REPRESENTATION
[p. 417] REPRESENTATION
John 20: 21, 22; Genesis 48: 12 - 22; Genesis 49:1,2; Genesis 49:28
I wish to speak this evening about representation. God intends to be represented, and I apprehend that the gospel of John has this specially in view. Coming in, as it does, at the end, it brings about life. It brings in conditions of life, for God is the living God, and therefore He must be represented by those, and by those only, who are living. So that in order to have the idea of representation, which is conveyed in the word “image”, we must have first the idea of likeness. It is said in the first chapter of Genesis that God created man in His image, but in the fifth chapter it is said: “In the likeness of God made he him”. This comes in, as you all remember, after the dark history recorded in the fourth chapter, a chapter full of disaster. It is a chapter in which, after the death of Abel, you look in vain until Seth appears for any person qualified to represent God. But on the birth of Seth, who himself became the father of Enos, we have the element of recovery, for in naming his son Enos, Seth indicated that he had light. He discerned that his son was born to die; that he was a failing mortal man as the name given indicates. And so it is said that men then began to call on the name of the Lord. “The name of the Lord” — what did that mean in those days? It meant what it means now, only that now we have it in a fuller way. It meant in those days that God had come in and met in grace the situation that Adam and Eve had created by their disobedience. God had come out and He had provided a covering, or clothing, and in the light of that Adam calls his wife’s name Eve, meaning that she was the mother, not of all dying, but of all living. Light had come into his soul, obviously, and he saw that there should be a living line, so that as men began to call on the name of the Lord they would have in mind how He had come in for Adam, and for Eve.
And then, again, as Cain had slain Abel God had again spoken; He was concerned about man’s life, if Cain were not. Perhaps human life has never been so cheap as it has been in our own time. In the eyes of Cain the life of a brother was of no value, but the life of Abel was of great value to God. Abel had light, and his light led him to worship God, to call upon God, to bring Him a suitable offering; and so God valued the light of Abel. “The voice”, He says, “of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me”, Genesis 4: 10. And so it is that God values the life of a believer, the life of a brother. In that life there was indeed a representation of God, for God was represented in some sense in the offering of Abel. How precious was that blood! He says: “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground”. And earlier, in speaking to Cain, He had said: “If thou doest not well, sin [a sin-offering] lieth at the door”. God had thus by Him the means of meeting even a Cain. Such was the grace of God, beloved friends, even expressed in those early days, and that grace all entered into the name upon which men began to call. Seth brought this about in the naming of his son; he brought in light, and it was as if he sounded out for all, that to be brought into the world after nature is to be born to die.
God had said to Adam: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”, Genesis 2: 17. Seth said, in effect: ‘I own that’; and so men called on the name of the Lord. It is indeed what the gospel announces at the present time, that death is passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. But the name of the Lord involves that God has found a means whereby men may live and not die, so that Enoch, who is said to be the seventh from Adam, lived.
He represents a spiritual development; a complete answer to Adam’s name given to Eve — for she was Enoch’s mother — and Enoch was not, we are told, for God took him. Before he was translated he had this testimony that he pleased God; he walked with God, not as a dying man surely, but as a living man, and so he was translated that he should not see death. He was the “seventh” you see, meaning a spiritual development. Adam had conveyed the light in calling his wife’s name Eve, and that light developed [p. 419] through Seth, through whom men began to call on the name of the Lord. It had its fall issue in Enoch who had, before his translation, testimony that he pleased God. How restful was the recovery in such an issue as Enoch, the seventh from Adam; but, as I remarked, it was Adam as set up in the fifth chapter of Genesis — in which we have Adam’s history after men began to call on the name of the Lord. It is God taking the thing up again in the light of recovery, and so we have the history of Adam, not now the history of disaster but a history which culminated in what pleased God. Enoch pleased God; and so, beloved friends, in the first verse of the fifth chapter it is said that God created man in His likeness, not His image. We must have likeness now before we can have image, and I apprehend that John’s writings, particularly his gospel, are to bring in at the end of the dispensation the likeness of God in His people. It is also said of Adam that he begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, for Seth was in accord now with Adam, who had spoken about life in naming Eve. Seth named his son not in relation to life but in relation to death, for with Seth it is a question of death and life; with Adam it would be a question of life and death. These two things are true. In Christ it is life and death — “In him was life” — in the believer it is death and life; these two things run through Scripture. Of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the second verse of the gospel of John, in almost the second statement after His deity is stated, it is said: “In him was life”, showing how prominent the idea was from John’s point of view. We have in the Word become flesh life absolutely in a Man. It was there in Him from the very outset; it does not say that the Word became man. John’s gospel contemplates the incarnation in its completeness, from infancy onwards, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and in that blessed One there was life. So that in Christ it is life and death, and in the believer it is death and life for it is life out of death.
Now, I have been saying all these things, beloved friends, having in view to show that God intends at the present time to have representation of Himself in His people in a [p. 420] living way; and in remarking on John 20 I would just refer for a moment to the opening verses. In these verses you will remember that Mary Magdalene brought tidings to the disciples about the grave — that it was empty. She ran, and then it says that the two disciples ran, and one of them outran the other. Now I mention that because of the tendency with us to haste, to fruitless haste. There is in Scripture fruitful haste, and there is fruitless haste. There are those who take up a thought and run, and after they have run they go to their own homes; they return to the natural. Now Mary Magdalene ran too but she did not return to her own home. It is right surely, when you see a divine thing, to go in for it with all your might, but it is not right, after having gone in for it apparently with zeal and zest, to return to your own home, to what is natural. You are saying, in going to your own home, that after all what seemed so precious to you did not prove to be so, and you misrepresent the truth. I see John and Peter in their own homes on that day, and I say: ‘Why were you in such a hurry? I saw you running!’ They reply: ‘Oh well, Mary Magdalene told us the grave was empty and we went to see’. ‘Yes, you went to see, and you saw something; what did you see? The grave was empty! Do an empty grave, the empty tomb of Jesus, and your homes agree? If His tomb is empty He is somewhere, why not keep up the pace — have you found Him? He is somewhere, and you will not find Him in your homes!’ Well, what can they say? Nothing! How many of us ran at the outset and we failed to find the Lord, and yet we knew the tomb was empty for we had been there. What about Mary Magdalene? She ran too! It was the running of her love, beloved friends, for she loved the Lord. After running she waited, and instead of going to her own home she remained without at the sepulchre weeping. In her heart she said: ‘He is somewhere’, and so she turned around and she sees one whom she supposes is the gardener. She says: “If thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away”, John 20: 15. She knew He was somewhere, and I want to say to everybody here tonight, if you have [p. 421] started on a good pace keep it up. It is a question of patience, and if you truly love Him you will find Him. As the bride, in the Canticles, sought earnestly after the bridegroom — where was he whom her soul loved — and in a little she found him — so with Mary Magdalene. You see she remained without and she found the Lord alive. She looked into the sepulchre and she saw two angels sitting, “the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain”. John and Peter missed that in their haste to go home, but there was light in that for Mary. She is now becoming spiritual, for angels (Luke says they were men) are apprehended only spiritually; they are spirits. “Are they not”, it says, “all ministering spirits?” Hebrews 1: 14. Becoming spiritual is progressive. And then she turns around; that is a spiritual touch. She turned away from the tomb and she saw Jesus, but she did not yet know Him. He says to her: “Mary!” Now, He is going to make a representative of her, she is to be a qualified representative and message bearer for Christ. And so He says: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”, John 20: 17. He is bringing fight into her soul as to Himself, for He is going up. He is ascending, even to the Father, for, as you will observe, it is not here that He is going to the Father, as in chapter 13, but He is ascending to the Father. She is to understand what that means. And then it says she went to the disciples and told them these things. It does not say she ran now. Spiritual things, as presented in testimony, require deliberate and careful steps. She went to the disciples and told them these things. They would all have to sit and listen to a sister, a remarkable thing; not indeed that she should teach them, or preach to them, for such service is forbidden to sisters. However, although sisters may not preach or teach, they may speak, and they may make communications. Those who received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the hundred and twenty, apparently all spoke, and there were a good many sisters among them including the Lord’s mother. “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the great things of God”, it says (Acts 2: 11), but then when it came to preaching [p. 422] Peter stood up with the eleven. Nevertheless, you see the disciples had to listen to Mary Magdalene, and I suppose it was one of the most precious occasions, for who, that loves the Lord Jesus, would not be touched as one came fresh from Him with a message conveying the greatest possible dignity as conferred upon them. She could tell them, Peter, John, James, Matthew, that He said, “Go to my brethren”. She could convey to them the sense she had of the message, for she told them “these things”. She was a representative of Christ, a sister. Let no sister assume that she has nothing to do. It is within your range to be a representative of Christ, to be a messenger for Him.
Well now, I have said all that chiefly because I wish to point out the danger of undue haste, especially in young people, catching up things and not going the whole way; not waiting patiently for the development of light that has come into one’s own soul. So I come now for a moment to the passage I read, and the Lord puts things on a very high basis. He says: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. You will observe here there is no official title.. The person who has the greatest light is a woman, and those who are to represent the Lord, as He represented the Father, are not said to be apostles, but just disciples; but what kind of disciples are they? There are classes of disciples in Scripture. These are disciples who have light in their souls about their relation with Christ as His brethren. They belong to Him, and they are the brethren of a Man who is ascending into heaven, the Son of God; His Father is their Father, His God is their God. He has just spoken to them, shown them His hands and His side, and spoken peace to them. You say: is that all? No, not at all; all that is light and precious light, but light in itself is not enough, however great. We must have life. And so, having said these things, “He breathed into them”; a most intimate transaction, and He says: “Receive the Holy Spirit”. As if to say: ‘You must have My Spirit if you are to represent Me, and you must be like Me before you can be My image’. Likeness is in nature, and the image is consequent upon that. We are to be the representatives of Christ, as like [p. 423] Him in life and in nature, and in dignity too, for we are not anything less than brethren of Christ.
Now, having said all that about the passage in John, I want to show the confirmation of it in the Old Testament. I always find it effective to see confirmations, and amplifications indeed, of New Testament statements in the Old Testament. It is thus that we have things new and old combined. And so in Jacob you have a remarkable exemplification of the principle of representation in life. I understand that Jacob represents in the Old Testament a believer in the development of life. What marks one in whom God has begun a work, according to John’s gospel, is that he begins to disallow the flesh, and so Jacob in his infancy, we are told, took hold of Esau by the heel; that is, he was a supplanter of the man born after the flesh. And then again he wrestled with God and he prevailed. He is marked on the one hand by the endeavour to set aside the man born after the flesh, and on the other by energy with God. He prevailed over the angel, it says, and he wrestled in his strength; he wrestled with God. He is a representative thus of the believer in the energy of life. He would have blessing. He says: “I will not let thee go except thou bless me”, Genesis 32: 26. I do not know of anything finer than that in the way of energy. God respects it, so Jacob got the blessing, and he is now in a position, at the close of his life, to represent God, for we have to view Jacob as typifying the believer, and as also typifying the Lord Jesus Christ as representative of God. So, relatively, with every one of us as we come into the full development of life — in the possession of it consciously — we are qualified to represent God. I want to dwell on Jacob because it is a unique passage, and he was an old man come to the end of his time on earth. He was already sick, as it says, and Joseph came to him, and it says as Jacob heard of Joseph’s arrival that he strengthened himself and sat up. You see the energy of life as he is about to die naturally; he strengthened himself and he sat up. It does not say he was supported by anybody as an invalid would be, because the Spirit of God causes it to stand out, in its greatness, the energy of spiritual life,
[p. 424] so that in old age it remains in its lustre, as he sat up and strengthened himself. There was an inherent power in the old man, the power of life. But then I want to show that there was discernment, intelligence according to God. One of the greatest things, if we are to represent God, is to be intelligent. As John says in his epistle, “and has given us an understanding”. Who has done that? The Son of God, for the apostle writes, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20. And so Jacob corresponds, and as Joseph approaches him with Manasseh in his left hand opposite Jacob’s right hand, and Ephraim in his right hand opposite Jacob’s left hand, Israel although dimmed in his natural sight knew who was to be first. How often it is, dear brethren, we recognise the order of nature instead of the order of God and the Spirit. “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual”, 1 Corinthians 15: 45, 46. It is the “afterward” we have to bear in mind. “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven”, 1 Corinthians 15: 47. And so Jacob, having light, guided his hands intelligently; he crossed them. Crossing the hands is a spiritual act; it is contrary to the order of nature, and what is spiritual is contrary to the order of nature. We have got to learn to do violence to the order of nature. If we are to represent God it must be that we do violence to that order, as God has done violence to it from the very outset. And so Jacob began as a babe to set aside man born after the flesh. He never gave up that principle, and now in his old age and about to die and in the energy of spiritual life, he sets aside the first man and establishes the second, and places Ephraim before Manasseh. Joseph said: “Not so, my father”. This brings out the excellence of developed life in Jacob. Although Joseph stands out as a model (this is the only instance, I think, in which he falls behind) he has to take second place, spiritually,
[p. 425] in the presence of his father. Although God had made him lord over all Egypt and a father to Pharaoh, he was not a father to Jacob; he could not be. He was father to Pharaoh but he could not bless Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh; he was representative of God. He was marked by spiritual life. It is as thus developed in life that we have the father here, and the son Joseph takes his relative position. He says: “Not so, my father” but Jacob refused to listen. How well for many fathers if they refused as their sons seek to have it otherwise! The father represents God in the family and his word must stand; God will support him. Joseph was the best son in the family but his word dare not stand against his father’s. Jacob refuses, and how splendid is his position as he stands against the lord of all Egypt! It is an immense thing to be able to refuse. Jacob would not allow his great affection for Joseph to interfere with the mind of God. He says: “I know it, my son”; the father knew and the son did not. Jacob represented God in that act, as he guided his hands wittingly, putting the right one on the head of Ephraim and the other one on the head of Manasseh.
And so it is in this way that God would have representation at the present time. He would have likeness in life and nature, and He would have intelligence, and in this way you represent Him; there is to be the image of God. Jacob represents God in the energy of life. In chapter 49 you see Jacob has acquired the father’s place. To be a father pleases the heart of God, and father and son suggest the primary thought of God, the family. Israel calls his sons, and Joseph has to take his place with the others. He is lord of all Egypt and a father to Pharaoh, but, nevertheless, he is Jacob’s son in the family and he takes his place there. “Gather yourselves together”, Jacob says, “that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days”. And again: “Gather yourselves together, ... and hearken unto Israel your father”. How fine it is that his name is changed: Jacob to Israel! and they are to hearken to Israel their father. He is going to address them now entirely in a spiritual way, laying aside all natural feeling; so he tells them what is to befall them and hides nothing. Their failures are all disclosed,
but, nevertheless, every tribe is blessed. “These are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them”. Jacob blessed them with intelligence, as a representative of God; he placed every tribe in its position according to the mind of God. And so, dear brethren, as we love the Lord and think of His people and constantly desire to help them and be of service to them, we have a model here in Jacob; you cast natural considerations aside entirely. You think of the saints only as in the mind of God, and you think of them only as according to the Spirit. You unfailingly point out their errors, but at the same time convey to them that every true child of God is blessed according to the perfect wisdom of God.
It is thus, I believe, that we can be of service to our brethren: on the one hand faithfully pointing out errors, and on the other impressing upon them as true believers that there is blessing for every one. That is God’s way, and thus we are God’s representatives.