MATERNAL INFLUENCE
[p. 62] MATERNAL INFLUENCE
Revelation 12:1 - 5; Song of Songs 3:11, Song of songs 8:5; Song of Songs 3:4
The reference to family designations must impress every one who reads Scripture, whether it be father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, children, sons, or daughters. No one who reads Scripture can fail to be impressed with these references, and so I have in mind on this occasion, to speak in this connection and to dwell upon the idea of the mother.
It is obvious, both from Scripture and from ordinary circumstances, that the maternal feature exercises, next to the paternal, the greatest influence in the family, and I want to show, therefore, the divine idea in the mother. For this reason I read from Revelation 12 because we have presented there no less than the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, not indeed as she is presented literally in Mary, but as a symbolical personage clothed in divine thoughts. Israel, as in the purpose of God, is seen here. No mere woman personally could correspond with the great divine thoughts that are presented in Revelation 12; for only a divine Person could present divine thoughts perfectly. Hence in our Lord Jesus Christ we have every divine thought presented in perfection. He was the word. He was personally the presentation of all the mind of God; and He was not only the presentation of divine thoughts but of the divine nature, for it is said, “God has been manifested in flesh”. 1 Timothy 3:16. But Mary, wife of Joseph, could not personally present the thoughts of God as seen in this figure. They are presented in a symbolical personage. The idea of the mother is connected with the assembly as well as with Israel, and so if we are to arrive at the definite idea which is presented to us in the assembly, we shall have to understand the features presented [p. 63] symbolically in this personage. The woman is said to be clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars. She is therefore presented to us as possessing government; she is clothed with the sun and all subordinate authority under her feet, and with full administrative light she has a crown of twelve stars.
It is worth while, I believe, to dwell upon these features, especially as the idea of the mother is, as I have said, connected with the assembly, and that the assembly is to exercise these features in the absence of the Lord at the present time, even as she is to exercise them in a supreme degree in the coming day. She will descend out of heaven from God, as we read, “and her light like unto a stone most precious”. Revelation 21:11. She has all the marks of divine government and administration, so that she will exercise the most benign influence on this earth. A wonderful contemplation! especially as it is so near at hand, and as we shall have our part in it. How obvious, therefore, is the importance to each of us of understanding these maternal features as presented to us from God, and severally coming under their influence and being formed by them, so that we may be children with manners suited to the house, with ways suited to God, suited to that great system that will thus come down from God out of heaven.
Now I want to show how these maternal features appear in the gospels, and what is to be observed is that they only appear in Matthew and Luke. Neither Mark nor John dwell on the birth of our Lord. You can understand how it would not fit in in John’s gospel, for it is there a question of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His mother could not add to His Person Being God over all blessed for ever, as Scripture says, no such feature could add to Him. So John does not give us the birth of Christ, nor does he bring forward His mother or father in the flesh.
[p. 64] It is true he mentions the Lord’s mother, but the first mention of her is to bring from the Lord the expression, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” John 2:4. John presents the Lord in manhood, and all that is in manhood ever shines there; but he is concerned about the Person of the Lord and the revelation of God. With John it is not a question of previous dispensations or a previous testimony or government, it is a question of a Person being in this world great enough to reveal God, hence he says, “The only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. John 1:18. We are in the presence of a divine Person — God manifest in flesh.
So in Mark where it is a question of levitical service, and prophetic testimony, the mother is not in view. It is “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”. Mark 1:1. It is a divine Person here in service and testimony. But when we look at Matthew we have the mother, and the Holy Spirit takes pains to call attention to Mary. “The little child and his mother” over and over again appears in chapter 2. The wise men from the east came, and their enquiry is not for the Son of God nor for the Son of man, but for Him who had been born “king of the Jews” Matthew 2:2 — not born a universal monarch, but king of the Jews. They humbly recognise God’s relation to His people and that a king had been born to that people. The king is born. So the parents and the royalty of the parents come into evidence. The wise men follow the star till it came and stood over the house where the little child was. They enter and find the little child with Mary His mother. The Holy Spirit connects Him with His mother and He is worshipped by these men, and they brought out of their treasures gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and they present these things to Him, not to His mother. Faith would never recognise her in that way as an object of worship or veneration. We get Elizabeth saying, “Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me”, Luke 1:43.
[p. 65] but there is no veneration. The Magi present their offerings to the King, not to Mary in any sense, but she was present. The little child was in the house, for Matthew does not present a manger. He is dealing with a royal personage and he presents Him in the house with His mother. The obvious reference is to the relations of God with His people in the Old Testament.
Now in Luke you have a similar line of thought, only that it is not the people of God in the Old Testament that is in view, but rather humanity; for God would present the maternal side in that connection also, and in order that we might learn to respond to these views in the assembly we have to understand both Matthew and Luke. We have to understand royalty, that is to say there most be that royal dignity manifest, that superiority to petty feelings and recriminations; but when you come to Luke it is not royalty but sympathy; and if you have royalty and sympathy combined, you have that which can affect men and form them according to God. They must be combined. So in God’s relations with His people in the Old Testament the idea of a king took form and it was never surrendered; and priesthood was connected with it.
Melchizedek gives the idea of a king at the outset. He stands over against Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. You cannot exploit the saints of God for your own interest. Nimrod took up the creatures of God for his own selfish interest, and his history has been repeated among the people of God. Men have used the people of God for their own promotion and interest, but what you find in Melchizedek is a king of righteousness. A man who is king of righteousness will respect the rights of God, and the rights of man. He will have respect for the rights of his brethren, and so the stipulation in regard of the [p. 66] king in Israel was that he should be raised up from amongst his brethren; Deuteronomy 17:15. So Melchizedek was king of righteousness and then king of peace, and then “priest of the Most High God”. Genesis 14:18. It is where Matthew and Luke combine. It is where the thought of a king is first presented in the scripture that you have the main features. Therefore instead of exacting from Abram, Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine and blessed him, saying, “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth”. Genesis 14:19.
That is the divine idea and God took it up in Israel. Thus Melchizedek comes out in Matthew, king of the Jews, and then you have, as I said, linked with this the thought of priest which underlies the maternal side presented in Luke, for we are to be formed by sympathy as it is seen in Christ. It worked out specially in Paul, as we learn from the epistles to the Thessalonians and Galatians.
Now I refer to these two features in the gospels that we might gather up the divine idea in the mother, for the intent is that every one of us has to be formed by what is presented in the mother. It is said of her in Proverbs that “Her children arise up and call her blessed”. Proverbs 31:28. Have I ever done that, I ask myself? And her husband praises her. The Lord looks upon the assembly as His own product. “A virtuous woman ... the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her ... her children arise up and call her blessed”. Proverbs 31:10,11; Proverbs 31:28. If you look at Proverbs 31 you will see why she is called blessed. How carefully she looks after the house, and the children are clothed and fed; you feel she justifies the confidence placed in her by her husband.
Now I turn to Song of Songs 3, to show how the mother possesses these divine thoughts of royalty and dominion and administration; how having brought forth her son, she crowned him. The more we take on divine thoughts the more we connect them with [p. 67] Christ. The daughters of Zion are called upon to behold king Solomon in the day of his espousals, in the day of the gladness of his heart, in the day that his mother crowned him, for every crown belongs to Christ. Whatever crowns we have, their value lies in that we can place them at His feet as we see in Revelation 4. But I dwell for a moment on the mother as God presents His idea symbolically in Revelation. She is true to that in whatever form it might be expressed. She is true to it in that she crowns Solomon. Solomon is a type of Christ as possessing wisdom. By wisdom princes rule and the ideal of rule is in Solomon, the king’s son. The prayers of David are ended as Solomon takes the throne, because then it is a question of divine ideals being realised, and that is what I beg of you to take notice of. Can our minds have any persons before us save Christ in whom divine thoughts are expressed? If I think of Solomon he was a man as I am, capable of failing, as he did, alas! but if I view him from the divine side I think of divine thoughts, of the divine ideal, and it is thus that I read of him here, “Behold king Solomon ... in the day of his espousals”.
We may well thus transfer our thoughts from the mother to the son, to Solomon. If the symbolical person in Revelation sets forth the divine thoughts as expressed in the system here, how much more perfectly does Solomon, for Solomon is Christ, the true Son, the Son of the Father’s love, the One possessed of all wisdom.
So faith rests in all government being placed in His hands. It is in the ways of God that that government which must always refer to Christ is expressed here in the assembly. As I said, it must all refer to Christ, for He rules till He has put all under His feet, and has delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father. So that is what I wish to engage you with, in order that we might learn from the mother in [p. 68] whom it is now expressed for the moment here, how to conduct ourselves. It is largely the function of the mother to impress upon the children how to conduct themselves; as Paul said to one who was his child, “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God”. 1 Timothy 3:15.
As I said, all this goes back to Christ, and from Christ to God. He delivers up the kingdom to Him who is God even the Father, that God may be all in all, but it is operative at the present time and the assembly has part in it, as Israel will have part in the future day.
I want now to speak a word on chapter 8:5. “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raise thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth; there she brought thee forth that bare thee”.
One ought to see this in every Christian. You have to learn to lean on Christ. He has all power. In the great ecclesiastical gospel the Lord says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”. Matthew 28:18. So you can lean on Christ with the utmost confidence. You can rely upon Him, and so it says, “I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth; there she brought thee forth that bare thee”. We have been brought to believe. Many of us have been under systems other than the apple tree; some of us have been converted in systems which bear no resemblance to the true mother, hence the great diversity in the family; we are scarcely alike. Scripture emphasises the influence of the mother in likeness. Gideon says in answer to the kings of Midian: “They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother”. Judges 8:19. The Midianites had said, “As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king”, Judges 8:18 not the children of Gideon, but children of a king. There was a royal bearing about them, nothing small, nothing petty. Gideon replied, “They were ... the sons of my mother”.
[p. 69] You see how he connects the idea of the mother with likeness. It is remarkable, dear brethren, that we are so diverse. Why is it that we are so diverse? The secret lies in the mothers. There is but one for us, “Jerusalem above”, Galatians 4:26 our mother, but we have all been under other influences, other systems have been influencing us and we bear the marks of our mothers. Some of us are legal, it may be, as we read in Galatians, children of the bondwoman; others may be loose. The apostle triumphantly says, “So then, brethren, we are children not of the bondwoman but of the free”. Galatians 4:31 “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all”. Galatians 4:26. It is not that we call her that, but she is that. Every true Christian bears her stamp. She is recognised as being clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and having upon her head a crown of twelve stars. The great features of government are seen in the mother, “I raised thee up under the apple tree”; that means that God has brought us up under the influence of Christ, for the apple tree is spoken of as chief among the trees of the wood. “There thy mother brought thee forth”, that is to say the influence, and culture, and care of the mother are in relation to Christ. He safely trusts her, she brings up the children in relation to Him. Rome brings up her children in relation to herself, and He says, “I will kill her children with death”, Revelation 2:23 but the true mother brings up her children in relation to Christ. “There thy mother brought thee forth”. Earlier she had said, “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons” Song of Songs 2:3; so she brings forth her children in relation to the apple tree, that is to say, in relation to Christ.
Now I have not a doubt that every system from Rome down is governed by some principle which brings up children in its own interests, to swell its own numbers and coffers, and to add to its own [p. 70] dignity. The only system, if I may use the word, that brings up its children in relation to Christ is the true church, the assembly. He confides in it. “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her”, Proverbs 31:11 her children call her blessed, and he praises her — the Lord praises her. We need not expect any other praise, we do not wish it. His commendation is all that we seek; we are not looking for the praise of the world but for the praise of Christ. The apostle says, “Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not”. 1 Corinthians 11:17. Alas, there was very little at Corinth that could be praised, but what they could be praised for they were praised for, for the Lord commends everything that He can. So the assembly comes out at the end as the wife. It is His wife. “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” Revelation 19:7 that is to say, she has proved her faithfulness to Him, she has brought up children in relation to Him, she has kept His commandments, been true to His principles, and made herself ready; then it adds, “and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints”. Revelation 19:8. That stands over against the false wife who brings up her children in relation to herself and of whom the Lord says, I will kill them with death. How different to the children of the true wife! Jerusalem which is above is free; her husband commends her and praises her.
In the last passage in chapter 3 I wanted to show how the young believer finds Christ. There are many who have not found Him in their soul’s history, but they are looking for Him. There must be many who are looking for Him, so it says, “The watchmen that go about the city found me, to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth”. Song of Songs 3:4.
I say to the youngest believer here that you will [p. 71] find Him if you look for Him. He has found you through the gospel — it may be years ago — but perhaps you have not begun to look for Him. Earlier, as she was set to find Him, it was said to her, “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock”, Song of Songs 1:8 and that is what I would point you young people to. If you are desirous of finding the Lord, keep near to His people, go by the footsteps of the flock; watch their feet, where they go, and you will find Him, for He is to be known amongst them. Visit the shepherds’ tents. Why should you be as one veiled, as one whose love for Christ is questionable? You say you love Christ! I doubt it. There is suspicion attaching to you. You want to be with the flock; it is there you will find Him, and thus prove your love for Him. “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”. John 14:21. It is not he who says he loves the Lord, but he that keeps His commandments who really loves Him.
In this chapter the loved one is looking for Him, and she passes by the watchman, and as she passes by she finds Him. What does she do? She says “I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house”. If you have now an apprehension of Christ in that way, you see Him not simply as Saviour, but as in Colossians as Head of the assembly, and as in Ephesians in relation to the assembly, and you say, I will not let Him go, I will bring Him in there. You connect Christ with the assembly. It is Christ and the assembly and yourself; that is it; it is Christ first, the assembly next, and then my relation to both. “I held him ... until I had brought him into my mother’s house”; you connect Him with the assembly. Have you done it? No one has done it who has not accepted and entered into the fellowship of the Lord’s people. If you are isolated, your love for Christ is questionable. I do not know your heart, we have to judge by what we [p. 72] see in your walk and ways. The next step after finding Him is you connect yourself with the assembly — as you know Christ you are linked by Him with the assembly.
Well, I hope you will have followed what I have said. I had in mind that we might see how the maternal features have influence on the family. This influence must be according to the divine thoughts expressed in the mother in Revelation. Simeon said to Mary “A sword shall pierce through thine own soul”. Luke 2:35. There is the idea of grief in that. Luke, therefore, would present the sympathy that should mark us in our relations with one another, while Matthew would emphasise the royalty and government as seen in the sun, moon, and stars. May God bless the word.