REPROACH AND GLORY
[p. 344] REPROACH AND GLORY
1 Peter 4:14; Exodus 13:20 - 22; Exodus 16:10; Exodus 40:34 - 38
I intend to speak of glory, wishing to show that it is in the mind of God that we should enter into it at the present time. We read of the departing glory (Ezekiel 11:23), and the returning glory (Ezekiel 43:1 - 5); one calling forth sadness and the other joy. In a public sense the glory has departed from christendom, but through individual faithfulness, as I hope to show, it may still be seen here below. The incoming of the Spirit involved glory. We are told that He appeared to the saints as cloven tongues, as of fire, and sat upon each of them. He had found a resting place. The effect of it was felt by those present in Jerusalem from the subdivisions of the empire of that day. The incoming of the divine glory found a resting place suitable to itself, but on its own terms — that is, it appeared in the character of cloven tongues as of fire. The will of the flesh would be drastically disallowed. There was no such suggestion implied as the Spirit came on Jesus: He abode in the form of a dove on Jesus; but at Pentecost there were terms implied, for the glory carried with it the means of its own protection, so that it should not be desecrated; the tongues were there, but also the fire. The public body has moved from the divine foundation and hence the glory has retired. But this passage in Peter indicates how there may be a return; indeed the glory will always be seen where there is the acceptance of the reproach of Christ.
So Peter, who had part in the incoming of which I have been speaking, says much about glory, and in the verse I read he links it on with reproach in the name of Christ; its presence here is ensured by the acceptance of the reproach of Christ. It is “in the name”, denoting a state in those who are under reproach, not for the name, but in the name, as it should read. Many are [p. 345] facing this matter in a peculiar way, and as love is working we are all facing it with them — reproach in the name of Christ. “In the name” refers to the state of those who are under reproach, a state calling out reproach, involving a glory as the passage goes on to say, “the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God”, as I believe it should read. That is, there are two thoughts, the Spirit of glory, and the Spirit of God. It is no partial matter; it is a complete thought as regards a resting place for the glory, for that is the word used, “the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”.
Now I mention all that so as to link up my remarks with Exodus, for this agrees with what Exodus sets out, and I wish to confine my thoughts in the main to the glory as seen in that book. Peter links with Exodus in his ministry in these two epistles, writing “to the sojourners of the dispersion” (1 Peter 1:1), believing Jews, sojourning in those provinces in the west; he implies that they are there under the government of God; they are not in Canaan any more; externally they are of the dispersion. Whoever might have been the instrument of it, they were suffering under the government of God and Peter has in mind to show that, in the acceptance of the reproach that God may allow in His government, the testimony of Exodus reappears, and there is a resting place for the glory of God.
You can see therefore, dear brethren, how this is within the range of every christian, how he or she may become a resting place for the glory; and as I said, the word reproach links on significantly with Exodus; one may say that it is the foundation of the glory that so shines in the typical teaching of that book. It is the book in which Moses shines peculiarly in this sense. The thought of God is that the ministry is to be enhanced by the minister, and He had in mind that the ministry He was about to place in the hands of this great minister was to be enhanced by him. The Spirit [p. 346] of God tells us that three women were used in his salvation — his mother, his sister, and Pharaoh’s daughter — showing that whilst the enemy was set on destroying the males, God used females for the preservation of the greatest of the males spoken of in this book, his very name being given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter — he was “drawn out”. If the enemy in Pharaoh would destroy the males and save the females alive, God would say, I can use these, too. The blindness of Pharaoh led him to think that the Israelitish women could help to build up his kingdom, and that the males could be destroyed; but three females saved this greatest of the males in Israel! Besides this, the male children of Israel were already being saved alive by the midwives. Thus God frustrates the wisdom of this world.
Moses became a prince in Egypt, but he humbly accepted the reproach of Christ; that is one point of special importance in this book. There can be no resting place, or residence for the glory of God in this world of sin, save as the reproach of Christ is accepted. It is a word for the present moment. “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”. Moses, as I said, led the way in this and hence qualified to unfold the glory, as seen in the book of Exodus.
Now I am sure we are all interested in these suggestions. No one of us should elect himself out of this matter, for it is within his reach. The reproach attached not only to Moses; it was there before he accepted it; however many of us have accepted it, it was there before, thank God! It lay in the people of God as they were at that time, down-trodden slaves in Egypt reproachfully termed “Hebrews”; the reproach was there and Moses accepted it. It has been here all the time, rarely accepted; but wherever accepted the glory is present. Moses found it in Egypt and in accepting it he became glorious morally, never more glorious in his earlier history than when he went out [p. 347] to see his brethren, the Hebrews, and looked upon their burdens (Exodus 2:11 - 13). He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:26).
I want now to show how all this, while based on the acceptance of the reproach of Christ, must hinge on obedience, an element that is becoming rarer and rarer every day in this world. The Lord Jesus has led the way in this; we must learn everything from God through Him. God says to Moses, “I am come down to deliver them”; typically it was in Christ. We might stress the word down. The way up in this world is well occupied, some very far up, marvellously acquiring glory according to man, rising out of obscurity, out of the sea; but who is great enough to show and lead the way down, but God, in Christ? “I am come down”, He says, “to deliver” (Exodus 3:8). Moses had already come down, he would thus understand. He had come down in the house of Pharaoh, in going out to look on his brethren the Hebrews. Later he fled to Midian, descending there to be a shepherd for the priest of Midian, abandoning for ever the glory of Pharaoh’s house. Thus he would appreciate the force of the divine word; it is as we are in the circumstances of a thing that we understand it, nor do I think we can understand anything aright save as we are in the circumstances characterising it. Moses was in the circumstances of humiliation, and God says, I am come down to those circumstances, I am going to be with you in them.
In man the principle underlying this is obedience, and Christ has led the way in it (Philippians 2:8). The gospel call is for obedience, “obedience of faith among all nations” (Romans 1:5). No one is worthy of the name of christian who is not characteristically obedient as under divine rule. According to the passage read in Exodus 13, God had come down and was effecting the deliverance of His people, and as they began to move out of Egypt He went before them, “in a pillar of a cloud to [p. 348] lead them in the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light”. The glory is there; it is in the pillar. How could it be there save as the people were moving in obedience? How could God’s glory rest in any sense in Egypt, save as the principle of obedience was there? So as they began to journey, the cloud — Jehovah Himself was there — went before them. Think of the divine descent to be in this position to serve us! To serve us as coming out of the world.
Is there anyone here whose heart is in the world? We all pity you. We do indeed, and we want you out. God wants you out of the world and He proposes to take you out by glory — that is what He intends to do. We have not the Ark yet; the Ark is said to be the power of God and the glory of God; it gave a lead to the people in the wilderness; it is not seen yet, its movements are to be seen after Sinai; but the cloud is here and God is in it. It is not simply something sent down; God is in it, and in it to serve, that is, to guide by day and be a light by night. Think of the divine descent to be that to us, to lead us out of the world! As soon as we begin to move God says, I am going to be this to you. I would, therefore, appeal to anyone who is yet in the world; we pity you, as in Satan’s domain. God wants you out, as I said. He is here to serve you, that you might move out, not in any meagre way, but by glory. He serves you by glory; the cloud by day, and the fire by night, so that you can travel day and night. This matter of getting out of the world will not admit in the divine mind of any halting at all, but steady movement by day and by night. God says, I am with you in the day — in your school, at your desk, in your work-shop or kitchen, and in your bedroom in the night; and I am going to make you a residence for My glory, too. Israel was not yet that, not in Egypt; it was in the cloud and in the pillar of fire. The tabernacle would be the divine residence and it represented the saints as builded together.
[p. 349] Now Exodus 16 contemplates that the people are out. I hope everyone in this room takes that ground. There are many young people here and God is speaking to you as to whether you are out of the world, and if you are out whether you are going to stay out. That is the next point. The brethren are burdened according to love, all the time, with young people who take their stand in relation to the death of Christ — that is, baptism and the Lord’s supper. The older brethren and the brethren generally are constantly concerned about them. Are you going to remain in the fellowship, true to the stand you have taken? God says, I will see to it, that as far as I am concerned you will do so and thus not return to Egypt; so as Israel looked toward the wilderness they saw the glory. It is not God verbally urging you forward into a sterile wilderness, but attracting you by His glory to go that way, the promised land being the great end in view. It will be glory on the way and glory eternally. In His thoughtfulness, God did not lead the people by the land of the Philistines, lest as seeing war they might return to Egypt, but led them by the wilderness of the Red Sea. God has great consideration for young people, first to get them out of the world and then to keep them out, and hence He sets up the glory in the wilderness. In result it is Himself, as dwelling among His people, and what can be more attractive to those who love Him? Aaron is here, the link with the glory. As he spoke to the people they turned toward the wilderness and “behold, the glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud”. Aaron is the priest, not yet officially appointed, but when he is appointed his very clothes are glorious.
This opens up a wide field of precious instruction. Aaron made priest is typically Christ definitely undertaking the service of love Godward and manward. The young believer begins to see Him thus; even in Romans 8:34 it is said that as at the right hand of God, He intercedes for us. Hebrews treats [p. 350] fully of this great subject and tells us that we have Christ as Priest in heaven and that He sympathises with us in our infirmities, carrying on the service of love continually. The believer sees that he has a place in Christ’s heart and His personal graces, which are glorious, shine before him. As you get on spiritually you begin to understand, as you look at chapters 28 and 29 of Exodus, that they present the glorious dress of the High Priest and that High Priest is for you. It is not only what He says as in chapter 16, but what He is in His clothes in chapters 28 and 29. The young christian thus sees Christ as Priest and as occupied with Him he takes on His character as Man and becomes himself relatively glorious, he is also a priest, one of the sons of Aaron. Chapter 28:40 says that they also have glorious clothes. God says, I must bring in the sons, too, the sons of Aaron, and they are to have glorious dresses as well.
So you see, young people, the brethren have glorious attire also, and why not you? God presents things objectively to us in Christ; and we see them, we admire them, and as we admire them we appropriate them, and the Spirit of God is ready to form us and make the matter fixed in our souls. That is the idea, and how wonderful when the thought dawns upon you that you belong to the priesthood! You will say, I can never go back into those unclean circumstances in which I once found my pleasure; never can I go to those worldly resorts, I am a priest. It is not only what Christ is, not only what the saints are, in that glorious attire, but what I am. How great and glorious is the divine way! It is a radiant way; even the journey out of Egypt is a way of glory.
Then in the wilderness we are similarly guided — the glory is now more definite and attractive, as we see in chapter 16, as I have been saying. You do not now speak of the brethren as they or them, but we and us; we are all glorious; as Christ is, so are we, John says ([p. 351] 1 John 4:17). How he would whisper that into our ears! It is “as He is”, not “as He was”; what He is today in heaven, so are we. You may say, yes, viewed as in heaven. No, but as actually here in this world. What a thought that is! It enters into our preservation. In the light of these things each young believer here will surely say, I can never go back; I cannot soil such clothes.
Then another thing comes out in Exodus — the shining of Moses’ face, one of the most interesting things in the book. Moses had said to Jehovah, “Let me ... see thy glory” (Exodus 33:18); he had a great admiration for divine glory, and one covets that. We are prepared for glory (Romans 9:23), and Paul says, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”; thus we should cultivate the desire for it, and we become equal to it and have part in it as we behold the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). Moses had a great thought of glory. He says to Jehovah, I would like to see Your glory. Moses had some, as we have seen; but he desired to see Jehovah’s glory. He says, “Shew me thy glory”. He had a great conception of glory. God loves that in us; our conception of it cannot be too great for Him for He is infinitely beyond our greatest conception; but I am sure He loved to hear Moses asking Him to show him His glory. Jehovah says, “There is a place by me: there shalt thou stand on the rock”, and when His glory passed by He would hide His servant in the cleft of the rock. The time had not come for Moses to see it. But there is some glory, for God says to Moses, “Thou shalt see me from behind” (Exodus 33:21 - 23); hence, Moses’ face shone. 2 Corinthians 3 alludes to this, and chapter 4 states that the glory of God is now in the face of Jesus Christ.
One loves to move from the first epistle to the Corinthians to the second epistle. It is as though the apostle Paul would say, I have got the Corinthians moving.
[p. 352] They were settling down in Corinth with their parties. If they had their parties in the assembly, as chapter 11 shows, you may be sure they had their tea parties with their friends in their homes; they would follow society ways. Many of them were not leaving the world; they were in Corinth and following its ways. But in the second letter it is as if Paul would say, I have got them moving and I will keep them moving. How will they be kept moving? By the glory. And not one glory alone, but “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Think of the magnificence of that thought! And then in order to fix it in our limited minds he says, “in the face of Jesus Christ” (chapter 4:6) — enough to draw us and to keep us out of the world. From the second epistle it is clear the Corinthians were moving from their worldly moorings. I hope everybody here is moving. The glory is what God has in mind to effect this.
Moses went up to the mount and God causes His glory to pass by. What a moment it must have been to Moses — as Jehovah proclaims His name in His ears, His glory passing by him and he seeing Jehovah from behind! The mediator came down with his face shining — another beautiful thought added to the priesthood — that the ministration of the covenant to us is in glory, glory in the face of a man. It is wonderful, involving suffering and reproach, of course; but it is in those enduring the reproach and the suffering that the glory has a resting place. I bring in the thought of the priest and of the mediator, both radiant, the priest in his clothes, and the mediator in his face, to show how we are held out of the world and kept going, so as to enter into the realm of life and glory that God has in mind for us.
In the last passage read, chapter 40, we have the full thought, for the full thought of God is not in one person accepting reproach. He will cause His glory to shine there, as we have seen; but the thought of God in Exodus 40 is that the glory should reside in the [p. 353] saints as builded together; and if I love the saints I do not wish any of them to be out of this great privilege and blessing. It is a wonderful thing to be in the residence of the glory; all the saints are essential, they are all in it in their wealth; their giving, as seen in this book, was magnificent (we have had it mentioned here today), the giving of the saints is one of the features of glory at the present time. Indeed those who look after the giving of the saints are “messengers of assemblies, Christ’s glory” (2 Corinthians 8:23). Giving is one feature of the glory that we are brought into. God would remind us of it and bring us into it in a practical way, so that you see in the people in Israel their giving had to be restrained; there was abundance given and the tabernacle is constructed by suitable men furnished of God and everything, item after item, passes through the hand of the mediator. This means that each of us has to be approved of Christ so as to have part in the tabernacle — the residence of the divine glory. Do I hesitate in being examined or looked over by Him? The apostle says, “He that examines me is the Lord” (1 Corinthians 4:4). The divine intent is that I am to be in the assembly, as of the body of Christ, fitted there as “approved” of the Lord; and thus part of that in which God dwells, in which His glory is seen. Moses scrutinises each item of the tabernacle and puts it into its place, and it is functioning as there; and the Spirit says, “And so Moses finished the work” (Exodus 40:33). That word “finished” is most important; he finished the work and the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle, the glory inside, but outside it was in the form of a cloud.
Now having reached that point I want to link it on with the passage read in Peter again, so that everyone here will leave this hall with a sense that it is within his range individually to be a resting place for the glory, and as such to link himself up with all others who are; the more such are together according to God,
[p. 354] the greater the range for divine activities. So you will observe that Peter remarks in verses 12 and 13, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy”. I read these verses in connection with verse 14, knowing as I do that certain of us are facing a serious test, and we are all facing it if we have divine love in our hearts; and we want to have love in the form of sympathy. Sympathy is a great medium of love, conveying, as to what I have referred to, that it is our matter; it is a matter for every christian practically, everyone who loves Christ and who loves the saints.
And we are to look at what some of our young brethren are now experiencing from Peter’s standpoint, the government of God. There are two lines running down the history of the testimony: what God is in grace to men, God serving men in that way, making clothes for them, etc., as for Adam and Eve. The other line is that of government. God has put these two lines together; they run together, they serve each other — grace and government. So Peter is concerned about this. The believers to whom he is writing, possibly many of them Paul’s converts, are in his province, as the apostle of the circumcision. The Lord’s departmental ordering is remarkable; He has His departments and He would have each in his department, so that there may be no interference in each other’s work; so that Peter is the apostle of the circumcision, Paul of the uncircumcision (Galatians 2:8). But in normal circumstances, if Paul and Peter met in an assembly they would serve together happily; the number twenty-four, as in David’s ordering, implies that; they would serve unjealously. Barnabas is a great example of an unjealous state in a servant, and Peter showed it magnificently when he said, “Our beloved brother Paul” (2 Peter 3:15). I should like to see these two [p. 355] brothers meet in an assembly in Asia Minor, where many were Jewish converts; they had met earlier — not long after Paul was converted he went a long way to see Peter, an important matter for young ministers; they should make the acquaintance of and observe those longer in the service, spiritual men, and understand their outlook and way. Paul tells us that he spent fifteen days with Peter. They would get mutual impressions of each other, I suppose, that they never lost and never will lose; I shall hope to see them together in the future. Acts 9 and 10 and Peter’s epistles show that his ministry supported and promoted Paul’s. They are the great servants, seen in Scripture as the leading apostles, Peter to the Jews and Paul to the gentiles.
Peter here is serving in his own department, so to speak, addressing the sojourners of the dispersion. They had been introduced into a new, heavenly order of things, outside of this world, but he says as regards their position outwardly they were part of the dispersion; they were suffering under the government of God. They needed to distinguish between the government of God, and the grace and counsels of God, the counsels of His love, in which they now had part. That is what Peter’s epistles instruct us in. So that the perfect government of God is running parallel with His grace. As understanding this I humbly and thankfully submit to the governments that exist as ordered of Him. There may be reproach and suffering in various ways (Christ and His apostles having endured these); but nevertheless I bow to those in authority and regard whatever comes to me through them as God’s ordering — His government indeed. Peter says, “Honour the king” (1 Peter 2:17). You may say, what king? Whatever king is ruling, honour him. Then he says, “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye”. It is the blessedness of the state the believer is in. I am reproached in the name, I am in a state reflecting Christ and am thus under reproach; I am under reproach [p. 356] not exactly for Christ, but as in His name; and Peter would indicate that I am corresponding with the glory in Exodus. In the name of Christ I am under reproach, and the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God is resting on me. There can be no doubt about the moral value of the Spirit of glory, inasmuch as the Spirit of God is also there, so that I am perfectly, I may say, in salvation, I am in victory and I am representative of God. One is thus the residence, to that extent, of the glory of God. May God bless these words to us!