A FIELD WHICH JEHOVAH HATH BLESSED
[p. 93] A FIELD WHICH JEHOVAH HATH BLESSED
Matthew 13: 44; Matthew 23: 17 - 39; Matthew 27: 26 - 29
I read these scriptures because they present to us the idea of a field. It has a wide place in Scripture. The thought runs through Matthew 13; but these three scriptures will suffice to convey what is in view. The first refers to it, in a very wide sense, as the world. The thought of a field may be a small area — just a few acres, or it may be large, here it is the whole world. The Lord Himself, in an earlier parable, says, “the field is the world”, and “He that sows the good seed is the Son of man”, Matthew 13: 37. This is the title that alludes to the Lord’s universal rights. He sowed good seed in His field, we are told, but while men slept, His enemy came and sowed darnel in the same field. It was the kind of opposition that requires time for maturity. Satan does oppose, suddenly, as in a gale of wind, in order to overwhelm in a moment; but in other instances he operates over a period of time, and in this case it has lasted a long time; the wheat and the tares are growing up together. This state is running on now, and will do so until the end, when God will send His angels to remove the tares — clearing the kingdom of them — and the sons of the kingdom shall prevail. A very great prospect! When “they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences” (verse 41).
This other parable, in verse 44, alludes in principle to the earth, not, however, as a place to be tilled and sown, but as having something in it of value — a treasure; it alludes to what came to light when Christ was here as Man. “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1: 11); but in coming to Israel or to the Jews, He found His treasure, that is, what He regarded as such, and He hid it in the field and bought the field. You can see therefore how the Lord would regard the world, notwithstanding its actual history or state at any given [p. 94] time, as entirely in relation to the treasure. And so we have an era instituted in Scripture which is called the “times of the Gentiles”.
The book of Daniel discloses that, as the throne of David was given up, God transferred His authority to the gentiles, but all in view of what this verse speaks of, and that the field should be kept in some sort of order until the treasure should in due course be taken out of it. That is how matters stand and have stood since the Lord Jesus was here. The “times of the Gentiles” preceded the advent of Christ, by hundreds of years. Nebuchadnezzar was raised up and he ruled; subsequently, the Medes and Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. These were not powers arising accidentally, they came up under the government of God. The times of the gentiles are current now; they still obtain and are divinely allowed to rule with a view to this treasure that is in the field. God has an eye to it; and so these powers are to be prayed for that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. We are not called upon to rule the world; the time for that has not yet come. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Do ye not then know that the saints shall judge the world?” “Do ye not know that we shall judge angels?” 1 Corinthians 6: 2, 3. We are to have part in the great government which God is about to inaugurate over the world, but in the meantime our King is in rejection. The Lord is rejected, and our part is to suffer rejection with Him, awaiting the time of His advent when He will come and take up the reins of government. It is not therefore given to us to rule the world now, but we are being trained for it; and meanwhile, we understand that the world is not wholly given over to the devil, although in one sense it lies in the wicked one. God holds the reins of government, and in all this He has an eye to the treasure which His beloved Son found when here, and hid. Heaven is always watching that treasure, and in every great monarchy that is allowed to rise, what is in view is that conditions may exist, enabling God to secure [p. 95] the treasure. Paul goes so far as to tell us that the world is in reconciliation. The attitude of God changes towards the world in the casting off of the Jew. “If their casting away be the world’s reconciliation, what their reception but life from among the dead?” Romans 11: 15. A remarkable word! The Spirit of God goes on to say that the receiving of them will be as life from among the dead; that is what Israel will be as born in a day. The gospels afford evidence of what life from among the dead is. What a great triumph for God to take one from among the dead! The receiving of Israel by and by will be like that.
We must not make too much of what is current in these times of the gentiles, what transpires is not to be taken too much to heart, because when God moves to recover His ancient people it will be as life from among the dead; a nation will be born in a day, a sudden happening to bring out what God can do! In the meantime, there is this wonderful statement that perhaps some of us have not sufficiently understood, that is, the reconciling of the world. It does not mean that every person in it is reconciled. Christians are, of course. “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now has it reconciled in the body of his flesh through death; to present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it”, Colossians 1: 21, 22. That refers to christians, not to the reconciling of the world, which is a provisional thing; God taking account of the world in view of the treasure in it, so that the gospel should go out freely and that those who are to be saved should understand that God in grace is not against them, but for them, not imputing trespasses. The time will come when He will return in judgment, that is His strange work. Meanwhile He is looking out favourably on the whole world, regarding it as in reconciliation.
I say that, that you may understand what is meant by this field, and how the prime thought is of the treasure in it. It is not here a question of cultivating that field.
[p. 96] Legislators and administrators — for whom we pray — cultivate and do what they can to keep order and promote better social conditions and so forth, but heaven’s eye is on the treasure; it is no question of the field, but what is hidden therein. God is concerned with what is going on daily on the earth for the securing of that treasure. Every believer, the elect in the counsels of God, those that are to be saved, are of that treasure, and in order to secure it for Himself. God is viewing everybody in reconciliation in a provisional way. That is the situation and it ought to move us as to this treasure, both as to ourselves being of it and as to securing others. The idea presented in this field is of great importance to have before us as long as it shall last, that we may have our part in this great service of securing the treasure therein. The actual instrumentality is the gospel and that is to go on; there is no thought of the gospel ceasing. It is still the day of salvation, the acceptable year of the Lord, the time of grace and of God’s long-suffering; hence the gospel is going out and will go out until the end, until the last one of the elect is gathered in. As Paul says, “For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”, 2 Timothy 2: 10.
I pass on to the field presented in Genesis 23. A solemn matter comes up as we touch this field. It is bought, as was the other. The Lord is seen as going to great expense in buying the field in Matthew 13: 44, and, in this particular case we have in Abraham a figure of the Lord again buying a field, not this time because of something in it, but on account of what He is about to put into it. In the meantime before He returns, His own are constantly falling asleep. It is well to face this matter. It is not to be dreaded by the christian, but welcomed; indeed Paul could say, “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”, Philippians 1: 23. Departing — what is it but that we are put to sleep through Jesus? No less than that! He puts His saints to sleep; what a very precious [p. 97] service to render to us! Indeed we are told, “Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints”, Psalm 116: 15. Normally, the death of a saint is a victory; still it is not resurrection, but death. The Lord said, “Lazarus, our friend, is fallen asleep”, John 11: 11; and then He said to them plainly, “Lazarus has died”. In whatever way you look at it, death is a solemn thing, and it is well for christians to face the fact of death, pending the coming of our Lord. Paul says, “while yet we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”, 2 Corinthians 5: 4. That is what he looked for, though, in writing to the Philippians, he says, “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”. Paul recognises that that state is not perfection, but a disembodied condition is “far better” in the sense of joy and peace and rest; though what he ardently desires is “to have put on our house which is from heaven”, 2 Corinthians 5: 2. That is what faith looks on to. Faith understands that if the testimony is to go on, one generation passes and another comes.
We may as well face this as we get older; and indeed for the younger ones too, it is a sound and wholesome exercise. But if I am of the generation of faith, if I belong to Jesus, then the Lord shows me typically in this chapter that He has His eye upon me, and that burial is in the light of resurrection. The first burial mentioned in Scripture is in this chapter, and what is stated about the person buried is the period of the years of her life. It is twice mentioned, in verse 1: “And the life of Sarah was a hundred and twenty-seven years: these were the years of the life of Sarah”. It does not say of her age, but of the years of her life. That is what God values — the life. Think of what the life of a christian is! what the life of Jesus was here, under the eye of God! It was infinitely delightful. And Jesus gave up that which was so delightful to God, to do the will of God. And so the life of Sarah, as being a life of faith, had been delightful to God. It was not a question of what was going into the [p. 98] grave but what was to come out. “Thus ... is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”, 1 Corinthians 15: 42, 43. In that sense, you see that although identity remains, what comes out of the grave is not what has gone in, but something in which God Himself delights.
That is why this field has such a place, it was carefully bought under auspicious circumstances. The Canaanites were there, but not opposed; they were not saying a word against Abraham. Indeed the sons of Heth were ready to give him the choicest of their sepulchres, but Abraham’s thought was “the cave of Machpelah, ... for the full money let him give it to me amongst you for a possession of a sepulchre”, Genesis 23: 9. He speaks very respectfully and bows himself to the people of the land but he wanted to buy the field. It was not for a very great price, “four hundred shekels of silver, current with the merchant”, but it was enough to show that it was worth buying, and the money was there to pay for it — not paper money either, it was weighed to Ephron, in money “current with the merchant”. It was duly purchased.
Now that field is very interesting to us, because the saints are all in it in principle. Faith regards this as a place of burial, the place where the saints lie until the day of resurrection. You may say, They are scattered all over the world, and some in the depths of the sea, but that is nothing from the standpoint of this chapter; these distances apart are nothing to God. The point is that they are buried under the eye of the Lord, carefully cared for and buried in relation to Hebron, which alludes to the coming world — “that world and the resurrection” — they will all be there. One shout of Christ will bring them all out. Those who are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come forth, showing how real and intelligent they are, they will recognise His voice and come forth. It is a beautiful thought, “the field, and the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all its borders round about, were assured to Abraham”. How carefully the Lord considers those of His own who have fallen asleep, and how the graveyard would afford the needed comfort for those who do the burying. The one who buries in this instance is Abraham, the man of faith, and it is in faith we bury. He calls it his dead — “that I may bury my dead out of my sight”. He buries Sarah in this field. I have no doubt the cave suggests that the place of burial is divinely prepared. The burial — place of Jesus was no accident; it was “in a tomb hewn in the rock, where no one had ever been laid”, Luke 23: 53. Genesis 23 gives the burying place for faith, and there can be no doubt that the cave alludes to divine provision, and it is for the saints, they are all there. Those of us who know what it is to lose a loved one can say that they are all there — not one of them is unknown; they will all be found there and will come forth; they will stand up in victory here. The Lord is “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”, Romans 1: 4. Now we are “to know him and the power of his resurrection”, Philippians 3: 10. Thus as we fall asleep through Jesus it is in the full assurance that He will raise us, that is the light and comfort associated with the field of Ephron.
I will now go on to chapter 27. Here I have largely in mind that we should see what is cultivated. Neither of the other two fields we have had before us was cultivated, although in the field of Machpelah there is that which is sown. “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”, 1 Corinthians 15: 44. Though the saints are buried there to come forth as a goodly crop by and by, yet the thought of cultivation does not come into it. This field, however, is a present cultivation, and includes everyone of us here today, especially the young people. For now is the time for cultivation. This field does not represent the [p. 100] world, but it is a narrower thought, it is one person. Any christian might be so regarded. I would single out the young to come into this. The Lord, I believe, is singling them out peculiarly in these last days — the babes, the little children, boys and girls, young men and women; these are all peculiarly in the mind of the Lord in present ministry, I feel, and each of them is, so to speak, a field.
Some of them may be moving as Jacob was here, not in a very creditable way, but nevertheless the smell of the field is there, and it is for parents to acquire the power in this respect to discern — to be able to tell if the smell of the field is in the youth — in the family. And if not, why not? Surely it is a matter of grave concern if our families, if any in them, do not come into the realm of faith. I believe it would be well if parents began to exercise this power, this sense called smell in a spiritual way, so that they might be able to discern the bent of mind in youth.
You all know that Esau was a man of the field. Rebecca had the advantage of knowing the mind of God when these twins were born. It is well for parents to be on the alert, we should always be on the alert. Rebecca had the mind of God before her children were born, what an advantage that was! How important it is for parents or prospective parents to be before God in prayer! Rebecca inquired of God as to it, and God revealed His mind about the children, “the elder shall serve the younger”, Genesis 25: 23. That elder was Esau; and subsequently, hundreds of years after this, it was said that God loved Jacob and hated Esau. Esau had a different smell. He was a man of the field; not in the sense of Isaac’s blessing of Jacob, but the football field or the tennis field; he was that kind of man; you could smell that sort of field on him. Yet in spite of that, Isaac loved him, because Esau gave him of his venison; but Rebecca loved Jacob. What a model she is for mothers! She loved the right man. Mothers, of course, love all their [p. 101] children, but she had the mind of God about Jacob and loved him accordingly; she was a pious woman.
I believe the secret cause of children turning away is largely lack of piety, vigilance and care in mothers. Now, as I said, Rebecca understood the mind of God as to Jacob, she was in accord with God about him. She loved Jacob, it says in Genesis; God loved Jacob, we are told in Malachi. What an intervening stretch of time! What consonance between faith and God! And that is how it should be; faith is always in agreement with God. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and you may be sure that Rebecca pleased Him in that she loved Jacob. So here she is in principle laying down her life for him. “On me be thy curse, my son!” — what an example for mothers, she is ready to go that far! She puts the skins round him, she would have the mind of God carried out, whatever happened. Let the mind of God go through, concerning the children! It did go through, by a subterfuge, alas! — yet even that did not interfere with the carrying out of the purpose of God. It was carried through in spite of her subterfuge. If we understand the mind of God about our children, we move so that it may be established. Many things may happen to distress us, but if you inquire of God and lay down your life, if necessary, to be in accord with what He reveals to you, the mind of God will go through as regards your children.
So we find Jacob goes to his father with the carefully cooked meat. At this point Isaac represents God; in principle all the patriarchs do. Isaac rises to that and he says to his son, “Come near, now, and kiss me, my son”. It is not now the old man who has a taste for venison, he is representative of God, he is rising to that. God has come in. How beautiful it is to see God coming in! God came in in Isaac here; he is rising above his natural sensibilities and coming into divine sensibilities which he had as a child of God. It is with divine sensibilities that he says, “Come near, now, and kiss me, my son”. What an invitation, beloved young people! How God would [p. 102] appeal to you! Love hates distance, as is seen in the father of the prodigal when he ran and fell on his neck and covered him with kisses. The prodigal had come back, he had come near to his father: now it is a son to kiss. Isaac says, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed”. I have no doubt there are many here like that tonight. With many young people it may be only potential, not developed, but the thing is there. In fact, from the very time that we have the dry land mentioned in Scripture, the potentiality of fruitfulness is there. The ground is to bring forth, “Let the earth cause grass to spring up”, Genesis 1: 11. There is the power of life in it. How does a young person — young man or woman, boy or girl, get the power of life? It is the power of God that works in them. The parents request for them, and pray for them, they pray earnestly for them, and such prayers God answers. The principle of life, of fertility, is brought in. It is in divine order. The sensibilities of the patriarch now were spiritual, he was sensing the right thoughts. “The smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed”. It is a question of potentiality as yet, but think of what is opening up in Jacob! What a history, what Jacob is to be! Israel restored and blessed on the earth — all that entered into the smell that Isaac smelled then. What a wonderful blossoming of that flower, as it were, the opening up of that great field of fruitfulness for God! It is to appear on the earth presently when Israel shall be blessed, and shall fill the earth with fruit for God. All that was there potentially in that man. The father smelled it and said, “The smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed”.
I have brought these thoughts before you so that we might have light for the young, and learn how to smell the odour of divine blessing in them, and if it be not there, to get to God about it. God is available for parents, and in a wider sense for the assembly, because the father and [p. 103] mother spirit is supposed to be in the assembly so that in this way the saints are brought in.
If God is not working, why not? As Isaiah says, “ye that put Jehovah in remembrance, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish”, Isaiah 62: 6, 7. Prayer is to go on and on until the great matter is established; “give him no rest”, because if the young are not secured, the testimony must die out, for one generation passes away. I think you will see the practical need, in this and all other countries, of fruitfulness and spreading out for God, so that the young must be secured and thus have part in what is so pleasing to God in fruitfulness.