READING MATTHEW 11
[p. 139] READING MATTHEW 11
JT In comparing the different gospels I think Matthew may be said to be the assembly gospel. The prominent feature of this gospel is the introduction of the assembly as that which should supersede Israel here in connection with the government of God. There is a certain analogy between Matthew and Hebrews. Hebrews shows how the new system of things in Christ should supersede Judaism; this was most important for Jewish Christians to understand. Matthew does not present the assembly in relation to God’s purposes exactly, but in its present formation as set here on earth in support of God’s testimony.
RSS It is singular that the gospel which presents the Lord as the Messiah to Israel is the gospel in which the assembly is found. The truth of the assembly, however, was consequent on Christ’s rejection.
JT You not only have His rejection here; you have the rejection of the Spirit as well; Matthew 12:24 - 32.
JSG In this chapter the Lord is rejected, but in chapter 12 He rejects them.
JT It was difficult for Jewish Christians to dissociate themselves from the earthly system. Matthew’s gospel was intended to instruct them in regard to Christ; to show historically that He was rejected, and that the assembly was built by Him as that which should supersede Israel, so that they might associate themselves absolutely with it.
JSG In Hebrews they were taught that their place was inside the veil, and so outside the camp on earth.
JT Everything now is connected with Christ in the heavens, and the heavenly order of things supersedes [p. 140] the earthly.
JSO Do you think that in this chapter the Lord takes the place of being God’s centre?
JT Things now in that way turn on Christ. I think the presence of Christ among the people was the testimony. His presence amongst them, as in the earlier chapters, brought out what was there. If there was any good, it would have been brought out by the presence of such an One. Woe is pronounced on the cities. They should have repented, but the state of things in Israel was worse than in Sodom and Gomorrha. The Spirit shows that it was impossible that that system could remain. Here was the Ark of the covenant amongst them, and there was no appreciation of it and no protection for it. But God’s testimony must be preserved here on earth. Hence the necessity for the assembly as seen in chapter 16; the gates of hell should not prevail against it.
Neither Matthew nor John presents the historical fact of the Lord’s ascension, whereas Mark and Luke do. In Mark He goes to the right hand of God in connection with the testimony. He “sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following”, Mark 16:19,20. The Lord on the right hand of God was the guarantee that the preaching should be universal “to all the creation”. In Luke the Lord is received up into heaven. He goes up in the attitude of blessing. Luke presents God coming out for man’s good and blessing. It is not only that men should be relieved on earth, but there is a place in heaven for them. “Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven”, Luke 10:20. Our triumph is not only that we have power on earth over evil, but our names are written in heaven. The excess of God’s grace is seen in taking us up and giving us a place in heaven, Ephesians 2. The exceeding riches of His grace are that [p. 141] there should be a place for us in heaven. In John the point is that we should know the Person. Seven signs are recorded to the end that the saints should believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life through His name. Turning the water into wine is a characteristic sign. It manifested His glory and His disciples believed on Him.
Matthew, as we have been saying, is the ecclesiastical gospel. It presents the Lord as the Messiah in the midst of Israel and rejected as such; then He is revealed to be the Son of the living God, and consequent on this the assembly is introduced. The character and position of the assembly, as taking the place of Israel, and indeed of the Lord Himself, is the leading feature of this gospel.
RSS In John they should believe that Christ is the Son of God. Matthew presents Him as the Christ.
EJW In John the signs were given that His greatness might be known.
JT His disciples believed on Him. The faith of the multitude was of no value; see John 2: 24, 25.
EJW It is significant that the first sign that is given is in connection with His glory, to manifest His greatness, and this indicates, no doubt, the character of the other signs in this gospel.
JT It was a remarkable sign, performed in connection with man in his brightest day.
JSG The signs are to show who He is. In Matthew it is to show that God is amongst His people. “God with us”. Matthew 1:23. The key to this chapter is that He takes the point of being God’s centre. He is the gathering point for God’s people.
JT His ministry, although so perfectly rendered, had effected nothing in the nation; as to it, all was hopeless. The greatest born of women fails; how, then, can the testimony be maintained by man in [p. 142] the flesh? But the Lord retires into the sense of what the Father is and what He would accomplish; “thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes”, Matthew 11:25. He shows that God was acting on judicial grounds in hiding His things from those who assumed to be wise, but He discloses them to the babes. The character of the babe qualifies us for divine disclosures. God’s sovereign rights over heaven and earth; His being revealed as Father; the babes, and Christ as the gathering centre, engage us here; Israel being rejected for the moment. This is the groundwork of what follows in this gospel.
RSS What are the characteristics of a babe in this connection?
JT A babe stands here in contrast to a wise man in this world. It pretends to nothing. A little child represents a person of no importance in this world. The reception of such a person into your house would not distinguish you in the eyes of men.
JSG They found everything in Christ, and He promoted confidence in Himself. They received Him. The idea of a babe is most touching in Scripture as showing that which should mark those in the kingdom.
WHC They were of a new generation.
RSS In the gospels little children are contrasted with men of this world; but in the epistles, viewed in the graded relationship involved in a family, they are contrasted with young men and fathers.
EJW In the gospels a babe is one who possesses a certain spiritual character, such as God can value. He is one whose eyes are open to the true character of the world, its wisdom, culture, honour, etc., as being morally worthless. He has grown up in this order of things, but is ready to turn away and disappear from it in order to start, and grow up afresh, in the new and divine system of things which is of God and in Christ.
JT [p. 143] It is to the babes that the disclosures are made. In the kingdom the least is greater than John the Baptist, who was the greatest of those born of women. A place in the kingdom necessitated another birth. Psalm 8 is interesting in connection with the babes. “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger”. Psalm 8:2. “Enemies” here refers to those hostile to Christ inside Judaism; “the enemy” is one outside; see Note in New Translation. That which God established in the babes should meet both enemies.
WHF The babes would correspond with wisdom’s children. Wisdom was, so to speak, begetting children, and she would be justified of all of them.
Rem The Lord said, “Behold I and the children which God hath given me”, Hebrews 2:13.
JT Israel had rejected Him, but God compensated Him by giving Him children; and then the children should be for signs and wonders in Israel. Israel proving reprobate, the babes are necessary to the accomplishment of God’s counsels. All the working out and development of God’s ways should come out in connection with the babes.
EJW The babes are seen to be very important in the divine estimation at this juncture, for it is in this connection that God says, “the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones”, Zechariah 13:7. The nation is proved to be hopelessly unbelieving and morally worthless; then the “little ones” become the objects of the divine interest, and the centre of God’s activities and ways in the earth.
JSG It was important that the disciples should know that the Father was Lord of heaven and earth. “Lord” here is in the sense of controller of everything. The Father was just carrying out His own will. The babes were let into the secret of the Father’s thoughts, how that everything should revolve around Christ.
RSS If you are a babe in the true sense, you will be like the Lord — meek and lowly in heart. You learn that from Him. Simon in Acts 8 gave out that he was some great one. The babe assumes to be nobody, and is absolutely dependent.
JT It is important to see that this group of babes should be taken up by the Father and formed after the pattern of the Son, and should become the nucleus of God’s universe. Christ is the model; “Learn from me”. Matthew 11:29. There should be nothing in the new order of things that is not morally like Christ. This is brought about by taking Christ as our model. These babes ultimately formed the assembly.
RSS Why is the revelation of the Father made prominent here?
JT Matthew touches John here. The utter failure of Israel, as shown in the earlier part of the gospel, necessitated the revelation of God. His counsels were in question, and the accomplishment of these required a full manifestation of what He is. To come out in this way was ever in God’s heart, but the breakdown of Israel afforded the opportunity for it. Stupendous truths are grouped together here. God’s sovereign right to heaven and earth; the revelation of the things the Lord had spoken of to babes; all things being delivered by the Father into the hands of the Son; the Father revealed by the Son; and Christ as the One who is centre and model for all. The whole moral system which God had designed is evolved from what is presented here.
EJW This was a sorrowful moment in the course of the Lord’s service here, when He had to pronounce woes upon the localities in which most of His mighty works had been done. No doubt these cities represent the order and system of things which [p. 145] subsist in connection with man in responsibility and the world. The Lord describes them as a generation wholly incapable of appreciating the greatest testimony possible for God to give. From this generation and order of things the Lord now turns away, and, in spirit, retires into an order of things entirely new and different in character, in which all proceeds from and depends upon divine Persons instead of upon what man is.
JSG The chapter brings before us an exceedingly solemn moment and state of things. There is, first, the breakdown of John; next, the unbelief of the nation; and then the woes pronounced by the Lord upon it.
EJW And the Lord retires into another order of things, one which subsists upon entirely different principles. It is not now a question if Israel or man, as such, will receive and appreciate the divine thoughts presented in Christ or not, but of the Father’s sovereignty in grace in revealing these things to the “babes”; next, all things being given into the hands of the Son, and the Son revealing the Father to whom He will; and then a generation coming into view to whom Christ is attractive, who leave the old order of things to come to Him, and participate in His rest in the new, and who learn from Him, and thus are formed morally after Him in the will of God, so as to be a wholly new generation, deriving its character from Christ.