PHASES OF DIVINE LOVE
[p. 27] PHASES OF DIVINE LOVE
Genesis 22: 2; Genesis 37: 3; Exodus 21: 1 - 6; Exodus 28:1 - 4; Exodus 28:40 - 43
JT I thought it would be helpful if we have before us the great thought of love, and how it works out in dignified and holy service Godward. We have parental love in the first scripture, paternal love. Love originates in God, and in the New Testament the love of God for man is seen: “God so loved the world”. It is parental love for His people as such. Then there is the love of Christ for each of us, for the church. All these are references to phases of divine love. We have in a typical way parental or paternal love in Abraham, typically God’s love for Christ, which I suppose we may regard as the highest order of love. The Lord speaks Himself about it, “That the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them”. Then there is in Isaac the type of Christ’s love for the church. These are the two great thoughts of Genesis. Following upon that there is preferential love, that is Rebecca loved Jacob. That was preferential. And you have Jacob’s love for Rachel; he loved her more than Leah. Then we have also Jacob’s love for Joseph which is preferential. In all these cases the object draws out the love.
In Exodus we have love in bondslave conditions. It is a matter of the deepest interest as entering into the present time, and the service attaching to it brings us into bondslave conditions but it enhances the love “I love my master, my wife, and my children”. It was active; it was not a theoretical love. Then the service that is seen there takes up another form, the priestly form, which is not in bondslave conditions, but in dignity and holiness. It is not that our Lord’s love in bondslave conditions was not dignified and holy, but I am speaking now of how it is presented.
[p. 28] The difference lies in the description of Aaron and his sons as over against the bondman in chapter 21. So that as we understand the bondslave conditions and the love in spite of them, we shall understand something of the priestly and dignified side.
Ques Have you in mind that the Lord has a responsive, holy love in service as a result of His own love in this way?
JT Yes, that is what I thought. The reference first is in the bondslave conditions, and having in mind the order in Romans 6 we see how love worked out in bondslave conditions. Romans brings out love in the bondslave form in us. We are said to be bondmen to God. Then it also works out in the higher order, so to speak, of service, that is that he might serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. “I beseech you therefore, brethren ... to present your bodies a living sacrifice, ... which is your intelligent service”. Sonship comes in in chapter 8. Priesthood is based on sonship.
Ques In what aspects do we understand preferential love?
JT Well, it is seen in Rebecca first. Many of us are too promiscuous, I believe. We are to learn to appreciate what is lovable according to God, not what is lovable after the flesh. Isaac loved Esau. So that we have to test our appreciation. Why do I love a person? Rebecca loved Jacob, and the sequel shows that she was in the mind of God in loving him, because God hated Esau. It is a very solemn thought if I am found loving those whom God hates. They are corrupt in that way.
Ques Would what she says, “On me be thy curse, my son”, show the extent to which her love would go for Jacob?
JT Exactly. It was a love which would accept the curse for its object.
[p. 29] Ques Do we not have a very high character of preferential love in the gospel of John as to the disciple whom Jesus loved?
JT Yes. He was lovable. There is a distinction between brotherly love and love. “Have ... in brotherly love love”. Of course we may find ourselves preferring one whom God does not love. The Father’s love for the Son is seen typically in Abraham. It is the first great feature that we get. “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac”. And then the next great thought is Christ’s love for the church, which is seen typically in Isaac. These are two great primary thoughts. Preferential love arises on account of sin working in Esau, and especially in Esau because it does not say that Rebecca loved Jacob more than Esau; it does not say that she loved Esau at all. She was entirely in line with God in discernment. And then as regards Leah and Rachel, it does not intimate that Jacob did not love Leah, but he loved Rachel more. Israel is first loved; it is an appeal to Israel. He loved her first and he loved her best. Although she is rejected today, it is not His thought. Even Paul, the emissary to the gentiles, showed his preference to the Jews in going to Jerusalem. That would be a love of counsel more. Then there was the love of Jacob for Joseph. It is not that he did not love the others, but he loved him more.
Ques Does that correspond with what the Lord said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him”?
JT Quite. He comes especially under the Father’s eye. “The Father himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me”.
“Joseph, being seventeen years old”, and then it says, “Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was son of his old age”, which has its own meaning. All these conditions of love are of very great importance for us.
[p. 30] Now when you come to Exodus, we are on the line of service. The service is urgent and the difficulty is great, but these things enter into the bondslave service, service worked out in difficult conditions, but worked out nevertheless.
Ques Are you moving now from Genesis, the complacency of love, to the setting where the sufferings of love are found in Exodus?
JT Yes, we are brought down in Exodus to the sufferings of love in service. Things are urgent; the bondman is there. He may go out free, but he has to serve so many years.
Ques Why do you speak of preferential love?
JT So that we may then cultivate a taste according to God, because we are too promiscuous, too undiscerning.
Ques Would you say that the salutations, the different way in which Paul refers to saints, suggest spiritual tastes and values?
JT Yes, I thought so. The salutations and commendations in the epistles are varied. We are to learn to recognise the worth, integral worth, and love what is lovable and not to love that which is not lovable, that which is merely natural, but we are to be found in the mind of God. Very often we get into church difficulties because of preference in the wrong direction, and are not discerning in love. We love all in a certain way, but we must not overlook preferential love; God does not.
Ques Do the two scriptures in Genesis suggest to us descending love and the scripture in Exodus ascending love, so that it is responsive?
JT You have in Genesis descending love in Abraham, and horizontal love in Isaac. The love of a husband for his wife is not descending; it is horizontal. “I love my master”; that is ascending love; ‘I love my wife’; that is horizontal; ‘I love my children’; that is descending love. Ascending [p. 31] love must be the great thing in service. Christ’s love for the saints is hardly developed in Exodus; it is the priesthood. Horizontal love contemplates people of equal rank, and I think the wife relationship is on that line, equality. So that the servant is sworn not to secure a wife for Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites.
Ques Is that brought out in the type of Adam and Eve? Eve was presented to Adam, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”, bringing out the greatness of the church?
JT Yes, she was to “be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”, and it is in that connection that union lies. There could be no family link between Adam and Eve because there had been no parents, but with Isaac and Rebecca there was the family link. The family link comes out in Abraham, so that we are sons. Sonship underlies Rebecca, the type of the church. So that in chapter 22 of Genesis Isaac does not come down from the mount after he is offered up. Abraham came to his young men, and came to Beer-sheba.
When we come into Exodus, while we have the descending, horizontal and ascending love in Christ, what is developed is the ascending love, but developed in priesthood. It is love in priesthood, this love in sonship, whether in Christ or in us. So that John works out the great thought of how the Son loves the Father. “That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do”, John 14: 31. Now you come to the ascending side, and that is what we may see in Exodus 28 and 29.
Ques Would you just say a word as to what you have referred to in Isaac not coming down from the mountain?
JT It means that Christ has risen on high for us, that Christ is in heaven.
[p. 32] Rem I was wondering what was the force of Genesis 22: 19: “Abraham returned to his young men”. It does not imply that Isaac was there.
JT Scripture is intended to produce impressions.
No doubt he came down, but it does not say so. So that Christ not having come back to earth again, not having come down to the open testimony afterwards, the church is brought to Him as in heaven. “I ascend to my Father”. The omissions of Scripture are quite as important for us as the statements. How much could be written! and that which is written is intended to produce impressions in our minds. So Isaac did not come down; the work of the Spirit is to take us out of this world, detaching us from all our natural settings and giving us to understand that we are companions for Christ. Abraham in verse 5 says to his young men, “Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you”. The omission referred to is therefore all the more significant.
It is interesting to note the garments that are mentioned here in Exodus. In John 13 the Lord laid aside His garments. These garments would hardly fit a bondman, and yet they are on the bondman; it is the same Person. We must understand bondman conditions, because not only was he in them, but his wife was in them and his children were in them. We have to understand how to serve in these conditions. Bondman conditions are limited, and we are under pressure, but love is there.
Ques Would you say that we have bondman conditions during the week, and priestly conditions on the Lord’s day?
JT Well, it is the state of bondmanship in your spirit, the acceptance of bondmanship Godward in your spirit, and we shall not arrive at priestly conditions otherwise. The paternal thought comes in after chapter 24, where you have the priesthood alluded to [p. 33] under the guise of the young men. They are used in chapter 24. I think that is just a form of advance on the bondman. Moses sent his young men and they offered sacrifices. I think we have to learn as to the bondman in chapters 21, 22 and 23, and then the advance, inasmuch as the people are ready to enter into a covenant with God and are certainly elevated. The people entered into a covenant with God. Here you have the covenant on God’s side, but it is entered into on the people’s side. He is pleased to bring in the covenant and makes it effective through death on His side. If we understand that we shall see that we are elevated, not theoretically, but in our souls. They are brought into liberty, and that lays the basis for the material of the sanctuary. I am to serve Him with the knowledge of His love in my heart. I am elevated, morally, actually. Then there is the necessity for someone to minister at the altar. It is not now a bondman, it is not now a question of youths, but great personages outlined in Aaron and his sons.
Ques What would the youths suggest as in contrast to what you have been speaking of as great personages?
JT There is no great distinction; all that is said of them is that they are youths, or young men, a step in advance of the bondman.
Ques Are these sons consciously and morally bondmen?
JT I think so: I think that is the way it works out. But in the types you approach the sanctuary. There are steps; there is the bondman, and there is the youth. “Aaron thy brother”, that is the mediator. The mediator represents God. Now it is, “Aaron thy brother, ... that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office”.
Ques Do we find bondman conditions in John 15 where we experience the hatred of the world?
JT The bondman relation has to do [p. 34] with God.
It is a question of my relation with God, not that I may come into a state of slavery but that I may come under the control of God. It is not a slave state of soul; it is a question of being bound to God, having no will of my own. Service should take on bondman character. I am absolutely for another. So that the Lord Jesus being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form. It is the setting up of a position where I am absolutely at the will of another. The Lord has laid the way for this; He was here for the will of God and for no other. When that is worked out it never ceases, but other features come in, namely, the youth side. I am under the direction of Moses, but I am used as a youth, as one who has living energy, and by the Spirit I am able to do these things in an active, energetic, living way. And then I am robed for this dignity in relation to Aaron, in relation to Christ as the High Priest in heaven. It is a question of taking hold of the steps which lead up to this service to God. It is dignity based on sonship. This priestly service is available for all. It says, “Thou shalt take thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel”. It would suggest that we are all open for this service. The bondman idea is that the Lord Jesus has gone even unto death. The position is retained; we never lose it. It is not derogatory; we are absolutely for the will of God, having no wills of our own. But then I go on to the setting of a young man, that is energy and freshness in the things of God, and finally I come into the dignity of priesthood, love and bondmanship. There is nothing derogatory to be here for the will of God, having no other will. It is all for God.
The workmanship of these garments referred to is most interesting. It says, “And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments [p. 35] to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen”. These colours denote the various glories of Christ. In Hebrews 2 it says, “We see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”. We see Him there.
Ques Would the first feature of the bondman be that of subjection, and the next feature that of the youth, suggesting freshness and energy? Would both blend in the third feature in giving character to the service Godward?
JT Yes, I thought so.
Ques Would the Lord’s movements suggest to us that the bondman’s place is the proper place for man? Adam was not made a bondman, but we see the moral necessity, sin having come in, for man’s taking that place.
JT I do not think you will ever arrive at the priesthood before going through the bondman’s way — that you are absolutely for God’s will. “Not my will, but thine, be done”.
The youths’ coming under Moses’ direction indicates a service without a name attached to it. But Hebrews develops the great thought in sonship: the Priest is the Son. So that the two thoughts run together.
Ques When the Lord Jesus said typically, “I will not go free”, had He in view that moment when He could say, “Behold, I and the children which God has given me”, and then what is said in Psalm 22 showing that the wife and the children are carried over? He has secured them as a [p. 36] bondman.
JT They are carried over, so that He sings in the midst of the assembly. But the great point of our reading is how love works, how it works in the bondman conditions, and how it develops as in the youth and then in the priesthood where we serve God in all the dignity of sons, as these garments represent. The high priest has got them all; he has got them on his shoulder; he has got them on his heart, and then the sons are brought in with their high caps and their dress. Then there are the linen breeches or trousers, meaning that if we are to be brought into this service we are to be brought into it soberly. The linen means sobriety, that we are kept under His control.
Ques Are you suggesting that the great motive which should move us in all these conditions is love?
JT Yes; that is what I have in mind. What a great thing it is, and how it works out in bondman conditions, and is then developed in these beautiful conditions of youth and priesthood. I think chapter 28 would help us out of clericalism and sectarianism; if we studied that we should see that the service includes all saints, but it includes them in love; they are on the breastplate. The thought of the priesthood is that it cares for what is due to the nature of God-the holiness of God. It goes right through into eternity.
Nothing is derogatory about the bondmen. We connect the bondman with righteousness and the priesthood with holiness. Service is morally glorious, all founded in sonship. In Ephesians 3 we read, “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”.
That is the crown of this wonderful service.