GOD'S OPERATIONS IN VIEW OF HIS OWN GRATIFICATION
GOD’S OPERATIONS IN VIEW OF HIS OWN GRATIFICATION
Exodus 13: 1, 2; Jeremiah 2: 1 - 3; Song of Songs 8: 6, 7; Revelation 22: 16, 17
What one observes in all God’s dealings is His thought that He should have something as a portion for Himself. God has affections, and His thought is that His affections should in every way be gratified. It will be found in all His dealings that He has in view something for Himself, and the end that will furnish that is not an inanimate thing or things. God has called the first creation into existence and variety marks it, for He delights in variety. That is the leading feature in the material creation, but notwithstanding all the beauty and variety of that order of things, it does not convey God’s great end. The material thing passes away; it is not an end in itself, but is an index to the spiritual order. God is a spirit, and what He has in mind to secure for Himself is spirit. Hence the material order does not present to us what is in His mind to be perpetuated. What is in His mind to abide is a spiritual order of things, and if we examine that carefully we shall find it is to be formed after Himself; in fact, it springs from Him morally. The whole scheme emanates morally from God. When we come to apply that to the present moment what we discern is that christians are formed after God; the order of man which is to be before God eternally is formed after God in a spiritual way. The book of Exodus opens up the beginning of this, so in this chapter which immediately follows the celebration of the passover. God is asserting His claim, and He lays claim to the first-born. I wish you to take notice of that. If we rightly apprehend the passover we shall yield ourselves to God. I do not account any person to have truly appreciated [p. 48] the passover who does not yield himself to God. Before you can become a spiritual formation you must yield yourself to God, and there is no spiritual formation until you have done that. Hence the kingdom necessarily precedes the building. That is the order in Scripture. The primary thought of the kingdom is seen in Moses — he was king in Jeshurun. After the truth of the passover has been introduced, Moses has a kingdom; so we are told they were all baptised to Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10: 2). That is to say, we have been handed over to Christ in our baptism, and in the faith of the passover we recognise the lordship of Christ. The One who is the Pascal Lamb is exalted to be Lord, and we are committed into His hands that our wills may be broken. I do not, of course, confine the kingdom to that, because the kingdom is also for the protection of the people of God. The kingdom necessarily existed before it was established, and the book of Judges is a testimony on God’s part that the kingdom was a necessity, because every man was doing that which was right in his own eyes. It was a period of theocracy. God ruled; He was King. Moses had passed away, and the kingdom did not extend beyond Jordan; God had assumed the rule of His people, but not through a mediator. The kingdom is now in the hands of an anointed Man, and as baptised to the name of the Lord, we are brought under the sway of Jesus. If the kingdom is in the hands of the Lord, He will break your will and mine in order that you and I may be formed after Himself. There is no formative work going on in us if the will is unbroken. The Lord will do it. “Are we stronger than he?”; no, we are not. The strongest willed man Scripture presents was Saul of Tarsus. The Lord broke his will and produced His masterpiece. The Lord takes that man up as an individual. See what formative work there [p. 49] was in the apostle Paul. He was so formed after Christ that he could exhort the saints to be his followers. What a mighty triumph he was in the hands of the Lord! He was formed according to God, created in truthful righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 24). That is the thought we should keep in mind — God laid claim to him for His own end. The great point is to yield oneself up to God, and as yielded up to God we become a spiritual formation.
Jeremiah 2 gives us light on the early stages of Israel’s history. The Lord says, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”. There was nothing then for the flesh — they went after Jehovah into a land not sown, and God says, “I remember for thee”. They had forgotten. Israel then was “the first-fruits of his increase”. With what pleasure He reverted to it, the kindness of youth, the freshness of first love. They had at that time appreciated the passover, and acted in faith; they had light as to Jehovah; they had passed the sea in faith; they were moved collectively as one man in the energy of faith. Suppose light is thrown on our early days, what is disclosed and what are we at the present moment? What we find in Israel is that there has been a trial of jealousy — there had been departure in heart from God. They had turned aside in their hearts’ affections from Jehovah. He became jealous (Numbers 5). Do you know what jealousy is? There are two things we come to know, love and jealousy, I want to come to these things. Israel knew love on the banks of the Red Sea. Do we know love? We talk a great deal about it. Paul says, “The greater of these is love”. Love is the nature of God; love is of God. It is not a product of man’s nature, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”, 1 John 3: 16. God has made known [p. 50] His love in the death of Christ; it has to be learned there.
In the Song of Songs we get love treated of. It sets forth the love of Christ. “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s”, was Solomon’s masterpiece, the masterpiece of the greatest poet. Solomon wrote by the Spirit of Christ. One attaches no value, no moral value, to any composition save what is by the Spirit of Christ. Solomon’s song is the triumph of Christ over the affections of His people. It is His triumph over His people, not over His enemies. The Lord is dealing with each one of us in order to triumph over our affections and to gain them. He takes great and wonderful pains to accomplish this. The bride knows what love is, and what jealousy is. If you look into the law of jealousy, you will understand that anyone who goes through that ordeal is not likely to forget it. If you are unfaithful, the Lord will put you through that trial. Jealousy is founded on love and is a sure proof of it. There is a fountain of love in the heart of Christ for you, and, therefore, there is jealousy. The trial of jealousy is a terrible thing, both for christendom and for Israel. Israel has to go through it yet. The systems around us are called christian, and christendom is responsible as outwardly espoused to Christ. Can you take that into your mind? The professing system today is the ruin of what Paul espoused to Christ. What a fearful responsibility rests upon that system, but there is no change in the heart of Christ toward His assembly, and if there is love, there is also jealousy. If the Lord Jesus Christ takes you into relationship with Himself and makes you know His love, you will have to undergo the ordeal of jealousy if your heart is diverted from Him. You do not have to go through it if the Lord is not jealous of you. Suppose we take the church at large, has there been any cause historically for jealousy? There is abundant ground for [p. 51] suspecting unfaithfulness. The church has become a public harlot. The book of Revelation proves that she who had the responsibility of being the spouse of Christ has been utterly unfaithful. There must, therefore, be the trial of jealousy, and those who have had to pass through it will never forget it. But we can thank God for it; it proves His affection; the fact that He has got love for us is proved. Are your affections being transferred to another, even perhaps in a very little way? The Lord is the first to feel it, and He becomes jealous. “Jealousy is cruel as Sheol: the flashes thereof are flashes of fire, flames of Jah”. The bride knew that. Jealousy in Christ is love in another garb. He becomes jealous in order to recover: jealousy is cruel as Sheol, unrelenting. The One who becomes jealous is all powerful. What an awful climax stands ahead of Christendom! Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? You may say, ‘How may we provoke Him?’. By turning our affections to another. That is idolatry, and if the Lord has to take issue with us, the victory will be His. If the Lord takes issue with christendom, He can do it only as a jealous husband, and what a fearful end there will be for that which had the responsibility outwardly of being the spouse of Christ. The bride knew love too, for after having spoken of love she says: “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts”; that is, divine affections had not been formed. The bride knew the love of Christ and thinks of her sister. The true proof of genuine love to Christ is that you think of others. She had a profound sense of the love of Christ; “Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death”. She would cling to Christ now, as having no confidence in herself, for there she would be secure. Cling to Him, and trust to His power to preserve you. But, as I was saying, the effect of knowing love is that the [p. 52] bride thinks of her little sister; she wonders what is to be done for her. She had the very best thoughts of love. The little sister was in a very poor way, she was not developed in affection, but love in the bride as restored thinks of others. “If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar”. That is what love would do; it would build up and adorn its object, having in view development of love for Christ.
I read the passage in Revelation 22 to show how completely the Lord has regained the affections of the saints. As we have been seeing, God will have something for Himself, a race formed spiritually after Christ in affection. That is what is to continue before God. At present it takes the form of a people like ourselves. We are baptised to the Lord, and as committed to this the Spirit has a free hand to form us after Christ. The church outwardly is proved to be unfaithful and the curse is pronounced upon her; she bears the curse, “Her children will I kill with death”, Revelation 2: 23. But in a hidden way there have been those characterised by faithfulness to Christ, I hope, through the Lord’s grace that as a result of our being together, there will be more decision for Christ. The Lord’s appearing is undoubtedly drawing near. He looks for victory. In the end He secures for Himself the affections of His people, so I read those few verses in the end of Revelation to show the importance of being able to give a true answer as to who Christ is, “Whom say ye that I am?”. The Lord Himself raised the question on two occasions, and I have noticed how from time to time the question of the Lord’s Person is raised amongst us. The end in view is that He would constantly remind us of who He is. Outside of the enclosure of the Spirit there is no knowledge of Christ. No soul has knowledge of Christ outside the region of the Spirit.
David says in Psalm 110, “Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet”. No one could understand that apart from the Spirit, and now at the close of Revelation the Lord says, “I am the root and offspring of David”. Here He does not raise the question as to the truth of His Person; He answers Himself in all the dignity of who He is, “I am the root and offspring of David”. There is no question now as to who He is, and all is settled too in the heart of the bride, settled in intelligence and in affection as to Christ. She knows Him, and directly He answers Himself, the Spirit and the bride say, “Come”. This is distinct evidence of spiritual formation; the trial of jealousy is past, the bride is proved to be faithful. The outward thing may be unfaithful, but there are those who have intelligence as to Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 11: 2, “I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”. That has been secured in the end. There is the evidence of faithfulness, and directly He presents Himself she knows Him. She can answer the question, “Whose son is he?”. The assembly can answer it. We know the Lord is “The root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”, and we add to our knowledge that word of affection, “Come”. That is the great aim of the Lord to secure. The great effort on the part of the evil one is to seduce us; every true servant knows something of this. The Lord is jealous over you young people lest you should be diverted by the things of the world. This in principle becomes idolatry, but the bride loves Him; she says to Him, “Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm”.