GOD'S GLORIOUS END
GOD’S GLORIOUS END
Luke 10: 38-42; Luke 24: 50-53
One feels, dear friends, that we cannot too firmly lay hold of the divine principle that “better is the end of a thing than the beginning.” God would convey to our souls that there is a very wonderful time immediately ahead, and He would encourage us all to be in it — whole-heartedly in it — not to let anything stand in the way that would hinder our being in it. The thought runs through the Word of God — take the heavens and the earth — in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth — but the new heavens and the new earth are better than the first heavens and the first earth, for they are going to pass away, they are going to disappear but the new heavens and the new earth will not disappear.
In the beginning the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there He put the man he had made. That Eden disappeared and nobody could find it — men have tried but they cannot find it, but the paradise of God in Revelation does not disappear. God has a paradise that will not disappear, and the blessed Man who is entrusted with the care of that paradise to dress and keep it for God will not disappear. The woman that God made at the beginning as a companion for the man and a help-meet disappeared, but we see in Revelation, the wife of the second Man will not disappear or deteriorate, site is as fresh in her affections and attire — in the garments that she wears — after a thousand years, as she was at the beginning. It is of God, wholly of God, to end with a brighter and more glorious character of things than He begins with.
With that in view I wanted to say a few words about the history of Bethany, to show how it began and how it ends and I think you will see that its end is better than its beginning. What one has in mind is that Bethany is a place, and it indicates what the Lord would have in a place — what He would have in a village. This country has many villages as well as cities and towns. Bethany begins as a village and it indicates what the Lord would promote in a local setting. What a country this would be if every locality was characterised by the features of Bethany. Just think of Worcester as being really a Bethany, having the history of Bethany, beginning like Bethany and ending like Bethany; what a place it would be for the Lord! That is what the Lord wants, and that is what He is doing. One would not hold these things out as impracticable for we see them coming to light in many places.
How did Bethany begin? I think the passage we read in the tenth chapter gives us the start of Bethany as scripture records it. The Lord was on a journey, the tenth chapter is very well known, “as He journeyed,” — “a certain Samaritan” is there, one who is despised, one with whom the Jews have no dealings, the religious people had no dealings with the Samaritans. We know that is true, today, the name of Jesus makes many feel awkward. You have only to mention it and an uncomfortable feeling arises, people look more intently into their newspapers and novels — He is despised and rejected of men. A certain Samaritan as He was journeying; it was a wonderful journey, there never was a journey like that. He was taking with Him oil and wine. He carried with Him the means of healing and filling the heart of man with joy. He was prepared to make available His own beast for the man that was ruined, nevertheless He had not where to lay His head. The Lord said, “the foxes have holes” — cunning, destructive creatures who did harm to everyone, they have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; almost worthless many of them, “are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?” — they have nests, but the Son of man had not where to lay His head — Jesus the Son of man.
In this journey He had no home and nobody wanted Him, everybody despised Him and then Martha appears. It says He went into a certain village, it is not named at all. Martha had been meditating, she had seen something of the dignity and greatness of Christ the true Ark in these unsuitable conditions and it says she received Him into her house. She indicates by that act that whatever was the feeling in the world, she felt that the place that the Lord had was wholly unsuitable and so she opens her house. It is hers and she receives Him into it. The Lord goes into her house, she receives Him there, what wonderful grace on the part of the Lord to accept what was available! He goes into that house and He accepts it — He accepts the affections of her heart expressed thus. She finds room for Jesus in her heart and in her house and that is the beginning of the whole history of Bethany, it all came out of that. The next thing, of course, is what always happens, and that is the moment we are in touch with Christ we become aware that we need a lot of adjustment. You see in the world you can do as you like in the religious systems,
you can control it as you like and think and teach what you like, but the moment you come in touch with Christ in a living way, then you need to be adjusted.
The Lord Jesus proceeds with the work of adjustment, Martha begins to find fault with the Lord, questioning whether He really cared for her, she says, “Dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” How wonderfully the Lord answers her, “Martha, Martha”, what a wonderful touch that is. You do not find in scripture there are many occasions where the person’s name is repeated; it seems to convey the deep interest of the Lord — that is the object of it. The Lord says, “Martha, Martha.” The Lord loved Martha, she was a choice vessel to His heart and so He puts her right. He says, “thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful”. The Lord corrects her and she does not resent the correction, she does not answer back; the Lord loves women who can be corrected. It says, “Jesus loved Martha”, that means — that she was lovable, for that is how John always presents love. What did He love in Martha? He loved a woman who received Him into her house and then was ready to be corrected. You will never get on and provide a Bethany anywhere, if you are not ready to be corrected.
If we think we know, we do not like correction, but there will never be a Bethany on those lines. Show me a brother or a sister that is ready to be corrected of the Lord, even if it comes through the brethren or the ministry as it mostly does, and I will show you an element that will soon form part of Bethany.
The next feature that comes to light, is seen in Mary sitting at His feet listening to His word. She had seen one great thing, the greatest of all, that beyond all the service she could render to Him, the greatest thing was to know His mind, to listen to His word. I wonder if there is a Christian heart that has not reached that, who lives, as many do, in what they are doing. How much they are doing, that is their life, and they might even be seeking humbly to do it for the Lord. But the Lord says that “Mary hath chosen that good part”. To listen to His word, to allow Him to teach you, that is what is so lacking amongst Christians generally; they do not allow the Lord to teach them, they are converted and they set out to work; they are busily engaged doing something and they do not allow the Lord to teach them. But Mary is sitting at His feet and listening to His word.
The Lord loved Mary and Martha and then Lazarus appears afterwards. He is not mentioned here, but he is added to this community.
What marks Lazarus is that he is “our friend”; you must have friends to have a Bethany — “our friend” not only the Lord’s friend. The Lord could say “our friend”; he not only loved the Lord but he loved the brethren, he loved them all. The Lord did not say, “Mine, and Peter’s and John’s”, but He says to them “our friend, Lazarus”. Jesus loved Lazarus — “now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus.” That is how the thing began and how wonderfully it developed. The Lord found more joy in Bethany than in any other place on earth. He loved to go there.
Take that one day, it does not tell us when it was, but in the gospel of Mark we read that one day He went to Jerusalem and He went into the temple and looked round on everything, and what did He see? What sorrow must have filled His heart when He looked round on the temple of God and He saw merchandise in it. He saw that it had become a great business establishment where trade was going on. As He looked, round what must have been His feelings. In that look He saw thieves there, not one or two but a den of them, usurping in the very house of God the place that belonged to God. It says He looked round on everything. Let us remember that when the Lord comes into a place He looks round on everything; nothing escapes His notice, every single thing that goes on in that which professes to be the house of God is scrutinised by Christ, and He feels it. He felt it so much on one occasion that He made a whip of small cords and He drove out certain things from the temple as it is said — “the zeal of thine house hath eaten, me up (or devours me)”.
In the gospel of Mark having looked round on everything He went out, and I believe He does that today, He has left it. You can see that abroad in Christendom. He has seen the den of thieves in it. He has seen the trading operations in the professing church. In the book of Ezekiel what comes to light is that there is an idol set up in the temple. What idolatry is going on! — think of Rome what idolatry is going on in the temple! — but it says He went out, and where did He go? With sorrow in His heart, as He saw what was in the temple. He went out and went to Bethany. Bethany would provide for His heart the true features of the house of God; the true features of the temple; the place where He could find what He looked for — Bethany means the “house of figs”. It is where divine sweetness is ministered to Christ, where the sweetness of divine affections operating in the hearts of men and women become available to the Lord. That is what the house of God should be, what: the temple should be. It says the next day He came back again and He saw a fig tree and He looked for figs, what He had had in Bethany that evening — it was eventide. He spent the night, the dark night of all that He found in the temple, in Bethany, and He had figs there. He came back and He saw a fig tree in Jerusalem and He looked for figs but did not find any, and He cursed the fig tree. That is what is going to happen almost immediately to that system that rejects Christ and usurps what belongs to Him; it is coming under a divine curse, and that shortly. The fact is, that the Lord found in Bethany what He did not find in the temple, for He left it and went to Bethany.
Then in John 12 we read that “six days before the Passover” He came to Bethany. What the Passover must have meant to the Lord; He had six more days to be amongst men, to move about in this world to feel for six days what man is. How it was upon His spirit! And then comes the Passover. The apostle Paul tells us, about it. He says, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” Think of the sacrifice of the Passover — sacrifice means the cost, think of the cost to the Lord of the Passover with all the fire of divine judgment so soon to come upon Him! When the Lamb has to be roast with fire, when the blood must be shed and put in a basin — the Lord alone knew what that sacrifice meant in its fulness — it was upon His spirit, and it says six days before the Passover He came to Bethany. What for? To have some figs, to have His heart refreshed with the sweetness of those affections which were in Bethany, such as would be eternally His through the sacrifice that He was going to make He came to Bethany, what a spot it was! — the gold was there, what affections permeated that town, for it was the town of Mary and her sister Martha! The gold of divine affections could be seen there, gold of Ophir. The silver is there, the Lord is owned and recognised — the previous chapter brings that out. “Lord,” says Martha, “behold he whom thou lovest is sick,” and again, “Lord if thou hadst been here”; the Lord is recognised in that place. Six days before the Passover the Lord came to Bethany to find fruit for His own heart, the blessed fruit of love that the Passover would secure for Him — what was known in Bethany was the greatness of that blessed One. It began to dawn on Martha, when she received Him into her house, and Mary when she listened to His word.
Now the eleventh chapter of John unfolds more and more, the greatness and glory of the Son of God; how He had come to Bethany, in order to unfold to their hearts the glory of God and His own glory, that is why He allowed Lazarus to die. He remained two days where He was deliberately, so that He might go down and manifest to them in Bethany the glory of God. What a spot Bethany was! The glory of the Son of God is known there. He was not known in Jerusalem; He was not known in that which was outwardly the temple, but He was known in Bethany. “This sickness,” says the Lord, “is not unto death but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified” — and then they learn what they had never known before, the intensity of His love — Jesus wept — that was in Bethany. They knew in Bethany both the glory of His person and the intensity of His love. Even the Jews that were there said, “Behold how he loved him”. Then Martha appeared again, you remember, still needing some adjustment, still ready to accept it. The Lord said, “Take ye away the stone”. Martha intervened to correct the Lord again. She did not want what was there exposed, but we never have a Bethany unless we let the Lord expose what ought to be exposed. You see, if in this town there is secret corruption hidden away, you could not have a Bethany while that was there. You could not have the blessed joy of the twelfth chapter of John if the stone is not rolled away.
I would urge us to face what ought to be faced, if there is some moral element of corruption that ought to be faced, roll away the stone, the Lord can deal with it. It may be dreadful for the moment, but then the power of the Lord is manifest. In the twelfth chapter they make Him a supper. The nails that bind everything together are there — they make Him a supper, not Mary, not Martha, not Lazarus alone but they do it. They are all in it now, bound together in one common desire to provide for Christ in Bethany and the Lord came there.
He came there six days before the Passover to feed upon the sweetness of those figs, the blessed sweetness of the affections in Martha that would serve and in Lazarus that would find his joy in sitting with Him. He was “one of them that sat at the table with him.” Lazarus could not have been happier as a true friend than just to sit with Him. It does not say he said anything, he just sat there with Him, and the Lord loved that. Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. The Lord went there to get it from Martha and Lazarus and Mary, and He would not have that interfered with under any circumstances. Judas was there, Judas crept in hiding the real thoughts of his heart, he says, “Why this waste?” But he did not really care for the poor, that sort of people never do; you hear people talking a lot about the poor, but they do not really care for them, they keep a bag. Judas had a bag, but the Lord comes in authoritatively. He says, “Let her alone” — there is no option about it. He will come in if there is a Bethany anywhere and if anyone dares to spoil that, the Lord will rebuke it. He will give a word of authority.
In the fourteenth chapter of Mark, two days before His death the chief priests and scribes and elders took counsel together as to how they might kill Him. It is not now the Passover aspect of the sacrifice of Christ, but it is the murderous spirit that hates Him in the world. It is within two days and they take counsel to kill Him; where will He go? As the murderous spirit of hatred rises where does Jesus go? “Being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper” — that is where He was, only two days before His murder. With the very spirit of it in the atmosphere around He retires into Bethany to receive there the expression of the glorious dignity of His person from somebody’s heart. It says “a woman”; it does not name her, but He goes into that house for His blessed head to be anointed, to receive the worshipful adoration of His glorious Person from somebody’s heart. He goes to Bethany.
That brings us to the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke; the Lord is now out of death. He has sojourned for forty days with His disciples going in and out, we do not know everywhere He went, but scripture indicates that He went to many places. He appears here and there, and He can go where He will, you could not restrict a man out of death. He is not subject to any of the limitations which in grace He accepted in flesh and blood. He can go into the midst when the doors are shut. He can appear on the road to Emmaus and then vanish. He could appear to 500 brethren at once and disappear again. But now the forty days are over and it has come to the last day of His presence on earth. What will He do? Where will He go? He led them, everyone that loved Him, out of that murderous city, out from the place where the temple was that had become a den of thieves, as far as to Bethany. What a signal stamp of divine approval on Bethany, the last spot on earth that ever saw Him; the last place that He is found in. It indicates that He not only wants Mary and Martha and Lazarus there, but He wants all His own there, He led them. He wants Peter there. He wants Mary Magdalene, He wants Mary the mother of Jesus there. He wants all His own at Bethany — He led them there. That is what He is doing now. He is leading many a heart out of the religious systems of this world, out of the dark spirit of murder and hatred that is abroad in the world, out from mere formal religion so hateful to Christ, to a spot where He is ministered to. He led them out from everything and there He lifted up His hands and blessed them. That is where divine blessing is, in Bethany. He lifted up His priestly hands in blessing there. They know where He is gone, for He was parted from them and carried up into heaven from that spot.
What marks the professing systems of religion is that they do not know where Christ is. “As for this man Moses we know not what has become of him”; they have lost all touch with Him. But in Bethany they saw Him, they were all there and He is parted from them and carried up into heaven, they beholding Him. Each of their hearts filled, they return with great joy — what a stamp of divine approval on Bethany that it should be the last spot. When going away for a long time, we always leave the spot we love most until the last. A man finally breaks with his home, he says “good-bye” in his office and among his general friends and acquaintances, but he leaves his home until the last; it is the last act to say “good-bye” at home. That is what Bethany was to Jesus; it is the last spot that He leaves. The angel says “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner.” He is coming soon and He wants the features of Bethany. He wants all the saints to correspond with Bethany when He comes to receive them.
May the Lord help us to begin, by just opening out our hearts and our houses and giving a place to Christ in this world of His rejection. If we are prepared for correction, it will lead on until there is a spot where the Lord will find the very house of figs standing out in wonderful contrast to what He had in this world. They gave Him vinegar mingled with gall, the most bitter substance that human lips can taste, but over against that is Bethany, the house of figs. The Lord loved Bethany and He would like to see a Bethany in every locality where His own are. May it be so more definitely with us all.