GOD'S PLEASURE IN HIS PEOPLE
GOD’S PLEASURE IN HIS PEOPLE
Genesis 8:20 - 22; Genesis 22:9 - 18; Exodus 29:38 - 46
RSS It has been thought that it would be helpful to consider something in connection with what is due to God. I am sure that we would all desire to be more characterised by taking account of this. It is natural, for us to consider things connected with ourselves, and our own blessings, but is it not true that when we begin to consider for God, we make a distinct advance in our souls? “Thy praise our service is”. When we think of the pleasure of God we naturally turn to a scripture like Genesis 8, where Noah was coming out of the ark, and God was making a new beguiling altogether, and where Noah offered burnt-offerings of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl. Of every kind Noah made an offering. Of the clean there were seven pairs, showing that God had anticipated this event before Noah went into the ark. “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens ... .. and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female; of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female”. Genesis 7:2,3.
JT What seems interesting in this connection is the trustworthiness of the man into whose hands things were committed. In chapter 5 Noah’s birth is recorded and special reference is made to his name, and then to the years of his life, so that he had had opportunity to prove what he was in the midst of hitherto unparalleled corruption. Then in chapter 6, as God’s grief in having created man is mentioned, it is said that Noah found favour in the eyes of Jehovah. Then, “This is the history of Noah: Noah was a just man, perfect amongst his generations: Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was full of violence. ….. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me”. Genesis 6:9 - 13 [p. 2] Then we find dates standing in relation to his birth; so the Lord, I suppose, has brought our attention typically to his personal worth in the midst of corruption. Hence the thoughts of God, and the means of carrying them through the judgment are all entrusted to one man, and the new world is marked off as dating from him. It says he was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth, and when he went into the ark.
DLH He is a type of Christ in this regard.
JT I thought so. The personal character of the man is brought to our attention and the verses read justify that — how he thought for God at the outset. Then he was entirely subject, and made no move, although the ark had rested and the earth was dry; until (as we read) God spoke to him and told Him to go out of the ark. He went out by divine direction.
FHB It is remarkable there should be a distinction between the clean and the unclean. How should Noah know the difference?
JT That puts us all to the test — how are we to find out the clean and the unclean? It is assumed that he knew. His personal character would show that he had the means of discerning. He evidently had his senses exercised so that he could discern between good and evil.
JJy Is it not assumed that he had the light of Abel and Enoch?
JT The light is cumulative right through. He would have the light of Enoch, who walked with God for three hundred years. In that period there would be some instincts developed to discern between what is clean and what is unclean.
RSS That discernment was very important when it became a question of what he offered to [p. 3] God.
JT There must have been some anticipation of the direct instructions in Leviticus, as to what is clean and unclean.
EJMcB Would it not be true in a man’s history with God that he would discern the direction in which things went under influence? Those amenable to good influence would be clean.
JT What seems to be of importance is that Noah had the clean creatures there and knew what to do with them. They were available to express his appreciation of the God whom he had come, in some measure, to know.
EJMcB Would that be a development of the thought of Abel offering to God?
JT I think so. “Every clean animal and, of all clean fowl”. There was no selfish reserve; God was before him, and nothing was held back.
DLH You were speaking of our side and God’s side; is our side wholly absent from the burnt-offering?
RSS I was rather thinking of our side of things as in connection with our need.
DLH Otherwise you do get the thought of our acceptance in the burnt-offering from the very outset.
JT The distinction accorded to Noah as the head strikes one, and then the beautiful suggestion of Noah waiting for divine direction before he went out of the ark; then without any direction, building the altar. It all indicates the place God evidently had with him, and how there was no reservation. He took of every clean animal and of every clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar.
PW Is it not always the case that the teaching of God in our souls coincides with the subsequent instruction of God to us? That might account for Noah knowing what clean things were. It was first of all what God had taught him in his soul.
JT Light having come in. What Abel had was [p. 4] carried through. What our brother has in mind is the place God had with him, and how unreserved he was with every clean animal, and all clean fowls. We do not know the duration of the service, but it must have been very delightful to God.
RSS Then there is the wonderful response from God. He smelled a sweet savour. It was really Christ. It goes onto say, “And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake ... . while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease”. Evidently this was the response on God’s part; He was so delighted with what was presented to Him that the curse was removed, I think before the flood man had a hard time to make a living, but now that the curse is removed, things are largely changed. God also changed man’s food “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things”. Genesis 9:3.
JT The reference to God’s heart is very touching in this section, chapter 6:6. The very depth of His being was affected by man: “It grieved him in his heart”. Genesis 6:6. And now He says in His heart (chapter 8:21): “I will, no more henceforth curse the ground on account of man”.
JCS Would the sacrifices embrace every feature of Christ?
JT There would be in each of the various creatures some suggestion of Christ.
FRB How God’s heart was affected by man’s sin and how relieved by Noah’s offering!
JT It was a striking comment relative to his knowledge of God — what he acquired in his early life before he entered the ark and what he acquired in the ark as he moved about day by day in it, where there were these creatures, each conveying its own [p. 5] distinctive thought. I am sure he would have a good time of meditation, and acquiring an increased knowledge of God. It is due to God, now that he is on the renewed earth, that all that he had that was suitable to God, should be presented unreservedly.
YYL It says he offered to “Jehovah”, not to ‘God’.
JT We have to take account of the standpoint of the writers; Moses would refer to God according to his own knowledge of Him.
WJH Selfishness has brought in the grief. The sweet odour of ‘rest’ seems to suggest the son of consolation, Barnabas, in the midst of a scene where everyone was holding things for themselves. He gave everything; he was a son of consolation.
JT In the very outset of our history we have inculcated the principle of sacrifice. Romans develops the principle, so that the first exhortation is, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice”. Romans 12:1. The principle is that that which is most valuable in your mind is to be given to God.
RSS The outgoings on our part Godward are in proportion to our knowledge of Him.
JT Verse 22: He begins with seed-time, then harvest then cold and heat, then summer and winter, and finally day and night. All these have reference to experience, so that “the days of the earth” should give opportunity for God and the activity of His goodness. There should be seed-time and harvest. He gives opportunity for seed sowing, which we may view spiritually. The first chapter indicates trees “the seed of which is in them”. Genesis 1:11. Noah would have in mind the kind of seed that should be sown. He would avoid producing a world like that which had just been destroyed. The seed to be sown would be such as would be suitable to God.
PL Had not the Fall been succeeded by a very [p. 6] unholy mixture? The word is we are not to sow with mixed seed.
JT You would be concerned about a wholly right seed, because the world is the product of corruption. We have to see that the seed we sow is what is suitable to God. On the third day of creation, the earth emerged from the waters of death containing, doubtless, latent fertility; then came the command of God, “Let the earth cause grass to spring up, herb producing seed”, etc. Genesis 1:11. And it brought forth that which is pleasing to the eye. Now it is again renewed, so the idea of sowing should be kept in view. If Noah and his posterity followed out this first movement in offering to God, they would be careful as to the sowing, because the offerings in the types not only included living creatures, but the fruit of the land as well. Cain’s offering would have been right if it had been in its proper setting. As a meat-offering it would have been right and acceptable if there had been an accompanying burnt-offering — if the need of death had been recognised.
RSS Abraham does not hold back the dearest thing his heart possessed when God called for it. We see the pleasure and delight that God had in the giving up of his only son: “Because thou….. hast not withheld thy son, thine only son”. It is so beautiful the way in which God comes in for him and promises everything to him in connection with his seed, which should be “As the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea shore”. How slow we are to render to God that which costs us something!
HD'AC How it must have spoken to God about what was coming — the gift of His own Son! That there should have been a man on divine lines in giving his son! What holy joy that must have brought to God!
RSS Even if there were only one man on earth who could enter into His feelings in giving [p. 7] His son.
HD'AC That man the “father of us all”. Romans 4:16.
RSS It was, as we know from Hebrews 11, his knowledge of God that led him to do it. He counted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.
HD'AC He could hardly have done it at the beginning; he had to be trained for it.
JT What is developed in Abraham is the great thought of the family, so that the blessing is not the earth itself, but men or nations; persons now are in view, One great feature of Genesis is the paternal: “Thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest”: Genesis 22:2 there is that relation; then there is maturity and productiveness in the ram. The basis is the great father as the source of all, and the dearest object of his affection and then the maturity in one detained and the power of productiveness.
EJMcB In the first case the features of the new earth coming out would call for all you have to be presented to God, but when it is a question of God testing you, coming near to you Himself, it finds out where your affections really live — whether in your own interests or in the interests of God.
HH He did it in the spirit; of worship, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship”. Genesis 22:5.
RSS Yes, what was due to God.
JT Genesis 22:14. That is the great moral lesson to be deduced. No one knew better than Moses the meaning of Jehovah-jireh, because at the mount of Jehovah there were wonderful disclosures: the covenant, the tabernacle and the priesthood. The sign was, “Ye shall serve God upon this mountain”, Exodus 3:12 but there was to be the supply for the service. What those abroad in Christendom do not understand is where the supply is to come from. Moses learned at the mount the wonderful provision of God as they tarried there in that great encampment before Horeb. “It is said at the present day, On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”. Then it [p. 8] says that Abraham returned to his young men and they rose up and went together to Beersheba — not Abraham and Isaac now, but Abraham and his young men. You have reached the end of an exercise. They went down to Beersheba, full of precious light, to where God confirms things: the well of the oath.
EJMcB It makes room for the birth of Rebecca.
JT Rebecca comes into view at once (Genesis 22:23), so that you start a new day.
FWJ Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day.
JT Now the end of an exercise is a flood of light; the whole future is taken care of, and you go down to where things are confirmed to your soul, and you begin another exercise. Speaking from heaven (chapter 21) is in relation with Isaac; it is after the birth of Isaac. So here there is the word from heaven, and Abraham is called twice from heaven. Heaven is intensely interested. Then Rebecca comes on the scene. Then Sarah dies; after every accession of light there is sorrow.
Exodus 29 would remind us of God’s great delight in burnt-offerings morning and evening.
RSS “Day by day continually” is a beautiful expression — rather a searching one for us.
DLH Were these two lambs morning and evening not wholly for God’s pleasure — no thought of acceptance but wholly for God’s pleasure?
JT I thought so. This passage is amplified later in Numbers. As saints become more spiritual, after the Holy Spirit is given typically to Israel, God says, “My offering, my bread for my offerings. …. shall ye take heed to present to me at their set time”. Numbers 28:2. He asserts what He would have. All our meetings are holy convocations. The first thought should be, Is God going to have anything out of this? You make provision for God. So in Numbers where the Holy Spirit is recognised, He definitely claims His everyday portion, then His weekly, then His monthly, and then [p. 9] His yearly, and He says, You must not diminish the daily thing — the morning and evening sacrifice. Sometimes when we have large meetings we overlook the little things that we go on with daily, but those must not be neglected. The morning and evening lamb would connect with the household.
EJMcB The relation of the believer, as set free from the scene of confusion, is that he is here for God. Then comes the personal test; God becomes everything to him. Then he stands related to God’s system of things. If we have more of this line, God might put His interests in a place more in connection with us. Supposing the Lord were to work with a dozen converts in a city, is there the kind of thing in the meeting there that works with the interests of God so that He could put such in relation to you? It carries an exercise as to whether we are going on with brethren’s meetings, or are we definitely concerned in regard to what is of God?
JJ Would the morning and evening lamb suggest an appreciation that the household has of Christ?
JT Yes, especially in Numbers, which I was connecting with the Spirit, and which is not necessarily restricted to our convocations. In Exodus it is more the tabernacle, with a view to God speaking to us, so that I think it would come out more in our convocations — God’s pleasure. It would enable Him to speak to us. “A continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet with you, to speak there with thee. And there will I meet with the children of Israel; and it shall be hallowed by my glory”. You get divine communications, and the divine presence, “It shall be hallowed by my glory”.
HH The end of the dispensation is of as great value to God as the beginning, and we are living in the time of the offering up of the evening lamb.
JT I think that the morning and evening sacrifice [p. 10] would signify that the evening is equal to the morning. You start out fresh, and you offer your morning sacrifice. How will it be in the evening? Have you spiritual power for that?
WJH It would depend a good deal on whether we could lift up our hands in the evening. It raises the question as to whether they are clean or not. Are we prepared to go into the presence of God in the evening and show our hands?
PL Elijah, Ezra and Daniel all appeared before God at the time of the evening sacrifices and God answered them.
RSS The meat-offering and the drink-offering accompany the offerings in Exodus 29.
JT There is the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ in the meat-offering; the drink-offering I suppose is the Spirit.
FK These three were never separated.
JT As we proceed with the testimony into Chronicles, where the first word is Adam, we have the Holy Spirit linking up everything with David and Solomon, and in the dedication of the temple, the immensity of the offerings (one hundred and twenty thousand sheep), shows the great enlargement as we advance in the knowledge of God.
FWB Just before this He speaks of a daily sin-offering. Exodus 29:36.
JT That would be our side, dealing with conditions amongst us.
FWB So that we might be free to appreciate Christ in the character of the burnt-offering.
FSM Would the two lambs be suggestive of the two aspects of the offerings of Christ: the morning lamb, “Lo, I come to do thy will”; Hebrews 10:9 the evening lamb, having reference to His death? The saints down here in appreciation of Christ in this peculiar character, involves constant sweet savour going up [p. 11] to God — the continuity of it — not simply what we offer up in the morning and evening.
JT Every day filled up so delightfully with Christ in the saints.
FSM There is never a moment when there is not a sweet savour going up to God. Someone is thinking of Christ somewhere.
WJH It is not what God hears, but there is a savour — the sense of smell comes in.
JT It is that sense which is keenest; the palate comes in next.
WJH It is what we are that gives the savour. Before the flood the corruption that existed comes in in contrast with the smelling of the sweet savour of rest afterwards.
JT In Genesis 27, Isaac says, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed”. Genesis 27:27. It suggests great productiveness.