GOD'S THOUGHT OF A CITY AS SEEN IN JERUSALEM (3)

GOD’S THOUGHT OF A CITY AS SEEN IN JERUSALEM (3)

Hebrews 2:8 - 18; Hebrews 3:1,2

JT In view of the day and of what has already come before us in the Supper we might turn aside this afternoon to the subject of the direct service of God, involving the Lord’s supper. The suggestion arose from certain things that came before some of us today as to what God is doing actively now. Hebrews 2:10 says, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. Arising from this verse is the suggestion that God is doing something special at the present time, and that something is in connection with His own service. It is thought that in view of so many brethren being here from different parts of this country and elsewhere it might be suitable to take up the thought of divine action at the present time relating to the service as seen in verse 10 and what follows. It is not in mind to limit our thoughts to the verses read, but to the thought of the service of God, the Lord’s supper leading in it. The fact is that it begins with the Lord’s supper, and the Supper gives occasion for it.

SMcC Would you open out a little more the thought of “it became him”, to which you referred this morning?

JT The idea would be that it was suitable to God Himself in these present circumstances. “It became him, for whom are all things” — which is God Himself — “and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. “The leader of their salvation” is clearly the Lord Himself, the Minister of the sanctuary. It is in mind that the ^[p. 154] remaining readings should be engaged with Jerusalem in the sense in which it has been before us, especially the bright side of it, the positive side as seen in the book of Revelation. In the meantime we have the first day of the week, and it seems wise that we should devote it to what is suitable to God Himself, for He should be served, and He has priests to that end. We are priests to God and we are priests to Christ; so that the subject in that sense really began with the verses read, “But now we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death”. And so we get in verse 10 that the Leader of their salvation should be made perfect through sufferings. Suffering is the order of the day, but having in mind what there is for God in the way of service and the intelligence that belongs to it.

HB Have you not pointed out that the scriptures in this section are largely quotations from the Psalms?

JT I think so, and especially in the first chapter. In truth the book of Hebrews is largely made up of quotations from the Psalms. It may be pointed out too that the five books of the Pentateuch correspond with the five books of Psalms.

CCT Would you say more about the sufferings?

JT We shall have to bring that in as we have opportunity. We have partaken of the Lord’s supper, all of us I suppose, and it will be a good opportunity to see just how the service of God stands with us; evidently sufferings must enter into it. The Lord has died for us, as it says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9,10). It is for us to see whether we really understand what the Lord’s supper implies, and the service of God as entering into it.

^[p. 155] TU Is the thought to link the bringing of many sons to glory with the service of God?

JT That is it. That is the great feature of the word of God just now. His own service is that He is doing this thing, bringing many sons to glory; and sonship in this sense involves the sisters as well as the brothers. Perhaps we do not understand that, or take to heart at all that the sisters are all sons. We are all on the same basis as we go into heaven, we shall all be sons of God.

SMcC Would the fact that the revision of the hymn book has been suggested and is on the way emphasise to us that the Lord is constantly thinking about the service of God and the refinement linked with it?

JT I think that for fifty years the service of God has had a leading place in the ministry, and yet one feels that there is great defect in the understanding of the Lord’s supper, because it has to do especially with the service of God, and in fact begins the service of God.

JW Are we right in thinking that sonship in this connection is based on suffering rather than on purpose?

JT Well, the sufferings are essential to it, because we want to be brought into accord with God. We are not in accord with God in our natural condition, sufferings are needed. Peter speaks of “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). It was for this truth that Mr. Darby suffered; in 1867 there was a great attack on the truth and it was a question of the sufferings of Christ. Perhaps that has not been understood. The suffering was essential in view of the service of God because of the condition in which we were, or are even now; the sufferings are necessary that we might be perfected.

JTJr The Lord spoke about that Himself when introducing the Supper: “With desire I have desired ^[p. 156] to eat this passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Then Luke speaks of it in Acts 1:3, “He presented himself living, after he had suffered”. We have the thought of what was before and then after, and then there was a time in which it was being worked out.

JT Very good. There is the thought first of “before I suffer”, and then after His sufferings. But then the thing perhaps that is difficult to understand is His being made perfect through sufferings.

SMcC Does the perfecting refer to a position reached? It is not a question of what He was intrinsically.

JT It is just a position reached; He came for this purpose. Manhood was in mind, and hence almost at the beginning of the Bible we have “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion” (Genesis 1:26). Man and woman are covered under the same word, ‘man’, and they are to have dominion together in the plural sense; that of course can be understood as it is worked out in Christ and the assembly, as Paul says, “But I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly” (Ephesians 5:32).

ANW Are we to be able to distinguish between the various sufferings? The word is in the plural in verse 10, “through sufferings”. Should we be able to distinguish between the atoning sufferings and other sufferings of the Lord?

JT I think we should; it is a time of learning and training, and of our being constituted fit for God’s service, what He may have for us to do. There are different sufferings and we have to think of them in their variety, because it is a most touching thing that the Lord has come before us as having suffered, “suffered for us in the flesh”, we read in 1 Peter 4:1.

NS Verses 10 and 11 commence with “for”, giving a reason for what goes before. Is that to bring ^[p. 157] before us the greatness of the thoughts of God in the Lord’s becoming man?

JT Well, it is a sequential thought. “For it became him” — that is God as I understand it — “for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. That is to say, the sufferings are necessary to it, so that the leadership is made perfect. It was suitable to God that it should happen, the divine Persons all entering into it.

ASB Does seeing enter into all this? It says, in verse 8, “We see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus”. There is a realm that we see around us where the great principle of insubjection is seen, “but we see Jesus” over against all that.

JT Very good.

JWF If God is doing this now, the thought of glory should be in our minds as arrived at now.

JT The phraseology is often used, ‘the sufferings and the glory’, and what a theme! What a blessed thought for us! I am sure the thought of it is becoming to us too; it is suitable that we should be engaged with this on the Lord’s day afternoon in view of all that we have said in blessing this morning.

SMcC The Lord’s supper and the service of God call for spiritual emotions, do they not? And would the sufferings help in relation to the moving and quickening of these emotions? You referred last night to the very mention of Zion promoting a spiritual thrill with us.

JT I think it does. I suppose we could hardly go into the full thought of the sufferings of Christ as in the Psalms because it involves so much; indeed the main thought in the Psalms is the sufferings of Christ. As we said before, the Psalms are composed of the same number of books as the Pentateuch, so ^[p. 158] that we might say they correspond, they work into each other.

CAM Would this not be the wonderful answer to what the Lord said in Luke 24, that we should not be senseless and slow of heart? “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?”

JT Yes, and we hope to link that on with Revelation in our subsequent readings. We would like our young people to take on these things and to prepare themselves, for it is a time of suffering. It is suitable to suffer, “it became him”, it says.

SMcC Do you regard this suffering as extending from Christ to the saints, and thus somewhat akin to what Paul refers to in Colossians 1:24, “I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly”? I was wondering whether this thought of suffering in Hebrews 2 extends from Christ to the saints?

JT Just so; and as we are brought into all this we feel that the Lord would not have it otherwise; nor would we have it otherwise than to have part with Him in what He went through in order to fit us for the glory with Himself. ‘The sufferings and the glory’ — what marvellous things are ahead of us, and how little our hearts are moved as we stop to think of it! It is very special in relation to the Lord’s supper. Ten meetings in this city have today partaken of the Lord’s supper, and what have we to say about it? The sufferings of Christ are involved in it that we might have part in this wonderful joy that belongs to us — “the glory that should follow”.

JH In commencing to speak of it in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says of the Lord Jesus that it was in the night in which He was delivered up; he brings the Supper in thus. Does that not show how the delivering up continues right through till ^[p. 159] now?

JT And so it says in Corinthians again, “for you”, “This is my body, which is for you”. The Lord Himself said that. This is something for us; it is to be used, to be appropriated; the body of Christ is to be appropriated by us. And what joy there may be flowing from the suffering attached to it! The joy is the outcome of it, the glory follows.

AMacd You spoke of desiring that those of us who are young take on this matter of suffering. I was wondering whether Paul had that in mind in writing his second epistle to Timothy. In chapter 1 the idea of suffering comes in five or six times, and goes on to the word, “Take thy share in suffering” (2 Timothy 2:3). I was thinking how beautifully Paul himself sets it out in that he says, “For which cause also I suffer” (2 Timothy 1:12), and then he calls upon Timothy to take his share in suffering.

JT “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1); so that the whole matter is linked up with Paul as thus linked with Christ.

WMcK Paul also says, “For I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17). Would that indicate the working out in a suffering way of what he had received?

JT Quite so. One loves to hear some of the young ones coming out with all this because it is just preparing us for the glory.

Rem The Lord said in regard to Paul in Acts 9:16, “I will shew to him how much he must suffer for my name”. The Lord spoke to him that way initially, did He not?

JT Yes, He did. Surely we can see what is meant, especially when the Lord undertakes to show us. So that we are in the way for it now if we just give the Lord His full place.

JWD What would be the difference between the thought that “our momentary and light affliction ^[p. 160] works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”, and this thought of perfection through suffering? What is the meaning of the phrase, “works for us”?

JT “Our momentary and light affliction” — that is the way we look at it, that is our evaluation of it as Paul speaks of it. It is “momentary and light”, not heavy; the Lord had all the weight. He had the whole weight of suffering. I believe the Lord intended to bring the brethren into it, He wants to bring us along with Him. He has been through the suffering and He wants to bring us all into it with Him, because the assembly, His body, is to be in keeping with Himself. It must be so, it must be in keeping with the Lord Himself; He wishes to bring it into accord with what He is, with His own way and manner, because it is His body.

JTJr Peter speaks of a model, “leaving you a model”. It is remarkable how much he speaks about suffering: the second chapter of his first epistle says, “^[p. 169] For this is acceptable, if one, for conscience sake towards God, endure griefs, suffering unjustly”; and then again, “For what glory is it, if sinning and being buffeted ye shall bear it? but if, doing good and suffering, ye shall bear it, this is acceptable with God ... for Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you a model” (1 Peter 2:19 - 21).

JT How Peter and Paul work together! They are on the same line that we may be brought into accord with Christ, to be His body; for we are that, we are to be eternally His body.

JMcK Does Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 1:5,6 help? He says, “Because, even as the sufferings of the Christ abound towards us, so through the Christ does our encouragement also abound. But whether we are in tribulation, it is for your encouragement and salvation, wrought in the endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer”.

^[p. 161] JT That is quite in keeping with the second epistle because the idea of the first is to make way for the full thought in the second, and thus the second epistle is usually the confirmation of the first. Then in Philippians 1:29 we have, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him” — that is the first thought — “but also to suffer for his sake”.

Ques In Psalm 69, a sorrow psalm and a suffering one, it says in verse 26, “For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they talk for the sorrow of those whom thou hast wounded”. Does that not bring the saints into it?

JT Very good; and ‘a sorrow psalm’ is a beautiful expression. The Psalms are characterised by suffering; but there are certain ones referring especially to sorrow that may be called ‘sorrow psalms’; they refer to what the Lord has gone through Himself.

Ques Is there further confirmation of the link between sonship and suffering in that Joseph’s sons were born in the days of his affliction, and also Moses’ sons in the time of his rejection? (see Acts 7:27 - 29).

JT Very good.

CM Peter seems to enter definitely into the thought of sufferings, and in chapter 4 he says, “Christ, then, having suffered for us in the flesh, do ye also arm yourselves with the same mind”.

JT Yes, that is the mind of Christ, the suffering mind of Christ.

CM If thoughts of the passover marked us more fully during the week, would it not give us a fuller sense of the sufferings of Christ as we come together on the Lord’s day morning?

JT It would; and therefore the beginning of the service of God is really in the sufferings of the Lord’s supper. The Lord had in mind to eat the passover with them before He suffered. We have already spoken of ‘before’ and ‘after’ He suffered, but now we are in the period of suffering on this first day of the week, and the question is whether we are in the good of the fact that we are sufferers, and that “it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake”?

CD Would the matter of suffering as His brethren be set forth in the brethren of Gideon, the question as to the kind of men they were and then the thought of sonship? Gideon asked of Zebah and Zalmunna, “What sort of men were they that ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the sons of a king. And he said, They were my brethren, the sons of my mother” (Judges 8:18,19). He was not ashamed to call them brethren.

JT Just so, and that is what we had today, that the Lord is not ashamed to call us brethren. So we might read again what we have just read in Hebrews 2: “But now we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; so that by the grace of God he should taste death for everything”. Let us take that into our minds. Then we have already read, “For it became him” — that is God — “for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory” — that is God — “to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. “Sufferings” are in the plural, the whole idea is there, that, as it has been worked out fully in Christ, so it should be worked out in every one who belongs to the assembly; because the assembly is the greatest body, the greatest family in the universe. But then they are to go through things as He did; we are to be like Him.

JW Paul’s word to the Thessalonians, a young assembly as we understand, says that “ye became our imitators, and of the Lord, having accepted the word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia” (1 Thessalonians 1:6,7). And further in chapter 2:14 - 16, “For ye, brethren, have become imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered the same things of your own countrymen so also they of the Jews, who have both slain the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have driven us out by persecution, and do not please God, and are against all men, forbidding us to speak to the nations that they may be saved”.

JT What a beautiful setting out! The very thing we have before us set out by the great servant who himself went through it! In fact, I would say all the apostles went through it; the greater number of them were martyred; it was granted to them.

JB John refers in Revelation 21 to the bride, the Lamb’s wife. The Lamb’s wife would suggest the thought of suffering.

TU Do you make any distinction between the thought, “on account of the suffering of death”, and that of “the leader of their salvation” being perfected “through sufferings”? The end of the chapter seems to indicate that the words, “for, in that himself has suffered, being tempted”, would link with His pathway; and the reference in verse 9 would link with the final end of it, with His death.

JT You are referring to the suffering of death. There are sufferings that are not to death, but the Lord went all the way; that is to say He died. And Paul goes the whole way, too; he says, I do not deprecate dying. He did not despise it, he knew what it meant, but he was prepared to go the whole way to be in accord ^[p. 164] with Christ.

JRH Does chapter 11 indicate that suffering is a normal matter for the people of God? It says there of Moses, “choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God”.

JT “With the people of God”, exactly, preferring that to “the temporary pleasure of sin”.

ADS Does not the Lord get at this point in Mark 8:31 where it says, “And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and of the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again”? Then in the application of it on our side he says, “For whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall save it” (verse 35).

JT It is very happy to hear these holy pages of Scripture read in our hearing by those who understand them; and that is the intent in this reading, that we might be affected by the great fact of the sufferings of Christ and might see that we should know the fellowship of His sufferings, and be conformed to His death.

CCT Do we see the working out of this suffering in Philadelphia? It says that they had kept His word and had not denied His name.

JT Philadelphia is the one of the assemblies that the Lord has chosen to set out His thoughts more than any of the others, I think.

CD Does having part in the sufferings qualify us for having part in the singing? The time of suffering and then the time of singing.

JT Very good.

JMcK Is it in your mind that at the Lord’s supper there should be the bringing forward of true spiritual formation in our souls as to our part in the sufferings of Christ — that expression should be given to it? Sometimes we seem to be engaged ^[p. 165] wholly with the glory of Christ, the sufferings not entering into it at all.

JT Whereas the sufferings precede the glory, “the sufferings ... and the glory”. The sufferings must precede the glory.

JMcK That is helpful; that would help us in relation to the service to the Lord Himself, in bringing forward something of His sufferings from our own inward experience.

TLS When Paul and Silas were in the jail they were singing praises to God as suffering persons.

JT Just so, a good, beautiful passage.

SMcC In regard to the Lord’s supper and the sufferings of Christ, there are a few hymns on that line that are never made use of. Perhaps some of us have been hindered from using them because of their mention of the cross and what entered into the scene of the cross; but they have a place, have they not, at the Lord’s supper?

JT Oh! they have! You were not with us when we went through this matter of the hymn book, but we are going through the hymn book again to see if there can be any improvement in the singing. It is a question of singing, because the service of song is the leading thought next to the actual words that we may speak to God and to Christ and to the Spirit. The sufferings of Christ come in as preceding the singing. If we are to sing aright we must suffer. It is a very remarkable thing that that is how the thing stands in the Scriptures.

JMcK So as to the matter of the cross, is it not brought forward in a helpful way in Philippians 2, speaking of Christ humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death and that the death of the cross?

JT Just so, “that the death of the cross”.

ANW Is not Psalm 22 the greatest of all the suffering psalms? And that is the very ^[p. 166] one that we are dealing with here in connecting with the singing?

JW And would not suffering increase priestliness amongst us? The holy ointment in the tabernacle system was made of liquid myrrh and sweet cinnamon and sweet myrtle and cassia, and was used for anointing the whole system; extending in that way do you think to include the saints?

JT I do; and as we have already said, save for the actual speaking to divine Persons, singing is one of the leading parts in the service of God; and that is why so much attention is being paid to the hymn book. God has helped the brethren in preparing hymn books; they began early in 1856 I think; and then came Mr. Darby’s great work in revising the hymn book in 1881; and then in 1932 there was the great work that ten or more of us had to do with. God has greatly helped in all that, it is in view of the service of God. And now, if the Lord will, the thought is to add to that so that we may sing to the Spirit, which has never been done properly before.

ADS I was struck with the verse referred to in Acts 16:25. “And at midnight Paul and Silas, in praying, were praising God, with singing, and the prisoners listened to them”.

JT There is something else to be said about that. How did it come about that Paul was suffering? Will you read the passage?

“And it came to pass as we were going to prayer that a certain female slave, having a spirit of Python, met us, who brought much profit to her masters by prophesying. She, having followed Paul and us, cried saying, These men are bondmen of the Most High God, who announce to you the way of salvation. And this she did many days. And Paul, being distressed, turned, and said to the spirit, I enjoin thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come ^[p. 167] out of her. And it came out the same hour. And her masters, seeing that the hope of their gains was gone, having seized Paul and Silas, dragged them into the market before the magistrates” (Acts 16:17 - 19).

JT Notice the wickedness that is active in all that — “a spirit of Python”, making it a matter of profit, a mere business matter, and the wickedness attached to it! The devil had entered into that woman.

Well, now, I think our dear brethren here in Detroit ought to be considered in this matter of suffering in connection with the union. The question is how far we are with our brethren here in this matter because God is going to bring something out of it; we shall get something out of it through them, and therefore the need is for prayer as to this whole matter, and God will come in for us.

ASB I was just noting a remark the other day by Mr. Stoney bearing on this very thing; he says in regard to Acts 16 that the adversary will try flattery, and if we do not succumb to flattery then we shall have persecution following.

JT And that is what is happening. Our brethren are suffering, and it is a question of our being with them in the suffering, because the whole assembly will gain through it. It is a time for that sort of thing, for gain through suffering. And the next thing is, are we with our brethren in prayer, because that is how the thing is to be solved. God will have His own way with us; we must allow Him to have His own way; and that way would be that we gain through sufferings. As we have quoted often, it is given to us in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for His sake.

NB Unceasing prayer was made by the assembly for Peter, and he ^[p. 168] was delivered.

JT Unceasing prayer. There was some lack of faith about it, but still, there was gain from it to them.

NB Peter was delivered.

JWF Would you say that body feelings enter into the matter according to Hebrews 13? Verse 3 says, “Remember prisoners, as bound with them; those that are evil treated, as being yourselves also in the body”.

JT Just so; so that we see now what is accruing to our minds from this thought of suffering. It says in verse 8 of our chapter, “For in subjecting all things to him, he has left nothing unsubject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus”, — that is the point — “we see Jesus”, — but we do not stop there, there is only a comma there — “who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death” — that is the point, the suffering of death, that kind of suffering, the extreme thought of suffering — “crowned with glory and honour; so that by the grace of God he should taste death for every thing”. Think of the Lord going through this, tasting death for everything! And again, “For it became him” — that is God — “for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. That is what is coming to us; one feels very concerned in speaking so much about it, for it is just what is coming to us; we might as well make up our minds for it that the Lord will grant us the great privilege of coming into the truth through suffering.

FKC Paul himself goes over the list of his actual sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11, showing what a great vessel he was in the mind of God. We should value that list of what the apostle went through.

JT I think we might again repeat what was quoted from 1 Peter 2:19 - 24.

“For this is acceptable, if one, for conscience sake towards God, endure griefs, suffering unjustly. For what glory is it, if sinning and being buffeted ye shall bear it? but if, doing good and suffering, ye shall bear it, this is acceptable with God. For to this have ye been called; for Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you a model that ye should follow in his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously; who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, in order that, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness: by whose stripes ye have been healed”.

Think of that word, His own body! Not our bodies, but His own body. Well, now, we might happily proceed further to get all this confirmed from Hebrews 2:11 and onwards: “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. So that the Lord is now telling us that He is allowing us to take part with Him as His brethren.

JWF Would that be the glory that the sons are led to?

JT Just so; and it is well to repeat it that the word ‘brethren’ and the word ‘sons’, especially the word ‘sons’, include the sisters as well as the brothers, because “ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”. That is what is said about us.

ASB So that referring to the sisters again and to the revision of the hymn book, we have many hymns that are the composition of sisters; so that they contribute to the service of God in that way as well as by the actual singing in the assembly.

JT They have part in the singing. We rightly say that the sisters are not to speak, but still they must speak in singing; they must use their tongues,

^[p. 170] and I think it is well to keep that in mind. And when we say that it is given unto us on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him but to suffer for His sake, the sisters all have part in that. There will be an immense gain if they take all these things to heart as the brothers do. I do not say they do not; but I think the time has now come that they should be made to feel that they belong to the sons. God is bringing many sons to glory and that includes the sisters as well as the brothers.

JTJr There is in singing what you might call the man’s voice and then what you might call the woman’s voice. They are blended of course, and I suppose the idea is that in Man at the beginning both of them blended, and so it is in the singing in the assembly.

Rem It says in Judges 5:1, “Then sang Deborah and Barak”; it is a woman and a man.

JT It is remarkable that Deborah is mentioned first.

TU Would the extent of our desire to move in relation to the service of God substantively, in any way govern the extent of our suffering?

JT I am thoroughly with you in that.

JW So this happy condition which is mentioned here, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, is an elevating thought for us.

JT Indeed it is. The word ‘assembly’ there is the real word, the real matter that we ought to speak of. The assembly is the greatest family in the universe. The angels are not so great because the angels serve us; they are not so great as the sons. If we would all take that in, it would be an immense gain to us, that we belong to this great family called the assembly. The word involves what is systematised; there is a phrase in Scripture: “systematised error” (Ephesians 4:14); but we might say the assembly is a system of joy and thoughtfulness of service. So verse 12 says: “I will declare thy name to my brethren” — this is the Lord Jesus speaking to His Father — “in the midst of the assembly” — that is to say the saints as together this morning for the service of God in the assembly — “will I sing thy praises”, God’s praises. “And again, I will trust in him”. That is to bring out the reality of the Lord’s humanity entering into the service of God in singing; because the assembly has a peculiar way and place, not only in the power to sing and make sound in that sense, but in intelligence. They know what they are doing and God notices that; the highest idea of intelligence, I believe, enters into the thought of the assembly in the service of God.

CCT Would this thought of His singing in the midst of the assembly help us to be careful as to what hymns we use?

JT That is a very good suggestion; and God is providing wonderfully for us, as we have already pointed out, in the number of revisions there have been of the hymn book. The most recent one — the 1932 revision — has served well; but now the spiritual thought has come up to go further, and I believe the Lord will help us and make the service of song fuller than ever it has been with the addition of singing to the Spirit Himself, that the Spirit should be fully recognised. So that in all this there will be yield for God.

NB Is the singing, according to verse 12, under the control of the chief Musician?

JT Just so: “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. That is the Lord Jesus Himself speaking of what He will do in the way of the service of song to the Father. It is the most striking passage we have, I think, in the epistle to the Hebrews. We might add what it says in verse 14: “Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, he also, in like manner, took part in the same”,

^[p. 172] that is the Lord Jesus taking part in humanity — “that through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil” — God is now attacking the devil himself through the Lord Jesus — “and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage. For he does not indeed take hold of angels by the hand, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham”. It is that humanity, the seed of Abraham. “Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God” — not ordinary things, but things relating to God — “to make propitiation for the sins of the people; for, in that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted”. So that there is a great deal to be learned in all these verses, as adding to this one great thought of verse 10. The whole passage ends thus in verse 1 of chapter 3: “Wherefore, holy brethren” — it is an address to us this afternoon — “partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus” — the second time the name ‘Jesus’ is mentioned in the epistle — “who is faithful to him that has constituted him, as Moses also in all his house”. The same thing runs right through.

SMcC It is remarkable that Abraham should be alluded to here; it is not that He takes hold of the seed of Adam, the first head of the race, but of Abraham who becomes head in a new sense, does he not?

JT He was the best kind of humanity that could be had; it is a question of the kind of humanity. So that Jehovah says, “I called him when he was alone” — not in a crowd — “I called him when he was alone, and blessed him” (Isaiah 51:2). That is Abraham, a peculiar kind of family, a peculiar kind of humanity that God selected for this great purpose,

^[p. 173] namely, His service; and we do well to look into the thing and see if we understand it, and whether we have a link ourselves with Abraham as his seed; because that is the idea of it. Our Lord sprang from Abraham; He sprang from Judah it says, specifically.

WMcK Does the apostle bring in the heavenly calling in chapter 3? Abraham sets out the idea of what is heavenly.

JT I think so; there is a peculiar touch to the kind of humanity that is seen in Abraham. It would be well to study the matter, as to what kind of humanity there is in Abraham and how it works in the service of song to God.

JRH Would it be right to say that the seed of Abraham is carried forward in the thought of His brethren? It says, “Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren”.

JT So the sons and the brethren are the same. ‘Brethren’ is more a collective thought, but ‘sons’ is a distinctively individual thought; we are “all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 26).