THE CROWN OF LIFE
[p. 292] THE CROWN OF LIFE
Revelation 2: 10; Judges 13: 24 - 25; Judges 16: 22 - 31
JT It is hoped the Lord will help us to see something in the history of Samson that will help us to understand the “crown of life” given to Smyrna — Revelation 2: 10. “Tribulation ten days” means ten series of persecutions or tribulations for the truth. Samson, although he had an extraordinary history, and there was much that could be condemned, was a man of faith, he judged Israel twenty years; that is said of him twice; a very considerable time. Jehovah gave him a great victory at the end, which came after the growth of his hair; it should never have been cut, for he was a Nazarite. It seems to me that the growth of hair in this connection is an evidence of life; it always is, but especially so when it has been cut off; it would also refer to the crown of life, which would be Samson’s. There are other crowns, the crown of righteousness, suffering for the truth, and so on. But Samson was brought in miraculously; an angel from heaven coming in to announce his birth, and much is done by him, that is the angel. All this bears on the service of God. And then after his birth, he is seen as moved by the Spirit of Jehovah at the camp of Dan, Chapter 13: 25. The Spirit of God has to do with him early, and also at the end of his life, in his great victory. As we bow to the claims of the service of God in humility we become victorious. It seems to me a matter of considerable importance at the present time, when Philistine conditions prevail, and other such conditions, to accept the failure, so that we may come in for the crown of life.
HPW The crown is an emblem of victory?
JT I thought that; to Philadelphia it is said, “that no one take thy crown”, whatever that should be, each one of us should know what it is in our case.
“The crown of life” is referred to here, as if it is a special one; it belongs to all victories of this kind.
HPW To Philadelphia the Lord says “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, as if it would mean that the Lord had given us something.
JT That is the truth; we have much said of what is given us in ministry, the truth of the Lord’s supper, for instance, first verbally, then in writing, we may say; what have we that we have not received!
HPW You said the crown in our case, which would be the truth.
JT Yes, that is good.
HPW So the truth affects us, giving us a personality.
JT A good word. Sometimes mere names, such as “John the evangelist” are kept out of sight; but “I John” Revelation 1: 9, much is made of that name; it means that personality enters into the service and would give us a sense from time to time as to what our crown would be.
Ques Would it involve spiritual experience, as compared with what I am born with?
JT Yes, it is distinction in the testimony.
HSH Would “the crown of life” referred to in James 1: 12 be the same?
JT A helpful suggestion; love comes into it.
Ques Crowns in Revelation are ordered or given; would this one be for faithfulness?
JT Yes, the Lord says after death there is no more the murderers can do, so it is suffering to the end, the full thought of it.
Ques Is the thought with Samson for our encouragement?
JT He was faithful unto death, and he was delivered too; so that even if we have failed, and Christendom has failed, there may be recovery. Revelation contemplates this, and hence these [p. 294] letters, particularly this one to Smyrna. The failure began at Ephesus, the one that had received the most. The apostle Paul sends for the elders and tells them what had marked his ministry there for about three years, shewing that they had received more than any.
HPW John retires, you said, but the Lord knows His own sheep by name, and that name is characteristic, and God will bring us to this.
JT Yes, that is the truth. So we have in Acts 1 “the crowd of names”, though the Holy Spirit had not come yet, and we have such persons as Mary of Magdala; she is called “Woman” first, then “Mary”. It means ‘suffering’, and will be undoubtedly attributed to her throughout, and will be in the assembly, where the array of names will come down in the radiancy of glory in the characteristics of their personalities.
HPW Great stress on personality links us with the Lord, so that we may function accordingly.
JT It is remarkable how many names we have applied to persons in the New Testament, the Marys, the Simons, the James’s, all to be accurately determined, each is distinctive.
Rem We have Samson’s name in Hebrews 11: 32, the chapter of faith.
JT Yes, we get Barak, but not Deborah, for it is the masculine side that is stressed, as fitted to bear things, that is what is meant, I would say. Deborah should be mentioned from one point of view and not Barak, because she shone; but we must go by what God says.
Rem Samson began to serve in the time of the Philistines, and in Hebrews 11 he is amongst the overcomers.
JT “For the time would fail me telling of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson” but it will not in [p. 295] eternity, however large or small the number of names.
Ques What is the “new name” in Revelation 2: 17? Is it a secret with the Lord?
JT It is a peculiar word said by the Lord, no one knows it. The overcomer in Pergamos will be given a stone, and on it a name written, “which no one knows but he that receives it”; as J.N.D.’s hymn says, “Called by that secret name of undisclosed delight” (79:4); that is the best way you could put it.
Ques In connection with that, what about putting surnames to James and John?
JT They were distinguished, like a knighthood in this country; in America they have no such thing, but men always find a way to distinguish each other.
Rem It implies conferred dignity.
JT Yes, by those above us.
Ques Is it seen in Sardis? “A few names” even in such a place.
JT They are persons of distinction; we might say Luther was one, but their names are not given; the nations have rolls of honour, thousands of names of distinction destroyed, a terrible thing; so that we should not aspire after distinction in this world.
Ques What is the reason for Simon Peter being called “Cephas” in John 1: 42?
JT It was to convey that the Lord meant “a stone”, the same as “Peter” in another language. In Matthew 16: 18 it means the material, but in John 1 it is distinction in the name given.
Ques Can we compare the thought of names with the development of something in Samson?
JT I intended to speak of that; hence he is introduced by name from the outset.
HPW At the beginning we have “And the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him at Mahaneh-Dan,
between Zoreah and Eshtaol”, and he was buried in the same place “in the sepulchre of Manoah his father”.
JT Local responsibility and local dignity attaches to it. Local responsibility is very important in the New Testament as well as in the Old; both birth and birthplace as given in the Old Testament, and also the place of death, would have a moral significance; if anyone die in a locality, it is distinguished.
MPW It is remarkable that the Spirit began to work in one so young, and it is in the same locality he is buried. What a victory!
JT He began in the camp of Dan, and did not end there by accident; it was his own deliberate act.
HPW “Strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once”.
JT It is very touching. “So the dead that he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain in his life”, that is the comment of the Spirit of God; and another thing to notice is verse 22, “But the hair of his head began to grow after he was shaved”, and then we have the call for the prisoner, “that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison-house”. What a sad spectacle, for this great man to make sport for the world; it shews what his failure meant. The world, in one sense, has made sport of the assembly. Then in verse 26 he “said to the lad that held him by the hand, Let loose of me, and suffer me to feel the pillars upon which the house stands, that I may lean upon them”. He did not want to lean upon the lad, but to be free for his greatest exploit, even if he were thereby exposed to the jeers of the Philistines.
HPW A very suggestive word.
JT The world has provided me for itself, and has rejoiced to have me, but now I want to be free.
[p. 297] Ques Would this enter into the thought of “the power which works in us”, Ephesians 3: 20?
JT Yes, he is about to do his greatest exploit and glory; to be free for God; it is the liberty in which “Christ has set us free”, Galatians 5: 1.
Ques Does the gift of the crown of life depend on the final moments of our history?
JT Oh no, it goes over all his path, for “he had judged Israel twenty years”. God raised up Samson, and in spite of failure, he was carried through. But the point we need to notice is when his hair began to grow.
Ques Did death come into Samson’s spirit when the Philistines laid hold of him?
JT He was raised up to save Israel from the Philistines, and he begins this service in chapter 14, a service connected with Christ and the assembly. Samson’s parents “did not know that it was of Jehovah, that he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines”; it was to be a suffering time, this marital matter; a time of conflict too. So the crown of life does not depend on his last act, but on all his service, for he was a great judge. I think it brings out how fair God is in giving such credit to a man like that at the end.
Ques What does his place between the two pillars signify?
JT He asked for it. “And it came to pass when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison-house, and he played before them; and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said to the lad that held him by the hand, Let loose of me, and suffer me to feel the pillars upon which the house stands, that I may lean upon them. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were [p. 298] there; and upon the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who looked on while Samson made sport. And Samson called to Jehovah, and said, Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may take one vengeance upon the Philistines for my two eyes”. He called to Jehovah, notice that, it was the secret of victory. “Remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God”. See how deliberate he was in the conflict, “And he bowed himself with might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people that were therein”, so that the world is brought down in type; the person used knows what he is doing; though blind, he selected the two pillars; he understood how the world is supported. The type means for us that the Lord brought the world down at the cross, the place of a skull, at Calvary, meaning the end of human intelligence.
Rem “God has judged your judgment upon her”, Revelation 18: 20.
JT Good. I wanted to see what is current at the present time, marked by the hair beginning to grow. Since the Reformation there has been much in the assembly formed by the Spirit, the growth of hair, as it were, in the testimony, and the world is brought down morally. That is our testimony now, and it should be kept before us, that the world is actually coming down.
Rem The apostolic testimony turned the world upside down.
JT Quite so.
Rem Samson’s history was a chequered one, but he was an overcomer.
JT Yes, and his brethren are brought into it at his burial.
Rem It is the language of John, “this is the [p. 299] victory which has gotten the victory over the world, our faith”, 1 John 5: 4.
JT Quite so, very good; it is “he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God”, he that believes in that. In John’s gospel too, that is how we get the crown of life, “that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”.
Rem There is no reference to the Philistines at the end, in verse 31.
JT No, but there is in chapter 15: 20, “And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years”. The mention of the Philistines there is important, and that he judged Israel. The idea in that is ruling in right principles, not condemnation. So Paul says God “has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness, by the man whom he has appointed”, Acts 17: 31. He gave “the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead”; that is the greatest thing, life out of death; the ruling of the saints involves the destruction of the Philistines.
Ques May judgment be punitive?
JT It is the thought of a circuit court, to exercise right, and to maintain it.
Rem The Lord is called “the judge of Israel” in Micah 5: 1, is He not?
JT Judgment operates in two ways, externally in discrimination, and internally in the process of refining. Refining is referred to in Revelation and Malachi as to Israel and brings to light what is precious.
Rem Discrimination would retain what is good.
JT Yes, and the department of justice is a great matter in any realm, especially God’s.
HPW Does it involve the maintenance of the principles of the kingdom in a practical way?
JT [p. 300] Yes.
Rem The Philistine is thereby removed morally from us?
JT Yes, the world is brought down; its final overthrow awaited David’s day.
Rem Samson says, “Lord Jehovah, remember me”.
JT Yes, the memorial is in heaven. What he went through! It says, “And he bowed himself with might”, the power was there innate, yet with God.
Ques Does Rahab shew the power of God working inwardly over against the world, in Jericho?
JT Quite so.
Ques Is the overthrow of the world seen morally in Acts 17 (the Greek world), and in chapter 18 at Corinth, and in chapter 19 at Ephesus?
JT That is the idea; it is overthrown by testimony presented in power, the great success of the apostle Paul in bringing down the world by testimony; it is that the saints may be released from any form of the world.
Ques Would the two pillars be seen in 1 Corinthians 1: 22, “Jews indeed ask for signs, and Greeks seek wisdom”?
Ques And would the thought be intensified in the seven pillars of wisdom’s house, Proverbs 9: 1?
JT That is a very full and complete thought in Proverbs, “she hath hewn out her seven pillars”; so that we can stand out and preach the gospel, and the world is thus brought down.
Rem Through the testimony of the saints.
JT I would say that this refers to the testimony in general rendered by the apostles, twelve men, as they stood in Jerusalem, and then to witness universally; their testimony brought the world down in every element, in the sense that the saints were freed from it, and it was robbed of its power.
[p. 301] Rem That is, in the hearts of those affected.
JT Yes, the cross was at the place of a skull; it is the wisdom of God making foolish the wisdom of the world; that is the point.
Ques Does the victory at Jericho in Joshua 6 shew the power of the testimony in that the city was encircled seven times?
JT The power was in the shout; it was living.
Rem If we were in the good of Romans 10: 15, “How beautiful the feet of them that announce glad tidings of peace, of them that announce glad tidings of good things!”, we should all be preaching all our lives.
JT Yes, the woman in Luke 7 anointed the Lord’s feet, appreciating what he carried to her, and later on in Matthew and Mark, a woman anoints His head; she understood what was there, where grace had brought her, that He was to have the first place; but this is more “the all-various wisdom of God” being made known through the assembly, and that is brought out by the Spirit.