A TRUE ISRAELITE AND A TRUE JEW
Milos Pavlic
In these two scriptures, beloved brethren we find the thought of an Israelite and of true Jew. I think it is interesting that in both scriptures we have allusions to the meaning of the proper names. My impression is that when the Lord spoke about there being no guile He alluded to the name of Jacob, for the name Jacob means a supplanter or deceiver. So my impression would be that the Lord wished to convey that Nathanael is an Israelite in whom there is no feature of Jacob. On the other hand, in Romans, the name of Jew, or Judah, means praise. So there is an allusion to praise.
I thought to say a few words about these two points – about the true Israelite in whom there is no guile, or no feature of Jacob, and about a true Jew. I think it is a wonderful title, the true Israelite; it is a man of the purpose of God. There is a very great and import ant difference between the meaning of the words Jacob and Israel. Jacob is what he was naturally, and Israel is what he was as a subject of the purpose of God. What was Jacob? Who was Jacob? I think Jacob was a mixture. We see in him wonderful features of the work of God, but on the other hand it is all mixed, all that he was as a natural man. He was seeking blessing, but he was seeking it by false means; he was interested in the things of God, but his whole style of life was in very great contradiction to it. On the one hand he was interested in what was of God; on the other hand his ways did not correspond with it. That is what we are naturally. I think we can say Jacob was born again; he was seeing the house of God, and the Lord says, Who is not born anew cannot see the kingdom of God (see John 3: 3). I think the house of God is a higher thought, a more advanced thought, than the kingdom. Jacob saw the house of God, but at the same time he said, How terrible is this place. Seeing the house of God and not being in concert with it, he had no pleasure in it; on the contrary he found it a terrible place. Does it not correspond with what we are as people in flesh and blood? It was a mixture, a very sad mixture, and his ways were full of deceiving his brother. Truly his name was Jacob, his brother said, because he has deceived me twice (see Gen 27: 36) – a very sad testimony.
But then, what he was as Israel – a prince of God! There is an interesting comparison between the two instances when Jacob was in the house of God. In chapter 28 of Genesis he said, "How dreadful is this place!". The house of God is here but it is terrible, no joy in it. But in the second instance he came back as Israel ; he was name d Israel by God. Then the word of God for him was, "Go up to Bethel, and dwell there" (Gen 35: 1) – or live there – and then he finds pleasure in it. Then "And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone, and poured upon it a drink-offering" (v 14). The drink-offering speaks about joy, it was an offering of wine – quite another attitude to the house of God, for he was Israel, prince of God – a worshipping feature in the man who is the subject of God's grace.
Well, that is what the Lord Jesus saw: "truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile"; that is, there was no feature of Jacob; he was a man given to God, a man finding his pleasure in the things of God. That is what we are according to God's purpose, but the point is to correspond to it. The Lord saw it in Nathanael. Of course, fully and absolutely it is only in Him. He is the true Israel of God in Him there was never any feature of what belongs to Jacob. The humanity of Jesus is a blessed subject to think about, how His holy humanity was a figure of the meal offering, the pure, fine, white flour without any trace of something else brought in – a holy, pure, wonderful Person. Those are the features the Holy Spirit is intending to bring about in us. The Lord is seeking to do that; I think it would correspond with what we have in Ephesians as to the assembly, not to have any spot or wrinkle or anything like that. That is what the Lord is bringing about in us. Dear brother, dear sister, How far do we correspond with it? How far are these holy features prevailing in us? Or in our heart do we manifest still the features of Jacob? Born again, yes, it was very good so far, but it is the grace of God, nothing of us. But do we correspond to it in our ways? Do we seek what is for God, finding our pleasure, our joy, in the house of God? Are we dwelling in the house of God? I think that the words of God to Jacob are very testing: "Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there". Are we dwelling in the house of God or are we just visitors? We have to dwell there, for in Ephesians it says we are members of God's household. The house of God is our home. Do we feel it so? Do we find our joy in it, in what is of God, in His own household? That is a true Israelite. The Lord clothes Nathanael with these thoughts. But I think it is very good for us to clothe the saints with such thoughts, not to see only the features of Jacob, the old deceiver, the natural man, but to see in them what corresponds to the true Israelite.
To return to Genesis 28, where we were speaking about Jacob not finding pleasure in the house of God, I think that in what follows at the end of this chapter (John 1) the Lord alludes to the same vision of Jacob when He says, "Verily, verily, I say to you, Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man" (v 51). But it was wonderful how God spoke to Jacob. It was just Jacob in all the features of the natural man, but I am sure God was looking through him to Israel in bringing before him the promises, and through Israel He was looking through to the true Israel, to the Lord Jesus Himself. Angels of God were ascending and descending upon Jacob, but it was a wonderful figure of what the Lord presents here, the angels of God coming into service on Him who is indeed the perfect true Israel of God, the wonderful Son of man. All the ideals of God are fully realised, fully manifested. What a subject for the heart of God, and what a subject for our hearts! That is a true Israelite.
A little different thought is presented to us in the expression 'the true Jew'. The Jew speaks to me about the thought of a remnant. We know the history of the division of the kingdom and there was the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah, and in Judah there was a remnant. The temple of God was there; it was abandoned by Israel but remained in Judah. There was a true priesthood according to the word of God, and we read in the first book of Chronicles that many left Israel whose heart was directed to follow God; they left the kingdom of Jeroboam and came back to Jerusalem to be among those who were remaining true to the principles of God, the true temple, the true priesthood, the true offerings; in spite of their failures there was something of what was of God. So the notion of a Jew would speak about a remnant, and that is something that would speak to us, for in this time of the ruin and failure of Christendom God is securing a remnant for Himself.
But now here is a great difference; there are two sides or two views of a Jew, an outward one and an inward one, a seeming one and a real one, and I think it is searching our hearts, beloved brethren. Perhaps we claim to be a remnant, but the question is, Is it an outward one or an inward one? I would connect these two views of a true Jew, or an untrue or a false Jew, with what we find in Revelation about Philadelphia and Laodicea. In Laodicea we have an outward Jew, confessing outwardly a great truth, the wonderful truth of God's assembly, and being rich in it. It is like Paul says in Romans 2: "But if thou art named a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast in God, and knowest the will, and discerningly approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and hast confidence that thou thyself art ·a leader of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness. an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law; thou then that teachest an other, dost thou not teach thyself? thou that preachest not to steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols dost thou commit sacrilege? thou who boastest in law" (vv 17 -23), and so on. Is it not like Laodicea? I am rich and need nothing, need nobody. But what follows? "Thou then that teachest an other, dost thou not teach thyself? thou that preachest not to steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?, thou that boastest in law, dost thou by transgression of the law dishonour God?" – "rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou are the wretched and the miserable and poor, and blind, and naked", Rev 3: 17. Beloved brethren, it is a very real danger with us, to confess that we have all that and not to correspond to it inwardly. That is a false Jew. They perhaps have praise (for Judah means praise), praise from men but not from God.
But then the true Jew – how wonderful that is! That is like Philadelphia: "and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name" (Rev 3: 8) – faithful inwardly: what is inward, what is moral, the wonderful features of what corresponds to the true Israelite i the _midst of the ruin, in the midst of the failure, in the midst of all the bad things of the world today; how wonderful it is to be reckoned among such! We have it in Colossians. I very much like this description of the true Jew; it does not exactly say so, but it corresponds to it. It says, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any should have com plaint against any; even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye. And to all these add love which is the bond of perfectness. And let he peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body, and be thankful", Col 3: 12-15. Those are the features of the true Jew, inwardly, whose praise is of God. That is what is agreeable to God; not boasting in known truth, valuable as it is to know it, but knowledge is not all – perhaps it is much, but It is not all. But here are features of the true Jew, of such the praise is of God. Are we all such? I was very much impressed many yea s ago by the words of Mr Raven as I read his comments about this passage in Colossians; he said, There is a circle of such who correspond to it who are such as we have read about, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels or compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, forgiving one another", and so on. Then Mr Raven was asked, Where shall I find such a circle? And he answered, In Scripture. It is a great thing to find it in Scripture, but how shall I get into that circle to be like that myself? When I am like that then I belong to that wonderful circle of such who are characterised by the features of the true inward Jew, of the true remnant of God, not belonging to that or that outward circle but to that inward circle characterised by these wonderful features. May we be such, beloved brethren, for His name's sake and for the joy and pleasure of His heart.
MAIDSTONE
7 April 1990
(Revised but not by Mr Pavlic)