MOUNTAINS AROUND JERUSALEM (2)
[p. 330] MOUNTAINS AROUND JERUSALEM (2)
Matthew 14:22 - 36; Matthew 15:29 - 39
JT I suppose that some present now were not at our reading yesterday afternoon, so it may be remarked that our subject is the mountains on which the Lord is seen in Matthew. It was thought that they correspond with Psalm 125 in which it is said that “mountains are round about Jerusalem”. Matthew speaks of Jerusalem as “the holy city”, (chapter 4:5) and “the city of the great King” (chapter 5:35). Although he contemplates the setting aside of the literal Jerusalem, he brings in the assembly in such a manner as to indicate that what Jerusalem represented of old was to be continued in the assembly. So that these mountains — six in number — may be taken to correspond with what is spiritual, answering to what was referred to of old as round about Jerusalem.
We also dwelt at length on the place that Jerusalem had in the hearts of the godly, contemplated as going up, in the Songs of degrees. They think of Jerusalem feelingly: that their feet should stand within its gates, and that they should pray for its peace. And then in Psalm 125 Jerusalem is mentioned with a note of exclamation as shewing how feelingly it was regarded by the godly Israelites. The example set thus, I think, is intended to stimulate us, as to the place the church has with us. Although we may not see it concretely as at the beginning, we have the light both as to what it was at the beginning and what it will be at the end; so that as the thought of it lays hold of the believer, he regards it feelingly, and ever has it in mind. It was thought that what the Lord said on the first mountain — recorded in chapters 5,6 and 7 — unfolds subjects that are regarded in a beclouded way by christians generally. So that the vision is clarified in these three chapters; the vision of the believer is clarified as he ascends and listens to the Lord teaching. They contemplate, too, that the believer [p. 331] is to be like his Father in heaven, in goodness and mercy. Chapter 7 ends with the foundation on which the believer stands, shewing that he has reached from his own side a firm rock; and thus arrives at the idea of the church, of which the rock foundation is spoken of later.
Chapter 14 gives the second mountain, in which the Lord is seen alone. It is, as you might say, the mount of intercession — an important mount, or place of strength and defence — the Lord’s position on high, interceding for us, with our position deliberately selected by Him. It says, “he compelled the disciples to go on board ship, and to go on before him to the other side, until he should have dismissed the crowds. And having dismissed the crowds, he went up into the mountain apart to pray. And when even was come, he was alone there, but the ship was already in the middle of the sea tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary”. These circumstances were deliberately selected by the Lord for them, and His own position was deliberately selected too, so that they agree. His position on high in intercession agrees with our position here.
WHM Is it a picture of His priestly grace? You say He selected the mount.
JT Yes; clearly it is His position on high; and the service there is in relation to the position He selected for them here. That is, it was no accident that they were on the sea; the position is selected by Him; He compelled them to go that way.
Ques Does the ship indicate our position today?
JT Well, I think what is more in view in this particular passage is the state of the sea, and it is the only passage which tells of a believer walking on it, although there is importance to be attached to the ship, it went the whole way across. But it is more the state of the sea and the wind here; not so much a sudden squall as that the wind was contrary, creating a troubled [p. 332] sea. There is the idea of a sudden squall, that is to say, an attack of the enemy as he sees an opening; but this is more persistent and permanent, that is to say, the position of the saints during the absence of the Lord on high.
JH It continued while Peter walked on the water, and it continued while the Lord supported him, until he got into the ship.
WHM Does it shew how everything here is contrary to the christian?
JT That is the point. The wind was contrary, and the Lord knew that. He compelled them to that position; we need not expect anything else, and that makes us all the more dependent on the intercession of the Lord on high. You feel that you are dependent every moment because the wind may rise higher and higher.
EG In Luke 8 it says there was a sudden squall.
JT That is, Satan taking advantage of an opportunity; not so here: Christ is not in the ship here.
RMcB Would you say it is a mercy from God when the wind is contrary?
JT Well, it brings out what the Lord can be to us. When you see that your circumstances are divinely selected, it makes you very restful. And so the Lord says, as it were, I want you to know what I can be to you.
That is the reason why I suggested the whole position, because it brings out how He became better known; for at best we know very little of the Lord.
RW Would you say it is the Lord’s intention that we should really get to know Himself better as the One who is all-powerful over the enemy; and also that we might learn His wonderful sympathy?
JT Yes. Of course we have the doctrine of the Person of Christ now, but they did not have it then. God’s way is to bring out the doctrine as the thing is there. What you find in the gospels and the Acts is that a thing became known, and then the doctrine.
[p. 333] RW I suppose we must learn contrariety here?
JT We must learn the Lord in the contrariety! That is the thing; He has placed us in it, as was said.
WHM What is the difference, in your mind, between the ‘wind’ and the ‘waves’? Mark 4:39 says that He “rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still”, as if the wind were satanic power.
JT Well, I think it is. We know from Ephesians that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. I suppose it is symbolic of his way of acting — an unseen way, but effective. It is used also to symbolise the power of God, so that it has to be read in its context. “The wind bloweth where it listeth”, the Lord said (John 3:8), referring to the new birth; something happens through it.
RMcB Do you think this way that the Lord takes would save us from being earth-dwellers?
JT Yes. The thing is to see that the Lord has deliberately selected these circumstances for us. Elsewhere we come into them as if it could not be helped — they exist, and we cannot help it; but the Lord selected the position deliberately here. He compelled them to go on board ship, and go on before Him to the other side.
HH In saying that do you think of what the saints are in relation to the church?
JT Yes; this leads up to that. We have to take account of the church in its members, and we have to take account of it as a whole. We do not come to that really until we come to chapter 16. You have two words in Exodus 12; first the word ‘assembly’, as it is properly translated, which is a moral whole; then we have to take account of the same thing viewed in its members, hence you have the word “congregation”, verses 3,6. The latter embraces all the individuals severally — each having responsibility.
LES I suppose the constituents of which the church is formed ought to prove the Lord in every [p. 334] situation that arises? The constancy of the storm is still here.
JT That is right, and it induces dependence on the Lord. That is what is brought out here, that there is no one with Him on the mount, He is there alone; there is no other one who can intercede for you but He; He is the only intermediary between God and men. So that it is emphasised that He is there alone; He is apart first, and then He is there alone.
Now as we were remarking about the congregation, that is more what is in view from chapter 13 on, until we arrive at chapter 16, and then we get the corporate thing. Here (chapter 14) Peter is an individual — not yet viewed as material for the building. But when the Lord says, “thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly”, the individual unit is regarded as “Peter”, that is to say, he is qualified as material for this new structure.
JC Did the apostle Paul illustrate this in all his experience, in which there was continual pressure — shipwreck, stripes and so on?
JT That indicates what he was as corresponding with Peter. He was, as a unit, qualified, he was manifestly of the assembly in the way he bore things, such power marked him. So that he could say, “it pleased God ... to reveal his Son in me”, (Galatians 1:15,16). God revealed His Son to Peter; but in either case they are constituted members fit for the assembly.
EG When Saul persecuted the assemblies the wind was contrary.
JT It was indeed; he went out breathing threatenings and slaughter. That was a wind. It was a dreadful persecution.
I think the position here is very clear; this is a mount that is most essential to us all, that is to say, the Lord is on high by deliberate choice. He says, “it is expedient for you that I go away”. He would go there and beg for [p. 335] the Spirit, but then He would also intercede. We have an Advocate with the Father; we have a great Priest over the house of God.
HH The circumstances, therefore, which He has selected for the saints are all taken account of in His intercession for them where He is.
JT That is important, because it makes you restful; if the Lord has deliberately selected these circumstances, He will see you through them. And then He would have us know that He has gone up, and intercedes for us.
RW If the Lord has selected these circumstances, it is that we might learn Himself in them.
EG Do you connect it with Hebrews 7:25: “he ever liveth to make intercession for them”?
JT Exactly; only the peculiar setting of it on the mount is that it is a source of strength that is one of the features of the position in Matthew. The Lord’s position on high implies that He will carry us through.
FI Is the thought of intercession connected with the individual rather than with the corporate thought?
JT Yes; it is what the Lord is to each of us. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father”, (1 John 2:1) And so as regards priesthood, and sympathy, and support, it is all for the individual, but to the end that we might draw near. The great bearing of Hebrews is seen in chapter 10, where we are enjoined to draw near to God; and then, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
JRS Would you say that Hebrews is individual all through?
JT Well, pretty much. I do not think they had the true idea of the church, though it is introduced — the Lord sings in the midst of the assembly. But it is more abstract in Hebrews; the Hebrew christians were hardly equal to it. Hebrews is an elementary epistle, but on the line of recovery — not like Romans. They had retrograded; when for the time they should have [p. 336] been teachers they needed that one should teach them the first principles of the oracles of God.
JRS Do you link that with the first mountain in chapters 5,6 and 7?
JT The instruction there clarifies the vision of the believers, as we saw. But now you have an advance here — Christ in heaven praying for us, and we here, but having left the world. It was not that they did so voluntarily — He compelled them to go into the ship and go to the other side; that shewed what influence He had over them. It was love. They needed the experience; especially of what He became to them in the adverse circumstances. What seemed to be contrary was really the selection of love.
HB Is it true today, that such a course is obligatory and not optional?
JT Certainly. This is obligatory, the Lord enforces it upon them. There was good reason for it; later on you see that love was behind it. You would always feel that you would not be without the experience indicated in this chapter. The lesson is that you can rely on Him in the most adverse circumstances.
HB Does that apply to every one of us today?
JT Our position is determined by the Lord; it is not optional at all. But His putting them into the ship was not taking them very far. That is really what Judaism was. Christianity is not a ship. This chapter teaches us that christianity does not imply a ship, but walking on the waters — superior to them; that is more than the ship.
RW Have we not to leave the ship?
JT That is the point; and how Christ is known in the altogether new circumstances.
RW If we want to get to the Lord we have to leave the ship.
JT Here He is on high at evening-time. He goes apart, and then He is on high alone and the wind is [p. 337] contrary. The disciples are on the sea toiling there, and at the fourth watch of the night He comes to them; there is now a great new lesson to be learned, we have to learn everything from Christ. Certainly how to walk on the water. Peter asks Him to bid him come unto Him on the water. He would move only in subjection to the Lord.
Rem We never can know what the assembly is if we do not go that way; we are attracted to the Lord Himself.
JT Quite so. You see the position clearly enough, that He has left the mountain for the moment and He is on the water. That is, He is now shewing us how to walk on the water.
Ques Why does Peter say, “command me”?
JT Well, you feel the suitability of that word; you are subject to the Lord. Peter had already experienced His compulsion; He compelled them to enter the ship. They were there under the Lord’s compulsion; they did not select the position themselves. They were together under these circumstances. It is a question entirely of the will of the Lord, and no one can be in the assembly without submitting absolutely to His will.
WW That was the way that God took with His people when He led them out of Egypt.
JT It was all a question of their obedience; they were to move as Jehovah directed. He knew better than they — He was “a man of war”. He took them through the wilderness. Pharaoh says, “the wilderness has hemmed them in” (Exodus 14:3), but normally it is the very thing that does not hem in a christian. He brought them up against what seemed to be an impossible barrier, and yet that was the way of victory. It brought out the power of God.
LES Would you link these mountains with those in the typical books, in which Israel proved the resources of [p. 338] God?
JT Quite so; but here each mountain is to bring out a feature of strength. The mountain in the land of Moriah (Genesis 22) conveys the idea that it was “shewn”. The same thing applies in 2 Chronicles 3. (See New Translation, verse 1, note.) The temple was built on the mount ‘shewn’, it was mount Moriah; not necessarily the same mount as in Genesis 22, but the same thought is evident. Abraham names the place “Jehovah-jireh”, and the inspired writer adds, “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided” — whatever it is that is needed; that is an immense thing to get hold of. And so Moses led the flock of Jethro to the back side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mount of God; and that is where he met Aaron, and where the covenant was made and the pattern of the tabernacle given. The children of Israel were there a long time, and God unfolded to them the wonderful resources He had. In this way the believer is instructed as to mountains; and Matthew gives these we are considering. If we apprehend them, we shall be invulnerable in the testimony.
HH Every contingency is seen and provided for.
WHM Scripture speaks of “that goodly mountain, and Lebanon”, (Deuteronomy 3:25). What is the goodly mountain?
JT I suppose Moses had in mind the mountain of God’s inheritance. He speaks of it in Exodus 15:17.
FI Does Peter’s appeal shew that in the enforced exercise that is put upon us it is necessary to call in the Lord as the solution of everything so as to be available for the corporate position?
JT Indeed! Then we see in Psalm 125 Jerusalem is the first thing; the heart is full of the city because of the divine thoughts in it. Then, “mountains are round about her”; that is the second thing. The third thing is: “Jehovah is round about his people, from henceforth and for evermore”. Mountains refer to what God has effected in His people, He has effected these principles [p. 339] of defence; and in connection with what is effected in our souls, He is there. It is the presence of God in connection with what He has effected in our souls. “Thou art Peter”, the Lord says; that means a man in whom things are effected; he is material; he is like the rock. It is in such as Peter that God is. All, of course, is by the Spirit.
WH The confession shewed what was in Peter’s soul.
LES The Lord’s voice touched Peter. It was His voice. It was substance, and not an apparition.
JT Just so, the voice was Himself, as it were. Peter later had an experience like that, his own voice was recognised by Rhoda (Acts 12:14). A man is known by his voice, also in his handwriting; but more in his voice, because the voice is living. So that you have the substance. That is a great thing in christianity — substance. John speaks of what was heard, seen, handled (1 John 1:1) — a living Person.
SL So that it is in connection with what God effects in our souls that we are available for the testimony.
JT That is the idea. You think of a city — well, you are bound to think of the work of God in the place, not simply the number of christians; in that there is defence for what is of God. We are bound to take account, if we are with God, of what He has effected in the place. The Lord says, “Thou art Peter”. That is the idea — every unit in the place is to be known according to what he is spiritually; that is his only value. God is in the place in that connection. That is the principle of the assembly.
CMJ Was that special to Peter? — “Thou art Peter” — or is it representative?
JT I think it is representative. The idea of it is that he is the kind of material that has been reached through all these experiences; he is the one prominent here. He walks on the water. Here he is in the making [p. 340] but in chapter 16 he makes his confession as to Christ’s Person, so He says, “Thou art Peter”.
FS Do you distinguish between persons and gift?
JT Well, in Ephesians the person is the gift. It is a question of the person, for what is a gift unless Christ is expressed in the person? You think of the person. The first epistle to the Corinthians treats of gifts as given to persons. I think a gift is a dangerous thing without the person being characteristic of it. “Thou art Peter” is not gift, but what the person is — actually or potentially. A stone is evidently a formation under certain influences.
FS Mountains go up a long way, so you may rely that they are on solid foundations.
JT Proverbs 8:25 speaks of the mountains being settled. Geologists have all sorts of things to tell us, but ‘settled’ means that they are fixed, founded.
Rem “His foundation is in the holy mountains” (Psalm 87).
JT Just so; what He had founded — I believe the allusion is to the work of God in His people; but the foundation of things is Christ.
LES So that when you come to the beginning of Acts, would you suggest that the mountains are there in the crowd of names? The work of God is there.
JT Exactly; there is something there that is reliable; and the Holy Spirit comes in in that connection. The material for the building was there; in principle it was on the Rock — fully so as the Holy Spirit came.
Ques Do you regard these mountains as entirely a matter of defence?
JT Yes. I think that is the idea. I mean what is effected in us as seen in these mountains.
Ques Is it like an outer circle of bulwarks?
JT Quite. “Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks”,
([p. 341] Psalm 48:12,13). Well, these are defensive, they are military allusions. As to any locality you visit, if you are with God you are thinking of what is for Him there. Sometimes you hear it said that there is an assembly, say in A —, meaning that there are christians in the place, although not in fellowship; you cannot speak of an assembly in that sense. You cannot speak of an assembly save in the sense that it is recognised — that there are persons walking in the light of it. There are members of the congregation there, but you cannot speak of the corporate thing — anything representing the corporate whole — save as the principles of fellowship are recognised.
JG If a meeting is being started, would you look out for elders first?
JT Well, not necessarily. Of course you would look for believers who have the Spirit. You could not have the assembly in any sense without material. “Thou art Peter” — that is the idea. Sometimes you hear it said, Where are the elders? But what is the use of an elder without an assembly? Have the assembly first, and then the elder (see Acts 14:23).
Rem Suppose two are walking in the Spirit?
JT Well, that is the principle. “Two or three ... gathered together” (Matthew 18:20) — that is the idea; there is a sense of corporate responsibility.
F S. Does this chapter go further than “two of you”?
JT No; I do not think so; this chapter is only “one of you”, one who walks on the water. Of course they were all in the ship, but as long as you remain in the ship you are not on assembly ground at all. It is one of you, first; that is the principle — before you get “two of you”, you have got to get one. I am speaking only of how the element in chapter 14 enters into what follows. We do not reach the assembly until we come to chapter 16.
JH Then it is hardly right to say that all the saints in a place form the [p. 342] assembly?
JT No; it is not; they belong to it. There are many towns and cities in which there are none walking in the light of the assembly; there are christians in them, but you cannot say there is an assembly in a town in which no one is recognising it.
JH I think that is important.
JT-L Do you mean that it is one thing for some of the people of God to be in a locality, but another for the features of the assembly to come to light there?
JT That is a very important distinction. As soon as you have the concrete idea, then you can include the others abstractly. You can speak of the assembly in the place as inclusive of all, if there is some recognition of it. God regards it in that light.
LM The Lord said to Peter, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father”, (chapter 16:17). I was wondering what you thought as to the Father?
JT Well, it is “my Father which is in heaven”. That is, it is that Person revealing to Peter who the Person was who was before his eyes.
LM I think that what is being conveyed to us is very helpful. I had always thought that wherever the saints were it was God’s assembly. It is well to see that there is the walking on the water.
JT You must go through these chapters to get what the assembly is in the mind of God — what it is as encountering evil in this world.
Ques Will you say a word on “Truly thou art God’s Son”?
JT Well, you see it is not here based on revelation, but on what came out in Him. It says in verse 32, “And when they had gone up into the ship, the wind fell”. The Lord does not rebuke the wind here; that is to say, it is a change of circumstances now. “But those in the ship came and did homage to him, saying, Truly thou art God’s Son”, that is the outcome of what happened. This homage to Christ, the acknowledgment of His being God’s Son, is based on what came out in Him; and so is the gospel based on what came out in Him. The gospel in Romans is based on the fact that He is marked out Son of God. On the other hand, you have at His baptism the announcement that He is the Son of God, and in Matthew 16 a revelation that He is Son of the living God; but on neither of these cases is the gospel based. The gospel is based on what came out in Christ in His ministry — in His own Person. He is “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”, (Romans 1:4). That is how the believer first comes into the knowledge of Christ in his soul. The gospel is presented to him as in Romans. Later he is brought into the other features. But the general position is that I apprehend the gospel and I receive it, and I have got the foundation as to His person in my soul.
EG It says, “when they had gone up into the ship, the wind fell”. You said that the Lord did not rebuke the wind.
JT I think it is dispensational; Peter on the water represents the church period; it is followed by something else, in which the Lord joins the remnant, leading on to the millennium.
HH What you have just drawn attention to, “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead” — the saints coming into that through the gospel would enter into the thought of the mountain; that is, the saints standing here in the defence of the truth. It would give wonderful stability.
JT Yes. I think that the gospel, therefore, lays the basis in our souls for everything — for the superstructure that God is working at.
HH Romans 1 is not only a reference to what is true of Christ, but what the gospel proposes for us.
JT Yes. He is the Son of God. The basis is laid [p. 344] there for our being brought into association with Him; only there is ever that distinction that He is “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”. It is the power that was in Christ. So that He has got the pre-eminence.
GFG Is the way in which He deals with Peter specially characteristic of the thought of this mountain? It says, “Jesus stretched forth his hand”.
JT Very good; you are made to realise the power of His hand, His support. You can always trust that hand; that is the great lesson here.
JRS Would you link that with what you get in Hebrews 5:9, “the author of eternal salvation”?
JT Well, indeed. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (chapter 7:25), and one becomes a tower of strength when one learns that lesson. When you might think you must give way, He puts out His hand and holds you up. One who has proved the Lord thus in any local company would be an immense defence to the testimony. The Lord may allow you to go to the verge of a precipice, but you do not go over. So that in your locality you know well enough that at the crucial hour the Lord will stand by you. He sees to it.
Ques Would you say why the Lord chose to go off in the fourth watch of the night, walking on the sea?
JT It would be the last watch. It is very comforting that the Lord gives final deliverance — comes in at the last hour. The Lord would encourage us in this; what He was at the beginning He is at the end.
EBG I suppose that, having regard to the way the Lord made Himself known, it is a dishonour to Him to have any doubt as to His ability to carry things over — to support and carry everything over.
JT Well, that is the thing; and do you not think that is the idea of the mountain? You go to a locality, one thinks of those who are there; if there is a brother [p. 345] there who has learnt this lesson, things will be held there.
EBG The Lord says, “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” I was thinking, what a serious thing it is to have any lack of confidence in the Lord’s ability to carry His people through and sustain His own administration.
JT Therefore this mountain becomes very important. The first is that I am perfectly clear about everything, I know the whole landscape, so to speak; but now the Lord sends me circumstances that are adverse, and that is the position of every one of us, by His own choosing. He chooses the position Himself. But it is that I might know Him better, that I might know how to be supported by Him at the crucial time — when things seem to be at their worst. Paul despaired even of living; it seemed hopeless, but God came in — “God who raises the dead; who has delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver”, (2 Corinthians 1:9,10); when a man has that experience, you see, things will be held for God against the enemy in his locality. In a general way, too, men like that are a defence, you can rely on them.
EBG Are these circumstances the worst that can be met with?
JT The Lord selects them Himself, to present the worst circumstances, and shews that at the utmost extremity He comes in. According to Psalm 107:27, when you come to your wit’s end, the Lord comes in.
Ques You say this is a very important matter?
JT Well, it is the point of our reading. It is a great thing to learn how to rely upon Him — to know that He is not beyond your reach, and you are not beyond His reach. This is a different idea from His prayer; His intercession on high is to bring in God’s help. Here it is His own direct help; and, as the apostle Paul says, “the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be [p. 346] fully known, and that all the gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”,(2 Timothy 4:17).
Rem I suppose the principle works out in Philadelphia, in the overcomer being a pillar.
JT You see how the Lord’s hand is there: “I have set before thee an opened door”. He has done it Himself. He is to be known in this way now; we are in the fourth watch of the night, so to speak.
Well, the next mountain (chapter 15) brings in the multitude. In chapter 14 the disciples are left below, but as to the next mountain it says, “he went up into the mountain and sat down there; and great crowds came to him, having with them lame, blind, dumb, crippled, and many others, and they cast them at his feet, and he healed them”. Now you see, you have the multitude on the mountain. That means, I think, that Matthew contemplates not only the Lord coming to where people are; he contemplates special revivals, special movements. The multitudes that the Lord sent away did not shew any special energy; but when you get the multitude going up the mountain, that is a work of God. People are moving, they are taking things to heart, and they are going up; it is costing them something, it cost them some energy to go up the mountain. You see, there is something important going on. Because going up the mountain does not mean simply going to large popular evangelistic meetings; it means that there is genuine exercise; you are going up because of dire need. It was no small matter to bring all the cripples up, it meant a good deal of exercise. It says, “he went up into the mountain and sat down there; and great crowds came to him, having with them lame, blind ... crippled”; these people could not walk up. You can see that there is now something going on that is beyond the ordinary. In chapter 5 when He went up His disciples came to Him.
Rem The disciples would be a living testimony that attracted the crowds to come up there.
JT Well, the Lord’s own service, I suppose, was the testimony, although the apostles had been sent out too. There had been a widespread testimony presented, and there was a response to it. We ought to expect that God will come in at times and cause a move. When you see people going up the mountain carrying lame people they mean something, and that is the point here. In chapter 5 the disciples came to Him, but here it is the crowds coming with those cripples, carrying them up; as in Mark you get the man carried to the roof and let down; that meant that there was an evangelical movement; God was working. Here it is a general movement of sympathy with others; the crowds are not there for themselves only, but they bring others; they are unselfish.
RW The Lord had compassion on them, and I suppose we ought to have compassion on the multitudes.
JT That very thing comes in here — “Jesus, having called his disciples to him”. He says, in effect, I want to bring you into this; it is God’s doing, and I want to bring you into it. We often see that — God is working and we are not in it. The disciples did not seem to be affected at all. So, “Jesus, having called his disciples to him, said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have stayed with me already three days and they have not anything they can eat, and I would not send them away fasting lest they should faint on the way. And his disciples say to him, Whence should we have so many loaves in the wilderness?” If I am in the light of Exodus, I know what God can do in the wilderness, that the wilderness does not hinder God; it becomes the occasion of divine supply: “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”, (Genesis 22:14). And the Lord wanted to bring the disciples into this.
RWG I suppose you mean that these mountains are distinct advances.
JT They are; this third mountain is an advance [p. 348] on the second one, because the Lord wishes now to bring the disciples into a work of God. It becomes a severe test; the disciples were not equal to it.
FI Do you mean that the Lord would impress on the disciples His own unselfish service as leading to their being material for the assembly?
JT That is right; and what comes out shews that the Lord alludes to what was already here. He does not lift up His eyes to heaven; He simply gives thanks. In chapter 14 He lifts up His eyes to heaven; because there it is a question of administration — of what is up there, but in this passage it is what is down here. So in Ephesians 3:20, if you pray to God He does exceedingly above all you ask, “according to the power which works in us”; that is, we are apt to ignore what we have got. As Moses complains, “I am not able to bear all this people alone, for it is too heavy for me”; God adds seventy men, but takes power from Moses and puts it on them (Numbers 11:14,17). There is no extension of power, but great extension of personality, which is important. And so the Lord calls His disciples here, and they could not see how the thing could be done, although He had done it before. And He impresses on them that God has supply enough for any emergency in the presence of the Spirit.
Ques Is this incident to bring before them what they had in His being with them?
JT And that the Holy Spirit was there. It is seven loaves instead of twelve. It is not what comes down, but what has come down — what is here. I mean it is anticipative of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church.
Ques Would you say that seven speaks of what is complete?
JT Yes; complete spiritually.
JRS So that they should not have looked on it as the [p. 349] wilderness.
JT Well, wilderness conditions only bring out what God is, what His resources are.
LES If we have a sense of what is in Him, we bring the lame and the blind.
EG Is there a special thought in being filled, “All ate and were filled”? In John 2 the water-vessels were to be filled to the brim.
JT Well, you would expect it. If the Lord is doing anything He does it completely.
LM I was thinking of that; all are in healthy condition on this mountain, and all are satisfied as well.