REPROACH REMOVED
[p. 182] REPROACH REMOVED
It will be observed that in this passage a man’s name is regarded as sufficient to remove reproach — it is so regarded by seven women, these seven women representing a spirit of self-judgment. The previous chapter shows that the women of Jerusalem had so garbed themselves, had so adorned themselves with worldly equipment, that they were evidently under no reproach in this world. In verses 18 to 24 of chapter 3 it says, “In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets and the earrings, the rings, and nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils”. Isaiah 3:18 - 24. The possession of all these worldly ornamental things by the daughters of Jerusalem rendered them without reproach in the eyes of the world. But these seven women are not deceived by such outward show. They are consciously under reproach, and they see that the removal of this reproach lay in the name of a man.
As I speak to those who are believers on the Lord Jesus, I need not enlarge on the suggestion that this one Man is no less than the Lord. For no one has a name in the whole universe of God sufficient to remove reproach from others save the Lord. He has a name — God has given him one — “A name which is above every name” — which is given under heaven among men whereby they may be saved. Philippians 2:9. Hence the discernment of these seven women, who saw that reproach could only be removed and dignity assured [p. 183] as they took on the name of the One Man — the Lord Jesus. They said, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel — only let us be called by thy name”. And then, as in a note of feeling or exclamation, they say, “Take away our reproach!” Now, beloved friends, how much sense of reproach is there with us? If I bear the name of Christ abroad in this world, I am under reproach on account of that, but if I look toward God and the system of things He has set up in Christ, I am under reproach unless I have that name. It matters little what men may think, or how much reproach may be attached to me on their account. What concerns me, if I am exercised before God, is how I stand in regard to Him — whether I have a standing as before God, whether as regards Him I am under reproach. And I am under reproach as in the presence of God, of the angels, and of the people of God unless I bear that name.
And so I would dwell for a moment on the name of this Man. What I am speaking of is elementary, and I trust simple to all, but it is of all moment that we should understand that we are called by His name. “Let us be called”, they say, “by thy name”, and then the feeling expression, “Take away our reproach!”
Now Isaiah brings to our attention the thought of Christ as Man in a peculiar way, and what I wish to convey is that He is on our side. You see it is one thing to apprehend Him as a Man on our side, and it is another thing to apprehend Him as Son of God as on our side. As the Son of Man, He has taken up a position in relation to all, and He removes all that lay upon us, and besides that gives us a footing with God. Hence in this prophet we have, “Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given”. Isaiah 9:6. You see we are thus enabled, having light from God, to appropriate the Lord viewed as a Man. He has come to our side, and, as come to our side, He disposes, to the [p. 184] glory of God, of all that lay upon us, through redemption; and then He dignifies and beautifies the race. That is the effect of the Lord Jesus becoming Man — He has come entirely to our side. You will recall how, in the gospel of Luke, all the people were baptised, and then it says Jesus was baptised. He comes in at the end in wondrous condescension, and as baptised He is praying. You see how He has established a footing on moral grounds before God. It adorns a man on moral grounds to pray, and so He is seen praying; it says that as He was baptised, and as He was praying, the heavens were opened. Heaven acclaims its appreciation of the Man, and then immediately the genealogy is traced back through all the generations to the head of the race, to Adam and from Adam to God. So that the race is, in wonderful grace, accredited with this wonderful Man. So in chapter 32 of this prophet we have the statement, “A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the storm; as brooks of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land”. Isaiah 32:2. It is what Jesus is as having come to our side; and as He is appropriated our reproach is taken away, so that we lift up our heads in the presence of God, in the understanding of the dignity of Manhood as in Christ. I apprehend myself related to Christ. In baptism I have cut my connection with Adam. I have taken on a new Head. I recognise a new Head, and that He has the very name that involves the removal of the reproach that lay upon me, so that I am set up without reproach in the presence of God as having taken on that name.
What I am speaking of is simply the gospel, but I thought it well, dear brethren, to refer to this point, so that we might understand how we are set up in the in-coming of Christ as Man — how we are set up before God on a new footing, and how all the reproach that attaches to us as in the flesh is cancelled. We [p. 185] have a new Head of the race. I do not speak now of Head of the body — the assembly — I speak of the Head of the race — a new Head has come in, and I claim Him. It is the privilege of every man and woman in the world to claim Him. He has come in on our side, and so the Spirit of God, as heaven opens and acclaims its pleasure in Him, links Him on with man right through to Adam. And so I claim Him, and everyone may claim Him, and in taking on His name the reproach is removed. I am set up in the presence of God without reproach. It is a wonderful thing, and so simple, that it is within the range of every man and every woman to claim Christ, to take on His name, and in His name to have the reproach that attached to us as born of the flesh removed. Circumcision is the subjective answer to this. As I take up a position in the presence of God, and enter on my privileges, there is the application of the circumcision of Christ, in the putting off of the body, or totality, of the flesh; as it says, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you”, Joshua 5:9. ‘I have in circumcision rolled away in the power of the Spirit, the reproach of Egypt’.
Well now, what follows the taking on of the name is beautification. It is one thing to be clear of reproach; to be set up afresh before God, but it is another thing to be beautified for that position, for God looks for ornament and beauty before Him. We need only to look at the heavens, and to look abroad on the earth, to be reminded of the divine requirements in regard to ornamentation and beauty, and here again we come to Christ. It says “In that day there shall be a branch — or a sprout — of the Lord for beauty and holiness, for beauty and glory”. Now we are presented with another view of the Lord. He is not only a new Head for the race with a name that fills the whole universe of God, but also the beautification needed and so it says. “In that day there shall be a sprout of Jehovah”
— [p. 186] that is how it reads. This leads us to consider the Lord according to all the freshness and vigour of life that marked Him, as dependent on God, in this world. He was cast upon God from the very outset of His being. Of no other babe could it be said He was cast upon God from the very outset. There was in that holy Babe for the eye of God, the evidence of dependence — the freshness and vigour of a dependent life — from the very beginning. He was a Sprout — the idea of a sprout is dependence. The Lord took the ground, as a Man, to draw from His Father. He was God over all, blessed for ever, of course, but as become Man He was true to the position of Manhood, and He drew from God. He was cast upon God from the very outset, and so under the eye of God, in that Babe; and in that Boy, and in that Man there was the evidence throughout of a dependent life. He was the Sprout, beloved; and then it says that Sprout is “for glory and beauty”. Now I apprehend the Lord in another way. I think of Him according to the evidence of life that was there expressed in dependence on God; and all that is available now for us, for ornamentation and for beauty. We take on His character — the beauty of the Lord is put upon us, so that, in a subjective way, we are in the presence of God according to the Sprout. That is the evidence of life in its freshness and in its vigour; for nothing delights the eye more than the early evidence of life, and there is to be the budding, and the blossoming, and the ripening of fruit for God’s eye. So that the Sprout, as it says, is for beauty and for glory.
And so it goes on to say that “The fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped”. You see how all is made to contribute to the remnant; in other words, to those of us now who come in through faith for what there is in Christ. The very fruit of the earth becomes contributory for [p. 187] our adornment in the presence of God, and so it goes on, “It shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone that is written among the living”. Among the living — I wonder how we understand this — what it is to be “written among the living”. We are all taken account of as believers, as given eternal life. Eternal life is the gift of God. I have it by believing; I have title to it. But then there is such a thing as “the living”, and “being written” among them. Being written among the living, I apprehend, means that I am bearing fruit. I am not in the least degree seeking to weaken my title to life, which is presented in the gospel, but to be “written among the living”, I apprehend means there is the evidence of life. And so it says in John 15, “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit”. John 15:2. He purgeth it — that is, the Father — that it may bear more — more. What God looks for in this world, at the present time, in His people, is fruit and those who are written among the living are fruit-bearers. It is an immense thing to be a fruit-bearer, for the Lord comes into His garden. The idea of a garden is that it is carefully cared for. It is cultured and watered, and the trees are pruned and the weeds removed; so the Lord comes into His garden. “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits”. Song of Songs 4:16. Where are these fruits to be found, save in those who are written among the living? So it says all such are called holy; for without holiness no one shall see the Lord.
Then it proceeds to say, “When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning” — When the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, He came in the character of cloven tongues as a fire, and, it says, “sat upon each of them”. Acts 2:3.
[p. 188] I apprehend that the fire was for subjective purification. There is nothing in the whole world so effective in the removal of impurity as fire, and the Holy Spirit in us effects that practical purgation, that practical purification of mind and spirit. We are to be cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. I am under the impression, dear brethren, that perhaps more attention is given to the purification — the cleansing, of the flesh than of the spirit. A man may pass as highly reputable in the community who judges his flesh, who restrains his flesh, and yet he may be absolutely filthy in his spirit. A man who is filthy in his spirit is a man who imbibes wrong thoughts of God, and of Christ. He disregards the atonement. He is wrong in that faculty in which he stands specially related to God — that is, his spirit. If the Holy Spirit is in us as the spirit of burning, He will deal with all that; and let no one claim to have the Holy Spirit who is wrong in regard of God and of Christ, and of the atonement. He is filthy in his spirit; he has not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not dwell in one who is filthy in his spirit.
And so, as it says here, “When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning”. I would seek to exhort a little as to this, because all these great things of which I have been speaking are contingent on this subjective work of God in removing the filth of the daughters of Jerusalem — that is, all believers — by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. If we have come into relation to God, and to Christ, and claim to have the Spirit, we shall look for these things. The removal of our reproach, and our beautification in the presence of God, are made contingent on this process of purification.
[p. 189] Now, having said so much, I want to say a word about households of Zion, the dwelling-places of Zion, and the assemblies of Zion. You will not misunderstand what I mean in referring to the dwelling-places of Zion and the assemblies, or convocations, of Zion. Next to oneself God takes up one’s house, and I wish to call attention to the households of Zion — a thought that perhaps may not have suggested itself to you, for we regard our households, perhaps, as men do; whereas, as believers, we should regard our households as dwelling-places of Zion. That is, they are taken up in mercy, the mercy of God as it extends to me extends to my dwelling-place, to my household, and what God desires is that there should be a certain spiritual dignity attaching, not only to me, but attaching to my household. And so it says, “The Lord will create”. Now notice that word ‘create’. It is a word that is used carefully by the Spirit. It is not an adaptation, the word ‘create’ is something wholly new. “That God should create over every dwelling-place of Zion a cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night”. I look at that household. I know the brother. I take chapter 16 of Acts as an example; it is a chapter of households. We have at the beginning of that chapter Timotheus, the product of a household of Zion, of a dwelling of Zion. His father was a Greek, but his mother was a Jewess, a believing woman. She was a believing woman, she was not simply a woman who believed, she was characterised by believing. She had come into the understanding of the mercy of God, and she knew that the mercy of God extended to her house, and her son Timotheus was the great product of that dwelling-place of Zion. We maybe assured that over that dwelling there was a cloud by day, there was that which pointed to the divine interest, the divine protection, the divine care, and, as it says, “a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night”.
[p. 190] So that as one looks on a believer’s house one sees the evidence of the divine care by day — the smoke, and the burning fire by night. I am concerned about my offspring in the daytime — his occupation. He is the subject of the mercy of God, as belonging to my house. I think of him by night, he goes out, perhaps, in self-will, and enters into the haunts of this world, whereas over the dwelling-place where he was born and nurtured there is the cloud, and the burning fire by night; the evidence of the light and protection of God is there. One can understand that, as he returns from the haunts of this world, he is reminded of the light and protection of God that is over the dwelling. He has been the subject doubtless of his father’s and his mother’s prayers, and God knows it, and so, by night, as it says, “the shining of a flaming fire”.
What a witness over the dwellings of Zion are they of the power of God, in light and in judgment against all that is contrary to what becomes a Christian household; and so, take Lydia in that same chapter. Her household is a dwelling-place of Zion. The Lord opened her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul. What things? The announcement of the mercy of God. “According to his mercy he saved us”. Titus 3:5. She says at once, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house”. Acts 16:15. The apostle found a congenial spot in that dwelling. There was the cloud over it, the evidence of divine protection and care by day, and the burning fire by night. No one could interfere. Think of how believers who have households may nestle down under the sense of divine protection by day and by night — dignified indeed by both the cloud and the burning fire. Where are there households to be compared with such? As we may further add, according to Exodus, the children of Israel had light in all their dwellings.
And then again the assembly — it says. “upon her assemblies”.
[p. 191] This raises the question as to the principles that govern our meetings, and the spirit in which we come together. The great tendency with us is to drop to the level of current religion; acquiring a method, a recognised method, a weekly series of meetings, forgetting that God intends that there should be the covering by day. Do we not realise it as we are here together? We do. There is a covering by day, that is to say, there is protection, and not only protection, but distinction. You look for distinction in the assemblies of Zion. They are not like the assemblies of this world. The sanhedrim in Jerusalem before which Stephen stood had no such distinction. It was marked by man and human power and pride, whereas in another place, it may be a few paces off, a few of God’s people meet together in some obscure house, and over that house there is a covering by day, and a burning fire by night. Such is the distinction, beloved, that God accords to us, as we meet together as those who form the assemblies of Zion. We are not marked by the principles of this world, or their ways. The principles of Zion mark us, and God Himself distinguishes us by day and by night.
Now I do earnestly seek that we may look into these things, especially the distinction that God places upon the dwelling-places of Zion, and the assemblies of Zion.