THE POWER OF GOD (2)
[p. 345] THE POWER OF GOD (2)
Colossians 1:11; Colossians 2: 9 - 15; Genesis 17:1 - 14; Genesis 18:1 - 8
What we considered this morning had reference to God’s power in grace. Elisha’s ministry refers to that towards men; we would consider now how the power of God is available to us as before God. As we need to be sustained before men, so we need to be sustained before God; therefore, the connection of circumcision with the power of God has in view the position of the saints in God’s presence. God says to Abram: “Walk before me” — before My face; Genesis 17:1. Chapter 18 shows that the door of privilege is open to those who have that light — the knowledge of God in His almightiness and the disallowance of the flesh. This fits in with Colossians. Isaac was to be brought in on the line of God’s power as this chapter shows. The prayer in Colossians 1:9 - 13, covers the circle of the saints on earth. The evidence of power is “endurance and longsuffering with joy”. It does not go so far as Ephesians — “endurance” is that one can bear much; then “long suffering”— not of a stoical kind. God looks for that in the circle. But in chapter 2 we have a position before God according to His operation, a position taken up in faith. For that the power of God in quickening is necessary. What God had in His mind in Colossians was as fruit of the gospel, to set up a circle marked by the vigour of life, as it appeared in Christ on earth — the “new man renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him”. Colossians 3:10. There was to be practical correspondence with Christ in every relationship, as we see in Chapter 3 throughout. Then in speaking to God, there would be free intelligent outgoing to Him. Abraham in Genesis 18 is, so [p. 346] to speak, a quickened man; chapter 17 is the light of the position. Three men came and found there the intelligence and energy of life, the recognition of what was due to God. The quickening is a positive, practical thing, I am made to live. Circumcision is positional — that is in Colossians. In Philippians 3 it is position; the past is all gone; God is worshipped by the Spirit, and there is no confidence in the flesh. Abram’s name was changed and this involved the power of God, for the new name implied that he was to be “a father of a multitude of nations”. We get what is in the presence of God — what is suitable. The scene in chapter 18 shows what God would delight in. It seems as if Jehovah coming as a Man in company with others, desired to bring out what was in Abraham and Sarah and the young man. One may take it as a type of any company. From Antioch onward the Spirit of God seems to enlarge on the different circles brought about by the apostle’s ministry. The coming of the apostle to different localities (Acts 20:21) brought into evidence what was of God in each. Here in Genesis 18 what God could participate in is available. What is suggested first of all, is that God brings about a condition in the circle that He would test out. In Judges 6 the angel of the Lord came and sat under an oak, that is, he took up a position where he could take a survey of what there was. Gideon was threshing wheat to keep it from the Midianites. It reminds us of what marks divine visitations. Visitations are not only made in chastisement. We read “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten”, Revelation 3:19 but divine Persons also come as knowing what is in a locality, so that it might show itself. Here, in Genesis 18, the coming is to affect a scene, a festive occasion with sufficient persons to fill it out. Two were angels, but all are introduced as “three men”. Abraham said Lord to One of them — “standing near him”. It was to [p. 347] introduce the conditions for festivity. Abraham discerned the Lord. He was not putting himself forward. “They said” — the company is kept in evidence. The next verse shows what was there. There are right instincts as to what was suitable for Him. We get the contrast to all that in Simon’s house; Luke 7:36 - 50. The Lord looks for what is suitable and what He takes pleasure in. It is a Colossian scene. Abraham is just a type. This is a scene designed by heaven. We have three men coming and the coming brings out what was there. If you take up Colossians (the Old Testament is intended to illustrate and bring out detail) it says in Colossians 1:12,13, “Giving thanks, etc. ... translated into the kingdom of the Son of his love”. We are taught what is suitable. Who can teach what is suitable to the Father save the Son? The Son of the Father’s love becomes the Teacher of the saints. Proverbs is the teaching of the son of the father’s love. He knew his father from his infancy; he was qualified for the position over all the sons. God said to David, as it were, He is your son, but I am going to take him to be My son. Proverbs is written to train the saints so that they might know what is becoming to God. In chapter 30 the writer says he had no knowledge; he got it by acknowledging that.
In Colossians Paul teaches the saints how to be before God. Proverbs 30 is the secret of the book. The great product of Proverbs is a wise son. The “rod of correction” would come in in the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him”, Proverbs 22:15.
“The tenor of his way” (Proverbs 22:6), refers to the true light which already shines. The child begins in that light, and being trained up in it, will not depart from it in later years. You reckon on the work of God. That is the light which should govern us in baptism. It is “the entry”, the entry is according to faith, you have God. Moses’ mother brought him in in connection with light. He was hid three months of his parents. He got his start there. He was forty years in Pharaoh’s house. No doubt he rode on horses of Egypt like others, but the rod of discipline, forty years in the wilderness, put human pride far from him. I refer to all that because it shows how young Christians are to be brought up. The son speaks to us in Proverbs, he insists on what is good for us all the way through. Solomon is the most extraordinary babe in Scripture outside of the Lord. The house of the believer is contributory to the house of God. Solomon is the great contribution of David. God says: I will take him to be My son. He says this even in a house where disaster had come. The greatest thing for children is an example. Abraham means “father of a great multitude”. He was a true father. He conveys the parental thought. The parental thought is one of the greatest truths in Scripture. “Riches are the inheritance of fathers” Proverbs 19:14 — the thought is that you pass on something, you do not leave your children in poverty —spiritually.
The Proverbs has sons in view. Am I a wise son? That is what you have before you for yourself and for your children. All your ministry has in view to make sons to make the heart of God glad: “A wise son maketh a glad father”. Proverbs 10:1, Proverbs 15:20. That is what Colossians is aiming at. As we come on in Colossians we see the aim is to bring us into correspondence with Christ — the circumcision of Christ, His baptism and quickened with Him. Solomon knew, I suppose, in a thousand ways what pleasure he was to David and Bathsheba. Jehovah had signified His own pleasure in him, so he could speak with authority. It is a voice to all Christians as wise sons to be like him. Colossians is to bring us, Gentiles, into correspondence with Him as a company on earth. Ephesians is the [p. 349] full thought of God; we are set together in Christ in heaven.
In Colossians it is the energy and freshness of life. What an immense thing for God to have these circles throughout the Gentile world! Paul carried on a sacrificial service that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Colossians 2 corresponds with Genesis 18; Abraham knows what to do. God says, as it were, I want to have a festive scene, and I want to have it with Abraham! He brought His company with Him. You have to be in power before God, that is the setting of this passage; Genesis 17. Then you have the covenant of circumcision — a permanent testimony that there is no power for that in the flesh. There should be nothing between the Head and the saints. There is plenty of resource as you draw upon Christ. “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. “Bodily” means brought within our range. The Lord said, “Have ye anything here to eat?” Luke 24:41. What have you got as your own, produced by the Spirit; that is what the Lord looks for. He came to Abraham, it was to bring out what was there. The Lord would not take us by surprise, love looks for Him, expects Him. He would not come to put us at any disadvantage. He knows sons, knows what they have got. They have learned to draw upon His resources. “Bodily” refers to what is available. “They gave him part of a broiled fish”; that was what was available for the Lord, “and of a honeycomb”. The honeycomb would set forth mutual affection among the saints, which the Lord delights in.
Colossians 2:10: “filled full in him”. It is an abstract statement. It is there potentially but has to be worked out. The wise son is a Colossian. That is what the epistle is aiming at. The “fish” (Luke 24:42) refers to what faith brings in, the resources of God. The “honeycomb” is what each one contributes.
[p. 350] these things that Abraham provides doubtless have a meaning severally. A “morsel of bread”, “three measures of wheaten flour” and a “calf” — all features of Christ. The wheaten flour is His humanity. The calf would refer to His having come to die, He has died. The milk, the food which the Lord Himself partook of as we know; it is constitutional. He partook of His wine and His milk; Song of Songs 5:1. God looks for freshness — “a calf tender and good”, all fresh. Jehovah was thus entertained by one who had the light of His power, and who was to walk before His face. As to his circumstances, Abraham was governed by the light vouchsafed to him.
We can only take up the Old Testament as illustrative. We get freshness in Colossians; the new man suggests this. The little maid in Jairus’ house as raised, corresponds, she was youthful. She is raised from the dead and everyone is put out except the father and mother and Peter, James, and John and the raised child — seven in all. The scene suggests the freshness of life which is to be sustained. “He ... commanded that something should be given her to eat”. Luke 8:55. That life is to be sustained. That is aimed at in Colossians; God is looking for freshness and vigour among the saints.