THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR
[p. 372] THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR
The book of Genesis is very fruitful in illustrations and types of the truth of Christianity; and this chapter particularly so in regard to the truth of the glad tidings. What these verses suggest first of all is a world proceeding out, of judgment; all the elements for a new world being carried over safely in a vessel. The first chapter also presents a world out of judgment, only that we have not the living things carried over, nor is there a vessel. The earth emerged from the waters, but we have no idea of living things carried over, but creation — a scene brought out of chaos in which God created and formed living beings; whereas here we have them carried thought. So this chapter contemplates in type (the ark) Christ Himself, at first in His own Person here upon earth, developing the elements of a new world; and then going through death, accepting the judgment of God as regards the world that then was, but carrying everything through. The greatness of Christ is thus brought to our attention in the ark; that He included in His mind every divine thought, every divine principle, every element necessary for the establishment of another order of things.
Thus Noah comes out of the ark under divine orders, and it is directed that his wife and his sons, and his sons’ wives, should come out with him: It might not seem necessary that he should be ordered to come out, but the point is that this new order of things is under divine authority the will of God. There is no room for any other will. Then Noah was to bring the lower creatures out besides, which involves power. As you will observe in verse 16, first we have “Go forth”, and then, in verse 17, “Bring forth”; the latter is a matter of power and all were to come out with Noah. All were thus to be under divine ordering; Noah being subject to command, was to [p. 373] go forth himself, and his wife, and his sons, and their wives; and he was to bring forth with them all the others.
Now, that is what I wanted to mention first. And then to show the ground on which the gospel is announced. That is, Noah brought out clean animals, and having them, he built an altar and offered on the altar burnt-offerings to the Lord. In verse 20 it says: “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar”. He was not told to do that, for whilst all is under command, and under divine authority, we have in Christ that which pleases God infinitely; that is to say, the outgoings of His heart Godward. He offered Himself without spot to God for a sweet-smelling savour. Personally, as a Man He was delightful here: great enough to include all these thoughts of God for another world; but He was delightful to God as to His inner, motives. And so the rearing up of the altar was Noah’s action; he did it of himself. Not that he did it independently, nor that the Lord Jesus ever did anything independently, as we read in John, “the Son can do nothing of himself”. Even the laying down of His life was as under orders: “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father”, (John 10:18). But He would lay it down. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life”, verse 17. It was His motive, it was the spring of love within; and that was what was so delightful to God, obedience unto death, the obedience of love — “Not my will, but thine, be done”, (Luke 22:42). But the altar is built by Noah himself, and the clean creatures were of his own selection. It is to bring out in type the delightfulness of Christ as entering into death, for the heart of God, so that he smelt “a savour of rest”.
Now you see God, not only in His authority, but in His restfulness in His delight in Christ; and not only a living Christ, but a Christ who entered into death, so [p. 374] that a savour went up into the nostrils of God. That is the position, and it is important to see that God today (this is a picture of the present moment) is operating in relation to a scene or order of things marked by the savour of Christ risen from the dead, and in which His will is absolute; even Noah does not move out of the ark without it. Christ came out of death by the power of God; “raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father”, it was the action of the Father; and God is so delighted with Christ as having offered Himself without spot, that the whole of mankind is now viewed in another way entirely by God, for Christ is Head of all. The position of mankind is altered in the mind of God. He has been looking at men from a different viewpoint from the time that Christ rose from the dead. The world, as Romans 11 shows, is in reconciliation. Not that its lawlessness is ignored, but that God is taking up man in Christ; He is so delighted with Christ as having given Himself a ransom for all, that He is now viewing man not in the attitude of a Judge — although wrath is revealed, but God is keeping that in the background — He is glorified in Christ and He looks at every man from that point of view. He smelt a sweet savour and said in His heart: “I will not again curse the ground ... ... for man’s sake”. Think of what is in the heart of God! We often speak of the love of His heart, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, (John 3:16); but think of what God has mind in His heart — this is most deeply interesting: “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake”, verse 21. He says: I know what is in man’s heart, not withstanding I am offering to men salvation and eternal life in My Son. He knows their hearts are only evil continually. He says here: “For the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth”.
Is it not so, young people and old people? Cannot we [p. 375] older ones witness to the truth of this from our own experience? Naturally the imagination of our hearts is evil from our youth. It is not only what I acquire from my environment, but what develops from within; these two things work together, what is in man’s heart from his youth and what is outside of him. The Lord says in Mark that there are thirteen things that proceed out of the heart of man. It is bad enough for them to be in it, but worse that they should proceed out of it, that a man has no power to hold them in. All the legislation in the world does not keep in these thirteen things, they are in the heart of man, but they also proceed out of it. God does not need to wait for their proceeding out of it; He knows that they are there; He knows what is in the heart from the very start — man’s heart is evil from his youth. And the thoughts find an outlet; in Romans 3 we have the different organs referred to as instruments of this wickedness that is within, contributing to the ocean of wickedness without; and hence the result, the world, “lies in the wicked one”. Each one, as these wicked thoughts proceed from him in actions, contributes to the sin of the world.
What about these things, dear young people? Is there anyone deceived as to himself, building up on what he is as a man or woman in the flesh, thinking that by religion or good works, or by church-going he can please God? Alas! There is not much even of that today, for we have entered upon an era of awful apostasy. On Lord’s day people play cricket, golf and tennis, and throw this country and in every other so-called Christian country. Yet there are a few still who go to church, and may be building up on that, but it will not do. On that line “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”. God has formally said that what man is, is unalterable. Before the flood he was only evil every day. But God brought in the flood and now it is “the imagination of [p. 376] his heart is only evil from his youth”. There is no change in the natural man. But God is looking at him in a favourable light, making it easy for him to come to Him. God has made a way, He is not imputing trespasses. His attitude is that of forgiveness because of the work of Christ. He is looking out, as the father of the prodigal was looking out, to see you coming. However far away men may be, in China or Africa, God is looking out to see them coming, there may be only a few coming, but God is looking out for them. Think of the attitude, the long suffering of God, not only waiting, but looking out! As of old in Solomon’s temple, the attitude of the cherubim was towards the house, not simply looking down as recorded in Exodus, that is on the sacrificial death of Christ, but looking out to see who is coming to take advantage of it, to secure what God has provided in the sacrifice of Christ. He looks down on the blood on the mercy-seat; He looks on that and forgives. He has dealt with your sins in the death of Jesus. That is to say, His sacrifice has glorified God in respect of sin, so that He can be just, and the justifier of him that believes on Jesus. That is the thing. He is the justifier. Think of that action of God; not only that He is just in telling you of the death of Christ but He would justify you.
That is what He is doing today, justifying people — and He can do it because He is “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”, (Romans 3:26). It is a wonderful position — He is looking out, and He is a very long time looking out. Whether a person is old or young, man or woman, as soon as a movement begins in his heart towards God He sees it. He is looking for it. “When he was a great way off”, the Lord says, “his father saw him”. What is a great way off in the eyes of God? A long, long distance, so that God takes notice of the very first movement of the heart towards Him.
Think of that being noticed in heaven! The beginning of that writing is when you begin to repent; and “there [p. 377] is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”. Do you think it is simply passed over as an incident of little or no value? No! It is recorded; your name is written down and will never be forgotten in heaven; the moment you repent it is entered into the history of heaven. Think of making history in heaven! We read of the makers of history today. The history of this wicked world; but think of making history in heaven! Did this ever occur to you? There is not a Christian here who has not made history in heaven. Each occasioned joy in the presence of the angels of God as soon as he began to repent, and the more he repents the more joy there is. Repentance is not simply one act, it is a continuous thing. Think of the blessed God being moved at the movements in your heart! Many things happen which fill the newspapers, but heaven takes no notice of them; when millions of people are busy at work in their offices and workshops, and one sinner turns to God, heaven takes notice of that. God is not ignoring what is going on in this world, it has all to be accounted for, but heaven is occupied with what God is doing here on earth, in answer to what He has done in Jesus.
What I have said makes plain what is here: “while the earth remaineth” — this order of things which God has lengthened out now for centuries upon centuries, and it is still running. Everyone of us here as Christians can thank God that it extended down to our time; had it closed a hundred years ago we should all have been left out. But it is continuing still; we should read here “All the days of the earth”, because it is not simply one sum of time, but days of time, and days mean periods of operation. The first chapter of Genesis shows plainly enough that days are periods of operation. God works by the day. So that if we divide up all these nineteen centuries into years, then months, then weeks and then days, we have some little idea of what God has been doing. Every day’s work is for man’s blessing. He has been working [p. 378] all these days, and what myriads of souls have made history in heaven! We are in one day now. God has been working all day, for the day is longer with Him than with us, it begins in the east and runs on to the west; it begins away in New Zealand and runs on until the sun goes down on the Pacific coast. I mean to say that is the working time — the preaching time, the ministering time. Are you going to be left out today? This is your day; this is the day that the Lord has made, the day of salvation. God is working, saving souls today. Will you not be one of them? “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”, (Hebrews 3:7,8). “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation”. Are you accepting the glad tidings?
I want to show how the seasons help in all this. The first is “seed time”, for God by His word comes into our thoughts, you see. He brings us into His thoughts, but He condescends to come into our thoughts and the first season here is seed time. Then the next is harvest, then cold, heat, summer, winter, and then day and night. They are all regulated by the sun; because God comes into our way of thinking, and speaks of the sun rising and setting. It is not to teach us astronomy; He could do it much more effectively than men of science can, though I am not disparaging science, yet that is not what interests God. What He is doing is saving souls. He is saving souls for another world which will not be governed by the sun, will not be dependent on the revolutions of the earth. There will be “new heavens and a new earth”. This one is temporary; however long it may exist, it is for a time. But God is saving souls for another world altogether: there will be no cold in it, no winter, no night there. So you see this world is God’s operating world, as you might say, a great mechanical system in which God is working out a moral system. That is what it is. God’s working platform. He has been pleased to come into it and to speak as we would speak, so that we [p. 379] might understand Him. But obviously all these seasons or subdivisions of working time are governed by the sun and that sun is Christ, that is, spiritually. For God teaches us that the invisible things of Him are clearly seen in the things that are made, and the sun is a type of Christ; and you as born again may be regarded as the earth; the earth brings forth fruit of itself — that is to say, it has inherent life. The meaning of it is that the believer in whom God has begun to work has something inherent that responds to Christ, and the seed, is sown in that connection. You come here this evening with a measure of exercise, you have been invited and you are glad to come. But why? Because there is some kind of a seed in your soul that God only can meet. That is the kind of thing connected with the earth; it is the soil that God has made. God has been working with you, and what I am presenting to you is the seed. You may have heard it before, but it has not dropped in, not got down to the real earth, the “good ground”. The good ground may not have been there. We read of some falling by the wayside and the birds of the air devouring it. That is, you heard the gospel, and on leaving the room it all left you, Satan took it away. Then again the word falls on stony ground with no earth, no real soil, and when tribulation comes, when you go to the office next day and somebody sneers at you and taunts you, you have no root, and the word is gone. Then again it falls on to thorny ground. You hear it and enjoy it, and the cares of this life, the lust of other things, come in. The next day, Monday, the cares of business or of household duties, or the desire to have something in this world, spring up and choke the word, for there is no root. Then the Lord says: There is another kind of soil: “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience”, (Luke 8:15). You have had to do with God, He having wrought in you, and you listen to the gospel [p. 380] and receive it, answer to it as the only thing that there is to prepare you for eternity. That is the case of most of us here, thank God! And so the Lord says it springs up and bears fruit thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. That is the thing. Everyone of us here of whom this is true, is evidence of the power of the gospel, that it has been received honestly into the heart and has been effective to the salvation of our souls.
Well now, that is the seed time. The ‘harvest’ comes after that. The harvest may not be full yet, but there is a little evidence of definite acceptance of the gospel, an evidence in our walk and ways. We read our Bibles, we pray, we love to be with the Lord’s people, we love to ear the ministry of Christ. There is the evidence. There may be greater, thirty, sixty and a hundred, but even tenfold would be evidence, but the Lord begins at thirty. He contemplates the effect of the gospel in that way. That is the fruit and the harvest.
But alongside of that you have cold, The cold that we have experienced here in these northern latitudes, as we know, is the effect of the earth turning away from the sun. That is God’s doing. Man, with all his power, could not do anything there, he could not change the world; he may produce aeroplanes and steam engines, but what could he do with the earth? But the power of God turns it away, and for a purpose; all is in perfect wisdom. Cold is useful; and so it is that the sun hides his face in a measure, and there is a meaning in that. We read that the Lord heard that Lazarus was sick, but He did not go to Bethany at once; Lazarus died without the Lord near, but this was for the glory of God, and for his own blessing, too. If the Lord seems to withhold His shining we know it is for a purpose. The seed is sown and the cold helps. You may begin to think: Why is all this? But the time will come when the sun comes back in all his power, and you say: I see now that the Lord meant me to bear fruit, and this cold was necessary for it.
[p. 381] Some may be discouraged: but it is necessary, it is divinely ordered. And then the heat comes. The sun comes back in his power. Matthew presents the Lord as the sun shining in his power, the countenance of Christ. How delightful to have the sun shining in his power after an era of cold! You begin to name things; you call this heat so delightful to you summer!; it is the same thing, but now it is a division of the year. It is a period in the year that you have come to know; we all look forward to it, it is a delightful part of the year, and we do not say ‘heat’, we say ‘summer’. You come to name it. Why should men come to name it? Because of their experience of it. You find in Scripture the principle of naming things. Adam named the creatures, and Jacob named the house of God. Something makes an impression on you, and you name it; so here the time of heat is called summer.
Then there is winter, too. Now you begin to make provision for the winter. The ants do that, and other creatures. It is remarkable how in nature the winter is provided for. You have already experienced, you see, the cold, and that it is a time of the year when the enemy may get advantage over you, so you begin to make provision against that. I have learned what it is by experience; I call it ‘winter’, and I provide for it. If I provide against the cold I shall NOT be discouraged: it will be warm in the winter as well as in the summer. It calls forth more vigilance, more watchfulness, more forethought. I keep in the heat. That is to say, I take every advantage of spiritual heat and comfort. Thus you see these seasons, divinely appointed, make intelligent, watchful persons of us, persons of forethought, suited to the assembly of God. These revolutions of the year mean that God is teaching us all the while. It is His working time. His working arrangement, so that He can make the most of us.
Then, finally, we have “day and night”, You come [p. 382] back to the days of the earth. You are not a yearly Christian only, or a monthly or weekly one, but you are a daily one. That is to say, you are a worker with God, and not a day must be lost. There must be no holidays at all, it is too urgent; day and night, and every day, is for work. The Lord says in John: “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” (John 11:9). And again: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work”, (John 9:4). I cannot be idle; God is bringing us into conformity with Christ, with Himself. Jesus said: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. It is on a daily principle. God gradually works out His end, and He is getting His material for a world in which there shall be none of these things, but one eternal day — the day of eternity. There is no night there, no work either, but a term of peace, of restfulness, of joy, in the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and with all the redeemed saints. That is what God is working out. Do you want to be in it and be one of us in that eternal day? May God grant that you will be!