ENERGY AND INTELLIGENCE ATTENDING THE INCARNATION
ENERGY AND INTELLIGENCE ATTENDING THE INCARNATION
JT I have in mind that we might dwell a little together on the energy and intelligence that attended the incoming of Christ into this scene, and His introduction in the temple. Luke makes much of order, but he associates energy with order in the things of God, and particularly in this chapter. It is a question of the testimony of God. The first chapter links on with 1 Chronicles, this book itself beginning with Adam, and Luke carries the thread of the testimony forward to Paul imprisoned in Rome. The testimony is thus seen among the gentiles in Rome, where great energy marked it; Paul, though a prisoner, was marked by peculiar energy in his writings and speakings.
We have here first of all, the shepherds abiding without, keeping watch by night over their flock; they are exposed to the elements as in their service. Then we have, in verse 9, “lo, an angel of the Lord was there by them”, and we get his announcement; then, in verse 13, “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host ...” and in result, the shepherds go to Bethlehem in haste. Then we find great spiritual activity in Simeon and Anna, particularly the latter. It is as if the Spirit of God put this down in the beginning of the history of Christ here in testimony, to indicate what was to go through, namely, energy allied with spiritual intelligence.
The shepherdly spirit and principle seen here is carried down from the earliest days in testimony. Abel, Jacob, Moses, and David, great leaders in the testimony, were all marked by this spirit; now we have come on to the period of the great Shepherd of the sheep, reminding us of what belongs to the [p. 148] shepherd particularly in our dispensation. Peter is charged to shepherd the sheep, there is always something of that to be done, however few the sheep. Eliab made little of such activity in David: “with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness”, he inquires of him. He had left them with a keeper, and he could tell Saul how he risked his life to save a lamb. He was marked by a shepherd spirit, spiritually too, feeding and leading Israel as a flock with integrity and skilfulness. So here the shepherds are abiding without, keeping their flock — they were not hirelings. The lesson for us is to take care of the flock night and day.
WF We must be prepared to make sacrifice.
JT Shepherds have been persecuted from the outset. Abel was, and shepherds were held in abomination by the Egyptians — representing the world. People speak well of you if you look after your own affairs, but love looks after the affairs of others.
JG So, because of this, the shepherds get the communications.
JT “An angel of the Lord was there by them”, which we can count upon — a heavenly visitant. In caring for the Lord’s interests, however small or obscure, we can count on personal touches from heaven. Heaven took notice of the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were greatly favoured. Take a place like this, marked by darkness, even as we read in Matthew, the people sitting in darkness and there light springs up. The angel comes and indicates that the shepherds are known in heaven, they talk about them up there, and the glory shines around. Heaven’s interest is remarkable. It all furnishes a suggestion of what was in the mind of God; unselfishness is needed in watching His interests. The bridegroom in Canticles presented himself as affected by night conditions.
“[p. 149] My head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night”. He was suffering. Jacob said the frost consumed him by night, and if we do the work of a shepherd rightly we shall suffer.
Ques Why is there such a communication to shepherds?
JT Attention is called to that service as being honoured in heaven. It is to remind us that however obscure the manner in which we carry it on may be, heaven’s eye is upon us. The wording in verse 9 is striking, “an angel of the Lord was there by them”, as if they were in mind. Paul could say, “an angel ... stood by me”, also, “the Lord stood with me”. So, too, when Gideon was threshing wheat, an angel sat over against the place, as if to honour him in what he was doing. Heaven takes account of whatever we are seeking to do to please God. Here, they were doing the thing well. Whatever we do, let us do it heartily. The shepherd thought was very pronounced in the early testimony. Abel was the first shepherd, and the thought is carried right through. The Lord Himself is the great Shepherd, who knows His sheep, and they Him, “as the Father knows me and I know the Father”. The thought is carried up to the highest level spiritually, hence its importance.
FI “Abiding without” would be outside of all connected with the organisations of men.
JT As there outside the shepherds are illuminated. “Fear not, for behold, I announce to you glad tidings of great joy ...” There is the wonderful announcement of Christ’s birth, and then “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”; they come in, in relation to the angel. The angel is thus honoured, he is serving. The idea of an angel is usually one who is representative of heaven, of God or Christ — a messenger. The link is now with him, he is serving. So there is a great increase of heaven’s interest, a multitude called heavenly, not [p. 150] now simply angels, though linked up with an angel. The brother who communicates the truth is enlarged in the truth. The shepherds are honoured and now the angel is honoured; the heavenly influence is increased. “Glory to God in the highest”. It is a celebration to God, and then, “on earth peace, good pleasure in men”; there is the ever-widening effect of divine intervention, but all linked on with the lowly obscure circumstances and conditions that pleased heaven. We get enlargement on these lines. In Revelation we cannot number the hosts who celebrate the Lamb. So, however few we are today, we are in touch with heaven, and with all God has on earth, too. Thus isolation becomes abolished in the presence of spiritual power.
WF It was very establishing for those shepherds to realise there was such a number to execute the work of heaven.
JT What a message they received! “Glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people”. It is going to spread, and spread, and spread, but it is announced to them. The heavenly host formed a chorus, linking on with the messenger of the glad tidings, showing how he is honoured, and thus the praise of God began. Luke has that in mind.
JG This is the Seed of the woman coming to light.
JT God was dishonoured and His glory taken away, but here is One who will glorify Him. He has got man back for His pleasure. The angels are singing about men — God’s good pleasure in them.
FI The isolation the shepherds were in was broken first by the angel, then by the multitude.
JT This is written for us, we need to be brought into it. Heaven is aglow, there is no change or waning there as to Christ. Whether it is the accomplishment of God’s purpose, or joy over a sinner that repenteth, we are to be drawn into that. We are [p. 151] apt to be lethargic, not seeing much doing, whereas there is a lot doing, and we are to be drawn into heaven’s feelings. Heaven in this sense is not a great distance away. The angel “was there by” the shepherds, and “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”.
Rem The angels set the shepherds in movement.
JT That is another good thought, mutual communications in a locality. “Let us make our way ... as far as Bethlehem”, let us share in this energy, they, as it were, say. They are quite intelligent as to what has happened — “which the Lord has made known to us”; they connect everything with the Lord who is over all. This mutual side is important; we may get together and have a word over the Scriptures, but “let us” is a good resultant word. It is one of the leading phrases of Hebrews. “Let us make our way ... as far as Bethlehem”. In the light of what God is doing, let us do something. They get light to move and they get it verified. Whatever they did with the sheep, we have to leave; if they were like David, they would leave someone with the sheep. If you go to a conference, you do not close down locally! They came with haste, they had to find their way, but they found what the angel had intimated. They knew what David’s city meant; they were, we may say, spiritual men.
PW They display great diligence. So Mary went into the hill country with haste.
JT Yes, you look for intelligent energy. That was a good meeting Mary and Elizabeth had! We have another beautiful touch there which Luke affords. The unborn babe is affected by the voice of the salutation of the mother of the Lord. What delicacy of organism is portrayed! It is linked with chapter 8 where virtue goes out of the Lord and heals the woman. “The body is of Christ”. The assembly [p. 152] as the body of Christ is an organism. Mary, kept these things and pondered them in her heart, we are told here. “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all things which they had heard and seen, as it had been said to them”. You are struck by the beautiful intelligence which marked them and the accuracy of everything, and how the praises of God proceed, the shepherds glorifying God in verification of the truth.
When you come to Simeon, he is called “a man in Jerusalem”, and it says, “the Holy Spirit was upon him”. The Spirit is connected with this man three times in the passage. A true priest is brought in now and we are told what he is occupied with. There is need of a priest, as the Lord is there Himself: need now not only of a father’s and mother’s handling, but of priestly handling. Luke stresses that side, and so gives us this beautiful example of priestly intelligence. Hence, as was said, the Spirit is mentioned three times in connection with this man. He “came in the Spirit into the temple”, meaning that he came in, in the power of the Spirit, affected by the Spirit. First we have Mary’s sobriety and her intelligent rumination over things, which results in building up a constitution in intelligence, and then Simeon actuated by the Spirit. With the Babe in his arms, he can speak of Him in His particular relation with the gentiles: “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. He sees that the gentiles are to be unveiled, to be brought out of darkness into the view of God. What remarkable intelligence! The gentiles are to be first in the mind of God from His point of view.
FI So the handling of Christ in this priestly way enables him to take up service in relation to God.
JT Yes, in keeping with what preceded. First we have the praise of angels, then the shepherds, and now Simeon, followed by Anna. This incident as to [p. 153] Simeon shows how we are to be in the assembly where the Lord is to be handled; that is, how we regard Him in our mind. “This do in remembrance of me” or ‘for the calling of me to mind’. It is the place He has in our minds. He is also to be regarded in all His offices in the assembly, every office is to have a recognition there. His affection for the saints and His mediatorial services have place. It is how you handle Him, so to speak, in mind and affection. Having Him there, the light shines. It says “as the parents brought in the child Jesus ... he received him into his arms”. It is in taking the Child up as a priest would and could, that the light comes into his soul about Christ. He begins with the revelation of the gentiles. It is not his own thought, it is prophetic, it is God’s thought. Simeon is divinely illuminated. The presence and position of the Child is the explanation of this; the light of God shines there. The idea is how Christ is held. If you misuse the Lord your mind is not right, it is defiled, warped. There is a condition there the reverse of priestly, and light will not stream in. Simeon in a sense got off Jewish ground, he makes provision for Israel, but puts them second. Luke had in view Paul’s doctrine coming in, and the place the gentiles had in the mind of God.
PW You are ready to “depart” if you hold Christ in this way.
JT Simeon is acting according to the mind of God, he was told by God that he would have to die; “according to thy word”, he says. He is beautifully subject, being in the light of the mind of God as to Christ and as to himself. If Christ has come in, you can afford to go. The “Lord’s Christ” is the One who does everything for God, and you can depart happily in the light of that.
FI Having seen God’s salvation brought in, he can go [p. 154] out.
JT It is a thought that should be with us. We would not like to leave unless there was provision to carry on. Not like Hezekiah, who said, “For there shall be peace and truth in my days”. So, if young men and women are coming on, the old brethren can depart in peace. Paul desired to remain on account of the saints, he saw he was needed.
JG Moses wanted to see another leader follow him.
JT The man who had the Spirit — that is the idea; it is a very important matter. The Spirit of God in continuing this narrative begins the book of Acts with an allusion to the “things which Jesus began both to do and to teach”.
Then you have Anna in this chapter — the sisterly side — a woman spoken of with great distinction, first referred to in her early life, then in her womanhood, and now in advanced years. Like Phoebe, she is mentioned with distinction, so too Lydia. There is no relaxing with Anna, she is carrying on, “she coming up the same hour gave praise to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem”. She provides the great answer to Romans 12: 1. Her body is presented a living sacrifice. She is held honourably in the eye of the Spirit from the very outset. She is a great example for sisters, as Simeon is for brothers; both are examples, of course, for all of us. She is called a prophetess. Simeon held Christ in his arms; Anna speaks of Him to individuals, she is evangelical.