PRESENT REST FOR THE SAINTS
[p. 10] PRESENT REST FOR THE SAINTS
John 18: 1 - 9; John 20: 19 - 23; Numbers 10: 33 - 36
JT There is a correspondence in my mind between these chapters in John and the passage in Numbers. What the passage in Numbers speaks about is the ark, which we know is a type of the Lord Jesus as a divine Person, moving out before the people, before Israel as they set out from the mount of the Lord. There is a certain correspondence, too, between the mount of Jehovah and the Lord’s supper. I refer to the period in which the Lord instituted the Supper. In chapter 13 the Lord did certain things which would be in keeping with what came out at the mount of the Lord. Much came out at that mount.
Ques Would it help if you mentioned one or two of these things?
JT We get the expression of God’s love which gives character to it. The people, it says, pitched before the mount, they took up a definite position before the mount of the Lord; then the Lord began to speak to them, and in speaking to them He opened up what was in His heart. It would be in a certain sense in keeping with what the Lord did as having sat down with His disciples. In addition to that there was the opening up of the heart of God and the mind of God. Then there were all the commandments that accompanied the giving of the ark and the tabernacle. In John 14: 31 the Lord says, “Rise up, let us go hence”. There is actual movement. Further, “Jesus, having said these things, went out with his disciples beyond the torrent Cedron” (John 18: 1); and in going forth He meets the enemy. He says, “If therefore ye seek me, let these go away”. Moses said, when the ark went forth, “Rise up, Jehovah, and [p. 11] let thine enemies be scattered; And let them that hate thee flee before thy face”.
Ques What is the import of the three days?
JT I suppose it would be death and resurrection. The Lord was on that way in John 18. You get the enemy in these two chapters. It was a terrible road He took; He took it in love, and He took it in power. Though a perfect Man, and feeling everything as Man, yet He is in supreme control; He went before them. What is immediately before us in Numbers is the wilderness position; and the wilderness is not the destruction of the enemy but the scattering.
Rem Making room for the movement of the testimony.
Ques Would it answer to the Lord presenting Himself as the resurrection and the life before He met death?
JT Well, I think so. I think the whole gospel brings out certain facts about Him that give Him a place in the heart of the believer as a divine Person. That is one end in view; there are other ends in view. John’s gospel establishes in our hearts the Lord as a divine Person.
Rem A divine Person in manhood.
JT Yes. I think it could be easily shown from these chapters that that is so. The gospel is built up on signs, signs indicating certain features of the truth. We reach the family in chapter 12, not yet the heavenly family, but the family at Bethany.
Ques Are you distinguishing between that and the heavenly family?
JT Quite; chapter 20 is the heavenly family.
Ques. What is chapter 12?
JT Life in a locality. In chapter 20 He did not come to a locality, but to persons. In chapter 12 the locality is mentioned where the persons were, but in chapter 20 He came to the persons without saying [p. 12] where. You have the idea of locality in 1 Corinthians 1: 2, “in every place”. John supports that by presenting life in a locality.
Ques Were you suggesting that 1 Corinthians 1: 2, “all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, suggests locality, and John would bring life into it?
JT That is the way he supports the principle of local responsibility. In chapter 12 there is nothing said about any directions having been given; what it says is what they did, and what they did has a spiritual character. They had come to know Him in a living way. In chapter 12 you have the “sons of light”. He came to Bethany six days before the passover — time and place, which is important as to public order. The strict reading is “where was the dead man Lazarus”. He was no longer a politician or a society man, he formed no part of the public community. “Whom Jesus raised from among the dead”. So you have life, a man out of death. “Martha served;” it does not say she was told to serve, and Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him, and Mary broke the box of ointment. The Spirit of God is presenting a living scene in a locality. It is the result of previous instruction; “the sons of light” know what to do. The life was the light. The idea of a locality corresponds with the wilderness.
Rem I suppose John 20 is our affections reaching the Lord outside of things here. As One that ascends.
Ques Would chapter 12 be the necessary road for us to chapter 20?
JT I think so. It indicates directions for the individual. Then the teaching of chapters 13 to 17 comes in. In John 4 the woman leaves her waterpot, she apprehends what the Lord said. Her body was to be used for the Spirit; she was a son of light, as it were. Peter answers for the twelve in John 6: 68, 69, saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast [p. 13] words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. That was one of the twelve, and he spoke for them; he is a son of light in that connection. Chapter 9 gives you a son of light in regard of the Son of God. So chapter 12 brings in sons of light; they act rightly, they know what to do. It is not children of light but sons of light. The Lord says, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”. Sons of light know what to do.
Rem They have spiritual instincts and affections. “He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8: 12).
JT There it is, “shall have the light of life”. Then there is more to follow, collective instruction, and it is in connection with that you have this wonderful movement of Christ. After He said these things He moved. (See chapters 14: 31; 18: 1).
Ques Do you suggest that His movements were in view of what you spoke of in chapter 20?
JT Yes; the ark moved out to seek a resting-place for them. “If therefore ye seek me, let these go away”. Hence it says in Numbers 10: 33, “And they set forward from the mountain of Jehovah and went three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them”. It was out of the usual order, but the Lord is not restricted to order. In the order of it the ark should have been in the midst. What can we do against the enemy without Christ? They say later, “Here are we, and we will go up to the place of which Jehovah has spoken; for we have sinned” (Numbers 14: 40), but the ark did not go up in their midst, (verse 44). Here the ark goes before them, it is the love of Christ taking a front position in love and in power; His power is available to us.
[p. 14] Ques Is the idea of seeking a resting-place for them rest in conflict?
JT The wilderness is a weary land; do not you find that? The Lord provides rest for us.
Rem Joshua could not give them rest.
JT There is nothing more touching than the ark moving out to find a resting-place for the people.
Ques Do you say we ought to look for that now?
JT It is what we ought to look for at the Lord’s supper. I think the mount of God includes the Supper. There were wonderful discoveries there; all that God is has come out. We have the love of Christ; the love of God is there. It is presented objectively in the Lord’s supper, but it is in our souls by the Spirit. You will observe in Numbers that finality is not reached. In the end of this gospel the Lord is not seen sitting; He comes into the midst, but He is standing. There is more beyond.
Ques Would you say a little more on the thought of moving out?
JT That is the effect the Lord’s supper should have on us, it should put us in movement.
Rem First of all, it leads to this thought of rest.
JT That is what you have before you. It may be provisional rest. Numbers is not anything final. We need what is provisional, so you have three days in which the ark went before them to seek out a resting-place. That does not suggest a final resting-place, but there is present rest.
Ques Would it be connected more with resurrection than the thought of ascension?
JT Where can we rest but in what the love of Christ has effected? Colossians dwells on what He has taken out of the way, everything that might cause a disturbance is taken out of the way, everything removed, that you might be according to Christ,
[p. 15] that our hearts might rest in what the Lord is to us, and what we are to Him. It cannot be final while we are in the wilderness, but it is provisional, and it gives us colour in the wilderness.
Ques Are we looking forward to the Lord’s supper all the week?
JT We should look for the coming of the Lord, not the Supper.
Ques Do we not look forward to it?
JT We should begin with it. We move out from it, not to it. The Lord’s supper is a public thing, but it leads to what is private. We rest in the Lord. The ark moved out before them. It is for you to follow. The whole week takes character from the Supper, so there is freshness. The Lord’s death is never two thousand years away from us. There is ever the freshness of it, that is the thing that is essential; it is not a mere historical event, but a thing that is by you.
Rem It was so with Mary; the disciples went away to their own home, but Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping.
JT It was a reality to her; they could go to their homes. They lose this appearing. It was from that point she moved. He had already passed through death.
Rem “Return unto thy rest”.
JT Before we get that, Mary is moving; she went and told the disciples. Many take the Lord’s supper and see nothing beyond it. They have come to “the mount of the Lord”, which is a wonderful place, but the time came when they moved from that, and then the ark went before. It is a question of movement in our souls, whether we apprehend the Lord in His own sphere, and what He would give us rest in. The assembly is set up in the full light of the Lord’s present position.
Ques With regard to this movement in John 17,
[p. 16] is it your thought that it involves His love passing through death and reaching resurrection, to establish it for us?
JT Quite.
Ques Would you say a little more as to Colossians?
JT He has taken out of the way the things that stood out against us. He has spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. They stood in the way. He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, and nailed it to His cross. Thus a way is made for us into the purpose of God’s love.
It is a question of what He would bring us to now. The Lord’s supper is very precious, and it is the centre of all the Lord is saying to us at the present time; but then there is that to which He would lead us. You have the idea of what is public, but not in John, because He is not dealing with the public side there, but He is dealing with what is spiritual; and what is spiritual has to be discovered in our souls. He goes before. The opening of chapter 20 shows He has gone before. They were up early; He was up earlier than they. The grave was empty, and it was for them to enjoy that fact. Peter and John went home, but Mary kept there, she remained there. She would have Himself. Not indeed that she was intelligent, but there she was; she got the manifestation; she found that He was out of death. The Lord moves in relation to the state of our souls. It is what He does. As we have it in John 2: 5 “Whatever he may say to you, do”. The Lord knew about the deficient wine. He shuts out the natural. “What have I to do with thee, woman?” He says to His mother. She bows, and says to the servants, “Whatever he may say to you, do”. It is a great principle to have in view: what He says, and what He does.
Rem It is important today.
[p. 17] Ques Why is the ark going before them in Numbers 10 and not in Joshua?
JT I think in Joshua it was not to seek out a resting-place for them, but to dispose of death entirely. Numbers 10 is more what Christ is to us in the wilderness, so as to find out a resting-place for us. I think Mary’s position here — He revealed Himself to her — shows that He takes account of the state of our souls; He did not manifest Himself to Peter and John, He manifested Himself to her. What you get throughout John’s gospel is movement. In chapter 1, when He saw the two disciples following, He said, “What seek ye?”
Ques What has movement in view in John?
JT What I referred to in chapter 1, they wished to know Him where He dwelt: “Rabbi ... where abidest thou?” That is a very fine question. He turned, saw them following, and said, “What seek ye?” They answer, “Rabbi ... where abidest thou?” That is the principle in John — movement. “Come and see”, He says.
Ques Can we touch that sphere today?
JT That is the thing. John’s ministry is to set our souls in movement. Paul gives us the external. In John there is wonderful freshness and vigour for God. Take Lazarus as an example, “Loose him and let him go”. In Luke when the young man was raised up, the Lord delivered him to his mother, but He does not deliver Lazarus to any one. A principle in John is: “He that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him” (1 John 5: 18). It is what we are as being made to live. Lazarus could be trusted — let go.
Ques In connection with the Lord’s supper, passing on to a fresh thing, as you spoke of, you would not have conflict in your mind?
JT It is well to recognise enemies, but the Lord scatters them. If you want to move, the whole [p. 18] power of the enemy is against you; he is in the air. In Luke the Lord is the priest: patient, suffering, and allows things to happen in that way. In John He has supreme control. It is an immense thing to get that thought of Christ, because on that line there is rest for your spirit. The Lord is looking for freshness, and Christianity supplies it; hence you have so much about water-springs. In chapters 13 to 17 the Lord is opening up divine things to them, and having said these things He moves. It is not now what He says, but what He is doing. He is moving. We need to be instructed, but we need spiritual instincts to follow Him. We should never have anything less before us than what is heavenly. We touch it provisionally now. The hymn puts it in a beautiful way:
And see! the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heavenly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o’er. (74:5)
When we get there it is no longer a question of time or place, or even order. The apostle says he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body; God knew, it is His sphere. In 2 Corinthians 5: 14 - 17 he has judged “that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live” — that is the basis — “should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them, and has been raised ...”. “So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”. Reconciliation is not the result of new creation, reconciliation helps a soul into it. Reconciliation is by the death of Christ.
Rem You made a suggestion that in chapter 18 it is a question of where He was moving to.
JT In the language of the type, He was going to seek out a resting-place for them. He thinks of them. What is final rests with God: it is what pleases Him. What Scripture enlarges upon is the present, therefore we are brought to that favoured hour now.