THE INFLUENCE OF HEAVEN - READING 4
THE INFLUENCE OF HEAVEN — READING 4
Luke 19:37 - 46; Luke 24:1-9; Luke 24:44-52
Heaven enters into these scriptures in relation to dispensational truth which always occasions questioning and requires instruction in us; and the word as to the heavens, the sun in the heavens and the heavenly bodies are to be for times and seasons and days and years to connect up with this. Heaven determines the changes of dispensation. So in the passage in chapter 19 we have peace in the heaven instead of peace on earth, as in the case of the multitude of the heavenly host in chapter 2. Clearly the teaching of the gospel is in mind, that there are those who observed the pleasure of heaven, it must have first place; it must take precedence over earth — in result heaven comes first. Therefore, we have to look to heaven for guidance as to change of this dispensation as it was when the Jewish dispensation discontinued and the Christian one began. In either case heaven has to say to it, and this intensifies the importance of what we have been saying, that we should have our eye on heaven.
Ques The prodigal had sinned against heaven; we must not do that?
In the prodigal’s case heaven is owned as having rights. No doubt in that case it would be the heavens as affecting the earth unofficially, heaven in a material sense. We are now confronted with shortage of foods and all kinds of materials and we are reminded that we are dependent upon heaven for these. If we are [p. 69] in need of substance we have to look to heaven. It has to do with times and seasons. The earth yields because of heaven’s influence, rain and fruitful seasons. So that the heavens in Genesis come in on the second day and the waters are separated and the material heavens are between the waters and are there in relation to the earth physically. So that I suppose the idea was the prodigal had sinned against that, against heaven. Heaven was very bountiful to him and his father, and he had squandered it. The prodigal would mean that the Gentile had benefited by material things from heaven but failed to recognise it in any sense in giving of thanks.
We are told that every creature of God is good and to be received with thanksgiving and sanctified by the word of God and prayer. The benefits of heaven promote thanksgiving to God, whether they be food or clothing or medicine — all of God’s creatures — and the return from us is acceptable to God.
We are reminded of addition in chapter 19:37,38, “All the multitude of the disciples began, rejoicing, to praise God with a loud voice for all the works of power which they had seen, saying, Blessed the king that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest”. As if the teaching had been resultful and the time of the Lord’s entrance as Messiah was now there and this is the volume of praise. It is not from angels come down, but from men profiting by what they saw in Christ. The heavens have precedence now in the matter of peace in a general way, not simply individuals in heaven or earth, but in heaven as a place. It reflects what is heavenly. This is the dispensational side of the position; it is a critical time because we are passing out of one condition of things into another and heaven must be our guide. These disciples are taught by observation and by direct instruction or by example, taught to see this. They are on the side of [p. 70] God as the angels were in chapter 2. The sequence is to bring out their greatness. If these be silent, not heavenly angels, but stones would cry out in His testimony. Here the announcement is the positive side, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. This is the key to the dispensation. Heaven is being announced by some persons on earth, not by angels. God is producing a witness on earth. The devil is doing his worst against the Jews, but God is going to take them up and the devil knows that, and we know that a change is coming and we will celebrate it. That is the great point, the changeover is to be celebrated and in doing it to enhance Christ and the greatness of His Person. God will not send angels down to do it, but He will send stones to do it.
This is an allusion to Psalm 118:26, “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah. We have blessed you out of the house of Jehovah”. We have an allusion elsewhere to Zacharias; the point is that we have someone on earth besides angels that know the mind of heaven and are giving it precedence in the matter of peace. Psalm 118 will take place later; the Jews will welcome Him later, but there is a remnant the Lord has secured to bear witness. Reconciliation in Christianity precedes the idea of our exalted place. Peter introduces Psalm 118:22, “The stone which the builders rejected”, and what follows later in Psalm 118 is connected with the next dispensation. Paul spoke of himself as an abortion, born out of due time. This is a testimony out of due time, it belongs to Christianity and makes everything of heaven. Still it was out of his time, meaning that he represented the Jewish remnant in the future.
In Matthew 21:9 the heavenly side is connected with the present dispensation. “The crowds who went before him and who followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David”. That chapter is preceded by [p. 71] the blind men in chapter 20. They begin a note about Jesus which indicates that He was entering into His territory, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David”. Jesus was about to cross over and they celebrated Him as the Son of David because that was the time for it, and then the riding into the city. The quotation is from Zechariah. Zion’s king was there and they take up the same note as they go on to the city that the blind man started with. The children take up the same note, causing opposition to Christ by the leaders, and the Lord says to them, which is a quotation from Psalm 8:2, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise”. It is the babes there, they are singing in the temple.
So that there is no doubt that the Jewish side is announced but it really has Christianity in mind. There was a tribute to the great king by the little ones. The stones are not alluded to there, but God effected power in the little ones to praise Him. This is grace, but still the word about Jerusalem is very solemn. It is a beautiful thought that runs through Luke that grace is to be with us. “And he answering said to them, I say unto you, If these shall be silent, the stones will cry out. And as he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, even at least in this thy day, the things that are for thy peace: but now they are hid from thine eyes; for days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall make a palisaded mound about thee, and shall close thee around, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children in thee; and shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou knewest not the season of thy visitation”.
So that it is for us now to see a little of this subject in Luke, how the heart of Christ is brought into it in sympathy. He says to His disciples, You must begin there to preach the gospel. It is the government of [p. 72] God in the closing and winding up of the dispensation, but nevertheless it is the patience and longsuffering of God as well; whilst awful penalties are going to be poured out on Christendom we are not going to give up the idea of the dispensation, it is one of grace.
There are two references to stones in this chapter. The idea of stones crying out would mean that it is a testimony, God making the hardest thing to do His will. A stone not left on a stone would mean a building thrown down. The testimony here below to the changing over, that the earth is to be denied peace, yet it is persons on earth who are testifying to this.
This chapter would introduce feelings with us. The Lord weeps. The weeping prophet wrote Lamentations. It is what the government of God requires that draws out these feelings in the Lord. Noah had to wait 120 years; the longsuffering of God waited while the ark was preparing. We are looking now for the Jews to come in. It is no loss to us in this, but the bearing would be on the mere professors as the dispensation changes over. All the book of Revelation discloses the awful sufferings that they will have to endure. John is also a weeping prophet in Revelation. He weeps because there was no one to open the book, as he thought, and then as eating the little book it was in his mouth sweet but in the belly bitter. He is a feeling man. Awful things are going to happen and we are not unfeeling. We rejoice in hope, as the Lord said, “Rejoice that your names are written in the heavens” (Luke 10:20), but that does not incapacitate us as to feeling.
Ques Is the severity of judgment in this chapter seen in that the children are included in it, whereas with the unbelievers in the wilderness they escaped it?
The little children were to go into Canaan. The destruction of Jerusalem is one of the most awful things that ever happened and the Lord is feeling it anticipatively.
[p. 73] We have the first fruits of the Spirit. The second fruits will be among the nations and the Jews presently. God would make men out of us and draw us to His side of things, so that we are not indifferent to things that happen in the government of God. These chapters are full of all this — the changeover of the dispensation and how God has a witness on earth as to what is going to happen in heaven. The finishing touches on the assembly will be to revive these feelings. God produces feelings. In 2 Samuel 21 David was a very feeling, sympathetic man, but he was called upon to meet a very great emergency, a famine of three years, and he had made no inquiry about it. Then David did inquire, and God says, it is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. David makes no further inquiry, it is a question of the government of God. It is not what they gain, but what God would convey of His mind about the matter. Seven men were hung up on the hill — David apparently did not feel it — but one woman, Rizpah, did. She prepared a place, a shelter for those bodies from the storms and rains and kept the birds away. What an awful thing it was to be there! She suffered, she had right feelings; she would say, why are they not buried? But they were not buried; to leave them hanging for all that time — she felt it and stayed there. Someone told David and he began to repent, and afterwards God was propitious to the land because of the feelings in the matter. So, there is need of feeling about a matter. God is looking for right feelings.
The Lord Jesus is the feeling One here. Think of His glorious dignity when He said, “If these shall be silent, the stones will cry out”. The Spirit of God is stressing the Person of Christ, the glory of Christ in all this. The Spirit of God comes down from heaven carrying all that God is down here. He hovers over the face of the deep, as He does now. These feelings [p. 74] shown here in the Lord should characterise the saints as taking up discipline matters, because the discipline goes on and has to be carried out. Those in Corinth failed to feel with the man that had been put out of fellowship. The seven yearling lambs in Numbers 28 speak of the suffering Christ. That would greatly modify our spirits and soften them in connection with divine feelings and emotions in any kind of discipline. God is looking for promotion of that in us now.
“And entering into the temple, he began to cast out those that sold and bought in it, saying to them, It is written, My house is a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of robbers”. Attention is called to the dispensation, what it is publicly. The destruction of Jerusalem is on account of it, and this is a manifest evidence of making it a place of merchandise instead of a house of prayer. In regard to robbery, we get in Malachi 3:8, “Will a man rob God?” It is a solemn indictment.
A reference was made as to what the authorities say about this — that the Lord Jesus used physical violence, and our young brothers here should do the same. It is said that the Lord cast them out. In John 2:14 - 16 it says, “He found in the temple the sellers of oxen and sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting; and, having made a scourge of cords, he cast them all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the change of the money-changers, and overturned the tables, and said to the sellers of doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise”. I suppose John would bear more on the point that the Lord would use violence, but still the physical side was greater in connection with the sheep and oxen. But even if He did use violence on them it was in keeping with the dispensation. He had not yet announced the kingdom of heaven and that Peter should put the sword in the sheath, it is the old [p. 75] dispensation still. Goodness and severity run through until the changeover. The wickedness that is in the Christian profession is under God’s eye to be dealt with in time.
Rem The temple built by Herod was too big, it allowed too much room for that kind of business. It was to call attention to the degeneration of the dispensation. The book of Revelation is to show what God is going to do with it, as to His feelings and how long He is to go on with it. It is the long-suffering of God to keep on with it.
In chapter 24 the point in mind is to show how heaven interfered at the tomb of Jesus to change our minds about anything that might be involved in unbelief or superstition. It says, two men stood by them in shining garments. They came from heaven suddenly to remedy the situation, to check some evil — unbelief. Then in the second section read, verses 44 - 52, the Lord stresses the Spirit coming in from above, involving clothing and the witness to the gospel, that the gospel should begin at Jerusalem; and that He was going up as quickly as possible to set up that order of things, the gospel order of things, and it should begin at Jerusalem.
The sweetness of honeycomb is in the mouth of Christ, the principle of mutuality is there; the Lord effects it in the disciples and as completing the work in this chapter. Why the combination broiled fish and honeycomb? It is sovereignty. How would they get the fish? The fish of the sea belongs to God. The Lord indicates to Peter how it could happen; they had to go and get what the sea produces; the Son of man has rights in the sea. It is the product of the sovereignty of God. Bees go to the flowers and get the honey, but the fish of the sea are a sovereign product of God that the believer has to go and get by line or net — it belongs to God. The thought of mutuality would come in with the [p. 76] piece of fish and honeycomb. It is what you share with others.
The opening up of our understanding to understand the Scriptures is a provision of Christ. In verse 42 we have the broiled fish and honeycomb, and “These are the words” — showing that they had profited by them — then, “that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled”. We have the mutual side, Moses and the Psalms, but it is not only an exposition; this is giving understanding. That is additional to an exposition, but if we have not got understanding we do not get anything out of it. “The Lord will give thee understanding in all things” (2 Timothy 2:7). The Lord expanded what they had — a full understanding of all that the Scriptures spoke of Christ — a marvellous provision of food.
We have the Lord’s own word here and it is well to note it. If you want to go by it, it is very profitable. When He spoke to those going to Emmaus He interpreted to them all the things concerning Himself. There is much that is prophetic in the Psalms. It is very remarkable the number of Psalms touched on in Hebrews 1. God honours the saints’ experience. He brings out the testimony of the glories of Christ in the first of Hebrews.
In these last chapters in Luke a crisis has come. John the baptist, according to John, makes a great deal of heaven. Here we have the changeover in mind and the importance of our being in it and coming out in testimony at the end. “Ye are witnesses”, and the clothing from above has its own word, that we are not to begin to preach until we are clothed with power from on high; and then returning to Jerusalem. Balance is one of the greatest things in the universe, right balance about everything. The universe could not exist without it. “Thou art weighed in the balances” (Daniel 5:27). The greatness of Christ is [p. 77] to be kept in view — and the disciples were praising and saying glory in the highest, peace in heaven, but the Lord alludes to His own Person when He said the stones would cry out if they did not.