HEBREWS 11 (SECOND READING)
HEBREWS 11 (SECOND READING)
CAC There seems to be a thought of substance connected with faith. “Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for”. The things that are seen are nothing, but faith is a most real thing. Another scripture says that the dispensation of God is in faith. “By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear”, Hebrews 11: 3. I wondered whether there is a thought connected with that, that God is framing the moral universe, from which the physical universe takes character. God is framing a moral universe on the principle of faith. God is referred to as the Artificer and Constructor of a certain city. God is engaged in a constructive work. In framing the worlds He had in view a moral universe which would be pleasurable to Him and of His own construction.
[p. 93] Then there are the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea innumerable; it is the thought of a divine scene, a universe that comprises the heavens and the earth; it all has its answer in a moral universe. God is forming us to be constituent parts of that universe; we are formed for it in faith. We see these elements brought out in the Old Testament worthies; they shew the material. The wonderful thing is that God should use the whole visible universe and all that has come into it — such as sin and death and the veiling of God — in order to frame this wonderful moral universe. It brings in the thought of a universe marked by moral and heavenly splendour. There is nothing so splendid as the heavens; the sun is the most glorious object there is and the stars are a wonderful thing. All that is figurative; the stars are figurative of the saints, who are going to shine in spiritual splendour, but who are formed in faith. The faith period is the most wonderful time.
Rem The physical universe will pass away.
CAC I suppose it will; Scripture speaks of it passing away. There will be a suitable setting for all that God is forming in faith; there will be conditions of glory suitable to all that God is forming in faith. God is forming now indestructible material for His universe. The light of God is brought into the souls of His creatures to be substance there for ever. All these worthies bring out different aspects and elements of this wonderful universe of faith.
The first element of faith comes out in Abel. It is wonderful to think that God had a universe that rested on death. What substance there is in the faith of Abel; he could offer to God a more excellent sacrifice! He had the thought in faith that God was going to move on the line of sacrifice. Adam and Eve got a covering through death, but Abel got a thought of excellence as uncovered by death.
Ques Would you say a word as to the moral universe being founded on death? Is that the purpose [p. 94] of God?
CAC Yes. Peter speaks of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, foreknown before the foundation of the world. God had a moral universe in mind before He founded the world.
Ques Did death form part of the purpose of God?
CAC It is the basis on which all the purpose of God is carried out. The purpose of God is proportioned to the value of the sufferings and death of Christ. The whole system of glory is divinely proportioned to the sufferings and death of Christ. That will give value to the purpose of God. We have all been accustomed to say that God’s purpose is for the satisfaction of His love, but what gives God satisfaction is that His purpose is proportioned to the sufferings and death of His beloved Son. These things are below the horizon of the sight universe. God looked with approval upon Abel and on his offering. It met with God’s approval; it was in line with what God had in His own mind.
Rem He looked on Abel and on the offering.
CAC Yes, God looked on him. That man commended himself; he is suitable material for the universe that God is framing.
Ques Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat. Does that speak of the moral excellence of Christ?
CAC Yes. God purposed to set up things on the ground of perfect devotedness to Himself and surrender to His glory. Those are the true foundations on which God frames His universe. It is all seen in Christ.
Ques What is the thought of the burnt offering?
CAC Abel’s offering was not quite a burnt offering. It is called an oblation.
Ques What is the thought of the oblation?
CAC I think the idea of being presented to God is a great thought; something presented that God could [p. 95] appreciate because of its excellence. There is no thought of its being burnt; it does not say that Abel burnt it. Noah brings a burnt offering, but that thought is not seen in Abel’s offering. In Abel’s offering we get the thought of its excellence to the Lord and that all is uncovered by death; it is not exactly burning. God seemed to give the choicest thoughts to faith first. Nothing is greater than the substance of faith in Abel and Noah. God begins with the best.
Ques Does God set forth the substance in the death of Christ?
CAC He brings out the offensiveness of it to the natural man. What God delights in is very offensive to the natural man. Abel’s own death becomes a figure of the death of Christ; one chosen of God and precious is cast aside as worthless by men.
Ques Is the death of Christ connected with His becoming increasingly offensive to man in the flesh?
CAC The thought of blessing coming in on the ground of suffering and death becomes increasingly offensive to men. It speaks in Revelation of there being war with the Lamb, as though the thought of the Lamb had become offensive. It is the work of God to put this particular feature of faith into our souls. In Abel’s offering it is not a question of covering sin, but that the death of Christ has uncovered before God all His preciousness.
In this chapter we have a city that has foundations. What a foundation is Christ in death for God’s delight! We do not wonder that it takes Abel so long to finish what he has to say! I do not know anyone who has so much to say as Abel; he has been speaking for six thousand years!
These different instances of faith are cumulative, they are not detached sections. Enoch is Abel carried on: so you must put these different worthies together and bring in Jesus at the end to get the complete thing which sets forth [p. 96] the substance of faith. Abel has so done with himself that he does not need to think about himself; he is occupied with the excellence of Another. That is a fine thing! There is no way of having done with ourselves save as being filled with Another! It may only last five minutes, but it is a good five minutes.
Ques What is the moral feature in Enoch?
CAC Enoch had a good deal of exercise in order to find God; he had to seek Him out. He believed that God is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him out. Enoch would never have walked with God if he had not sought Him out. God came to seek Adam and Eve; that is the gospel aspect, giving them divine righteousness and clothing them, but with Enoch it is a man seeking God. He was bent on finding God. He lived in a terrible time; the world was far worse then than now. A lot passed between God and Enoch in those 300 years during which he walked with God. A moment came to Enoch’s soul when he knew that God is, and not only that but that God was worth finding. He is a rewarder of them that seek Him out.
Enoch sought God and when he found Him he walked with Him three hundred years.
Ques How does that work out now?
CAC Was there not a time when you thought it worthwhile to seek God? There is a wonderful word in Acts 17 26, 27. God takes a certain course that men might feel after Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. The greatest treasure is God. What is of more value to a creature than God? He is the greatest Object of pursuit that there could be.
Enoch was a disciplined man; his name means ‘disciplined’. If he had not been disciplined he could never have come to the conclusion that God was worth finding. For sixty-five years God put him through discipline. No one seeks God until they are disciplined. God disclosed to [p. 97] Enoch the great thoughts He had in His mind, that is, the relieving man of death. In Thessalonians it says, “If we believe that Jesus has died and has risen again” (1 Thessalonians 4: 14). If we believe, there is no reason for us to die. Enoch walking with God learns of the rapture, he learns of something that has not taken place. He learns it in his soul so that he was ready to be translated. Before he was translated he was convinced that he was going to be translated. Enoch did not expect to die.
Ques Was his life in accord with it?
CAC That is very important. What is connected with the rapture in a very solemn way is the judgment of the world. One looking for the rapture and the appearing would be a very separate man. Enoch prophesied that the Lord has come amidst His holy myriads. There must have been but a handful of saints in Enoch’s time, yet his faith saw holy myriads and the Lord amongst them. He did not see death.
Methushelah lived longer than any. His name means, ‘When he dies it comes’! The flood represents the day of judgment and it came when Methushelah died.
Ques Is there any thought of importance in the seventh from Adam?
CAC It suggests a kind of perfection. A man who is translated without seeing death is a kind of climax. It is God’s complete victory over death, founded on the death of Jesus. There are volumes in these simple statements. All these died in faith without receiving the promises. They got nothing outwardly but they had the substance in faith. The ungodly man leaves all that he has behind him; those who die in faith go to where the substance belongs. It is a great general principle that God will reward any of us who take the trouble to seek Him out. None of us will find God unless we seek Him out. There is a great difference between God finding me and my seeking God out. God [p. 98] becomes the portion, joy and heritage of those who seek Him out. The question of righteousness and how we stand with God has been settled in Adam and Eve and Abel; now in Enoch we get a man who seeks out God and that pleases God.
Then Noah gives you a third thing — a third part of the substance. The thought of public witness comes out in Noah. We find him publicly condemning the world and thinking about his house. The household thought comes in here; he was moved with fear — that is a motive that should act on us. We are apt to be slack because we are not influenced by fear. It is brought in as a feature of Noah’s faith; he is warned of something that is not visible, and he is moved with fear. An awful judgment was coming. We ought to be much influenced by a fear of what is coming on this world: appalling judgment will devastate this scene and we are not sufficiently in fear. With Noah the fear made him concerned about his house; he prepared an ark for the saving of his house.
Ques What are we to learn from all this?
CAC Noah got no converts, but he condemned the world; there is public testimony. Nothing is saved that is not under cover of the death of Christ; that is the idea of preparing the ark.
Ques Was not his testimony more what he did than what he said?
CAC Yes. There was a practical testimony against the world which made him a laughing-stock. Noah preached and God waited and the ark was prepared, all went on concurrently. If my walk is not a condemnation of the world, it is not the walk of a saint. That is part of this substance out of which God is framing His moral universe. You see people now who look on baptism as the world does, that it is a decent thing to do, but you must go on as you begin. Parents baptise their children because they [p. 99] realise that it is perilous not to be under cover of the death of Christ, but they must keep them there. How can a parent want his children to get on in the world if he has baptised them? He will want their path ordered of God and not by earthly ambition.