DIVINE FEELING
[p. 202] DIVINE FEELING
Matthew 27:45 - 50; John 11:43 - 44; John 7:37
These scriptures are, doubtless, familiar to us all. I have put them together in order to speak of feeling — feeling as it expresses itself in Christ — having in mind that the people of God are very lacking in it. We are callous with regard to what causes God to feel things, as expressed in Jesus. This feature in God came out early. The early Scriptures speak of the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. “And the earth was waste and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”. (Genesis 1:2). Before there were any men to feel the result of sin, the Spirit of God felt it. He was hovering over, ready to come in as the time arrived; for everything was timed by God. Yet before the intervention, there was, obviously, feeling — the Spirit of God was there. The Spirit of God is a divine Person, but He is the Spirit of God, and brings in here divine feelings. He is God Himself come near, so we find in the scriptures, that the Spirit is near-by, being in a position to acquire, so to speak, first-hand knowledge of things; so He felt the chaos that came in, and hovered over the face of the waters. The “face of the waters”, as covering the earth, was not what God had in His mind in the creation; but He was hovering there: He felt the condition that had come in.
As man fell and developed sinful ways, in the antediluvian times, it grieved God that He had made man. It says, “it grieved him in his heart”. Genesis 6:6 — so familiarly is He presented to us; and our God would not have this affecting feature eliminated from our knowledge of Him. Being His “offspring”, as it says in Acts 17:29, we should understand that He feels [p. 203] things, in a certain sense, as we do. God was capable of being grieved in His heart, and in that grief, as we may say. His Spirit came near — so near as to strive with men as indicated in Genesis 6:3. Striving cannot be at a distance, but implies nearness; as in the case of the wrestling of Jacob; but God would impress us with the idea that He feels things; and so, throughout the scriptures, there were those who, in sympathy with Him, had feeling. We should be a feeling people. If one hears of a sorrow among the saints, and turns away as if it were an ordinary item of news, he is unfeeling, and not with God; for God feels all these things. The Spirit of God is extremely sensitive, as represented in the dove; and so may be grieved. If there be occasions of grief. He feels them; and if I am in the Spirit, I feel them, too. Sometimes, feeling unto tears pleases God — He has a bottle for such tears!
As I said, the men of faith were always marked by right feeling, and thus reflected God, and set an example for us. You will find weeping in both Genesis and Exodus. In the Old Testament, the man who had most to do with divine service and administration, wept, as a babe. There are special features spoken of as in babes, especially of Jacob, Moses, Solomon, and John the baptist. It is not recorded of Moses without intent that “the boy wept”. (Exodus 2:6), and it gives character to his ministry. He could never have acquired the place he did, in the house of God, were he not a feeling man. God could say: “Not so my servant Moses: he is faithful in all my house”, Numbers 12:7; he would enjoin us as to all God’s house. In men with faith, such as Timothy, you find “genuine feeling” and care as to how the saints get on. If he heard of any sorrow — any outbreak of sin — any worldly things among the saints — Timothy would feel it. He would feel it even to tears: for the apostle says, “remembering thy tears”, 2 Timothy 1:4. Timothy’s tears were treasured by the apostle — treasured in heaven, too, for God put such [p. 204] tears into His bottle. The apostle shed tears also; he says, I “tell you even weeping”, Philippians 3:18.
Throughout the New Testament, we have the thought of feeling, especially in the Lord Himself. At the end of His ministry as our Lord drew near Jerusalem and looked upon that city. He wept over it. How touching! It knew not the day of His visitation as the Lord said, (Luke 19:44), and He felt it. The Lord would have us think of things in that feeling way, when looking abroad upon Christendom as having now taken on the garb of apostasy; for that is the garb it wears. We cannot but feel this, if we are with God.
Now with regard to this family at Bethany, the power of death was over it; but how the Lord was moved by what He saw! Such is His wonderful humanity that He could be influenced by the tears of another. He saw Mary weeping, and He wept; but more than that. He groaned, and was troubled in His spirit.
The fact that He cried, is to be noted. He cried on several occasions; the first one to which I refer, is related by Matthew. Only Matthew and Mark speak of the Lord being forsaken. Mark reiterates what Matthew says in this connection, and they both give the profoundest expression of feeling. There could be no greater depth. It is immeasurable — the depth of feeling that lay behind this cry of Jesus. “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour; but about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” Matthew 27:45 - 46. I want to enlist your sympathies as to this. These are the very words uttered by our Saviour; their meaning is given here, but they are the original words He used. The Holy Spirit would put the feelings of Jesus into our hearts in the very words employed by Him. Let us open our hearts to let in those feelings! Those words, as you know, are a quotation from Psalm 22. That Psalm [p. 205] is the greatest suffering psalm; and, yet, a remarkable thing about it is that it has a feminine heading — not a masculine one — “Upon Aijeleth-Shahar” meaning ‘according to the hind of the morning’; that is to say, the Lord in the depths of His suffering had in mind the feminine result. It ought to touch our hearts. This thought is seen in Mary Magdalene; she represents the feeling side, over against Peter and John, who were intelligent men. They saw, by the position of the clothes in the sepulchre, that the resurrection had happened, and believed; but Mary felt things. The more feeling we have, the more light we get. Mary received the Lord’s message for the disciples; and she was the “hind of the morning”, we may say: she ran.
This remarkable incident is not forgotten in heaven, that a woman had run to bring the disciples word. God is seeking to promote in us an ever deepening sense that what is ministered, is not to be merely a “lovely song”, see Ezekiel 33:32, but something from Himself that is received and treasured. So that the Lord’s utterance on the cross, given to us first in the suffering psalm, is expressive of the depth of the Lord’s feelings as forsaken of God, when having to do with sin. He had to do with it from the outset of His creation, but never as He had now to do with it — as on the cross. No one ever had to do with it in this way but He, and He never had to do with it in this way before. The experience was new, and it was no feigned experience. It was His actual experience here; that He was the Sin-bearer, and that God turned away His face from Him. That was certainly new, and was felt; and was expressed in the utterance, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It is still “my God”, although the holy Sufferer was forsaken; but never was that word “why” used with such power before. “Why hast thou forsaken me?” Surely, dear brethren, the Lord would bring us into the understanding of this, to deepen the sense that we may have as to sin — what it is [p. 206] in this world. The Lord had knowledge of it, of course, but never before was He in a position like this. He was being made sin. Think of the feeling that went with that! All this feeling entered into Psalm 22, which He quotes: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Some, who stood by, thought He called on Elias; such was the poor hearing around; there was no sympathy in that. The Lord would remind us of the need of hearing, when such wonderful thoughts are brought before us. Those who heard Him were callous and ignorant, thinking that “Eli, Eli” was Elias, but the words are not the same. It was the hearing of the flippant, persecuting, natural heart. We need good hearing. Then the Lord cried again, and delivered up His spirit; that is to say. He left the scene in power — feeling things, but in power. Well, that is the first cry. We can get nothing, dear brethren, more profound than that, in the way of feeling — it was infinitely real. Now, the Christian, as having to do with sin, should see it as it is before God; and what it is in himself, and should deal with it with authority, for he has the right to. Having the Holy Spirit, we can put to death the deeds of the body.
The next cry is with regard to the resurrection of the saints — surely, a matter of great import. Martha spoke of the resurrection as a sort of doctrine — an orthodox item of faith; but there was no feeling in that. “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day”, (John 11:24) — she put it off. She was not a Sadducee, but a believer in the resurrection as a doctrine; yet without sensibility as to it; whereas, the Lord has feeling with regard to our resurrection. Is it nothing to Him that myriads of His own lie under the ground? It is a great deal to Him. He is sensitive as to what affects them. Is it nothing to Him when we bury our dead out of our sight, as Abraham did? We may have wet eyes, but the burial of a saint is much more to Jesus than it is to the nearest relative on earth.
He says, “Lazarus, our friend”, he was one of His friends; and the Lord also loved the other two of the family — Mary and Martha. First, we read that Lazarus was sick; and then the Lord said that he had fallen asleep; and, finally, “Lazarus has died”. There is nothing unreal about that. It was a reality to Jesus; He looked at things as they were. It was something to Him, that Lazarus had died. And when He had arrived, both Martha and Mary said: “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”, verses 21 and 32; but the brother had died. The Lord had also said, “Lazarus, our friend, is fallen asleep” John 11:11; viewed thus, a saint is unconscious as to current events here. The Lord inquired, “Where have ye put him?” verse 34. It was something to Him; but Martha again intruded, saying, “Lord, he stinks already, for he is four days there”, verse 39. The Lord said, “Did I not say to thee?” verse 40. How quickly we forget what is said to us! I own that, beloved brethren, because I find that things slip away so quickly. A most important statement evidently had slipped away from Martha. “Did I not say to thee, that if thou shouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”(John 11:40) The Lord said, “Where have ye put him?” verse 34. He was in a tomb, and the Lord felt it. He saw Mary weeping, and He saw the Jews weeping. It does not say that Martha wept; but the Jews wept, and He regarded their tears, too. They were influenced by Mary. “Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled, and said. Where have ye put him? They say to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept”, verses 33 - 35.
That is what you get here, dear brethren. It is a well-known scripture, and one that always yields. When He came to the place, it says, “And Jesus lifted up His eyes on high”, verse 41. The Lord would direct our eyes, in that way, on high. There is hope up there, and He says to the Father, “but I knew that thou always hearest me”, verse 42. How beautiful that is! — an unbroken communion existed between the Father and the Son; as down here, the Father always heard Him; but He says, “on account of the crowd who stand around I have said it”, verse 42. Are we not among those that “stand by”? The Lord does things because of those that stand by. In Zechariah, we have persons given honour to walk amongst them who stand by, see Zechariah 3:7. Is there anyone here, who is a mere spectator, casually listening to the word of God? Or are you standing by what God is doing, knowing that He is about to unfold His glory? It is wonderful to have part in this. It was the Lord’s thought that those who “stand by” should believe. He says, “that they may believe”, John 11:42. John, in his record, always presses home the idea of faith — that we should be believers.
And then it says, “he cried with a loud voice”, verse 43. His holy sympathies entered into that cry. The saints are in His mind, and in His heart. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we have: “for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first”, (1 Thessalonians 4:16). How much holy feeling there will be in this shout! When that moment comes, the Lord will come exultingly to raise the sleeping saints, and change the living ones. I am speaking especially of the resurrection of the saints — a wonderful and glorious transaction — “the first resurrection”. This, of course, is only a sample; but it indicates how the Lord’s feelings enter into the resurrection of those He loves. It is said, “Blessed and holy he who has part in the first resurrection”, (Revelation 20:6). The Lord Himself descends from heaven with an assembling shout, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; and then we are told, “then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet [p. 209] the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”, (1 Thessalonians 4:17). I want to press what the resurrection is to Him. He “cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And the dead came forth”, (John 11:43).
The third cry I wish to speak of is in John 7. Without what is involved in this cry, the others must be unintelligible to us. We must have the Holy Spirit. There is hardly any truth less understood, or less accepted practically, than the truth of the Spirit of God as present here now. That is what this chapter deals with, and it says “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”, John 7:39. It refers to the wonderful day of the Spirit here on earth. Did that not occasion feeling? Yes! He looked forward to that day, the like of which never had existed, and I may add, never will again exist; for the millennium is not equal to this. The Holy Spirit will not be here then, as He is now. This is a peculiar time, and it is a matter of deep feeling to Jesus. Is it this to us? The Lord would raise the question with us, as to whether we have the Holy Spirit? as to whether any of us thirsts? There is a great deal of thirst. So that in the last day of the feast — the great day — it is very evident there was thirst. The Lord knew it. On the last day, the greatest day. He stood and cried. How He felt the need! — as He saw the Jews from all parts of Palestine, and the provinces of the Empire, congregated there to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. It was a feast that was intended by God to be the expression of love for brethren, dwelling in nearness to one another in booths. It is a question of being near one another. There was nothing there then of this holy joy of dwelling together in divine love, and the Lord knew it. He saw the thirst that was there — it prevailed about Jerusalem that day, as it prevails about this city today; but the Lord is inviting: “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink”, chapter 7:37. With a feeling voice. He invited His hearers to [p. 210] come and drink; and the same sympathies are here now.
Let us not think that these things are in the distance, that these people are dead and gone, Jerusalem having been laid in ruins for centuries. The invitation is the same today — Jesus cries and says to us, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink” John 7:37. He gives the living water. He fills the unsatisfied hearts of men in this world; and He would have us join with Him in it, as having drunk ourselves. We shall never be evangelical unless we have sympathetic hearts. And then the passage goes on to speak of the magnitude of the thing — that it should be in the belly of the believer, flowing out as rivers of living water, verse 38. A wonderful thought! No one, who has not the Spirit, can understand it. The magnificence of the thing is stressed — rivers of living water flowing out of a believer in Christ. Then it adds: “But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”, verse 39. Well, that is the third cry. It is regarding the Holy Spirit, without whom all that goes into the first two must be a dead letter to us; because it is only by the Spirit of God that we enter into these things. Christian knowledge is only by the Spirit of God. Mere ‘theology’ is truth made to fit into man’s mind; and so, however well meant, it cannot rightly convey divine thoughts. “For who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? thus also the things of God knows no one except the Spirit of God”, (1 Corinthians 2:11).
There are two other scriptures of which I could have spoken: one of them is in this chapter (John 7), which gives us the pros and cons of the world in regard to Jesus — what this one says, and what that one says; and it corresponds with the present world where modernism prevails. What do you say about Jesus? There are some voices lifted up more or less favourably, but one says: “But as to this man we know whence he is. Now as to the Christ, when he comes, no one knows whence he is”, verse 27; and when the Lord heard that. He cried. Does the Lord not feel this modernism; about all these things that men are saying? Yes, He does, and He would have us feel it. He says: “Ye both know me and ye know whence I am; and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye do not know”, verse 28. This is the antidote to the current of modernism. He is One sent by God; and whatever they may say, and pretend to say or believe, down in the bottom of their hearts the leaders are conscious of the power of Christianity, and that Christ is a divine Person, come from God.
Then in chapter 12, where the public testimony is over — the testimony to the Jews — the Lord cites from Isaiah 53: “who has believed our report”, verse 38, and then He says, “On this account ... Esaias said again. He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart”, verses 39 - 40. After that, the Lord cries and says: “He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me; and he that beholds me, beholds him that sent me”, verses 44,45. It is to bring out the greatness of the testimony. What are people rejecting? They are rejecting God! “He ... that beholds me, beholds him that sent me”, John 12:44,45. He is no less than God. He is divine, and the Father was there in Him doing the works. It is wonderful how the holy Trinity is combined in the operations of Jesus. By the Spirit, He cast out demons, and as He said, “the Father who abides in me, he does the works”, John 14:10. It is a perfect unity. He says. What are you rejecting? What you are rejecting is God Himself. “He that believes on me believes ... on him that sent me; and he that beholds me, beholds him that sent me”, (John 12:44); and He closes the chapter by saying that the Father’s commandment is life everlasting. God in grace is commanding the great blessing of eternal life, and men are rejecting it!
[p. 212] Well, may God help us, dear brethren, to right feelings about these things! God is giving us a wonderful opportunity now to finish up the history of the assembly here, and He would have us to be feeling. As affected thus in a spiritual way. He can employ us to express Himself.