PILLARS

^[p. 96] PILLARS

Exodus 24: 3, 4; Luke 22: 26, 27; Galatians 2: 9; Revelation 3: 12

I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak a little about pillars, or in other words, conspicuousness in the things of God. It is the divine thought that there should be persons of distinction in the divine realm as there are in man’s realm. They mark man’s realm in a striking manner, as we know. The desire for distinction amongst his fellows marks, I may say, all men as they are in this world. And, of course, there is much distinction in the different sub-divisions of the world. There is room for distinction. We find, too, that the offices or places of distinction are usually well filled. And this comes into view in the final issue between God and this world. In one respect the issue is closed, for the Lord Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out”, John 12: 31. That “now” runs on, but it contemplated finality as to the issue between God and the world. Much detail has to be worked out; different phases of the working of sin have appeared since the cross; but the cross was final. Everything came to light there.

But in working out the detail we find, for instance, seven thousand names of men; names! They came in for special judgment according to the book of Revelation, which is the book of finality in detail. So that God takes account of men in their distinction or distinctions. Seven thousand names would indicate a large number. I suppose it is symbolic, as is “seven” in Revelation, and therefore would contemplate a large number. They were slain, it says; as if such men came in for special notice in the retributive dealings of God.

^[p. 97] These names may include religious distinctions; for the world has its religion, and we do well to take notice that the names and distinctions acquired in the so-called world of religion are on the same footing. There is that kind of religion that is free from such names: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world”, James 1: 27. That religion admits of no such names as have come under the judgment of God specifically. These seven thousand names clearly allude to what the world is characteristically in its distinction.

We know how that developed. Indeed, the suggestion of the devil to Eve, and put into Adam’s heart, was to make men equal with God: “ye will be as God”, Genesis 3: 5. That would be distinction developed in this world by the promptings of the devil, by the help of the devil. For the devil does help men who lay themselves out to be characteristic men of this world. So we find Cain and his world, men of distinction. Coming down to the political side we find the Nimrods, and myriads of others since, existing today. And no doubt, what is prevalent today is in the mind of God particularly in the book of Revelation in the seven thousand names of men slain.

I mention all that as over against what I have especially to say, that we may be free from the spirit of an Adonijah, who said, “I will be king”, 1 Kings 1: 5. That is according to man; according to the spirit of this world. As I have been saying, the poison injected through Eve and Adam, and which remains, will find full development in him who is designated in Scripture as the “son of perdition” and the “man of sin”; “who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God, or object of veneration; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God”, 2 Thessalonians 2: 4. He ^[p. 98] is the full expression of this ambitious effort that is prevalent in the world. He is not slain; he is cast alive, we are told, into the lake of fire.

So that, dear brethren, the Lord, I am sure, would speak to us as to this, that we may see the kind of distinction that belongs to the divine realm. I am not now speaking of what we shall be, but of the distinction that is now. We do not know exactly what the distinction will be then, but we do know we shall be like Jesus. That is a precious thought “and what we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3: 2. And what is involved in that is an eternal weight of glory — a remarkable expression — “an eternal weight of glory”. It grows out of our light affliction, as the apostle says. Affliction is the order of the day; suffering is the order of the day for the followers of Jesus. “For our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”, 2 Corinthians 4: 17.

What distinctions are these we shall have! I am sure that everyone there will have an individual distinction, a name. I want now to trace in these passages read how divine distinction, distinction in the realm of God, the divine realm, is developed. It has its place in the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch although divided into five books is one book really. The writer is one; the subjects are one: co-related, but one. And amongst them is this thought of distinction, of conspicuousness.

I am not going further back than the sons of Noah. I believe that Shem stands for this conspicuousness in the things of God. Amongst other things he was a man who had regard for his parents, for his father. He had reverence for his father, not simply as a young man, but as a developed man. But his name signifies what I am speaking of: it signifies ‘renown’;

^[p. 99] and, as the history would show, renown according to God.

There were giants on the earth in those days. They were the offspring of a mixed parentage. They were giants; they were men with a name, but not the kind of name Shem bore. That is what I wish to inject into our minds. “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem”, Genesis 9: 26. He is the God of Shem; the God of those who are spiritually of Shem’s line. And so we have in Jacob for the first time the introduction of this thought of pillar. It is he who introduces the thought; it was so in his mind that the stone that had been his pillow was used to be a pillar. And it was not simply to mark the spot of the house of God; it was to be it. There can be no distinction unless room is made for God. In man’s world God has been renounced. Man made room for himself. “And according as they did not think good to have God in their knowledge”, Romans 1: 28. But Jacob takes the opposite view, and he did retain God in his knowledge; and not only that, but in principle he made a house for God. “And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house”, he says; Genesis 28: 22.

I hope that is understood. It is very simple, but very important. As over against the rejection of God in this world, men not liking to retain Him in their knowledge, we have a Jacob under orders from his parents; for this thought of respect and subjection to parents is greatly stressed throughout the history. No one can have distinction such as I have in mind aside from it. Children are enjoined in the epistle of epistles by the apostle Paul, the epistle to the Ephesians, to obey their parents in the Lord. It is the first commandment with a promise. And the promise of God is sure to make something out of us. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is just. Honour thy father and thy mother, which is ^[p. 100] the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest be long-lived on the earth”, chapter 6:1 - 3. How are these days to be employed? Not in obtaining conspicuousness in this world in any of its departments or sub-divisions, but to have long life in the service of God, developing from subjection to parents. It is “the first commandment with a promise”. One rejoices at the young people coming in and out amongst us, seemingly enjoying the things their elders do; but it is constantly needful to remind them of the importance of subjection to parents and respect for parents.

Jacob was a developed man, a man up in years, as we speak, when he went out under orders to seek a wife; and this is the result. On his way he erected this pillar, and it was no less in result than that God should have a house. One of his line had it in mind; the spiritual family thought runs down in this connection, when he says, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob”, Psalm 132: 4, 5. “The Mighty One of Jacob” — it would suggest that the children take on the thought from their parents, for they come into a great heritage as the descendants of Jacob; and the evidence of the true Israel of God is seen in those who are sleepless for the sake of the testimony, for the sake of a dwelling place for God, “habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob”. May we not say that this is taking root in the dear young people amongst us?

I am sure it is. They are learning to find a place for divine dwelling, and to see that they are a part of it and contribute to it. And subjection is the principle. And so, as I said, the Pentateuch is one; and so Jacob introduces the thought of distinction in this sense, conspicuousness. And he anoints the pillar.

God reminded him of it. It is a very happy thing to have a divine reminder. In our Bible readings, and ^[p. 101] in our family readings, and in our private readings and meditations of the Scriptures, the Spirit of God has opportunity to recall things to us. It may be to remind us of vows made earlier, that we have either forgotten or neglected. The Spirit of God would recall to us distinct things. Every little bit of spiritual gain, spiritual attainment, and spiritual growth should be discerned as part of our constitution and added to.

So that Jehovah said to Jacob, “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow to me”, Genesis 31: 13. Go back to that. It is very often necessary to be reminded, and God does remind us, of earlier gains spiritually, that have been forgotten or neglected: not added to, not utilised. And so Jacob would go back; and in going back his conspicuousness would be not on the line of a man such as Cain or Nimrod, but as a cripple. He was made to limp before he returned to Bethel; he went back limping. That is, he came back to it under the discipline of God, the severe discipline of God having had its effect upon him.

And that is what is current, in all that is going on physically, and economically, and socially; things that are happening governmentally — they are disciplinary and all to the end that we might accept that the flesh profits nothing. That is only reached as God takes us in hand and breaks the will, the natural energy, and makes room for the Spirit. That is the principle.

But while Jacob was crippled in the wrestling, he was made a prince. He was empowered spiritually, so that he could come into the house of God in a spiritual manner; under the reproach, doubtless, to the natural mind, of limping where he was once agile. But there it was; as you all know, or as most of us know, he got his name changed. I mean to say the fulness of the change is depicted in Genesis 35 not Genesis 32. He was crippled according to chapter 32, but God ^[p. 102] appeared to him in Bethel and changed his name. And then Jacob pours a drink-offering on the pillar. That is to say, I am conspicuous. I am a God-made man. I am conspicuous as a God-made man, not as a man-made man, not as a university-made man. They are the bane of the saints, these higher educational efforts for worldly distinctions. Many young men and young women are ruined by them. In the house of God we are God-made men. That was Jacob. God came down and stood beside him. He stayed above in the earlier visit, but He came down and stood beside him and talked with him and gave him to understand that he pleased Him. As was said of another, “he has the testimony that he had pleased God”, Hebrews 11: 5.

That is the point, dear brethren. I may displease my employer; not, indeed, that God would not help me to give him good service. I believe He does. I believe God helps young people in every detail in their employment if they look to Him instead of trusting themselves. Bring God into it; He does help us, but not to make us distinctive, or men of this world with a name. As in the house of God, we are God-made: not only God-helped, but God-made.

So that Jacob had the sense in Bethel in his second visit that he pleased God. He poured not only oil, but a drink-offering, which means that God is satisfied. For what does it matter, dear brethren, if God be satisfied, what others think? Not that we do not do our best for our employers; God helps us to do what is right. I believe it is a point of importance that we should be employed; and employed in a lucrative way. God would bless us in all this, not to make much of us, but in order that we might have to give, to furnish what is needful, and to give to him that needeth. That is delightful to God. A man that works with his hands or with his mind in order to be able to give a little to the need of God’s people is ^[p. 103] delightful to God. God is pleased with him and his offering.

I refer to all that because Jacob, as I said, pours the drink-offering on the pillar. I want to run on to the millennial side of the Pentateuch to show how it is all a question of being God-made through circumstances, through the operation of the Holy Spirit. Moses is man-made in Pharaoh’s house. He was a leading man in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; mighty in word and in deed. He was a distinguished man. No doubt his name would have come down to us in the annals of Egypt had he continued, but he resolved to suffer affliction with the people of God, to identify himself with those called Hebrews. And then he fled Egypt, and instead of relying on his natural ability that he had acquired in Egypt, he sat by a well. And when it came to the fulfilment of his official service in Israel, he used the word ‘hyssop’ for the first time; Exodus 12: 22. He is the first to use it. Jehovah did not tell him to use it, but he used ‘hyssop’, which means smallness in this world. It grows out of the wall; it grows out of hard circumstances. No doubt the Israelites themselves were growing out of such circumstances, out of hard circumstances; but they grew.

Let us not be afraid of hard circumstances. Use hyssop when you are using the blood, Moses says; it is in keeping with the blood. When you are sprinkling the lintel and the door-posts, use hyssop; which is one’s sense of one’s own worthlessness, and having the ragged edge of everything, but growing Godward. That was Moses’ idea.

The book of Hebrews tells us more about the hyssop: Moses introduces it into Exodus 24 and uses it and water there in sprinkling the book and the people. Dear brethren, the point I am making is this: conspicuousness is in that character. All that is merely natural is put out of the way, disallowing ^[p. 104] the flesh, for it profits nothing. God is working in that wherever it is found; God is working in that attitude of soul. So that the book and the people are sprinkled beside the altar; not only with blood but with water, too, and the hyssop is used in sprinkling.

And so it is in this connection that we get the twelve pillars; persons brought under the power of the covenant of God, disallowing the flesh as profiting nothing, and professing, as they did, to obey everything that God had said. Moses read to them all that God had commanded, and they professed to accept His word and obey. That was the ground they took. God always accepts us on our profession. History will show how real we are. We may not be real, as in their case, but still they were accepted on their profession; as if Moses were to say, I can well afford to build twelve pillars for there is plenty of material; all Israel is going to be obedient. And it is on that principle that we are made conspicuous in the service of God.

So Moses builds twelve pillars. I will go on to the New Testament, because the time is fleeting, briefly to show how the Lord in these few words in Luke indicates how this conspicuousness is to develop. The most honoured of all men were the twelve apostles; but they were vying with one another who was to be the greatest, just after the Lord had introduced His Supper, which was through the ages to bring before the affections of His people His unselfish sacrifice, His sacrifice of love in His death. They were vying with each other who should be greatest. That was the world’s way: who should be greatest? It is common in man to want to be greatest. We cannot throw stones at each other. As men in the world, we are all alike, as natural men. Who shall be greatest? The Lord calls attention to what was going on in the gentile world among the kings of the earth, and says, ‘It is not to be that way among you; you are going to be distinguished; I am appointing you a kingdom; you will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel’. Think of the distinction they are coming into! But for the moment He says, distinction is not in that connection; it is rather in service. So He says, “But ye shall not be thus; but let the greater among you be as the younger, and the leader as he that serves. For which is greater, he that is at table or he that serves? Is not he that is at table? But I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”, Luke 22: 26, 27.

There is the pattern, dear brethren. That is the pattern. All that we get in the Pentateuch and throughout the Old Testament merges into this; it is all the spirit of Christ; it is the spirit of Christ reflecting backward. Now that He has come into manhood, here it is — infinite perfection. “But I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. Not, I may say, that He would do it casually, or that He would show His condescension in doing such service as washing their feet; but He says, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. That is, the attitude of His mind was that. The attitude of His blessed mind among His own was to serve. He was surely the greatest!

According to what He says here, He exemplified what He said; so that it is, “but let the greater among you be as the younger, and the leader as he that serves”. That is distinction. What a sight for heaven. The angels saw all this; they were cognisant of it all; they were witnesses. Gabriel had to do with the birth of Christ; he knew all about it. Other angels celebrated it: a multitude of the heavenly host celebrated His birth. They saw all this. They saw the Babe; they saw the holy Boy in the temple. What a thought to attach to a boy of twelve — holiness, subject to His parents, sitting in the temple of God ^[p. 106] in the midst of the teachers, hearing and asking questions. What a sight for angels! They gave vent to their appreciation of it, as I have said before, of what had happened: “for today a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord”, Luke 2: 11. And then the multitude in that chorus, blessing God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men” (verse 14). It is not only in man, in that Babe; but multitudes of men will come in on that same line for God’s pleasure.

That is what is going on in young people, developing out of this principle of subjection to parents, and to the Scriptures, and to the Lord, and to the brethren. So that men are being developed: “good pleasure in men”. What a sight for angels, as one and another came and attached themselves to Jesus in those wonderful days of His sojourn here below. Angels watched it, and today they are watching the assembly; however little it appears in the general profession, the angels are watching it. For it is said that the all-various wisdom of God is seen in it; portrayed in the assembly at the present time. What an incentive for young people to develop on these lines, throwing to the winds all thought of being great in this world for the greatness of the assembly, the distinction that is proper to it.

And so the Lord is speaking now, not to young people, but to grown men, the apostles themselves; and He is telling them about His service, what He was among them, what conspicuousness. How the archangel Michael would speak of it! Think of the humanity of Jesus among His own! I believe He would do anything at all, taking up the attitude of a servant. I believe the blessed Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, was in that attitude amongst His disciples.

And what for? To bring out love in Him, but also as a pattern of conspicuousness. He was conspicuous ^[p. 107] in that, that He served; that He was content to do anything, any kind of service. As the great servant that followed said, “Yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my wants, and to those who were with me”, Acts 20: 34. Not only that, but he would put wood on a fire to replenish it. He would do anything. As his Master was, so was he. And what is it for? It is exemplary for us, especially for young people growing up in the truth, to delineate the life of Jesus. As was said to the apostles, “Go ye and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”, Acts 5: 20. The whole life of Jesus in detail was to be spoken so as to be taken in, and assimilated, and developed in character: the constitutional character.

That is all I have to say here; just to pass on now to Revelation, to see how all this is working out. The Lord Himself is speaking again, in His message to the assembly in remnant times. Now He is speaking to the overcomer in Philadelphia. Some here may not be conversant with these matters as some of us are. It is well to read the Bible. The Bible is no tale at all; it is divinely inspired. The enemy is assailing it in every direction in order to dishonour it and undermine it. It is the best book for sale; it has by far the largest circulation of any book. That is a remarkable thing. We may thank God for it. I believe that God is honouring those that are reading it, reading it in a genuine way, according to what is said of it: “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work”, 2 Timothy 3: 16, 17.

It works out thus. And I believe God is honouring those who love Him in the reading of the Scriptures in Bible readings, household readings, and private readings, and who cause the Bible to be honoured.

^[p. 108] It will not be honoured under antichrist, you may be sure of that. Let no one think that antichrist exists. There are many antichrists, but not the antichrist. What exists is to educate us, and show us how he will come and so that we can read the number of the beast. We can learn to read it.

But I am speaking now of the use of the Bible by christians. It is painful to observe how some christians neglect it; but it is delightful to heaven to see how others pore over it, and get understanding from it; and God is honouring that very thing, and causing the Bible to hold its ground against all attacks.

So the Lord here in this book of Revelation is speaking again. Not as He was here on earth, as we have been reading in the gospels; it is Christ come down in a wonderful symbolic way, as depicted in the first chapter, and He is speaking to the assemblies one after another. Now He has come to the last one but one, and that is Philadelphia, which assembly means in the title, ‘brotherly love’. It is not an accident, be sure of that. It is those who have brotherly love, as loving God first, and Christ, and then loving one another. They will understand what the Lord says to that assembly.

He says, “thou ... hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name” (verse 8). Why should I take on any other name than Jesus? Disciples were first called christians in Antioch. Why should we not be content with that? Or the name of ‘brethren’ which is given to us in the Scriptures? Brotherly love is what is meant in this church, which is called Philadelphia; the word means that. The Lord is contemplating someone who is overcoming. You may say, ‘What is there to overcome where brotherly love predominates?’ They are still in this world; they have to overcome.

An overcomer is of great interest to heaven. In every one of these addresses we have the thought.

^[p. 109] It is an individual that is overcoming. There might be hundreds and hundreds of them, but one at a time. It is a question of each one doing it. Each one has his own difficulties to meet, and the Lord is watching him, and He is seeing him overcoming. He is not caught in the current of this world, he is overcoming. He is manifesting the spirit of Christ, able to express positively what it is.

And so the Lord says of this overcomer, “He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God” (verse 12). Think of the greatness of that thought! It is really carried down from Jacob, as I have been showing. It is a question of the house of God. Only now it is the temple; and the Lord Jesus says here, “the temple of my God”; not simply God, but “my God”. So that the overcomer, dear brethren, according to this, is privileged in that way; he is a distinguished man, a distinguished person, made so by Christ Himself. He is made a pillar in the temple of His God. There is no greater honour conceivable than that.

It is not simply a public building: it is a secret thought. It is a secret thought, and a sacred thought; it is a holy thought, to be a pillar in the temple of Christ’s God. You love the thought of being conspicuous there. ‘You want to be like Me in serving the brethren; being in the midst of them, you served them to the limit of your ability. I know you value that thought and I will make you that eternally in the temple of My God’. That is all, dear brethren. May God bless these thoughts!