THE GREATNESS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD
[p. 283] THE GREATNESS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD
Luke 1: 32, 33; Genesis 21: 22; Genesis 23: 6; Genesis 26: 12, 13; Joshua 4: 14; 2 Samuel 3: 1; 2 Samuel 5: 10
I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak about greatness, but not greatness in the sense in which Babylon was great, worldly greatness, but greatness as it works out in the people of God, as it works out divinely.
I begin with Christ and I hope to finish with Christ, that Christ may be in our minds throughout, for it is in Him the thought is fully seen. But whether it be in Christ or in the saints it is divine greatness, not exactly divine greatness in the sense of the abstract greatness of God, as God; but divine greatness working out in Man and in men. So the thought, I believe, is clearly set out in the word of Gabriel, the angel, in this first chapter of Luke, “He shall be great”. That is alluding to Jesus. If he were speaking of His deity alone, of course, he would say, ‘He is great’. There is no change in that, but the angel says, “He shall be great”. Luke presents the truth from this side. John begins with what is there: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. That is enough as to greatness. It adds, “All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being”, John 1: 3. But he asserts His deity, the deity of Christ, at the outset, an important matter as to the place his ministry has. It fits in with the time of pretension, and there can be no mincing of matters or questioning or disputing in his plain assertion of a fact, that the Lord Jesus was in the beginning of everything, whatever there was a beginning of, and that He was there as God. He had to do with the beginning. There will be no question about that in [p. 284] any of our minds because if there be even a question as to it we shall slip under the power of the devil in one way or another. There can be no question about that. If John were to speak in the midst of the apostasy, he would say, There can be no conversation between you and me unless you accept this, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. That must be the basis of all our conversation. That is what the apostle John would say; that is what each one who loves Jesus would say, without any hesitation whatever. We cannot even have conversation unless we start on this point, the beautiful truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is there: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. Luke, however, assumes that truth, for he begins with the very same title as John begins with, “the Word”; he speaks of those who were “eye-witnesses of and attendants on the Word”. That is what is marked down here in men, those who were eye-witnesses of and attendants on Him as Man. That could not be said of Jesus as John presented Him at the beginning. It was the inscrutableness of Deity then: the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and “No one has seen God at any time”, while Luke is presenting God before men’s eyes. “Eyewitnesses of and attendants on the Word” are the ones to listen to.
And so we have Gabriel conversing with the virgin Mary. Luke alone gives us this supreme incident, and in the conversation Gabriel says, speaking of Jesus, “He shall be great”. ‘He’ is emphatic, as if to say, That is the One to think of. It is as if the angel said, If you think of greatness eliminate from your mind all the great wonders of the world: “He shall be great”. So that our minds are directed to that Person; not ‘He is great’; I have been speaking of that, but “He shall be great”, and that “shall”, future tense,
[p. 285] implies that there will be the working out of personal and moral greatness in this Babe. He is called Jesus “Thou shalt call his name Jesus”, not “for he shall save his people” here; it is just the Person, the Man.
“Thou shalt call his name Jesus”. That is how He is to be known; that Name is to go through; so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings”, Philippians 2: 10. The glory of God is upon Him. That is the Person, the Man: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus”. He shall be great. Indeed, there can be no mistake about it; whatever men can do or say, He shall be great. The more they do against Him, the more the greatness shines, for, as was recorded by the same writer, the brethren together in prayer at Jerusalem told the Lord about the combination that was gathered together in that city: Pontius Pilate, and the elders of Jerusalem.
They were all there to do whatever God’s counsel had determined, and they did it; they murdered Christ. It was in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, but they did it: with wicked hands they crucified and slew Him; wicked hands. How many there are today in the world! Who can count them? But they are specified there. Wicked hands nailed those precious hands of Jesus to the cross.
Well, to get our minds on the right thought, that is what Gabriel says, “He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for the ages, and of his kingdom there shall not be an end”.
Now I want to go to the Old Testament to work out this thought of greatness, and take up Abraham first.
Abraham represents the heavenly man. Others of course are included, but he in a special way is the leader of the heavenly race; so that he represents christianity. Isaac is also the heavenly man, the heavenly man engaged in the testimony here. That [p. 286] is, Abraham was more Christ as purely heavenly. He sought a heavenly country; he sought a city whose Builder and Maker was God. “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Corinthians 15:48. That is how we come in in relation to heaven, and he represents this thought peculiarly, for it lies in God being with us. Any aspiration to greatness without that will come to nothing. Abraham represents greatness that accrues from God’s being with us. Abimelech recognises this fact, and it is a very practical fact too which ought to come home to us at the very outset of what I am speaking of, whether men observe this in us, that God is with us. That is what, as you will observe, Abimelech says to Abraham, “God is with thee in all that thou doest”. Now Abimelech would not flatter Abraham; he is a Philistine, and a Philistine is a characteristic rival of the heavenly man, so that when he says, “God is with thee in all that thou doest”, it is because he is forced to say it. The evidence was apparent. I am not acquiring greatness by my own ingenuity or skill; I am not advancing myself or seeking to in the eyes of my neighbours. My thought is that it should be apparent that God is with me in all that I do. You may say, Well, that may apply to the meeting. There are those who confine the thought of God’s being with us to the meeting, that particular side of the position, but that is not the thought at all; that is only part of it. Abimelech here says, “God is with thee in all that thou doest”. That was the test and that is to be the test, whether God is with me, whether He can be with me in what I am doing. If I branch out in a business way and become distinguished in any sense, I cannot count upon God for that. I may succeed; many have. That is not the greatness that is in mind.
That greatness could never attach to Christ: “He shall be great”. Luke gives you the fact at the very beginning. “He shall be great”; that kind of a man is to be great. The “He” is emphatic, as I said. So that any effort to become great of one’s own ability or with a view to his greatness in this world must be without God; further, any greatness acquired without God is coming to nothing, and worse. So that Abimelech recognised this in the patriarch, “God is with thee”, he says, “in all that thou doest”. That is, the Philistine king said that to Abraham. So much concerned about it was he that he sought to make a covenant with Abraham, and Abraham did make a covenant with him. I am just touching on that one point, but the heavenly man advances because God is with him. Neither does he want any other advances. We are enjoined to continue in our callings, whatever they may be as we become converted, but to continue in them with God. That is the thought. “God is with thee in all that thou doest”.
Then we come to this same Abraham in bereavement, and bereavement is sure to overtake each of us, and what comes out into view here is another section of the inhabitants of the land, the sons of Heth; the Philistine, the big man of this world religiously, had already spoken to him, had recognised the heavenly man as great; that is, he recognised that God was with him. Now the sons of Heth had a burying place to sell, and we see the bereaved heavenly man who calls Sarah, “my dead”. You may be sure he felt bereavement more than any of the sons of Heth would feel it. It is the heavenly man alone that feels bereavement aright. Jesus supremely felt it; He wept. It is the reflection of the heavenly, feeling things aright in a seemly way. Abraham makes no show here, but he feels he lost Sarah. He calls her, “my dead”
“that I may bury my dead”. But he is nevertheless great; he is great in that. To attain greatness in all circumstances is a great matter. God would have us to be great in all circumstances, and the heavenly man would be that; so that the sons of Heth say, “Thou [p. 288] art a prince of God among us” (verse 6). He is among these people, the sons of Heth. But what a testimony to the heavenly; here is a man without any worldly associations at all; he has come out from his worldly associations, from his country, from his kindred, from his father’s house, that he might become a mighty prince in the midst of the sons of Heth, and they have to own it, and that he is that in bereavement.
Then in chapter 26 we have Christ. Isaac is a type of Christ, and a type of the christian too, but he is a type of Christ. We say he is a type of Christ as the heavenly man, but that is not enough; Abraham is characteristically, distinctively the heavenly man; Isaac is the heavenly man, but he is the heavenly man officially, as if God would say, ‘You must have the heavenly man before you can have the official, before you can have witnesses here in the testimony’. That is what comes out in Genesis. It is the heavenly side; christianity inaugurated by Paul; “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”; but then the sheet comes down from heaven, knit at the four corners. It is the heavenly crisis: Peter on the house top became in a trance, and saw this wonderful vision; it was Christ, the true Isaac, operating officially now to bring the heavenly into the vision of the minister down here. That is what is in mind, and there is going to be true greatness, great things in this man. So we have first of all that he sowed in that land (chapter 26: 12). The heavenly man is going to produce something from his own sowing. It is to be a heavenly crop, as it were; God is so particular about this. He fills these chapters with this heavenly thought, so that it is the Christ; it is the Christ that took out Paul, and sent down the sheet; it is Christ in His official capacity in heaven, and the assembly here in the tent of Sarah. It is not the assembly in heaven; we have the suggestion that the assembly is of heaven, but here in testimony; it is heavenly in [p. 289] the sense that Christ is of heaven; the assembly is of heaven; the Son of man is of heaven; the Father is of heaven; that is the idea. They all come out; so that you have the sheet; it is operated from above; it is let down from above, let down and taken up again. The operations are from above, not from down here. So I link all that up with this passage. Isaac sowed in that land. He is particularly notified by Jehovah that he is operating in relation to Abraham. Abraham is the beginning of all this; so that God had said to him, “Unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries; and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father”, Genesis 26: 3. Isaac is the official heavenly man to effect heavenly thoughts down here. What a product that is of heaven, and to go back into heaven. So Isaac is enjoined to stay in this land, and he stayed and sowed in that land, as you will observe: “Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold”. Now that is the top product or crop of both Mark and Matthew. It is a hundredfold. This is the best result that is contemplated in the gospel, a hundredfold. The Lord is the heavenly Man taking up the apostle Paul, as I apprehend; He got the best; it is the heavenly side of the truth, and He got a hundredfold; then in connection with it it says, “The man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great”. He waxed great, and went forward until he became very great. Now you can understand, I hope, that what I am speaking of is linked on with Luke, but it is no question here of Christ viewed in abstract dealings; it is what works out in the saints; it is true greatness working out on these lines. We are in remnant times, but still it is very stimulating and balancing to get the primary thought of God and work on these lines; where are we going to see that without the heavenly official Man? You will understand that Christ has never lost that character; He remains the official;
[p. 290] He is charged with the holy service of God; for the present He will take up the earthly side: Isaac is the heavenly man, but the heavenly man engaged in service here for a result, so that he sows in that land. God has told him where to sow, and he received, literally, ‘found’; the thought is that he sowed and that he secured. There may be much sowing and very little reaping but we want to get the result. He received a hundredfold. It says, “Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold; and Jehovah blessed him. And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great”. That is Christ; that is the official Christ, if you understand me, the heavenly Christ occupied in service, since Pentecost, but particularly in Paul’s ministry. So that Paul’s epistles bring out the greatness of Christ, peculiarly so. John’s gospel does, as I have been saying, but that is much later; the gospels are simply confirmatory of the epistles. Paul brings out the greatness of Christ in the service, “Christ in you”, as he says. It is a known Christ: “Christ in you the hope of glory”, Colossians 1: 27. So that the epistle to the Colossians enlarges upon the greatness of Christ, but from the point of view, as I have been saying, that He shall be great.
But I want you to particularly pay attention to this, that he received that same year one hundredfold. Whatever that year may mean in the history of the church, maybe it is over, he received in that year one hundredfold. God blessed him, and he grew and grew until he was very great. How we admire the thought of his greatness from this point of view, from the wonderful sowing, wrought among the nations, from the apostle Paul, and what a yield! Luke tells us that the assemblies grew in number every day. Think of that. If they grew in number every day in this country, what a large number we would have. I am afraid it is rather dying out, and the Lord would have [p. 291] us to take it to heart, as to what increase there is, if there is any, and why there is not more, one hundredfold in one year.
Well, now I go on to Joshua. Of course he gives us another view of Christ-”On that day Jehovah magnified Joshua”. Magnified, of course, means ‘made great’. God had promised him that he would do that. It is how the Lord Jesus becomes magnified in our eyes, as we become spiritual. We have been speaking of being heavenly, but Joshua speaks of Christ understood spiritually. In Exodus he comes into our view as a capable man. Of course, he is called a young man, so he must have been a young man then, but a very capable man. He was to choose out men of war; he was not to make himself great, but he was to make an army for Israel, and we are told that he discomfited Amalek with the edge of the sword; that means Christ coming into the young believer’s soul in a spiritual way; he begins to see how the Lord helps him in an indefinable way, in his day-today exercises up and down, but nevertheless he always seems to gain something, day by day. The Lord never seems to leave him without any encouragement. In all of our experiences the Lord is graciously there to give us some little bit of encouragement-’I am with you in this’ and He will be greatly magnified in your eyes. The thing is we do not know the Lord enough spiritually; we know Him objectively, but we do not know Him spiritually; that is, know Him inwardly, in our inward experiences. As soon as you begin to know the Lord that way, He says, You will know Me better, and it is so. He increases in your eyes, and you see how great He is, especially as you get your feet on the solid ground of resurrection. You find purpose, and that is what He is aiming at in our experiences, to get our feet on solid ground in relation to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Peter says, God “has raised him from among the dead and given [p. 292] him glory, that your faith and hope should be in God”, 1 Peter 1: 21. It is so that we might get our feet on the solid ground of what the Lord is as raised from among the dead.
So that as Joshua begins to operate in bringing the people into Canaan, Jehovah says, “This day will I begin to magnify thee”, and in this verse he has done it. He magnifies Joshua, we are told, in the sight of all Israel. Abraham was magnified in the sight of the Philistines, and so was Isaac, but now it is in the sight of all Israel; it is a question of Christ as the Head spiritually; it is in the sight of all Israel. The people look on spiritually; Christ is to be magnified. I do urge this; it will be the solution of many difficulties, if Christ comes into your vision in this way, if you are able to take your stand in relation to all Israel, and see that Christ is operating to get your feet on the solid ground of resurrection, as Paul says, “If any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead”, Philippians 3: 11. He was aiming at that, that he might get his feet on the solid ground of divine purpose in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that as Joshua operates on these lines, it says, “On that day Jehovah magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life”. He acquires a place in the soul; and it is a great steadying power when Christ acquires a place from this point of view; that is, the point of view of Joshua, so that we feel we are moving, maybe like a glacier, slowly on to the side of divine purpose, and the sure ground of the resurrection of Christ. That is the only solid ground there is, Christ in resurrection. There is the ascension too, but the power of Jordan, the waters of Jordan are driven miles away up stream, so that the people went over on dry ground. It is a question of the power of God, that the waters are cut off, and all Israel passes over. I commend this part, because I believe it is less understood [p. 293] than any other part of scripture, because it is a wholly spiritual matter.
Then I go on to David, in 2 Samuel, and the sorrowful thing that comes to our notice in this respect is a long war, a very sorrowful thing. It is not a war with Philistines, or the inhabitants of the land, but with those who are nominally, and really, our brethren. There was a long war, it says, between the house of Saul and the house of David, a long war! This applies in crises amongst us; crises arise and the effects of the conflict go on, long after, and that is so with David and Saul. There was a long war. It was very humbling that it should be long, this war between brethren. It has its own meaning here: there were elements, such as Joab, that were the secret of it; they were not any better than the servants of Saul. The war was long, but then it says, “David became continually stronger, and the house of Saul became continually weaker”. Just look at that. That is a sure evidence of where God is and where God is not; where the waxing stronger is and where the weakness is. It is not spasmodic, but it is a steady thing, a waxing stronger and stronger. That is just as it was with Abraham. David waxed stronger and stronger. It does not say the house of David here. It is “David”, but “the house of Saul”, for Saul is dead. Alas! his house went on, his house carried on on the same principles, inveterate opposition to the anointed of God. So it says that the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. And now, to finish the thought in chapter 5, we have Christ. The history really begins with Abraham; now we have Christ in type as the king, not the heavenly man as in Abraham, but He is an official, as Isaac was, so to speak, and then kingship is seen in ascension, in going up. So in chapter 1 of this book, David is said to be two days in Ziklag; that is where he recovered all, and he spoke beautifully about Saul; there was no rankling of hatred against [p. 294] an inveterate hater; no! He spoke most nobly and beautifully about Saul and Jonathan. He spoke of Jonathan’s love for him, a beautiful tribute to Jonathan, but really a tribute to the magnanimous spirit of David; that is whether it be Christ (of course, it is perfect there) or whether it be a christian who is thoroughly victorious over himself; he is thoroughly adjusted and has a magnanimous, not a vindictive, spirit. He has the spirit of Jesus. So he says to Jehovah, “Shall I go up ..? And Jehovah said to him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? and he said, Unto Hebron”, 2 Samuel 2: 1. It is on the line of ascension, and on this line of ascension we have this sorrowful comment-the long war; but still David is on the line of ascension, and he is growing stronger and stronger. I read this, dear brethren, because it is the true way of victory, waxing stronger and stronger on the line of ascension. If a murderer comes and slays my enemy, I might vaunt over it, but not so David; he wept. He rent his garments when he heard that Saul was slain, as he was, by a Philistine sword: “The shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as not anointed with oil”,
2 Samuel 1:21. He was anointed of God; he could not but feel it, and God valued that. And when Abner was slain, he says, “Should Abner die as a fool dieth?” (chapter 3: 33). David felt it, but he followed the bier and we are told that everything he did pleased the people; why should it not? It was the spirit of Christ. Everything he did was right in the eyes of Israel. The true Israel will come to that; that everything that Christ does in the eyes of the people of God is right. It is true greatness, too. Ishbosheth, his great enemy, king Saul’s son, is slain, but there is still the same spirit in David, the spirit of Jesus Christ. So that he waxed greater and greater. You can understand it, and now he has got to the top point; he has been in Hebron seven years and six months, and he is [p. 295] anointed king over Israel and he comes to Jerusalem. That is the ascent of the king; the ascent, as it says of Solomon, the ascent by which he went up. It is the beautiful gate. It is easy to go up, but it is the ascent by which we go up. Elisha represented the idea of going up; he saw Elijah going up. Elijah says, ‘If you see me go up you will get your request’. We must have our eye on the ascension; the ascension is the great point now. The children come out and they say to Elisha, “Go up, bald head!”. That was opposition from a wicked generation, as it is called, the Jewish generation, a wicked and adulterous generation. It is reprobate and the she-bears come out of the wood and tore forty-two of them; that is that kind of opposition, opposition to the going up line.
“Go up, bald head!”. What a reproach! Think of that! Think of speaking of the man of God like that, and yet young people do speak very glibly, very foolishly and very rashly, too: “Go up, bald head!”. God would deepen His work in our souls to solemnise us in what we say; these young people were opposing the truth for the moment. “Go up, bald head!”, they say, and two she-bears come out of the wood and tore forty-two of them.
Now David is going up and he comes to the zenith, that is Jerusalem; and they say, He cannot enter Zion. That is again a reproach, as if he could not do it. Who understood it? No one. He is going to take Zion; so it says, “David took the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David”. They had said, “Thou shalt not come in hither, but the blind and lame will drive thee back”. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, and then we are told in verse 10, “David became continually greater; and Jehovah the God of hosts was with him”. What we are told of him, what he built inwardly, is in verse 9. So that now it is the greatness of Christ in this sense in building inwardly; that is what the Lord is doing [p. 296] now. He is helping us build up our intelligences and affections in regard of God, in regard to the worship of God, the service of God, the inside place. That is what David was doing; that is what Christ is doing. We cannot say much of the lame and the blind, but they are hated of David’s soul. Lameness and blindness are spiritual matters. People say, ‘I cannot see it’. It is to be seen, but if you do not see it you are blind, and David hates that. They rest behind it, as if their blindness were a virtue. If you do not see it you ought to see it, and if you do not see it you are blind. David hates that. And David does not like the lame, those that hobble along, inconsistent people; that is what he does not like. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion. It is a question of the hearts of the saints, and he builds inwardly so that we might worship God, and that is the main thought in David, to build a house and establish the service of God. He is called the sweet psalmist of Israel; he must be the leader. He is the sweet psalmist of Israel; that is, the Lord leads the service of God in the midst of us. I have seen all round the world the evidence of the work of God in that inward way, leading the saints to worship God in spirit and in truth.