FATHER AND SON

J. Mitchell

Genesis 22: 4–8; Proverbs 4: 1–9

I, would like, dear brethren, to say a word about the relationship of father and son. In a certain sense I do not feel qualified to say much about it, but it is one of the most blessed relationships that there could be, God having graced it Himself. He has come into the relationship of Father with Christ, and Christ Himself, who in His Person is God, has come into the blessed relationship of Son. Not that He was Son, as we know, before time. He has come into that relationship and in it the glorious and greatest thoughts of God are set out.

John says that “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1: 18). I need hardly say it is a relationship of the most intense affection. It is wonderful that God should not only take up the name, to be known as Father, but should set out in its blessedness all that belongs to the holy relationship of Father. God has come into that, and has graced it with a beauty that is unique, and yet the beauty of the relationship is in some measure to be taken on by us. There is, I think, a great need of fathers, and it is in that connection one feels one’s inadequacy in speaking of it.

Then, of course, all of us, whether or not fathers literally or even morally, are sons, every one of us, brothers and sisters. It is a wonderful thing to be brought into the relationship of sons, but not only the relationship, but to be given the Holy Spirit whereby we cry, Abba, Father (see Romans 8: 15). That is, we have the feelings, the power and affections that belong to the relationship to which we have been called. All these things are exceedingly wonderful, dear brethren, and they are the essence of Christianity. One would like just to impress upon us in a simple way what Christianity really is in its essence. It is a system of tremendous affection and love flowing in a reciprocal way, in a feeling and freeway with nothing to hinder; I think that is Christianity. Christianity in its essence is set out in the glory of the Father and the Son—“the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1: 18. Types, of course, always come short. Nevertheless, there is a beautiful type in Abraham and Isaac. Abraham was distinctively a father. He was named ‘High father’ before he was an actual father, showing that God had in mind to set that out in him, and the divine record shows the way in which it was arrived at. We are reminded that he dwelt in tents with the heirs, that is, with Isaac and Jacob. His dwelling with them was effective because Jacob was a homely man dwelling in tents. That is what we would seek, dear brethren, that the influence of fatherhood should be effective for the protection of what is for God.

The fatherly idea is a great protective element among the saints. One reason for the distress at Corinth, as Paul says, was that there were not many fathers. There were plenty of instructors, and persons who had gift. There were those who assumed to have gift. What we really need is fatherhood, and fatherhood is the element that would care for the saints. You think of it coming to light in a young man. Paul says of Timothy, “I have no one like-minded” (Philippians 2: 20); Paul was a father. I suppose in this dispensation there has been no father like Paul, but there Paul says of Timothy, “For I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on”. One would like to exercise one’s self as to caring with genuine feeling how the saints get on. It involves the examination of our motives, the examination of everything, to ensure that we are clear of every influence that would militate against the protection of the saints and holding them for God. I think a father would do that in a locality. We shall see, when we come to Solomon, that a father would bring in discipline where discipline is needed; he would bring in moral teaching. That is the whole point of the book of Proverbs; it is the father and son book, and yet it is full from the beginning to end of strong moral teaching, and that is necessary in view of the saints being held and protected from the inroads of the world and from the forces of the enemy.

But the perfection of the relationship is set out in the Father and the Son, and Abraham and Isaac are a type of this relationship in its beauty. The chapter is most affecting. There is nothing in it that is out of accord with the divine mind. Earlier in the chapter the young men seem to be fitting into their own place without any difficulty or friction, and serving in the place allotted to them. It says that Abraham saddled the ass, and we know what an ass represents scripturally and the need for its neck to be broken (see Exodus 13: 13). But in this chapter there is no suggestion of the need for the neck to be broken. All that had been gone into beforehand and the ass is amenable. Everything here is set out in its purity and its beauty as in accordance with the will of God.

Then there is what comes out in Isaac, in the son, as he says, “My father!”; “Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, My father! And he said, Here am I, my son”. What happy intercourse without anything coming in to spoil or hinder it. It should be so with us. John, as directed by the Spirit, brings the Lord forward in his gospel as the One who in perfection was here as a Man in relation to the Father. Somewhere Mr. Raven says something like this, that the Lord in John’s gospel does nothing whatsoever except what was necessary for the revelation of the Father. You think of that! He was a unique Man because of who He was, but nevertheless He was here as a real Man.

Sometimes one has difficulty in realizing the true humanity of Jesus, a Man with all the feelings of a man, absolutely apart from sin, but a Man who was here entirely for the revelation of the Father, entirely in relation to His will and in constant holy, happy communion. You can write that expression, “My Father”, right across John’s gospel. How wonderful that is! What a contemplation that there was a Man here entirely for God. When the truth was called in question He saw how it related to God, and He took issue with it.

There is no more militant gospel in one sense than John, where there is the presentation of One who was here in relation to the Father and taking issue with every element of opposition as understanding in the full sense how it related to the revelation of the Father. What a Man He was! Let that Man come more into our affections. I think brethren have often heard, and I think it is well worth a study, that we should enquire what the Father sees to be so precious in Christ. I think we can well reflect on what He had here in a Man when Christ was here; how wonderful were those days for God when Christ was here. And yet the full working out of things involved the fire and the knife. Always across that pathway lay the certainty of His death, with all that that meant to Jesus. Think too of what it meant to the Father. What it has cost God that we should be recovered, that we should be brought into the glory of sonship, and what it has cost God that the truth should be manifested and maintained amongst men.

So the fire and the knife were there. What a thought that is, the two going together, as it says, “and they went both of them together”. What an expression! what is involved, antitypically in these few words, the opening up of a life, the life of Jesus, and the opening up of what was there for God’s pleasure. We think of the thirty years of the private life of Jesus, of which not much is said, but there is an indication in Luke in His words, “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” (see Luke 2: 49). Sonship in its conscious nature was beginning to manifest itself there. At the end of those thirty years of private life the Spirit descends on Him as a dove and we have the Father’s estimate of those years and what they were for His pleasure. Then there were the three-and-a-half years of His public life.

Quite a number of us here have gone beyond that age, gone quite a way beyond. I would like the young men here to think of this. Thirty-three and a half is not old. You might think of it as old, but that is what the Lord had, thirty-three and a half years, and it is said prophetically of Him, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”, Psalm 16: 6. From one point of view He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but from the point of view of what we are speaking of these thirty-three and a half years were times of intense joy to the heart of Christ. Just to be here for the will of His Father was intense joy to Him. He felt what it was to be taken away, to be cut off, but the wonder of it is that the epistle to the Romans speaks of Him where He now is—“In that he lives, he lives to God” (see Romans 6: 10); that character of things, dear brethren, is unchanged. A Man is now in the presence of God who entirely considers for God, the One who went all the way into death.

He suffered to settle the whole moral question, but there is the other side of what Christ gave in the culmination of a pathway here entirely for God. I judge from Mr. Darby that that is the setting in Hebrews—“who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God” (Hebrews 9: 14). That is the burnt-offering, and God used that as the sin-offering, but it is really the burnt-offering. You think of the life, a life of absolute unselfishness, absolute devotion to God’s will, that culminated in the giving of Himself. In a certain sense Isaac sets that out. Of course, he is not in the full intelligence of it, but he asks a question; he says, “My father! And he said, Here am I, my son”. (What a tender expression that is!) “Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the sheep for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering. And they went both of them together”. Twice it is said, “And they went both of them together”, but the question having been asked, they went on together.

I think that shows, in so far as a type can set it out, what was in the mind of Christ, the spirit that was in Christ, the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that was prepared to go all the way in the full consciousness of what that way really meant.

Well, dear brethren, do not these things affect us? It challenges us too, does it not, because you then have to say, How do I measure up to that kind of devotion? Oh that we might be more devoted to what belongs to God! I think that is the cry of the day, that we should consider for God, consider for Him in every matter whatever it may be. With young people, such-and-such a matter may come up, and you might say, ‘Well, this is fine, this suits me’. Can I not plead with you to reflect for a minute and say, ‘How does it affect God? Is this in the will of God? In accepting this invitation, or whatever it may be, am I considering for God, or for whom am I considering? I say to those of us who are older, myself included, in every matter let us just ask ourselves that question. Am I really considering for God? Or who else am I considering for? It may be myself. I find it very, very challenging, as I trust we all do. I do not purport to take any place above the brethren in that connection; I find these things extraordinarily exercising. What am I considering for? Who am I considering for? Am I considering for God?

We see the perfection of what is set out in Christ in the beauty of His pathway here. You might say, ‘I am not like Him’; but bear in mind that Abraham and Isaac were persons like ourselves. It is a wonderful thought that is set out in Abraham. You may remember those touching readings, ‘Generations in the Book of Genesis’ (J. Taylor Vol. 42, p.372), where the beauty of fatherhood was brought out. The fathers are concerned always for the progeny, what is coming, and caring for the saints. The protection of the saints in their local meetings is a matter of all importance. It involves that we feed them; young people need to be fed; old people need to be fed too; we all need to be fed, and we need to be protected, and therefore there is a great need for that protective element among the saints—“shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”, Acts 20: 28. What that means to God, “the blood of his own”.

The bearing of this is upon us, because the word is, “instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons” (Psalm 45: 16), and in a certain sense we are in the sons’ day. Let us then take up our responsibility. We have all leaned on persons in our lives, and that is right; it is right for young people to lean hard on those that are older, those that have experience of the way, and experience in the things of God, but then as the generations come on, instead of the fathers it is the sons, and this, dear brethren, is our day. Let us be equal to the day that is ours. You remember, the references to the sons of the prophets in the second book of Kings; I think it has been said that they are the product of a generation that has been recognized. Think of the generation that is gone, the generation that was recognized. You need only to lift the ministry of beloved Mr. Taylor to see the generation it was; and we are the sons of the prophets, I trust, in some measure. We have benefited from the prophetic ministry that came out in that era, but then let us not be like the sons of the prophets in Kings. They were hardly up to the situation. Let us be fully up to the situation, to the responsibility that is ours; let us take character from Christ as a Model, glorious Model that He is, and from the way in which He filled out everything for the Father.

I turn to Proverbs. We find there are two things, among others, that mark this, book; one is intense affection, the other is moral instruction. Of course, you find affection with Abraham and Isaac, as we have noticed. Isaac says, “My father!”, and Abraham said, “Here am I, my son” “my son”—think of Abraham being available to Isaac in this most affectionate way. Can we stimulate that among us in our families and our houses? I say it is a challenge, a great challenge to me, that very matter. Can we stimulate that element among us, in our local meetings, in our contact with one another, that element of affection among us that really cares for the saints, cares with genuine feeling how the saints get on?

Solomon in a certain sense was the greatest man on earth. He was the wisest man on earth, of course; he was an exceedingly rich man, and he was an exceeding great man, and yet you think of the instruction that he has in this book for a son; the moral content of it, I suppose, is unsurpassed. How he pleads with his son, and pleads in affection. Real depth of feeling enters into the moral instruction in this book. He says, “For I was a son unto my father”.

Think of David as his father! Sometimes we need just to think of the literality of Scripture David was Solomon’s father, and Solomon here is speaking as a son. He was a son unto his father, and in speaking to his own son he was the very setting out of what he was saying. That is always a challenge, whether we are a setting out of what we are saying. He was one who benefited from the instruction of a father. I feel for the young people. They may feel sometimes that the instruction of a father is irksome; they generally find it is contrary to their own wills, and in that respect it is sometimes bitter and difficult; but let me say this in all affection, that what lies behind the instruction of a true father is depth of affection and the desire that you might be preserved in the very best. So that, speaking practically, if he says, ‘My son, I would prefer that you do not go there’; you would need to weigh that over, and weigh it over very carefully. He would have a reason for saying that.

You might say, ‘Father, why do you say that?’ And he would tell you why; he would say, ‘Because I think it will damage your soul, that is what it will do; it will damage what is of God in you; it will not help forward what is of God in you, and it may damage the testimony, indeed you may lose your life over it’. You know, Solomon is not slow to bring out the reality of things in this book; behind it lies the deepest affection, but he is not slow to bring out the reality of what the end of a certain course is as he appeals to his son about things.

Certain things need to be forsaken. Paul says that, you remember, to Timothy; flee certain things; we need to get as far away from them as we possibly can. I believe, dear brethren, the day has come when the Spirit of God is raising a banner in relation to these very matters. I think then that if the fathers are not feeling these things, how can we expect the sons to flee them? That is a very practical matter. If the fathers are going along with the drift and tide, what do you think the sons will do? Well, I will tell you something which I learned from what happened in the place in which I was between 1970 and 1972—the sons will go that much further. The fathers may think, ‘They will only go a certain distance and preserve themselves’, but you will find that if the father is on a wrong course, the sons may follow that course, but they will not stop, they will go even further than the fathers would have liked them to go, and the result is that they are lost in the world. What an awful thing that is!

But we have not that in mind, dear brethren, for our families. What we are really concerned about is the preservation of what is for God, and I believe that that should be in the minds of every father and every mother, whether it be in a household or whether it be in persons who exercise parental features morally in the local assembly. Some of us have known persons who have had no children of their own but features of motherhood and fatherhood have been displayed by them. Indeed, I suppose most of us can look back on our lives and say we owe our present position largely to the exercises of such, who not only sought to bring in counsel and wisdom, which would preserve us in what is right and in the enjoyment of the best, but who also laboured and agonized on their knees in view of that counsel taking root and springing up into fruition.

Well, that was what was in one’s mind; one realizes I may have put it out in a disjointed way, but I feel there is something in this for us, dear brethren, that there should be real exercise with us, and care and genuine feeling as to how the saints get on. I think the days are critical.

Every one of us needs to be exercised to look into matters and see whether our present pathway, what we are doing, what we are saying, the way in which we are influencing one another, is in the character of having genuine care for the saints, that they might be preserved in view of the enjoyment of sonship, and the enjoyment of what there is among us. How we would love, I am sure, that matters should be settled among us in view of the saints getting on and enjoying Christianity. Of course, a person who is with God goes on carrying the sorrows of the testimony, and in the enjoyment of his own links with God and the enjoyment of sonship at the same time. How wonderful it would be, would it not, if we experienced what it speaks of in Judges, “And the land had rest forty years” (Judges 3: 11). You remember that fine touch in Acts 9: 31, when Saul of Tarsus had been brought in—“The assemblies then … had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and were increased through the comfort of the Holy Spirit”. I believe that is in the mind of every person who is with God.

May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Address at Buckhurst Hill
12 October 1985