THE RICHNESS OF DIVINE THOUGHTS IN BLESSING
[p. 144] THE RICHNESS OF DIVINE THOUGHTS IN BLESSING
I suppose the duty of the preacher is to make things clear. He can do no more than that-to make the situation from God’s side clear so that it is comprehensible; and not to overlook the conditions on man’s side, for they have to be made clear, or rather exposed.
‘Exposed’ is the best word for that, for the true conditions in this world are not always on the surface.
The veneer has to be removed, and I understand that that is the duty of the preacher. God, in His government, allows things to occur which tend to destroy the veil that covers over the actual state of things that exists. It is a very great mercy from God when He allows the actual seething corruption that is below the veneer to break out. In that way people are aided — some of them aroused and awakened from among the dead. There are many sleeping among the dead among God’s people, and these governmental occurrences wake them up, and that is a mercy! Then men generally are aroused, so that it becomes a sort of extremity, which is always an opportunity for God.
Now, the conditions under which God carries on His work in our favour, in man’s favour, are clearly set out in the passage I have read from Zechariah.
God is acting, that is the first thought. I believe that ought to be made clear-becoming Man, and anointed by the Spirit. We are told that Jesus went about doing good, for God was with Him. His good works were the good works of God. God was acting and the actings of God were all in man’s favour.
Now, if God is acting Satan is acting. This is a fact clearly indicated throughout Scripture; so that Satan always attends gospel meetings, at any rate,
[p. 145] meetings that are characterised by any measure of divine grace and power. Satan is always there, we may be sure of that. And so, if God is working with any individual, Satan is active; he soon perceives it. He quickly perceives whether you are growing discontented with things in the world, whether you have begun to pray, perhaps privately it may be, unobserved by any but God Himself, yet observed by the wicked one. He observes a discontented air about you where hitherto you had been satisfied with things, indeed enjoyed things, in the world. If thus as a christian, you are moved a bit by the testimony, by ministry, and God becomes of importance in your mind, you think of God a little, you take Him into your calculations; you begin, in other words, to be godly in some measure, Satan will take in all that, too. In fact, he takes note of every item of the divine work, whatever it is, his great aim being to resist what God is doing.
Even if, as we see in the book of Job, the sons of God come up before God, Satan comes too! So you see his incessant activity to resist the work of God.
Well now, beloved friends, I want to show you how God, in carrying out His work, has set up an order of things down here which enables Him to carry it on without being disturbed; there is that which represents God down here in the way of power. I hope you have got hold of that. It is in the light of the kingdom that every intelligent preacher stands up; in other words, the preacher is clothed with salvation.
He himself is free; he lifts up his head; he has got the helmet of salvation on: that is to say, he is in the light of the kingdom, he knows the kingdom. It is a bulwark here against attacks, so that he carries on his work in the Lord’s name and is unmolested: the Angel of Jehovah stands by, that is the comfort.
One, such as Paul, was not sent out into the gentile world, as it were, alone; there was One who stood by “The Lord”, he says, “stood with me, and gave me [p. 146] power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made”, 2 Timothy 4: 17. He had the helmet of salvation on, the Lord was by, and so Paul carried on his glorious work. He went to Corinth, a town of Greece, and the Lord says, “No one shall set upon thee to injure thee”, Acts 18: 10. What a stay to him!
But what for? He says, “I have much people in this city”-’they must be all secured for Me’. Therefore, if a gospel meeting is of any account it secures something for the building, for God is aiming at securing material. So the apostle laboured on under the wing of Christ, and all the power of the empire of that day could not touch him. Even when he stood before the emperor himself, whose mouth was like the mouth of a lion ready to devour him, he says that the Lord stood just there by him at the lion’s mouth, and the lion’s mouth was powerless, just as powerless as were the lions in the den with Daniel. The Lord stood just there and delivered Paul. “I was delivered”, he says, “that through me the proclamation might be fully made”. The Angel of the Lord is standing by. I would not venture to stand up before you here did I not believe that; I do believe it. I believe, so to say, that the Angel of the Lord is standing by.
Now, there may be some Joshua here, who has had a place of dignity, but whose clothes are tattered, whose dignity is lost and has departed from him; in fact he is one who is in the fire; he is in terrible straits! The Angel of the Lord is standing by for your deliverance! It says, “He shewed me Joshua the high priest”. The sinner is in the eye of God; man, in his dire necessity, is first in the divine mind. Joshua the high priest is seen, it is said, standing before the Angel of Jehovah; so far, so good. Thank God, you have come into the meeting, at any rate. It is of great importance to get souls in under the sound of the gospel. You may have come by invitation, but if you have come out of exercise so much the better. I [p. 147] would remark that there is nothing without exercise, nothing for God without that. To one who has come in to hear the message, under exercise, I say, you are an object for the mind of God; the attention of heaven, in fact, is called to you. Here the prophet’s attention is called to Joshua, not to the Angel first, but to Joshua. It is Joshua that is before the mind of the Spirit. The next object is the Angel of Jehovah; the Angel of Jehovah is there and Joshua before him. Have you ever been before God? For the Angel is simply God Himself, representatively. It is God with whom we have to do: “All things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”, Hebrews 4: 13. Those garments that you are wearing may suit outside, but not under God’s eye.
But before I come to that I want to speak a word about Satan. He is the adversary; he too is there, as I was saying, and he is there to resist. Beware! Beware of suggestions whilst you are before God. Satan whispers things to you, for he is there to resist. It is a great encouragement to me that Scripture does not close without giving us full light on the end of Satan. He is but an instrument in the divine hand for the carrying out of God’s government. Such is the greatness of God that His arch-enemy is an instrument for carrying out His government in regard of men on the earth. So you see at the end an angel with a chain-what irony is in that! We read in Scripture of God laughing, “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision”, Psalm 2: 4. There are those who would break the bands, the divine limitations which are really a mercy for man, for all divine limitations are simply to restrain lawlessness, “Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us!”, Psalm 2: 3. But what about the chain that the angel in Revelation 20 has? Satan is bound; then the beast and the false prophet are taken alive. There is no chain needed. Think of [p. 148] the power in the hand of Christ! All the political and military power of the world centred in two men and they are cast alive into the lake of fire; not stricken with death, but taken alive and cast into the lake of fire! Where is the pretence now of breaking the divine bonds, the divine limitations? What derision on the part of God! These two men in all their boastfulness were cast into the lake of fire. In the first verse of that chapter an angel with a great chain comes down from heaven and the arch-enemy of God Himself is bound. He has not merely been marshalling human kings, and potentates, but marshalling the unseen hosts against God and against Christ. But an angel comes, one angel (one angel, you know, scattered 185,000 Assyrians at once; 2 Kings 19: 35), here one only takes that mighty being, the adversary, and chains him. What a testimony to power! Just as one angel sat upon the stone that sealed the tomb of Jesus, as if to dare the power of the empire! What irony, but how encouraging for us who believe in God! What can Satan do with that chain which the angel uses to bind him, to limit him for a thousand years? It is simply a limitation by God, beyond which he cannot go for a thousand years.
God allows him at this moment a wider area, although his head is crushed; in fact, his power is annulled for the believer, for faith. He is now allowed down here for the carrying on of the divine government amongst men; that is what Satan does. Nevertheless, beloved friends, his virulent opposition to God is in him; there is no change, his true character is ever-present; he is the adversary. Well now, what I want to point out is that the Lord said unto Satan, “Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan!”, and then it says, “Yea, Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee!”. Jerusalem is the great divine centre on earth, I need not remind you; it is that which will presently become the great centre on earth. But our Jerusalem [p. 149] is above; and if God is selecting now, if He is drawing souls out of the fire now, it is for the heavenly Jerusalem, not for the earthly. It is that you and I might shine there. The heavenly Jerusalem is composed of such as you and me, drawn out of the fire, beautified, mitred, clothed with festival robes; such are they that shall inhabit the heavenly city. Hence it is said, “Jehovah rebuke thee!”. The Angel does not, it is the Lord Himself that rebukes the wicked one.
Well, Joshua is there, Satan is rebuked, and the work goes on. It is a happy stage in your soul when it is so, when you have, as before the Angel of the Lord, recognised your true state, for you are shorn of all your dignity. True humility, true self-judgment is to acknowledge that man is shorn of all his dignity, it is all gone! His clothes are tattered, are soiled, unfit. It is a great moment when you arrive at that stage; for the Lord has His eye on you. He has a place for you somewhere; He loves you! He is going to dignify you, He is going to beautify you, He is going to clothe you, and He is going to place you! How wonderful it is to be thus in the divine mind-that the mind of God should be so set on every one of us! It has been so with every Christian here, however little we have accepted it. Even the very initial movements in your soul exercise are taken note of there in heaven; they are the occasion of joy there! You will observe it says, “And Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the Angel. And he spoke and said unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from off him”. There are those that stand before you, for God has His own agents through grace down here and they are a great aid. You know that, in the case of Lazarus, the Lord did not take off the grave clothes. There are certain things that God allows those that stand before you to do. Would we were more up to it! The Lord says of Lazarus in John 11, “Loose him and let him go”.
[p. 150] Now, these filthy garments have to be removed. How removed? Their filthiness has to be pointed out; and surely all these righteousnesses of yours are nothing else than filthy rags, as the scripture says. There is an attempt you know at robes; the idea of clothes began in Genesis 3. I have often pointed out that the first device of man was to make clothes, the first invention was clothes-making, making aprons! Many others followed, but this was the first. The law helped on that line, so the Old Testament supposes a wardrobe, a place for clothes; Job of all men had access to such a wardrobe! But what did he have, and what had you got, if you have been clothing yourself out of the wardrobe of the law? Poor tatters they are! It has to be pointed out to us. Thank God for the light! The Lord would use one and another that stand before you to point out the filthiness. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”, Isaiah 64: 6. It is well to admit it.
Now, the Spirit of God addresses the individual; it says (verse 4), “And unto him he said ...”. How precious it is to be spoken to directly! There is the Angel, and Jehovah Himself, and Satan. But here now Jehovah speaks directly to the soul; the Spirit speaks directly to the soul; I do not know exactly how it happens, but there is a direct speaking to the soul. He said, “I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with festival-robes”. Such is the magnitude of the divine proposal! And what a robe it is that God proposes for us! For He has His own wardrobe, as you all know. In Luke there surely was a wardrobe, for the best robe was carefully kept; “Bring out the best robe”, the father said; and the servants knew where it was. It was as if it were something well known in the house, kept in reserve: how wonderful is the richness of the house! Mark you, presently Joshua was to rule in it! Presently he is to see to it that others are to be robed, and he is to have [p. 151] fellows. But how rich is the house, stored up with clothing! But there is the best one! I do not doubt but what there will be an inferior robe for others in a future dispensation, reserved for them too, and suited to them, suited to their station. It is a wonderful thing to get into your soul the idea of rank. God has the idea of rank or status in His mind. And how rich the best robe! We can dwell on the superlative, when we think of Christ, of the dignity of Jesus, of the life of Jesus, of the walk of Jesus as a Man down here. He was a Man out of heaven, “the second man, out of heaven”, not that He has come out of it-that is not the point-but He is of it. He belongs to heaven; it is His own place. “If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before?”, John 6: 62. There He is as Man!
The Spirit brings in that Man, and clothes you with His worth. There is the testimony of His death, for there could be no clothing without death; God made that clear. The moment that clothing was introduced in Scripture, God made it clear that if there is to be clothing according to Him, it must be through death. Genesis 3 does not speak of the beauty of the clothing; it does not present clothing in the way of adornment; if a person is naked, it is not a question of adornment; it is a question of covering the nakedness. But with Joshua it is more than that; it was not simply a question of covering the prodigal’s nakedness; it was a question of adornment according to his rank, according to his station. In the mind of God we are called to heaven. He has nothing lower in His thought in the gospel at the present time, and He has laid the basis for that in the death of Christ. So that everything is adjusted down here in your soul through the righteousness of God revealed in the death of Jesus. No one dare point a finger at you; with garments of righteousness you are invulnerable against all attacks. But then you have garments of glory and beauty!
[p. 152] Think of that, beloved friends! There is the mitre; it is really a diadem, alluding to the priest, to the dignity that God puts upon us. What is the dignity of the believer? That he is a son of God; that is his dignity! Well, I must not linger on that, although it is most precious. There is a fair mitre put upon his brow. Where is the dignity of this world when compared with that, beloved friends? A fair mitre put upon your brow by the blessed God! You are a companion of Christ! You are a son! Your place is in the house for ever, as it says, “The son abides for ever”, John 8: 35.
I want just to say a word more about Joshua. It goes on to say in verse 5 that the Angel of Jehovah stood by. The protection is there during all this wonderful procedure in regard of Joshua. How restful the soul is as God carries on His blessed work with the believer; the Angel of Jehovah stands by. And then it goes on to say, “And the Angel of Jehovah protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts; and I will give thee a place to walk among these that stand by”. Some of you here may think that what I am saying is for the people of God only; but the gospel supposes all these things. If you are taken up at all, you are taken up for the house, and not to be a servant in it, but to be in it in dignity; and you view all the Lord’s people who are there in the dignity that belongs to them. Joshua is mitred, and he is clothed, and now he is to rule and to order the house of God. Think of the honour put upon us down here! Then He says, “I will give thee a place to walk among these that stand by”. You are now among those that are standing by! I love to be amongst those that are standing by; if I am not preaching, at any rate, I am standing by, I am supporting it and protecting it and aiding it in [p. 153] every possible way. God would have His people to be evangelical whether they are preachers or are standing by. You can easily stand by. Joshua is to be privileged to have a walking place amongst such. Such is the order of divine development in connection with the gospel; you are amongst a company. Joshua is to have fellows, or companions, and they are men of portent, they are signs. What are we in this world? Part of it? Going on with it? We are set here to be signs, signifying something. ‘Men to be observed’ is the rendering here, men to be noted. Such is the divine thought for us, beloved friends! How great is the proposal!
Then following after all this great privilege that is accorded to us in connection with the gospel, we are to be caught up into glory, to be received up into glory presently and presented faultless in the presence of it!
I cannot proceed further, but I desire to leave it with you, how God, in taking you up, proposes that you should have a place of dignity in the house. How many of us are content with a servile place, afraid to lift up our heads, whereas God would have you with a mitre! One loves to see a company of mitred people, diademed people! It is not now the helmet of salvation, that is, for the outside, to resist attacks. A diadem is not for that. A helmet is for war; a diadem is for dignity! What a company! Heaven will be adorned with mitred people, people dignified after the pattern of Christ! What a glorious proposal! how the Spirit of God would magnify the gospel! The great divine thought of snatching a brand out of the burning, and dignifying him, giving him a place in the house and a place to walk in according to his dignity! Where do you walk? What kind of society do you keep? If you are a christian, if you are snatched out of the fire, where do you walk? Here it is said to Joshua, “I will give thee a place to walk among these that stand by”. Is that where you walk? Do you [p. 154] find your society amongst those that stand by the testimony of the gospel, those who would stand by and see a soul snatched from the fire? Is that where you walk? That is where you are called to walk; it is your privilege to walk there. You are in the company of the Angel of Jehovah, for He was standing by. What glorious company! We may say it is the Lord Jesus now, for who but He could represent God in His glorious work? Only He! It is not entrusted to angels now; they are sent out as ministering servants to those who shall be heirs of salvation. But Jesus is our Captain: He is the Captain of our salvation. He is the One who stands by us, and if you want to walk amongst these that stand by, you will find yourself walking in company with Him, for He is standing by.
Now there is just one more thought in the passage. You will think I am simply giving you an exposition of the passage, but it is not my thought at all. I want to show you how God works, and the development of His work, and how His work leads to completion. What marks the present time is incompleteness; “I have not found thy works complete”, was said to Sardis. Come on to the end, beloved friend, let God lead you on to the end. And so He brings in the “Branch”, that is the next point. Christ is brought into evidence now, and what marks the whole scene is dependence on God; dependence on God is the idea of a branch. A branch is dependent. The blessed Lord took that place in grace, He was dependent down here, and now He calls us into that. It was dependence on God that marked Jesus when He was down here. Then you have other wonderful things that I cannot dwell upon, but they are worthy of note. “For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua — upon one stone are seven eyes”; there is every perception now! Things do not pass unnoticed now; alas, so much passes unnoticed! But nothing passes unnoticed by the eye of God, depend upon that!
[p. 155] The rims of the wheels of God’s government, we are told, are full of eyes (Ezekiel 1: 18). There is not a thing happening under the sun that is not noted by God, and there is nothing that comforts me more than that; He takes note of everything! But how important that there should be a stone laid before Joshua, laid before this brand plucked out of the fire, and the stone with seven eyes upon it; it is “the seven spirits of God”, it is the all-seeing discernment of the Spirit. How wonderfully fortified is the position! So that there is watchfulness.
Finally, you have the principle of care for others, for the passage goes on to say, “In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall ye invite every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree”. There is the thought of care. How great the design on the part of the blessed God to take up any one of us, to take up a brand like this which is plucked out of the fire, in His faithfulness, and set him up in relation to all this! Where are you in regard of all this light that God is pleased to vouchsafe to us in these last days? Have you responded to it? You may depend upon it that God is acting governmentally, and He is acting by the Spirit for the deliverance of men at the present time. We must not overlook His governmental dealings. He is taking note of everything, but in the midst of the wheels, you know, there is the figure of a man, and the hand of a man, and above it on the throne there is the appearance of a man. There are all the sympathies of Christ in the government of God. In the midst of the government of God there is the Man; and it all, for the present, is in view of the rescuing of men. Then there is the blessed Spirit operating directly in the Lord’s people so that you might be brought into all this glory, to all this dignity and blessedness.
May the Lord bless His word to each of us!