“THIS MAN SHALL BE PEACE”
John Gray
Throughout the dispensation, there have been attacks on the Person of Christ. Some of us were speaking recently of some of sects which deny the deity of Christ, and we need to be aware of them and stand against them, and see that we are clear about the glory of the One who has come into manhood. As we had in our hymn, He brought into expression “a life divine below”. That was Christ in manhood here. So we get the expression here as to the “Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity”. There are some who consider Christ to be a good man, but nothing more than that. There were some, among early church leaders, who could not understand that a Person of the Godhead could come into manhood, and so they said that Jesus Christ was a man, although above other men, but He was not God, He was below God. That was the false doctrine which riddled the church at the very beginning. Hence we need to guard and enjoy the fact that God in the Person of Jesus has come into manhood. I think we get fresh impressions of this particularly as we are at the Supper, as the Lord comes among us. I think that is the time when I personally receive the greatest impressions of the fact of the deity of Christ, that there is a Man who has come to be near to us, who has died for us, who has been raised for us, and is in glory, and He has never altered His Person one iota. That is important, because the enemy is against the fact that God has made Himself known a Man.
This scripture brings out very clearly, though in small conditions; “thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be among the thousands of Judah”. Not exactly the thousands of Israel, but the thousands of Judah, that is that there was an area of divine choice. Our Lord sprang out of Judah; scripture speaks of Him as the “lion which is of the tribe of Judah”, Rev 5: 5. But out of these thousands, there is “little Bethlehem”. That indicates the small conditions, the poor conditions into which the Lord came in manhood here. But it goes on to say, “out of thee” – that is out of Bethlehem – “shall he come forth unto me”. How great that is, the greatness of what God is ordering, what God is bringing forward in the divine economy of love – “shall he come forth unto me who is to be ruler in Israel”. The Jews did not accept Him as ruler. Men generally, including the Romans, cast Him out as a criminal on the cross, regarding Him as anything but a Ruler. But He will be the Ruler, He is the King of kings, as someone referred to Him on Lord’s Day, ‘Lord of lords and King of kings’. It is a fine thing to have that established, not only as a fact in our souls, beloved brethren, but as something we enjoy, something we appreciate.
But I want to stress this further reference, “whose goings forth are from of old”. Now we might say that “from of old” takes us back to the beginning of time. Think of divine goings forth in the period from the beginning of time. But it does not stop at that, it goes back to “from the days of eternity”. It is to stress what John says in his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word”, John 1: 1. We often enjoy that. Not that the One we know as the Lord Jesus began then, but “in the beginning was the Word”, that is He was there at the beginning, He existed before time.
Now this brings out the glory of what the prophet says “out of thee”, that is out of Judah, “shall he come forth”. It is to stress the glory of this Person. Think of the glory of the title that we get in the Scriptures, “I am He” or “I the Same”. You have it repeated in Isaiah (see chap 41: 4) bringing out the unchangeable character of divine Persons, and the unchanging existence of Jesus as to His Person. That is what has been laid on my heart tonight, and this scripture has been in my mind following what we enjoyed on Lord’s Day. We need to increase in our apprehension and response to Him as He comes in among us. The greatness of the Person who comes in lays hold of us and we express it in worship. As He comes in, we lay hold of the fact that this is the Person who is the Same and has always been the Same – has always existed. You will remember in the time of the Lord’s life here, particularly in the garden of Gethsemane (although there were other occasions when He referred to this Name), John records how when they came to take Him, they asked which was the Lord, and He said “I am He” and they went away backwards and fell to the ground because of the Person who was there. Although a Man in humble and lowly circumstances and in meekness, He had remained unchanged in His Person. He says to the Pharisees who questioned Him, “Before Abraham was, I am”.
I think that in the presence of all that proceeds in the world, all that proceeds even in Christendom, we need to understand the glory of the Person with whom we have to do. He has come near to us as a Man to reassure us, not only to die for our sins, and to be raised for us, but to bring us into the most wonderful things, into the presence of His God and Father, by the power of the Spirit, that we might touch now what is eternal in character, as to praise and worship.
In this scripture, it speaks about the troops, “Now gather thyself in troops”. That was the Assyrian, the king of the north, and it speaks about them laying siege against Judah and Jerusalem. If you transfer this in its moral application to the saints at the present time, there is a lot against the saints, there are things working in the world, not just on the line of pleasure with which men are obsessed, but there are evil things working. The attack of Satan is against what is of Christ and what is of the assembly, what relates to God Himself. Satan has always been against God, and whatever God has created or introduced, Satan is against it. So that we can see that the reference here to the troops of the king of Assyria are the forces of what is against God. But we are to take comfort in this fact, that this is the One who is “from of old, from days of eternity”. The enemy cannot touch what is divine. He cannot touch divine Persons, because God is supreme. We have to do with the God who is supreme. I think that is encouraging. I would encourage our hearts to contemplate more the fact that the Man who came to Bethlehem’s manger, the Man who died on the cross, the Man who was raised again and was seen by the disciples during the forty days and was received up in glory is none other than God in the Person of the Son.
That is a wonderful thing to lay hold of, and it also brings out that He is the One, and He alone, through whom we know and enjoy God, made known to us in love as Father and Son and Holy Spirit. In the Person of the Son, we know Him “whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity”. Only in that way can conditions of peace remain among us, as we maintain the glory of the Person of Christ. It is not only that we enjoy His manhood, but we know the glory of the Person with whom we have to do, and thus enjoy the company of God in Jesus as Man. He is coming into this setting in Bethlehem, that persons might know God. Then it says “this man shall be Peace”. Well, peace is in the assembly. You do not find peace in Christendom. It is sad that you will not find it there, but you do find it in the assembly. I am not excluding believers in these conditions that may not have light as to it. But let us enjoy what we have, and let us hold fast to it, beloved brethren, because it is centred on the fact that Jesus has become Man, but He remains God eternally. May He help us in it for His Name’s sake.
GRANGEMOUTH