“WHERE ART THOU?”
Jim MacFarlane
Luke 19: 1–10; Mark 10: 46–52; Luke 10: 30–37
I think we can say with some confidence that God is interested in where you are; your location tells a story. When Adam sinned – and how often we return to these early parts of scripture which give us an outline of the way in which God set things on and how man failed in regard of them – God’s question to him was, “Where art thou?” Gen 3: 9. His location was a direct consequence of his moral condition and his moral condition was such that he could not sustain the presence of God. He had put a creature in the garden and it was evidently God’s desire that he should have communion with Him. God came into the garden and because of what Adam had done and because of his moral condition, he placed himself where he felt more comfortable than directly in the presence of God. His son did the same thing. He killed his brother and in the course of God’s dealings with him in regard of that he “went out from the presence of Jehovah”, Gen. 4: 16. We are told where he went and of the activities in which he engaged.
There are many examples of the way in which a person’s location is an indication of how they are. How often have preachers used the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel! The sinful things in which the younger son wished to engage could not be done in the Father’s house. He did not take the property that fell to him and engage in the things that he wished to do in the Father’s house. He had to move to the far country and his location told very clearly where he was morally before God.
God is interested in raising this question with every one of us: where are you? You might say that God does not really need to do that because the scripture tell us that “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, beholding the evil and the good”, Prov 15: 3. It is interesting to see once again how a place and a moral assessment on the part of God are so closely linked together. So God knows where we are; He knows where everyone is. But, nonetheless, He chooses, I think, in the glad tidings to raise the question as to where you are and it perhaps would cause you to reflect on your moral condition because the surroundings in which you find yourself would highlight to you your own moral condition and would raise questions about how suitable you are for the presence of God. Ultimately that is the only thing that matters. The younger son in Luke 15 eventually came to himself and immediately he had to consider how he would present himself before his father. So these questions are raised with everyone: Where are you? What is your condition? How do you stand before God?
We have read three passages of scripture which all refer to Jericho. Two of the people are in Jericho and one is heading in that direction. Jericho represents the world of mankind apart from God and the touching thing is that, in spite of its history, the Lord Jesus was prepared to go into Jericho and to encounter those who needed the service that He alone could give. It says in the first section that we read, “And he entered and passed through Jericho.” In Mark chapter 10, it speaks of Him leaving Jericho: “and as he was going out from Jericho,” he met the blind man. The Lord Jesus was not going to remain there. It was not an environment for Him, but in the surpassing grace of God that continues to be represented in the glad tidings, the Lord Jesus was prepared to come close to people who were in Jericho and He was prepared to transform their lives.
Jericho has an interesting history. It is a place which is symbolic of the condition of mankind and, if people live there, it tells us something about their moral condition. Jericho was the first place to be dealt with by the children of Israel when they went into the Land of Canaan. God could not be served there. Egypt was not a place for the people of God. In Scripture it has the character of arrogant, proud self-sufficiency and you see that writ large over much of the present activity of humankind. There was no prospect of God being served in Egypt so He took His people out and He brought them through the wilderness for a period of forty years with many lessons learned in the course of that journey.
But what ultimately God did was to bring them in to the land of His promise and it was a very rich land. Egypt yielded its fruits according to the ability of mankind to harness the Nile, but the land that God brought them into was a land that was completely different. It was a land that flowed with milk and honey without any particular contribution from mankind. It was provided by God. One of the impressions to be gained from reading the book of Deuteronomy is the enormous abundance of this land into which Moses was taking the people. The system of sacrifice which God required made substantial demands but these were going to be easily met because of the tremendous abundance of this land and it would not require human ingenuity to produce this: this was the land that God was providing for them.
But as soon as they got into the land, Jericho had to be dealt with. It stood in the way of the people entering into the fulness of what God had in mind for them. God in His power can bring his people out of Egypt but what symbolically is represented in Jericho must be overcome too. The priests and the ark circled it for seven days and on the last day it was circled seven times. They blew with trumpets, there was a shout from the people and the walls of Jericho came down. Salvation is not only from a system that is oppressive, as represented by Egypt, but it is introduction into the fulness of what God has by way of life, and what stands athwart this, as represented by Jericho, must be overthrown.
The moment of its overthrow is mysterious. If it had been the story of a conventional military operation, pursued by the people and supported by God, sapping the walls and pulling them down, we could have understood that, but Jericho collapses in a different way. I think the key to it is what immediately precedes in crossing the river Jordan. The people crossed the Jordan, but what is so significant and important is that they did so because the power of the Jordan was overcome and it was overcome by the ark.
The ark is a type and it is symbolic of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is spoken of in rather distinctive ways. Several times it is referred to and some of its titles are remarkable: the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth and a number of others; powerful, distinctive typical references to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who of course, is the theme of the glad tidings. The triumph of the ark in the passage of the Jordan comes just before the collapse of Jericho and provides the basis for that remarkable campaign against the city of Jericho. The river Jordan overflowed all its banks at the time of the people’s passage through it and this refers to the powerful way in which the Lord Jesus went into death and met every righteous requirement of God. There was not a drop of water in sight when the people went through, speaking clearly of the way in which the power of death has been broken, and access given to the blessings which God has in His purpose for mankind.
Just as the priests’ feet went down into the river, it disappeared completely. It is mysterious and the word of the cross, of which it is a symbol, is a mysterious word. We may be able to comprehend something of the sufferings endured by Christ from man, the abuse, the contempt, the mocking, the physical cruelty: these are things that perhaps we can begin to understand a little. But there were three hours of darkness which were not from the hands of man. During that period something far more mysterious was taking place than the ark going into the river Jordan causing it to go right back to the city Adam. It was then that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished everything that was required by God. At the end of these three hours of darkness, He said, “It is finished”. It was a work which was complete. He went into the grave to remove for ever from under the eye of God the whole order of man which had sinned, and His resurrection was the clear indication of the perfection of the pleasure of God in all that He had accomplished. God was satisfied and the power of death was gone completely. The word in the glad tidings is that the whole value and benefit of this becomes available to everyone by faith in the accomplishments of Christ, faith in His Person and acceptance of Him as Lord. This, typically, preceded the fall of Jericho: all that was symbolic of the triumph of Christ in overcoming evil, in triumphing over the power of death and in giving the people entrance into life of a new order in the land.
Now, what stood immediately in the way was this city of Jericho and I think if you have some understanding of what preceded in the passage of the Jordan, then perhaps it is rather more easily understood that it did not require a conventional military approach to bring down Jericho.
The ark was there and it was vitally important. It was carried round the city, but the priests blew the trumpets and there is in that some representation of a celebration of the triumph that had taken place previously at the river Jordan. There was a celebration of it in the face of what typifies the whole world system, and eventually the people were engaged in the same celebration themselves; on the final day of this action it was the celebration shout that brought the walls of Jericho down. One household was saved because the householder, Rahab, had placed her confidence in the God of the children of Israel and she comes into the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Himself in the wonderful ways of God’s gracious and merciful dealings with mankind.
Joshua said at that time that should the city of Jericho be rebuilt, there would be a curse upon its builder and that is what happened. Man looked at a naturally desirable situation, which Jericho had, and it was rebuilt. The curse was that its foundation would be laid in his firstborn and its gates would be set up in his youngest, and that is exactly what happened if you read the history. The city of Jericho, which represented those aspects of the system that stood in the way of the full enjoyment of what God had in mind for his people, was rebuilt because of natural calculations and the curse was suffered. I think that Jericho thereafter would be characterised by this.
Now, of course, the work of Christ has changed things generally; man is held provisionally in reconciliation with God. There is a “propitiation for our sins; and not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, 1 John 2: 2. The curse was borne by Christ. But nonetheless, I think, we would see in this city of Jericho something that represents the consequences of man continuing to live in arrangements which completely ignore what God has accomplished, and we live in a world like that.
I would like to speak of the way that the Lord Jesus came into circumstances like these and dealt with people in them. We have read of instances where the Lord Jesus came to Jericho. For those who might see some parallel with their own situation in any of those three of which we have read, note how the Lord Jesus came right into these circumstances Himself and how He came in with the fulness of His blessing. You say, into Jericho with blessing? Yes, right down into these circumstances. The city of the curse? Yes, He was prepared to be right there.
The first one of whom we read is Zacchaeus. It says that Jesus “entered and passed through Jericho.” What an action of grace and that grace continues until now. The gospel is still preached here and preached in multitudes of places because the grace of God continues. “And behold, there was a man by name called Zacchaeus, and he was chief tax-gatherer, and he was rich.” He seemed to have things going for him, as we say, and, according to the concordance, Zacchaeus is the Greek version of an Old Testament name that means ‘pure’. So perhaps in human terms he was well favoured. He came from a fine line. He was rich. He did have one limitation however; it says he was little in stature. Even those who appear to be prospered in human terms have their needs and their uncertainties and Zacchaeus needed a little assistance. Most libraries carry self-help books for people’s uncertainties and insecurities, because such difficulties are so general among mankind, even among those who are apparently most favoured. Zacchaeus used his own ingenuity to overcome his limitation. He was operating in the way which was characteristic of an inhabitant of Jericho.
Then Jesus came along and things were transformed. Instead of having to turn to his own resourcefulness to make up for an acknowledged and felt condition, the Lord Jesus attended to it immediately. It was the first thing He dealt with. The Lord Jesus said, “make haste and come down”, and then added “for today … I must remain in thy house”. The Lord Jesus was passing through Jericho but He was not going to remain there. He said, “for to-day I must remain in thy house.” Jesus could not remain in Jericho and He has no place in the world which it represents. However, he would speak to you in the same terms as those in which he spoke to Zacchaeus, saying, I will come into your circumstances and I will remain with you for to-day. In other words, I will remain with you during the present period of divine grace. You will not be left to get on with your life as best you can, using the same sort of resourcefulness as you have employed up until now.
As He came into his circumstances Zacchaeus was transformed. His own activities were completely changed by the activity of the Lord Jesus. I do not think he had made himself rich by regularly giving half of his goods to the poor and returning fourfold if he had taken anything by false accusation. We speak about people being converted. This is what happens when someone is converted. It is a transformation in his life. His whole style of operation becomes completely different.
“And Jesus said to him, To-day salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.” Perhaps Zacchaeus’s name indicates that he had had some sort of connections with earlier, honourable characters in the Old Testament. What the Lord Jesus does is to put him into an altogether more noble line. He speaks about salvation coming to his house “inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham”. He puts him into the line of faith. The Lord Jesus does not ask him if he is exercising faith. I think He saw it and was willing to recognise it by saying that this man was a son of Abraham. And he gets the word that “the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.” The Son of man is the One who will ultimately have universal dominion. He comes into this man’s life and he is saved in the fulness of all that this title means.
So to anyone who might have the impression of having done relatively well in the world but who still has to admit to the unease and uncertainty of being numbered among the lost, the Lord Jesus would present Himself for acceptance by faith. To those who receive Him, He would minister the fulness of grace and give the wonderful experience of conversion.
In Mark chapter 10 there is a very different man: “And they come to Jericho, and as he was going out from Jericho”. This was the Lord Jesus passing through Jericho and on the point of leaving it. As we have said already, it was not the place for Him and a time will come ultimately when He will no longer be available to those in it. The present period, to which we refer as the day of grace, will not go on for ever and we have here the Lord Jesus on the point of leaving Jericho. “And as he was going out from Jericho and his disciples and a large crowd, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, the blind man, sat by the wayside begging.” Bartimaeus’s name means something very different from Zacchaeus. If Zacchaeus means ‘pure’, Bartimaeus, again according to the concordance, means ‘son of the unclean’. This was someone who was right at the opposite end of the social spectrum. Imagine going through life with a name like that, ‘son of the unclean’, and being blind and sitting by the wayside begging! It is a picture of man, in his ultimate desperate extremity. I do not know what he would have got by the wayside. It is not a fruitful place. Elsewhere in the gospels the Lord Jesus gave the parable of the sower, when the seed fell by the wayside and did not prosper there. It is where human traffic flows. Mankind is caught up by this and the seed, which speaks of the word of God, does not thrive. Here was a man who was living not only in Jericho but also in this environment where, you might say, the word had no prospect. There would appear to be no hope for this man. “And having heard that it was Jesus the Nazaraean, he began to cry out and to say”. I think this man had those stirrings which result from the work of God that gave him to understand that Jesus the Nazaraean would be One who would have the capacity for a condition even such as his.
Bartimaeus referred to Him as Son of David. Son of David was a term of great distinction. Jesus is presented to him as the Nazaraean, however, associating Him with a place of reproach, and conveying reassurance of the favourable disposition of the One who was willing to come into humble circumstances. In addressing Him as Son of David, however, he makes clear that he understood Christ’s capacity to deal with a condition as desperate as his. So he knew He was the Nazaraean, he knew He was the Son of David, the One in whom all hopes for the Jew were centred and in addressing Him as Jesus, he knew Him personally. “Jesus”, he says, “have mercy on me.” What we would desire in the glad tidings is to present Christ personally to you as Saviour as well as providing you with the salvation that He has secured to which you have access by the exercise of faith.
“And many rebuked him”. People like Bartimaeus are disregarded in the world. These are the forgotten, the downtrodden, the underclass. They are least inconvenient when silent. But Jesus did not respond to him in that way. “But he cried so much the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus, standing still”. We will refer shortly to the Samaritan who was journeying and he represents Jesus moving here with the steady, dignified, forward movements of the Son of Man and yet He is willing to stop at the cry of this poor soul.
”And Jesus, standing still, desired him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying to him, Be of good courage, rise up, he calls thee. And, throwing away his garment” – I suppose it was his only possession but he put his confidence completely in the Lord Jesus Christ - “he started up and came to Jesus.” “What wilt thou that I shall do to thee?” He asks him for an assessment of his own condition. “And the blind man said to him, Rabboni, that I may see.” There is a requirement in the glad tidings that you consider your own condition and this man knew where he fell short. There must be repentance towards God. That means that you take some account of your own state and realise that it makes you utterly unsuitable for God. You come to a judgment of it and you set yourself in another direction. This man’s direction was to be set by Jesus. It says that he “followed him in the way.”
“Go, thy faith has healed thee.” That is a wonderful, gracious touch too. It was the power of the Lord Jesus that had healed Him. Our late brother Mr Grant in Dundee used to remind us that the disciples raised the dead but it was only the Lord Jesus Himself that could give the blind sight. This man had an encounter with Christ and it had a consequence for him that he could have got nowhere else. Even in the power that the Lord gave to the disciples there was never a service such as was rendered to this man here. “And Jesus said to him, Go, thy faith has healed thee.” It was the power of the Lord that had healed him, but the Lord Jesus would say to him, your faith has done it. How would the man feel after that? From being one of the downtrodden, the outcasts, he would have a sense of being strengthened and encouraged in his pathway by this word from the Lord Jesus, that his faith had healed him, and he applies that energy following Him. I think that Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus cover the whole range of those who live in Jericho and if Jesus can deal with the extremes, He can meet every intermediate situation.
Chapter 10 of Luke refers to someone who is not located in Jericho, but whose direction is towards it. It is not a good direction to have. The man in this chapter was taken to a point of even greater extremity than Bartimaeus. They “went away leaving him in a half-dead state”, so that anything he did possess was taken from him violently. He had no garment to cast away as Bartimaeus did, because he had been stripped by the robbers and the wounds which had been inflicted left him helpless. The position of anyone with Jericho as an objective is exceedingly perilous.
There is no human remedy for this. I suppose to see a priest and a Levite coming along would be the very best prospect a man could have in such a situation. These were the people who, because of their nominal association with holy things, might have given hope of the exceptional resources needed by this extreme case. “And a certain priest happened to go down that way, and seeing him, passed on on the opposite side”. There is no human answer, even from the most likely source, to the situation of someone who has met the consequences of being on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho. There was a Levite and he was at the spot and he “came and looked at him and passed on on the opposite side.” No doubt a few thoughts would have passed through his mind. He may have pondered it further as he headed in whichever direction he was going. He may have spoken, when he reached his destination, about what he had seen and he may have philosophised on the character of things on the Jericho road, on the deterioration of society and so on. People write columns in the newspaper about this sort of thing but, philosophise as they may, there is never an effective remedy.
The poor man was found, however, by the Samaritan who was journeying. The Samaritan is not said to be going towards Jericho or towards Jerusalem. He was moving on a different plane. He is typical of the Lord Jesus Christ and He was moving in a way that was directed by the will of His Father and He had the capacity to deal with this man. He was stripped of everything as a result of his experience and here was someone who came along with the resource to meet his needs where he was and the resource to take him to a place where he could be sustained. We are emphasising the importance of place and there was a place to which this man was brought. He was brought to the inn. It is not given a geographical location. It does not belong to this earth. You will not find it on the map. But he was brought into circumstances where he could be sustained by One who is identified as the innkeeper in type. The Holy Spirit of God, who has all that is required until the Lord Jesus returns to take all those who are His to be with Himself. How complete is the blessing, even for someone who was heading towards Jericho, as he submits to the service of the journeying Samaritan.
I desire that these words might show how there is salvation for everyone because I think everyone is encompassed, whether it is those who live in Jericho, of someone who is headed in that direction. My desire is that you would lay hold of what is provided by the work of this wonderful Saviour and have a sense of being brought into the fulness of all that He has provided for your sustaining. May these things be for the encouragement and blessing of us all for His Name’s sake!
EDINBURGH
9 April 2000