THE CROSS (2)
Hebrews 12:1,2; Numbers 21:6-9;
A.M. Hebrews 12 speaks of Jesus as the One who was able to endure; He endured the cross. The Hebrew saints were finding endurance a test. We can take our place with them there but the apostle brings out that there are those who have gone before, and who have gone through in faith. Then he says, ‘Look back, see there is a great cloud of witnesses, and now look ahead and see there is One who beyond measure has endured, He has endured the cross’. The endurance of the saints is endurance in relation to the will of God. Jesus had to endure in relation to the will of God, but for Him it involved the cross. It involved sufferings that none of us could ever enter into. He had the capacity as Man to endure all that was put upon Him and that is the impression that has struck me in relation to this reading, that as Man He had the capacity to endure all that was placed upon Him.
Numbers 21 is well known, but I thought these references to the brass and the copper would bring out this feature of endurance. Moses made the serpent of brass. He understood that the answer to the situation in the camp had to be able to endure the judgment. He was not told to use brass. Moses understood the need, and that there must be One who was able to endure the judgment of God. This comes at the end of the wilderness journey but it need not wait until the end of our lives. It is really Romans 8. The wilderness journey was necessary to prove that there was what the law could not do in that it was “weak through the flesh” (Rom.8:3), and we prove that very quickly. But “God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”. Man in the flesh is condemned. The brazen serpent brings that out, the cross of Jesus brings that out. That man has been condemned, indeed he has been removed altogether, and there was One who was capable of bearing the judgment that was due to man. He was able to bear it as Man.
In the altar we have another figure of endurance. There is the acacia wood and it is overlaid with copper; it was capable of sustaining the fire. I read that section where the altar is specified, so that we get some impression of that which was capable of sustaining the fire and upon which there would be the means of offering up that which is pleasing to God.
The second section that we read in Exodus indicates that this was to be a continual thing. The altar sustained the fire continually day and night. It was not here in view of the condemnation of one order of man but it was in view of man being able to approach God in the worth of Another, so the continual burnt offering went up.
N.J.H. It speaks here in Hebrews 12 as to Jesus enduring the cross, and then He “endured so great contradiction from sinners” (v.3). Enduring the cross must have come from strength within. Do the horns of the altar suggest inward strength?
A.M. Yes, and we see it perfectly in Him, in all that the cross involved. I would not like to limit anything that is suggested in these verses, but all that the cross involved for Him, He was able to endure.
N.J.H. The contradiction of sinners against Himself continued throughout His life, continuing even while He was on the cross, but enduring the cross was something deeper and brought out the very strength of the Person who was there.
A.M. You mean it was a deep moral matter.
N.J.H. Exactly!
A.M. Enduring the cross was before a holy God. Psalm 22 brings out something of the Lord’s feelings in relation to it. As I said earlier, we must be preserved from sentimentality, but that does not mean that our affections should not be engaged as we take account of the One who was there, who endured all that was put upon Him from God.
W.M.P. We sometimes refer to the gopher wood in Noah’s ark. It was capable of carrying everything through the flood. Every divine thought was carried through in one Person, one glorious Man. We get the fountains of the deep broken up there (Gen.7:11); some suggestion of all that lay in the judgment of God.
A.M. Yes indeed. These are suggestions that convey something that is beyond the power of man naturally. You get it in Job as well. “Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the snow, and hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail … ?”, Job 38:22. They had been kept in reserve and the Lord Jesus entered there. He was able to do that.
D.M.C. Would Jonah’s prophecy link on with the depth of feeling to which the Lord Jesus went, “The weeds were wrapped about my head”, Jonah 2:5?
A.M. Yes, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains” (v.6). It is a prophetic reference. Jonah experienced something, but the prophetic reference goes beyond what he experienced, it takes us on to what the Lord Jesus endured. Jonah in a sense – I do not want to be misunderstood – had no control over this. From the moment that he was cast overboard from the ship he had no control, he was led that way, but the Lord Jesus went that way. He went that way, knowing what would be involved in going to the bottoms of the mountains, and experiencing that which is referred to in the prophecy of Jonah.
R.D.P. The psalmist says “And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor”, Ps.78:61. Is that something of this? There was weakness there, but the note to glory in the psalm says ‘beauty’ (note h).
A.M. Yes, and God did that on account of the failure of the people. He gave His strength into captivity and then the moment came, “Then the Lord awoke”, and “he smote his adversaries in the hinder part”, Ps.78:65,66.
R.T. Would the anointing enter into what you are thinking? John the baptist saw the Holy Spirit descending as a dove and it abode upon Jesus (John 1:32). It was that Man who was to be setting forth the testimony. It always struck me that in Luke He did not preach before He was anointed; something came out in power and character through the Spirit.
A.M. I think what you say is very instructive and it was as having been anointed that He was led in the wilderness. He was proved; the Man who was anointed was proved and was not found wanting. Then He went out and there were glad tidings to be preached. That is a wonderful thing to take account of, but those glad tidings depended on what He was going to endure.
J.T.B. Would enduring the cross involve the forsaking?
A.M. Definitely; say some more.
J.T.B. Enduring brings out the sense of the intensity of what the Lord endured in His soul and His spirit, do you think? The conscious sense of His relationship with His Father was broken. Mr Darby says ‘the consciousness in the soul of the privation of God, is the most dreadful of all sufferings – the most terrible horror to him who knows it: but Christ knew it infinitely.’3.. That is very affecting.
A.M. Yes, very affecting. The forsaking must be involved. The dying thief knew what the cross was physically, but he did not endure the forsaking. No other man has ever endured that.
J.L. Is it a comfort to our souls that it is the “leader and completer” who endured?
A.M. He has set the matter on; He is the “leader and completer of faith”. He set it on and the whole order of faith is completed in Him, but He has actually endured far more than any of the sufferings that the saints are called to endure. We look upon Him as the One who has set on the whole pathway of faith which calls for endurance in the saints.
J.L. I was thinking that everything depended upon Him as the “leader and completer” and He did not fail in any respect, but glorified God in His endurance.
A.M. Yes, it all depended upon Him. God had laid help on a mighty One, (Ps.89:19), One who was able to endure such depths of sufferings. We spoke about the cross of woe; what woe there was and what sufferings, but God had laid help upon a mighty One. He was capable of enduring that.
R.G. It says “his sweat became as great drops of blood, falling down upon the earth”, Luke 22:44. Does that show the inward enduring character of the Lord’s sufferings at that particular time? He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. It speaks about the bonds of death being released; it is like the woman in travail (John 16:21). There is that released and produced which has produced an answer to all His sufferings.
A.M. “Having loosed the pains of death”, Acts 2:24.
R.G. That is the scripture.
A.M. Yes, as you say it is like the pains of childbirth by which life is produced. We can be thankful for the life that has been produced.
P.A.G. The significance of the Lord’s endurance is that He went through. As you say, the thief endured the cross physically, but he finished in weakness. The Lord did not perish in weakness. He was “crucified in weakness” (2 Cor.13:4), but that was outward. He delivered up His spirit (John 19:30), and He went into death.
A.M. He cried with a loud voice (Luke 23:46); He went into death in power. The feet of the priests touched the waters of the Jordan and the Jordan went right back to the city Adam (Josh.3:15). The psalmist rejoiced in that; “What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back?”, Ps.114:5. He went into death in power. The ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until all of the children of Israel had gone over.
G.B.G. It was “in view of the joy lying before him”. He knew He would endure and that He would not be consumed. “In view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross”. There was something beyond the cross, and He knew that He would reach that.
A.M. Yes. I would hesitate to say that it was His motive, because His motive was the will of God that He should go that way to secure the answer to divine purpose, but there was that which would be a joy to Him, and I do not limit the joy.
G.B.G. The joy lying before Him would be in fully carrying out the will of God.
A.M. Yes, it would involve that. The will of God which had been so disregarded by men was fully and completely carried out, even to the cross.
G.B.G. So “the joy lying before him” was all that was in God’s will in relation to God’s purpose; it is a full thought, is it not?
N.J.H. And God bringing many sons to glory was by this means (Heb.2:10).
A.M. Yes, indeed.
D.C.B. Would you say more about the importance of it being the cross, “and that the death of the cross”, Phil.2:8?
A.M. It is very affecting to me that, when Moses was given the law, Jehovah put that verse in, “for he that is hanged is a curse of God” Deut.21:23. You might say, why does it fit in there? God is righteous. Everything He does has a moral basis, a righteous foundation. The Lord Jesus glorified God here upon the earth. God’s judgment had no cause to be expressed righteously upon a holy Man who glorified Him here. He did no sin; there was nothing in Him that would call out the judgment of God. But, in amazing grace, He allowed Himself to be lifted up upon a cross and thus, although He magnified the law and made it honourable, in that way He was made a curse. God then had a basis on which to pour out His judgment against sin upon Him. I think that is very affecting.
D.C.B. Yes, it is to affect our hearts. He says “I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”, John 12:32. As we have that before us, it affects every heart.
R.D.P. It speaks of the matter of shame here. The cross was not just a means of execution, there was public shame attached to it. If we think of our own experiences, the shame is something that is hard to bear. According to the text “who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself, that ye be not weary, fainting in your minds”, Heb.12:3. These are things which come in and would break our defences down. But I was thinking of the shame, the public humiliation and the curse that was associated with the cross. He bore all of that, He endured it.
A.M. He did! Psalm 22 speaks about it. Every holy sensibility was violated at the cross; “They look, they stare upon me”, Ps.22:17. And yet there was nothing in Him that the shame could attach to. As you say, shame is hard to bear, and we find it hard to bear even when it is justified, when we may have had part in that which would bring shame upon us. The Lord had nothing like that. In His perfection He endured the cross, He despised the shame. In a sense, He would not accept it.
T.D.B. In your opening remark in the first reading, you spoke about His capacity to bear and endure things. Would you say something about that?
A.M. That hymn we closed the last reading with refers to:-
‘Every mark of dark dishonour
Heaped upon the thorn-crowned brow’
(Hymn 302)
One thing after another was heaped upon Him. He had the capacity to bear it. We would break under such reproaches and such suffering; we would break. The Lord Jesus could never break down.
P.M. He said “It is finished”, John 19:30. It came to a head there, it was complete. In that sense He endured the cross, and said “It is finished”.
A.M. All that He had to endure in flesh and blood condition here upon the cross came to an end. It is a wonderful, glorious thing that the whole matter, the judgment of God, the sufferings that He endured from men as well, came to an end. He came to that point, did He not? He vicariously went into death, and was buried, but think of all those sufferings; the time was limited. Very often things are limited for us in mercy, but for Him it was limited because the judgment was spent, it was exhausted.
P.M. You get the sense that it was complete at that point; “It is finished”. The moment came when His enduring the forsaking, in its intensity, ended.
P.J.W. Could you help us as to the Lord’s feelings? He did not endure, as men would say, stoically. Could you open that up for us?
A.M. Well, I do not know what I can say. There were the reproaches of men, which would have hurt Him deeply. One who had done nothing but good among men, all those reproaches, would have been wounds to His holy feelings. But then there was what He felt from God; “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, even against the man that is my fellow”, Zech.13:7. Think of the nearness of the relationship that there had been and yet the prophet uses that word “Awake, O sword”, showing the intensity of what He suffered.
P.J.W. I suppose it was intense at the cross. He speaks of the wounds “with which I was wounded in the house of my friends”, Zech.13:6. He said to Judas, “deliverest thou up the Son of man with a kiss?”, Luke 22:48. How His feelings entered into that, but when it came to the cross there was something more intense; everything was against Him in that sense. He felt it deeply in His soul.
A.M. Yes, it has been said ‘all dark, without one ray of light even from God’4. No one had been in that situation before. Jesus had never been in that situation before. There had always been that light from God, but at the cross all was darkness. I notice in Luke it says “the sun was darkened”, Luke 23:45. That is a touch we do not get in the pressure gospels, Matthew and Mark. The sun is a great testimony to God’s glory in creation. Jesus suffered at the hand of God and “the sun was darkened”.
R.Gr. Would it be right to say that the Lord’s capacity, if we can use the word reverently, shone out in the fact that whilst He was at extremity both in the garden and particularly on the cross, He continued? He did not falter, His service did not weaken, He went on in perfection.
A.M. We were reading this morning as to His service to that dying thief. What a wonderful thing that was. We may look later at the Lord’s words in John. You see how He continued; everything was in His hands. Even upon the cross, everything was in His hands.
J.L. We are provided with much to contemplate in relation to the feelings of the Lord Jesus on the cross in Psalm 22, commencing with “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Ps.22:1.
A.M. That terrible cry went up! You think of the feelings of Jesus, but He uttered that cry in front of His opposers, those who were reproaching Him. “He trusted upon God; let him save him now”, Matt.27:43. They would have heard Him say that the God He knew had forsaken Him. What a terrible moment that was, and what a cry! We know the answer to it.
J.L. I rather feel, like you, that there is much we just need to ponder over, and cannot say too much in detail about.
A.M. We need worshipful spirits as we speak about these things. I remember a brother saying as to that cry, that you can put the emphasis on any of the words in that sentence.
R.T. Did not even Pilate have to say “Thou art then a king?”, John 18:37?
A.M. Yes, he was forced to say it.
R.G. Is it interesting to see that at the end of that expression “why hast thou forsaken me”, the psalm then says “And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel”, Ps.22:3? What a wonderful answer it is that came at that point.
A.M. That is right, and then later in the psalm, “Yea, from the horns of the buffaloes hast thou answered me. I will declare thy name unto my brethren” (vv.21,22).
J.D.G. Mr Darby said that that cry was not heard5; it could not be heard, He was forsaken. What distance: infinitude enters into it!
A.M. Yes, it does. We cannot enter into it. We have some sense of the awfulness of it, but we cannot enter into what the Lord Jesus entered into. To think of a man being forsaken of God, “for in him we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:28); that was said to unbelievers! God has not forsaken any other man in this way, but He turned away from Jesus, He turned away in that sense, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”, 2 Cor.5:21.
P.A.G. I wondered whether the type of the red heifer would give us some instruction as to the capacity for suffering. It says it is “without blemish, wherein is no defect, and upon which never came yoke”, Num.19:2. These are the moral features that would be expressive of the Lord’s capacity for suffering.
A.M. Yes, that is good. Those qualities were needed in view of the defiling character of the scene through which the saints pass, but here was One who exhibited such feelings in a scene in which He suffered.
It is testing to speak about the Lord Jesus and His sufferings personally, and I think we are enriched in our souls as we contemplate them privately. Let us go over them with Him, the One who suffered for us. But what those sufferings brought out, in all that the Lord Jesus had to undergo on the cross, is that God is finished with man in the flesh, and that is what the serpent of brass teaches us. The children of Israel, who had been under so much blessing from God, found that their flesh was still the same, unchanged from the day that they had come out from Egypt. And it would not change; the flesh cannot change. What was needed was another Man who came in the likeness of sinful flesh. The serpent takes you right back to the beginning, because the flesh has been the same since Adam, but there is One who came in the likeness of sinful flesh and this One was not subject to sin at all. The Lord Jesus said, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up”, John 3:14. It was a divine necessity that He should be lifted up upon the cross; it was essential.
W.M.P. This serpent never bit anyone. I wondered if that is why it becomes the object to which our gaze is to be directed.
A.M. Yes that is good; “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens”, Heb.7:26. He was lifted up; that is a wonderful touch of grace. In flesh and blood, He took the place where man has been rejected. He actually took that place and was lifted up so that men could see Him. The serpent was lifted up in the midst of the camp; they did not have to go anywhere, just where they were, they could lift up their eyes and see it. This spells the end of every man according to flesh.
G.B.G. It says the people asked Moses to “pray to Jehovah that he take away the serpents from us”, but then “Moses prayed for the people”, but not to take away the serpents.
A.M. That is right. The poison was there when the serpent bit. We find the poison is in ourselves, it is sin in ourselves; we are still in flesh and blood conditions. Thank God for the work of God in the soul; “Whoever has been begotten of God does not practise sin”, 1 John 3:9. There is something which is perfect in every believer that cannot break down. Even although the serpent’s poison is present, there is another order of Man!
Q.A.P. It is remarkable that when Paul writes to the Corinthians he very early on brings in the word of the cross as setting aside the wisdom of man (1 Cor.1:18). I wondered if that links with the brazen serpent and the setting aside of that order.
A.M. Yes, I am sure that is right; the first order of man has gone. As Mr Raven said, “There was nothing under the eye of God on the earth morally living when Christ died”.6 Man has come to an end in the death of Jesus; God has done with man in the flesh.
Q.A.P. So the word of the cross is the application of that to us.
A.M. Yes it is, and we have to come to that. The exercises in Romans teach us that. The brazen serpent is the beginning of Romans 8; that follows the painful exercises that we go through and which we struggle with in the preceding chapter.
R.G. Do you think that as we contemplate what we are speaking about now, there should be a continuing progress with us in our appreciation of the death of Christ? The bondage in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and now thirty eight years after, there is the brazen serpent. As we come to grow in our appreciation of all that the cross involved, then there can be this liberty produced in us, “Rise up, well! sing unto it”, Num.21:17.
A.M. I do, we always need to get back to the death of Christ. Do you not think the Supper being weekly helps us in that regard? We come together and there are the emblems before us on the table reminding us afresh of the One who has gone through death, taken up everything for God, secured for God an answer in men down here.
G.A.B. Why was it that Jehovah sent these fiery serpents?
A.M. That is an interesting question.
G.A.B. The people grew impatient and they spoke against God and against Moses. Would it be right to say that God identified what their misbehaviour really was? It goes back to the serpent, and only that serpent lifted up on the pole would answer God’s requirements.
A.M. So this was a lesson to them. God was, as it were, giving them a picture of what was working, and to trace it back to the source; we should always trace sin back to the source. We should think of our sinful flesh, that it is not of Christ.
D.M.C. Would you say that any sort of sin bites? We may say, ‘Well, that is not much’, or ‘That is a gross sin so we had better do something about that’. But every sin caused sorrow in heaven, and do you think there is an answer to that in the cross of Christ and we have to find that for ourselves?
A.M. I think that when we take account of the cross of Christ, we do not dismiss sin as trivial, whatever it may be. Sin is never trivial. It involved that He should endure, and endure what we could never endure.
D.M.C. And every sin cost our Saviour something.
A.M. Yes, so how careful we should be.
J.D. Do you think a deepening appreciation of what we have been considering would really lead us to know that we are not debtors to the flesh, and then cause us to prove the liberty of the Spirit (Rom.8:12)?
A.M. Yes that is right. You are helping us in Romans.
J.D. We really need to understand the awfulness of the flesh and sin, and how Christ has suffered for it. But then we have no obligation to it because it has been so fully dealt with in the death of Christ that we can be liberated and the Spirit can have liberty in us that we might move on, as the springing well would bring before us.
A.M. Yes, that is good. It has been so fully dealt with in the death of Christ. There is no cure for it, there are no improvements, there is no hope for it; it has been condemned and dealt with.
P.A.G. Could you say what it is that we are to look at? I am asking because we have spoken carefully about the forsaking and we know that there was darkness at that time, so help us as to what are we to look at?
A.M. I think we are to take account of the One who, in His work upon the cross, brought the kind of man that sins to an end. What do you say?
P.A.G. That is helpful. You spoke about the breaking of bread and we look on the loaf and on the cup and we see there that they are separated; the Lord has died and shed His blood. But the One we call to mind is now in glory. So we look at what He has done, we take account of His work, but we take account of a glorified Man who is all that to us.
A.M. Yes, the work is past. Sometimes when we come to the end of the service of God having been moved in our spirits, I find my eye lights upon the cup and I think to myself – that was the basis of it all.
P.A.G. ‘And love that, giving all, secures
The universe for God’. (Hymn 171)
G.B.G. It is “every one who believes on him”, John 3:14. That is who God is looking at; “every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. It is the Person.
A.M. Yes, it is the Person, and it is a different kind of person; “may not perish”. Perishing is the natural end of everything down here but there is another order of man, one who was able to take up the whole matter.
R.T. Would Mary and those women who stood by the cross be something like this? “And by the cross of Jesus stood …”, John 19:25.
A.M. Yes, that is John’s account. There were those who were identified with the cross. You might ask, were they not afraid of all the opposition that was around? No. The kind of man that opposed has been terminated there.
R.T. It is to touch our affections. Mary of Magdala’s word to Him was “they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”, John 20:13. She had been beholding Him and been constitutionally affected.
A.M. Yes, she had nothing in this world apart from Him, and when she felt that He was gone she had nothing; she was totally bereft. You can understand the Lord appearing to her in a special way.
D.C.B. What Romans 8 brings in is “his own Son”, Rom.8:3. Is that who we have to gaze upon?
A.M. That expression also appears later in the chapter, almost as if Paul can hardly put it into words. “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son”, Rom.8:32. Grammatically, he could have made that a much shorter sentence; he could have said ‘He who delivered up His Son’. But he said, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”; as much as to say, can you really grasp the greatness of this? It is His own Son; the feelings of God entering into this.
R.H. Do you think by feeding on Christ and the way in which He has endured, it would help us in these individual exercises in Romans? It would bring us to Corinthians as we have touched on, for Numbers really brings in what is collective. Would it help us to be adjusted, as feeding on Christ as the One who has endured, that we might find our place in the testimony in an adjusted way and also help us too in relation to God’s service?
A.M. I think that is very good. We must feed upon Him. If we are not feeding upon Him we are feeding upon something else, and that will not do us any good! We must feed upon Christ.
N.J.H. It was while He was on the cross that He died, and there is the blood and the water and they are witnesses. These witnesses came through really in the Spirit; the witness is one. Does that show how livingly the whole matter should be maintained amongst us collectively?
A.M. Yes, John says “the three agree in one”, 1 John 5:8. He does not say the three agreed, in the past. A living witness is going on today and there is a witness in each one of His own.
I do not know if we have much time to think of the altar, but there we have the acacia wood. Reference was made this morning to the acacia wood; it is that order of manhood that goes through and is able to endure. It is overlaid with copper, which is able to sustain the fire. It has a network of copper going to the very middle of it; it is able to sustain what is put upon it.
G.B.G. The network of copper would ensure that there was nothing left unjudged.
A.M. Yes indeed. Literally the ashes would have gone through and it is right to the very middle. There was nothing left which was unsuited to be offered to God, it was right to the middle. Every part, every aspect of the Lord Jesus was tested by the fire.
G.B.G. The rings were attached to the network.
A.M. Say something about that.
G.B.G. The rings were for movement in testimony. Having everything rightly judged really affects movement in the testimony.
A.M. That is certainly so; we see that in the history of the children of Israel, with Miriam, for instance. The movement was held up until things were settled but here we have this great type of the Lord as the One who is seen as the altar. We know He is seen as the Priest, we know He is seen as the Offering, but He is also the Altar!
J.L. It is accompanied by the references to the four horns. Does that magnify the strength with which the Lord carried everything through in His endurance? They were on the four corners, which would include every aspect that had to be taken up for God and was carried through in power in His endurance.
A.M. Yes; the enduring strength of His devotion; “bind the sacrifice with cords, – up to the horns of the altar”, Ps.118:27. There was that which was fixed. His commitment to the will of God involving the cross was absolutely fixed.
E.J.M. Romans begins with Him “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”, Rom.1:4. Do you think that would link on with the three cubits high?
A.M. That is good; the three cubits suggesting resurrection, and the five cubits being a suggestion of His manhood. Dear brethren, we are speaking about the Lord Jesus as Man. He bore everything as Man, and He actually suffered at the hands of God as Man, but as having gone into death it was in view of resurrection seen in those three cubits. The resurrection was assured as Jesus went into death.
P.A.G. Could you help us further as to the distinction you are making between to endure and to sustain?
A.M. What do you see in it?
P.A.G. Enduring the cross would involve unfathomable compression of suffering but what you are speaking about now is the Lord’s ability to sustain steadily what is for God, without change or deviation, without having to alter anything. He sustains what is for God.
A.M. That is very good, and in the other passage we read in Exodus it is a continual thing. There is One who can sustain a constant response to God which is all of Himself. That spotless lamb was offered morning and evening. Something of what that fragrance speaks of is rising up to God as an offering of sweet odour, and the Lord Jesus sustains that in His own power.
J.T.B. In the law of the burnt-offering there is the unique reference to the hearth being on the altar (Lev.6:9). That is the place of burning. Just as the question has been raised about His sustaining power, the capacity of Christ to sustain at the place of burning on the altar is very affecting.
A.M. Yes, it certainly is. That is an affecting expression that you have brought in – the place of burning.
A.E.M. Is there something in Isaiah’s expression “the travail of his soul”, Isa.53:11? We spoke earlier of what He bore in His body on the tree, but the travail of His soul when “He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul” was so that there should be that which comes out of the suffering. Does the word “travail” help?
A.M. That is excruciating suffering in view of life. That reference follows the fact that “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see a seed” (v.10).
A.E.M. We referred to travail earlier, but I was thinking of the fact that His soul was involved in connection with His sustaining.
A.M. Yes, the Lord Himself refers to His own soul in anticipating the cross, “My soul is very sorrowful even unto death”, Matt.26:38.
N.J.H. In chapter 27 that we referred to, is there any bearing of that on the local assembly in the Corinthian epistle, where Paul the apostle says “ye and my spirit being gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ”, 1 Cor.5:4? Is that not some reference to the altar, the copper?
A.M. Yes, very good; the spirit of judgment was there.
N.J.H. Yes. Paul was not local there but being an apostle he could enter in feelingly in the light of this altar.
A.M. Yes. Being an apostle, he could enter in with the Corinthians; “ye and my spirit”.
Glasgow
14 August 2015