PRESENTATION
[p. 263] PRESENTATION
Jude 24, 25; Colossians 1: 21, 22; Ephesians 5: 25 - 27; Genesis 47: 1 - 10
The thought I have in mind is presentation which, perhaps, is not so familiar in the United States as it is in monarchical countries; such as in the United Kingdom where presentation to the sovereigns is customary, and is regarded as of moment by those who are presented, as enhancing their dignity and subsequent life.
In reading these scriptures, I have in mind the idea of being presented, not to a mortal man, however exalted, but, as in the first scripture, presented faultless in the presence of divine glory — presented by God Himself; and in the second scripture, presented by the Godhead “to itself” (for that is how it should read); and in the third scripture, presented collectively as the assembly, by Christ to Himself.
All these scriptures bear on the future; although Colossians includes the present also. The passage I read from the Old Testament represents figuratively the presentation of the saints in their de facto circumstances down here — presented to the Supreme One by Christ, as related to Him.
I look to the Lord, as I trust you do, to help, so that this great subject may be set out not only clearly but spiritually; for we are to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means; and I would commend to you first, dear brethren, the ability of God to do what is indicated.
As you will observe, Jude’s epistle is short and was occasioned by the incoming of the great apostasy.
[p. 264] Jude had in mind to write about “our common salvation”, but he tells us that instead he felt obliged to write about the apostasy, which is now a matter of history — past and present: never more so than at present. This great apostasy, in its malign character and power, was weighty enough to bear heavily upon Jude; but he is filled with buoyancy. In the closing verses of his letter is a buoyancy that one would seek to have infused into our souls, as having to encounter the very darkness of which he speaks; we are in the midst of it. As John says in his first epistle: “As ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour”, chapter 2: 18. It is a solemn consideration, dear brethren, calculated to oppress our spirits; and we should feel it. God has great regard for those who feel with Him — and “the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations” Ezekiel 9: 4; but then there is an outlet in this holy buoyancy indicated by Jude; it is a doxology. There is much more of this in the Scriptures than we are apt to think — this spirit of praise; and it should be ever with the brethren; we should not be behind the Old Testament believers, who had, besides many songs and ascriptions of praise, five books of Psalms. We are enjoined indeed, as filled with the Spirit, to speak to ourselves “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord”. Ephesians 5: 19. Jude helps in this; he leads with others; and what occasions it is the ability of God to keep the saints from falling and to set them with exultation blameless before His glory — a very weighty matter.
We have already been dwelling a little upon how the most enlightened, such as Isaac, could fail, for who, in Isaac’s day, had the light that he had? Think of the light in that man’s heart! He was the son of Abraham, miraculously begotten, one of the [p. 265] unique babes in Scripture, and yet he went to Abimelech! Thus, dear brethren, in a crisis, the most advanced of us is capable of turning aside to human resources. But Jehovah loved Isaac too well to allow him to go further. We may all thank God for His interventions so that we should not be turned aside, that we should not go the whole road upon which we have entered through our unbelief. In order to stop Isaac, God appeared Himself to him. How great a privilege! And He says to him: “Go not down to Egypt: dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land”. Genesis 26: 2, 3. He would say to every one of us, hard pressed though we may be for our very bread and butter, “Go not down to Egypt ... sojourn in this land”. God is better than Egypt.
One would speak to the brethren as to those who have light; not only as to their salvation but as to heavenly principles: “Sojourn in this land”, and you will prove what it is. Let not a hard moment divert you — God says, “I will be with thee”, verse 3. He will be with you in it. The river of Egypt with all its fructifying power is not to be compared with Jehovah as “with us”. He says, “I will be with thee and bless thee ... and I will multiply thy seed”, verses 3, 4; and then He tells Isaac that the reason for this is on the ground of obedience: “because that Abraham hearkened to my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws”, verse 5. That was the position. The position we occupy has been won by others: let us not forget that! It is for us ready-made ground; but nevertheless it is the land of promise; at whatsoever cost it has been acquired, we are on it: let us not leave it! Abraham acquired it; it was for Isaac to occupy in grace and dignity; not as a servile person in the land of Abimelech seeking his patronage and protection. We must never take up that attitude and become slaves to the world’s principles, whatever they be. Isaac was to be in the land of Canaan in the dignity of a heavenly man and he remained there. In spite of his failure in denying his wife, God gave him a wonderful victory. Dear brethren, there is a voice telling us to stay in the land.
The Lord says, “and ye shall have tribulation ten days”. Revelation 2: 10; not eleven days. All is divinely controlled. Isaac found that the land yielded bountifully in spite of the famine; and by staying in the land we shall find that in the hour of pressure God will be with us; He will enlarge us and prosper us, till we reach Beersheba, the well of the oath, where water was found, Genesis 26 — where one is on sure ground with God, where we prove that He is doing great things for us according to engagement in which it is impossible for Him to lie. In a promise and an oath we have a strong consolation, and a hope entering “within the veil, where Jesus is entered as forerunner for us, become for ever a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec”. Hebrews 6: 19, 20 — that is the position faith takes up.
Jude has in mind that we should be in the light of the ability of God to keep us. According to his epistle, the surroundings are dark with regard to the apostasy; but as you look up to God — “to him that is able to keep you without stumbling”, verse 24, and as you look around on the brethren all is bright and stable. Jude does not fail in the midst of the outward circumstances; he tells us about love feasts, he speaks indeed about “spots” in them, but nevertheless there are love feasts. And then he goes on, “But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God”, verses 20, 21.
How are we to get through as this one and that one are taken away, honoured men of God on whom we have leaned? And it may be that others will be taken if the Lord tarries. “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh”. Ecclesiastes 1: 4. The coming generation is apt to be depressed, thinking, How shall we get on? Jude says in an exultant tone: “But to him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before his glory, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages”, verses 24, 25.
With regard to the verse in Colossians, the apostle, in the same spirit of worship as Jude, speaks of “giving thanks to the Father ... who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”, verses 12, 13. Think of that, dear young people, of being translated from the authority of darkness by the Father. How worthy He is of our thanks! — and then translated into the kingdom of “the Son of his love” — such a kingdom as that! The apostle then, by the Spirit, proceeds to speak of Jesus as “firstborn of all creation; because by him were created all things”, verse 16; not merely as the instrument, but in His own power they were created; all were created by Him and for Him. How the Spirit of God would imbue our souls with the knowledge of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ! Then it goes on to say, among other things, “In him all the fulness ... was pleased to dwell”. Marvellous fact! And then “by him” the Deity would reconcile all things to Itself. “And you ... has it reconciled in the body of his flesh through death”, verses 21, 22. God, dear brethren, has acted for us in this way, “in the body of his flesh through death; to present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it”, verse 22 — to present you. Think of being before God thus! without blame in His presence. God has done it; not only the reconciliation but the presentation “before it”. What a footing to be on! It is what God has done Himself through Christ.
Going on to Ephesians — I wanted to come to the thought of Christ and the assembly. I am following the line of presentation and I hope everyone is enquiring. Am I in this? The passage says, “Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”, verse 25. He had a great object in view. Paul says elsewhere “who has loved me and given himself for me”. Galatians 2: 20. The verbs are in the past tense. It is wonderful to go back hundreds of years — to the cross — and to think that Christ loved us then. But then he says here, He “loved the assembly and has delivered himself up for it” — with an object in view — its presentation to Himself.
It is remarkable that with the men of faith, you get nothing in the way of a conspicuous marriage. Marriages are common among us, and much is made of them, but the Lord Jesus is still waiting for the marriage celebration; not for the taking of a wife. When Rebecca came to Isaac, nothing is said except that she alighted from her camel. Isaac was out meditating in the field; he had come from the well; he was alone in meditation, representing typically the Lord Jesus in solitariness, in resurrection, the heavenly Man. Rebecca represents not the bride exactly, but the wife. There was no celebration; not even with David or Solomon do you get that. It is all future. Thus the Lord loved the assembly and gave Himself for it, “that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word”, verse 26. What for? — “that he might present the assembly to himself glorious”, verse 27; it is His own action. Jehovah brought Eve to Adam; but Laban did not come with Rebecca, nor was Abraham present. The Lord Jesus will present the assembly to Himself in the coming day, all glorious. Dear brethren, this washing of water by the word is [p. 269] service that He is carrying on with that in view; not only for our comfort and blessing generally, but in view of the presentation.
How are we to be presented? The washing of water by the word contemplates intelligence. A person that is washed, knows what is being done; it is by the word. When He washed the disciples’ feet. He said: “What I do thou dost not know now, but thou shalt know hereafter”, John 13: 7, and that is true now; the “hereafter” has come. “I speak as to intelligent persons”, says the apostle in 1 Corinthians 10: 15. The Lord would respect us and give us to understand that we are intelligent; that we know what He does. “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready”, Revelation 19: 7. She has made herself ready. She understands what is suitable now. May we not say that this is the outcome of this intelligible service of the Lord — the washing of water by the word? The saints are being washed and sanctified collectively, so as to be presented collectively. One great thread running through Ephesians is that we become accustomed to collective relations. The Lord’s supper is intended to accustom us to collective relations to one another; to know how to sit down body-wise — assembly-wise; to know how to wait together without being irritable or impatient; to be together as in assembly in quiet spiritually intelligent dignity. The assembly is a living organism in which we are set according to divine wisdom and in the power of the Spirit of God.
Just to amplify this in a practical way, I want to dwell on Genesis 47; for it contemplates us, as I said at the outset, in our de facto conditions here. In this chapter there are mentioned five brothers — shepherds. Compared with Pharaoh — this great man — what are these five shepherds? And then an old man whose occupation had been that of a shepherd,
[p. 270] how will he go in to the palace? how will he appear? how will they all appear in the presence of the Supreme? — for that is the idea.
This is a very practical scene; it is a question of what we are in our every-day lives; what our occupations are; what we are, as men reckon. Sophisticated men in this world would say, The only man in Jacob’s family who is a gentleman is Joseph. Were the retainers of Pharaoh and Joseph to see these five men and the old man — Joseph’s father — go in, they would be thinking, There is not a gentleman amongst them; they to be presented at court!
Well, that is how we are challenged; but then, Joseph knows. It is a question here of moral superiority; not of measuring up to human standards, for these can never be introduced among the people of God. There is a law called the rule of new creation and that is to govern these matters; it is not the law of Egypt — the law of this world. Joseph understood this, we may say, in presenting his father and brethren to Pharaoh.
I speak of Pharaoh, as in some sense representing God; for that is how we have to face this matter; not merely historically, for it has a moral bearing. It is a question of how these poor people, despised of this earth, shine, and of what there is in them that is of God which the world does not know. John says, “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not”, 1 John 3: 1. We are not known now, but presently some qualities will shine out which will eclipse any the world possesses. Joseph, in the type here, instructs his brethren so that the traits that mark the people of God should appear. That is the point he makes. They were to say to the king, “Thy servants ... have been occupied with cattle from our youth even until now”. They were [p. 271] men of feeling and heart; men who have had to do with living creatures, and cared for them.
Dear brethren, let us take that ground! Shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians, but the first man of faith, Abel, was a shepherd. Spiritually, it is a most dignified occupation. There are five of them here. Joseph would say, I am not taking in ten, but five. He makes his selection. There can be no doubt that he did not wish to make any show in numbers, but rather in quality, for quality is greater than numbers. Five is a simple number; you can count it on one hand. It is remarkable how it is used in Joseph’s ministry, and no doubt, has its significance. These five men come up to the mark; there is no show of external greatness or worldly refinement about them; it is a question of what is acceptable to God; how things measure up in heaven. These men measured up to that standard. Accordingly, to Pharaoh’s question, What is your occupation? they answer, “Thy servants are shepherds”. And they add, “To sojourn in the land are we come”. If we are in this world in any way, we are not here to stay. Let no christian act in this world as if he were here to stay; he is not here to stay. Joseph’s brethren were in Egypt as sojourners. If they were to say more, they would add. There is the land of Canaan, the land promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; theirs was, in type, a heavenly country. They did not come to stay; they were in Egypt as sojourners; therefore, it was a question of getting through. Pharaoh says to Joseph, “Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee ... let them dwell in the land of Goshen”. It was the best of the land of Egypt — thus God provides for His people as they maintain their true character. They are to “dwell alone”. It is said of Israel, “Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations”. Numbers 23: 9. These [p. 272] sons of Jacob were to continue their occupation in Goshen. We are in a time of unemployment, but God is an Employer. He is looking for persons who can do His work; He has plenty to do, and He pays well. It is a question of submission to His will. One feels, more and more, that all the current pressure is to bring out the brethren; and if we give God His place, He will give us employment; and we will also get employment for “necessary uses”. Pharaoh gave instructions to give some of Joseph’s brethren employment.
Thus the people of God are dignified; they shine out in their own way — not in the world’s way. The idea is that the saints bring into this world the principles of another world, and that is what these people did. They continued in Egypt their occupation as when in Canaan. The service of shepherds is spiritually a reflection of Christ, who is the great and good Shepherd.
The final word is about Jacob to show how the moral superiority of the saints comes into evidence. Joseph set Jacob before Pharaoh, and there is no enquiry about his occupation here. There was not a man like Jacob in the whole universe, and Pharaoh understood that. Jacob was the depository of the blessing of the promises of God. Think of what light he had in his heart! Some of you young people may be serving day by day in workshops with superior men of means, but how little they know what you have in your heart that is not present in theirs. You possess dignity that will exist when the world is gone forever; and so it was with Jacob. He blessed Pharaoh as he came in, and again as he went out. He blessed him twice, to bring out, I think, the great moral worth that there is amongst the people of God. They are despised outwardly, but their great moral worth shines. It shines in the presentation by Joseph; that is to say, typically, by [p. 273] Christ. Think of the dignity that attaches to us as related to Christ. But there is also intrinsic dignity. This is particularly seen in Jacob. In the consciousness of this he blessed Pharaoh, who did not resent it. Pharaoh asked him, How old are you? That is a great test. How many years have you been converted? How much can you show for it? How much have you acquired in the knowledge of God and of Christ? Jacob answered, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they do not attain to the days of the years of the life of my fathers”. Genesis 47: 9. Who are these fathers? Isaac and Abraham. Abraham lived to be one hundred and seventy-five, and Isaac lived to be one hundred and eighty. These ages were beyond what was customary in Egypt, and ages like these would command the respect of Pharaoh, great as he was. And so it is, beloved, that age in experience with God, in the enjoyment of His promises. His purpose, and His love makes us greater than any. It was so here; Jacob blessed Pharaoh as he came in, and he blessed him on the way out. Pharaoh made no enquiry as to his occupation as I remarked. It is not now a question of occupation but of growth, of maturity — what one is in his life with God. The twenty-four elders in the book of Revelation correspond; indeed, the Lord Himself is seen there with hair “white like wool”. It all alludes to what I am saying; and so everyone is challenged as to how old he is. What have you got to say for your years? It is not a question of how long you have been in fellowship; no, that is not the point. The number of years since I was born is not important; that may count for nothing: it is a question of a man such as Jacob — a man who has been with God. Can you bless anybody? Jacob could bless the greatest man. It was no sham; it was the blessing [p. 274] of a man who had been with God, the depository of the mind of God, and of the promise of God.
I think, dear brethren, you will be able to see how great a subject this is, and how it challenges what is brought in now in our everyday circumstances; also as to our faith in God and our knowledge of Him — of His ability to keep us from falling and to present us faultless in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.