SEEING, AND SEEING CLEARLY
It would be very helpful to us if we had the fact distinctly before our souls that there is only one Man for God. Perhaps what I am going to say will be difficult to some, but the Spirit of God can make it clear.
We get the expressions “first man” and “second man” in 1 Corinthians 15: 47: “The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven”. If you are a Christian, ponder what I say, and ask the Lord to make it clear to you.
The death of our Lord Jesus Christ has for ever severed our link with the old man. “Our old man has been crucified with him”, Rom 6: 6. You may not be in the apprehension of it, but that is how God looks at it. We begin a new history in connection with the second Man.
There is another thing, and that is that the state of the first man is developed in the Gospels. I do not want to look round to see what the first man is. All that he is has come out by the presence of the second Man. The second Man brought out the character of the first. We begin as children with the Gospels, and as full-grown men we end with them. In the Gospels you get man's state. He has been brought out in his true character, and a very sorry character it is. Thank God, the link with him has been severed.
In the previous part of the chapter before us you will find the Lord is warning His disciples as to two leavens. There are three leavens altogether in scripture which bring out what man is - the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Sadducees, and the leaven of Herod. In Matthew the Lord is warning His disciples of the first two, but here it is the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of the Herodians that come before us. The leaven of the Pharisees is man’s pretension to be righteous; it is connected with religiousness. The leaven of the Sadducees is connected with man's reasoning powers. To put it in modern language - the first is ritualism, the second is rationalism, while the leaven of Herod is political. You see what man is. One is connected with a spurious righteousness, another with reason, and the third with government and politics. The leaven of the Herodians is: We are here to do the best we can to make the world better, to leave it better than we found it.
I now come to what is more before me. I have read to you the narrative of the blind man, and a most instructive narrative it is. This blind man sets before us two conditions in which a believer may be found. He is brought to the Lord, and is severed from his home. The Lord took him by the hand and led him out of the town. When a man is converted, everything in this world is lost sight of. It is no question of things here. You have the sense of the true value of things. The Lord closes this chapter with, “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” It is a question of the value of the soul. When you face this matter you are outside your own affairs; you are facing eternity; you are facing the future with God; your wife, children, farm, everything is lost sight of. This man is brought out of the town by Christ. He has contact with Christ. Have you ever had personal contact with Him? When He had spit on his eyes and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw aught: and he said, “I see men as trees, walking”. That is the first thing. He does not see clearly; but he sees. It is a great thing to have your eyes opened. This blind man represents the state of the disciples who companied with the Lord before His death, and before the Spirit was given. They were blessed men. They said, “To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life”, John 6: 68. Yet before redemption was accomplished they did not see clearly. The language of a man who does not see clearly is, “Be it far from thee, Lord”, Matt 16: 22. Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ just before. He had come as a Jew and owned that Jesus was the Personage of whom the Old Testament had spoken. That was a great thing, but the Lord charges them not to tell any man. They had been looking for the Lord to set up the kingdom and reign. They had a right to do so, for it was set forth in the scriptures. But the Lord says, I am going to suffer. He speaks to them plainly about it, He was going to suffer, to die, and to be raised again the third day. They do not understand it, and therefore Peter rebukes Him; he could not bear it. Why? Because the flesh in him was cut to the quick, he shrank from suffering. And the Lord turned and looked upon His disciples. He saw what the effect of such a remark would be on those He loved. He looked upon them as much as to say to Peter, Do you not know that your words will be highly injurious to others? “Get thee behind me, Satan”, v 23. Peter did not see things clearly, and when we do not see things clearly we affect others, and that is a very serious thing. If I allow the flesh in myself, it will come out in my family; and the meeting, too, will be affected by it, and it will be a serious matter.
So the Lord says: “Get thee behind me, Satan”. Paul says, in the Epistle to the Galatians, speaking of those who had gone to them with the leaven of the Pharisees, that he could wish them accursed. His heart was filled with indignation against those Judaising teachers. People say we must love each other. We must stand for the truth. We must come to scripture to understand what love is. It was true love working in the heart of the apostle when he said, “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed”. So in his Master here. How does He put it? “Get thee behind me, Satan … for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men”.
Would that we had a deepened sense of this! There is a great breach between man and God. How often we savour of the things that be of men! Peter was thinking of the kingdom glory: his Master was thinking of suffering.
Satan is seeking to dishonour Christ through His people. It was Satan handling the flesh in Peter, who was in the condition of the blind man who had been touched by Christ, but, as yet, did not see clearly. What the blind man says is, “I see men as trees, walking”; man had an undue place; he saw men. I admit that virtue had gone out of Christ, which was for him everlasting blessing. When Christ touches you, all the blessing is yours, but it is the object of the Spirit of God to lead you into it.
The blind man with his eyes open, but only seeing men as trees walking, presents a picture of every carnal Christian. 1 Corinthians 2 and 3 will show it. The apostle, speaking there to the Corinthian saints, who were so highly gifted and yet in such a low state, says, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect”, &c, 1 Cor 2: 6. That is, the Corinthians were in such a carnal state through allowing the flesh, that, although they had the Spirit, Paul was obliged to say to them, I cannot unfold the hidden wisdom of God to you; you are carnal, and walk as men; you pride yourselves in your knowledge, and that hinders you; there is wisdom and blessing I cannot put before you, because you cannot see clearly.
So it was with Peter in Galatians 2. He went to Antioch, and at first ate with those who believed among the Gentiles, but when some had come down from Jerusalem, he was afraid and drew back. He was living before the eyes of his fellow-men; he was not free of men. Is it not often so with us? Would you not like to be thought a devoted Christian or a devoted servant of the Lord? How much we live before the eyes of others! May God deliver us from it.
I come now to the next touch, “After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly”. It sets forth the Christian that has apprehended the purpose of God; he sees that he belongs to heaven.
As a natural man, I do not want to go to heaven; all my links are here. I am suited to this earth, and on this earth I should like to stay. But, as a Christian, I am going to heaven because I belong there. I am a man of a new order. “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”, 1 Cor 16: 48. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second Man is out of heaven. So the man who sees the purpose of God apprehends that he belongs to heaven.
You see it exemplified in Stephen; who when full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw all things clearly; he saw the glory of God and Jesus. When they were battering his face with stones, he did not refuse the suffering; he saw all things clearly; he saw the glory of God and Jesus; he knew his link with heaven, and on earth was like his Master; he had his eye upon Christ, and was like Him in consequence. “He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7: 60) - like his Master, who said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23: 34. Whence did Stephen get this power? From Christ in glory. He says, I belong to heaven; the place that claimed Jesus claims me.
Christianity gives us an object. There are two proposals in it. God says, I will make you happy with Me at home in My presence, and it is through the redemption work of Christ He does so; then He gives me an object to sustain me all the way here. You look up there to that Object, who satisfies God’s heart. He has given us the same object that we may be satisfied too. The reason we are not satisfied is because we do not see things clearly.
I will read a passage that brings it before you - Philippians 3. Let me say the Apostle Paul pre-eminently sets before us the blind man when he had the second touch and saw all things clearly; he represents what Christianity really is. The man who brought out the doctrine of Christianity is the man who lived it; it is Paul, who saw all things clearly, who writes this Epistle to the Philippians. “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect” (Phil 3: 15) - that is, those who see all things clearly - “be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you”. That is great encouragement.
He knew why he was apprehended. Christ Jesus had apprehended him for a distinct purpose - to have him like Himself in glory for ever. It is not the thought of the Saviour having compassion on you and washing you from your sins in His blood - all quite true - and that you might go to heaven when you die - that is the general idea - but that Christ has apprehended you to be like Him and with Him for ever. The apostle was a man of one idea. I turn not, he says, to the right hand, or to the left; I press forward toward the mark for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
There seems to be a contradiction between verses 12 and 15. Verse 15 is the language of a man who sees all things clearly; verse 12 shows that he has not yet attained to perfection, but he has apprehended it in his soul; it is his object. What is your object? Is it money-making, or earthly comforts? What governs you day by day? It is like Levi - that man sitting at the receipt of custom; he is sitting at the money-table, hearing the clink of money from morning till night, because he knows nothing better. But by-and-by the Son of God draws near to him. He says to Levi, “Follow me”. Now mark what it says of him in Luke's gospel: “he left all, rose up, and followed him” (Luke 5: 27, 28); he left all first.
Now the apostle says: “Let … as many as be perfect, be thus minded”. I will give you an illustration to bring it out. It is said that an Italian artist one day took his pupils into his picture-gallery, bidding them each select a picture to copy. One of the pupils, after wandering up and down, seated himself before a perfect masterpiece, saying with a sigh, ‘If I copy any, it shall be this one’. Presently the artist came to see how his pupils were getting on. When he came to this one he ejaculated, ‘Oh, is not that splendid! Look at that, not at my daub!’ The master replied, ‘You are the man for me; you have an eye for perfection’. The eye for perfection is verse 15, “As many as be perfect”. The man with an eye for perfection sees all things clearly; he sees that Christ and Christ alone will do for God, and he sees that God has called him to be like that Man and with Him for ever. Verse 12 is my ‘daub’ - “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect”. Not perfect as to attainment, but perfect as to object. The Lord by His Spirit draw us from the man that is here, and fix our hearts on the Man that is there.
I trust the Lord will use these remarks to quicken your footsteps after Christ, till travelling days are done, for His name's sake.
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THE MORAL FEATURES OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Luke 7: 44-50; 8: 1-3; 1 Corinthians 1: 9
My thought is to take up the important subject of Christian Fellowship, although in so doing I do not intend to present the whole of it in such a short address as this, for it is indeed a very large subject, but it is on my mind to present a few practical thoughts in connection with it, which I trust will be of value to souls.
My object is not so much to explain Scripture, or to expound certain truths with which we are more or less familiar, but my point is to try and show the moral side of it. I often say, and would again repeat it, our real danger is holding truth in the abstract while our hearts and consciences remain unaffected thereby; because if God gives us light, it is that there might be produced in us a moral answer which will be for His pleasure, otherwise it is practically worthless.
We sometimes do not distinguish enough between the joy of title and the joy of possession. There must be the joy of title - do not misunderstand me - but the joy of possession must come through exercise.
I now come to this very important subject, Christian Fellowship. In Corinthians you will observe we have set before us very clearly what constitutes Christian fellowship. The verse which is quoted above is the key to the epistle. The faithful God had called them into “the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. Now there was at Corinth that which was unworthy of this fellowship, although they had been called into it. Therefore the apostle is writing in a corrective manner, as also in a spirit of jealousy. There are two corrective epistles in which the spirit of jealousy is found, the epistles of Corinthians and Galatians.
Let me here make another remark. The bond of fellowship is the Lord; the boundary is the death of Christ; the power is in the Spirit. What lies at the root of the whole matter and what properly leads to fellowship is appreciation of Christ.
The appreciation of Christ is the first start, it is what makes the fellowship. If we come together into Christian fellowship it is because we have been taught to appreciate Christ. Indeed, the beauty of Christianity does not lie in individuality, but in the word mutuality. I do not here speak of things as they exist before our eyes at the present time, for if we are to get God's thoughts about it we must keep clear of all the confusion which we see around us in Christendom. Here in Scripture we have God's account of Christian fellowship - what is according to His thoughts. Keep that in mind. We must get away from the thoughts of men - the principle of expediency - and turn to Scripture to see God's thoughts in regard to this momentous question.
The appreciation of Christ lies at the root of the whole matter and for that purpose I read that passage in Luke 7. The chapter is a remarkable one. In it we have three incidents. The first is the healing of the centurion's servant. The Jews come to the Lord beseeching Him that He would heal his servant, saying, “he was worthy for whom he should do this. For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue”, v 4. But the centurion sends his friends to say to the Lord, “I am not worthy”, v 6. How far removed, morally, was the centurion from those who were under Jewish prejudices. “Say in a word, and my servant shall be healed”, v 7. I am not worthy, but I own you to be Lord. It is the faith of a gentile confessing Jesus to be Lord.
The next incident is the raising of the widow's son at Nain. The Lord comes to the city and at the gate He meets a dead man carried out. Death had cast its dark shadow over the city of pleasantness. He speaks the word, the dead man rises. He is declared to be the Son of God by resurrection of the dead. Then comes the third incident, the passage which I read in which Jesus is presented as the Christ, the One in whom the grace of God is set forth. God's disposition to man is set forth in that blessed anointed Man who is in the Pharisee's house. Thus, in the chapter we have Jesus presented to us as Lord, as Son of God, and as Christ. He is the anointed vessel of the grace of God towards man. God's attitude towards all is set forth in Christ. “And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both”, v 42. He was gracious to them both. But I want to show you the difference between Simon and the woman who was wisdom's child. There was a great difference subjectively. The question naturally arises, what induced Simon to invite the Lord into his house? On what principle did he ask Him? We want to get at that. To my mind this has been somewhat overlooked, because he represents in principle thousands around us at the present time. In Scripture, especially in the Gospels, persons represent certain principles. Take this chapter for example, where we find indifferentism clearly set forth. “We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept”, Luke 7: 32. That principle is much abroad in the world to-day. But Simon represents a far more subtle principle, that is patronage. He sought to be a patron in the invitation to eat with him. He had no kindly feelings towards the Lord, but was in that wretched environment of self-complacency which ever keeps God at a distance. The Lord felt it, for He had all the true sensibilities of a man in marking the neglect. Simon would be a patron, but wisdom's child was there. She comes on another line entirely, and that is the way in which we come. We all love Christ who are Christians, but we have come along the line this woman came. We have been taught to appreciate Christ on the line of self-judgment - I am nothing. “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word”, Isa 66: 2.
We can only learn the blessedness of what God is on the line of self-judgment, and we have to be kept on that line. She does not utter a word, but the attitude of her soul proclaims her to be wisdom's child. Simon is there in all his pride of heart and disappointed in his guest. What an awful gulf between the woman and Simon. What is of value to God is a heart that appreciates Christ. He does not value anything else. If people appreciated the truth they would appreciate Christ, because Christ is the truth. The One I love is the One in whom the truth is. Everything else is vapid and worthless.
The Lord draws the contrast between Simon and the woman. “Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment”. “For she loved much”. He has done with Simon and turns to the woman whose heart was attached to Him, and says to her, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace”. Where was she to go? She must go somewhere. The atmosphere of Simon's house was not congenial to the Lord, He could not be at home where He was treated with neglect and even contempt. My heart is grieved when I hear people pleading for charity at the expense of Christ's glory, and I refuse this principle. No, He is not to be put out in the cold, for He is the bond of Christian fellowship. Apostasy has set in. Men stand up in so-called Christian pulpits and insult Christ. If your mother were insulted, what would you do? - why, rise and walk out; but when Christ is insulted, few care. That is not fellowship. God appreciates a heart that loves Christ and is true to Him.
“Go in peace” - where? The three verses in the next chapter show us the Christian company. It is pictured in chapter 8. You may depend upon it, the Spirit has put in juxtaposition these three verses with the previous chapter – Simon’s house and the place where the woman was to go and live. These are moral thoughts. In Luke’s Gospel we have moral order. The woman was to go to this company. You cannot have Christian fellowship without the twelve apostles. Christian fellowship is based on apostolic teaching: “They continued … in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship”, Acts 2: 42.
In Scripture, the men always represent the doctrine or position, and the women the condition. You have the women here, but with the twelve, so you cannot have fellowship apart from apostolic teaching. The prayer of the Lord in John 17: 11, “that they may be one, as we are”, was answered, and apostolic unity was maintained. We have the apostles’ teaching in Holy Scriptures and there could not be Christian fellowship apart from the apostles.
The women represent to us the beautiful subjective side, whose hearts had been taught to appreciate Christ. Here were women drawn together out of the world as it appears from different stations in life, yet held together by one common bond, the Lord who had so graciously delivered them being their object. They “ministered unto him”. Do you not see in that a contrast to Simon’s house? The Spirit intends it to be a contrast. In the one the Lord is neglected, in the other He is appreciated. Their hearts are knit together by one common object. “They ministered unto him”. So is it in Christian fellowship. Our hearts have been taught by the Spirit to appreciate that blessed One in whom all the grace of our God is set forth. We each gladly confess Him to be our Lord, and He has become our bond; but for this we should probably have never known each other. Let us ever keep this in mind. It is interesting to note in this connection what is said of the assembly at Antioch in Acts 13. It seems to be the mind of the Spirit to show a contrast to the assembly at Jerusalem. In the latter, decline had evidently set in: “there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration”, Acts 6: 1. It seems to indicate spiritual decline; they were more or less self-occupied. While in contrast to this, it is said of the assembly at Antioch: “as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said”, Acts 13: 2. It was from such an assembly the glad tidings went forth with fresh energy and power by Barnabas and Saul. Service here is seen in connection with the assembly from which they were sent by the Holy Ghost in full fellowship, and it is interesting to notice they returned to the place from which they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had fulfilled (chapter 14: 27). The happy spiritual condition at Antioch is set forth in the words: “they ministered unto the Lord, and fasted” - two great moral features of Christian fellowship.
I was remarking before in connection with the passage in Corinthians, that the bond of fellowship was the Lord and the boundary the death of Christ. Now if you are under the influence of the love of Christ, if you are responsive to it, you will be true to that in which His love is expressed. I am very much afraid of mere human sentiment or the working of natural feeling in God's things. It is blessed to be enabled to sing of Christ and his love, but if you are really under this influence you will be true to His death. It is a great moral reality.
You remember the passage where the Lord had been speaking of His death and the disciples could not understand that saying, and were afraid to ask Him (Mark 9: 31, 32). How different it should be with us who have by the Spirit the knowledge of where He is, and the love which brought Him to where He was, even to death. We should not be afraid to ask Him. At Corinth they were not true to the boundary, therefore the apostle writes to them in the spirit of jealousy: “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?”, 1 Cor 10: 22. At the close of the epistle, in the midst of warm Christian salutations, there comes one of the most solemn passages in scripture: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Cor 16: 22- let him be accursed at the coming of the Lord. It is the spirit of jealousy.
It seems to me the Spirit not only saw the possibility of some at Corinth not loving the Lord, but looking along the vista of time when vast numbers would come into the fellowship - the Simons who would be found nominally there - utters these solemn words. Let us not shrink from them. Through grace we can say with Peter: “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee”, John 21: 17. The Lord by the Spirit has written Himself on “the fleshy tables of our hearts”. The writer knows what He has written.
Will you now turn with me to Numbers 5: 5-18, as I desire to show you from this passage how it answers to what the apostle is doing in the epistle to Corinthians:
“Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of a ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord; And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle, the priest shall take, and put it into the water. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse”.
Here we find the law of jealousy; the question is raised as to the fidelity of the wife. The priest places her before the Lord, puts the dust of the tabernacle in the holy water in an earthen vessel. “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death”, Ps 22: 15. It was here the love of the husband was fully proved, and she is to be tested by that in which His love was expressed; if she be faithful, the bitter water which causes the curse becomes the means of fruitfulness. She is made to drink of death. In like manner the apostle by the Spirit brings the Corinthians before the Lord. He presents to them the testimony of the death of Christ, as meeting the allowance of that which was unworthy of the fellowship into which they had been called. Of the cross, as setting aside the wisdom of man, in chapters 1 and 2. In chapter 5 the demand in righteousness to purge out the old leaven, for “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us”, v 7. Then in chapter 10, the separation from a false fellowship: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ”, v 16.
To this testimony there was an answer in measure, as we see in the second epistle. There was fidelity to Christ and the testimony of His death was responded to, thus proving that Christ was “written … on the fleshy tables of their hearts”, 2 Cor 3: 3.
I now desire to draw your attention to Numbers 6: 22-27. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them”.
I suppose no sweeter words than these are to be found in the Old Testament: God's proposal for Israel, His benediction; and in a future day it will be their portion, as the Psalms and Prophets plainly foretell. Note the spiritual order here - the benediction is appended to the law of the Nazarite. Surely a lesson for us; we must accept the separation to be in the benediction - a most important principle for this present moment. As in Luke 24: 50, “he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them”. He separated them to bless them. So the apostle in Galatians 6: 14: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”. The apostle has before him not the world of pleasure, as we should speak; the world he speaks of here is evidently the religious world - the place man after the flesh has religiously. This is plainly seen in the former part of the epistle. Satan's ministers “transforming themselves … as ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor 11: 13-15), had been busy seeking to get them circumcised and to keep the law, thus to glory in their flesh.
But the apostle accepts the separation of the cross from such a world. Once he had been a great man in it, but now this double crucifixion had entirely separated him from it and he sets before us a new condition and rule: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature”. Now the apostle by the Spirit gives the benediction: “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God”, Gal 6: 5. We must accept the separation and walk according to this rule to be in the benediction. It is on this line the apostle presents the death of Christ, in 1 Corinthians 10, as the true boundary line: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?”, v 16. All the blessing was inside this boundary in the power of the Spirit. To go outside was to provoke the Lord to jealousy. “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?”
I now come to my last point and would read Numbers 8: 1-4: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick. And Aaron did so; he lighted the lamps thereof over against the candlestick, as the Lord commanded Moses. And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold … unto the flowers thereof, was beaten work: according unto the pattern which the Lord had shewed Moses, so he made the candlestick”.
This is a remarkable passage as coming here, and could not possibly be understood did we not see the spiritual design and teaching. It is found between the previous chapter which gives us a long account of the dedication of the substance of the prince in Israel to the service of God, and the next chapter which gives us the account of the dedication of the Levites to the service of God. The instruction about the candlestick comes between, as teaching us a great lesson: the light is to be “over against the candlestick”. The thought is that the light is to show the beauty of the candlestick.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”, Matt 5: 16. As also in 1 Peter 4: 10, 11. Verse 10 would answer to Numbers 7 - the dedication of substance, and verse 11 more to Numbers 8 - the dedication of the Levites, but it was in order “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever”.
Now turn to 2 Thessalonians 1: 10: “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day”. Here the apostle is setting before us “that day” when there will be a perfect answer to the testimony. “He shall … be glorified in his saints”. The light should be over against the candlestick in that day. How the beloved apostle, who was surely marked by divine compassions towards men in his gospel testimony, ever kept in view the glory of the One who was the subject of that testimony. Thus he could pray in view of the future that it might be morally true of them now. “Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power; That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
It is his desire that the light be over against the candlestick now. The climax of Christian fellowship is the glory of the Lord.
The grace of the Lord is the bond, the death of Christ is the boundary, and the object in the power of the Spirit is the glory of the Lord. The subject is a large one for the compass of our address, but I have endeavoured to show you some moral features of Christian fellowship, which I trust may lead to exercise and thus to profit.
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From an un-dated leaflet