GOD'S LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE (1)
GOD’S LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE (1)
JT This prophet seems to deal with a state of great weakness among the people of God and of great indifference to His rights. I thought it would be helpful to look at it from the standpoint of His love to His people. In the second verse He says “I have loved you”. The expression, I think, does not refer to any particular time but throughout the whole history of His relations with Israel, “I have loved you, saith Jehovah”. It is God bearing witness to His own love.
TE Is this present or past?
JT It is historical, referring backwards. For us it is what He has been to the assembly from the outset. What He has to say to them is based on that. There is very little response generally until chapter 3 where there is a little. God in what is presented in this prophet opens up what He feels about their indifference. How keenly He feels it! The burden of Malachi is to Israel, not to any particular locality. No doubt it applied first to the time when the remnant had returned. God’s love is for all Israel.
TE The state of the people is known by their offerings.
JT One’s offering indicates the state of one’s soul. God would dwell on His love to us. How enduring it was! Israel spiritually is seen in the introduction, although the application had special reference to Jacob. It could never apply to Esau, for there never had been such a transaction between Jehovah and Esau as between Jehovah and Jacob — I mean the wrestling. The term ‘father’ is emphasised in this message. He was a Father and a Master. This is God stressing His love for Israel and that He retained His dignity. He never gave it up. His dignity was never given up; He required what was due to Him.
[p. 151] W He looked for a son as Father and for a servant as Master.
JT The two things run together — the liberty of a son and the fear of a servant; they are balancing thoughts — “If then I be a father, where is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is my fear?” The reference to Esau suggests the whole history of two men and two families. There is the spiritual line which developed in Jacob, involving the relation of brother according to God; then the fleshly line of Esau in which brotherly relation was also professed, but the spirit of it wholly wanting. These two things run down the history of the world as of Israel. There are those who profess to be brethren and want the spirit of it, and there are those who are brethren and have the spirit which fits it. Historically Jacob was loved and Esau hated. There was concrete cause for the hatred of Esau. We are told of his implacable hatred of his brother Jacob in the book of Obadiah. There is also cause for the love of Jacob because of the brotherly spirit found in Israel.
TE That would seem to solve the thought of God hating.
JT God does not hate sovereignly but historically. The element of sovereignty was introduced before the children were born; it was said the elder was to serve the younger before doing either good or evil. But the divine love and hatred were not sovereign but historical; there was a cause for it. You cannot say you cannot help being hated. If I am not loved it is because I am not lovable.
Ques Would a christian speak about hating any person?
JT That is not becoming to a Christian. God uses it here; the Psalmist speaks of hating with a perfect hatred. There is some sense in which it applies, although the language is not suitable to our dispensation. What is hateful should [p. 152] be hated.
EM Does this apply to principles and not to persons?
JT In the New Testament we are told to love our enemies because God would emphasise the spirit of this dispensation. The hateful thing remains, and those that are hateful, but God would characterise this dispensation by withholding such expressions. That which is hateful exists.
EM “Hate father and mother and one’s own life also”?
JT That must be taken in its own context. From the standpoint of what is spiritual one hates the claim the natural has on one. If allowed it would ruin you; you have to hate it.
Ques You do not suggest that the love of God in that way is confined or is for the family circle alone; it is universal in its bearing?
JT There are two features of love here — the love of compassion and the love of relationship, “God so loved the world, etc”. — that is the love of compassion. God being man’s Creator loves him in that way with a compassionate love. The love of God for men has appeared. Genesis 1 and 2 are examples. Genesis 1 is the Creator; He created man simply. Genesis 2 is Jehovah’s love — Adam is His offspring. Adam is not only His creation, but His offspring. He breathed His spirit into him. So it is Jehovah in Genesis 2. God is in relation to man. There is a love attached to that, and that is distinct from the love which attaches to Him as Creator. The creature is not brought into the covenant God entered into with man.
EM The giving of His spirit to man is the greatest expression of His love.
JT We cry ‘Abba Father’ by the Spirit. There is an allusion in that to Adam and that he received a spirit which the creature did not. The spirit of the creature goes downwards, that of man upward. So that there is a [p. 153] link between God and man early. Genesis 2 is amplified and opened up by the gift of the Spirit whereby we cry ‘Abba Father’. We do not get our spirits from our parents; the spirit returns to God who gave it. Each one gets his spirit from God so there is a link. This enables one to be very restful with regard to all mankind — each has a spirit given him; God follows that up. Genesis 1 is the world in the order in which God created it.
Ques How does Genesis 2 apply today?
JT That alludes to christianity. The world in John 3 alludes to Genesis 1 — everything in the scene He brought out of chaos. Later the world took on a moral character — alienated from God by wicked works. The christian is to repudiate it. When God reverts back to it, it is set up in redemption — sin removed from it. We are not then enjoined not to love it or the things in it. God will be in relation with it. There is love involved in the relation with God — “I have loved you”. He had entered into a covenant with Israel. It enlarges your thoughts to see how wide the heart of God is. Jacob and Esau were both blessed concerning things to come. Jacob had the better part but Esau had a good start from God and had overtures made to him again and again. Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? He did not answer to it. Esau never manifested the spirit of a brother. Esau was never a believer in the true sense of the word. He despised his birthright. Although outwardly in relation with God and blessed of God, he was never a believer. There are thousands of people today who answer to this; they despise their birthright and enjoy natural things, yet retain the term of brethren.
TE They have no appreciation of the heavenly calling.
Ques We have the love of God in the covenant; is there a corresponding one in the family?
JT God entered into a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; it referred to the family and came out [p. 154] in Jacob. It was not developed in Isaac because, although Jacob and Esau were of the same mother, one was born after the spirit and one after the flesh. Jacob had twelve sons of four mothers — all blessed — the whole twelve tribes serve God instantly. The family idea in Jacob remains intact, therefore God loved Jacob. He was a father. God loves children.
Rem Now He speaks to the priests.
JT That is the secret of declension; the priests were not right. They were subjects of the love of God which speaks of brethren and carries the right thought of the spirit of the family. This comes out in the millennium in the whole twelve tribes.
The love of continuance — historical love — comes right down the line. If there is not reciprocal affection, there is only a shell. The Spirit of God proceeds a little now on the line of Esau. How solemn it is! What will was at work in Esau! God in His infinite grace has broken down this self-will, the thing which would set up things without God.
EM There is the recognition of things having failed but the restitution of them without acknowledging this.
JT We know the judgment of God is upon it. Wherever the spirit of brethren is wanting, the effort is to reinstate things, and with apparent success. But God says “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them the territory of wickedness, and the people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever”. That to my mind is a most solemn thing. These systems are built up without an atom of the spirit of brethren.
Rem Is Laodicea a culmination? The spirit of brethren is found in Philadelphia; the Lord says, “I have loved thee”.
TE There is no reality without that Spirit of love, no matter how great the system [p. 155] may be.
JT They may get great machinery into action and great results but God is against it. He breaks it down and finally it is shown up as the territory of wickedness. Many join in this collusion in wickedness and yet claim to be brethren — a pretence of relationship without the spirit of it. Christendom not only breaks down but is exposed as the territory of wickedness because opposed to Christ. Esau represents this throughout Scripture. Not that there are not individuals there who are really believers. This does not attach to Israel, but Esau represents it fully. In Israel there were some that feared the Lord. Israelites who were unregenerate were Edomites really. Herod had part with Israel; he asks for the Scriptures, he had respect for the Bible, yet had a murderous attitude towards Christ.
Esau was born into it and he sold it. There was a deliberate giving up of what came to him by birth. God hates that. He gives up his blessing and privileges and hates his brother permanently; he never relents.
EM The children of the saints giving up their privilege and not appreciating it — is that the spirit of Esau?
JT You have an illustration in the children of Benjamin and Judah coming out to David in his stronghold. Although outwardly in relationship with him they have to be challenged as to whether they really love him — “If ye be come peaceably”. This refers to those with whom the brethren are in relation.
Rem The great thing in speaking to the children of the saints is to find out if they have the Spirit.
JT Being born of christian parents will not guarantee this. In that connection you get the Spirit mentioned in 1 Chronicles 12. The Spirit came on Amasai. It is the Spirit we are to rely on. This all shows what the spirit of brethren seen in Jacob is to God. How pleasurable! The other had worked out in disregard of God both as Father and Master. This is more serious [p. 156] than opposition to brethren — disregard of God as Father and as Master. Here they are disputing this. Things are contended and denied — “Wherein hast thou loved us?” They say in verse 6, “Wherein have we despised thy name?” They are disputing everything. You always find this when people are away from God. He says, “Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar ... ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible”. They offer the blind for sacrifice, the lame, the sick. So that it goes on to say in the next chapter there has been a profaning of the covenant — that is what is happening. God loved them but they did not love God. God was true to His part. There are two sides to the covenant — God loves me; I love God.
W What was indicated in verse 5, “Your eyes shall see it”?
JT That is God speaking to Israel; they would see His judgment on Esau.
W His discipline with His people accomplished something for Himself. Edom never repudiated this.
JT Edom was to be a perpetual desolation for ever. This question will never be raised again by Israel. There will be the total destruction of Edom. In the future He deals with the whole system that claims the relationship of brethren, without the spirit of it. It is destroyed. Scripture abounds with Edom’s final doom; it is for ever. Some will be preserved. This refers to the systems around in which the idea of brethren is retained but the spirit is against it. There are thousands of real believers in a system which is in absolute hatred of God. God’s hatred will be expressed against it. Revelation shows how awful the destruction will be. The initial idea of these systems is to do harm to Christ as in David’s wives, Merab and Michal — that is behind all these systems. Edom is left for Israel to exterminate. Those in whom the spirit of brethren is developed are to destroy the opposite. It is, anticipating what He will [p. 157] do with them in the strong delusion sent on those who received not the love of the truth. Now it is not so much a great system, but what is nearer home, an imitation of the remnant.
Rem In Romans 8 it says, “For thy sake we are killed all the day long”. Why kill the servant?
EM The best of me hates Christ. If I am not affected livingly by the truth, hatred is at work.
JT Saul spared the best things — the things that Satan can use most effectively against Christ. The king of the Amalekites signifies the delicacy and refinement of the flesh. Samuel hewed him in pieces.
Rem We ourselves also were hateful and hating one another.
JT If we do not judge ourselves in matters locally we may find the spirit of Edom. God gave him the opportunity of being a brother — he was the elder of two most intimately connected. He had all the advantage of being a twin and the elder of the two, yet he was utterly disregardful of his brother and of the inheritance. He is just looked at as flesh, yet wearing the title of brother all the time. It was said to Israel — ‘You must not touch Esau, he is your brother’. God would not allow them to pass through his fields but ordered them to go on the king’s highway, and yet he was called a brother!
Rem Esau pleads with his father and he does give him a blessing.
JT He would be equal with Jacob. This brings out the character of the dispensation. Isaac blessed both Jacob and Esau. Outwardly Esau had the same opportunities. Esau would not allow Jacob to have any advantages.
Simon believed because of the signs. Peter and John came down from Jerusalem and the Samaritans received the Spirit. Simon said ‘I would like to have that’, that is, the power to give the Spirit. He would not be [p. 158] less than Peter. He saw there was a greater one there and would not be outdone — ‘I will give you money for that’. That was what actuated Esau when he cried bitterly for the blessing.
Rem It is the motives which underlie things which weigh with God.
JT Philip did not arouse his jealousy, but the power to give the Spirit did. “Thy money perish with thee”. Outwardly he was a believer but inwardly he was full of iniquity. God hates that.
Jacob valued what was of God and God knew it. God looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart. Samuel looked on Eliab and thought he was the Lord’s choice.
Rem The blessing was there for somebody and Jacob valued it.
JT Jacob sacrificed his reputation to get it. God took account of that. He had faith.
Ques Jacob in wrestling valued the blessing?
JT He valued the blessing from God. Birthright is one thing, it comes to me; I have nothing to do with that, but blessing is something additional and refers to what God is. It is more than the inheritance, it is blessing.
Before all that, we have Isaac, who represents God. He kissed Jacob and smelled him — “The smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed”. That refers to potentiality — there was power there, fertility there, in the smell of the field. The Lord has blessed all that. Jacob had that experience with his father before he came to the house.
What comes out here is — if those who are in relation to God fail, God never gives up His thought. If I do not provide what is for God another will, “For from the rising of the sun even unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure [p. 159] oblation: for my name shall be great among the nations, saith Jehovah of hosts”.
TE Does that look on to the millennial day?
JT There is also an allusion to the present time. God has this among the Gentiles. One often thinks of the rising of the sun and the going down — what God has as Father, and Christ as Head of the assembly, on the first day of every week. How little conception could a Jew have of the Messiah coming in view of going into death, and the gospel going out to every nation through His rejection amongst His own people. It is greater now than in the millennium — a pure oblation, in every place. The apostle, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, addresses all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rem It was an exercising word for Israel in that day but none the less for us?
Rem The thing was to be carried on.
JT It all impresses you with what God will do. If I fail in responding He will take up others.
Ques What about the table of the Lord and the altar?
JT The table is the place where things are set out for food. There would be that in which things are set out. What did not go up in the fire for them was to be for the priest — a well laden table. In Solomon’s day there were 120,000 small cattle sacrificed. Think of the food there was! They were failing to provide this — the table was not regarded. The subject of priesthood enters into that.