ROOTS

^[p. 437] ROOTS

Revelation 22:16; Daniel 4:26; Isaiah 37:30 - 31

I venture, dear brethren, to take as a subject for this service roots. The idea has a great place in Scripture, and the book of Proverbs gives it a very practical turn in saying, “The root of the righteous shall not be moved”; and again, “The root of the righteous yieldeth fruit” (chapter 12:3,12). Thus we have an assurance to the righteous of immovableness; first of all, that he shall not be rooted up; the Lord says, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up” (Matthew 15:13); the earth being His garden or field He will test the roots found in it; there are, alas! a variety of roots which He has not planted. Whether these growths be in persons or systems God will deal with them, will root them up, as our Lord says. It will be a clearing day. Those of us who travel will have observed how great tracts of territory are sometimes stripped of growths in order that other growths should appear. God intends to plant in such a way that this world will be filled with vegetable adornment and fruit. The face of the world will thus be rendered fruitful and beautiful. The wilderness will blossom as the rose. So that a great clearing day is coming in which God will remove all that He has not planted. Only the roots of the righteous remain, they “shall not be moved”.

The great Root for God is Christ. Genesis is the great seed and root book of the Scriptures, but the Lord alludes to Himself in a striking way in Revelation as the “Root”. More than once the idea is connected with Himself, but here we have it most definitely. “I am the root ... of David” — “I” is emphatic. David had a great place in the minds of God’s people, and the Lord shows that He is his root. He uses this fact in baffling His enemies,

^[p. 438] during the time of His ministry down here; they could not answer him: “David therefore calls him Lord, and how is he his son?” (Luke 20:44). Christ is the true Solomon, and He propounded this question; unanswerable by His enemies, but intelligible to those who form the assembly. He is speaking here in this verse in Revelation to the assembly. The assembly is composed of the true “Maschilim”, the understanding ones of God. No family of God has understanding equal to that of the assembly. The word ‘church’ (assembly) as used generally now has completely lost the greatness and glory attached to it in the New Testament.

When Paul said that he was a Roman, that seemed to be much to the military commander at Jerusalem, but it did not add to Paul spiritually. If he had said that he was one of the firstborn ones enregistered in heaven it would not have caused any anxiety; it would not have saved him one stripe. But there is no greater status for us than to belong to “the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven”, (Hebrews 12:23) You get no other family composed of firstborn ones; ordinarily you get a firstborn in each, but not all firstborn.

The Lord is addressing the assembly when He says, “I Jesus ... I am the root and offspring of David”. The members of the assembly understood from John’s gospel how He is the root of David, and they understand from Matthew’s gospel that He is also the offspring of David. In the latter we have His genealogy traced from Abraham and David. John specially presents our Lord’s deity; Matthew His royalty, which is connected with David. Matthew also shows His deity, for he speaks of Him as David’s Lord, and he alone records the revelation made to Peter, that He is the Son of the living God; but he specially presents Christ as the Son of David. There is nothing said in the early chapters of the Acts about the Son of God, but the thought was among the disciples. Before leaving this scene the Lord carefully inculcated ^[p. 439] the truth of His Person. God brought it forward at the beginning; He announced the Person before He was born: “The holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God” (Luke 1:35). That designation had been used prophetically of Him in Psalm 2, and applied as He was born. At His baptism it was uttered from heaven: “This is my beloved Son”, (Matthew 3:17) and, “Thou art my beloved Son”, (Luke 3:22). Late in His ministry, before He ascended the mount, the Lord challenged His apostles as to who they said He was, not what they thought only. Many of us think much and say little; others say much and think little. We must be balanced, that is, what we say must be the outcome of what we think, our thoughts being governed by the Spirit of truth. But the Lord’s question was not, ‘Who do ye think that I am’? but “who do ye say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). It is a matter of confession. The confession of Jesus as the Son of God is a great matter. It is not a mere formal subscription to a catechism or a creed; it is the outcome of the Person known in the heart.

John does not record this incident at all, but his gospel is full of the deity of Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. The eternal personality and deity of our Lord is stated here in the most explicit way, and these great and fundamentally blessed facts are seen throughout this gospel. And then we have the further great fact stated that “the Word became flesh”; also that He was thus contemplated “we ... contemplated his glory”, John says. And what was that glory? “A glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”. That glorious Person, having become Man, “dwelt among us” and was contemplated as with the Father, (see chapter 1). It is one thing to see Him in His great evangelical and curative services, and another to see Him with the Father. I can understand the disciple, when he saw the Lord pray, saying, “Lord, teach us to pray”, (Luke 11:1). In prayer He was with the ^[p. 440] Father; He did not pray at a distance. In John 17:1 it says, He “lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father”; and again, in John 11:41, He “lifted up his eyes on high and said, Father”; and then in the touching scene in Gethsemane He says, “Abba, Father”, (Mark 14:36). In all these references it is a question of the Son and the Father. He was apprehended by His own in this peculiar glory.

Thus the truth in these two gospels, besides the testimony of the other scriptures, being known in the assembly, the Lord’s words here are understood; and so the Spirit and the bride say, Come. This is not simply historical, it is the present answer of the assembly as well as that of the Spirit. Revelation is the voice of God at the present time. “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”, runs right down to our time; the whole history of the assembly is in view — the witness goes on.

Now the true answer to the Lord’s announcement at the present time lies in the knowledge by His own of the great truth of His Person as seen in John’s gospel — that He is the root of all that is for God. David represents, so to speak, the best there is for God. What the root means is His deity. John brings that before us, as I said; he records the Lord saying, “Before Abraham was, I am” (chapter 8:58). The root was there: “I am”. There is the eternal, unchangeable Person, speaking as a Man here on earth: “without father, without mother, without genealogy; having neither beginning of days nor end of life”, (Hebrews 7:3).

Well, dear brethren, having said so much, one would challenge one’s own heart as to Colossians 2:7: “Rooted and built up in him”. That passage fits peculiarly in Colossians, where the Person of Christ is in view. There you have the soil; the roots there are immutable; really the roots of the righteous. Rooted in Christ we are beyond the destructive power of the enemy. There is a peculiar fixedness in that. “Rooted and founded in love” (Ephesians 3:17) is a corresponding scripture. They are the amplification of the verses quoted from Proverbs, and give great stability.

In the passage I read in Daniel the idea of “root” is found three times. It is not there as accredited to Nebuchadnezzar; it is where God had set him. I have to regard myself in the light of God’s thought for me. That is the way to arrive at one’s position; after that, one can go back to divine counsel, that is, God’s purpose in regard to me. Think of how far back the divine thought of every one of us extends! It is not a question of credit to me; it is a question of God, and of where He sets me, where He sets you, where He set Nebuchadnezzar. God had great thoughts of that man. He was “this head of gold”. Gold represents what is of God. Nebuchadnezzar could hardly have said that he understood that; but it was the mind of God as to him, and so the root stands. The tree was not in keeping with the roots, and so was cut down, but “the stump of its roots” was left in the earth and protected. In the same sense the root of Israel remains, as we learn in Romans 11. We gentiles have been grafted in and become partakers of the root and fatness of the olive-tree, but the continuance of the gentiles there is a question of continuance in faith, and in the goodness of God. Leaving faith and the goodness of God, we are out of keeping with the root, and we shall be cut off; but the root remains. That is to say, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. The root of Israel, in the counsel of God, is fixed. Whatever has happened in these nineteen hundred years, the root will come into evidence again. Are we sympathetic with God in this great thought that Israel’s root will come into evidence again, and that all His thoughts as to His earthly people will flourish upon it?

And so with Nebuchadnezzar; the root was of God, and God would take care of it with a band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field where there is ^[p. 442] vitality. All this is of the greatest importance as a principle, especially to those, who as having failed, are under discipline. It affords assurance as to the unchangeableness of God’s purpose, and so becomes a basis for recovery. It is a question here, therefore, of Nebuchadnezzar coming back to that as he is restored; the root remains.

And so Daniel explains to the king that the kingdom shall be secure. He says, “Thy kingdom shall remain unto thee, after that thou shalt know that the heavens do rule”. That is to say, the believer’s setting is in relation to heaven. The gospel of Matthew is of great importance in that respect for young believers; it is there we are told that plants the heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. But He plants also; He plants here in relation to what is there; and if the growth is not in relation to what is in heaven, it must go. But the root remains, and recovery is to that root. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, (Romans 11:29). My place in the counsels of God is surer than the sun in the heavens. They are without repentance. Nebuchadnezzar, under the gracious discipline of God, comes back to his root. His understanding returned, and the glory of his kingdom, majesty and brightness returned to him. “And I was established in my kingdom, and excellent greatness was added unto me” (verse 36). Then he praises and extols and honours the King of the heavens. The difficulty was that he did not respect the heavens, nor the fact that God ruled there. As he lifted up his eyes to the heavens his understanding returned to him and he came back to the stump of his roots. The church, particularly as seen in Matthew, stands in relation to heaven, and so to have part in it one must own that heaven rules, that God’s will must be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Revelation 11:13 they glorify the God of the heaven; but the point there is not that only, but that God is the God of the earth as well; the heavens and the earth stand together; and Nebuchadnezzar emphasises this: “He doeth according to his will in the army of the heavens, and among the inhabitants of the earth” (Daniel 4:35). God graciously brought him to own this.

I now go on to Isaiah; I want to come to the idea of a remnant, which has a great place in Scripture, and we can thank God for this. But I wish to show you how real and practical a remnant is, and how that in recovery it is not simply that I come back to the primary too (that is to say, the purpose of God regarding me), but I take root downwards. That is a moral idea; it is a question of myself. I do that.

And so, in this great attack of Sennacherib, Hezekiah is addressed by God in the most encouraging terms, through the prophet, as to what would happen to the Assyrian. That is a comparatively small matter — what God can do with one angel. It is a military transaction, but it is not nearly so interesting to heaven as this matter of taking root downwards. So that Hezekiah is to understand by the sign what God is intending in the recovery. Sennacherib is important, but he could be easily disposed of, as I said; he represents what God may allow; and God is constantly allowing the enemy to do such things as he attempted. It is well for us to remember this; it keeps us dependent. Israel was surrounded by enemies that God could let loose at any time, and this ever reminds us of our entire dependence on God, who is round about His people. He let the Assyrian attack at this time, but through this he intended to teach Hezekiah something about life, taking root. The remnant had been spoken about earlier (chapter 7); it is a great feature of Isaiah’s prophecy. Shear-jashub means “A remnant shall return”. But Hezekiah needed instruction in regard to it; and it was a question of life illustrated in vegetable growth. The prophets speak much about growth. Here the sign includes three years’ growth. The first year there was to be what grew of itself. Now, there are many of our ^[p. 444] brethren eating this growth; they are in Lo-debar, so to say, in those systems in which man rules. I mean, there is no cultivation, no sowing and reaping according to God. But even in such circumstances there is some growth. What would become of these people, brethren, if something did not grow? God never leaves His people without sustenance, but all credit is due to Himself. So that the first year is that you begin to eat of what grows of itself. It is not very delicate food, it is not a growth that you have brought about by sowing; it is just what you can get.

Then, the second year, they were to eat “that which springeth of the same”; alluding evidently to a growth from the previous one — what grew of itself in the first year, but still without cultivation. This has to be noted. With none of the so-called religious denominations of christendom is there any culture according to God. They know nothing about God’s agricultural year, one of the most interesting things in Scripture. It involves the idea of the ‘field’ (Ecclesiastes 5:9), upon which the king himself is dependent. But if the king lives of the field he sees that it is properly tilled. He sows to obtain a certain crop and gets it. We all know how Solomon had superintendents who provided for him and his household throughout the whole year (1 Kings 4), so that there was abundance of food. Solomon’s table was not furnished with fruits that grew of themselves. They were from gardens, and fields, properly cultivated and cared for.

But the second year’s growth, in our chapter, had no cultivation, and as it has a spiritual significance, the meaning undoubtedly is that it is a product devoid of the general care needed in divine things. This product is not to be despised, for it is a divine provision, but not as I have remarked, such as those of God’s people have who maintain His principles and order, who by love serve one another. Under these circumstances God makes abundant our sowing and increases the fruits of our righteousness. The sowing and reaping are on the principle of ^[p. 445] death and resurrection, as we learn in 1 Corinthians 15. In the divisions of time which God has ordained (Genesis 8) the first is agricultural — seed-time and harvest; this includes the agricultural year spoken of later in scripture, which ended in the seventh month. If anyone here is feeding on this second-year growth you have poor fare as compared with some of God’s people. You are not sitting at Solomon’s table, you are not sitting at David’s table; you are like Mephibosheth at Lo-debar, a place of no pasture. I do not say there is no pasture, because, as I said, God provides something for the christian; but then, there was David’s table, Solomon’s table, Nehemiah’s table. On such tables things are provided that are produced by cultivation. When a christian sees that there is an agricultural year spiritually, that there is a “seed-time and harvest”, he thinks of sowing so as to have a desired crop, and to this end he must sow certain seeds, and not divers seeds (see Leviticus 19:19). Christendom is full of this sort of sowing. But God knows what He wants, and sows accordingly, and so also does the believer who is taught of Him and subject to Him.

In this third year there is sowing and reaping, planting and eating the fruit, and then we have the application of the figure to the remnant: “Judah shall again take root downward”. That is the secret of the whole matter; we do not like the going down; but in order to “bear fruit upward”, there must be the taking root downward. As I said, it is not now that I come back to my place in the counsel of God; I do recognise that of course, but I do not become inactive there; I must take root downward. God has fixed the root where it is immovable; that belongs to His counsel, and every christian should understand what we mean when we say ‘the security of the believer’, but it should not make people content without taking root downward; if it does there is little or no practical growth; taking root downward implies self-judgment. How do I learn to go down? From Christ. He ^[p. 446] came down from heaven; that is the first movement; it was a movement of love, involving humiliation. He served on the earth as from heaven. But He took a further move, and that corresponds with our taking root downward. The Lord went down to the lowest parts of the earth.

“But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” (Ephesians 4:9). He went down. So that if we are to be planted in the likeness of His death — ‘planted’ there implies growth together — we shall be in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection (Romans 6:5). Thus it is obvious that this great thought of taking root downward and bearing fruit upward involves the truth of Romans.

What is presented here will be seen in the remnant of Israel in the future. They will take root downward and bear fruit upward. That is what will happen by and by. They will go down. They will see that their Messiah had gone down. They will read Isaiah 53. I believe that and similar passages will be well read by them, and they will become identified with Him in His death. And then Isaiah 35, Isaiah 60, and may other passages show the glorious result in fruitfulness into which they shall come as identified with their risen and glorified King in Zion.

Well, dear brethren, I think you will see I have endeavoured to keep to my point, the question of roots. One could say a great deal more about it. There are roots of bitterness: “Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you”, says the writer of Hebrews (chapter 12:15). These have to be dealt with. But I am speaking of what is positive, the great need of the saints understanding how to take root downward; as planted in the likeness of Christ’s death, to bear fruit according to His resurrection. That is bearing fruit upwards. It is in the apprehension of Christ gone up that the fruit is borne upwards. May God bless the word!