HEBREWS 11 (THIRD READING)
HEBREWS 11 (THIRD READING)
CAC There is a divine proposal to Abraham in a different way from anything that had come before. I do not know that any saint is “called” before Abraham. In Abel, Enoch and Noah you get faith, movement towards God, but when you come to Abraham the movement begins on the divine side.
Ques Do you get the sphere of faith in operation in the first three men?
CAC Yes; you get the great outline of the dispensation in which faith finds its opportunity. There is an inscrutability about the Person of Jesus in that He can carry through in His own Person every moral feature proper to man. All the elements that go to make up a world for God’s pleasure are made up in His own Person.
Ques What is the thought of Noah preparing an ark for the saving of his house?
CAC Typically it includes all that is going through to form the elements of the new world.
Ques Stress is laid on water. Would you say something about that?
CAC The stress is on the water rather than the ark. Peter connects it with baptism. We must get to that side of things to be prepared for the divine side.
Ques Would saved by water suggest that there must be [p. 100] the moral application of the death of Christ? Souls are saved by water — that is the moral side.
CAC That is important as forming part of the idea of baptism; it is not a mere rite or ordinance. In the religious world baptism is regarded as indispensable, but with them that is the end of it instead of the beginning.
Ques Would these verses suggest the obedience of faith?
CAC Yes; being called, he obeyed. The condemnation of the world preceded morally the apprehension of divine calling. God had a purpose before Him; that is the idea of calling. God has a definite purpose.
Ques Would Abraham being called out of country and kindred be more than the world as such?
CAC Yes, it is a calling out of the natural links. What is before God is something different from Canaan. Abraham understood that, so his thoughts and hopes were connected with a spiritual and heavenly order. It must have been surprising to the Hebrews to think of Abraham and others having the heavenly before them. God had His present ways and purposes in view and intended to make Abraham a pattern for the saints of the assembly; God’s intent was to make him a man with the heavenly in view. Abraham got a wonderful impression of what was before God — he waits for the city. It is remarkable that God gives to him what we call heavenly light. While his outward setting was connected with the earth, his real substance was connected with God’s heavenly purpose.
Ques Is that the city of Revelation?
CAC Yes. The land of promise, when he got there, was a foreign country.
The snare of the Hebrews was that they were hindered by what was connected with the earth in a religious way.
Ques Galatians refers to the glad tidings being announced to Abraham. What do we gather [p. 101] from that?
CAC It involves the thought of blessing, that God should be known in blessing for all nations; it was to be found in Abraham and in his seed. He gets to know God as the God of blessing: when He is thus known it is what God is. This holds good for all nations, and it is not restricted to any particular family. Abraham had the word of God that all nations were to be blessed in him; it was on the faith principle — blessed in Isaac, blessed in Christ. All blessing is on the principle of faith on the line of Abraham; all blessing in Christ risen is outside the scope of man after the flesh; it is on resurrection footing. All that was to lead to the heavenly blessing and inheritance which God brought out typically in Abraham; so he did not get the land. God was thinking of the heavenly, and Abraham’s faith laid hold of the purpose of God in the heavenly. These people who were seeking a country dwelt in tents, and it was not only old brethren but young ones. Jacob was only fifteen when Abraham died. It shews that there is room for boys and girls to be in this line.
Rem In verse 10 the foundations of the city are spoken of in the present tense.
CAC Yes; he looks at the preparation of the city as having been made. It says in verse 16 he has prepared for them a city.
Ques Why is the city so prominent in regard to Abraham?
CAC I suppose it is the existence of Babel that gives rise to it. Abraham had seen the building of Babel; man’s city was coming into evidence. Abraham having seen the God of glory, gets a sense in his soul that God has a city and it takes all the shine out of the Babel world. It is very remarkable that God should bring the accomplishment of His thoughts so distinctly into the view of Abraham — so that he waited.
Ques Why is the thought of foundations in the plural?
[p. 102] The city in Revelation had twelve foundations. Is there any link with this?
CAC There are twelve apostles of the Lamb — all comes in on the line of suffering; that has been the principle of construction. It is in contrast to man’s city. This city, which is on the principle of construction set forth in the Lamb, is in contrast to all that marks the building of Babel.
Ques Is the calling connected with purpose? Had God all this in His mind before sin came into the world?
CAC Yes; all is clearly in view from the foundation of the world and even before it. God has an organised system of things before Him in which all that is of Himself is secured; that is His purpose. He brings it about on the ground of the sufferings and death of Christ.
Ques “He has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation”, Ephesians 1: 4. Does that apply to Abraham?
CAC That is more the peculiar place of saints of the assembly. God has in mind to satisfy every exercise and desire that has been found in faith from the beginning. He prepared for them a city; God in forming a city had in mind to satisfy every exercise of faith and spiritual desire that He put in the hearts of Old Testament saints. It shews how necessary the assembly is to the Old Testament saints, a necessity to their faith and hope. This is the faith period in a more distinctive way than was the case in the Old Testament; it is all brought out in the city.
Ques What is the thought of God as Artificer and Constructor?
CAC The thought of the skilfulness of the work in detail would be seen in the Artificer. Constructor would be more a general idea. It says that the heavens are the work of His fingers — not His hands but His fingers. It suggests the detail of skill which marks the works of God. We see it in nature and all that is a picture of the moral [p. 103] work of God. If you put the finest work of man under the microscope it would spoil it and would reveal flaws, but if you put God’s work there you see perfection that was never noticed before. If we look at that in the moral sphere we can have no conception of what we may see. Look at the man in John 9; every movement brings out the skill of divine work. All is secured in the assembly first so that the all-various wisdom of God is seen there. Divine skill comes out there. We ought to be affected by these things; the youngest amongst us could say, ‘I am a bit of that’. Then we should be more passive under the skill of the Artificer. It says, “Yield yourselves to God” (Romans 6: 13); the divine Artificer is working, but the material must be yielded to Him. You do not wonder at its having the glory of God, because every detail in it brings out God.
Ques Why is Sarah brought in?
CAC Sarah is brought in to show that the city is to be populated; it is not an empty city. This principle of the conception of seed is a very important element in faith.
Ques Is “artificer and constructor” in contrast to the earthly construction of Bezaleel? God’s work must be of Himself.
CAC Quite so. The model was there before they made the tabernacle. People used to have models of the tabernacle, but the model I like to see is there in the heavens — all that God had before Him in the mount. A glorified Christ in heaven is the Model and all is to conform to that Model.
Ques Did Moses see the city?
CAC What he saw was in principle eternal because the tabernacle idea is an eternal thought, it goes into eternity. What was seen in the mount was an eternal conception of God. It was realised when the Lord was on earth. The true tabernacle idea was realised when He tabernacled amongst His disciples. They contemplated [p. 104] His glory. God was there. That is the picture of the eternal state when God will be with men, so it does link with the city.
Ques What is the difference between Sarah’s faith and Abraham’s?
CAC Sarah’s is more the subjective side. There was active energy of faith in Abraham to go forth; with Sarah it is counting Him faithful who has promised. It is the state which takes account of the faithfulness of God to secure the seed to inherit the promises, whether heavenly or earthly. That is an important element. Everything that is brought to pass on the subjective side is through the faithfulness of God.
Ques Does the subjective side apply to us?
CAC Yes, because the seed is secured on this line. It is an exercise for us whether we are able to count on the faithfulness of God in regard of securing the seed to inherit. It is a question of faith counting on God. That is important in a day when all counteracts the production of a seed to inherit.
Ques “As the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore”, Genesis 22: 17. Is that what will people the new earth?
CAC It looks on to what is eternal. The new heavens and the new earth are to be furnished with a population that is able to take up all that is in the purpose of God, whether heavenly or earthly. All is secured in a resurrection power which secures things livingly out of death.