ENNOBLEMENT
[p. 342] ENNOBLEMENT
What has come to me in connection with these scriptures is the idea of ennoblement. And it has occurred to one that John’s gospel furnishes this, perhaps more than any others. One indeed would look for it in view of the presentation of Christ in it from the standpoint of His Person. So that, in view of His presence here and His visitations, the idea of ennoblement in the saints is connected with Him in their local settings as in their general or universal relations. Both ideas are found in the gospel. In this passage we have the local relations of the saints, all having in view the visitations of Christ. Thus, throughout chapter 11 what is emphasised is Bethany. Lazarus was of it. And it is said to be the town of Mary and Martha. So, obviously, the local setting of the relations of the saints is in view. There should, therefore, be dignity according to God found in them. You will recall in this regard, how it is said of Israel that, in the place where they were regarded as not His people they should be called the sons of the living God. That is in the same place. That is the change from degradation to ennoblement, that in the locality where the reproach attached to us, there is now ennoblement under the eye of God.
Those of us who are in any way acquainted with the Old Testament will remember how Barzillai the Gileadite, with others, entertained and maintained David in his rejection; as he fled from Absalom, it is said that Barzillai, with others, brought beds, and vessels, and earthenware, and wheat and barley, the comment of the Holy Spirit being that he maintained David. He did it suitably, but it was because he was a great man, a man of means. You will recall how [p. 343] the widow of the prophet who was in debt was, from the sale of the oil, enabled to pay her debts and to live on the rest. You will recall also how in the scripture in 2 Kings 4 she is immediately followed by a great woman, the Shunammite. She also represents this principle of entertaining and maintaining a vessel of the testimony of God. You will recall how she saw the prophet and regarded him as a man of God. She really represents the greatness acquired by the process of paying one’s debts by the Spirit — that is the oil — and living on the rest. The ‘rest’ refers to the income which remained to her, and typically also refers to the Spirit; this income never becomes exhausted. And as one realises the resources of the Spirit, one thinks of the testimony, one thinks of others. We begin to think of the Lord’s people, and to love them, and to do for them, and to feed and clothe them if necessary, or to minister to their spiritual wants according to our measure, and it is remarkable how much of this even a young convert can do if he has any energy. Thus the Shunammite is really a continuation of the widow made comfortable in her circumstances. She had enough and more, for Romans 8 is that life and peace is with the christian. The mind of the Spirit is life and peace and the Spirit, it says, is life on account of righteousness, and by the Spirit we cry, “Abba, Father”. Further, the Holy Spirit is said to intercede for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. We prove the resources of the Spirit and we have the mind of the Spirit. Then we begin to expand spiritually and to be enlarged and to share what we have with others. So this woman sees the prophet passing and she recognises that he is a man of God. That is a mark of one advancing in the Spirit through self-judgment, that you begin, not only to see the saints as attractive, but to see that they are the vessel of divine testimony.
So she calls him a man of God and finally proposes [p. 344] to build him a chamber on the wall. And we are told that it was furnished. It had a bed in it. That is an important matter. It is an important matter in regard to entertaining in a spiritual sense. It means conditions of rest. A table and a candlestick and a seat! It was furnished sufficiently, but not lavishly, but sufficiently. That is what one would expect as one advances in the Spirit, in the resources of the Spirit.
Then again you have in the days of Elijah the prophet another remarkable example. He was sent, the Lord tells us, to a widow, a widow in Sarepta, it is said, as the Lord mentions it. He mentions the famine and the duration of the famine, so as to enhance the position. The spiritual mind is attracted to the Old Testament. His mention of it opens up to us a vein of truth, so we turn to the passage and find the widow. Jehovah says to the prophet, “go to Zarephath, ... behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. He had commanded the ravens to feed the prophet, which was a much inferior service. That was mere feeding, and he was to drink of the brook. The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and in the evening, and he drank of the brook. You can understand that the service was crude. There was no table, no candlestick, not even a vessel! There is nothing said about cooking or baking. It was a great provision, but not such as was becoming to such a great man as Elijah. Nevertheless it was the provision of God.
The brook dries up and then the Lord says to him, “Go to Zarephath, ... behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. The ravens had not maintained him. They had fed him. They brought him bread and flesh but they did no more. The torrent came down, but it did no more. All else had to be done by the prophet. But the widow woman has an added suggestion. We have a person under [p. 345] divine command. And she has vessels, household vessels, fence the prophet mentions vessels immediately. There is no mention of a vessel with regard to the ravens. Bring me “a little water in a vessel”. Then, “a morsel of bread in thy hand”. You see we have reference to vessels, and it is to remind us that in the service of maintenance our persons and all that we have are laid under tribute, so that the service should be such as is befitting the greatness of those whom we serve. So without going into details with regard to the widow of Sarepta, she says much about her poverty, but in result she is well off, for the little that she had continued on for a whole year. It is now a question of order and suitability of service. The water is in a vessel, the bread in the hand, the meal in a barrel, and the oil in a cruse. Things are where they should be. But she is tested as to whether the testimony has the full place with her. So she says, “I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die ... go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first”, 1 Kings 17: 12, 13. It is not a morsel but a whole idea. It means the whole person, for the testimony involves the whole or complete idea. So the word of the Lord comes in, “The meal in the barrel shall not waste, neither shall the oil in the cruse fail, until the day that Jehovah sendeth rain upon the face of the earth”, 1 Kings 17: 14. And “she, and he, and her house” — notice the change from her son to her household, all lived on the meal and the oil for a year. Then she is addressed as the mistress of the house.
I only touch on that, but you can see how the maintenance comes in. It is the exact word used in the better translation. It is not simply feeding, but maintaining. That means the providing of everything.
[p. 346] So here in this passage you have the idea of ennoblement. In this section the Lord is ministering in relation to the remnant of Israel. In the end of chapter 10 He went to the place where John baptised at the first and many resorted unto Him, and it says, “John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there”, John 10: 41, 42. He then goes on into chapter 11 and at the end of that chapter is rejected, but after raising Lazarus He comes to a city of Ephraim, which means fruitfulness, and sojourns there with His disciples. You have a company now and His movements are in that relation. Thus in the beginning of chapter 12 He comes to Bethany where Lazarus was. It is one who had been the subject of all the service of the Lord at Bethany — where Lazarus was! He is the ennobled one. Not ennobled after this world’s fashion but in relation to that world! That is where ennoblement of any value belongs. All that attaches to this world in the way of ennoblement passes away. It is of no real value. Lazarus’ ennoblement is in relation to that world, so it is “where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead”. Then it says, “There they made him a supper”. It is a question of locality. It does not say that Lazarus did it, or that Mary did it or that Martha did it. It is in the abstract. There they made him a supper. Lazarus is the prominent figure. It is where he was, as if to represent the nobility of that world, which is in keeping with Christ. The Lord goes to such a company and Lazarus is one of those that sat at the table with Him. It is a question of the nobility of the company. It is a man who had been dead and whom Christ raised — one of the most remarkable things that could happen. They come forth — those that have done good and those that have done evil. But not all together. There is at least a thousand years between. The [p. 347] ennobled remnant come out — and with what power, with what nobility of movement as they come out! They come forth in the resurrection of life. What a noble company! Think of the nobility that will attach to the risen, as the Lord says, “they who are counted worthy ... that world, and the resurrection ... neither marry nor are given in marriage, ... equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”. That is nobility. Lazarus is an anticipation of that. Think of the dignity attaching to him! He is called out by name. “Lazarus, come forth. And the dead came forth”. That means that he was really dead, as indeed Martha says, “He is four days there”. It is such an one as that. Hence in order to carry the thought into this chapter where Lazarus was, it says it is where the dead Lazarus was. That is to say, he is, as regards this world, as dead as he was when he was in the tomb. He has given up all social links. He is dead to whatever he was in this world. He is the dead Lazarus, but whom Christ raised from among the dead. Martha served but Lazarus was one of those that sat at meat with Him at table. And Mary anointed His feet. That is nobility.
In Matthew and Mark it does not say that He came to Bethany but it says, “being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper”. We cannot disregard our histories whatever they have been. They stand publicly, and we have to accept them. We know our ennoblement, and that is for faith, but what is external is another matter. I speak, however, only of the dignity seen in relation to the interests of Christ and the maintenance of the testimony of God in our localities, that we might have an apprehension of its greatness, and, in the sense of it, that we might entertain and maintain what is of God.