GOD'S IDEAL
GOD’S IDEAL
Luke 10: 38 - 42; John 12: 3 - 9
I connect these scriptures, because they present to us in an individual, a woman, the leading characteristics of christianity; and I desire to speak about christianity. I desire to speak of it, as presenting that in which God realises His ideal. It has come in, in a certain sense, as an interruption — not an interruption of God’s eternal counsels, but as an interruption of His ways on earth. But whilst I venture so to speak of it, it is an interruption that is exceedingly pleasing to God, because it realises that which we have spoken of as God’s ideal. God realises His ideal in the presence of a world that is antagonistic to Himself. He has a peculiar pleasure in that, because He has in christianity a vessel ennobled as the complement of Christ in heavenly glory, which lends a lustre to every vessel connected with it. God had given expression to many thoughts in connection with His earthly people, but all these thoughts are now set forth in christianity. They have taken a peculiar lustre from the fact that the vessel is a heavenly vessel. Take, for instance, eternal life, which was a thought that God has given expression to to Israel. He had preached the gospel to Abraham, and had promised eternal life in principle to all the families of the earth in Abraham. It was God’s mind in regard to Israel, and, on the ground of this, every Jew expected it, and the Lord coming into manhood brought it into form to Israel. The divine idea was realised in a Man among them. The Lord said, “Ye will not come to me that ye might have life”. Man’s will shut him out from the blessing. Hence the Lord turns to His sheep. The Father’s commandment was that, life eternal. In giving it to His sheep, He gives it to them as separated from the nation. That company had a place in connection [p. 73] with Christ in heaven. The testimony of eternal life is set in the assembly, in a vessel which from its heavenly calling and dignity necessarily lends a lustre to eternal life, which it could never have had in Israel. God takes particular delight in christianity, that in it here on earth He realises His ideal. He sees secured in practical form every expression of His in regard to Israel — the worship of God and the service of God, all set forth in the assembly.
I have been saying that it is a sort of interruption, but it is an interruption that affords peculiar pleasure to God. In the book of Genesis the generation of Esau is given in chapter 36, and there is no interruption. The generations of Esau are pursued by the Spirit of God until the line of Esau is seen on the throne of the world. God allows it to go on. Now in the next chapter of the book we have the generation of Jacob and, directly we have that, there is an interruption — we have Joseph. No other generation is mentioned; God, as it were, has turned aside to Joseph. The generations of Jacob are overlooked until we find Joseph enthroned in Egypt. Look what there was in Joseph for the pleasure of God. It was Christ, as rejected of His brethren, under the eye of God, until He is received in glory by the gentile world. Then the interruption is ended, and we see Israel in connection with Christ.
In Exodus we have a similar line of thought. In chapter 6, after Moses and Aaron were charged with a message to Pharaoh, the Spirit of God gives a list of the heads of the fathers of Israel. There is an interruption. I wish to dwell upon that. We have three families, the heads of three families. When it comes to Levi, it stops. The Spirit of God gives us the full line; in other words God is taking up Israel in responsibility. He reaches the Apostle and High Priest, i.e. Christ the antitype, the One by whom the new system is to be established; then He stops.
[p. 74] That is christianity. God reaches Christ, as it were, in connection with Israel in responsibility; we have the Apostle and the High Priest of our profession.
In the book of Hebrews it is not a question of Israel in responsibility but the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. That is a very wonderful foundation of what the apostle had in his mind; now we are to consider Him. We have the Apostle and the High Priest of our profession. It is not now a question of the reinstatement of Israel on the ground of profession, but God has established a completely new system, a system which embraces the heaven and the earth, and we are to have part in it. As I have been saying, the names of the heads of the families are interrupted; the Spirit reaches the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Now we need to consider Christ. What a position the antitype had in regard to the world system! But there was the position; God reached the Apostle and High Priest. We have Him by whom the new system is inaugurated and by whom the service of God is carried on.
I read these two scriptures because they present to us what one understands to be the features in christianity that are peculiarly pleasing to God. I wonder if our hearts are exercised as to that to which it has pleased God to call us. Exodus 18 describes the kingdom. The people were in the wilderness, and they are in the recognition of divinely-appointed authority in a man. Every need arising amongst them was taken to Moses. Would that we were able in all simplicity to take everything to Christ! Nothing happened amongst the Israelites but what was taken to Moses. In the next chapter God says, “I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”. He says, as it were, I want to open up what is in My heart in regard to you. “Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all [p. 75] people, for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation”. I allude to chapter 19, because it presents to us what is in the mind and heart of God. If we are to be with Him, we are to be formed according to Him. God, having now the people with Himself, would open up His heart to them. I connect that with Luke 10. The chapter shows us man in need here. In the book of Hosea, the remnant, as having the spirit of faith, say, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight”, Hosea 6: 1, 2. I understand that the Lord was here on the part of God, in testimony, and the remnant recognised the testimony. Now the spirit of faith was in Israel when the Lord was here, and the Lord was here in answer to the spirit of faith. He entered into the house of Bethany, and there the Lord was more than a healer; He was there in the reviving of the hopes of Israel. Was He not in the soul of Mary a reviver of her hopes? What conclusion would the spirit of faith have come to? Do you understand what it is to be raised up the third day? In the resurrection of Christ, we have the raising up of every hope, and we are to live in that. We shall live by the spirit of faith in His sight. I understand that to be brought about by the quickening power of the teaching of the covenant. We are raised up by the working of God who raised Christ from the dead. It is a question of God’s power. Faith always takes account of the power of God. I refer for a moment to the faith of Joseph. The faith of Joseph is the counterpart of the faith of Abraham. The faith of Abraham is that God raised Christ from the dead. The faith of Joseph is that God raises the saints. He gave commandment concerning his bones.
The epistle to the Colossians enables us to take [p. 76] this ground that, if God raised Christ, we are raised by faith. We are in the light of God’s power in raising Christ. There is more than that; we are also quickened with Christ. That is what I understand to be the counterpart of being raised. “We shall live in his sight”. We are quickened in affection God-ward, and we live in His sight. We are secured for God eternally.
Mary was sitting at the feet of Christ, and listening. I want to dwell on that, and connect it with Exodus 19. The presence of Christ meant that God was here; there was in that Person, for her soul, the presence of God. How is God to be known in your soul and mine? We have to sit and listen. It is a wonderful thing to be brought to God in the wilderness. He says, You have seen My power, what I can do for you, but I want you to know My heart, and hence the covenant is introduced. The new covenant is that in which God opens up His heart to you. Christ is said to be a covenant for the people. Mary understood that; instinctively she understood that in that Person the heart of God was opened up to her; hence she sat at His feet and listened.
I hope there is not one here who is not making progress. See to it that you go on. Mary was, in the two days in chapter 11. There was the adequate testimony that God was there. In John’s gospel she arrives at the third day, a resurrection scene. “In the third day”, says the spirit of faith, “he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight”. God has come in. Bethany is the sphere of the remnant. Death had come in, was on their spirits. He raised up Lazarus, the subject of their hope. In chapter 12 we see the same family in resurrection conditions. Lazarus is there; there is affection for Christ. All is over in regard to the world. In the early part of chapter 11 the two sisters were engaged with a dead man. In chapter 12 they were engaged with Christ.
[p. 77] They were living in the sight of God. Our affections move towards divine Persons; we are quickened God-ward. Christ died for all that they who live should not live unto themselves but unto Him who died for them and rose again. The scene at Bethany is a resurrection scene. Christianity is that in which the divine ideal is realised. We may say that God had secured His end with Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. She takes the very costly ointment and pours it on the Lord. God never secured that in Sinai. The first covenant could not produce that. It is the new covenant, the complete outgoing of affection for Christ. I think in this woman is presented what christianity really is. The Lord defends that which is fragrant to Him. The woman in Luke 7 is a lover of Christ, and she is defended by the Lord. In Luke 10 Mary is a learner and she is defended by Him. In John 12 she is a worshipper, and she is defended as a worshipper. It is thus that John shows us how the divine thought is realised. They that worship God are to worship Him in spirit and in truth. I think that John shows us in this woman how the divine ideal is produced. It is produced by learning God in Christ. The Father seeketh such as His worshippers. That is what christianity is. It is that in which every divine thought is realised. I believe that the highest thought of God is that He should be worshipped; and that we should be free to worship Him in spirit and in truth.