THE ABUNDANCE OF THE SEAS (6)
[p. 106] THE ABUNDANCE OF THE SEAS (6)
Mark 14:1 - 9; Mark 14:32 - 2; Mark 16:9 - 20
JT We noted the poor widow at the end of chapter 12, so as to see the bearing of chapter 13, and then the action of the woman in chapter 14, as bearing on the new institution or order of things that is indicated in the celebration of the passover, and the institution of the Lord’s supper. What was of God in the old system, seen in the passover, merged in the new, centring the Lord’s supper. What was of God in the old system is undoubtedly expressed in this poor widow; and following upon the record of her action the Lord announced the overthrow of the temple. “One of his disciples says to him. Teacher, see what stones and what buildings! And Jesus answering said to him, Seest thou these great buildings? not a stone shall be left upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down”. And then He sat on the mount of Olives opposite the temple. That system of things is to be demolished, and faith, according to chapter 11, would have it so; that is, faith in the saints in keeping with the mind of God.
RGH Do you think the disciples were loth to leave the great stones and the buildings?
JT The remark of this one would indicate the hold these buildings had on him.
RGH Because it says, “As he was going out”.
JT As if in the disciple’s mind they were leaving something of importance.
Ques With reference to the widow’s mites have you any thought why there are two? They are said to be “all her living”.
JT No doubt there would be some testimony in the two. She might have kept one back, as we often do. She could have satisfied the most liberal prevalent standard of giving by putting in one of them, which would have been relatively a large amount; but the two [p. 107] would mean she was whole-hearted. There were no afterthoughts with her. It was like God in His “unspeakable free gift”.
EuR Speaking of faith in chapter 11, would there be an allusion to Jerusalem when the Lord said that faith as a grain of mustard seed would cause the mountain to be removed?
JT Quite. Faith will not have the mountain in that sense. If faith is active in us, it will not have this outward thing that is so faithless and obstructive of the will of God.
Rem Ananias and Sapphira kept back part (Acts 5).
JT That is a good example of what we are saying, Ananias “put aside for himself part of the price”.
HD'AC But this woman’s heart was full. There was Jehovah in His temple, and it was worth while giving under such circumstances.
HES Are you suggesting that there is a danger with us of being occupied with material things?
JT I think the stones and the temple would be the religious Babylonish system; what is imposing and holds the natural religious mind. “See what stones and what buildings!” What is represented there has found an immense expression in christendom, and it holds the mind. People find it hard to leave; there is something there that holds them.
JCS Is the temple here regarded as the work of the builders of that day, who disregarded the chief comer stone?
JT I suppose that is seen in Stephen’s remarks, quoting the prophet, “What house will ye build me?” he widow’s giving brought in the divine nature, what it is subjectively; and that requires, not a material building, not a house made with hands, but what is “greater and more perfect”.
Ques Is the thought here that all this stands in contrast to what is spiritual? It says, “He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple”.
[p. 108] JT He is taking up His position in relation to what is spiritual. The mount of Olives denoted that there was to be a great spiritual structure, and that would be in keeping with the widow’s offering. That is the position.
EJMcB You made a reference this morning to the hill of God. I wondered whether the idea here was taking the hill of God out of the hands of the Philistines?
JT That is it. Chapter 14 brings in another order of things, in which what the hill of God represents is carried forward. It is a position of strength; the church became that. Of course, that is more worked out in Matthew; but still we ought to have the whole truth in view in dealing with any part; and that, I think, is the setting here. The new order of things is in chapter 14, and the woman of that chapter has a great apprehension of Christ’s personal dignity as God’s servant she anointed His head. From her point of view He is capable, of introducing another system of things. Chapter 13 shews that the material system is to be overthrown; but the Lord is sitting on the mount of Olives, and we may say she anoints Him in that connection. That is, it is a spiritual thing now; He is to bring in a spiritual order of things; that which is fully to represent God, and which will be great enough to be the vessel of the divine glory throughout all the generations of the age of ages.
We are entitled to bring that in here, to get the full scope of the truth; that we may be great enough to have part in it, because it is greatness that is in view, and in the widest connection. It is the divine nature acting, the widow is acting like God. He did not spare; He held back nothing. The division of the money would enable her conveniently to hold back part, but she did not. God could have spared too; He could have spared His own Son, but He did not. The correspondence between God and the widow suggests the necessity for the new thing. Of course there are other thoughts, for the nature and purpose of God required the setting aside [p. 109] of the old and the introduction of the new order of things.
PL So “God loveth a cheerful giver”. Is that suggestive of the love of God for such a one, and that there was no cheerful giving in the temple? This must give way to a vessel that God would love in its giving the assembly.
JT What was said this morning in regard of the Lord’s hitherto unreported remark and there may have been many of them in (Acts 20) is very suggestive. It fits in with the truth in its highest setting. It is the chapter that unfolds to us divine love working in the saints; the love in Paul’s embrace, and then the love in the elders weeping upon him. It is in that connection you have, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”; so that one is on a very high level in giving on the platform of God in that respect. There must be an order of things in which such persons reside, and in which they have liberty and are to be free from criticism.
The amount spent in this anointing was liberal, and it was criticised; they spoke angrily at her. You cannot conceive of God allowing such persons to be forever exposed to angry criticism. He will have an order of things in which that sort of thing will be well spoken of, rather than discredited.
Rem So there is “a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together”.
JT Chapter 13 is the casting of them away, and chapter 14 the gathering of them together.
EuR There is much hesitation with us in giving. We hold back, thinking of ourselves. And while going on with an outward order of things, there may not be the spirit of giving.
JT These two women bring us into accord with God. The one has wholehearted devotedness, and the other has intelligence, liberally taxing her means, but intelligent. She knew what she was doing; she did “what she could”. That is a principle in the new order of things, to do what we can.
QMS Do you think one woman gave her all to His interests and the other to His Person, and do the two things go together?
JT That is right. The first is what is of God, and the second an intelligent apprehension of what was set out in the Lord’s Person. This is the kind of Person to serve God. He is her ideal. He is God’s ideal. God had already anointed Him; now she is anointing Him; Shewing she had come into line with God as to the Vessel of His service. The widow had come into accord with God as to His nature, holding back nothing; that is the nature of God; His unspeakable free giving; but the woman in chapter 14 has intelligence as to the Person of Christ, that He is the One to serve. The earlier part of the gospel brought it out, and she is intelligent as to it.
HD'AC The one leads to the other, of course.
JT Quite; they ought to be combined in us.
JJ Is it not the spirit of (Psalm 41), the last Psalm of the first book, that marks this woman? “Blessed is he that understandeth the poor”. It is the psalm too in which Judas comes in, “Mine own familiar friend”.
JT Quite. The poor there is not the poor in the sense of poverty stricken people, but what Christ was here in spirit.
THT Would it be right to say that if the buildings are to be demolished (chapter 13), this woman would draw attention to the foundation? Paul speaks in (1 Corinthians 3) of the foundation that is laid, and then he refers to the saints as “temple of God”. Is she on that foundation?
JT Quite; that is a good suggestion.
EJM Is that why He speaks of “My body”? She pours it on His head, but He says, “She has beforehand anointed my body for the burial”.
JT He adds to the woman’s thought. He has a [p. 111] vessel in mind, for the great thing God has in view is culminating in a vessel; that is, the assembly is finally a vessel for the glory. It is developed from the Lord’s body, 1 Corinthians 10:16,17.
NMcC Why is burial brought in here? What is the significance of it in Mark’s gospel?
JT It would shew that the woman understood what was existing, that is, the murderous attitude of the Lord’s enemies. “The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might seize him by subtlety and kill him”. She understood that. Murderous hatred of Him was the atmosphere around, and she proved that she was in complete identification with the Lord. She knew what was going to happen, and so it is the idea of embracing an opportunity. She might never have one again. She did it “beforehand”. It was too soon literally, but it was accepted. It was the embracing of an opportunity to shew how she regarded Him; that in spite of the fact that He was the One invested with the service of God, He had to die. She knew what was existing. I think it teaches us not to let an opportunity pass; and how the Lord values the seizing of an opportunity that He affords us. It may pass away and we may not get it again.
GWW All the other women were too late with their spices; they did not reach His body with them.
JT Quite; she had the advantage, being ready beforehand.
GWW She seized the opportunity and it was the only one of doing it.
JT I do not suppose she got another.
WRP Do you think it means that if the temple system of things had to disappear, the Lord had to disappear too, in that connection?
JT Yes; coming in as the Messiah He accepted the guilt of the whole system sacrificially and glorified God through death in respect of it. It is very affecting that as identifying Himself with the nation He had to go into [p. 112] death. There could be no new system there could be nothing but eternal void as to the creation unless He died sacrificially. That is, chapter 14 could not be without the dying of the Lord; and this woman, therefore, is beforehand, and she expresses intelligence in her anointing. The Lord during the passover intimates that the purpose of God both as to Israel and the church is secured in His death.
WRP This anointing would introduce the new thing, would it not?
JT That is the idea; and the Lord’s commendation of her shews how intelligent she was. Some have an understanding of things beforehand, others afterwards, but it is very fine to understand and know what to do as but divine opportunities are afforded.
Ques Why does Bethany come in in this connection, and also the house of Simon?
JT That has to be noted. It is a position of reproach: “Simon the leper” And then, as the woman in the temple represents what is of God in the old system, so Bethany represents the best of the remnant under the Lord’s hands. This woman would represent that.
Ques Would that touch our local setting in our meetings at all?
JT I think it does. There is a lot of instruction that may be followed up from the scene at Bethany. It denotes the place of Christ’s influence in His lifetime here, in regard of the remnant; so that it is the intelligence side of the remnant; the woman in the temple is devotedness. They afford a blend that is to predominate in the new order of things. We need intelligence; and that is what the woman of Bethany had. It is a very fine action, because the Lord says it is to be mentioned wherever the gospel is preached; shewing how much it conveyed subjectively, and to save from clericalism. If this is announced wherever the gospel is preached, converts will never come under the influence of the [p. 113] clerical system. They will recognise that this is the kind of ministry, and will refuse what is spurious.
DLH Is there any thought here that “If even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”? I mean, is the thought of burial the passing out from the scene even of Christ as after the flesh, in view of the introduction of Christ on a new platform.
JT That is most helpful. So that the new order of things is in the light of that action; it is Christ dead and buried; but then risen and glorified. Christianity is therefore Christ as He now is and where He is.
GWW Why did you say this delivers us from clericalism?
JT Because she anointed, Christ. Clericalism is utterly out of accord with His ministry. Nobody would accept the clerical principle who understood this woman’s act.
HES Why is she called simply a woman here and not named? Is it in any way an indication of the state that the Lord is looking for in us?
JT It is the subjective side. John brings out the personal side in naming Mary.
JJ I suppose this intelligence will remain as long as the body of Christ is here, because the body of Christ being here, the temple is here.
JT John would shew how the temple enters into this. “He spoke of the temple of his body” which they understood after He was risen, chapter 2. The idea of the temple is the place in which light is, but the body is the anointed vessel. “The Christ” in (1 Corinthians 12) is the anointed vessel for diffusion of the light.
JJ And entering into the thought of the temple and the body, would help us to exclude clericalism from our minds.
MWB What will enable us to be intelligent beforehand? One feels that is a very important point you have [p. 114] struck. Many are wise after the event, but to be wise before the event seems to be very desirable.
JT I think it is in the development of discernment. One has often thought of the divine current, the way it flows; and if you are in the right state you come into it without being able to explain perhaps, and yet what you are doing shews you are in it.
One has often used Peter at Joppa as an illustration of this. The end of (Acts 9) shews he was in the current of God’s mind; he was not at Jerusalem. Earlier it had been said that the apostles were still there; but now we find Peter passing through all quarters, and he went down to Joppa, and was in the house of Simon the tanner by the sea; and the word to Cornelius was, “Simon, who is surnamed Peter”. His movements are in keeping with what God is doing; and now he goes up to the housetop to pray, and becomes in an ecstasy, and the sheet comes down; so that he is made intelligent now as to what God is going to do. The sheet is the mind of heaven come down; and now he knows it directly. Before that he was in the current of the thing and ready for it, which is most important. As to any crisis there are those who look back and write tracts explaining things fully; but they could not write definitely in the actual crisis, because they were not in the divine current. It is a person in the current who has right instincts and sees at the time or beforehand what the drift is.
MWB It is an immense point in service to be moving in the current, otherwise we may be too late as those other women were.
JT That is what this woman represents. She comes in beforehand; she is in the full light of the position instinctively. Perhaps she would not have said what the Lord said of her, but that was what her action implied, indicating the state she was in.
JJ The Lord had shewn the current before; He had explained how He was to be delivered up to the chief [p. 115] priests and scribes and put to death, and she was in the flow of that.
JT That is it exactly.
HD'AC Faith does not anoint a dead Christ. Do you not think she had the light of resurrection?
JT No doubt. The Lord said she anointed Him for burial, but no doubt she had the sense that He would rise.
EuR The gospel would go out from a complete vessel, so to speak. The Lord would secure the assembly according to Corinthians, and the light would go out from that vessel, the gifts being set in it.
JT That would result from what we have here.
NMcC In regard to being in the divine current and availing ourselves of an opportunity beforehand, is that the force of the Lord saying, “Wheresoever these glad tidings may be preached in the whole world, what this woman has done shall be also spoken of for a memorial of her”? The gospel has to be accepted, as it were, beforehand, on the principle of faith.
JT Quite. The mentioning of her action, in the sense of the Lord’s direction, at every gospel preaching.
Rem I notice that the New Translation renders it “these glad tidings”. I wondered if it was the gospel in the way that presents the attractiveness and worthiness of Christ, rather than the meeting of man’s need.
JT Quite. These would be the things He had been going on with. He had served in the gospel; the gospel is almost personified in this book. It is the great feature, and He had been ministering it, and she recognised His proficiency in the service, and I think her action would save converts as they are instructed in the import of it. They would think of the vessel through which the light comes, and in which it is to be continued. There never should have been a revival of the system that is overthrown in chapter 13 in christendom, had what [p. 116] this woman did been kept in evidence in the preaching.
AN In answer to a question as to the peculiar feature of this gospel J.B.S. once said it was as if the Lord said, I serve a poor sinner in such a way that I make a poor sinner love me, and this woman is an example of this and so she is prepared to expend the ointment upon Him.
Ques Would you say that the woman got intelligence from sitting at the Lord’s feet?
JT No doubt. We are not told who she was. If it were Mary of course that would be absolutely true.
ASL Is it open to all the saints to be in the current which, as you have said, is a very important matter to be in the current of what God is doing, and would that be tantamount to being led of the Spirit, the normal spiritual state, so that, if any crises or difficulties arise, being in the current you would detect what the difficulty was?
JT Exactly. It is most important to have that before us. We may see in verse 12 that the new order of things developed out of the passover. It says, “And the first day of unleavened bread, when they slew the passover, his disciples say to him. Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the passover? And he sends two of his disciples, and says to them. Go into the city, and a man shall meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him. And wheresoever he enters, say to the master of the house. The Teacher says. Where is my guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples?” Throughout this chapter and the next, one sorrowful feature is the poverty of the material that He had, after all His influence over them, and training in general, how poor they were. Judas appears as the traitor, of those actually selected by the Lord; but in spite of all this in His own followers, He now introduces something as to which He can say, ‘My’ My guest chamber, My disciples, and every heart that loves Him [p. 117] yields to that. He has something He can call His own, and that is what runs through the new order of things, that is, the church. It is what He has. His own possession.
HES Are you suggesting that if we are brought into the full appreciation of Christ as this woman was, we shall also love all that is His own?
JT Yes. He is now indicating His supremacy; and He sends a message, “The Teacher says. Where is my guest chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples?”
MWB Is this the region to which you referred this morning, where His rights are secured?
JT Just so. He asserts, them in the colt; but now He is asserting them in a man who had a house in Jerusalem; and it is ‘the Teacher’ who sends the message and He ask for ‘My guest chamber’; as if He had such latitude there that He could speak thus; and then of ‘My disciples’.
HD'AC In a city that would not give an inch to Christ He could find a large upper room and call it His own.
Ques Is that seen in the overcomer in Philadelphia?
JT Yes; Philadelphia would afford room for Christ. Whatever the overcomer has he would yield to Christ. It belongs to Him and that is what love owns; so that now He has a guest chamber, and He has got disciples; and His thought was to link up with them the history of Israel in a spiritual sense. It is all to be gathered up in this new order of things. He partakes of the passover with them, which was really the beginning, of the nation, so there is nothing lost. All the rest is simply let go; it is man’s doing, but He takes up all that was of God, and carries it through.
EuR So that the testimony is never broken.
JT That is it; it is important to keep that in mind.
Ques Is that the point to which the material has to be brought, ‘My disciples’?
JT That is it. You can understand how such persons as Bartimaeus and the woman that anointed Him would fit in; how they would readily recognise the Lord’s claim to what belonged to Him, and what could be greater than to belong to that new order My disciples?
ESH Isaiah says, “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples”, (Isaiah 8:16).
JT There it is. The whole testimony is now bound up amongst them, but He is beginning, most touchingly, at the passover. I suppose there had never been one like it; and He says, “I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God”.
Ques Why is the memorial absent from the Supper in Matthew and Mark, and connected with the woman in both cases?
JT Luke alone affords the memorial side, as emphasising the Lord’s absence, in keeping with Paul. These two earlier gospels are more in keeping with the ministry of the twelve, and whilst they make provision for the church, they do not emphasise the Lord’s absence.
Rem The woman in that sense suggests the affections of the saints. Himself borne in their affection rather than in the memorial itself.
JT Quite. What you get in Matthew and Mark, in that respect, is the idea of the Lord’s body as food because the testimony to be borne is onerous; Matthew and Mark give more the full measure of the opposition, in connection with which the testimony is to be rendered. It is not so much the memorial of Christ, but whether you can go through, and carry the idea of a vessel through, and escape the influences of the current religious system. That is what is in mind in the thought of food. The body is food; it is not His flesh here, but His body. “Take this: this is my body”.
EuR He would have us go in the strength of it, so [p. 119] to speak.
JT Yes; the food that is suggested here.
EuR “With bread he strengtheneth man’s heart”, (Psalm 104:15).
JT Well, quite. So you go on from that to the mount of Olives. That is, what Christ is in His body, and what God is in the covenant, leaving out the memorial side. Those two things appear in the institution of the Supper in Matthew and Mark, and from that we go to the mount of Olives meaning that that alone is sufficient to maintain us. That is the Spirit, because this mount would mean that all must be in spiritual power.
JJ Would that be also seen in the way they went up, singing a hymn? In the face of what was before Him that was a marvellous thing.
JT And that brings up David’s ministry, which strikingly involved power. The whole force of the enemy was brought to bear on David, but in spite of that he introduced and maintained the service of song. It is in the sense of victory, and consequent liberty, that they can have recourse to singing. How can we sing unless we are free? It was the power of David’s kingdom that set Israel free for that. They sang at the Red Sea, but it was not continued. It brings out the power of Christ as the true David, that He can inaugurate a system in which God is praised in song. But they go on to the mount of Olives from that point; the spiritual trend is now upward. Thus the Jewish remnant, merging into the church, became liberated from the earthly reprobate system. It was by the power of the Spirit.
HH This singing would suggest the holy sufferings of Christ put into song, so that every heart in its measure could join in it.
JT That is what the Psalms mean. David was the “sweet psalmist of Israel”; he brings out the holy sufferings of Christ. The singing is a very suggestive thing in Matthew and Mark. We might have expected it in Luke; but in Matthew and Mark it is in the presence [p. 120] of the greatest possible pressure, the whole power of evil combined there against Christ, and that is what David stands for confronted by all the power of the enemy he could be the “sweet psalmist of Israel”.
Ques Is it not rather striking that they sung a hymn and not a psalm?
JT Quite. I suppose the idea of a hymn is what is for God. David provides for the service of song and maintains it in the order of the twenty-four courses. It is an important feature of the position today.
DLH Do you not get the singing at the beginning of Luke’s gospel? You have Zacharias and then Mary and Elizabeth, all with something to say. They are all on the song line.
JT There are priestly contributions. And so with the angels, but it is rather what was said. What comes out at the beginning of Luke is the spiritual buoyancy of things. We have poetic contributions Godward in the beginning of Luke in Mary and Elizabeth and Zacharias and Simeon. Poetry would convey the outgoing of feelings, but singing is beyond that.
RB You spoke earlier of the teaching. Have you in mind that poetry is the outcome of embracing the teaching?
JT It is, but there is the additional idea of music. What is said in poetry is not in itself music. We have not only the poetic composition with David, but the singing and “the chief musician”.
MWB Is it the expression of feelings?
JT Poetry is the expression of feeling, but singing is more so, the person of the singer is more in evidence, the living voice expressing the person feelingly. Directly a composition is set in music it is capable of carrying our feelings to God in an acceptable way. I believe that is the force of it, and that is what you get here. It is mentioned that they sung a hymn. It is more to bring out the mutual side of things with the [p. 121] feelings of the moment, how the spirit of Christ prevailed, expressing itself in this way. There were precious mutual feelings. They sung a hymn and went to the mount of Olives, a most beautiful movement.
ASL It is a very different thing to get up and read a very beautiful hymn from the whole congregation joining in the singing of it.
JT One has heard a hymn given out that could not be sung a tune not being known and then read, but the effect was flat indeed. It is not only the words but the united voices of the singers that God values.
HES Are you suggesting the intelligence of the woman enters into the capacity to sing in this way?
JT I think she is representative of the spiritual state that is there and which is capable of being drawn into His company so that they do it; there was a merging in affection there, that they unite in the thing.
AN Is the singing suggestive of a state that exists, or is it to reach a certain state?
JT I think it may be both. It is the outcome of a right state existing, but this is enhanced in the service. One has often felt that.
HD'AC If there is a desire to celebrate God, the Spirit that creates that desire will also give the form of words in which God is to be celebrated.
Ques Would Miriam express that? “Sing to Jehovah, for he is highly exalted”.
JT Quite; she represents the subjective state, for all the women of Israel are with her in her service. But the song of Moses and the children of Israel in the first part of (Exodus 15) is more objective. It is Moses leading; but when Miriam comes out with the women following her, we have the general state for the moment indicated.
RGH The singing of Habakkuk is the result of exercise.
JT And he advances in it. Habakkuk begins lower, but he ascends to a stringed instrument. That is, there [p. 122] may be advance in the singing. Habakkuk ends: “To the chief Musician. On my stringed instruments”.
AN What was behind my question was that at times there is singing to excess, which tends to lower the spiritual state of a meeting rather than to raise it.
JT Yes; I think the hymn-book is too much thumbed at certain pages. We have got on a high level theoretically as to the hymns we give out, but there is a lot of wealth in the hymn book that is not utilised, just as in the Scriptures Some hardly ever read the old Testament, whereas it is full wealth; and I think the hymn book is treated in the same way. I believe the Lord would teach us to utilise what there is, so that there may be variety.
Ques Is a spiritual song an advance on a hymn?
JT I should not say that.
JJ In (Colossians 3) it is, “Singing with grace in your hearts to God”, which proves what was said.
Ques Is there a special connection between the cup and the singing?
JT There is, for it conveys the new covenant. “This is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many”. So that would enter into it; in fact, rather confirm what has been said that what was sung, was sung to God, because the covenant brings in God.
Rem It would induce a song.
JT Yes; what God is, coming into the heart.
EuR It is very affecting that the Lord should lead in this just before Gethsemane.
HH What about asking unconverted people to sing at a gospel meeting?
JT But you do not ask unconverted people to sing. The idea is that the Christians present sing. If the unconverted people join in that is their affair; they are committing themselves. It puts them under responsibility.
MWB You referred earlier [p. 123] to the Levites as in Numbers, and then to the Levites as in Joshua. Would the one rather bear on the first part of these remarks you have made in these meetings; and then the Levites as in Joshua, secure and maintain the spiritual side?
JT Quite; I think that is good; that part of their inheritance which refers to the sanctuary. I suppose Luke rather develops the heavenly levitical side.
WCG Is there importance in what is spoken of in 2 Chronicles, that when the singing reached one sound, then the glory of the Lord filled the house?
JT Does that not shew what music is to God? not only the composition, the words themselves, but the music; there were not four thousand composers of psalms, but four thousand singers, shewing the importance of singing.
RB Why does it say, “The singers went before, the players on stringed instruments after”? (Psalm 68:25).
JT Singing is a vocal expression; the person who sings is expressed, as already said. A stringed instrument would mean the ability of the person to sing and play together, to use the words as well as the music; but a wind instrument limits you to the music. The stringed instrument brings in more the intelligence of the singers; and I have thought that 1 Corinthians — some of us were speaking of it lately — at the end brings in divine sentiment; it brings in the stringed instrument in the great place given to resurrection. After all the directions as to the order of the assembly, then you have the resurrection; and after that the first day of the week; as if the occasions for sentiment that should be expressed in singing were all there, but the Corinthians were not using them. I mean, the first day of the week is one of the finest elements as to sentiment that can be brought into the singing, because of such memories, such evidence of life in Christ, and the bearing of the love of Christ, and of the love of God. An eternity is in view and singing ought to be the outcome [p. 124] of that.
Ques Would the first day open up a new period?
JT It opens up eternity, that is what we should be looking into. The eighth day indicates a new period or departure in God’s ways.
Ques What was the song of the Lord in Hezekiah’s day in connection with the burnt offering? What aspect would that bear now?
JT I suppose it shews the intelligence and spiritual wealth of the moment, the place that David’s ministry had. David’s ministry in the Old Testament corresponds pretty much with Paul’s in the New Testament; full recovery would include this.
Ques What would be the glory coming in? (2 Chronicles 5). Would it be God Himself giving us the sense of His pleasure in our song? Do you think we should have some sense of that when we raise our songs, of what His feelings and pleasure were?
JT I am sure we should. I suppose when we come to Gethsemane we get occasion for notes that we do not get elsewhere. We have already touched on the feelings of Christ; and if our songs are to have any depth we must enter, into Gethsemane; because the composition, the actual wording of hymns is important. Depth of feeling is what marks the psalms, and I think Gethsemane and the cross afford the field in which to move if we are to acquire depth of feeling. There is the height of things, which I think most of the hymns we have had for the last quarter of a century are occupied with, and rightly; but there is also depth in divine things. “That ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height”, (Ephesians 3:18). One feels the early hymn writers had more the thought of depth and piety, with little idea of length and breadth and height, and they are defective on that account. But they have the depth, and I believe Gethsemane and the cross afford the field for us to acquire depth of feeling, giving tone and body to our worship.
HH [p. 125] Will not the remnant as set out in the Psalms discover in a time to come that, although they have gone through, or may be going through much suffering, yet the Lord Jesus has gone through much greater suffering for them? Will there not be with them the depth of feeling, and consciousness in their own spirits of how Christ has suffered?
JT Yes; and the Psalms will help them; but we have occasion in our dispensation for depth, of feeling that neither the Old Testament saints, nor the remnant in the future can have. Paul led the way in this, the Lord saying, “I will shew to him how much he must suffer for my name”.
JJ Does this expression, “Abba, Father”, which the Lord only uses once, shew the depth of His feeling?
JT I was going to note that. It is formally used of Him only, although Christians use it (Romans 8:15). And you have the original word He used. I think it is a question of standing alongside of Him and entering into His feelings and affections.
Ques Is there depth in the song of the twenty four elders in Revelation?
JT Quite; I should think that would fit in here.
Rem Peter and James and John were taken to Gethsemane, as well as to the mount of transfiguration, both to the glory and to the scene of suffering.
JT That raises an important point as to refinement, as to that which excels. I suppose we may rightly take Peter and Paul, as representative of the excess of experience in the suffering of Christ; especially Paul, who is concerned to “fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly”.
HES Are you suggesting that the use of all these original words in Mark’s gospel would shew the depth of feeling that the Lord had, and that we should have similar depth of [p. 126] feeling?
JT Yes; the Holy Spirit carries them forward in the exact words used; and this is clearly that believers now should enter into their import and share in it.
FSM Is there not a strong spiritual link between the gospels and the Psalms? Has it not been well said the gospels cite what the Lord passed through and the Psalms express what He felt when He passed through them? So should we not in our consideration of such a gospel as this, think of the psalms that express the Lord’s feelings?
JT I am sure that is right. I confess I know very little of the Psalms, but I can see they are intended to promote intelligent and deep feelings in us toward God and toward Christ, also toward one another.
EuR Is this part of the way the Lord had to take to remove the system of bondage and liberate the singers?
JJ Paul carried forward the words, “Abba, Father”. He entered into the sufferings and feelings of Christ more than any one.
JT Quite; Peter and James and John were there. In a very poor way, it is true; but undoubtedly they got impressions that remained with them.
EuR We need ever to remember that the privileges into which we are brought, and of which we taste the enjoyment, have been at the cost of this of the sufferings of Christ.
JT Quite. In the last chapter we have brought out the slowness of the saints, our slowness in faith. This gospel greatly emphasises the want of faith in the apostles, but it would remind us that they were not singular in this respect. The want of faith is what marks us. So that the Lord upbraids them. It says, “Afterwards as they lay at table he was manifested to the eleven, and reproached them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him risen”. The need now is ability to accept the testimony. All we have is on the principle of accredited [p. 127] testimony, hence the immense importance of faith; We must all be conscious of how slow we are in accepting testimony.
ASL On the other hand we should be profoundly thankful that we have the testimony of living witnesses. They are worth listening to and believing.
Rem And there is no breakdown in the testimony. It is maintained in all its strength, and we have it today.
JT The testimony goes on and it is a question of believing it. This last chapter greatly stresses faith. Unless we believe the testimony of God we cannot rightly present or maintain it.
ASL Is not that the great test in these last days? The question is whether we are believers of the truth.
JT Quite so; and so you have the emphasis laid on the commission here. Believing and being baptised one is saved; disbelieving is condemnation.
JJ Is verse 9 of importance? On rising from the dead He sees the object for which He had been into death.
JT That is what is meant by the great prominence given to the women at the sepulchre, on the morning of the resurrection, suggesting the great subjective result which the church represents.