FAMINE CONDITIONS PRESENTED BY JOEL
FAMINE CONDITIONS PRESENTED BY JOEL
JT Those who have looked into the subject of famines will know that the prophets refer very extensively to it, but none of them gives a more concrete example of famine than Joel. We have famine conditions presented here, in remarkable severity, without the actual use of the word ‘famine’; the instrumentality, too, is fourfold, namely, the palmer-worm, locust, canker-worm, and caterpillar; one after the other, all were employed in order to make the thing complete.
JS You have destructive things here as well as God’s hand governmentally over all.
JT Yes; it is very touching that although these insects were employed in the destruction of vegetation, Jehovah said it was in His land. “For a nation is come up upon my land”. He owned it as His, and yet all this had come about. I thought this would afford a different feature of our subject, as interwoven in the prophetic word.
AFM Is there any particular cause assigned to such a calamity coming to pass?
JT I think it was on account of the lack of what was due to Jehovah, as verse 9 shows. He therefore calls attention to His day — “the day of Jehovah”; the famine feature is linked up with the final result of God’s government. These marauders portended something. The way this book is linked up with the beginning of Christianity is most interesting. It furnished the text for the introduction of our dispensation, see Acts 2.
CAM It is remarkable that when Peter was speaking in Acts 2 he referred to “the last day”, and yet he was really in the first days of [p. 252] Christianity.
JT Peter there indicates how the Old Testament scriptures may be used. Pentecost was not all that was in view in the quotation from the book of Joel, spoken by Peter, but it corresponded with it; the Spirit had been poured out, but the testimony was to Israel and, as to them, the last days had come, indeed, the seventieth week of Daniel was running its course. The day of the Lord was in view. The blowing of the trumpet in Zion was to prepare for it. The Lord may help us to see that in all this famine there is the blowing of the trumpet — the sounding out of the testimony in Zion, which certainly marked Peter’s great service at Pentecost.
AFM I was just going to remark that what you referred to in Peter’s preaching is really greater than what is spoken of in Joel.
JT Yes; it was anticipating the coming millennial day. Peter’s address involved what is greater, but it was in accord with Joel.
ANW Do you view Peter’s preaching as an alarm?
JT It is rather the gospel, for calling together of the assembly, corresponding with the first blowing of trumpets mentioned in Numbers 10. Here we have the same thing: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; gather the people, hallow the congregation, assemble the elders”, (chapter 2:15,16). It has the character of gathering. But chapter 2:1,2 is “an alarm”, having judgment in view. The idea of the alarm also has to do with the enemy — that he is attacking.
AFM In chapter 2:1 it says, “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble”. The trumpet sounding an alarm here was to produce exercise generally, in order to avert, if possible, the impending judgment.
JT I have been thinking of the ministry of trumpets as entering into this phase of the testimony.
[p. 253] The allusion is to Numbers 10, where you have a variety of trumpet ministry. It simply means the assertion of love in a very pronounced way. The trumpets were to be made of beaten silver; that is, God asserts His rights of redemption over His people. If the enemy were to come, they were to sound an alarm; but the first use of the trumpet ministry is when they sound them (Numbers 10:3), meaning that the two trumpets were employed; that is, a means of a full or adequate testimony of God — and the whole assembly were to assemble to Moses at the entrance of the tabernacle. If one trumpet was sounded, all the princes were to assemble. An alarm blown would mean that there was to be movement, those on the east side were to move forward; and when the second alarm was blown, those on the south side were to “set forward”.
CAM These trumpets seemed to have the effect of awakening or arousing, did they not?
JT I think the trumpets allude to God’s way of asserting His love, when, perhaps, we are very indifferent to it.
CAM The memorial of blowing of trumpets will be the awakening of Israel.
JT Quite so; that comes in in the sequence of the feasts (Leviticus 23:24). But then what is presented in Numbers 10 may happen at any time, and it is not necessarily an awakening, but rather shows that when things are in order God asserts His love in this pronounced way; and the idea enters into this book in a very striking manner.
TA 1 Corinthians 15:52 gives us the last trumpet: “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”.
JT Quite so; it immediately precedes the resurrection, which is a further proof of the assertion of God’s rights over [p. 254] us.
AR Does verse 1 of chapter 2 suggest God’s sovereign rights over the people? “Blow the trumpet in Zion”.
JT Yes; He has a centre of His own, which is Zion, His holy mountain. Verse 15 is like sounding out the testimony now, in relation to the church; it is not announcing the gospel in a free, independent manner. Many may assume to be sounding out the gospel, but the “trumpet in Zion” means that it is in relation to what God has inaugurated. It is not in any chance place, but in that spot which God has selected.
AP It is just the opposite of present-day evangelism which leaves souls where they were converted; this is gathering.
JT It is not independency; Zion means a centre for God; it is His own spot.
AJD What does that represent today?
JT The assembly — the testimony is to go out in relation to the assembly. I think Peter’s use of the book of Joel is very significant because it was a great gathering time then.
AJD Would the trumpet suggest ministry of a special character?
JT Yes; something in a pronounced way — the rights of God in Zion.
WGT Peter’s address was to the men of Judaea, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
JT That is the idea; his word was effectual, for the Lord had told the disciples to tarry in the city until they were clothed with power from on high, (Luke 24:49).
WB-w Do these drunkards, husbandmen, etc., represent the low sinful state into which the people had lapsed.
JT That is right. There was a stupified or insensible condition. The point made is that God’s house was void of the oblation and of [p. 255] the drink offering;
that is, the bread and wine for God were lacking.
TA Does that account for the famine condition?
JT Yes; God allowed this famine to come about through this remarkable army of insects. It is here shown that they should change the whole aspect of the land; for they, literally, as the scripture tells us, rendered the country a desolation. Although it may have been like a garden of Eden before then, it became behind them a desolate wilderness.
AFM How would you apply these four species of insects — these destructive elements — to present conditions?
JT Well, they are God’s creatures, although severally very small. When God spoke to Job He did not allude to them, but called his attention to the great things of His creation. These insects were very insignificant things; in fact, you hardly know what they were. Their names, with the exception of the word “locust”, indicate destructive characteristics. “Locust” signifies a swarming characteristic. The passage would allude to God’s employing His creation in its least reputable feature for the execution of His government in this desolating character.
HSD The fact that there are four species might indicate that it is world-wide.
JT The desired result would be complete. God acts in a four-square way; even though He uses such insignificant creatures, the bearing is universal, as to the area in view.
AP Does the effect produced by these four species of insects extend beyond the captivity?
JT It is just a portent; they point to something coming in — the fulness of this day of the Lord is still future, but it had a then-present bearing. As we were remarking, Peter’s use of this book shows how scripture may be used. A passage may refer to any circumstance in the history of the testimony, and yet the full bearing of it be yet future. Attention is [p. 256] called here to what God can do with the least significant of His creatures. The name “Joel” seems to be a compound from “Jehovah” and “Elohim”, i.e., God revealed in covenant relations and made known in His creation.
CAM There is not anything, I suppose, in the entire ways of God but what we should have some sense of it at this present time.
JT You are impressed with the greatness of God — how He can use the most insignificant of His creatures for the fulfilment of His will, and all to bring down the pride of man.
AFM Does what you have said apply to difficulties we are facing today? I suppose it would be difficult for men of the world to determine how these depressed conditions in which we are found came about — what their origin is; it may be something small outwardly, like avarice, and yet effectual.
JT I think so; perhaps unnoticed save by the spiritual eye. The effect is most marked, that these insects leave a garden of Eden as a wilderness behind them.
WGT What is the difference between chapter 1 and chapter 2 with regard to this great army?
JT Chapter 2 is rather God’s government through the northern army. The general thought is of the most thorough and dreadful destruction of prosperity, and this by insignificant creatures of God — these insects whose names are given, but of which you hardly know what to make, beyond that they are destructive.
WGT When you come to chapter 2 you get God intervening.
JT If we bear the trumpet in mind, then God is before us in all this. He has something to say — testimony is going out in the blowing of the trumpet in Zion. It is merely talking about what is current in its business effect but what [p. 257] is God saying?
CAM There should be exercise with us in response.
JT Yes; that is to say, we are not to settle down in these things as inevitable, compare chapter 2:15 - 17.
CAM We are not to become resigned to current conditions, we should have a deep sense that God is behind them.
JT We are not under the pressure of things, but above them, as we pay attention to these trumpets.
AP What comes out in the latter part of chapter 2 is conveyed to the people after they are assumed to be gathered.
JT Yes; the gathering is the great thing. Of course, the gathering here is to bring about a state of humiliation, as you will notice in verse 16: “Gather the people, hallow the congregation, assemble the elders”. That is really the secret of the whole matter; it is our being called together in the recognition of the circumstances and in humiliation. Joel may be taken as representative of prophetic ministry in relation to this subject. Habakkuk in the spirit of Christ, piously accepting famine conditions, says: “For though the fig-tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive-tree shall fail, And the fields shall yield no food; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength, And he maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, And he will make me to walk upon my high places. To the chief Musician. On my stringed instruments”. (Habakkuk 3:17 - 19). He shows how we may emerge from all this is triumph; whereas Joel brings in the prophetic ministry to bring about, through the trumpet in Zion, a state [p. 258] of humiliation.
AFM In view of what Habakkuk arrives at in the verses quoted, you would look to see a similar result amongst us today.
JT Exactly; Habakkuk gives the lead; spiritually, he reaches the highest point, you might say, in spite of the direst conditions.
ANW It is quite understandable that the epistle to the Ephesians, giving as it does our greatest light, should have been written from a prison, and is in keeping with this.
WB-w Why is the idea of the generation opened up in chapter 1?
JT To point out that it was an unprecedented condition; that there had been nothing like it before. An appeal is made to the people: “Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation”.
ABP Is the antidote for this evil seen in the oblation and in the drink offering?
JT That is the thought. They were missing; it really meant God’s bread and wine.
AFM That is, it is, typically, Christ ministering through His people to God for His satisfaction and pleasure.
JT Quite; God allowed Himself to be deprived of His portion in order to bring home to His people how low their condition had become.
APT Jehovah says, “Rend your heart and not your garments”, (chapter 2:13). That would be an appeal to inward feeling.
WB-w When Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer (Acts 3), was the oblation missing at that time?
JT As far as Jewish ritual went, it was. They said to the lame man, “Look on us”. The idea of the oblation was [p. 259] in them.
CAM In the beginning of Acts, I suppose the priestly activities of these men brought about a position in which the whole sacrificial service was restored to God.
JT Yes; you can see how the apostles and the early Christians superseded what was in the temple; not in an arbitrary way, but by moral worth — the priestly conditions were there. The description given of them in Acts 2 shows this; and that is the idea now — to bring out moral worth. The bread and the wine refer to what Christ is as ministering to God.
AJD Does this ministering bring about a moral preparation in view of the day of Jehovah?
JT Quite; and also, immediately, the oblation and the drink offering. It is a solemn thing if those are missing from the house of God. The oblation and the drink offering were cut off, according to chapter 1.
ABP Is there a tendency with us to be ministered unto instead of being exercised about ministering?
JT That is right; they were depriving God of His due. He says, as it were, “Has it occurred to you that with Me there is a famine too? — for there is no oblation or drink offering for Me”.
JS Is that not what you see all through the minor prophets? God is being deprived, and that is what the prophet here would call attention to.
JT It may seem strange to apply famine to God; but there was a famine, for no bread and no wine were being offered to Him.
AFM Are you applying this to christendom?
JT Yes, generally; but then we have to challenge our own hearts. The land was God’s, yet there was no oblation for Him. Our depressed condition is to bring home to us that God is suffering, so to speak, in being thus deprived. Why should the meetings be thin and poor, if it be not that there is disregard of [p. 260] the divine rights? In chapter 2 the priests are called upon to take part with the ordinary people in general humiliation. “Blow the trumpet in Zion, hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; gather the people, hallow the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare ..”. The priests were not inside, but between the porch and the altar.
AP It is as moving in this way that we get a right idea of the general deplorable conditions that exist. The principle of gathering must be acknowledged.
JT Here it is for humiliation, but the coming together of the saints, as brought about by the first blowing of trumpets mentioned in Numbers 10, is normal. As the saints are thus together there is something for God.
CAM Do you not think that when Peter and John went up to the temple to pray, they were thinking of God? I suppose in causing the lame man to rise up and leap and praise God, Peter had a sense that God had been deprived and was now being ministered to.
JT I think so. What was current in the temple corresponded with the prayer of the Pharisee in the scene depicted by the Lord in Luke 18. The Pharisee said, “God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men” (verse 11). Where were the oblation and the drink offering? There was nothing for God in that! On the other hand, the tax-gatherer smote upon his breast and said, “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (verse 13). There is some little idea of the oblation there; although the wheat is not formed into a cake, still the idea is there. But if you think of Peter and John going up “at the hour of prayer,
which is the ninth hour”, it would seem that the Holy Spirit is calling attention to the hour in which the most momentous event that ever happened took place, for the Lord Jesus died at that hour. So that God was being ministered to at that time through Peter and John, as being in the gain of all this.
AR Did they follow the Lord’s example, according to Luke? I was wondering whether you get the idea of the oblation and drink offering presented by Luke in his gospel.
JT Quite; Luke, in presenting the humanity of Christ, emphasises prayer as seen in Him. It is what Daniel was engaged in at the time of the evening oblation. About that time Gabriel touched him and said, “For thou art one greatly beloved”, (Daniel 9:23). That is the idea. God was not deprived of the oblation in Daniel; nor in Peter and John, and then increase came in in connection with the lame man. As placed at the temple gate, there was nothing for God in that lame man. He looked for alms, but now he is walking and praising God. That is what God is doing; through current pressure He is seeking to secure from us the oblation and the drink offering.
JS Would the condition of the lame man be indicative of Israel’s position?
JT No doubt; there was nothing for God in a lame man asking for alms; but He saw a difference in Peter and John. Peter said, “Look on us”; and God was looking on them. They were delightful to Him as reflecting Jesus.
JS The light of God was in them — not in the temple. They superseded the temple.
ABP The man ceased being ministered unto, and became, a minister.
JT Yes; he praised God, and, later, held Peter and John. In that way, you see how the system at Jerusalem was being superseded by moral qualities in those who formed the assembly.
ABP Peter said, “Silver and gold I have not”. One feels that is a very appropriate statement for the moment, when there is not much of it about, but God is interested in the moral qualities we may have by the power of the Spirit.
JT So Peter says, “But what I have” Although he did not have silver and gold, he had that by which the lame man was healed, and God would make what we have effectual in like manner.
AJD Why did he say he had not silver and gold?
JT Because that is what the man wanted naturally; he was receiving these things, as was his custom; but Peter says, “What I have, this give I to thee”. Acts shows how the legal system was being superseded, not yet judicially, but morally. God was justified in owning what answered to His mind, and in finally setting aside judicially what was proved reprobate.
AFM The need expressed by the vision Paul had of the Macedonian man, in Acts 16, led in the same direction, inasmuch as, through Paul’s activities and sufferings at Philippi, the oblation and drink offering were secured.
JT Exactly; as provided by Paul and Silas in the prison.
ANW Would you mind saying how the early Acts is an advance on the end of Luke?
JT You will remember that the Lord said to His disciples in Luke 24:49, “But do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”; that is, there was no thought of exercise or any journeying on their part to get this power, it was to come down. He had said also to them, “And ye are witnesses of these things” (verse 48). But in Acts 1:8 it is: “And ye shall be my witnesses”. They now stand in relation to Him as “My witnesses”. So Peter, in standing up to speak, is filled with the power [p. 263] from on high. The temple is not in view at the beginning, but the upper room; and power from on high is in relation to that. In chapter 3 they go in the direction of the temple, while in the end of chapter 2 it is said they were daily in it. But in chapter 3 Peter and John are seen going up to it at a particular hour, evidently to call attention to the moral superiority in these two men to what was in the temple; because the man had been placed at the gate of the temple day after day and had received no permanent good. Now he is brought into accord with Peter and John and the moral superiority of what was there, as the fruit of the Spirit.
TA The power for all this lay in the name of Jesus: “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk”, (Acts 3:6).
JT Quite; but the vessels were in accord with it. They said, “Look on us”. The idea of the oblation was in them, as remarked.
WGT You spoke about God being revealed in Christ, and God being known in creation; would that come out in the proclamation of the glad tidings?
JT Surely. The testimony of creation is referred to in Romans 1. God also refers to the creation in speaking to Job, but I think Joel combines the two thoughts — what God can do in creation, and what He can do in Christ.
GMcP Do you think the apostle Paul combines those two thoughts in Romans 1, where He speaks of the righteousness of God in Christ, and created things witnessing to His eternal power and divinity?
JT Yes. “The invisible things of him are perceived, being apprehended by the mind through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity”, (Romans 1:20). That stands.
CAM We might wonder why God in all His greatness created such contemptible little things as these insects, but what has been said is a key to [p. 264] it.
JT I think that is what we might see — the agencies God has and employs, like the lice and flies in Egypt.
WGT Here they are well trained, like an army that is invincible.
JT They are. A description of the locusts’ attack in the East shows that there is nothing more destructive; they are invincible. God has these as a testimony to His power.
HSD Man cannot cope with them.
AFM Is the great end to be reached in chapter 2:14? It says, “Who knoweth? He might return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, an oblation and a drink offering for Jehovah your God?” Verses 12 and 13 seem to be very suggestive, as encouraging repentance in relation to what Jehovah had been deprived of. Is that the great end to be reached in the assembling of verse 15 and onward?
JT That is a sort of key to the book — the oblation and drink offering. God was missing those things.
RDG In Malachi 3 you get a similar situation.
JT Yes; God’s tithes and heave-offerings were not brought into the treasure house.
ANW Tell us a little more about what this oblation and drink offering are for us.
JT Well, I think it is a question of apprehending Christ as presented in the oblation and the drink offering; that is to say, what Christ is as Man fully tested, that is the oblation. The drink offering is added, and, speaking reverently, it is what stimulates, what delights the heart of God. When these things are missing God brings in the famine by which He would say to us, ‘You are feeling the famine, but I have been suffering from famine for years; I have looked for something from you, but you have not yielded it to Me’. That is what I think His present voice [p. 265] to us is.
JTJr The husbandmen are told to be ashamed in verse 11 of chapter 1. You would have thought the husbandmen would see to it that there would be an oblation.
JT The thing is to be ashamed. If I am feeling the pinch of adverse circumstances, God has been feeling the loss of what has been withholden from His house, and I am to blame for that; I ought to be ashamed!
WFK Is the secret of the oblation in the assembly today?
JT It is. It is what Christ is as worked out in us. Leviticus 2 gives us the variety of the oblations.
ANW “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk”. Does that suggest the oblation; and then the praise to God as overflow of the soul, the drink offering?
JT Quite so. How delighted God was with that man as he walked and leaped and praised Him!
WB-w Are the husbandmen responsible for the famine outside, and the priests for the famine inside?
JT The priests could do nothing unless the vine-dressers and the husbandmen did their part; that is, the vine-dressers and the husbandmen bring the meal and the wine — the crops. These things provided work for the priests inside.
GMcP Is there any significance in the priests mourning? “The priests, Jehovah’s ministers, mourn”.
JT Yes. It says in verses 7 - 9, “He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; its branches are made white. Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah’s ministers, mourn”. That is, they are deprived of the first-fruits; nothing for God was [p. 266] coming in.
JS No service for God.
JT People say, ‘We are all suffering’; but then God would say, ‘There is nothing coming in to Me either’. The famine should lead us to think of God’s rights.
AFM The word “be ashamed” would apply to those responsible, under God, for the produce of the land. The reference is to the corn and the vine and all the trees of the field, and the oil, which includes the olive-tree. From these fruits would be made up the oblation and the drink offering.
JT Yes; all these minister to the priests, and to God, coming through the common people. The vine-dressers and the husbandmen are the common people of the land; that is, the saints viewed as gaining through daily exercises, and thus developing priestly wealth and ability. In the chapters we are considering, all this is wanting.
JS Acts 2 would be in contrast to all this. There is fulness there in the incoming of the Spirit.
JT Yes; the oblation was there and the drink offering.
AP Do you not think that the discipline connected with famine ought to yield a richness in relation to the service of God?
JT If the trumpet is heard and we come together in solemn assembly, so to speak, for humiliation, there will be something for God. This book is full of hope. It is the announcing of the Spirit, and that God will replace what these insects have destroyed. As we accept the discipline, He will do more than we could have expected.
ARS Would this trumpet have the same effect as: “Behold, the bridegroom”, (Matthew 25:6)? It is a serious matter for God to say, “Be ashamed”; the apostle John desired of his children that they abide in Christ, that he should not “be put to shame from before him at his coming”, (1 John 2:[p. 267] 28).
JT It is a question for every one of us as to whether we should be ashamed in speaking of material deprivation; whereas, we may have been depriving God of His right all these years. How much have I been ministering to God of the oblation and the wine?
AJD Right exercise should bring about a fruitful condition amongst the people of God; whereas, it says in verse 16, “Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?”
ANW Before the five thousand had food at the Lord’s hand, God had His portion, under the Lord’s hand. The Lord lifted up His eyes to thank God.
JT This is significantly referred to later: “After that the Lord had given thanks”, (John 6:23).
ABP Would you say it is important to consider the famine as coming after the era of prosperity? But the famine begins with God before it begins with us.
JT Quite so. If we could get this one thought into our hearts it would be a great gain to us — that the oblation and the drink offering are not in the house; that is what God is thinking about. The solemn assembly brings about repentance and then we have in chapter 2: “Then Jehovah will be jealous for his land, and will have pity on his people. And Jehovah will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I send you corn, and new wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. And I will remove far off from you him that cometh from the north, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, his face toward the eastern sea, and his rear toward the hinder sea ..”. (verses 18 - 20). Then the wonderful passage that Peter cites in Acts 2 follows that.
JEH I was thinking that what you have just read is really the outcome of verse 17, where the [p. 268] priests are to weep and pray, because it immediately says, “Then Jehovah ..”. in verse 18.
JT If we get an idea of the trumpet in Zion, and move in that light, discerning that God has been deprived of His due, then blessing will come, and like Habakkuk, we become superior even though the material blessing does not come, as we touch the highest note: “And he will make me to walk upon my high places. To the chief Musician. On my stringed instruments”. (Habakkuk 3:19).
CAM There seems to be a great deal in considering for God’s feelings; we rightly ask that God should take account of our feelings, but God’s feelings should take precedence of all.
JT I believe there will be a great gain to God out of all this suffering. What He has in mind is the assembly and what belongs to it, as seen in Habakkuk and what is opened up in the epistle to the Hebrews — what the sanctuary is, and the service suited to it.
AFM Something on that line is found in the Song of Songs 4:16: “Awake, north wind, and come, thou south; Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow forth”. So that if adversity goes and prosperity returns to us, like the south wind, the spices may still flow forth for our beloved.
GL Does the deep affliction in the assemblies in Macedonia bring about the oblation and the drink offering, in a sense? We read that out of their deep poverty abounded their free-hearted liberality.
JT Very good. We have been speaking of that in view of our collections, as having before us the great need there is — that although there be “deep poverty”, there may be “free-hearted liberality”.
[p. 269] That is what God values. He is looking at the state of our hearts whether we have little or much.
FHL The Lord valued the two mites that the widow cast in.
JT He was sitting opposite the treasury, and saw how the crowd was casting money into it, and appraised the giving.
ANW The apostle could say, “... as poor but enriching many”, (2 Corinthians 6:10).
WGT Is there danger in being occupied with famine conditions; whereas, God would have us occupied with this oblation and drink offering — with what is due to Him? Great events are going on in the world, and we are liable to have our attention focussed on them.
JT Well, great events were going on here when this army of Jehovah was devastating, but what people were not noticing was what was missing in the house of God. There was a state of poverty there; God was not getting anything.
AR There was no activity in the sanctuary.
AP Does the solemn assembly refer to any particular meeting?
JT It is described here.
AP Does it include more than the prayer meeting?
JT It is a question of feeling things before God. The priests forego their proper function as priests, and mourn between the porch and the altar. You do not go by the letter of this. The trumpet blown in Zion is God’s testimony sounded out there, where His interests are, and He calls upon us to look into current conditions, and judge what is wrong. We have similar appeals in Haggai and Malachi.
JS God has His great army to bring all this about. It is marvellous the way He can effect [p. 270] His will.
RDG Does the trumpet in Zion prove that God will reach His end?
APT The prophet Joel finished his prophecy with, “... for Jehovah dwelleth in Zion”, (Joel 3:21).
JT That is the great end in the prophetic ministry, that God has a dwelling-place of His own selection. “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”, (Psalm 132:14).
GG Why did it take twenty years before Jacob offered a drink offering?
JT It is quite obvious that he had made progress during those years. He was conscious that God had blessed him as he returned to Bethel, as recorded in Genesis 35. He had the sense in Bethel that he was pleasing to God there. God had directed him to go up there; he had stopped on the way, but he finally went up there, having buried the idols of his household. He was conscious now that God was pleased with him, so that he not only anoints the pillar, but pours out the drink offering. It is, typically, the sense that God is complacent in us as formed after Christ.
AFM He had anointed the pillar with oil twenty years before, but he had not the sense of being pleasurable to God then.
JT It is more a matter of light when you simply anoint, but the drink offering is a subjective feature.
AFM Christ is before us.
JT Exactly; I am according to Him in my apprehension and state.
JEH It says in chapter 2:32, “And it shall be that whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved”. That is a very encouraging word.
ANW Peter did not leave it out in Acts 2. It was a very opportune time in which to bring it in.
AP-f If God gets His portion, would not that be the end of the famine for us?
JT I think so. It would also be the end of it for God. When did God begin to get anything out of [p. 271] Jacob? It was really when he came back to Bethel. All the time previous to that Jacob was connecting God with himself. In Shechem, it is “El-Elohe-Israel” (Genesis 33:20); that is, “God, the God of Israel”. He was connecting God with himself; but in Bethel it is “El-beth-el” (Genesis 35:7), or “God of the house of God”; that is entirely another matter and means that God has a place of His own, and I am in it in relation to Him. He is pleased with me there, for I am there in accord with Christ; that is the idea of the drink offering.
ANW One of the greatest gains in coming to the assembly is in having learned that I am not the centre, but that God Himself is the object and end of all that is being done.
APT Jacob was much self-centred. He began with promising God ten percent if God would be with him, etc.
ABP Does this consideration for God throw light on part of the prayer the Lord taught the disciples: “Father, thy name be hallowed”, (Luke 11:2)? They would be given their daily bread, but first God’s name was to be hallowed.
JT Yes; agreeing with Elijah’s word: “Make me thereof a little cake first” (1 Kings 17:13); which implies God’s rights.
AP In chapter 3:13 the sickle is to be put in.
JT That refers to God setting aside the enemy. The press is God’s judgment. His enemies’ wickedness was great — “the vats overflow”, (chapter 3:13).
RAL Referring again to the tenth part which Jacob vowed he would give to God, do you think he gave that to God in Mesopotamia?
JT I do not think so. It is one thing to bargain and another thing to fulfil. “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed”, (Ecclesiastes 5:4). Jacob would have remained at Shechem,
but God said, “Go up to Bethel”, (Genesis 35:1). God has His own place, and He receives our offerings there.
AJD “Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob”, (Psalm 87:2). Is Zion where He gets His portion?
JT Quite so; and Bethel answers to that, being the house of God.
APT David’s pouring out the water, brought to him at great cost, was a wonderful drink offering. He poured it out to Jehovah; (1 Chronicles 11:15 - 19).
JT It was a fine expression of making God everything — putting Him first.
CAM It is striking that David considered that those men’s lives were for God.
JT That is the idea. Their action was really devotedness to Him, and David recognized that. It is beautiful when you are able to see an expression of Christ in others, and merge in it. David directs the devotedness of the three mighty men Godward, identifying himself with it.