CHRIST AND THE ASSEMBLY
I have in mind, dear brethren, by the Lord’s help, to speak of Christ and the assembly according to God’s original thought concerning them, and to show, if I am able, how God’s thoughts are being worked out at the present time and the end that is in view. I have especially in mind three thoughts: the woman, as the counterpart of the man, leading to the thought of the wife, and that leading on to the thought of the city. In the passage we have read in Genesis we have the thought of the woman as the counterpart, as I have said—the complement of the man—but the end of that passage introduces the thought of the wife: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh”. The epistle to the Ephesians tells us, as referring to that passage, that the divine thought was Christ and the assembly. The apostle says, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”. Then in Proverbs we have the question, “Who can find a woman of worth?” Immediately the thought of the wife is introduced: “The heart of her husband”, it says, “confideth in her”. Then in Revelation you find that the angel says to John, “Come here, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, and immediately what he sees is a city. So I think it will be clear that the thought of the woman underlies and leads up to the thought of the wife, and the thought of the wife leads up to the thought of the city.
When I say these things, of course, I am referring to their spiritual import because, obviously, in natural things there is no necessary connection between the thought of a wife and the thought of a city. One’s object in referring to these things, dear brethren, is that we might get some impression of the greatness of the things which are ours, to which we have been called, and that we might be intelligent as to the way God is reaching His end at the present time. It says in the book of Proverbs that it is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing. That is, these immense things which are in the mind of God and have been in His mind from before the foundation of the world, and are so soon coming out in glorious display, are in fact being prepared at the present time. It is well for us to be consciously aware of it, to understand in what way they are being prepared, because it is not obvious to the natural man. The world can take no account of it. That in itself is a stimulating thought that the saints of God are initiated to understand that which God is working out in secret.
Well, now, the line of things that one has in mind connects with the thought which God intimated at the outset when He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. And then it says, “Male and female created he them”. That is, the original thoughts of God in relation to man included Christ and the assembly. What was in mind was the mediatorial idea; that is, the means by which God would come into expression in His creation. “Let us make man”, God said, “in our image, after our likeness”. Image carries the thought of representation, and, according to our measure, likeness ensures that the representation shall be a true one. Hence, with the thought in mind that God desired to come out in perfect expression in His creation, we have man brought on the scene. But, beloved brethren, it is men of a wonderful order, for it has in mind nothing less than a divine Person become Man. In no other way could God secure perfect representation of Himself. No mere man, no creature, was great enough personally and morally to bring God into perfect representation and expression. If God were to come out in that way, it necessitated that a divine Person should enter into manhood. But then, it is not only worked out in Christ personally, for the wonderful thing is that there is the female thought, the feminine idea, involving the assembly. That is, a vessel is to be formed of those who are but creatures, in which the fulness of Christ can find expression. There is another line of thought in connection with Christ and the assembly here which I only allude to and do not intend to dwell upon. You will notice that at the end of Genesis 2, it says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh”. The initiative there is with the man. He leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife. It is suggestive of the Lord rejoicing in the thought of having in the assembly, a vessel which, as united to Him, shall be competent to express God perfectly, for it was always dear to the heart of Christ that God should be expressed. He never sought His own glory. He always sought the glory of God. It is well to bear that in mind, beloved brethren, because that is intended to affect us. That God should be glorified in all things is what was continually present in the heart of Christ, and as we connect with Christ and the assembly the thought of man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife, we see how delightful it was to the heart of Christ to think that He was having the assembly, a vessel in which, under His own influence, God could be perfectly expressed.
But then, when you come to Isaac and Rebecca, it is the other way round. It is she that leaves her father and mother. They say to her, “Wilt thou go with this man?” and she says, “I will go”. She does the leaving, so to speak. It says at the end of Genesis 24 that Rebecca became Isaac’s wife, and he loved her. That is, she enters into union. From that standpoint, it is looked upon as her action, and because she enters into union he loves her.
Now, that, as I was saying, is a different line of thought, but a very precious one indeed. In both instances, whether we are thinking of Genesis 2, or whether we are thinking of Genesis 24, the assembly is viewed as given to Christ of the Father. In Genesis 2 God says, “It is not good that Man should be alone; I will make him a helpmate, his like”. In Genesis 24 the father, Abraham, takes the initiative and sends his servant to secure a wife for his son; a very touching thing to bear in mind. In whatever connection we are viewing the assembly, she is to be seen as given to Christ by God; but, as I say, in Genesis 24 the great point is not that the assembly is a formation, a building, a woman builded as in Genesis 2. The great thought there is that she is kindred to Isaac and therefore worthy of him. So the servant says to Rebecca, “Whose daughter art thou?” She is to give account of herself. The Lord asks the disciples, “Who do ye say that I am?” That is to say, He would bring out what apprehension they have of Himself, but then the Spirit would also bring out, if I may so say, what apprehension we have of ourselves. The servant says to Rebecca, “Whose daughter art thou?” and she had to give an answer, and the answer that she gave showed that she was kindred to Isaac; and so the Spirit of God would raise the question with us whether we have a right understanding of who we are, that we are kindred to the heavenly Man. We have received the Spirit of the heavenly Man. We partake by the Spirit in the life of the heavenly Man. We are of His own order. We are no longer of the first order. It says, “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven”, or, as it should read, “the second man, out of heaven”, 1 Cor 15: 47. And we, beloved brethren, as receiving the Holy Spirit, partake in the life of the heavenly One. We are of His own order, and in that way He is not ashamed to call us brethren. We are worthy to be brought into this wonderful place of union with Christ, and as under the Spirit’s leading, we take it up. The Lord rejoices in us, rejoices in those who can have part with Him in the scene and circle of affections of which He is the Centre.
Moreover, the servant says to Rebecca, “Is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge”, raising another question as to how much room we make for the Spirit of God. That is, is there room? That is a salutary question to raise, for it tests us if we understand who we are and can trace our genealogy and understand that we are of Christ’s own order because He is the Sanctifier and we are the sanctified, and therefore are all of one. Do we understand it? Rebecca could give an account of her genealogy, but the servant raises this other question, “Is there room in thy father’s house to lodge?” How much room are we making for the Holy Spirit? Are we getting rid of the things that would hinder His operations with us? Is there plenty of room for Him? If so, we will be enlarged in the understanding of divine thoughts.
But now, coming back to Genesis 2, as I was saying, it is not so much a question of the beloved Son, who is the centre of His Father’s thoughts and affections, having a wife; it is a question of the Christ, the Man of God’s purpose, the Man who is to be over all the works of God’s hands, and who is to represent and express God perfectly. It is a question of Man having a wife—woman. And so, with that in mind, Adam is made to fall into a deep sleep. The Spirit of God stresses, as has often been remarked, the intelligence that marked Adam. “And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim had formed every animal of the field and all fowl of the heavens, and brought them to Man, to see what he would call them; and whatever Man called each living soul, that was its name”. That is, Adam had intelligence. He knew how to name the different features of the work of God. But then, the point was that he had not as yet a helpmate for him. The woman is brought in in order to fill the lack; he was to have one with him who would be marked by similar intelligence, similar features. And, of course, this means that there is to be that which will answer perfectly to Christ. And so Adam is made to fall into a deep sleep, and Jehovah Elohim took one of his ribs and closed up flesh in its stead. And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that He had taken from Man into a woman.
Now, I have no doubt that the process of building, beloved brethren, is going on at the present time. It is going on by means of ministry, for we read in Ephesians 4 that the gifts have been given for the edifying or the building of the body of Christ: the edifying of the body of Christ. That is, we are to understand that ministry has in mind reaching this great end; the formation of a vessel which will correspond with Christ in moral features and in intelligence, in ability to name things. It says in Philippians that the apostle prayed that the love of the saints “may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”, Phil 1: 9. That involves the ability to take account of more excellent things—the work of God in its different features.
Then we read in Ephesians 4 that we learn to repudiate the old man: “put off according to the former conversation the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts; and being renewed in the spirit of your mind; and your having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness …”, v 22. I believe all that enters into this matter of the formation of the woman. It has often been said that Adam’s deep sleep had no reference to the settling of moral questions and that, no doubt, is true, for sin had not entered into the world at the time that Adam fell into this deep sleep. At the same time, the deep sleep of Adam speaks of the death of Christ, so that what is moral must be involved in it. And I think I can see that while it is not a question of the death of Christ as that means by which God has solved moral questions, yet, at the same time, what was in mind was the formation of a vessel which would be characterised by holiness, and by righteousness, and by spiritual discernment, because the Lord could not be content with anything that was not entirely in accordance with Himself. And I need not say that He has a perfect appreciation of the good, and a perfect abhorrence of the evil, and a perfect discrimination between evil and good, and if the assembly is to be His counterpart in the administration of God, it is very important that she should be formed in the ability to appreciate good, and abhor evil, and discriminate between the one and the other. So that I have no doubt the deep sleep of Adam typifies the death of Christ as that means by which we are instructed in these great moral matters, so that we are formed in what is in complete correspondence in spiritual feeling and intelligence with Christ Himself.
So it says that the Lord God builded a woman “and brought her to Man. And Man said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”. That is, the thought of the woman is that she is entirely derived from the man and perfectly correspondent with him—a wonderful thought when you apply it to Christ and the assembly. There is nothing in the assembly as the subject of divine workmanship that is not morally of Christ. In that sense she adds nothing to Him; but on the other hand, she does add to Him, because she is a woman. She is an entity in herself, but as deriving from Christ and she is capable of being united to Him. So it says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh”. I think we can see how, when we come down to the actual working out of things, the great effort of the enemy has been to bring in separation between Christ and the assembly, not that there is anything on Christ’s side that would in any way warrant it, but alas, Satan has been only too successful in causing the saints, the assembly, to depart from Christ. And so the apostle referred to that in relation to the Corinthians. He said, “I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ”, 2 Cor 11. The whole history of the assembly publicly, as having entirely failed to represent God and as having taken on the features of the first man and of his world, is the result of her having been seduced from her proper position in relation to Christ.
But when we come to Proverbs we find that the wife is faithful. We see how things are being worked out at the present time. The whole point in this passage in relation to the woman of worth is that her husband is absent, or if he is not actually absent, he is not, so to speak, prominent in the picture. The woman—the wife is everything, and she is everything as held in fidelity to her husband and his interests. The heart of her husband safely trusts in her.
Now, the position of the assembly, in its local responsibility, is to maintain a true light as to God, and so the epistle to the Corinthians is addressed to the assembly of God which is in Corinth. It is a question of God and the name of God being connected publicly with the assembly as the vessel of testimony. That is a very great privilege and a very great responsibility. If you consider this city in which we are, where is the light of God? If it is anywhere, it is in the assembly in the place. Take any place you like where the saints are. The assembly is set there in order to be the vessel in which the light of God is to be seen in the midst of this evil world, and all the principles that govern it should be such as to express God and convey a right impression of God. Indeed, the apostle, in writing to the Corinthians, contemplates an unbeliever coming in and seeing what is going on and hearing what is said and falling down upon his face and acknowledging that “God is indeed amongst you”, 1 Cor 14: 25. You may say that you have never seen that happen. Alas, that may be true. We have to feel the broken state of things in the history of the assembly, but what characterises the present time is that the Lord has recovered, and is recovering, the truth of the assembly in order that there might be some answer to it in the close of the dispensation in spite of the breakdown that has come in publicly. Therefore, we have to pay particular attention to the thoughts of God in regard to the assembly and understand that Christ remains faithful and the Spirit remains faithful, and if there are a few available to be governed by the truth, there is no reason why the features of the assembly should not come into practical expression in the place where they are.
So it says here, “The heart of her husband confideth in her, and he shall have no lack of spoil. She doeth him good, and not evil, all the days of her life”. It is a striking thing that it says, “not evil”. It shows that she is viewed as in the midst of a scene of evil where there are plenty of influences around that would lead her to do evil, to be unfaithful to him, but what is seen here is that she does him good and not evil all the days of her life. I wonder if that is the principle that comes up in our minds, whenever questions arise locally as to how we are going to act. Are we going to do Christ good in the matter? There is one thing—He is bound to be considering for the will of God and the glory of God. He never sought His own will. He never sought His own glory. The zeal of God’s house consumed Him. You remember how He went into the temple and found the element of merchandise there, using divine things for private gain, and how He overthrew the tables of the money-changers and drove out those who sold doves, and the disciples remembered how it was written, “The zeal of thy house devours me”, John 2: 17. He was here in absolute fidelity to God, doing Him good and not evil all the days of His life. Now this woman of worth has taken on these features. She does Christ good and not evil all the days of her life. It says, “She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands”. I suppose wool would refer to the warmth of divine love in activity, and flax, I suppose, would refer to practical righteousness, for flax is the base, as we all know, of linen, and linen is constantly used in Scripture as a type of righteousness. So “she seeketh wool and flax”. They are the two great elements that John speaks about in his epistle; love and righteousness as characteristic of the children of God in contrast to the elements of hatred and lawlessness prevalent on every hand in the world.
It says further, “She is like the merchants’ ships: she bringeth her food from afar”. She is not self-supporting. “She bringeth her food from afar”. It works out practically, I believe, in our recognition of the Spirit of God. He brings things from afar. He brings of the things of Christ and shows them to us. This is a feature that should mark us, beloved brethren, because it is just the opposite of what marks the professing church. The professing church is just on the level of the world, part and parcel of the world, whereas the assembly is marked by dependence on the Spirit of God and on Christ in heaven. “She is like the merchants’ ships: she bringeth her food from afar”. There is the necessity for imports. Then it says, “And she riseth while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household and the day’s work to her maidens. She considereth a field, and acquireth it”. That is, the Lord raises some fresh exercise amongst us as to how things are being done, what befits the assembly, and what is not befitting. Are we attentive to these matters? Do we consider a field? A field is a fresh sphere of exercise. It is a sphere in which fresh fruit is to be brought forth. Do we consider it and then acquire it? We are not to take it on without considering, and not to consider it and reject it, but the woman considers the field and acquires it. That is to say, if the Lord raises some fresh exercise as to how matters are to be handled in a way that is befitting to the heavenly character of the assembly, you consider it. You do not reject it. And then you acquire it. You make it your own by understanding what the spiritual basis of it is. All these are features that mark the woman of worth, because the great thought is that in the absence of her husband, she considers for him. She is held under his influence with the result that she learns how to administer for God at the present time. All is working up to the city, the great vessel of administration in the day to come; but the training, the formation, the education is going forward at the present time, in matters that arise in our local companies that seem small in themselves but in which we are to learn to do the Lord good and not evil.
That is what I am seeking to make plain, that this question of the woman of worth in Proverbs 31 is a matter of how we go on at the present time in our local companies—whether we are marked by fidelity to Christ, giving place to His word. If we are, the result will be that we shall become developed in the ability to be the vessel of administration in the day to come. The wife leads to the thought of the city. It says in verse 26 that, “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and upon her tongue is the law of kindness”. That is an important matter, for surely God is the only wise God. If there is any lack of wisdom, we are not representing God. “If any one of you lack wisdom”, James says, “let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not”. Indeed, principalities and powers in the heavenlies are intended to see in the assembly the all-various wisdom of God. Do they see it? So a matter arises in one of the meetings. How is it handled? Do the principalities and powers in the heavens get an impression of wisdom when they see how it is handled? They are to see the all-various wisdom of God. I believe one reason why the Lord is allowing the assembly to remain on the earth so long is so that Satan may bring forward every subtle influence or mode of opposition to the truth, only to find it met with wisdom from above. There is not a single matter that Satan can raise that there is not wisdom in God to meet it and that wisdom is finding its expression in the assembly as held under the influence of Christ.
So it says that “she openeth her mouth with wisdom; and upon her tongue is the law of kindness”. That is to say, all our words, our speaking is to be characterised by kindness. It is the law that regulates all our speaking. Let the brothers bear it in mind at the care meetings, that there is no other law that is to characterise the speaking of the assembly, so to speak, but the law of kindness; and yet, of course of faithfulness and wisdom that is from above.
So we come to Revelation 21. One of the angels who had the seven vials full of the last plagues, one of the angels who will be employed in overthrowing the world system and judging the great harlot comes to John and says, “Come here, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”. That is to say, the day for display has now come. “I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”. But then, when John looks, he sees a city. That is to say, a great vessel of divine administration comes into view, but she is identified as the Lamb’s wife. I think you can see how taking up the exercise of the wife of Christ at the present time is leading up to becoming the great vessel of administration in the day to come. And hence the value of the present time, the importance of having assembly exercises in mind from this point of view, that they are the means by which God is going to reach this great end in the city coming down from heaven, having the glory of God. Wonderful thing that in that day God shall be perfectly expressed! Her “shining was like a most, precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone”. We all know that crystal-like jasper stone means absolute transparency. How important, then, that we should cultivate transparency in our relations with one another, and the way to cultivate transparency with one another is to cultivate transparency in our relations with God.
You remember how John says in his first epistle: “And this is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”, 1 John 1: 5. See how he emphasises the “no darkness at all”. There is not a single element of darkness, of what is misty, of what is not clear as crystal. The more we have to do with God, dear brethren, the more we shall find the necessity of being absolutely transparent with God, for we cannot conceal anything from Him. Remember how the psalmist said, “Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off”, Ps 139: 1. The psalmist thought how terrible it was that he could not sit down without God taking account of his sitting down, and he could not get up without God knowing what was in his mind. He says, in principle, How terrible this is! As he gets to the end of the Psalm he no longer says how terrible it is. He rather invites it. He says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting”. How much the word of God divides between soul and spirit as we have to do with God! Learn to value it because we find that the same light that exposes what is contrary to God encourages us in that which is pleasing to God, and we learn to discern between good and evil and thus become formed according to God. That must be, dear brethren, because the holy city is to come down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, her light like a most precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone. And then it says, “… having a great and high wall”. That is holiness, built up in the knowledge of Christ and in the appreciation of the love of God. The wall great and high—it conserves all that is of God within and it excludes all that is contrary to God without. A wall great and high! That is not mere prohibition of things that must not be done, and so forth. It says in the early history of the church, “but of the rest durst no man join them”, Acts 5: 13. There was the wall great and high. It was not a question of certain regulations, that the saints were not to do this and that, but the wall great and high was there in the state of holiness amongst the saints—and “of the rest durst no man join them”. So these things are developed at this present time as we take on the features of the wife, concerned to be faithful to Christ in every matter, especially in matters relating to the glory of God, because that is what Christ has at heart. The assembly is Christ’s assembly, and He is Son over God’s house, and He would educate us all in fidelity to Himself in matters that arise among us, and the result is that we develop in the features that will appear in the city in the day to come.
I refer to one more feature, and that is the gates. It says, “... having twelve gates”. The reference to the pearl and all the gates being the same show that in result all the administration is of the same character and it is all the result of being held in simplicity in relation to Christ. I believe the beauty of the one pearl implies that she is marked by undivided affection for Christ, that she is not diverted from Christ. That is what constitutes the beauty. It is a question of what is undivided in affection for Christ, and here in result in the heavenly city you see that every gate is of one pearl. That is, the administration is a true administration because it is the result of the saints being held in undivided attachment of heart to Christ.
May the Lord help us to weigh these things over; the thought of the woman, the wife, and the city, and to see how they work out together at the present time in the exercises that the Lord passes us through as going on in the truth of the assembly.
MAYWOOD, ILLINOIS
November 1946
From Notes of Readings in New York 1947, vol 16
(Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series, vol 172)
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