PROGRESS IN THE APPREHENSION OF THE THOUGHTS OF GOD
No 3: THE PLEASURE OF GOD AND SACRIFICE
In two previous papers we have had certain parts of Abraham’s history before us which illustrate our growth in the apprehension of divine truth; first the call of God, and the refusal of the flesh; then sonship and the fruit of the Spirit. We now come to chapter 22, which presents something further, and to which, perhaps, if one may speak for others, we are slow to move on; and that is that in all that God has had before Him, He has had in view His own pleasure, what is for Himself. That is what comes into view in Genesis 22.
Abraham is told to take Isaac, his only son whom he loved, and offer him up as a burnt offering. The burnt offering is wholly for God. Up to this point everything in connection with the light that God had given Abraham was for Abraham, and he had become increasingly established, and enriched, in the sense of what God was towards him in blessing; but now as coming into the fulness of the thoughts of God in sonship, he is to move on to another point, and he answers to it, that is, that everything is for the pleasure of God. The very one in whom all the thoughts of God centred was to be offered up as a burnt offering for God—it is wholly for God. The verses that follow delineate the way that Abraham and Isaac moved, which was indeed typical of a far greater movement on God’s part. There is in this history a most touching suggestion of the way that the Father and the Son have moved in holy concert of mind and affection with a view to securing in resurrection that which will abidingly subsist for the pleasure of God.
I wonder whether we really embrace the idea of what is for the pleasure of God, and ourselves taken up in relation to it, and the necessity for everything to be brought in on the ground of resurrection. On no other ground could anything be established for the pleasure of God; and with a view to that the Father and the Son have moved in this wonderful way of surrender and sacrifice in order that this might be brought to pass. Think of Christ at the right hand of God, and every thought of God regarding the assembly secured now in Himself there, and yet that would not have been possible unless this downward way had been taken, involving not only Christ but the Father. John’s gospel presents peculiarly the Father and the Son moving together. Here it says that “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together”.
The passage is full of suggestions as to all that was involved for God as well as for Christ in the way that the Lord has taken in order that divine thoughts for the pleasure of God and for His glory might be brought to pass and eternally established. Then it says, “Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son”. It is a beautiful picture of the way that the Father and the Son moved together in holy reciprocal affection and confidence, with no divergence of thought between them—“I and my Father are one”, the Lord Jesus says.
There is a touching scene recorded in John 12, where the Lord says, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour Father, glorify thy name”. How precious that must have been to the Father, to have His Son moving here in such complete accord with His own thought, with no other thought before Him but that the Father’s name should be glorified, and for the Father to hear Him say, “Father, glorify thy name”. So as you go through John’s gospel you get the impression of the Father and the Son moving together in love and sacrifice, with a view to securing divine thoughts immutably on the basis of resurrection, with the great end in view of all being for the pleasure of God: as it says in Romans, “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things”. It is right that it should be so. Our blessing lies in the full recognition of it. The assembly has been taken up in relation to Christ to be a vessel of service towards God, entering into all His thoughts as having the spirit of God’s Son, and responding to them. How we may well lay ourselves out for these things, that we might be brought more into them in the power of the Spirit, as we see that these are the things in relation to which God has called us. And so as the believer takes it up he will find that it entails his moving on the line of sacrifice. Not indeed that it is to be compared with the sacrifice that has been made by the Father and the Son, but that our affections and interests are transferred from what is natural and that lies on this side of death, to the region that lies on the other side of death, where Christ is, and to the region of His interests in connection with the assembly. This spiritual movement involves constant sacrifice the more it is taken up; but then that is pleasing to God. So viewing Abraham now as a type of the believer, God says to him, “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies”. That confirmation of blessing to him was because he had not withheld his son from God; because he was prepared for the sacrifice that was to be made, and to take up His interests in what lay typically beyond death. I believe the more we are concerned as to the assembly as a vessel for divine pleasure, which even now stands in relation to Him who is raised from among the dead, and are prepared to allow our own things to be surrendered with a view to its prosperity, the more we shall be blessed. It is a remarkable thing that in his epistle, James touches on this act of Abraham and says, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son”. “By works was faith made perfect”. That is to say, by the way he moved there was the full answer to the light that God had given him, “and he was called the Friend of God”. It is as though the Spirit of God links the idea of the Friend of God with the point of Abraham’s history when he offered up Isaac his son. It is, I believe, as we take up in exercise in our souls the thoughts of God in relation to Christ and the assembly, having them before us in our thoughts, our prayers, and our service, that we shall qualify, so to speak, to be called Friends of God.
It is remarkable that Abraham’s seed is spoken of as the sand which is upon the sea shore, and in this connection I would allude to a very striking verse which will be found in Jeremiah 5: 22: “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it”.
I believe we may see in this verse a veiled suggestion of what the saints of God—the true seed of Abraham—are. They are left here with the light of God in their souls, and the pleasure of God in their hearts, and they become a barrier, so that the forces of evil cannot prevail as long as they are here. It is a great thing to get the light of that in our souls; governed by the principles of God, keeping His covenant, there is a restraining power in the world among the saints, though by themselves they might appear to be as helpless as sand is, but they are set there as a power and testimony for God which cannot be overcome.
May the Lord help us to see a little more of the greatness of that to which we have been called through the grace of God, and may we be concerned, as seeking the Lord continually, to be enlarged in the apprehension of these things. The great thought before the mind of God is that all should be for His own pleasure and glory, as we sometimes sing—
“Glory all belongs to God”.
The more we get into our souls the idea of what is for the divine pleasure, the more we shall be prepared for the greatness of what we have been called to. If we think of what is great enough to satisfy the heart of God and display the glory of the blessed God, we shall be ready for the greatest things, and the Spirit is here to make them good in our souls.
STREATHAM
From Words of Truth 1936
_____________________