READING
READING
JT What is to be noticed in this chapter is that it refers to the several occupations of the saints; in other words, it takes account of our circumstances under the government of God, our business circumstances, especially as these are seen in relation to the Lord’s servants, who, before entering on the spiritual partnership had been in a temporal partnership. It is said in verse 7, “They beckoned unto their partners”, and again in verse 10, “James and John the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon”. It is not accidental that the Lord, as it says, “entered into one of the ships which was Simon’s”. Then again we find of Levi that he, as a tax-gatherer, was sitting at the receipt of taxes. If we are to take part effectively according to God in the new thing, in the new partnership, we must be prepared for the Lord to enter into our temporal business circumstances, and see how He takes account of them in view of what He is going to introduce us into. In the case of Zacchaeus Luke tells us that he also was a tax-gatherer. He had evidently judged himself as to his ways and his business, for he told the Lord and the others that if he had defrauded any man he restored him fourfold; besides that, he gave half his goods to the poor. What we find here is that the fishermen who owned the boats were washing their nets. This is not recorded as a mere incident.
FJF Do you mean that we should conduct our business in such wise that the Lord can come into it and examine it?
JT Well, I think it should bear His investigation. Does it occur to you that the Lord may come in at any time to your business, or perhaps [p. 192] to your home,
to see how you are conducting things in these spheres?
FJF We must he careful whether what is of Him finds its place there. There is the spirit in which one would conduct things, and then the books would be open to His scrutiny.
JT It was commendable that they were washing their nets.
Ques What does that signify?
JT Well, I think it means that the element of cleanliness and purity was already there, because Peter had before this come into contact with the Lord. It is to be noted that this is not the first time that Peter met the Lord. According to Matthew you would take it that it was, but according to Luke He was in Peter’s house before this; Luke 4:38,39. One cannot come into contact with the Lord without being impressed in some way as to what is required. It may be in a little way, but the Lord will always impress you with some sense of divine requirement. He was here on the part of God; and in this gospel He is addressed as the Christ of God; so that in coming into contact with Him for the first time one could not fail to be impressed with some sense of what is due to God.
FJF Why do you think it is left out here, as Mark states, that James and John were mending their nets? There it states that Peter and Andrew were casting a net into the sea and John and his brother were mending.
JT In Luke, as we have often remarked, grace is in view and it takes account of what is needed. Washing here indicates what is needed in our circumstances so that we should be available as vessels of grace. As one is affected by the love of God he has a sense of divine requirement. We have in Matthew, Peter, and his brother Andrew, in view, and the sons of Zebedee in the ship, but what is emphasised here is Simon and the partners. It is a business matter,
[p. 193] and the fishermen having come down from their ships were washing their nets. There can be no doubt that our nets need washing. To transact business in this world means that you have to come in contact with men who know not God, and whose idea of things is not yours. You have to do with them or you could not be in business at all; but you are sure to come in contact with the filth of this world, your nets are sure to become defiled. It is a very wholesome reminder, because God calls us from our businesses.
FJF The Lord shows in this way that I must be always in movement with regard to His things here.
JT You have a sense that God must be brought into your circumstances and so you wash your nets. We have not come to Peter yet being washed from his sinfulness. What is noted here is that the fishermen were washing their nets. It was a business affair. The situation is what we call ‘business’. And God calls us out of our businesses; but what we are doing in them is called attention to, what marks us in them. They were washing their nets, there was some sense of the need of cleanliness, not yet holiness, we may say, but cleanliness. As the net thrown into the sea is liable to become defiled by the various elements which it comes in contact with, so man’s business brings him into touch with what is defiling, what is unclean; and if he is with God, he has a sense that there must be the washing.
WAS I think I see that. Would that involve limitations in business?
JT I think it does. The fact that we have to do in relation to men of this world necessarily limits us, so that we rely on God and not on human methods for provision; nor should we seek expansion for its own sake.
Rem Peter said to Simon Magus, “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter”. Acts 8:[p. 194] 21.
JT Simon offered to pay for the power to give the Holy Spirit to others. He was outside the partnership of which we are speaking; he had “neither part nor lot in the matter”. Acts 8:21. It is a most solemn thing if one has neither part nor lot in the matter. The Lord also says to Peter at the feet-washing, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me”. John 13:8.
JG Do you connect the cleansing of the nets with righteousness?
JT Well, I would think that. One has to draw them in and look at them and see how much one has been damaged by coming in contact with the world.
FJF And although they may not acquire profit as yet they do acquire defilement. It might be what we call a bad time, a bad season, but that does not exclude us from the defilement.
JT More likely to make you more defiled. You put more effort into it, you try to make more out of it, you try to make more out of this world. That is the reason why when business goes bad, that we should bring God into it. It is very remarkable that the Lord comes into Peter’s boat when business is bad. He intervenes trying circumstances to bring light into Peter’s soul.
FJF And Peter, as it were, gave Him an opening.
JT The Lord knew well that business was bad. He knew that the fishing was not good. “He entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s”. He was after Simon. He knew all about Simon, and he would take advantage of these trying circumstances to get at him. He had been in his house and had raised up his mother-in-law. He had, as it were, put things right in his house, in his domestic affairs, which is quite another matter. The domestic affairs are not the business affairs. Sometimes a mother or a wife does not know anything about the business, so one is particularly responsible for one’s business. It was into Simon’s boat that now He entered. He wanted to get at Simon’s soul. We cannot be in the fellowship of the people of God unless we know ourselves and judge ourselves.
RS Is that what you meant when you said Simon Magus had neither part nor lot in the matter?
JT Yes. He did not judge himself. As far as outward appearance was concerned, he was quite a good brother in Samaria but he did not judge himself. He had neither part nor lot in the matter.
FJF He wanted to do a good business by it.
JT He wanted reputation — power to maintain his greatness. He was willing to pay for the power to impart the Spirit. Now the Lord used the circumstance of the fishing to show what control He had of the fish of the sea. Fishermen have to do with uncertain quantities. You can see the cattle, you can see the trees and everything on land, you may count their number, but you cannot make any census of the fish.
FJF They hear about where they are.
JT Well, even so, they know very little about them. The Son of man is Lord over the fish of the sea. I understand that in the Greek Archipelago there were about 105 species of fish discovered. There must be many more than that. All that there is in the depths of the sea belongs to the Lord, and those who have to do with it should be led by this fact to turn to Him.
FJF “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep”. Psalm 127:23,24.
RS Scientists are trying to explore them.
JT Yes, but they never will. It is God’s realm. The Lord intended to take advantage of this circumstance to show who He was, so He says to Simon, “Draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul”.
And Simon answered, “Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing, nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done they inclosed a great multitude of fishes”. The Lord sees into the deep where they are.
FM I think it is a very profitable exercise for us to be ready at any moment for the Lord to look into our businesses.
JT I think it is. One has a sense of responsibility of one’s business. Some have said that a man’s business is one thing and his assembly affairs another. They are very closely related. There is the domestic side first in Peter’s case, then the business matter comes before he is taken up officially for the service of God.
FM The Lord finds clean nets. He finds things in order, so He can use Peter’s net.
JT Yes, what is to be noted is that Peter says “At thy word”; he indicates that he had already had to do with the Lord. He was not one who had come in contact with Him for the first time. I think that the washing of the nets indicates that there was a sense of the requirement of cleanliness. Then, too, he was ready to do at the word of Christ which is surely an immense thing — to do whatever He says: “At thy word”. He was doubtful about it, but he was obedient to the Lord.
Rem He would be able to fish for men after that.
JT Yes, it is a great thing to be obedient to the Lord. Peter did not sit, and reason, and refuse to do it. He did not say “There is no fish in this part of the sea, there is no use doing it”. But he says, “At thy word”. He was subject.
FM Would you say a word as to the difference between righteousness and purity?
JT Well, righteousness is that one recognises the rights of God and the rights of men, that in your [p. 197] business you recognise all rights and meet them, but then one might be acting righteously without cleansing, but nevertheless I think true righteousness and cleansing go together. They are very intimately related. But what was before the Lord was to reach Peter’s soul, so that he should know himself. I think that your business relations are calculated to bring out what you are. You will discover how slow you are to learn what is sinful, but as the light comes into your soul it is not only that I have sinned but that I am sinful. I may know that the sinful state is there all the time, but that is what one is slow to acknowledge. We are weak in arriving at this point of conscious sinfulness, not simply that I have sinned but that I am sinful. As I was remarking the other day in regard to the book of Leviticus, the offerings are dealt with according to the law, the sons of Aaron offer strange fire, what is unclean in the way of the things of this world is exposed, and the offerings required after the birth of children are stated — these are all dealt with before you get the subject of leprosy; all these things have happened before you get leprosy. It is the last thing we come to, I think, in our histories as discerning ourselves — to discover that we are lepers. It is not only that I have sinned, but that I am a leper. Well, that is what comes out here. Peter says, “I am a sinful man”, and the next incident recorded is that the Lord came to a certain city and “behold there was a man full of leprosy”. He had to be cleansed. The first paragraph in the chapter is that Peter is exposed, the next is that there is a man full of leprosy, and the Lord touches him and the leprosy departs, and then he is charged to go to the priest. It says, “Go, and shew thyself to the priest”. It is not simply that I am cleansed from the leprosy, but I have to be brought to God. You have to go to the priest, and offer for your cleansing as Moses ordained. Business is an important part in one’s life in connection with one’s dealings; that in which you spend a great part of your time must be taken into divine reckoning.
Ques Would you say that we should take God into our business, into our circumstances?
JT I am sure we should. We are dependent on God in everything. But then not only that, one would not like any man to come into the business and examine it and find it not right.
RS And so we should do things in the light of righteousness as our brother has said.
JT Just so.
Rem All the principles of evil that are in this world we find in ourselves.
JT Exactly We are just the same naturally as men in this world are; being in contact with them we are always in danger of acting like them; we thus become defiled.
Rem As a Christian you would not do your business as a man of the world would.
JT You must bring righteousness and cleanliness into it.
Ques Where does one wash one’s nets?
JT In self-judgment I suppose. It says “our bodies washed with pure water”. Hebrews 10:22. In the types a man had to wash his clothes. One is particularly concerned about the business relations here. The same idea is carried right through the chapter; Peter discovers that he is a sinful man, then follows the case of the man full of leprosy; it is the same man carried through. Then by the touch of Christ the leprosy departs, but he has yet to be set up in the presence of God, so that it says, “Go, and shew thyself to the priest”. The priest sets him up in the presence of God. On the divine side cleansing is effected on the ground of the bird slain, and the other bird dipped in its blood let loose into the open field — figurative of the death and resurrection of Christ;
[p. 199] but then the man has to shave off all his hair. “He that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair”. Leviticus 14:8. He has been in business, he has been sinning, that is true; he has been a man of reputation; his hair would denote that. The living bird was to be dipped in the blood of the bird slain along with the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, and he that is cleansed has to shave off all his hair and wash his clothes and wash himself in water. After that he can come into the camp, but he was to remain out of his tent seven days. He was not only known by his house, but he was well known by his neighbours outside of his tent; it is where I am known that I have to shave off all my hair. I have been a leper; everyone knows that I have been a leper. I have lost all my hair, all my dignity. That is a very humbling thing. “Go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them”. On the seventh day he has to be shaved again — “all his hair, his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, even all his hair”. Leviticus 14:9. It had grown a little bit more. All this was in view of the eighth day, when the thought is he is to be brought to God. He is to leave his own house and to come to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where he is in the presence of the saints. It is not a question now of his house or of his neighbours, but of where God is, and where the people of God are. He is in the presence of the saints and he is to be brought in there. So the eighth day is a new thing. It requires not only that the leprosy be removed but that I am set up in a new way in the power of the Spirit, so he is brought to God on the eighth day. He is presented by the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting before Jehovah with certain offerings, a meat-offering and one log of oil, and thus he is set up according to [p. 200] God.
FM What is the significance of the Lord touching the leper?
JT It is identification. He identified Himself with the leprosy, that is, He had to die to remove it. He touched it. There are one or two beautiful touches about Peter. He fell down at Jesus’ knees. The light exposing him induced him to fall down at Jesus’ knees, which is a touch that we only get in Luke, because Luke sets forth a Man who intercedes for us — a Man who prays. Peter recognises that the Lord would intercede for him; he fell down at His knees.
WAS Would you say it was only in the case of trying exercises that the great temporal favour had this effect on Peter?
JT I think that, and now he is prepared for the most terrible exposure. It is that he is a leper. It is very humbling to know that one is a leper — “a sinful man”. I have found out that I am full of sin.
WAS Do you think that that exposure is found amongst many of the saints? You were saying in regard of Leviticus that the cleansing of the leper comes after many instructions as to what the holiness of God required.
JT It is not at the beginning. I think it is later that it takes place. Leprosy is not a question of sins; it is a question of state. I think Peter had the element of cleanliness, but he had to discover how bad he was.
WAS “God sending his own Son ... and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. Romans 8:3.
JT Exactly. Peter had discovered his sinfulness; he was the leper in a moral sense. He has to learn not only that he is sinful but that the Lord Jesus has dealt with that state at the cross; not only that, but he has to go to the priest and do what Moses ordained, that is he has to understand not only the death of Christ but the presence of the Spirit here — the log of oil. The log of oil is an [p. 201] important feature of what Moses enjoined. Where the blood had been put, the oil is put — on the tip of the right ear, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the great toe of the right foot, and the remainder is put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed. That means that my intelligence, my work, and my walk are anointed. The blood is put for relief of conscience, but the oil is put that I may be for God. That is what Moses enjoined. So the Lord sends the leper to the priest.
Ques What point had Peter reached as set forth in the second instance — the cleansed leper?
JT I think it is that Peter is taken out of his business and set up in relation to God. Then the great thing is subjection to the Lord — to learn from Him. Thus, after we come through the process that Moses commanded, we are set up before God, and then in the next incident we find the Lord is in desert places and praying. I have to learn everything from Him. I am set up before God in following what Moses ordained. I have the Spirit; the oil is put on the right ear as well as on the thumb and the toe, and the remainder of it is put on the head. The leper is set up before God in spiritual dignity. It says of the Lord, “He.. was about in the desert places and praying”. That was what brought in “the power of the Lord”, which “was present to heal”. If I am to be in the service of God in power it is by this praying in desert places. When one is in desert places he is not giving place to the flesh; he has God. The Lord was found there and He was praying; He was dependent upon God, and the power of God was present to heal.
Rem “So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. Romans 7:25. Is that the thought?
JT Yes, and Romans 8 shows how that is done; it is by the Spirit. The cleansing of the leper means that I am set up before God in the power of the [p. 202] anointing. The oil is on my head as well as on my ear, my thumb, and my foot. I have dignity on my head, that is the thought. Now the next thought is the Lord is a model; He is about in desert places and praying (verse 16).
Rem You made a remark about the remainder of the oil.
JT Yes, that is what is put on the head. There is plenty of dignity with God; it is an infinite supply.
FJF Would you think then that a cleansed person would find himself in a desert place?
JT Well, that is the thought. You do not gratify the flesh. The Lord is leading the way, “He withdrew himself, and was about in the desert places”, and in that place He, as it is said, was praying, and the result was that the power of God was present to heal. Now as set up by the Spirit in the presence of God, the next thing is, can I be of service to others? If I am to be, I shall have to maintain the desert and prayer. It is on the principle of dependence.
RS He was the dependent man in Luke 3. We read, Jesus also being baptised and praying.
JT The time of baptism is surely a time for prayer. The Lord is the model for us. As cleansed now and set up in the Spirit I am in desert places, I am dependent on God; and the result of prayer is that the power of God is present to heal.
FJF I suppose the next step is are we ready to be taught?
JT He was teaching we read. He marks out the path that He trod. “In the desert God will teach thee”. (76:6). He was in the desert praying to God, then the next thing is that the Lord has power to forgive sins. There is such a thing as that even amongst the saints; “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them”, John 20:23. The Lord had power to forgive sins. Here the evidence of it [p. 203] was that the man was able to carry his bed and to go to his house.
Ques How would that work out today?
JT I think it works out in regard to a believer, in connection with his circumstances. He will now take them up on the principle of faith. He is in a position to regulate everything. He dominates the position now — in other words he carries his bed. He knows God, and that He is supreme, and he comes to his house in that spirit. Then the next one is Levi. He was a tax-gatherer and he made a great entertainment for the Lord. He was making money, and that is a test, but the Lord calls him from the tax-office. He says, ‘I am not going to be held by money’, and so he left all, rose up, and followed Him. It is a feature of the chapter that the followers leave all.
FJF It says, “After these things”. That means that the other incidents must precede morally.
JT Now we arrive at the new bottles. But then this chapter is to show you how the new bottles are formed. We are on the up-line — each incident marks progress. Here is a man Levi sitting at his desk, he has not bad business; the taxes must come, and they do come, and of course he gets a large slice of them. But he left all and followed Jesus. He is following on the man who is carrying his bed, but he is not controlled by his desk.
WAS This is a greater test in a way than the other.
JT It is.
JG How fascinating business is to us naturally!
JT A tax-gatherer’s one suggests a very successful one.
Rem You could use the business for the Lord.
JT In Zacchaeus, we have a man that could be trusted with money. He could give half of it away, and the Lord does not say a word to him about [p. 204] leaving his business. He recognises him as one of the family of faith — a son of Abraham.
FJF There is something majestic about Levi’s call. “After these things he went forth”.
JT “And saw a tax-gatherer ... and said to him, Follow me”.
WAS That is the same man as you have traced down the chapter.
JT The same man, I think. And it says, “Having left all, rising up, he followed him”. And Levi made a great feast for Him in his house. He must have had means to do that. He was devoting his means to the Lord. That is the use he made of them, and then he says, ‘I am going to have the people present that the Lord would like me to have — tax-gatherers’. It says, “There was a great crowd of tax-gatherers and others”, and they were at the table with Him. He made no attempt to put on a religious appearance in inviting the religious people to the feast.
FJF I suppose, although we cannot have Him today there are always disciples we can have.
WAS Would you say that this action of Levi sprang from affection?
JT I believe it did. It was very beautiful that Levi should devote what he had to the entertainment of the Lord. It must have cost him a considerable amount, and, as I said, he made no attempt to put on a religious appearance in inviting the Pharisees — the religious people, but “there was a great crowd of tax-gatherers and others”. But the scribes and Pharisees murmured at His disciples, saying, “Why do ye eat and drink with tax-gatherers and sinners?” and Jesus said, “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick”.
RS You spoke of Zacchaeus. What is the difference between Levi and Zacchaeus?
JT Zacchaeus is typically a son of Abraham.
[p. 205] He comes in Luke in this setting. What is said of him is that “he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him”, Luke 19:4 for “he sought to see Jesus who he was”. Luke 19:3 And the Lord says, “Make haste and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully”. Luke 19:6 Then he makes this statement to the Lord: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold”. Luke 19:8 He was a son of Abraham. God was operative in each of them, but in chapter 5 I think you see a leading up on the lines of moral sequence, until you reach the new bottles — the new bottles holding new wine. I think this chapter is to show you how these bottles are formed. From verse 18 it is a question of the house, not of the business. The palsied man who entered into his house was carrying his bed. Levi is a step in advance of that. His house is where the Lord is entertained, and to which he invites the kind of persons whom the Lord came to seek.
JG It is a crowd of the right material that is found there, such as He had come to seek. It is a suitable house for Him then.
Rem I do not think we are very much up to getting people into the house whom the Lord would like.
JT I think that is what this chapter teaches, so we have to consider whom the Lord would have; if we would have Him, we must consider whom the Lord would like. They are not to please us, but we are to please Him.
Rem Sinful ones — that they may be cleansed — is that the point?
JT It is so here. The Lord says, “I am not come to call righteous persons but sinful ones to repentance”. I have no doubt there would be a good many who would repent under Levi’s roof.
[p. 206] The point is to get the sinful ones under the influence of the light where they would repent.
FM The result of this is that we have children of the bride-chamber?
JT Yes, that is how the truth in this chapter develops. The Lord says, “Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?” The mention of the bridegroom lays the basis for much — what indeed is opened up in Paul’s ministry.
FJF If He was here, it would be a time of feasting with us.
Ques Would you say that we are in a time of feasting now?
JT Well, we are in a time of fasting, for the Lord is no longer with us. Then He proceeds to the new bottles. “No man puts new wine into old skins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins; and the skins will be destroyed”. Skins were bottles, of course — vessels made of skin for carrying wine. The Lord indicates that things have to be wholly new. Christianity is an entirely new conception. It is characterised wholly by what is new. In the current profession it is linked with what is old. The teaching of our chapter is to lead believers to accept what is new and to reflect what is old. Christianity is a wholly new thing; the new wine must not be put into old bottles. The strength and vigour that marked Christians at the beginning could not be contained by the old principles of Judaism; nor can the present activities of the Holy Spirit be made to fit into modern religious principles.
Pages 207 - 330 — “The Witness of God” Indianapolis, December, 1926 (Volume 86).