Ready For Translation
READY FOR TRANSLATION
Genesis 5: 21-24; 6: 9, 13, 14, 18-22
One was impressed, dear brethren, with what came before us this afternoon, the thought of being ready for translation, and that has led me to read these scriptures with the desire to say a word about Enoch who, as we know, was translated, and also Noah, as to both of whom it is said that they walked with God, and that is what is called for now, for we are at the end of the dispensation, as we often say, and if we have never done so hitherto, what is called for now, is that we should be walking with God. There can be no doubt that that is what God intends should precede the translation of the saints, and the prominence that is being given to the presence with us of the Holy Spirit is intended, I am sure, among other things, to promote with us the readiness and the ability to walk with God, for the Holy Spirit is God, and He is with us all the time, and we are either grieving Him or else we are pleasing Him and going along with him, and therefore we may well raise with ourselves the exercise as to how far each one of us individually is characterised by walking with God.
Well now, as we read in Jude’s epistle, Enoch is spoken of as the seventh from Adam, and he is presented in that light in this fifth chapter of Genesis, for the chapter begins with Adam and traces the generations down to Enoch, who is seventh, and, of course, while the chapter proceeds beyond Enoch, it is easy to see that a certain climax is reached in Enoch, in that he was characterised by life. The whole chapter is the line of life, but Enoch pre-eminently is marked by life, in that he walked with God for three hundred years, and then finally is translated so that he does not see death. So that it is clear that Enoch represents, as has indeed often been said, a certain climax reached as a result of all that preceded him being passed on, so that there was accumulation in the knowledge of God.
Now we read in regard of Adam that “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam”. I think we can say, without hesitation, that there must have been much feeling in the heart of God when He called their name Adam, for that means ‘man’, and as we are having brought so much before us now, all God’s choicest thoughts centred in man; it was man that He had in mind, and He called their name Adam. That is to say, the thoughts which God had formed from before the foundation of the world were now beginning to take form. He created Man in His own image—“Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam” (or man). Of course, we know that it was Christ and the assembly that were in God’s mind, for nothing of God’s thoughts regarding man could be made good in the first man. Adam was but a figure of Him who was to come, although in man after Adam’s order God would work out His ways, but in bringing Adam on the scene God had in view the One of whom Adam was but a figure, and that is Christ, and when we begin to think of man in the light of Christ, a divine Person become man, how glorious it becomes; the glory of incarnation increases the more we think of it, a divine Person become man, and bringing in Himself an order of manhood heavenly in character and of such excellence as would satisfy the desires of the blessed God Himself, but involving also the assembly, the body of Christ, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. So that it is the man in Christ Jesus that was really before the mind of God, Christ personally and then man in Christ Jesus, and a divine Person become Man, and accomplished redemption in all that was involved in that, and all that was expressed in that, too, of God, and accomplished redemption so that we might receive the Holy Spirit and that thus there might be man brought in in Christ Jesus.
How glorious all this is, the whole Godhead involved in it, the Father presented as the source of these things, although doubtless before Christ came, before the economy came into view, you could say the whole Godhead was there in counsel, but then the economy having come in, the Father is presented as the Father of glory, and then the Son, the One in whom in manhood all God’s thoughts were being brought in, and then the Holy Spirit, as conveying to those whom the Father had given to Christ, life in Christ, and becoming the power for formation according to Christ, and for the calling forth of intelligent response in the affections and feelings of Christ. How great all these things are, beloved brethren, and I believe we may say, without hesitation, that all these things were in the mind of God when he created Adam, and when He called their name ‘Man’—‘Adam’. Not that Adam himself would have intelligence of all this, but at least when Seth was born he would carry in his soul the light in which God had made Himself known to him, that is, he would have in his soul the appreciation of God’s righteousness; he would know how he himself had become involved in sin and guilt before God, and then how God Himself had covered him and his wife in coats of skin, showing that God would come out with His own righteousness. As we were singing:—
God’s righteousness with glory bright,
Which with its radiance fill that sphere
—and the beginning of it was there. How much Adam was intelligent as to it, we do not know, but we can see what was involved in it, that God was bringing out His righteousness, and Adam would undoubtedly pass on the light of it, in the measure in which he understood it, to those who followed him.
And so we can see that by the time Enoch is reached there is a great accumulation in the knowledge of God, and that is what I believe, dear brethren, we should be concerned about, for we are living near the end of the dispensation itself, but we are living close to the end of an era, a period of over one hundred and twenty years, in which God has been steadily working for the recovery of all the truth that has been lost, and the Spirit has now been given His place in order that we might understand that He has in mind to guide us into all the truth, that not a single feature of the truth should be left unknown by us, and the truth involves, above all things, the knowledge of God Himself. So that we can understand that in this our day it is intended that there should be enrichment marking the saints in the knowledge of God.
But we are told that “Adam ... begot a son ... and called his name Seth”. At the end of the previous chapter we are told that Eve named him Seth, and said, “God has appointed me another seed in place of Abel, because Cain has slain him”. Well, now that is another feature, dear brethren, of great significance. God in His wisdom allows Satan to exercise his power against the saints, and allows some of them to suffer martyrdom for the truth’s sake, but then God is not defeated. If Abel is slain God brings in Seth. That is to say one man may die for the truth’s sake, but another one is to continue in life, and that is an important matter. It reminds me of the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, two leading apostles, and one of them is allowed to be martyred, and the other one continued in life; that is to say, that is what he represents. The Lord said of him, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee?” So John represents what continues until the end, and his ministry is characterised by the thought of life, life in the saints. And so, if Abel is slain, Seth takes his place, and James and John were surnamed, by the Lord, Boanerges, that is, Sons of thunder. That does not refer to their natural characteristics; the Lord does not surname natural characteristics; He surnames what the saints are spiritually, and I believe Sons of thunder represents what they are as bearing a testimony that men are forced to take account of, that they cannot ignore. These two features of being ready to die rather than surrender the truth on the one hand, and then continuance in life on the other hand, are two features which men are forced to take account of. And that is exactly what thunder is. Thunder is God making His voice heard, and forcing it upon the attention of men, whether they want to hear it or not, and so James and John are Sons of thunder, as representing this twofold way in which God is pleased to force His testimony upon the attention of men, that on the one hand there has been a line of those who have been prepared to die rather than to surrender the truth, and on the other hand there is a line of those who continue in life, never overcome, that go through in life and victory until the coming of the Lord.
Well, now these are things, dear brethren, which are of great importance to us. They are represented in the two assemblies of Smyrna and Philadelphia. Smyrna is the feature of assembly testimony which proves itself by being faithful unto death, and Philadelphia is the feature of assembly life which values the truth and has a little power, and thus continues to the end. That is to say, there is the recognition of the Holy Spirit, and in the power of life in the Spirit the whole truth is recovered and maintained to the end, as the Lord says: “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”.
Now these are most encouraging features, dear brethren, that are all to be carried forward. It may be—one cannot say—that the Lord may allow the Smyrna feature to reappear in the history of the assembly in some parts of the earth, and on the other hand He will see that the Philadelphia feature is carried right through to the end, where there are those prepared to go forward with the Spirit. So we may appreciate this as a feature of God’s ways, and incidentally, one might add, dear brethren, that Abel was the first man to die; death lay upon man governmentally on account of sin, but the grace of God allowed the first man that died to die for the truth’s sake, a wonderful thing, and I believe that is something that we can count upon, that often as we accept the government of God He will exercise His rights in mercy, and His ways in grace, and allow what comes upon us governmentally to work out in privilege and blessing. So it was with Saul of Tarsus, he persecuted the assembly, and caused the saints intense suffering, and therefore it was inevitable in the ways of God that he should suffer supremely; the ways of God in government required it, but then grace comes in and the Lord says of Saul of Tarsus: “this man is an elect vessel to me ... for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name”. What came upon him governmentally, and must come upon him governmentally, because he caused so much suffering to the saints, is allowed of the Lord to come upon him on account of his faithfulness to the truth. And so that should be a comfort to us, dear brethren. There is what is governmental in all our lives and in the history of the assembly, too, and yet as it is humbly accepted we may often find, as I have said, that God will exercise His rights in mercy and His ways in grace, and turn what is governmental into what is privilege and blessing.
And then we come on to Enosh, and his name, as we know, represents ‘mortal’, and we were having that this afternoon. If there is the understanding and appreciation by us that we are mortal, subject to death, it only turns our thoughts and hearts all the more to the resurrection world, and to Him who is going to bring it in. As we were having this afternoon, this corruptible must needs put on incorruptibility, and this mortal put on immortality, and so the understanding that we are mortal, subject to death, only makes more real to us, dear brethren, the resurrection world, and quickens in our hearts the desire for the coming of the Lord, and for that mystery, of which we were speaking this afternoon, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed ...” and so on. Our attention has been drawn of late to the fact that our mortal bodies will be quickened on account of God’s Spirit dwelling in us. The Spirit has taken up His abode in our mortal bodies, wonderful grace, that He who is God Himself should be content to take up His abode in mortal bodies of believers, and to remain with us in such humble conditions, in such suffering conditions, to remain with us in those conditions right through to the end, and He Himself will exercise His power to quicken our mortal bodies when the moment comes. So that, as I say, the light of these things as it appears in successive generations, only serves, as we take up the meaning of them, to increase in our souls the knowledge of God and the hope of that which is to come. Indeed, we are to be marked by hope. It has been truly said that perhaps one of the things most lacking with us is hope1; the reality of hope, the enduring constancy of hope, as it says of the Thessalonians; hope is to be a feature marking us as saints, and so it says in Romans that we are saved in hope; that is the character of our salvation—that we are saved in hope, and the more we appreciate that we are mortal, the more the thought of hope will gain place in our minds and hearts.
And so we go down this line. There are certain intervening ones, the meanings of whose names are not given, and which I do not know, although doubtless they have their significance, and then we come to Jared, the father of Enoch. And it says of Jared that he lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch, and Enoch as we know, means ‘disciplined’ or ‘devoted’. Now I believe the significance of Jared naming his son ‘disciplined’ means that he himself was conscious of having been disciplined. No doubt Enoch, in due time, was disciplined, for no one of us can walk with God without being disciplined, and if we are disciplined it means that he himself was conscious of having been disciplined it means that we are sons, and therefore we can take courage, but I believe the fact that Jared named his son ‘disciplined’ means that he himself had felt what it was to be disciplined for a long period of years. You will notice that Jared’s father had a son when he was only sixty-five years old, and his grandfather has a son when he was only seventy years old, but Jared had to wait a hundred and sixty-two years before a son was born to him. He had passed sixty-five years and seventy years, and he would pass a second sixty-five years and a second seventy years, and still no son; he would say to himself, how is the light of God to be handed down if there is no son; think of the discipline it would be to that man as he went on one hundred and sixty-two years before a son was born to him, and yet he was in the line of life, and how was that light that was shining and increasing to be handed on if he did not have a son? And so he was disciplined, and I have no doubt in his discipline, dear brethren, he was taught that he can rely only upon God; that he could bring nothing to pass of himself; that he must depend upon God and wait on God’s time, and I believe that is another thing that we are learning at the present time, and one thing in which the presence with us of the Holy Spirit, who is God Himself, is becoming so real and precious to us; how could we possibly carry things through to completion were it not that God was with us; how could we do without God; how could we face the conditions that already exist in the world and are likely to arise before the assembly is translated, however soon the translation may take place, how can we face them if God is not with us? But in the presence, dear brethren, of the Holy Spirit, indwelling us individually, and dwelling in the assembly, and as the Lord says, “that he may be with you for ever”, it means, as we understand that God Himself is with us, that we renounce any idea of our own ability to go through, and on the other hand we embrace in the spirit of hope, and, indeed, of certainty, that we will go through, thank God, we will go through with the Spirit. As it says at the end: “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”, as though the bride is with the Spirit; she has been moving along with the Spirit, so that at the end she is seen thoroughly with the Spirit, and “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”.
Now, I believe Jared’s discipline indicates all that to us, that we need God, and that prepares us in an increasing degree for the appreciation of the fact that God Himself is with us in the Holy Spirit and never to leave us, and that, dear brethren, leads us up to this thought of walking with God. You can see, I think, how things are cumulative and the ends of the ages have come upon us, and we are intended to have the accumulated value of all that has gone before, so that we should be rich in the knowledge of God, as it says in Ephesians 3: “To him” (that is, to God) “be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. That is to say, the assembly in Christ Jesus is to be capable of that; it has such knowledge of God, and such nearness to God, that it is capable to all generations of the age of ages of ascribing glory to God—no staleness, no dying out, but to all generations of the age of ages, the assembly is to be capable of ascribing glory to God. And hence, dear brethren, how much there should be the concern with us to be walking with God, so that we might become enriched in our knowledge of God, and so we read of Enoch, that he lived sixty-five years and begot Methuselah. Evidently that was a turning point in his life, for it is from that point onwards that he walked with God, and sixty-five years, dear brethren, at that time, represented less than one tenth of a normal life, and therefore let the younger ones take account of it; why should we not walk with God from the age of seven or eight; why should we not if we have the Holy Spirit? Let the younger ones understand it as well as the older ones, that now is the time for walking with God; there is no time left for anything else; the position is so urgent; the coming of the Lord is so near, that what it calls for is that we should walk with God, and Enoch, before he reached this stage in his life which in those days represented only one tenth of the normal span of human life, commenced walking with God.
Enoch continued it day by day, for it says: “all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years”, day by day he walked with God, and for us, as I have said, I believe it refers to our going along with the Holy Spirit, for He is God, and the Lord said of the Comforter, that when He was come He should guide us into all the truth, guide us into it, which means you might say, a day to day matter, not bringing us into it all of a sudden, in one moment, although the Lord can do that if He pleases, but guide us into all the truth means that we are led on from one point to another, and hence the need of going on with the Spirit, and of cultivating walking with God, avoiding the things that would grieve the Spirit, and cultivating the things that would please the Spirit; seeking grace that our minds might be opened to the Spirit, and to the instruction and the suggestions that He would bring in. As the Lord says; “he shall receive of mine”, that is My things, “and shall announce it to you. All things that the Father has”, He says, “are mine; on account of this I have said that he receives of mine and shall announce it to you”. Can we measure the immensity of what is involved in all that the Father has, as it says in Genesis 24, that all the treasure of his master was under the hand of the servant? He could bring out any feature of the treasure of his master at the right moment; all the treasure of his master was under his hand, and what would not Rebecca be led into then, as she moved along with the servant, what would she not become intelligent in? Not only would she hear about Isaac and be prepared to meet Isaac, but she would already become versed in Isaac’s interests, so that when she actually found herself with Isaac she would be no stranger to his interests, and he would find in her one that was thoroughly with him in those interests, and that is something, dear brethren, that the Holy Spirit is prepared to bring to pass in us, as we go along with Him. It says he “walked with God”. What do you think God spoke to Enoch about? I do not suppose He spoke much to him about conditions in the world; I have no doubt Enoch formed his own judgment about conditions in the world. Indeed, the epistle of Jude indicates that, what a judgement he had of the ungodly condition of things in the world around him, but I say that I do not suppose that God occupied much of Enoch’s time with talking to him about conditions in the world. Doubtless He might allude to it, and Enoch would have his own judgment about it, but I have very little doubt that what God would speak to Enoch about would be His world, as the Lord says; “that world, and the resurrection”, and Peter says of the Lord Jesus when the Lord challenged them as to whether they would go away: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal”. That was what the Lord was speaking to the disciples about—“words of life eternal”. and Enoch really represents one who goes on steadily in the enjoyment of life eternal. He is not finding his life and interests in the things connected with this scene, but he is finding his life and interests in the things connected with God’s world; “the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”.
Before I leave speaking of Enoch, I would draw attention to what is said of him in Hebrews 11. It says that “by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him, for before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God”. We are warned not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, why should we not please Him? That is the great thing; please the Holy Spirit, for He is God; not that we cannot please the Father and the Son, for we certainly can and may. The three Persons of the Godhead are so wonderfully together in all their interests and nothing pleases the Father so much as that we should speak to Him intelligently and in holy liberty and reverentially as we may do at all times, and we may have communion, too, with the Lord, as we well know, but then the Holy Spirit is pleased to remain with us all the time, right through to the end—marvellous thing, and we may well exercise ourselves as to whether, instead of grieving Him, we are pleasing Him. Enoch walked with God, and he had the testimony that he pleased God, and then it adds further; “without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out”. Now let me say affectionately to one’s brethren, and especially to the younger ones, How much do we seek God out in regard of our own matters as His children, but how far do we really seek the Father in relation to His things; the whole scope of divine purpose, which centres in Christ and in relation to which we have been called, I say how far do we get to the Father about these things, and ask Him to give us understanding and enlargement and the ability to compass them in some degree in our hearts? Paul tells us that he did; he tells us that he bowed his knees to the Father, of whom every family in the heavens and earth is named, that He would grant us to be strengthened with might by the Father’s Spirit in the inner man, so that the Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith, and if the Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, dear brethren, it will not be very difficult to get some impression of the whole scope of the interests and glory that centre in Christ.
Now I say, how far do we get to the Father on these lines, and pray that He would strengthen us with might by His Spirit in the inner man, so that the Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith. Let us understand that if we do He is a rewarder; He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him out. That is to say, there is no reason, while we are most thankful for ministry, and the Lord has given ministry in order that we might be instructed in the truth, why we should be entirely dependent upon ministry. We have access to the Father, and we have the Spirit of the Father, and He is able to give us the Father’s own thoughts, the Father’s own appreciation of Christ, and the Father’s own thoughts in relation to the whole system of glory that centres in Christ, and why should we not be concerned to become intelligent for ourselves in regard of these things. And so it says; “Without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that draws near to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out”; and therefore one would encourage the brethren, as oneself, to be marked increasingly by diligently seeking God out in regard of His own things, so that they may become much more real and living to us all.
Just a word, dear brethren on Noah, for Noah in a sense is the counterpart to Enoch. Enoch walked with God, and I believe the suggestion is that he had communion with God, and I believe in relation to God’s own interests, and God would undoubtedly find great pleasure in that. But now we come to Noah, and Noah stands in relation to the evil conditions that surrounded him. It says that “Jehovah repented that he had made Man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart ...” and so on, and then it says. “But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Jehovah”. and then it adds that “Noah walked with God”. That is to say, Noah is presented, I think, not so much as pleasing God by walking with Him in communion in relation to God’s own world and His own interests, but rather as finding favour with God and walking with Him as entirely separate from the world of evil by which he was surrounded. And that, of course, dear brethren, is the other side of the matter for us, because while we have the power in the Holy Spirit to be constantly enjoying eternal life yet on the other hand we have in fact to pass through a world of evil, and not only so, but to bring up families in a world of evil, which is another matter, and a most serious and difficult matter, and a most important matter, and a matter in which we can count on divine help and divine support, and Noah, I believe, represents that side of the matter, that before he enters upon the practical exercises of building an ark for the salvation of his house, what is said of him is that he “walked with God”. And the scripture we have read in Hebrews 11, says that he was “oracularly warned concerning things no yet seen”. He had warning from God, and that also, dear brethren, is a service which the Holy Spirit performs towards us. The Lord said of Him, “having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe on me; of righteousness, because I go away to my Father, and ye behold me no longer; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged”. So that while the judgment is not yet seen, the Holy Spirit gives us unquestionable testimony as to the character of the world in which we are; it believes not on Christ. It has had no place for the righteous One. He has left the world and gone to the Father and the ruler of the world is judged. That is, judgment is pending; it is already announced, and intelligent believers are in the light of that, and therefore as walking with God they are concerned to provide conditions for their own houses, and for all those whom they can influence for good, that will be effective in salvation from the world that is shortly coming under judgment.
There can be no doubt that the ark as built by Noah is a figure or type of the assembly, there is no sphere of salvation like the assembly; indeed there is no other sphere of salvation in the world but the assembly; it is the only sphere of salvation in this world, and what characterises the ark, as you will notice, as you read down the details of it, is that it was marked by light (there was a window), it was marked by a great variety of life, and it was marked by abundance of food. These are three very important things which are found in the assembly, and which tend to make it a place of salvation; that is, light and life and variety of food, and thank God for it, for outside is darkness, and outside all is moral death, and outside there is nothing but starvation in a moral sense, but these things are found in the assembly, and one who fears God and who walks with God will be concerned to bring up his family in the light of the assembly, and in keeping with it. Baptism of the household is the beginning of it, the definite committal of the whole household to the Lord in the light of His death, and the acceptance of death in the understanding that we have another sphere of life, and that is the assembly. And so “Noah”, it says, “moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house”, and that would be a long matter; it would be a day to day matter over a long period of years, it would be a matter that would expose him to ridicule on the part of those around; indeed, we read in 2 Peter that there were mockers in those days as there are mockers in these days, but Noah walked with God; that was his strength in going forward steadily, preparing an ark for the saving of his house, and how essential that is if the truth of God is to go forward to the end.
The Lord is looking that there should be completion, as we constantly say to one another now, and the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our being able to reach completion if we will only go on with Him, but in regard of our position here in the world Noah’s faith and exercises are that which should govern every exercised believer. And so God said to Noah: “Make thyself an ark of gopher wood: with cells shalt thou make the ark; and pitch it inside and outside with pitch”. See the care that he had to take: “Pitch it inside and outside with pitch”, and then his sons, and his wife, and sons’ wives went through in the ark. That is, you might say, the choicest features of the truth are carried through in the assembly. That is the light of sonship on the one hand, and the light of the wife, the assembly in relation to Christ, on the other, sons and wives were what went through in the ark. All this is most instructive to us, as showing that as walking with God in the midst of a world of evil we shall be concerned that those for whom we are responsible are brought up in the light of the judgment that is about to fall on this world on the one hand, but in the light that God has a sphere here, a sphere of salvation: a sphere where the most precious thoughts are known and are carried through livingly until the day comes for them to be brought out in display.
I do not know that there is much more for me to say. That is what one had in mind; the thought of walking with God as presented to us in Enoch on the one hand; for that is the most important side of it perhaps, but on the other hand in Noah, the necessary counterpart to what has been in Enoch, and that if we are to be prepared for translation, and that is what we all would desire to be now, let us see to it that, whether it has, or has not, marked us in the past, that from now onwards our exercise is to walk with God, to go along with the Holy Spirit in all that He is opening up positively in relation to Christ and the assembly and the great thoughts of the blessed God, and on the other hand to go along in faithfulness to God; in faithfulness to our baptism, in committal to it, whatever it involves in the way of mocking or ridicule or suffering. If it involves suffering, let us understand from the case of Abel that God may allow suffering, but on the other hand He is never defeated, He is never going to be overcome, He is going to see that things go through in life, so that if Abel was slain He saw to it that there was another one appointed to carry on the testimony. And so in the light of these things, dear brethren, may we be encouraged, in view of our translation, to seek grace to walk with God, for His Name’s sake.
CROYDON
29th July 1950
From Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series, vol 185
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