were exhorted to strengthen them, for
they were ready to die. e Lord had not found their works
complete. ere was something failing-lacking. It had man
much in it. Christ had not found them complete before
His God.
34
It was not anything corrupt or superstitious
exactly, but wanting in their character and motive. Activity,
but not such as met the relationship of Christ with God
on the earth; they were not Christian enough. Yet they
had received much, and were to remember this, hold
fast, and repent. If the church did not watch-this was the
great point-they had got into the ease of the world, and
were living as if things were settled, and to go on forever;
it was not corruption and superstition, but deadness and
worldliness; if they did not wake up and watch, they would
be treated as the world. Christ would come on them as a
thief in the night, and they would not know when.
34 Note that “ complete before my God “ is the correct reading.
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I have remarked elsewhere the extreme importance of
this threat. Because it is directly declared in 1 ess. 5 that
those whom the Lord owns as Christians would not be
so treated; “ Ye are not in darkness that that day should
overtake you as a thief.” And they are exhorted to watch.
But on the world that day would come unawares, as travail
on a woman with child. e professing church, in its Sardis
state, would be treated as the world if it did not watch.
Not only is the judgment most solemn, but it shows that
the spiritual judgment, that professing Christianity in this
state is (morally speaking) the world in God’s sight, is
just. And note, here, that if we connect (as we should) 1
ess. 5:1, with chapter 4: 14, this judgment will take place
when the saints come with Jesus. Protestantism, for such
I doubt not it is, sad as the thought may be, will be found
and judged as the world at Christ’s coming with the saints.
It is not terrible tribulation and special judgment as with
yatira, but found to be the world. Here, too, the true
saints are treated as a remnant. “ ou hast a few names
in Sardis who have not deled their garments.” ey had
practical christian walk.
e white linen is the righteousness of the saints. “
ey shall walk with me in white.” e church’s works
were not complete before Christ’s God. ere was a lack
of what was properly Christian in them. ose who kept
themselves in their walk as Christians would walk with
Him in white. e same is repeated to him that overcomes,
with the addition that he would not be struck out of the
registers of God’s people. When the once nominal church
was treated as the world in judgment, it would not be even
in the register. All professing Christians are, and in that
sense, in the book of life. ey have not life, surely, unless
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469
born of God, but they all stand on the public registry of
life; a Jew, a Mahommedan, an open apostate, does not.
When the saints were gone, and the nominal body visited
as the world, that would have no real meaning, perhaps
no nominal existence. e saint, faithful while it went
on, would not lose his place on the register. Christ would
confess his name as really His before His Father, and
before His Father’s angels. Here we have the saints very
denitely individualized as to Christ’s owning them, and
in contrast with the professing church judged as the world
below, confessed by Christ above in the presence of His
Father and His angels. e warning to hear, as in yatira,
comes after this distinction.
e church of Philadelphia is the rich and unqualied
encouragement of that which was feeble but faithful. ere
is little church-character, I may say none. All is a statement
of what Christ is and will be for them; only that they
have the comfort of knowing that Christ has fully taken
cognizance of their state, and that, satised of this, they
are to go on, encouraged by His own grace. “ I know thy
works.” is is all that is said. is character of the address
to Philadelphia is very remarkable. e church, the saints,
have to think of Christ, not of themselves. Faithfulness to
Him, however, is noticed. His word had been kept, His
name not denied, the word of His patience also kept, that
is, of the way in which He awaits the time of His glory and
power, through the long protracted evil of the professing
church, in the accomplishment of God’s ways.
In this also they are specially associated with Christ.
is association characterizes all the promises made to
him that overcomes also. Hence what Christ is personally
with respect to such relationship, and His availableness,
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so to speak, for those seeking so to walk, is presented in
the revelation of Him. He is “ holy.” is character must
now specially be responded to. It is individual conformity
(though in the common body and walk of all) to Him
that is looked for in this near personal relationship. He is
“ true,” the one who is truthful in all; the true Son of God,
the truthful revelation of what He is, and we are sanctied
by the truth; true in His word, so that it can be counted on.
But “ true “ especially here refers to the power of the truth,
but the truth seen in Christ’s nature and person, and so
known to us. “ Sanctify them through thy truth; y word
is truth … and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they
also might be sanctied through the truth.” So is He the
Holy and the True One; and it is especially where all has
failed, that this character of Christ has its application, but
a people are yet called to be faithful in special connection
with Him.
So it is in John’s Gospel, as regards Christ Himself
in the midst of Israel; and in his Epistle, where seducers
were leading men astray, and piety became individualized.
Not, of course, as if brotherly love and union were not to
exist, but that personal adhesion to Christ, the Holy and
True One, was needed for it. Out of twenty-six times the
word true is used, it is used twenty-one times by John, as a
kindred word is sixteen times out of twenty-ve. It is the
personal character of Christ separated to God from all evil,
and the true and living expression of all that He presented
Himself as; as that manifested also the nature of all that
was not it.
e next point is that He has the authority of the
house and government to which, as Christ, He has a title,
“ and openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no
oughts on the Revelation
471
man openeth “-an important word in present service. So
to Him the porter opened. No human power, nor Satan’s
either, could hinder it. So now for those who hold fast to
Him. And He had set an open door before them, and no
man could shut it. But little strength they had, but (with
the door open) if there was faithfulness, the service was
easy. is, “ ou hast a little strength,” is real approbation.
ere was not Pauline energy, nor God mighty in any
one as in Peter. Not the energy that led to martyrdom, or
brought kingdoms under its sway; but love to Christ and
His word, that gave desire for the good of souls, and His
being known, He was held to-had authority over the heart.
Hence, there was a little strength: a great thing where all
was loose as to Christ, and His word was held fast, and His
name not denied. People might pretend to be the ancient
people of God; but Christ had His place in the heart, and
hold on the walk and conduct of those whom Christ here
approves. His word was kept, His name owned.
Two evils were before the eye of the Spirit in these
times: the synagogue of Satan, those who founded religion
on ordinances and not on Christ: a present and pretentious
evil” they say.” e other a judgment of the Lord Himself,
the hour of temptation which was coming on the whole
world to try those attached to the earth, as it had been
formed under the eye of God. As to the rst, their
judgment, after all, was light, but a great strength to the
saints; who might seem to act for themselves, and despise
the old traditions and truths, or what were said to be such,
sanctioned for ages. ey would be brought to own, by
God’s ways and dealings, that it was those who had little
strength but were faithful to Christ, His word and name,
whom He loved. ey would have to come and bow before
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the feet of the despised remnant of faithful ones, weak
as they might have been, and to confess, at any rate, that
Christ had loved them. And this is what contents and
satises the heart-the approbation and the love of Christ.
is is what is presented by Christ, and what constitutes
the ruling principle of the heart of the faithful here.
e rst point, then, was Jewish principles invading the
church outside her Jezebel character; that is, ordinances,
traditions, and human authority in contrast with Christ.
e second is connected with the consciousness that the
world is going on to a scene of confusion and judgment, a
time of universal trial. In the light in which Philadelphia
stands, this is clear to those who have the understanding
given by the Spirit of God. Christ is coming. Christ has to
be confessed and held to fast, when all principle is loosed,
God setting an open door before faith, but the world itself
uneasy. e saints who hear with the ear given to faith
will escape the hour of temptation. e reason is given.
Christ is waiting for His allotted crown, and maintains
His exclusive heavenly character, till He rises up from His
Father’s throne.
But the mass of professors are dwellers upon earth,
not pilgrims; they have not their conversation in heaven
waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. But there are
those who have kept the word of Christ’s patience, who
know that He must wait until His enemies be made His
footstool, and wait as strangers in heart on the earth till
then. Christ has taught them this, and given the word
that in teaching directs the path and spirit and conduct
of him that waits. ey wait with Christ, according to the
word of His patience. It is into this, connected with the
love of God, that Paul prayed the essalonians might be
oughts on the Revelation
473
directed (2 ess. 3:5). ey are thus in the spirit of their
mind separate from the world, as He is, associated with
Him. It is not needed to try and prove them as dwellers
upon earth. Here, therefore, His coming is given as direct
encouragement and joy. ‘ You have to keep the word of
my patience. Have patience, but I will keep you out of the
hour of temptation which is coming; and not only so, I am
quickly coming.’ “ Hold fast what thou hast [an earnest and
important word] that no man take thy crown.” In a time
when there is little strength, and nothing but the promise
of Christ’s approbation to encourage, and the return to
Jewish principles in those who profess to hold anything,
it is a great thing to hold fast that that one has, the word of
Christ, not denying the name of Christ, to keep the word
of His patience.
e open door is before us, and it is a great blessing,
and none can shut it. But the special exhortation is to hold
fast that we have, and remember that keeping the word of
Christ’s patience, who now waits the day when His Father
shall cause Him to rise up and take the power, is that
which gives the assurance of being kept out of the hour
of temptation. It will come on all the world, but we shall
be out of it. is must not be confounded with the great
tribulation which comes on Jerusalem especially, from
which the remnant ee. It is far more general-on all the
world.
e promise is very special, as is the relationship with
Christ. e character of the saint’s relationship, if he knew
what his place was, is that of Christ’s. A heavenly man in
the midst of pretensions to be the people of God, which
made nothing of Him, his only part personal faithfulness
along with them that clung to Him, the whole weight of
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474
human traditional religiousness being against them, else all
death around him, yet an open door to serve. e glory
which follows on this answers to the glory Christ takes in
consequence of His walk.
I do not mean exactly with the Father, as in John 20, but
in the time of His coming glory, walking in communion
with Him. e former was the means of possessing the
latter. He shall be a pillar, says Christ (yes, he who was
weak), “ in the temple of my God, and go no more out. I
will write on him the name of my God [on the faithful one
who had not denied my name on earth, when there was
naught else for him], and the name of the city of my God
[the place of glory and power which God had prepared,
for he had looked for a city which had foundations] new
Jerusalem which cometh down from heaven from my God
[there his thoughts had been], and my new name.” He
shall be fully and openly associated with Me in the glory
as he was by faith in littleness overlooked when there was
nothing but Christ; but Christ for him was all. In God’s
day He will be all, such is the promise, so closely associated
with Christ Himself in the Philadelphia state of things. I
pray the reader to x his attention on the close association
with Christ all through this epistle. Let us look around
and see if we cannot see elements such as these-No Jewish
principles formed in Protestant countries after a name to
live, but death there? No looking out for a time of trouble
on all the world? No truth in there being but little strength
but an open door? If there be, let the reader mark what the
warnings and exhortations of Christ are.
e closing state of things comes next. Church, as to
its place in the world, it yet is. It stands with its angel
before Christ to be judged as such. He takes its works into
oughts on the Revelation
475
consideration as such. But it has settled down into taking
things quietly. It has not a name of excellence compared
with Jezebel, but death. e living elements have been
concentrated in the Philadelphia state. It would not
renounce Christ, would keep up profession, would sacrice
nothing for Him, it would keep the church’s place and
credit, yea, claim it largely on many grounds as a body;
but spiritual power, in individual association of heart with
Christ or trouble for Him, was gone. Christ abhorred such
a state. It was as lukewarm water, which would be spued
out of His mouth. Such was the judgment unconditionally
pronounced on the church of Laodicea. But, as ever till
actual judgment comes, God continues to work, if any
man may have ears to hear. So in Jeremiah: the plainest
declaration that they would go to Babylon; yet continual
calls to repentance, and a statement of God’s way in this
respect on repentance.
In Laodicea, all that they professed to have, all that
man could estimate the value of, was false and human. I
do not mean mere outward riches, but all that could give
a large pretension to wisdom and knowledge and learning,
perhaps a fuller view of Christianity itself; self-satisfaction
in what was possessed: this characterized the professing
church in Laodicea, but utter poverty as to Christ, nothing
of Him-a name to attach to learning and human thoughts,
but of Him nothing. Hence His counsel was to buy of Him
gold tried in the re, true divine righteousness in Him
never separated from life, for it is His nature: and white
raiment, the power of this association with Christ in what
is displayed in man, living righteousness; and to have that
true intelligence of the Holy Ghost which makes us see, the
unction of the Holy One. In a word, the divine gifts and
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476
power of Christianity in contrast with what man possesses
as man, with that of which he can say “ gain to me “-man’s
conscious possession of that which gives importance and
value to man in his own mind. e relationships of Christ
to the professing church here are remarkable. e Christian
is a new man, a new creation in Christ, risen into a wholly
new place, on the utter rejection and proved insuperable evil
of the rst man-proved insuperable in the death of Christ.
Man’s and Satan’s business are to exalt and give a place to
the old. It is not here in the world, not at any rate in his own
eyes. e professing church goes decidedly back here into
that out of which we are taken in Christ by faith. Hence
though this has still the name of the church, and professes
to be Christian, it is really wholly in its own claimed moral
place, though thinking itself wiser than ever, o the ground
of Christianity, and on that of the world or natural man,
which consequently comes on the scene in its own place;
and the church closes. What was wholly wanting was what
was divine and new in man. It was the rst man enriched,
even if Christ enriched him. at would be admitted. ere
was no divine righteousness, no specic christian clothing,
the righteous life, according to Christ, of a new nature to
be had only in Him. e teaching of the Holy Ghost was
wanting. Man’s intelligence was wonderfully and wholly in
play. e things counseled to be got make this character of
the evil clear; they are specically divine things connected
with man’s rejection and acceptance in Christ alone, to be
had only in Christ, and from Christ, and nowhere else; not
an improvement of man, but what was divine found in and
obtained from Him.
To this, and the fact of its being the closing state, all
answers. Christ reveals Himself as the “ Amen “ who
oughts on the Revelation
477
secures every promise of God, now man has failed even in
the church. He is the faithful and true Witness in Himself.
e witness of the church as a witness of Him is gone.
He is the beginning of that new creation, of which indeed
the church ought to have been a witness in the power of
the Holy Ghost; but of which He in resurrection was the
Head, the spring, and manifestation; all taking, in the new
creation, its starting point of existence from Hi-a, its place
under Him. Adam had such a place in the old, the image
of Him that was to come-Christ, in the new, of which
the saints are the rstfruits. But here, the church, which
on profession as founded on His resurrection had this
character, having wholly failed and gone back in professed
riches of human nature to the old, Christ comes forward as
the beginning of it all, the one in whom it had its rise and its
truth; all the rest being wholly dependent on and owing
from Him. e AMEN maintains the promises now to be
fullled-the faithful and true Witness- One who had, and
now would fully make good, the character of God-which
man, His image, and the church, too, had failed to do-the
beginning of the creation of God, one who, when God
made all things new, as He was now about to do, was the
beginning, the fountain and source of it all, the rst in, and
the rst from, whom it all owed. e position He takes,
in respect of the church, shows the same relationship to it.
He was practically without it, looking at it as gone, though
it were not yet spued out of His mouth. It is a question,
though He warned it yet, of individuals hearing His voice
that they may escape-may have fellowship with Him, and
He with them. He has not given it up; but it has become
wholly human in its real state, as judged by Him; so that
He has to come in to the individual if he has anything to
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say to Him, or Christ to him. “ I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me.”
e whole body of members of the professing church
were judged to be men now, not sons of God or Christians,
though judgment was not publicly executed, but Christ
still acting in grace; divine things (the alone true ones)
recommended, human things boasted in. If the individual
heard Him who still called and knocked, though as outside
at the door, He would have communion with him. e
promise answers to the bringing in of the new order of
things, not heavenly joys, still a share with Christ. As they
had listened in time, they would be on the throne in the
kingdom. It was immense grace, but no more is promised;
not the tree of life, no hidden manna, no white raiment
spoken of to the soul, to encourage it in faithfulness within:
they would not miss the kingdom. Blessed surely, and
wonderful grace, but only just not shut out.
is, of course, necessarily closed the church’s history.
e reader will remark, that the instruction being moral, a
state that is judged, promises ever precious, the warnings
and exhortations are available to the saints at all times. e
special application may be more or less seized. e words of
Christ have power at all times for the heart and conscience;
and this is the force of the exhortation at the end to every
church:-” He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith to the churches.”
We now come to the government of the world. e
failure of the church as a professing outward body, founded
on human responsibility (for as built by Christ for His
glory, it never can, but this is in heaven in purpose, and
judgment certainly does come in this world), had left only
oughts on the Revelation
479
this, and brought in necessarily the intervention of God in
judgment.
e prophet is called up to heaven; for no government
of God was yet manifested on the earth, and the church
was no longer owned as witness; and the rst voice which
he had heard as a trumpet, the voice of the Alpha and
Omega, the First and the Last, the voice of Him who
was behind him in the midst of the golden candlesticks,
now called him up to where His power and activity was
to display itself-the Ancient of days, whom we shall now
rst have to see on the throne; but whom we shall also
perceive as a distinct person as the Lamb. We have a throne
in heaven, instead of candlesticks upon the earth. In the “
things after these,” or hereafter, we nd evidently the last
part of the verse which gives the division of the book; and,
whether translated “ after these “ or “ hereafter,” the sense
is the same; as the preceding things were “ the things that
are.” e judgment of Dan. 7 is here largely developed. e
jasper is divine display. I go no farther. It is not essential
nature, though this be what is displayed; but display of
divine glory in government and judgment-what secures
and protects from evil. I say this merely from its use, not
from any notion as to the stone. (Compare chap. 21: 18, 19,
and H.) It characterizes divine display thus in the book.
e rainbow is covenant with creation. e throne thus
gives the government which secures from evil and blesses
creation. e saints, kings and priests, are seen in glory,
enthroned and crowned as kings here (in the next chapter,
priests), and decked with the ornament of righteousnesses
in life. e throne was one of majesty and judgment (not of
grace) Sinai-like, and before it the perfection of attributive
power; the seven Spirits of God were seen. And that which
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erst was the means of feet-washing, and cleansing before
judgment came in, was now solid purity on which cleansed
ones could walk and nd no uncleanness to take up. e
cherubim (four not two, completeness, not witness) were
in the midst of the throne and around it, characterized it
in its inward nature, and surrounded
35
it with what was
their peculiar character. at character is judicial power, as
I have elsewhere remarked, and as all the cases, in which
they appear, show.
But the details show other elements in their attributions
here. ey are heads of the four parts of created existence
on the earth. ey have this under their power as their
attribution, so to speak; man, beasts of the eld, cattle, and
fowls of the air-not of the sea; every one characterized
by rapidity of ight, and power of inward perception.
In verse 8 their service is referred to, and the eyes are
within; this characterized their intelligence, its nature: a
gure easy to comprehend. We know more or less what
it is to have within us a clear perception of what is, of the
nature and motives of what is, around us. ese were full
of eyes before and behind; they saw all things on every
side. e administrative knowledge of the throne was not
a partial knowledge. It was not a mere outward knowledge
of circumstances which governed. e eyes were within.
God, in His Old Testament characters- Jehovah, Elohim,
Shaddai-God, the Supreme Governor, and God once of
promise, always of fulllment, and the Great King over all
the earth, the Creator who faints not, neither is weary, was
unceasingly celebrated by the administration of His power
35 Around and round are dierent in Greek. e rst gives the
idea of distinct objects surrounding; the other, what is round
anything, not necessarily distinct, but viewed from it and
connected with it as a center. In chapter 7: 11, it is around.
oughts on the Revelation
481
in providence and creation. But they do this in a peculiar
character-Holy! holy! holy-in that character, which allows
no evil to be near it, but will be sanctied in all that were
nigh to Him. But this is celebration, not worship. e
elders fall down and worship. Nor only so; they give- and
that characterizes in general the worship of the elders- they
give motives and reasons for it. It is intelligent reasonable
worship. ey worship Him that sits on the throne, Him
who has title over creation, by whom and for whom all
things were created: “ For thy will they were and have been
created.”
Redemption is not yet touched on. I have largely noticed
elsewhere, but must not here pass over, the exquisitely
beautiful character of the moral state and position of the
elders. When the throne of judgment is set, they are on
thrones. e lightnings, and thunderings, and voices left
them in unmoved peace. Why should they not? eir place
was the witness and result of divine righteousness in which
they sat there, which had crowned them; and the exercise
of this judgment left them necessarily in the peace it gave.
But when He who sat on the throne was celebrated, then
they were all activity. ey leave their thrones, they cast
down their crowns, ascribing all glory to Him who alone
was worthy. He that sits on the throne is Christ, but viewed
as Jehovah, and sitting as such, not as a distinct person
seen apart from Godhead, nor as-a Son with the Father in
Godhead; but the Jehovah of the Old Testament revealed
in the Son. It will be remarked, there is no manifestation
of angels here.
We may remark here, that the whole scenery is taken
from the temple, a remark which aids in the intelligence
of the structure of the book, only it is changed in several
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particulars, and, though permanent, answers in some details
more to the tabernacle-the shadow of heavenly things.
In the right hand of power of Him that sat on the throne
was a book, the unfolding of the counsels and purposes of
God, according to His power. It was lled with these, but
perfectly sealed up. e personal glory of the Opener is
brought into evidence by the inquiry, who could unfold and
give eect to them. None anywhere could be found; but the
heavenly elders have intelligence of the ways and mind of
God. Christ can. He is spoken of in His Jewish character,
but in the way of divine power-the Lion of the tribe of
Judah, the Root of David, the source of promise, and the
Mighty One to prevail; but, after all, it was redemption,
and suering for the glory of God, which had given Him
the title. Blessed thought! e prophet must see a Lamb
as it had been slain. Full power and competency to execute
it according to the perfection of God’s attributes were in
Him-seven horns and seven eyes. He was the center of all
that expressed divine power and its displays and results-the
throne, the beasts, and the elders.
e beasts and elders are distinguished here. e Lamb
was in the midst of the throne and the beasts; and in the
midst of the elders. at is, the power of government,
providence and creation, whoever instrumentally wielded
it; and in the midst of the crowned and enthroned company,
who were as added heirs to this, the redeemed kingdom of
priests. e seven Spirits which were before the throne, part
of God’s glory on it, are seen in the Lamb, but as sent forth
to accomplish the divine purposes in all the earth under
the Lamb’s authority. He comes, and takes the book. Now
redemption is celebrated. I would here make some remarks,
as regards the beasts and elders, not with the certainty of
oughts on the Revelation
483
teaching but submitting them to inquiry, in which state
they stand in my own mind, though the inquiry be based
on elements settled in my own mind
In chapter 4, creation and providential power were
brought before us as such, and no angels. Here also
redemption and the angels are seen. Further, in this whole
book (indeed in all scripture), the cherubic animals hold
the place of judicial power, and administer it providentially.
e elders everywhere have divine intelligence of the
motives for praise. is belongs to the saints as such, and
indeed especially to Christians, who have an unction from
the Holy One and know all things, but to the saints as
such. e administration of governmental and judicial
power is not exclusively theirs. ey get it in consequence
of redemption. Further, in chapter 4, the beasts celebrate
the glory of Him that sits on the throne-announce His
character-the elders only worship thereupon. e angels
are not seen. I have supposed then that, redemption not
being yet manifested, the administrative power is not
viewed as taken out of the hands of the angels, for we know
that the world to come is not subjected to them. Creation
and all its glory is seen as such, the living creatures are not
yet the saints; and the angels are not seen apart from that
glory of which they have been the heads. When the Lamb
is manifested, those associated with Him must take the
rst place as connected with Him, and the angels delight
in it. is we have in chapter 5. Redemption brings in the
reign of man in Christ. (Compare Eph. 1:20-23 and I Pet.
3: 22.) e Lamb being now manifested as Redeemer, this
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484
also is manifested. e beasts
36
worship with the elders, are
now associated, and the angels are seen, as such, apart. As
we go on to the farther parts of the book, we shall see that
the beasts recede, and the elders take the rst place.
Here, the beasts and elders, the heavenly saints, I
apprehend, in their double character of heads of creation,
and kings and priests, exercise distinctly the oce of
priests, not in interceding, but in oering up the prayers of
the saints. e intelligence of the elders, the saints, viewed
in this character of priests brought near to God, whose lips
keep knowledge, celebrate the Lamb as worthy to take the
book, and open the seals, and why He is so; namely, that
He has gone through death and wrought redemption-
redeemed to God. I suppose the “ us “ is justly rejected. It
is not who are redeemed that makes Him worthy; but that
He has redeemed people to God out of every nation, and
made them kings and priests, and that they will reign. It
is His work, and its eect and character, that make Him
worthy. Who should open that book of the kingdom, or
the ways of God in bringing it in, but He who had brought
it into existence and all in it, by sacricing Himself? And
here the angels come in with willing chorus in a beautiful
way, owning the eect of this work, and standing farther
o, but in the best of places since it was the one that owned
and gave glory to the Lamb in His work. ey stood in
a circle around the throne and the beasts and the elders.
So every creature joined in the chorus. And the four
beasts say “ Amen “ to the creature. It was their place. e
twenty-four elders fall down and worship. is is their own
36 Verse 8 may very well be read as if “ having harps “ applied
to the elders only. Very competent judges so understand it;
but in chapter 19: 4, at any rate, the four beasts fall down and
worship. Verse 9 should be “ they sing.”
oughts on the Revelation
485
worship. It is more than the “ Amen “ of the beasts to the
praise of the creation. is, though we have made progress
as to the facts in the prophetic history (for the book has
been now taken by the Lamb in order to open it), yet gives
an anticipative expression to universal praise. John hears
it prophetically. e twenty-four elders and beasts made
part of the subsisting glory from which all was to follow-
crowned and enthroned before there was any history.
For the history to begin, the Lamb must take the book.
is is all-important as to the saint’s place when the Lamb
takes the book. To the prophetic eye and ear the angels
fall into their natural place in the kingdom; and then his
ear hears the voice (as Paul’s before the groans of every
creature everywhere) celebrating the glory of Him that was
on the throne, and of the Lamb. Seen they could not be yet
thus; but it was, so to speak, the natural result of that which
was now taking eect. Many a groan would go up, and
many a sorrow be felt. But the book the Lamb had taken,
the elders were manifested in their redemption-place, the
angels joyful in that which redemption gave them; the
Lamb not yet indeed seen as having taken His kingdom
on earth, but His title to it loudly proclaimed above by
those who knew and were the rstfruits of it, and the ways
ready to be unfolded which led to it. e voice of the result
is prophetically heard, and, as heads of government and
creation, the beasts say, “ Amen.” e voice is true and
right. As elders, the saints worship Him that never fails
in promise, but makes good in immutable nature what He
has purposed in grace. It is not “ him on the throne “ here;
the creatures were not yet in actual relation with it; but He
lives to make all good.
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All this is introduction; to put all in their places for
the kingdom and ways of God-creation and redemption
each having its due glory. And now the history itself will
begin. As yet the beasts are in the foreground-providential
dealings; the (to man) hidden ways of God are going on.
e Lamb opened one of the seals. And one of the four
beasts, these leaders of the governmental ways of God, of
His judicial power, speaks with thunder. It is known that
many leave out “ and see.” Should they remain, it is clearly
a call to John; but I hardly see why it should be a voice of
thunder. e idea that it is the voice of creation looking
to Jesus to come seems to me wholly out of the way. e
groaning creation, or longing creation, does not speak in
thunder. It seems to me more naturally as the expression
of God’s thunder and power-a call to the horses to come
forth. e reading must rst be determined, of course; but
if this be right, it is not without importance, as settling
what I have, at the same time, never doubted, without any
such ground, that the four horses have the same character.
e horse is always the action of divine power, gone
forth into the earth, accomplishing, whatever the agent
may be, divine purpose and providence. A white horse
characterizes triumph, as is well known: such is the white
horse here, triumphant conquest. e next is a state of war
and conict which takes peace from the earth. In the third
God calls for famine on the earth; in the last, all His four
sore plagues (Ezek. 14:21). It is not special dealings with
a revealed antagonistic state, which are presented to us. It
is history, history of the condition of the earth, the special
scene of God’s dealings, where He has been made known,
but where man does not care about God, or perhaps favors
His enemies, and persecutes His people. God deals with
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them, and, though at rst all seems fair and prosperous
in his hands where active power is, the judgments of God
soon reach the scene. For the force of horses as a symbol
sec Zech. 1 and 6, and Rev. 19 It will be seen in all these
cases, that it indicates a matter of public general dealing
of God, something that characterizes the state of men and
God’s dealing with them.
e opening of the seal brings no longer the cry of the
beasts. John sees those who had been martyred among men,
had oered up their lives for God’s word and for testimony
which they held. Hence they were seen under the altar.
ey looked not for peace themselves, but for judgment on
the earth. We are here not in the gospel scene or spirit of
things, but of the throne of judgment and government, as
we see in the Psalms. e time for executing judgment and
avenging their blood was soon coming, but not yet come.
eir faithfulness was owned. White robes were given
them, the witness of accepted practical righteousness, the
witness of its acceptance before others; but they must rest
a little while. Others must yet suer in the last days. God
has begun to deal with the earth; but the last scenes are not
yet come.
But another character given of God to men here comes
in view, already prophetically introduced in the promise to
Philadelphia-” them that dwell on earth.” ey are settled,
and have their habitation there. It is not necessary to be
of the church, in order not to have this character. It is true
of the church; but in Dan. 7 also we have saints of the
high places. And before Daniel Abraham “ looked for a
city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is
God.” He declared plainly that he sought a country, that
is, an heavenly, so that God was not ashamed to be called
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his God. So it was with him, who could say for himself and
others, “ I am a stranger and a sojourner with ee, as all
my fathers were.” It may be that the very departure of the
church may have stamped this character of saints of the
high places on many that are left behind. At any rate those
who have been slain for their testimony easily know the
settled worldly character of those who had slain them, how
they had the earth for their place and name.
Remark, that we have no time or date as yet here, only
there is but a little season to follow. How long the horses
have been pursuing their career in accomplishing God’s
will, since the book was opened, is left wholly untold; only
they were, when the church was present and owned of God,
future things. How the witness is given to them, the white
robes, is not said. e cry is for vengeance on others, not for
blessing on themselves. If it be not resurrection, there is no
reason why even those of the church and all saints martyred
for God’s word may not be there. I apprehend it is since the
church’s rapture. e date of the passage is wholly forward,
there is none as to the time they were martyred. ere
is-as to getting the white robes, and evidently conrmed
by what follows-an intimation of the closing-in of God’s
ways. ey are going to become direct, with revealed (yea
evident) causes of judgment, not providential.
e next thing is a general break-up of all established
authority, and general confusion; everything that seemed
stable on the earth ruined and broken up, so as to produce
bitter terror in the minds of men. But the end was not
yet. ey think it is the day of the Lamb’s wrath, and of
Him that sat on the throne. e martyred saints knew that
others were to be slain; but men had a bad conscience, and
they feared the judgment of the throne and of the Lamb.
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I think this marks conscious enmity to them too. It is
hardly a state of superstitious service; while the character
of their fear seems to intimate that it is the fear of them
that dwell on the earth, when Christianity, the profession
of the knowledge of the Father and the Son is gone, and
is known in conscience to have been rejected. e throne
they had to do with, and the Lamb, speak of wrath to them,
not worship. Why so? We are here surely in another scene
of things where this is on the conscience when it awakes
through fear.
If the great day of His wrath was not come, the
harbingers in rapid and terrible succession were soon to
break in on the unrepentant earth; but meanwhile God
must have and secure a people through them all. is
securing of His people is what chapter 7 sets before us-
the servants of His power holding the elements ready to
devastate the earth. But another servant of God from the
rising of the sun, I suppose in connection with the blessing
of Messiah, the light of God in the midst of Israel (Luke
1:77-79), who has authority over the four prepared to
hurt the earth and the sea, charges them to hold back the
elements of destruction, till the servants of God are sealed.
I have little doubt this intimates Christ (though in a new
character, and in connection with the earthly people) and
the saints. He holds the seal of the living God. Of course
He alone could; but the saints are associated with Him.
He says, “ till we have sealed the servants of our God.”
He cannot now be separated, in the accomplishment of
God’s ways, from the heavenly saints. Not that this is yet
manifested, but is here revealed for the intelligence of faith.
What is preparing is the gathering of all things in one in
Him, as Head, the heavenly saints at least. e church, all
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save those exceptionally to be killed in the last tribulation,
are gathered to Him. His own proper heavenly company
are there. And He intimates their association with Himself,
and must now provide, according to the will of God, for
the people of the saints of the Most High. He does not yet
come to secure their bodies, but to mark them irrevocably
for God. His elect people in Israel. Trouble of every kind
might come, but they were marked for God. In general
indeed even temporal security is here assured. (Compare
chap. 9: 4.)
In the special tribulations of the last day, I do not see
that God’s servants in Israel are slain.
37
At any rate, in the
plagues immediately coming here, being judgments, the
sealed saints are not the objects of them. (See chap. 9: 4-6
and 20, 21.) I speak here of Israel, for with that we are
occupied. e woes are on the inhabitants of the earth, the
opposite exactly of the sealed ones. is sealing is a usual
thing from the time of Christ’s coming, when righteousness
existed which could be sealed. He was sealed by God, the
Father. is was the Holy Spirit. We are sealed by the Holy
Spirit of promise, He being our righteousness on high. But
this is in association with heaven; though Christ was as yet
associated with earth. It is the living God whose seal it is
here; not exactly the seal or promise of the Father, but that
their sure part is from the living God in connection with
37 Psa. 79 gives the case of terrible slaughter in and around
Jerusalem by the heathen; of the application of which I am not
sure. It is not, I think, certainly, the beast who is there active.
Nor am I quite sure they are real saints, and not the saints,
taking all in as a holy people, though as a nation they are said
to be al chesed (not holy). In Dan. 7, “ given into his hand “
refers to times and laws, not to the saints. e beast prevails
against them, but they ee as a body and are preserved.
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the dayspring rising on the earth. e elect number of the
twelve tribes is sealed-the 1000 x 12 X 12.
But there are others who are characterized as Gentiles.
e associations and character are quite dierent here,
and partly in connection with this point, of their going
through the tribulation; and it leads to a remark, which
facilitates the apprehension of the order and contents of
this part of this book. We have, to the end of chapter 9,
three distinct classes of persons; the sealed 144,000 of
Israel, the multitude who praise God in white robes, and
the dwellers on the earth, men who are not sealed. If we
take out the white-robed multitude (chap. 7: 9-17), the rest
is angelic care and judgment. All is in angelic hands. We
come down to providential secret care, and God’s ways by
outward means, of which we may have the secret here, but
which are providential. Nor is anything seen of the Lamb.
Indeed this is the case as regards His being in the scene,
though with a very special revelation of the beast, and we
are in Israel, and do not nd the Lamb again, till chapter
14-a chapter which gives the scenes of God’s ways. It is not
that the dealings of chaps. 7: 1-8, and 8, and chaps. 10-12
are the same; but they are the same in this, that we are in
angelic scenes, and Jerusalem and Israel is everywhere the
center, though the oppressing power might be Gentile. I
do not think chapter 13 an exception to what I have said.
e Lamb is not in the scene, only the names are written in
His book before the foundation of the world. ose saved
and spared could not be in any other way, or on any other
account. But we shall see all this more clearly in following
the dierent facts of the chapters.
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Chapter 12: 10, 11, is a conrmation of what I mean. It
is the celebration in heaven of what took place at another
time.
38
I return to chapter 7: 9. It is entirely a distinct vision
from what precedes. e dierence, I apprehend, in their
character, is this. e vision of the 144,000 sealed ones
is their being marked by God, so as to secure them for
Himself in grace through the coming trials. It is wholly
prospective; they are there marked for this. e vision of
the Gentile multitude is prospective too, but they are seen
simply in the result coming out of the trial, so that no time
of commencement is set. Whenever the time of tribulation
began, those who were in it are found here. e slain ones
have been seen (chap. 6: 9). It may be, that this tribulation
begins with the universal break-up of the end of chapter 6;
but it may have gone on in the previous seals for aught that
is said directly, as far as I am aware. Doubtless it continues
afterward in the following chapters. At all events those
seen in the vision belong to the time of tribulation.
We have now to consider a little more closely their
character. In chapter 14 the 144,000 are with the Lamb-
those of Israel, I apprehend, who have passed through
circumstances analogous to those through which Christ
passed in Israel, and are associated with Him in His
Israelitish royalty on Mount Zion- the remnant of the
Psalms. e white-robed multitude are before the throne;
they have suered for Christ more than the Jewish
remnant, but are not associated with any special place of
His. ey have overcome. eir conduct is fully owned
38 e truth is, this goes farther, when duly weighed, than at
rst sight appears. We have no action of the Lamb from the
opening of the book.
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as righteous. eir relationship is with God who sits on
the throne, and the Lamb-that is, the God of power and
deliverance of the earth, the Judge after the church is gone;
they stood before the throne. ey are not sitting on thrones
around it, nor even standing around it, making part of the
heavenly circle. is the angels did, though the outer circle.
ey stood around the throne, the elders (who have here
the rst place), and the beasts; and these worship God,
falling on their faces before Him. It was now in truth a
new scene and display of God’s working, and there must
be new worship. When the Lamb was revealed, these
celebrate His praise. Now they praise the God whose glory
they own, and who is about to make it good on the earth.
e intelligent church has now, as such, the rst place. e
immediate activity will be in what has the character of
being creation’s providential power. But another interesting
element is found here. He who has the Spirit on earth is
associated in intelligence with the heavenly saints, only He
receives it here prophetically; that is, not by the presence of
the Holy Ghost, the unction by which we know all things.
at is the elders’ part-the church of glory as such; but it is
communicated to the prophet according to the intelligence
of these, and they are interested in the christian prophet’s
knowing it. One of the elders says to him, “ Who are these?
“ and the prophet says, “ ou knowest.” e intelligence of
the Spirit is ever found with the elders.
Another point is brought to light by this intercourse
between the prophet and those who represent the church
as such on high. e white-robed multitude are entirely
another class. ey are not the church on high. ey are
not those who, in the time of millennial peace, knew
nothing but its enjoyment. ey have passed through
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the time of trial in the time when the throne was now
set; but the Lamb was in the midst of it, and had not
yet come to exercise judgment on the earth, to put down
oppression, and to claim His rights in power. Hence they
have a special place-a place, even in the time of blessing,
in connection with their faith in the time of trial; and this
is, I suppose, the general order of God’s ways. ey are
manifestly redeemed-those who belong altogether to the
millennial time, yet exposed to trial; then, having gone by
grace faithfully through the trial, they are manifestly, and
manifested as, sheep. eir robes are white, washed in the
blood of the Lamb. ey are publicly owned as redeemed
and approved, as in Matt. 25 is is a very great and
distinctive privilege, though they are not in heaven. ey
serve the God to whom the throne belongs, always in full
access to His presence in His temple. In heaven there is
no temple; but they have association with the true temple.
Christ has not come again, and received them to Himself
where He is in the Father’s house; but they stand in the
presence of God, as on the throne, in full acknowledgment
and blessing, and always. ey have a xed, and blessed, and
acknowledged place, which even the saints of the millennial
time have not. He that sits on the throne tabernacles over
them, as over Israel once, in the revelation of His presence
(not “ dwells among “ them), and they are forever secured
by His own care from all trial and evil. e Lamb shall
feed them, and lead them to fresh springs of living waters.
God shall remove every remembrance and trace of sorrow;
for they have had sorrow for Him, though surely to their
own blessing and gain. Still God owns it. e suering for
Christ (in whatever time or circumstance it may be, Old
Testament saints or these) always implies participation
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in redemption and special privilege, though the peculiar
relationships may be dierent for the various displays of
God’s glory, and blessing from His hand. So it is with the
white-robed multitude. God’s state is various.
e unfolding of God’s ways on the earth is now
prophetically proceeded with; and we return with it into
angelic or providential dealing, though, as carried out by
angels, of more distinct and direct judgment. e seventh
seal is opened (chap. 8). ere was a lull for a time. No
open dealings to call men’s or the prophet’s attention; a
short lapse of quiet. But God’s ways are preparing in
secret (revealed to the prophet). e seven ministers of
God’s power stood before him, and seven trumpets, loud
announcements of the interference of God, were given to
them. But this intervention follows on what goes on below.
e great High Priest-still here seen as an angel-comes
and stands at the altar (of incense), and gives ecacy to
the cry of the saints who suered on earth; but He was
the minister of power; not here as sounding the trumpet,
or as sent, but as giving the answer in judgment to the cry
of suering. He casts the re of judgment on the earth;
and the signs of God’s terror and judgment, and actual
convulsions on earth, follow.
But specic judgments were ready to follow; and the
seven angels prepare to sound. Such is the connection of the
ways and dealings of God with the saints. All is prepared
for judgment; but as they, however feeble, represent God
on the earth, the wickedness of the wicked, which must
be judged, is directed against them, and their cry brings
the judgment, being oered up by Christ according to the
ecacy of the incense He can add to it.
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Remark here, that when the saints (chap. 5: 8) act as
priests, they add no incense at all-privilege enough to have
such a place, but they can add nothing. e odors are the
saints’ own prayers on earth. Here (chap. 8: 3) the Angel-
High Priest adds much incense to give ecacy to the cry
of the saints.
I have nothing very distinct to communicate to my
reader on the character of the judgments, revealed as
coming on the earth in this chapter. Our best plan is to
follow the symbols as a language. I apprehend it is in the
western Roman earth. Chapter 9 is not, but in the east. At
least the seat of the prophetic agents is there. It is not a mere
state of things under God’s providential ordering as in the
early seals, but positive judgments inicted in a public way
by signal historical facts. On the other hand, the working
of these on men is indirect; in the woe trumpets direct-on
“ the inhabiters of the earth.” Hail is judgment, what I may
call violent stormy judgment: re is judgment in general,
but in its penetrating character discovering and reaching
evil. e judgment here had this double character. Both
were mingled with blood. I am not quite so sure what this
symbol means, but in general it seems to me to be death,
not in the sense of being simply killed outwardly, but of the
power of death, death in a moral way, the spirit of death
in a shocking and revolting way, death as connected with
sin as its character and cause. It was the power of death
working as evil in man.
e outward eect of the judgment was the destruction
of the great in the western earth, of what was elevated in
dignity, and the universal destruction of prosperity. e
second angel brings a great mountain burning with re into
the sea. A mountain is great established power. is is cast,
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497
but in the way and with the eect of heart-discriminating
judgment (it burned with re), into the mass of people,
and they are lled with, brought into, a state characterized
by this deathful power of evil. ey become blood. All
however did not die everywhere among the peoples, but
it reached, in the wide expanse, to what answered to the
extent of the seat of the evil. I suppose “ dying “ here to
be departure from the profession of association with God,
public separation from Him or apostasy.
e next is a great star falls from heaven, a mighty
though subordinate authority, which should have been
the means of light and order from on high, a star (not the
sun), but who loses his place, is apostate from his place
of connection with God as such; and this with mighty
and ardent brightness and heat, and falls on the sources
of popular moral existence. It was bitterness itself, and
exercised the inuence of what it was upon the spirit of
the people, so that they were completely animated by it.
ey became wormwood; and it brought death too; it was
destruction and ruin to individuals from the way it worked
according to its own nature in them.
In the fourth trumpet sovereign authority is smitten,
and all dependent on or subordinate to it, which cease to
regulate the order of the human course of things within the
sphere assigned to these plagues, of which I have already
spoken. I suppose the third part to be the Roman earth
(west), because the dragon with seven heads and ten horns
sweeps the third part of the stars, and they are cast to the
earth-they lose their place of connection with God, carried
away by Satan’s power. Not only the public course of things
was cast into confusion and darkness-the day in sunlight
darkened; but the more private and hidden life of man lost
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the light that guided it. ere was darkness and stumbling,
no perception of God’s will, and no way or light to walk by,
which the human understanding (faculty of seeing) could
prot by.
39
e last trumpet or woes are to fall on the inhabiters of
the earth, those attached to this world and its course, not
on the state and circumstances of the Roman empire. e
two rst trumpets must rst occupy us, as they are spoken
of apart. A word on the structure of this part of the book is
necessary. e course of the prophecy passes over evidently
from the end of chapter 9 to chapter 11:15, and this part
closes at the end of verse 18. Chapters 10, 11, to the end of
verse 14, form a parenthetic portion, the communication
of the little book. We have, from chapter 11: 19, the fully
revealed nal dealings of God, and the evil in respect of
which He so deals; the resolving of the great question,
whether Christ and the saints with Him, or Satan and the
powers under his control, are to have the upper hand in
this scene of the conict between good and evil.
e rst of the woe-trumpets brings forth a peculiar
power of Satanic evil; the second, a more earthly distress,
though both were woe, When the fth angel sounds, one
who rules, or should rule, on high, becomes apostate, loses
his place of connection with God, as such, and becomes
the instrument of letting loose the power of Satan; he
has the key of the bottomless pit. Sovereign authority
was obscured, and the whole atmosphere of men’s mind
darkened, and in confusion. Out of this the destructive
activity of evil was let loose upon the earth. Its instruments
39 e four trumpets, remark, aect all parts of the symbolic
creation -the verdure of the earth, the sea, the fountains and
rivers, and the celestial bodies.
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were deadly and tormenting to men. Yet they did not aect
the general prosperity, nor the grandeur of those that were
exalted, but those who were not sealed with the sealing of
chapter 7. But the object of this judgment was not to put
to death, but such, as that death would be a refuge from
the torment that these instruments of Satan’s malice and
God’s judgment inicted on men; men who, servants of
Satan and the world for their lusts, were now so to their
pain and grief. ose who were not openly God’s servants
were subject to it.
We are here, I doubt not, in the East, and I suppose
especially in Canaan and in Israel. is was the woe. But
identifying characters are given of the instruments of
torment. e general idea is warlike instruments of God’s
providential power in the earth-horses prepared for battle
ravaging as to devouring power, but not independent (their
hair was woman’s hair), though in appearance they came
in their own strength and intelligence. ey swept with
violence forward, as a rush of chariots of many horses.
But whatever outward character they had, there was one
denite and distinct-they were directly led by the power
of darkness, the angel of the bottomless pit, the destroyer.
It was God’s judgment by outward means, but by Satan’s
power on the ungodly on the earth, who sought their
portion in it. Men might persecute the saints, and would
grievously, the Lord using it for blessing. But His hand
would be now upon the ungodly, not yet in nal judgment,
but a witness of His penal anger against wickedness. e
stings in the tails seem to me principles and doctrines
which they disseminated and left behind them.
e second woe was of a more outward character; not
devoid of Satanic power, but not so directly so. It was not
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so absolutely characterized by its subtlety and power. ere
was more brutish violence; men were killed by them. Still
the men mounted on the horses were far less important
than the horses themselves. Men, though instruments, did
far less than the orderings of God’s spirit in providence, and
His ways on the earth. Fire and brimstone are, no doubt,
judgment, but not by the word, nor by chastenings or actings
of God in the earth on men. e lake of re burns with re
and brimstone. It is God’s judgment, inicted but having
in its own nature a consuming power of evil. Scorpion-
work was poisonous, the devil’s tormenting mischief, a
terrible judgment too, to be exposed to it; but this had
the character of human violence and hellish misery and
ruin. It seems to come on members of the Roman world,
though its action be from, and especially in, the East. e
destructive power of judicial evil was connected with what
they announced before them. ey killed by that which
they proclaimed, where it reached. It cost people their lives.
But they had, besides, mischievous teachings, teachings
concentrated in a power by which they did mischief on
the earth-they had heads on their tails. eir defense was
from hell and its power-their breastplates were re, jacinth,
and brimstone. It was hell’s destructive power, as God’s
judgments before. It was the serpent’s mischief behind, but
concentrated in a head of power. But no repentance was
wrought. Put men, so to speak, in hell’s hands, they do not
repent. Idolatry and wickedness, wrong against God and
man, still characterized them.
I would remark, that the objects of the rst woe were
the unsealed ones, which carries us, in eect, eastward to
Israel. e point of departure of the second was the East, its
objects the inhabiters of the Roman earth. us the whole
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501
Roman world has been judged: the West, in general, in the
rst four trumpets; the East in the rst two woe-trumpets,
including the Jews. e nal conict, and their judgment is
yet to come; and the prophet must prophesy again.
is properly begins, I apprehend, in chapter 11: 19,
which is in eect a new prophecy, though it connects itself,
of course, with what precedes in the chronology of the
matter, and is thus interwoven. Indeed, the place of much
of it, of its main historical parts, is given in the parenthesis.
It is to be remarked, that the voice which calls out the
second woe comes from the golden altar, is the fruit of the
intercession of the Lord in favor, of course, of His saints.
is gives a distinct character to the judgment, as in favor
of the saints, which is indeed given as a general principle
at the beginning of the trumpets; but distinguishes this
from the rst woe trumpet, which was ‘distinctly on the
unfaithful, as contrasted with the sealed ones-on those
who were not servants of God. e four angels give the
second woe a very general and sweeping character; as we
have had four seals of judgment, four angels at the four
corners of the earth who hold the four winds, four trumpets
of devastation on the Roman earth, so here the cry comes
from the four horns of the altar, and the four angels are
loosed. I suppose the Euphrates is to be looked at as the
natural, and, till God so interferes, the maintained barrier
of the Roman earth.
In chapter to we come to the parenthetic communication
of the little open book. It had not seals to be opened; it was
given open. It was no longer mysterious and providential
preparatory ways to introduce the Lamb, to unfold which
redemption was needed; nor among mere Gentiles, where
God had no direct government, in respect of Israel. Nor
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does the Lamb appear here as hidden in the throne. Christ
comes to assert His own rights by His own title and power.
Not that it was yet made good; but this was the ground He
took, and from which the revelation that was given owed.
e hidden times were going on, before even the empire
which was the subject of the course of prophecy had yet
appeared. Now the question is openly raised-Is Christ
to rule? And He openly lays claim to the title. On the
other hand the beast, the great public subject of historical
prophecy of the “ times of the Gentiles,” comes forward
too. Along with this, Jerusalem and the Jews come upon
the scene. is could not be otherwise, when the earth and
the beasts and Christ are the subjects treated of. ey are
then the necessary center of God’s ways. But this gives a
distinct character to this part of the prophecy.
e character given to Christ represented by the angel
is, in covenant with creation, supreme authority, and the
rmness of discriminating judgment. e source of it is
heaven, and, I apprehend, as “ clothed with the cloud.”
He still maintains this character, though He comes down.
He holds in His hand now the open book of prophetic
revelation, and claims the wide-owing mass of nations, and
the ordered government of earth. e perfect expression of
the divine authority and power which was to make it good
accompanied it, but the expressed detail of this was not to
be revealed. ere was now to be no longer delay. ere
had been long patience with failure and evil to gather men
to blessing. e time to close it was come. Two angels had
sounded, and in the days of the seventh or third woe-angel,
when he would sound as he was about to do, the mystery of
God would be nished. It would be the plain manifestation
of His government and order, and blessing on the earth,
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503
and known authority, where it ought to be. John was to
take the book and eat it-sweet in his mouth to receive
the communications of God, but bitter for every feeling
when its contents were digested. He was to prophesy again
in view of peoples and kings. I should hardly think the
prophecy begins with what follows. It aords the character
and place in prophecy of that which is afterward opened
out in all its bearings-the internal history of the scene itself
at the close, not its origin, relationships, judgments, etc.,
which are afterward unfolded.
e language of this chapter 11: 1-18, though
sometimes gurative, is not symbolical but literal in its
general character. e prophet was given a reed, and
he was to measure, to put under God’s care and in His
acceptance, the temple of God, the true inward place of
His worship where priests could come, true worshippers
among the Jews and in the consciousness of it, and the
altar (I suppose, of incense), and those that worshipped
there-the true Jewish worshippers of that day. e court
outside was not accepted; and the Gentiles trod underfoot
the holy city forty-two months. But as heart-worship, it
would be there in the remnant, so would testimony, and for
a like period. Day by day, the two witnesses, the adequate
testimony of God, prophesy in the midst of trial. ey bear
witness to the order and blessing of the Jewish state, when
Messiah shall reign, but they are not in that state; not a
candlestick with two olive-trees, but two candlesticks and
two olive-trees. But they are before the God of the earth.
God preserves them to complete their testimony.
e very terms, “ holy city “ and “ Gentiles,” lead us at
once to Jewish associations here. All is a testimony to the
state of things which exists before He who could put His
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right foot on the sea, and His left foot on the earth, whose
voice the seven thunders accompanied, makes good His
power in the earth, and makes the Jerusalem which He loves
the seat of His power on the earth, before the God of the
earth makes His rest-giving power known there. e power
of judgment proceeds out of the mouth, that is, their word
brings it on their enemies, according to their testimony,
to devour those who would prevent their testimony. ey
have great power in this way. Verse 6 ascribes to them the
same order and extent of power as was possessed by Moses
and Elijah. e latter shut up heaven; the former turned
water to blood, and smote Egypt with plagues. To this
latter there is no limit-every plague whenever they will.
is is great power; but they are in sackcloth-in sorrow and
suering: only this power is in their hand in time of need.
But it is only to secure and maintain their testimony, not to
set aside the power of the beast itself.
When the witnesses have completed their testimony,
the beast that is known as the one ascending
40
out of the
bottomless pit shall make war with them, overcome and kill
them. It is very likely there may be literally two witnesses;
but the main point, I apprehend, in the mind of the Spirit
is, that there is, during the time of the beast’s power and
the treading down of the Gentiles, adequate testimony
to the title of the God of the earth. ere was an owned
worship and an owned testimony, though only narrowed up
to the straitest limits which preserved it, the house and the
altar of incense, and an adequate witness. What was really
priest and really prophet, the little remnant, was guarded
of God. e beast was in his last form, here anticipated
40 “ e one corning up,” Rev. 11:7, is purely characteristic, as the
same form is in a multitude of cases.
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in expression as is the whole passage (see chap. 17: 12),
when animated by, and deriving his power and being
from, Satan. It does not follow from what is said, rather
the contrary, that the witnesses are killed the rst moment.
e beast makes war against them and overcomes them,
as soon as their testimony is complete, and kills them. But
it does not, on the other hand, suppose any lengthened
period. e triumph of evil seems complete. ey were to
be likened, in a great measure, to their Lord. Only their
bodies are exposed in a public way in the great street, of the
city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. Israel is
expressly called Sodom spiritually, and Egypt is the world;
utter corruption on the one side; and the oppressing power
of the world or Gentiles on the other-that idolatry and
independence of God, out of which Israel had originally
been called. e victory seemed complete, and the dwellers
on earth rejoice over the witnesses slain, and make merry,
for the two witnesses had tormented them.
A God of the earth, about to take His power and claim
His rights over the earth, it was no resting-place for those
who dwelt there at ease defying Him. But the triumph of
the wicked is short. After three days and a half the breath
of life from God entered into them, and they stood up
to the dismay of those who saw them. ey ascended up,
like Christ in great measure, only with this dierence,
answering to the full insult heaped on them even when
dead, which God could not allow as to Christ,
41
to whom,
save in the moment of atonement, God gave ever testimony
(however He suered), namely, that their enemies beheld
41 eir suerings, of course, bore no comparison at all to His,
seeing He suered from the wrath of God, and in the spirit of
love in which He had no equal.
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them. e likeness, atonement apart, of the history of these
witnesses to that of Christ is remarkable. ey suer for
their testimony in Jerusalem become Sodom and Egypt.
ey lie dead awhile, stand on the earth, and then go up
to heaven. But we have the solemn truth that, on the one
hand, a testimony is given to the Son of God which could
not fail, that is, to His person; and on the other, He remains
in His own holy power, not seen of His enemies, but giving
comfort and a place of testimony to His friends. All this
is tting. Further we nd, that as to outward human evil,
things had ripened. ere is more insolence, more joy, more
open contrast, more public power of testimony; but the
evil more openly unrestrained. A violent revolution on the
earth accompanied the call of the witnesses to heaven; a
tenth part of the city, the great city-I suppose, the city, fell;
the organized system of the earth, a complete number of
men
42
known of God, the fullness of His then purposed
judgment, but not further-the rest are arighted, and turn
back in ignorance (not repentant or converted), to give
glory to God in a relationship in which He no longer stood
to the earth. ey think to save themselves. is proves
that they do not know God at all, nor His ways. But these
men were not the public enemies of God. Still, a suitable
outward eect is produced, as turning men outwardly
towards the true God.
e second woe, that of the horses and riders let loose
from the Euphrates, was now closed. But how serious were
the events of another kind which had happened in the
period allotted to it of God! e holy city trodden down,
the testimony of God raised up, and for a time stopped
42 I doubt whether “ names “ has a particular force, save to
individualize them. (See chap. 3: 4).
oughts on the Revelation
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by the power of Satan exercised by the beast. But this
gives occasion to the last intervention of God, not now
by instruments in mystery providentially ordered, for there
has been open testimony, and open rebellious opposition.
is testimony had been rejected, and the time for mercy,
long displayed, now closed.
Judgment was come. e seventh angel sounds. We
have not, as yet, any details of the closing dealings of God,
by which His wrath is exercised; but it was come. “ e
worldly kingdom of our Lord,” say the voices in heaven,
“ and of his Christ are come.” Such is the song which
sounds out of heaven. It had been announced, and heaven
knew what that trumpet announced. e elders then come
in, and, as usual, give the reasons for praise. God is again
proclaimed as at the beginning-Jehovah, Elohim, Shaddai,
the God of Israel and of the fathers, of the world, of the
promise, and of power. Only now He had taken to Him
His great power and the kingdom. e nations were angry,
but how uselessly! Jehovah’s Messiah and Son would be set
up in Zion; the dead would be judged, the prophets and
the God-fearing rewarded, and the destroyers of the earth
destroyed. It is the general statement of the close of God’s
ways; of judgment and of its eects; the government of
God made good in its nal results.
e time of the dead seems to be taken absolutely,
and is a very important element. e time of this world’s
activity is not the time of the dead. ere is no device or
understanding there; but when God’s time comes, it is the
time of the dead-but to be judged (only here the Spirit
turns more exclusively to what in fact will then come to
pass, the case of the saints) and “ give the reward unto thy
servants, the prophets,” and to all who have been faithful.
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e order of thought or revelation runs thus: “ e nations
have got angry, and y wrath is come, and the time of
the dead to be judged “ [or that there may be judgment] “
and the reward given,” etc. e force, I apprehend, of the
passive form of the verb “ to be judged”
43
is, that judgment
may take place.
I should not exclude at all those, properly speaking,
judged at the end, the wicked dead. But, save what is done at
the beginning of the thousand years, all is given exceedingly
abstractedly. What does happen at the beginning precisely?
It is not of the dead being judged or for judging the dead, but “
the nations angry and y wrath come.” is last sentence,
though general, is the way God treats the open rebellious
anger of the nations. e time of mercy is now closed,
and the wrath is come. “ e time of the dead “ is wholly
general; so is “ to be judged.” e giving reward is denite,
and so is the destroying them who destroy the earth. e
objects are precisely named. e rst point is the contrast
of time. It is not the time of mercy and patience, but of
wrath and judgment; also of reward to prophets and the
just, and the putting away evil on the earth. I confess this
looks little like the precise time of the setting up of Satan’s
great power and wrath. It closes the whole unfolding of the
seven seals, and the ways of God.
His providential dealings with the earth are now over.
His direct governmental dealings now begin. Not that
many other events had now to be revealed. eir place had
been shown in the little open book; but they were a new
and distinct prophecy, a prophesying again, but still, and
yet more clearly and openly, in connection with the Jewish
43 Bengel refers it to God, as in Rom. 3:6. But I apprehend it is
quite general for judgment, for people being judged.
oughts on the Revelation
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people. e brief summary of the same history brought in
in the trumpet period, though the direct object be clearly
Jerusalem and Palestine as a center, is so expressed, that
what is called a spiritual application may be made of it.
Here, unless in the vaguest generalities, it seems impossible.
To this prophesying again, the special religiously viewed
result of the last days, I now turn.
e temple of God was opened in heaven. e book
was open. It was a direct prophetic revelation of events
according to the known tenor of prophecy, when the known
relationships of prophecy were renewed, and God occupied
Himself according to them with the earth, though it were
in judgment. e temple too was opened. Heaven was to
be in relationship with the earth; not in the secret way of
providence, the bearing of which was revealed as a result,
not the things or agents in relationship with God, but in
dealings in which the objects were owned; in which, though
heaven might be and was wonderfully brought in, God, in
His ways, had to say directly to the earth. But then He
must, as we have said, have to do with Jews. e ark of His
covenant is seen in the temple God’s infallible connection
with the Jewish people, only now according to heavenly
counsel, purpose, and perfection. is was accompanied by
all the signs of God’s power in judgment with resulting
convulsions on the earth, and positive judgment falling on
men on the earth.
e vision now begins: what precedes only characterizes
it. A woman is seen in heaven. All is in divine thought
and counsel here, not yet manifestation on the earth. It is
as it stands in the divine mind. e woman, as remarked
elsewhere, is a state of things, not an agent-a subjective
vessel of God’s display of His purposes. Here it is the
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Jewish people; but they are seen as in the mind of God,
clothed with supreme authority, all the mere reected
light of the previous state of Judaism under her feet, and
crowned with the emblem of complete authority in man,
twelve stars. Twelve is complete ordered rule in man as of
God, the stars are the light and witness authority gives,
that is, authority viewed in its character of light and moral
order. But she was in travail to bring forth. Here was one
side of the picture: on the other, the power of evil still
having his place in the sphere of power, in heaven- a great
red dragon. He had seven heads, completeness in an inward
way, constituted completeness in a thing in itself, not in
relationship to others; not compounded but constitutive
completeness. Seven cannot be divided; it is the highest
uncomposed number that cannot. Twelve is the most
perfectly divisible of all. I attach no importance to this, save
as the way scripture uniformly uses these numbers denotes
their character.
e dragon had ten horns, power or kingdoms, very
much of it, but not complete; there were not twelve. e
heads were sovereigns, were crowned. e dragon had
inuence over the third part of those subordinate or lesser
powers which should have given light and order from God
on earth, and had cast them out of this down to a merely
earthly, dark and subject condition. ey ceased to lighten
or govern the earth. He stood to frustrate God’s purposes,
and to devour the child of the woman which was in travail.
Here we must, properly speaking, see all the church-saints
in Christ Himself. If we seek the church in Old Testament
prophecy, we shall nd only Christ. (Compare Isa. 50 and
the end of Rom. 8) Christ is to rule all nations with a rod
of iron (Psa. 2). is He has imparted to us, to have it with
oughts on the Revelation
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Him (Rev. 3). Hence the catching up of the man-child is
our catching up, too. ere is no separating Christ and the
church in God’s thoughts and purposes. It would be the
head without the body. is then was in the counsels of
God; not to make good power in the male child at the
beginning, but to have it caught up to God. Next the
woman, the Jewish mother of Christ, and, in Him, of the
church, has thereon her place in the wilderness. It is not
what is united to Christ which has this, but what preceded
Him, out of which He sprang. is closes the ordering of
the scene and persons; their taking their places in God’s
order.
What follows is historical prophecy. ere is war in
heaven. And the dragon (called the devil and Satan), who
deceives the whole world, is cast out of heaven never to
return, and his angels with him. is is before the beginning
of the twelve hundred and sixty days of the woman’s being
in the wilderness. e rst dealing of the dragon, before his
casting out, was seeking to devour the child; this is met, not
by acting on his position or his being cast out, but by the
child being caught up. All this embraces the whole time of
Christ’s rejection from earth, and being taken up, and our
being caught up. en the saints being with Christ, and the
heavenly Man who is to rule complete and with God, after
this Satan and his angels are cast out of the place of rule.
When cast out (v. 13, 14) he persecutes the woman; and
the date on earth begins with the commencement of her
staying in the wilderness. Historically, we are only as yet at
the time of his being cast out (v. 9); but this casting out of
Satan (the angels have nothing to do with this, the heavenly
or accusing part) calls out praise and gladness in heaven. In
truth it was a great change. Satan was cast out of heaven,
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and all his deceit and work as in heaven was over for, ever.
He might raise up the earth in open war against the Lamb,
or, subsequently, from all quarters the deceived nations
on the earth against the Lamb and the beloved city; but
his deceits connected with heaven and his accusations, his
carrying on a system pretended to be heavenly, but where
his power was developed, His working under the name of
the true God, but against the true God, and true Mediator,
and true saints-all this was closed forever. is was the great
fact, the blessed and all-important fact, full of rest to the
spirit in hope. But several details must be here entered into
for the interpretation of the book. e loud voice which
often occurs has the natural force of a great public fact, to
which universal attention is called. It carries authoritative
announcement from heaven. But we have further to
inquire who speaks here; because he says our God and our
brethren; and the voice is an abstract idea, so that it does
not in itself determine the person or persons who utter it.
ey are various in the Apocalypse. Here it is not without
importance. It is a voice in heaven, yet it is naturally of
many-” Our God, our brethren.” It contemplates, however,
others on earth who are their brethren. ose who speak
have the consciousness of near relationship to God, and
celebrate the setting up of the kingdom of their God, and
the power of His Christ. Christ, however, is seen in other
relationships than with themselves. God was setting up the
power of His Christ.
us we have three classes or subjects: those whose
voices are heard, their brethren, and the kingdom set up.
Add to this, that the event they celebrate is followed by
the manifestation of a distinct body of persons belonging
to God on earth, before the kingdom is established there-
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the woman and the remnant of her seed. at is, we have
those who utter the loud voice, their brethren, and the
woman and her seed, subsequent to this period, but before
the kingdom on earth. is is important as to the order of
events too. ose who celebrate the event with a loud voice
are a class already exempt from the diculties from which
the accused ones are only as a class delivered.
e saints who have part in the rapture, as it is customarily
called, who form part of the man-child, who are actively
associated with Christ, while that association is carried on
by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven in its proper
power, until the moment that this whole process of union
is closed by their going to meet the Lord in the air-these
who have their gloried position are corporately placed in
it, united to the man-child. ese it is who celebrate the
deliverance of brethren, just escaped from trial upon earth,
associated with heaven; for Christ was not yet manifested
for earth, nor the last public trial of His title there begun.
Satan had been yet on high till now, to resist before the
throne of God the blessing of those whose hearts looked up
there, so as to be ready to suer anything rather than deny
the truth and the Lord. Grace had given them the victory.
eir victory was martyrdom. Satan accused these saints,
and exercised his power from heaven over those that were
not saints. He is cast down; this accusing work ceases, and
he loses this place of power. Power is exercised in heaven
to drive him from this seat of power. e kingdom of God
and of His Christ was set up in the seat of power. e eect
would follow on earth when the time was come; but the
power of the kingdom of God was set up in the sovereign
place of authority; for Satan was cast down.
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e brethren were the saints who had been on earth,
faithful in testimony, between the rapture and the casting
down of Satan. For the church is here looked at as a
complete thing in itself (of course united to Christ) before
the government part of the book begins. e brethren are
the saints of the Apocalypse, whose prayers, for example,
were presented (chap. 5), who were under the altar (chap.
6) till now that Satan is cast down. Now all that is in
heaven, all who dwell there, can rejoice. ere is “ peace in
heaven,” but, as yet, terrible things on earth. For as yet the
king was not yet come there in the name of Jehovah. e
saints had been killed, perhaps, by him that had the power
of death; yet they had overcome him. So had Christ, who
died too. “ By the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
their testimony,” does not mean their instruments in the
warfare, but the cause of the victory. It is (dia to) because of,
not (dia you) through. How far they may have used both is
not the question here. But they were in conict with Satan,
the accuser. ey did render testimony, and that brought
death, as it had the Lamb’s; but His blood and the word
of their testimony were the cause of their moral victory,
though, as in the body, they might succumb.
ere is no xed time here till the casting-out of Satan,
or rather the woman’s ying into the wilderness, which
begins the last half-week. Outwardly the ascension is the
only point of departure as to time. So it is in Matt. 24 It
goes from the ascension to the abomination of desolation as
one time, because it speaks only of the remnant’s testimony
in Palestine, adding the fact that before the end it would
go to all nations; then a precise date in the setting up the
abomination of desolation. In Matthew to, it goes from the
mission of the twelve, then setting forth to the coming of
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the Son of man without any supposed break, leaving out
the sending to all nations. For prophecy the church was a
mystery. Here then we have the same order as in Matt. 24
But as the church is already gathered and on high and John
sees from heaven, we have the additional element of its
heavenly apprehension of the eect of the casting-down of
Satan. eir brethren’s toils too are closed-the victory won.
We now turn to the present eect on earth. e dragon,
thus defeated and cast out, has the consciousness that his
time is short, and has great wrath, a source of woe to the
inhabitants of the earth and of the sea-of the ordered scene
of God’s government and light, and of the general mass
of nations. e eorts of the dragon are directed against
the woman who brought forth the man-child-against the
Jewish people. God grants a mighty and rapid escape from
this attempt of Satan. e woman has the eagle-wings.
at is, she has no power save of rapid escape, and this she
does, and is nourished in the wilderness (deprived of the
present resources of the civilized earth) three times and a
half (forty-two months, or one thousand two hundred and
sixty days) from the face of the serpent. e serpent sought
to overwhelm her by a ood of people under his inuence,
in vain. e earth, the scene of divine order in the world,
opened its mouth, and swallowed it up-absorbed, in some
way, the ood of people who would have overwhelmed the
Jews. But the body to be preserved is removed from the
scene of witness; and the dragon proceeds to make war with
the remnant of the woman’s seed: those Jews not hidden
away with the body, but who kept the commandments of
God-godly Jews-and had the testimony of Jesus Christ;
that is, the Spirit of prophecy, which speaks of and reveals
Jesus, and is His word. is is the Jewish aspect of the scene.
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We now turn to what, in the Gentile world, is connected
with it, at any rate in what regards Daniel’s monarchies or
the beast. e prophet sees a beast rise up out of the sea;
the origin of the Roman empire, now viewed however in
its end. So it was in chapter 12, where the origin of all
in the exaltation of Christ to heaven, and the consequent
wilderness state of the Jews as God saw them, was brought
forward, but really for their history at the end. Only there
the purpose of God, and object of the prophecy in the
glory of Israel, is rst brought into view, because they were
the objects of purpose. e beast is seen as coming out of
the mixed mass of peoples. But the heathenish state is not
before us. e heads are not crowned, but the horns. e
distinct kingdoms subsist, and are in view as such. e seven
heads identify it with the Roman empire as a whole, but it
took in the previous empires; not necessarily in extent of
territory, but it absorbed them, and had the seats of their
power in its possession-the horns with the kingdoms into
which it had been divided. But now the dragon, Satan’s
power in the world, gave it his throne, and power, and
great authority. One of the forms of the government of
the beast had been slain, but it was healed-I suppose the
imperial-and all the earth (not world) was in admiration.
ey acknowledge the dragon, the prince of the world, in
his Roman form. e Latin world revived, and the new
revival of it, the beast. “ Who was like him? Who able to
make war with him? “
But more, the beast, thus in scene, used great words
against God. It is the beast of Dan. 7; not only oppressor
of men and of saints, but one who exalts himself openly
against God. He was to continue forty and two months,
the same time the woman was in the wilderness, a half-
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517
week. He is then presented to us as active in blasphemy, to
blaspheme God’s name and His. tabernacle, His heavenly
church, and those who dwelt in heaven, all saints who
belonged on high and were on high, even if they could
not be called the tabernacle of God. e dragon could yet
give him a throne upon earth; but he was out of heaven.
e beast, inspired by him, could only blaspheme those
out of his power and reach. is conrms greatly, its being
after the dragon’s being cast down, if that were needed. But
earth, for a little and a measured time, was more within his
power. He makes war with the saints and overcomes them.
Here detail is not given. It is characteristic. From other
passages, we know that there will be those slain who will
go to heaven; those who, persecuted and driven out, will
escape his hand on earth. He has the general dominion
of the beasts over kindreds, tongues, and nations. It is
remarkable how the Russian and German nationalities are
ignored here.
44
As a general thing, in the world at large,
power belonged to the West, to the beast. Finally, all that
dwell on the earth will worship him, save only those written
in the Lamb’s book of life. Remark here, that the dwellers
upon earth are not an evil class in contrast with what was
to be supposed heavenly-the assembly. But the heavenly
saints as such being in heaven, all who remain are held
dwellers on earth, with the exception of an elect remnant.
I have elsewhere remarked, that it is “ written,” not “ slain,”
from the foundation of the world.
All this is more descriptive than historical. It was what
was needed. ose who have to do with him know the
features of this deadly enemy. If any had an ear, he was to
hear. But physical opposition by violence was not God’s
44 But not perhaps wholly in other expressions.
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way. Power was left with evil till He judged. en the beast
of violence, and his followers, would be killed. Meanwhile
they must possess their souls with patience. And here was
where their patience and faith would be tried.
But another power, a second beast, rises up; not out of
the mass of nations, but out of the ordered scene which has
professedly to say to God. He had the forms of Christ’s
power, but his voice, to a discerning ear, displayed the
dragon. He is the proper Antichrist; false prophet and king
in Israel. e heavenly anti-priestly character of Satan was
closed by his casting out. He gives the same proof lyingly
of his power, and the beast’s title, as Elijah did of the divine
supremacy of Jehovah. He makes re come down from
heaven in the sight of men. He exercises all the power of the
rst beast in his presence, and causes the earth, and those
dwelling on it, to worship the renewed Roman empire. I
do not say he does not deceive the nations; this I suppose 2
ess. 2 proves. Still I nd myself here in a specially Jewish
circle. In 2 essalonians it is more amongst Gentiles, who
have not received the love of the truth. ey are given over
to strong delusions, to believe a lie; and there the signs
referred to by Peter, as given by Jesus to prove He was the
Christ, are attributed to the man of sin, of course lying
ones. Here it is the proof of Jehovah.
But I should doubt that the Gentiles trouble themselves
about His being the Christ, save as a rationalist might; but
they believe a lie, for they are given up to it. His testimony
they will receive of course. A Jewish Christ is not for
Gentiles; but in Judea he will be an Antichrist. He denies
that Jesus was the Christ, and he denies the Father and
the Son. ose who have hated true Christianity willingly
accept this, and his other pretensions with it-of course the
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Jews as well: indeed both his negations and pretensions, so
that he takes Antichristian and, withal, Jewish ground. But
in connection with Christianity and the truth, it is negative
and a lie; while, in Judea and in the world’s scene of
government here, we have the positive side (the historical
in Dan. 1-the king): he is a false prophet (so found at the
end); and here especially, pretending to the royalty of Him
that suered, he is Messiah, the king, but linked with the
Satanic power of the’ revived Roman empire, and setting
that up. is goes so far, that he leads the dwellers upon
earth to make an image to the beast, and gives breath to it;
and it speaks and causes those who would not worship it
to be killed.
us idolatry is set up, and Gentile power, as set up by
Satan, honored. Times and laws are given into the beast’s
hands, and the abomination that causes desolation set up;
but the glorious empire protects Jerusalem and God is
cast out. All are forced by the second beast to have the
stamp, in public avowal or service of the beast, upon them.
I cannot but think that the proper subject of the history
of the second beast, and here we have history, not merely
character, is Palestine-Jerusalem-in connection, no doubt,
with the Roman empire but still, centrally, Palestine. e
rst beast comes up out of the sea at large; the second
beast, out of the earth. He shows his power in the sight of
men. But those spoken of are not merely characteristically
dwellers on the earth, but those who dwell therein, where
earth seems land. I see power in Palestine or Judea;
deception going wider. e world, as such, was running
voluntarily after the beast; but here the setter-up to be
Messiah, the king, compels them to own and worship him.
ere was not readiness to do this where he was. Still, in
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general, while power was in the hands of the rst beast,
deception and wickedness were exercised by the second.
e result would be the blasphemous renewal of the Latin
empire, with general power over the world, blaspheming
against God and persecuting the saints; and in Palestine,
a false Messiah, denying Christianity altogether, and the
claims of Jesus Christ, who deceives men by false miracles,
leads them under his power, and sets up an image of the
beast, and forces them to subject themselves openly and
avowedly to the beast, and that with extreme governmental
tyranny. He enchains men in his deceptions, and has his
local character and sphere in Palestine. It is not dicult
to conceive one setting up to be Messiah, having power
in Palestine, and also religiously deceiving men in general.
Such is the last scene of the prophetic world, as far as
under the original beasts’ power, the times of the Gentiles.
We have now the intervention of God in respect of this
power, and of all evil. But rst we must have the earthly
saints owned, as before the heavenly ones. e prophet sees
a Lamb standing on Mount Zion. He who suered takes
His royalty, and particularly the royalty on Mount Zion or
of David, and with Him companions of the royal suerer,
144,000, with His Father’s name written on their foreheads.
Having suered like Him, they are associated with Him
in the royal place of earthly glory. ey have the place in
principle, in which Christ was revealed on earth. He was
Lamb, but revealed His Father’s name. ey, though late,
had taken this place, and they had His Father’s name on
their foreheads. It is not said, “ their Father’s “; that is, they
had not had the Spirit of adoption on the earth; but they
had walked in the Lamb’s steps, who had this relationship,
viewed as born on earth. ey were associated with the
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Lamb, who was to reign as king on the holy hill of Zion,
and held His title by that word, “ ou art my Son: this day
have I begotten ee “; that Son whom all the kings and
judges of the earth were to kiss, or perish.
But there is connection now with heaven. It is the Lord
from heaven, who establishes the throne in Zion, where His
followers are seen anticipatively; for the throne is not seen
there yet. But the voice of glory and of praise sounds from
heaven. ey sing as it were a new song before the throne,
and before the four beasts, and before the elders. is is a
remarkable statement; for who are the singers? ere is a
general idea (as in chap. 5: 9), “ there was sung.” Still there
is here added, “ before the beasts and elders.” So that we
have another class of singers. It is in no way the song of
the church-saints. ose who sing, sing before them. e
church-saints are viewed apart, identied in position with
the throne.
As contrasted with chapter 5: 9, we have power, might,
praise; that is the public testimony of this, but no priestly
intercession, nor reason given for distinct praise. e
celebration of in-coming power is in its place here. e
intimacy of worship, service, and priesthood belonged to
the living creatures or elders. What was heard from heaven
now was the former. is the 144,000 could learn. ey
had gone through the tribulation on earth, and could
understand the heavenly song of this kind, though not the
beasts’ and elders’ association with the throne. It would
seem to be the heavenly and earthly portions of those
faithful after the rapture of the church; some in heaven
who praised there; others, who having faithfully passed
through the same circumstances, can learn their song
though on earth. ese last are the rstfruits of earth (not
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the church, but for the millennial earth before the harvest),
rstfruits to God and the Lamb; that is, to God as known
in the display of government, which is the subject of this
book. ey had not been mixed up with the Jezebel, or
Babylon, or heathenly idolatrous systems, which had gone
on; their hearts were fresh for God. Nor was there guile in
their mouth; they were without fault; they had been kept
pure, and pure (truthful) in heart from all by which Satan
had seduced men.
Next, in these ways of God, the everlasting gospel is sent
out into the earth and every nation before the judgment
comes. Such is ever God’s way. It is not the special witness
of heavenly salvation and the church, but the old glad-
tidings belonging to the course of God’s dealings with
the earth- that the Seed of the woman would bruise the
serpent’s head, and the kingdom and nal blessing be
brought into the creation. Hence men were warned of
the judgment just coming in, and called to own Him who
made heaven and earth.
Next, the fall of Babylon is announced-the idolatrous
fornicating system; but the beast was not yet destroyed.
Hence, in the fourth testimony of God’s ways, or
third angel (for the rst was not the acting of God, but
the manifestation to the prophet of those who had been
previously faithful, and had a special place)-in the fourth
testimony men are warned, that if they own the beast they
will have God’s wrath. ose who had rejected the beast
had been exposed to his wrath; now, God’s judgment was
just coming in, and woe to those who owned the beast.
Here was the trial of the saints’ faith.
is closed the testimony of God, nor would any more
now be killed for the faith, but the dead receive the public
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reward of their works. It is not the church’s special place
which is noticed here, but the condition of those who have
died in the Lord, as connected with this book. I doubt not
that all departed saints will come in; but the direct occasion
is the closing of the time of suering on the earth, and the
public reward of labor in the appearing of Jesus.
Hence the Lord is immediately introduced, coming in
the cloud. And the two following and closing testimonies
give the double character of His judgment. e Son of man
comes crowned, with a sharp reaping sickle. e earth is
reaped. Here He gathers in judgment on the earth, that
is, the mixed wicked ones are dealt with in judgment, the
righteous are spared, and the wicked taken by the judgment.
But there was another character of judgment-that
which had a special religious character. It is not the earth
was reaped-the judgment of the general state of the world,
the population as it stood in the earth; but that which,
before God and at Jerusalem, held a religious character-
had, however apostate, been the seat of religious profession
and fruit-bearing in the earth-what Israel had been of old:
Christ alone on the earth in truth, by a certain analogy
the professing church for a length of time, and lastly Israel
joined with Antichrist, and the beast (in religious matters)
at the close. In this last state, it was judged; and here there
was no sparing, as in harvest: all was cast into the wine-
press of God’s wrath.
us we have, with the counsel of God as to Israel, the
whole history of the period from the ascension of the Lord,
and of the church to be with Him, to the public destruction
of His apostate enemies on the earth. e heavenly church
is only seen as caught up-and the history is the history of
what passes afterward, till all is closed, essentially of the
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last half-week of the beast, and God’s actings on the earth
during the same period. is is a complete portion in itself.
In chapter 15 we have another distinct revelation,
complete in chapters 15 and 16, but a part of which is
developed in chapters 17 and 18. e general subject is
expressly the seven last plagues, in which the wrath of God
is lled up, closing with the destruction of Babylon before
the marriage of the Lamb and His public manifestation in
the earth. But, before their pouring out, the spared remnant
are seen secure. e 144,000 were Jews who, faithful in
the time of trial, had a place with Christ in His earth by
royalty. ese, in chapter 15 are not Jews-” them that had
gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image.” And,
without excluding a Jew to whom it might apply, these
having been noticed in chapter 14, it applies essentially to
Gentiles. e reader will remark another thing-chapters
12-14 are of far wider extent. It reaches from the rejection
and ascension of Christ, to His appearing, and executing
judgment, and includes, as a period, all that is here, and
far beyond. is, the special judgments of God (not of the
Lamb) within that period, and towards its close.
God is celebrated as the King of nations. e song sung is
in connection with God and the Lamb. It is again Jehovah,
Elohim, Shaddai, exacting judgment in righteousness on
the earth, and on the Gentile power which had oppressed
His people. Hence the song of Moses; but it was withal the
victory of the rejected Lamb. God’s ways were shown in it
(of old, only shown to Moses, His works to the people), but
now made manifest, and that not to mere destruction, like
that of Pharaoh, but to bringing the nations-all nations-
to come and worship Jehovah, whose judgments have
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been made manifest. For the earth this is all of the last
importance. It is the result of all its history.
A word as to the place where the overcomers are found.
ey are on the sea of glass mingled with re. ey are
not sitting on thrones round the throne, nor have they
suered previous to the manifestation of the beast’s power,
at any rate had not been martyrs and brought to heavenly
joy, before the half-week of his power came. But they had
gotten the victory over him, his mark, and every form of
subjection to him. ey had been puried and saved-still
through re. ey stood on what was the sign of purity-the
sea of glass. When it was water, it was the sign of purifying;
but here it is the result, and it is purity; but they had passed
through the re of God’s judicial tribulation to obtain it.
ese are the owned ones of God, the overcomers, even to
death, of the time of the beast’s power, having part in the
rst resurrection.
After the vision of these the preparation for the execution
of God’s judgment comes. It is not, as in chapter 11: 19, the
ark of God’s covenant, His sure relationship with Israel;
yet it is immediately connected with it, and in view of that
people. e “ testimony “ means strictly the two tables of
the law. ence even the ark, as enclosing them, was called
so. It was the throne of God withal, who had this as the
testimony and witness of His governmental requirements
in the world. e sprinkling of blood on it made it a true
propitiatory; but with that we have nothing to do here.
e house is opened, not to look into it, to see covenant-
relationship with Israel, but for the seven angels to come
out with judgments on those who had heeded neither the
throne nor the rule according to which the throne judged.
It was the house of the tabernacle of the testimony. It was
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not Christ as Lord who was coming out, but providential
ministers of God’s power.
We can readily understand how these vials were the
expression of the judgment of the throne of the Lord
God Almighty- of the wrath of Him who never changes,
and must, according to the testimony of what He is, put
down corruption and iniquity and oppression on the earth.
It was not yet giving the throne to Christ to govern as
Prince of peace in righteousness, but it was providentially
the righteous judgment of the throne of God; and this,
though coming from heaven (for the throne was not yet
established on earth), yet was associated with the whole
character of the testimony given when the earthly throne
was set at Jerusalem. e nations would come and fear
the God revealed in the Old Testament, Jehovah, Elohim,
Shaddai, for His judgments were manifested. His earthly
throne had been, we know, in Jerusalem, and would be
again in Christ. is judgment characterized the whole
scene. God displayed His glory in this way, so that none
could approach Him; as when the cloud was on the temple
in Solomon’s time.
e judgments fall on the same spheres of human
existence (only not solely the third part, or Roman empire)
as the rst four trumpets, save that, instead of destroying
the prosperity of society and the great of the earth, the rst
judgment falls on the men who had received the mark of the
beast, bringing them into a wretched and distressing state.
e next judgment falls on the mass of the peoples; and
all who abandoned God, that is, in profession, died. en
all the sources of popular inuence, which characterized
peoples and nations, became deathful. What they drank
in was death, the principle of alienation from God. In the
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fourth, the supreme power on the earth became consuming
and oppressive in the highest degree. ese, like the rst
four trumpets (as it was of the seals, too) stand apart
from the last three, which have a peculiar though judicial
character. Penal judgment falls on the throne of the beast.
e Euphrates being dried up, the way of the kings of the
East is prepared, and the kings of the world are gathered,
by the threefold form of evil, for judgment; and, nally,
Babylon is brought to remembrance for the cup of wrath,
while convulsions rock the earth, and judgment from above
provokes their rage. is last vial was poured out into the
air, the whole circumambient inuence that acts on men.
e judgment on the beast’s throne (fth vial) is felt in
the extent of his empire. His enterprises are not arrested,
but his kingdom is full of darkness, and “ they gnaw their
tongues for pain.” And now the forces are gathered for the
great nal battle of good and evil. e principle of Satan’s
power as the enemy of Christ in the Latin empire-the
renewed form of imperial power-and the false Messiah in
Palestine, a prophet-king-are the sources of this gathering
power. ey promote and proclaim the principles that
gather. It is a notable fact here that the excessively miserable
state of the beast’s kingdom does not hinder his pushing
his war against the Lamb. Under the inuence of these
three spirits of evil the apostate armies are gathered to the
battle of the great day of God Almighty, the nal conict
of good and evil-heaven and earth. I suppose Armageddon
refers to Judg. 5:19, 20. is gives occasion to the solemn
warning to the world that the Lord was just coming as
a thief. When the seventh vial is poured out,. there was
a universal subversive convulsion, such as never had been
in the world. And the great city, the public confederation
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of the civilized earth was broken up into three parts; and
Babylon came into remembrance, to give her the cup of the
erceness of God’s wrath. e details of her judgment are in
chapter 18. Men were plagued with the terrible judgments
of God falling on them; but they only blasphemed His
name. We have three parts of the eect of this nal
judgment of God: the city is divided into three, the cities
of the nations fall, and Babylon comes into remembrance.
e great city I have alluded to is the practically unied
association of European civilization; the other centers of
social life fell. Babylon is the third. It is more particularly
Western civilization viewed in connection with its corrupt
religious side.
We are now arrived at the important chapters which
describe the connection of Babylon with the beast, and the
destruction of the former. One of the ministers of God’s
judgments calls the prophet to see the judgment of the
great whore who sits on many waters, that is, the grand
corruptress of religion, who turns away souls from the truth
of God, exercising widespread inuence over the masses of
population. e kings of the earth had had intercourse with
her, cultivated it in this prostitution of Christianity; and the
inhabitants of the earth-those settled in the sphere of the
civilized order where God’s ways and dealings were known,
had been mentally steeped, besotted with this corruption
of Christianity. Rich as all was to man’s eye, and pious, and
religious, to the Spirit all was wilderness, desolation, and
drought-anything but the garden of God. She sits on a
scarlet-colored beast, the imperial Roman power in its last
blasphemous form. She herself was enriched with luxury,
power, and splendor; in her hand a cup of gold, full of that
with which she corrupted and made drunk the earth. To a
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spiritual eye her character was stamped upon her forehead,
though a mystery to those who were not. She was judged,
however, as a mystery by the spiritual man; that is, he was
spiritual enough to judge her- saw how, if unrevealed, her
true character was not understood. She was the heir, as
the great moral characterizing capital of the world, of that
great city, which rst was the seat of idolatry antagonistic
of the true God, the fertile source of all corruptions of
primitive Christianity, and of all idolatries in the earth.
She was drunk with the blood of persecution in a double
character; rst of saints, and then of the witnesses of Jesus.
is was the character of her who rode. e riding it, or the
time of that, was a distinct thing-the saints she could not
bear-the witnesses of Jesus she could not bear. e prophet
was astonished at seeing her. is astonishment clearly
intimates, I think, something special and extraordinary.
And so it is, that what should call itself the church should
be drunk with the blood of the saints. e foolish notion
of the rationalists (and what have they taught, that is not
foolishness?) that all this is the history of Pagan Rome,
makes this astonishment without any sense. It is Rome, but
Rome under special circumstances.
Here the reader will remark what aids us in the
apprehension of these symbols, that the beast, now that
the explanation is given to the prophet, wholly lls this
scene. At the close, we nd the destruction of the woman,
and who she is. Her name at the beginning of the chapter
had fully told what she was; her own character as such,
independent of the beast, though seen sitting on the beast.
Verses 5 and 6 give the proper character of the woman
herself. When I come to the history of the beast, though
identied with the whole Roman empire, I get the special
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history of its last form-of the very last days, and of the fact
that, as beast it had ceased to exist, yet was found again.
e woman may have been all that she was described in
verses 5, 6, while the beast was not.
But we have now to consider the beast in its full
description, as seen at the end. e beast carries her. No
doubt she thus exercises inuence over him, but it is not
her strength. She sits on him, but he carries her; and to
the beast the prophet now at once turns. It is the seven-
headed ten-horned beast, known as the old Roman but
now ten-horned beast. But its character is followed out
more precisely. It was-is not- and is going to ascend out of
the bottomless pit and go into destruction. It had been, it
had ceased to exist, and at the end it would ascend out of
the bottomless pit-have a distinctly devilish character. In
this it is we have seen him persecute and slay the witnesses;
in this he goes into destruction. e deadly wound the
beast had received in one of his heads was healed, but now
he was in his last form going into perdition. All but the
elect pay homage to him in this last form, seeing the beast,
which had ceased to exist, now present again. is gives in
general, the history and character of the beast.
But there are more particulars as to the heads. e
seven heads have a double application: rst they are seven
mountains, on which the woman sits. We may learn here
how, while giving much more light as to facts, a symbol
cannot be literally taken. e woman was sitting on the
beast. So Rome is seated on seven hills, as well as on the
Roman empire by its inuence. But, besides this, the heads
of the beast were seven forms of power which characterized
it. Five had already passed away when the angel spoke to
the prophet; one was existing, the imperial form. Another
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was to come and subsist for only a short time (perhaps
Napoleon I; in the protracted system, Charlemagne); and
then an extra head, the last beast, but which is the same as
one of the seven; in which form the head and beast, and all
is destroyed. Seven complete the form.
But the beast that reappears after ceasing to exist,
the renewed Roman empire, with its confederate vassal
kingdoms, is a distinct and special existence of the beast,
a resurrection form of the Roman empire come out of the
bottomless pit, Satanic-a substantial devilish existence,
in which, though peculiar in form, the Roman empire
reappeared, that is, the Western, as the empire historically
was. In this state the beast would be destroyed. e ten
horns did not exist at the time the vision was given, but
would subsist one same period with the beast the prophet
had before his eyes, that is, the beast in his last Roman
form. ese ten kingdoms would give their power and
inuence to the beast-would exist, but play entirely into
his hands.
But this brings us to a point of the greatest importance.
e formation of this beast, the empire or imperial head
of power with the ten helping kingdoms, brings evil up to
the point of open war on the part of the kingdoms, with
the Lamb who now appears again. Here the kings are
mentioned as making war, because the object is to give the
character at this time of the great body of nations which
form Western Europe. In the end of chapter 19 we nd the
beast who is at their head engaged in the war, but the ten
kingdoms shall make war with the Lamb. But the Lamb
shall overcome them, for He is King of kings and Lord of
lords. Here we have, not the governmental dealings of God
by angelic power, or in a providential way, but the Lamb
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Himself manifesting His power to the destruction of those
who rise up against Him. But He is not alone. ey that are
with Him are called, chosen, faithful-the saints of God, not
angels (though they may be too); angels are not called-with
this war they have not to do. Of the waters we have already
spoken. It is the inuence of Rome over the populations.
Finally, the ten horns and the beast shall hate the
whore, make her desolate and naked, and eat her esh
and burn her with re. I think that this statement marks
that the beast and the kingdoms’ dealings with her are not
instantaneous destruction in an historical point of view.
God’s nal judgment at the end may be. ey hate her. It
is a change of mind and feeling which takes place as to her,
and makes desolate and naked. ere is progress in this:
they deal actively with her; next they eat her esh. is is
more-they make her contemptible, expose her rst; then
deprive of her wealth and possessions, what formed her
personal body; nally destroy herself, burn her with re.
ey join the beast in this. eir mind, what was unnatural
for these kingdoms, which might have been jealous of the
beast, is governed by God, to unite all of them to give their
kingdom and power to the beast; but this was not giving
it to the woman. And the beast, being a power on his own
score, they join in destroying the whore. e prophet then
states in the distinctest language that it was Rome.
I think, then, that the statements as to Babylon imply a
human desertion and conscation of wealth rst, and then
the utter destruction. To this, I judge, chapter 18 answers.
It is a distinct vision; the display of power, not Christ,
God’s instrumental glory, yet signally displayed-he had
great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory.
e second verse, I apprehend, to be, not the nally utter
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destruction of what had been glorious Babylon, though
anticipative of it in her evidently losing her pre-eminent
place and fair show. “ Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and is
become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every
foul spirit.” is was not yet her ceasing to exist, though
to exist in power and rule it was. Yet, I apprehend, this is
only the general announcement of her judgment, when she
loses her place of power; just as in chapter 12 salvation and
the kingdom was announced when Satan was precipitated
from heaven. She had had the supremacy, by her idolatries
and fornications, over the beast and the horns; she was now
a cast-o harlot, degraded and fallen; and the beast is the
leading power. e details then follow, where her burning
with re is not the rst and immediate thing.
But before the nal judgment (but I think, applicable
at all times, when the character of Babylon is spiritually
seen), God’s people are urgently called to come out of her,
that they may not partake in her sins, and so in her plagues.
Hence, I think, the absence of precision is notable here,
and like all diculties in scripture, introductory to light.
e time of destruction is precise enough. It is at the close
of God’s judgments, and before the coming forth of the
Lamb. It is when the seventh angel has poured his vial into
the air, for nal judgment on the part of God (chap. 16:
17-19), and before the rising up of the beast and his armies
against the Lamb coming from heaven as King of kings
and Lord of lords. But the woman, as to her place and seat,
could be pointed out to John then: not her state (chap. 17:
18). And if there was spirituality enough to discern, the
mystery could be left (perhaps at the expense of life-all the
blood of saints was found in her) at all times; chap. 18: 4.
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But there is a special character and special time, the
character that she rides the beast with seven heads and ten
horns. A long while she contended, so to speak, with the
beast, or it was wounded to death, and she took practically
its place. Towards the end (having seduced the horns for
years and centuries-her habitual character-and made the
people drunk), she rides the beast, the beast having taken
a blasphemous character, the woman drunken with the
blood of saints. e beast had been, was not, and then
appears again. e elements may have been there before,
but when the subject of the vision is complete, you have
ten horns during the same period with the beast, and
at rst the woman riding it, I suppose in this state, but
I am not yet quite clear upon this point, when the beast
has ascended out of the bottomless pit, that is, is directly
under the guidance and inuence of Satan. At rst I have
said, the woman rides the beast; but this changes, she loses
her inuence and power, and is deprived of her wealth and
everything, and destroyed; and the beast acts, the horns
having done with the woman, giving all their power to the
beast in open opposition to the Lamb. e heavenly voice
must be heard to get out of Babylon.
We may remark, that the saints are seen here entirely
on governmental and, in this sense, Jewish grounds. Not
that they are Jews; I speak of the spirit. ey are called out
to execute wrath. I do not at all believe any saints on earth
do this work. Here the horns and the beast do it. But these
judgments are the avenging of God’s people, their cry has
brought it. ey rejoice in it as righteous judgment in their
favor. Verse 6 is not, I think, an appeal to the saints to act
necessarily (the “ you “ is left out after “ rewarded “), but
it is in the mind of the prophet in thinking of them. Evil
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comes suddenly on Babylon, though her burning is not the
rst thing; still I doubt not it is very rapid; famine for one
literal day would not be much, but it comes in one day-
” and she shall be burned with re.” e cry of this self-
styled civilized world-all the classes of modem civilization-
is, however, on her burning. e ten horns are the ten
kingdoms. e ten kings are the kings of those kingdoms
which had committed fornication with her; these mourn,
as all those interested in modern civilization. e fall and
the nal ruin of this great system, of which Rome was the
center, is a grief and pain to them. e apostles and prophets
rejoice: God has avenged them on her. Terrible judgment
for her who had professed alone to have their teaching!
Babylon would be violently thrown down, and not found
any more. is is in allusion to Jer. 51, which I refer to as
showing that it is met by ordinary providential judgment-
here perhaps, more summarily than ancient Babylon. Note
the whole system of Western papal Europe is not punished
for, but in, its wealth and civilization.
No doubt this slighted Christianity had an apostate
character -would order and moralize and embellish the
world excluding Christ; but the idolatrous character of
Rome was the cause of judgment. e nations, deceived
by her sorceries, had turned wholly to this world, and their
moral condition was met by a judgment falling on this state
of civilization and prosperity. ere is no judgment on the
merchants and kings and navigators; but they mourn the
loss of the great city. e system is all broken up with her.
e royal commercial civilized world falls with the upset of
Rome, the people’s power not: but it is given to the beast.
But another secret was found there by divine light: the
blood of prophets and saints, and of all the slain upon the
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earth. She had corrupted the earth with her sorceries; this,
though mysterious, was hardly a secret; but Babylon had
inherited the sad place of fallen Jerusalem. e blood of
saints, and prophets, was all of it found in her. Religion
without God is the cruelest and most relentless enemy
of all testimony to God. But she who was essentially
characterized by this in the world, in whom all the blood of
the slain was found, was now in her nal judgment utterly
and forever destroyed.
In chapter 19, I nd, for the rst time, a reason for
praise given by others than the elders or body of saints,
the church called up on high. But there this is intelligible
because they praise for accomplished judgments, in which
they are avenged. e elders and beasts only fall down,
saying “ Amen “; and worship. ose who praise speak
of the salvation and power and glory of our God; so that
they are in heaven as His heavenly saints, who are not the
elders or beasts. ey have suered, and are in the place
to celebrate the avenging of the blood of God’s servants.
Compare the souls under the altar, in chapter 6. eir joy
is that Babylon is judged, and in fact, her smoke goes up
continually.
God is here praised as on the throne, not as He that liveth
forever and ever. He is seen in government. A voice out of
the throne then goes forth, but which associates him who
speaks with the saints below. “ Praise our God.” I suppose
that it is the voice of Christ; but what characterizes it is
that it comes out of the throne. It is a summons to praise,
addressed from this center of authority to all the servants,
and whoever feared His name. We shall see the subject of
it in their praise, which, on this summons, sounds forth as
thunder. I should say “ subjects,” for there are two distinct,
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537
though connected, ones. Jehovah-Elohim-Shaddai is the
subject of praise, according to the summons, “ our God
“; and the praisers are viewed as servants and fearers of
His name, not the church or children as such. On the
other hand if this thought be just, and it is the Lord, we
see Christ associating Himself with the whole company of
singers in heaven, not bearing the character of the church,
and we get an insight into their place. e two subjects of
the song are-” the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and the
marriage of the Lamb is come.” One is “ Hallelujah “; the
other, “ let us be glad and rejoice.” ese two indeed are, as
to the setting up of divine government, the great elements
of its establishment, direct and accessory in God’s counsels.
e Lord God omnipotent, Jehovah-Elohim Shaddai, the
names of the Old Testament, are revealed in power. He has
set aside all that He, as God, judged of corruption, and now
was actually introducing Christ as King of kings, and Lord
of lords, before whom the beast’s power was to disappear.
But, further, He must have His bride, His spouse. No
doubt His rule goes farther, but that is not the subject here.
But the church must be associated with Him when He takes
the power and the rule. He could not be alone in it, though
He alone has the power and the rule. We have thus, in these
verses, the source, Him whose authority He represents and
wields, and the associate by the counsels of God; not yet
the actual ruler coming forth-the Lord God omnipotent,
and the Lamb’s wife. e marriage of the Lamb was come,
this purpose of God now accomplished, or in the act of
being so; and “ His wife had made herself ready.” She was
arrayed in ne linen, the righteousness of saints. Note, that
this individual excellency adorns the whole church. We
have then, indeed, another class-assistants, those called to
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the marriage-supper of the Lamb-I suppose all the saints
gone up, save the church.
is closed the revelation here. e angel talking with
John declares that these were the true sayings of God, and
forbids the homage he was disposed to oer. He was a
fellowservant, and of those who had the testimony of Jesus;
for the angels must serve Him. And (what might have
been called in question, because of its dierent character,
from the usual manner of the Holy Ghost acting as the
witness of Jesus in the church), “ the Spirit of prophecy
was the testimony of Jesus.” e proper testimony of Jesus
was that of the apostles and Paul, and the Holy Ghost, in
the church; but this prophetic part was the testimony of
Jesus too.
Now heaven opens again. It opened on Jesus as Son of
man and Son of God in the Gospels, the object of divine
delight. It was opened to Stephen when the Son of man
was standing on the right hand of God in heaven, which
is the christian state. And it is now opened for Jesus to
come out as King of kings, and Lord of lords, to execute
judgment and justice on the earth. Triumphant power as
the operation of God rst appears, and characterizes the
vision-a white horse. But there was one that sat on it called
“ Faithful “; such He had ever been, at all cost, to God, in
the testimony of righteousness, in glorifying Him even to
death, that His name might be made good. Obedient till
it was given to Him to rise up and take the power, and
“ true,” so that the witness of God which He did render
was a perfect witness of all God was, and all His thoughts.
His name was “ Faithful and True.” “ Holy and True “
was His name for Philadelphia, for us. is was what was
subjectively needed for us-but now rewarded, and He
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539
coming forth as the faithful and true One. He now does
not serve but judges in righteousness, and makes war on
the power of evil in the same righteousness. His eyes had
the piercing discerning power of judgment, many crowns
were on His head.
But there was an essential glory in His person-a
relationship to God which none knew but Himself. A
name in God is a revelation of what He is, and in general
of what He is in relation to others, as Almighty, Father. A
name in one who takes a place under God is what He is
towards God, or for Him. We have a name on the white
stone which no one knows but he who has it. It is our
special place and relationship in the favor of Jesus. So has
Christ here. He has public names made good in all His
ways, or displayed in glory; but He has also what is the
expression, in that glory, of His secret relationship with the
Father which none knew but He Himself. It is not without
interest to have the analogy of our associations with Christ
and His own in glory.
But other signs of what He was and other names
remained yet to be noticed. He had a vesture dipped in
blood. He came as the avenger. He tramples now the
wine-press of God’s wrath. It is not in the lowliness of
humiliation, and to be trodden down by man that He
comes; He comes to tread down in power. With this is
associated another name-” e Word of God.” “ Faithful
and True “ would make good promises. e Word of God
reveals God, but now in judgment according to what
He had revealed Himself to be. “ e word that I have
spoken unto you, the same shall judge you in the last day.”
He was the Word of God, the perfect expression of that
nature, which must have everything subject to itself. He
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540
was it when the expression of it awakened all the hostility
of the esh which hated the light. Still He made it good
in this humiliation at all cost. He was it, declared God’s
righteousness and truth in the great congregation, did not
refrain His lips. “ I am altogether what I am also saying to
you “-” the Word of God “: but now, in judgment, making
good this in power and vengeance against rebellious men,
the children of disobedience to wisdom’s voice. e armies
which were in heaven followed Him. ese had not the
signs of treading the wine-press on them, but of declared
accepted practical righteousness, while partakers of the
triumph. ey were on white horses also, but clothed in ne
linen, white and clean. Next, the sword of the word goes
out of His mouth to smite the nations. is is general. He
judges by His word. Further, Psa. 2 is now fullled. He rules
them with a rod of iron. e wine-press is the unmingled
erceness and wrath of Almighty God, which He executes.
Lastly, He has on that which shows His public character
in the world, His clothing, the title which He now takes
in the world-” King of kings and Lord of lords.” I do not
know what the meaning of “ on his thigh “ is, unless the
clothing be His bearing it in peaceful government, and His
thigh, His bearing when He makes Himself bare for war.
e summons of verses 1 7 and 18 seem to be general.
e angel stands in the place of universal and supreme
authority, and summons the fowls of the air to the supper
of the great God. I do not see that it specically refers to
the beast here; verse 19 does. We come back in it to the
history of the beast. e kings of the earth are rst, the ten
kings. I cannot say that it is absolutely conned to them,
but, I suppose, those under the inuence of Rome. ey
come to make war against Christ and His heavenly armies.
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541
Satan had raised up the earth, into which he had been
cast, against heaven. e issue was not doubtful. Deceive
he may-never conquer. Both the beasts of chapter 13 (the
second, now seen as false prophet) are taken, and cast into
the lake of re-its rst victims. e rest arc slain with the
sword of Him that sat on the horse, the direct execution
of judgment was Christ’s alone; this was outward present
judgment. e invited guests were satiated with prey. ese
armies of the beast formed, at any rate, a prominent part at
this great supper of God. But this was not all. is was the
public judgment of men by Him who was King of kings
and Lord of lords.
But God was dealing in power after another manner, by
divine, and to us unseen, instrumentality. An angel comes
down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit,
and a great chain in his hand-gures, of course. e dragon
or serpent, the devil or Satan, the power of evil is laid hold
of, bound for a thousand years, and cast into the prison that
belongs to his nature, whence he cannot act on the earth:
not the place of divine torment and punishment. Out of
that he cannot come. But he was shut up, and a seal put
upon him, so that he cannot deceive the nations till the
thousand years of his connement are over. After that he
will be loosed a little season.
We are thus arrived at the beginning of the thousand
years. Babylon, the mother of harlots, the corrupt worldly
church on the earth, judged; making way for the heavenly
one fully associated with Christ in the heavens. Professing
worldliness done away, Satan’s seat under the garb of
Christianity. e beast, the power of antagonist evil, on the
earth with the false prophet who had stirred it up in Jewish
and Antichristian shape, is cast into the lake of re. Satan
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is bound and shut up. us the source, and all the forms
of evil, of corruption and violence, idolatry and apostasy,
were swept away. is is a great act of powerful and mighty
judgment. e storm of God has passed over the earth, and
laid low all that opposed itself to it.
e thrones can now be occupied for judgment.
Previously it was judgment in the way of war; now the
session of right. It is not simply the throne. In Dan. 7 the
thrones were set, but the Ancient of days alone is seen
sitting, and thereupon the beast is judged, the Ancient of
days Himself coming to execute it as we have seen here.
(Compare Rev. 19:16 and
Tim. 6: 14-16.) But now there are sitters on the
thrones: amongst these, two classes are mentioned who
might have seemed otherwise not to have had their place
there-the witnesses slain for the testimony, and those who
would neither worship the beast nor own him. All reigned
with Christ a thousand years. All this is very simple. is
composed the rst resurrection, for there was another. A
general resurrection is a thing wholly unknown to scripture.
is rst resurrection xed the state of those who had
part in it. e second death had no claim on them. ey are
priests of God and of Christ. Note here, the language is all
literal, we are out of the symbolical language of the book.
is once seen, the following verses require, in this short
sketch of the book, few remarks to be made. e saints
reign a thousand years with Christ over the earth. Satan
is again let loose, deceiving the nations on earth (he never
returns to heaven), and gathering them together against
the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Jerusalem).
Judgment from God then closes the scene on earth. e
working of Satan had separated between saints and the
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543
unconverted, who had remained mixed up together when
no temptation was there. e devil is now cast from earth
into the lake of re, being nally judged, as before cast out
of heaven and then subsequently shut up.
After this the great white throne of judgment is set. It
was not now government; though in that there might be
nal righteous retribution-the judgment of the quick, as
indeed it was as to the living who had rejected the testimony
in Matt. 25, and of the beast and false prophet. But the
present judgment was that of the secrets of men’s hearts,
and their answering for their works. us the saints had
no part in it. Death and hades wholly lost their power, and
forever. is is the second death. Death and hades, being
the power of evil in its eects, ceased to have a provisional
and separate existence. at power which they exercised is
now merged in the complete judgment. Death was death;
it is xed in the second. Hades is the closing up the soul in
unseen darkness and separation from the light of life. As
far as its eect on the natural man went, this was done, and
nally, in the lake of re. All that was in any way associated
with death as an instrument referred to living man, that is,
to man in the responsibility of the rst Adam; all this was
cast into nal condemnation and separation from God-
the most terrible of punishments. e second death had
absorbed the rst. ose who had escaped it were in the
power of life in Christ. Satan, who had had the power of
death, was himself under the power of this in the lake of
re. Whoever had not life in Christ was there too.
is closes the scene of this busy world-closes it nally,
and forever. In the rst eight verses of the next chapter
(21) we have the wholly new creation, where God is all in
all: a new earth and a new heaven, and no more sea. Some
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544
remarks are called for here. And, rst of all, how little is
revealed! e course and judgment of the state we are in,
and the glory of the heavenly city, is so largely; but of the
post-millennial state scarcely anything, save some great
general principles, which mainly bear upon our present
condition. “ Sea “ bears a general notion of what remains
vague and unreclaimed, unsubject to man, not reduced into
any order, or regularized relationship to God or amongst
men. is exists no more. I suppose fully this will be
physically true, and many appropriate physical changes
would be associated with it; but into this I do not venture
myself. Atmosphere would cease-human life, by breathing
and blood. I refrain, the rather, as it is simply negative, and,
I think, meant to be so. e imperfect waste of tumultuous
separation would have no existence there. All would be
connected and in order. Further we get the heavenly city
(the Lamb’s bride, the assembly) coming down to be the
tabernacle of God amongst men-not a special people, but
the gloried church, the seat of His power and presence
amongst men. It is not said how these are changed to be
ever there, or what their peculiar state. Flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor corruption inherit
incorruption. More we cannot say: only God “ dwells with
“ (not “ tabernacles over,” as in chapter 7) men. ey are
His people, and He Himself shall be with them and their
God. e whole family of man, redeemed men, have this
relationship, such, after all, as angels, cannot boast of;
though more glorious in other respects, they are never
called His people. Previous orderings of this, such as Israel
and the temple, were only premonitory and preparatory
to this great and blessed position. But His temple we are.
e church never loses its own proper and peculiar place,
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545
but the two forms of blessing-the temple or tabernacle, the
dwelling-place of God, and the people of God, positions
brought out in the church and Israel-are maintained
forever. Only Israel was more gurative and passing than
the assembly, because it was in esh, the church not. All
sorrow would here have ceased forever.
is reproduction and connection of the two systems
of Israel and the church is full of interest, and gives a great
moral importance to each. In their nature they last forever.
But it is in perfect peace and joy-the former things are
passed away. All, save the fact of eternal life, is provisional
now. ey are ways, dealings of God with what is creation
and failing, an admirable occasion of the display of His
grace and all He is, but not in and for itself as such, the
fruit of His absolute and only work, what He has produced.
Now it is” Behold I make all things new.” Sorrow He owns,
and wipes away its tears. It was a right thing in the disorder
of sin. Christ was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief. Death was there too; and Christ, in grace, underwent
death. He must come divinely under all that evil had
brought in, that God might be owned as forgiving it,
gloried as to it, and good have the victory over all evil.
is made His work so profound and glorious, so complete
in itself, and for the glory of God, whence man in Him has
entered into the divine glory: so He states it in John 13:31,
connecting it with previous glory in chapter 17: 4, 5.
I return to my remarks on the passage. ere are a new
heaven and a new earth, and no more sea. I do not look
for more than the atmospheric heaven here-the connected
system of heaven (not heavens) and earth, Ephesians and
Colossians heavens, here heaven-the rst were passed away.
e second verse, I take as characteristic-the city was the
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true holy city, New Jerusalem; it was not human or earthly.
It came down from God-out of heaven, and prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband, t for Christ as to what she
was appareled in, still characteristic, not historic. e bride
was married long ago, before the heaven and earth passed
away; verses 3-5 already noticed are the earthly character
and state of things: God’s tabernacle with men, they His
people, and He their God, and with them. He wipes away
all tears-they belonged to the former state. Death is no
more; that, too, belonged to the former state. Sorrow,
crying, pain, are all gone; they were former things. Verse
8 closes the statement, and applies it to conscience now.
It is the God who sat on the throne, but now His working
and ways are done. He is the beginning and end of all. Two
principles are thus stated as belonging to His ways: rst,
whoever is athirst gets of the water of life freely; secondly,
he that overcomes shall inherit all things. God will be his
God, and he will be His son. e free power of life is to
the comer, the blessing to the overcomer. But, if there was
giving way through fear, unbelief, and sin, the lake of re,
the second death, was their portion-not death because of
sin in Paradise, not terrible judgments on the earth, but
the second death because of casting away and rejecting the
truth when grace had come in.
is closes the history of the book. What follows is a
description of the heavenly city when the Lamb is there;
and His glory made manifest. It is the city, but the city in its
millennial relationships with the earth. It is presented, too,
in the character of millennial association, not of the verses
1-8, last considered. It is the bride, the Lamb’s wife. It is
description, not history, which, as often remarked, closes
in verse 8. e description is given here as that of Babylon
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(chap. 17). e prophet gets, guratively, a vantage point
of view, like Moses, and like the Lord Himself from Satan.
He rst describes it all from without, as it appears; then its
nature- what he did not see in it, but the absence of which
is of immense importance. Lastly, we have what is more
prophetic declaration than vision. It has the glory of God:
immense truth! “ We rejoice in hope of the glory of God “;
its display and its dwelling-place shall be in us. e light of
the city was such; for He that sat on the throne was like a
jasper stone; now it shines forth clear as crystal in unsullied
brightness, even when displayed in the redeemed assembly.
It is in perfect security, gured here according to the image
of a city, a wall great and high. ere is the perfection of
administrative order and power in the creation, twelve
gates. As we saw of the idea of people (v. 3), it had been
foreshadowed in Israel, and the names of the twelve tribes
are found here. e foundations, however, were not the
patriarchs, but the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ey
were the foundation of all christian governmental and
administrative power.
We may remark here, that though, of course, the bride
is the same, it is not in its Pauline character, the one body,
but in its governmental, as founded in connection with,
and an ospring of, the Jewish and earthly system, just as
the child was born of the woman. It is a city, not a body.
We now get its proper perfection. It is measured with its
gates and its walls. It is nitely perfect. It is four square-
the length as large as the breadth-its platform was perfect.
It was twelve thousand furlongs, the number twelve again
marking the administrative perfection in man, only largely
multiplied in fact; but it was as complete as its platform
was perfect. It was a cube, not merely a square-a circle or
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sphere has neither beginning nor end-a square and cube
are equal in every dimension, but each line ends. ey
are nite perfection; the square in principle; the cube in
completeness also. e wall has its perfection, 12 X 12.
It is not divine in its nature-it is the measure of a man,
though God measures it by the angel. e wall, its security,
is divine glory. e jasper here, is not spoken of as clear. It
were out of place. e city is divine righteousness and xed
unalterable purity; as it is said:-” after the image of him
that created him,” “and in righteousness and true holiness.”
Next, the foundations of the wall are garnished with
precious stones. Besides the general idea of every character
of beauty, there is the special character, elsewhere remarked,
of the stones-the variegated display of colors into which
light transforms itself, when seen through a medium, when
God is revealed in and by the creature, or in connection
with his state-in creation, intercessional representation,
and here, in glory. e names of the apostles were in the
foundation which God had laid for the security of the city,
as they had displayed the truth on which that rests, but
the varied display of the light of God was found therein.
e beauty and comeliness which delights Christ in the
church, meet the eye at once when arriving at the city. e
gates were each one pearl. Within, and where one walked,
was righteousness and true holiness, as the very character
and nature of the city itself. ere was no temple seen. God
displayed His glory- the place of His worship, unclouded,
unhidden. God’s glory lit it up, and it was in the Lamb that
glory centered and shone. is closes the direct description
of the beauty and glory of the city itself. What follows is
what belonged to it, in relation to others, and what was
enjoyed in it.
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Within the city, the glory of God gives light, and the
Lamb is its light-giver. e nations walk in the light of the
city itself. at heavenly glory now enlightened the earth.
ey have it, not directly; but the sight of the church in glory
is a yet more tting, more instructive sight to them. ey
learn what faithful ones have got, what the humiliation of
Christ implies. ey will know how the Father sent the
Son, how those whom the world rejected were loved as
Christ was loved. ey will have Christ in His glory and joy
in His reign, but they cannot learn the other truths in the
millennial state, nor can they, therefore, learn them directly.
It would not be suited. ey learn them in the church, in
glory. e kings bring their glory there to it (not “ into
it “). Its exalting is owned by them, and they honor it as
the place of honor. Nothing deled enters, no idolatry, no
falsehood. It cannot be corrupted as the assembly on earth.
It rests not on man’s responsibility, but on God’s power,
and redemption, of which it is the heavenly fruit.
We now come to the descending blessings which are
its blessings, but which ow down on earth. Note here, the
throne of God and the Lamb are now in it. at throne,
which was acting in judgment to bring about blessing, was
now xed in the heavenly city; but it is not the seat of
judgment now. e river of water of life ows out of it-
divine life-giving blessing. e Lamb still holds its place
in the scene, and it is the throne of the Lamb as well as
of God. e reader will remark that now for the rst time
it is called the throne of the Lamb. We had the throne
of God, and the Lamb in the midst of it, but the throne
distinct from the Lamb. It was He that sits on the throne.
In chapter 21: 1-8 God is all in all. But here we have the
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throne, the Lamb’s throne as well as God’s and the time
and the character of the time distinctly marked.
Next, we have the tree of life, the constant supply in the
street, and on either side the river, ready for all to enjoy,
ever fresh, the full ripe fruit of life as Christ has displayed
it. e outward manifestation of this, its leaves were
to heal the nations. Evil was not absolutely gone below,
though its power was, but remedy was there. Curse there
was none at all. is was wholly gone. e throne of God
and the Lamb was there: there could not be a curse. But
His servants should serve Him. Observe how God and
the Lamb are thrown into unity here. His servants (God’s
and the Lamb’s) shall serve Him and shall see His face,
and His name shall be on their foreheads, that is, they
shall be evidently and avowedly His. ese are the three
characteristics of the waiting people in glory: they serve
Him directly and perfectly; they see His face directly and
fully; their connection with, and confession of, His name
are complete and evident. Doubtless this is God, but we
cannot at all separate the Lamb, for when it is said “ His
name,” it is God, so known as revealed in Him. is is
deeply and blessedly characteristic, and, indeed, so it is of
the whole book, save the mysterious angelic part; and then
the Lamb opens and introduces it, so that the same truth
shines out more fully. us what the Lamb is, the suering
and enthroned One, shines out. Night or obscurity there
is none there, nor need of articial or even created light.
Jehovah-Elohim gives them light, and they reign forever
and ever. is is not, I apprehend, their reign with Christ,
but the statement of their glory and joy which will never
cease. “ Ye have reigned as kings without us,” says the
apostle. is was false. at will be true and eternal.
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is closes the book. ere are, however, concluding
observations, besides what is said to the church, from verse
16, which require some notice. e angel declares the truth
of all this, and adds, the Lord God has sent His angel to
show to His servants things that must shortly come to
pass. is last expression must be noticed. It is one of the
diculties of the book. e same expression is used in the
rst verse. But I do not think that the whole key to the
expression is in the fact that it begins with Ephesus and is
a whole. In God’s mind the church had failed as a witness.
e time was come for judgment to begin at the house
of God. Hence whatever the patience of God, there was
no more time recognized till judgment was executed, save
1260 days which belong in fact to a period marked out in
Jewish chronology. Perhaps I should say, that the church
which belongs to heaven having lost this character and
left its rst love, and Christ having hence taken a judicial
character in view of its earthly testimony, the time of taking
up computed time and judgment was a question of divine
patience-might be at any moment there. If it were not, it
was grace, working as long as love could produce blessing,
while all was, in spite of mercy, ripening for judgment. But
the Lord warns that He was coming quickly-” Blessed is
he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
Here again, we may apply all the book, provided we see
the church in its responsibility, and not in its connection
with Christ as its Head. Christ is viewed as coming in
reference to responsibility. To such prophecy applies-the
hope of His coming to receive us up is another thing. It
is hope, not responsibility and warning. His coming, in
connection with responsibility, is always His appearing;
and the church, though doubtless saved and coming with
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Him, stands on the same ground as the world, that is, of
the consequences of its conduct. Hence the dierence is
not made here, though from chapter 4 the book be more
directly prophetic. is verse applies to those who have
the book. e testifying angel again rejects the proered
worship. Surely this has reference to the time the book
treats of when the very position of the church as connected
with the Head being out of view, holding the Head by
Christians would tend to give place to excessive reverence
for the higher instruments of God’s government, in whom
He used to reveal Himself, and above which the minds of
Christians did not go: In both cases here the worship was
proered when the witness has closed, saying-” ese are
the true sayings of God.” But the angel does more than
refuse the worship: he is a fellow servant, the prophet
is to worship God. Now God has ceased thus to reveal
Himself angelically. Not only has God alone the title to
be worshipped, but it in man He has revealed Himself. We
know this by faith.
e close of this book contemplates its public
manifestation. e angels have their own known place for
the Christian in service, as creatures of course, not objects
of worship, not the beings or form in which God reveals
Himself, never mediatorial intercessors and not for the
Christian those in whom God is seen; and, once Christ
is gloried as man, not even administrative authorities
though ever willing servants. God I worship, Christ I
worship, because He is God and Lord. In Him God is
perfectly revealed. He with the saints, that is, Redeemer,
Ruler, will govern and inherit all things. All here, even
the prophet, are servants. e sayings of this book were
not to be sealed as Daniel’s were. at was in place. e
oughts on the Revelation
553
fulllment was to come out in the last days. Between, all
the wonderful church or heavenly system was to come in,
and what was revealed was to be sealed till this; and the
decay of this on earth, which let in these earthly ways of
God again, had made it timely by the speedy taking up
again of these ways. Now that is exactly what we have here.
e professing church got into the place of judgment and
the divine preparation made, the Lamb being seen in the
throne and opening the book, for the fullling the things
which had to be sealed in Daniel’s time. Hence the book
was not to be sealed, for the time is at hand. e time in
view in it was not that of restoring grace, of the gospel
but of judgment, of man’s responsibility, in which there
is no change in man. Even in the churches, which is not
the strictly prophetic part of the book, those who hear and
are righteous in the churches, are directed and guided in
the way, but supposed to be already righteous. Still, here, I
doubt not the closing scenes are looked to, and the saints to
whom the prophecy is addressed, as already such.
e Lord was coming to judge, and quickly. Verse
7 addresses itself in warning to those engaged in the
circumstances of the book itself, and the things are shortly
to be done. Here, in verses 10-14, all is closed. e Lord
is coming to judge every one according to their works, and
their state is viewed as a xed one. Hence, in verse 13, He
closes all with His own nature, as First and Last. Verses 14,
15, need not be conned, I apprehend, to those who form
the city itself, but include all those who, having washed their
robes (I think Codex Sinaiticus has conrmed this reading),
have the right to the tree of life, and enter in through the
gates of pearl into the city: redemption, leading to life, and
tting for a state lovely in grace in Christ’s eyes, what meets
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554
the entering person at once, and for association with divine
holiness and righteousness. is, even the blood of Christ
and the sanctication of the Spirit, is the foundation of the
blessing of all who are blessed. Without are the evil and the
violent, the corrupt and the idolatrous. In chapter 21: 8 it is
nal judgment; here it is exclusion.
is wholly closes the book; and Jesus presents Himself
as such to the prophet, as revealing all this for the churches.
He comes personally forward, still in connection of course
with the subject of the book, as the Source and Heir
of the promises of Israel, and as the One known to the
faith of the church and none else-a heavenly One, not
the day for this world, but the Bright and Morning Star
for those who watch in the night. Whatever the state of
the professing church might be, this remained true and
bright for hope, and the brighter, the darker all seemed
to be. It is no announcement of coming or warning now,
but Christ’s announcing Himself, “ I, Jesus “announcing
what He is for the Jews, and what He is for the church.
When what He is for the church, her special portion in
Him, is named, all the aection of the church in her own
relationship is awakened: indeed what love produced in her
in every respect, as animated by the Spirit which dwells in
her. Indeed He is rst named. e position of the church
is this: she has the Spirit, and longs for Christ. “ e Spirit
and the bride say, Come.” It is not merely aection or a
wish, but the mind of the Spirit as down here on the earth.
e church looks for Christ, for Himself and herself,
in the consciousness of her own relationship. No doubt,
it will be blessing for the world. at, she enters into and
delights in; but Christ Himself is before her mind. us her
heart, or the Spirit speaking in the prophet as associated
oughts on the Revelation
555
personally with her in position and testimony, turns round
in love, rst to him who hears; let him who has received
the testimony of Jesus say “ Come.” at is the thing to
desire. After Christ Himself, the Spirit rst turns to them
that are His; then to anyone who has an awakened desire
and need of soul, “ Let him that is athirst “; then in the
power of that love with which the church is lled, and with
which the Spirit works, “ Whosoever will, let him take of
the water of life freely.” e church longs for Christ, but
she has the full stream of life already. She says to every
soul, “ Whosoever will, let him come “; not to me, as Jesus
alone could. Still she possesses the water, and invites to
come as freely as she has enjoyed. In a word, we get the
full place of the church and her testimony while waiting
for Christ, and for nothing else, and thus for Him directly.
is desire the Lord meets then. “He which testieth these
things, saith, Surely I come quickly”; and this satises the
heart of the saints. “ Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus.” A
solemn sanction is added to the authority of the book, and
to maintain its integrity. e book of life is not life, but the
presumed and apparent possession of it as inscribed among
professing Christians.
I have thus attempted a sketch of the book in its
structure and meaning. To complete this, something might
be said of its historical application, at least as warning as to
the present time, and perhaps something of a vocabulary of
symbolical language.
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