AS IS THE HEAVENLY (4)
AS IS THE HEAVENLY (4)
JT It is essential to link this chapter with chapter 22, in order to get the lineage of Rebecca. Her lineage is given in that chapter. After the resurrection of Christ, typically, we have our genealogy given, Rebecca is of the same stock as Isaac. She appears in chapter 22; the assembly is seen typically there. The death of Sarah corresponds with the removal of Israel from the sphere of testimony, so that there should be room made for the assembly. As we remarked yesterday, the steps of faith indicated here lead us out of the world. They lead us outside of the order of things set up on earth, into the presence of Christ risen. As it is said, “By faith Abraham, [when] tried, offered up Isaac, and he who had received to himself the promises offered up his only begotten [son], as to whom it had been said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: counting that God [was] able to raise [him] even from among [the] dead, whence also he received him in a figure”, Hebrews 11:17 - 19. Here faith has Christ, typically, in resurrection, it is Christ only, not the assembly as yet, but immediately Isaac is received back from the dead in figure we have Rebecca’s lineage recorded.
BTF Is that to bring out what we get in the early part of Hebrews, “he that sanctifies and those sanctified [are] all of one”, Hebrews 2:11.
JT That is the truth of this passage in the New Testament. We are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren.
BTF We do not therefore look upon the assembly as having a past history.
JT Well, the truth set out here, I think, is that she is of the same stock as Christ. It is to be noticed that it is not Eve here. It is not the assembly [p. 402] taken out of Christ as having died. That is not the point here. The point with Eve is that she was bone of Adam’s bone and flesh of Adam’s flesh. She was taken out of the man. Here Rebecca is of the same lineage as Isaac. It is not so much that the assembly typically comes out of Christ as having died, but rather, that she is the product of the Spirit; she is the fruit of the Spirit. She belongs to that family, but has to be brought to where Isaac is. There is nothing like that with Eve. Eve was presented to the man; her environment is the same as his, whereas Rebecca is found in an environment to which Isaac must not be taken. She must be brought to him, he must not go to her. That was the one point, coupled with that of lineage, that the servant had to swear to.
HG You would say she is of the stock of the risen man. Does it go further, reaching to the heavenly man?
JT I think the latter is perhaps more accurate. In that connection, what I think is a point of importance is that heaven comes into view in the narrative. After the birth of Isaac the angel spoke to Hagar out of heaven, chapter 21:17. He had spoken to Hagar before chapter 16, but it is not said that he spoke to her out of heaven. After Isaac is on the scene, the speaking is now from that position, like the epistle to the Hebrews; hence it is intimated clearly that we have arrived in the history of Abraham at the heavenly order of things. We have passed out of the earthly into the heavenly; so when we come to chapter 22 he receives Isaac from the dead in a figure. It is Christ in resurrection, as heavenly, and Rebecca’s genealogy would be in that light. As you remarked, she is heavenly as he is, so Isaac does not have two wives like the other patriarchs. He has only the one. It is, therefore, Christ as He is known now, in heaven, and the assembly in relationship [p. 403] with Him; that is what is before us here. Jacob had two wives, and Abraham had two, but Isaac is distinctly the heavenly man, and Rebecca, typically the assembly, is his bride. According to Luke, directly Christ is born, a multitude of the heavenly host is seen.
JAR Then you would say that Eliezer is a type of the Spirit?
JT He is. In chapter 22 there is the surrender of Christ as He was here in the flesh.
WJY Do you mean surrender by a man of faith?
JT Christ having become Man, having taken on flesh and blood, the hope of faith would be centred in Him. As it was asked, “is it at this time that thou restorest the kingdom to Israel?”, Acts 1:6. Faith clung to that, whereas there were new and better things for faith, and that is where believers often come short; we stop there.
BTF Is there a certain phase of faith connected with the cave of Machpelah?
JT Yes. Genesis 23 becomes interesting as the burying place of Sarah, indeed it contains the first mention we have in Scripture of burial. So that it is faith committing its dead to the earth, in a particular spot, in the light of resurrection. That comes after the light of the resurrection of Christ typically therefore, we can leave our dead and be restful about them. All is secured in a risen Christ. That is how faith reckons. “For whatever promises of God [there are], in him is the yea, and in him the amen”, 2 Corinthians 1:20. I think that is what is seen in that chapter.
HG For Israel, you mean, God has secured the land on the ground of redemption, it is a burying place now, but Israel will reappear there. He has paid the price, current money of the merchant.
JT I think that is the thought. Romans teaches us that “all Israel shall be saved”, Romans 11:26. That is [p. 404] the faithfulness of God, as seen in Romans 9 to 11, and is in line with Genesis 23. Faith is assured that all Israel shall be saved. Nothing shall be lost, so you leave it for the moment, and faith is occupied with Christ and the assembly. You are not occupied with Israel henceforth, although you have in your mind that every promise of God is yea and amen in Christ.
HG One feels that in a certain sense the enemy would divert us often by occupying us with what really belongs to the earth and Israel, and would hinder us from making the passage to our proper heavenly position, which, as you said, is the crux of these chapters.
JT So it is one man and one woman now, and really in that way we come back to the divine thought in marriage. Polygamy is not in keeping with the divine thought, but it comes in in the ways of God. The Lord says, “On account of this a man shall leave father and mother, and shall be united to his wife; and the two shall be one flesh”, Matthew 19:5. That is the divine thought, so that in connection with Christ and the assembly we have come back to God’s original thought, and it is an eternal one. All that is seen in connection with plurality of wives is provisional. It is what God resorts to in order to carry out His purpose on earth, but is not a primary thought. There were no more than two persons in the primary thought. Love appears in these two chapters, Genesis 22 and 24, and I think it is the pure, unadulterated love that is of God. That is what we get here figuratively.
Rem These things could not be brought out until Isaac comes into view; that is, Christ and the assembly as one.
JT Quite. Isaac has to appear; he is of the free woman, and then he has to go into death. That is the solemn thing in chapter 22, that faith endures [p. 405] that terrible wrench. The one whom Abraham loved must be offered up; but then he receives him back in a figure. Faith receives Christ back from the dead, and has Him now for ever. Faith can never be deprived of Christ again. Death can never overcome Him again, He lives evermore. Then the next thing that arises for faith is, “It is not good that man should be alone”, Genesis 2:18. Abraham discerned that. So Paul says, “I have espoused you unto one man”, 2 Corinthians 11:2. He takes up the same thought. I suppose chapter 24 is really Paul’s ministry typically; it is one man and one woman.
GWH It was never God’s thought that Christ should remain in flesh and blood, was it?
JT No. That was what Abraham had to learn. The child of promise on whom everything rested, and in whom everything centred had to go into death. That is probably the most solemn lesson faith has to learn. At the outset faith in the disciples, was occupied with earthly hopes, connecting them with Christ after the flesh. The prophets had foretold that the Messiah should come and set up the kingdom, but what the disciples were not prepared for was that He must die. Not only did God give Him up, but faith gave Him up; “he who had received to himself the promises offered up his only begotten [son]”, Hebrews 11:17. It was the result of faith in Abraham, and we all have to come to it, to the apprehending of Christ as He is, and we would not have it otherwise. We would not have the hopes of faith connected with Christ in flesh, it is infinitely better to have them in Him risen.
WCR Apparently Rebecca took that in, because when asked if she would go, she says, “I will go”. She was prepared to relinquish what nature would cling to; she got an impression of what Abraham’s servant displayed to her, something of the glories of Isaac, and these moved [p. 406] her.
JT That is very excellent. So the speech, as you might call it, delivered by the servant in the house of Bethuel has to be studied. It embraces the testimony brought to us in Paul’s ministry. That is, it is the testimony of a heavenly Christ, that He is the Son and inherits everything. That has a formative effect in the saints, so they are prepared to relinquish all earthly hopes and relationships. “I will go” Rebecca says.
HG In a practical way you get it suggested in connection with the ministry of Paul. He seems to welcome all that would reduce him according to flesh, in order that what is “in Christ”, in connection with new creation, might become a practical thing. I was wondering if that was the path along which the soul has to be led.
JT I think 2 Corinthians is just the line along which we travel to this point.
HG As you were applying it yesterday, “But if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know [him thus] no longer. So if any one [be] in Christ, [there is] a new creation”, 2 Corinthians 5:16 - 17. It is all on that line apparently.
JT “All things are of the God ...”, 2 Corinthians 5:18. In 2 Corinthians 12:2 it is brought in in a concrete way. “I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in [the] body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows;) such [a one] caught up to [the] third heaven”. He was himself in the enjoyment and state of what it is to be in Christ, he said he did not know whether in the body or out of it.
BTF Is your thought in regard to Isaac, and also in regard to Rebecca, that in Christianity seen things must go?
JT Well, that is the lesson we have to learn. Even if there are things, as it was with the disciples, that were divinely accredited. With us, of course we have very little of that, especially religiously;
[p. 407] we have, however, natural relationships and these are divinely ordained, but these we have to forego in order to arrive at the truth of the assembly. We have to surrender all that belongs to nature for this.
WCR I suppose we never make the move unless there have been impressions created by the Spirit having written Christ on the heart. That sets the soul in movement. The flesh never moves. It must be something wrought by the Spirit.
JT The Holy Spirit brings in the testimony of what Christ is in heaven. Peter could say “God has made him, this Jesus ... . both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2:36. “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which ye behold and hear”, Acts 2:33. Paul sees Christ in heaven, and therefore is a competent witness of what He is as in heaven.
JB Would you not say the faith of Simeon in Luke 2 would rise somewhat to this, he referred to the death of Christ?
JT I think so. A sword was to pierce through Mary’s soul.
BTF Would you say a word regarding the intense earnestness of Abraham desiring the servant not to bring his son thither again?
JT We were remarking that Eve’s environment as she was brought into being was in no way different from Adam’s; that is union. Whereas Rebecca, although of his lineage, is found in another environment and Isaac is not to be brought to that. She has to be brought to where he is; I suppose it would point to those who had faith and the Spirit being brought from Jewish, or worldly associations into heavenly ones.
GWH Does it go further than risen with him through the faith of the operation of God?
JT I think Rebecca goes to heaven; I mean [p. 408] as to the light that is vouchsafed. Isaac is typically the heavenly man, and she goes to him. I do not mean that it is literal, of course it is not a question of the rapture, because she ultimately goes into Sarah’s tent. The light here implies that Isaac is the heavenly man and she has to come to him in that position.
GWH It is more Ephesians here.
JT The basis of union is in Colossians, but properly it belongs to Ephesians.
WB-t Have you any thought in regard to Rebecca’s nurse? “And they sent away Rebecca their sister, and her nurse”.
JT Well, you are a man of family, you have some idea of the functions of a nurse.
WB-t Is it the thought of care?
JT I think so, care so that there may be development. It is spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 2.
WB-t How would you connect that with the former life of Rebecca?
JT I suppose Rebecca represents the saints as they were in Israelitish associations, before the heavenly truth came in.
WB-t So they went on for a while in Jewish circumstances.
JT I think so. They had to be brought out of them. Christ is not to be brought into them again.
WB-t Rebecca’s nurse dies later on and there is a record made of the death.
JT That was at Bethel in chapter 35.
WB-t What is your thought of that?
JT I suppose it is the provision made for the saints, the ministry of the twelve perhaps. The nurse goes with Rebecca, but she rides upon camels sent from Abraham’s house, which would point, I suppose, to the power of the Spirit by which we travel from earthly associations to heavenly and spiritual ones.
GAT [p. 409] So the power that brought her to Isaac was sent from Isaac?
JT Yes. It is to be noted here that Isaac does not take her to heaven typically, he takes her into his mother’s tent. That is to say, she represents that which is here in testimony now. It is not going to heaven, but that we are heavenly and in relation to a heavenly Christ, and so our testimony is of that character. We occupy Israel’s place, only the vessel is greater than Israel.
WB-t The entering of the tent is not the rapture?
JT Far from it. It is the provisional thing, until the revival of Israel.
WB-t But it touches heavenly ground.
JT Being Sarah’s tent, it is the position that Israel abandoned, only I apprehend the tent is graced more by the presence of Rebecca than it could have been by the presence of Sarah, for she is a heavenly person typically.
WCR It says she comforted Isaac.
JEN So you would say it is more a heavenly people holding the earthly position?
JT That is it.
WB-s Do you think we have a great advantage over what Israel had in their time? I mean the testimony God is giving souls now is from heaven. We have never been connected with an earthly Messiah. Mary Magdalene had been; she had had personal links with Him on earth, and did not like to part with Him, but she had to do so. We have never been through that experience. I mean that God has revealed His Son to us as in heaven; and our affections are drawn to Him there from the outset.
JT Quite so. The Supper as we have it comes from the Lord in heaven; all is from heaven, but we occupy the place of Israel in the way of [p. 410] testimony.
BTF Would you say that now the Spirit is forming the affections of the saints in the way that Eliezer attracted Rebecca, so that they might go to Christ?
JT That is what is going on now.
WB-s I remember when I was first brought to the Lord my heart was drawn to Christ up there, because the testimony was from thence, and the One I looked for was the Lord from heaven. Beginning with what is heavenly the point is to continue on that line. Of course, one has to be weaned from things here; the Ephesians epistle was written to Gentiles, and it has this character.
JT If we get hold of the truth set before us in our chapter it will enable us to be here according to the mind of God, in heavenly lustre. The tent was vacant, you see, and the point is that it was to be occupied by Isaac and Rebecca. I mean that it was vacant so far as the wife was concerned; and so Isaac brings Rebecca into it.
HG In Paul himself there must have been a wonderful transference. He graced the position with heavenly lustre. So the whole course of transference is seen in that one man. Would you say that?
JT Yes, hence in dealing with Ephesus, which stands for the whole assembly in its Rebecca character, he says, “I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”, Acts 20:27. He revealed to that company the whole purpose of God, and in writing to them he enlarges on the fact that we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ, and all the exhortations in that letter are based on the light vouchsafed, hence you have a vessel of testimony presented in Ephesians that is heavenly.
HG The Supper is spoken of in Acts 20; it comes in after Paul’s ministry in Ephesus and before his address to the elders. They ate the Supper there [p. 411] on the third floor, and we may say the full heavenly position is suggested. We may connect it with what we get here, because Isaac moves here, there is movement in his affection and there is movement in her affection. Rapture joys are entered into in connection with the Supper; it is there we meet the Lord, it is there we enjoy His love and He ours. I speak of this in connection with the meeting of Isaac and Rebecca. The light that governs the position is heavenly.
JT Hence the Lord in the Supper has the saints for His affections. I apprehend that as we come together it ought, to be always with that in view, that we are to be for Christ. As Rebecca comforted Isaac, so the Lord finds His solace now in those who form the assembly, as we assemble together.
GAT What you are speaking of is collective. May I ask the question as to how this would apply to us as individuals? I was thinking it ought to be a great cheer to us to be even part of that which would give comfort to the heart of Christ.
JT One has to learn, I believe, to forego all natural relationships. Although divinely ordained, yet in order to reach the assembly one has to learn to forego them in one’s soul. One has to learn to leave them, so that one is wholly for Christ, as Paul says, “we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know [him thus] no longer”, 2 Corinthians 5:16. Natural relationships have their claims, but they belong to the wilderness. Our life is outside of them.
WB-t Luke 14:26 - 27 would support that. The passage includes one’s own life also.
JT Quite, one has to surrender one’s own life.
LGM It is really true separation, is it not?
JT It is more than that. Separation is that one withdraws from what is Babylonish or evil. That [p. 412] is a question of fellowship; this involves not only separation, but that one has to forego all natural relationships in order to reach and enjoy what is heavenly and spiritual.
WJY Would you say we should not get the message of Eliezer except in company with the saints?
JT I am not prepared to say that. I suppose it is there that He witnesses, the Spirit witnesses in the house as a general thing. Mr. Darby, I believe, got light individually as to Christ in heaven, and one would not like to say an individual might not be enlightened by the Spirit as to it. I think one may be. In fact we know Paul was. At the same time, in a general way, it is in the assembly that the Holy Spirit makes His disclosures.
EGM Can you use the journey of Rebecca as the individual experience of a soul and the coming into the tent the relationship of Christ and the assembly?
JT I think that in the primary thought we get what is collective. There is the withdrawal from Israelitish associations into heavenly ones. If you get that you can understand how each individual has to travel that road.
EGM Some of us at least have heretofore thought that taking Rebecca into Sarah’s tent indicated the rapture, but on the road it was the attractiveness of Christ, presented by the Spirit to the assembly. Now you have brought out a different thought and I wondered if you get the individual exercise in Rebecca’s journey?
JT As I see it, the primary thought is collective. That is, Paul’s ministry brought the saints from Israelitish associations into heavenly ones; instead of Jerusalem being the centre, heaven was the centre for faith, and the saints from that time regarded themselves as connected with Christ in heaven as [p. 413] their Head. If you see that as the primary thought in the passage it can easily be worked out that each individual has to travel that way. One has to learn to leave natural associations for the heavenly and spiritual.
BTF You recognize that in the responsible scene there is the natural relationship, yet you cannot allow it to hinder or retard spiritual progress.
JT One has to leave it. Rebecca says, “I will go”. Her mother evidently had a good bit of influence over her, and her brother. Apparently the mother and brother had more influence in the house than Bethuel had, for some reason, and they would have detained her for ten days. The natural affections of a mother are very captivating, you know. A mother’s affections and a brother’s affections are elements that have a strong hold on us all. She forgoes them and promptly says, “I will go”. How many of us are prepared to subordinate natural affection and natural interests and hopes to the spiritual ones? Who is there among us who does not think more of his own natural relations than he does of the saints? It becomes a great test as to whether our reckonings are in relation to the natural or the spiritual. I do not mean what is Babylonish, but what is right as in nature. How many of us are willing to forgo all this and make them subordinate to the heavenly relationships into which we are brought in Christ?
WB-t It seems easy in a way to separate from what is wrong in nature, the supreme test comes when we have to separate from what is right in nature, but I think the Lord will have the supreme place in our hearts.
JT That is the object of the servant’s testimony. He faithfully keeps Isaac, as Abraham’s son, before the heart of Rebecca; and he would also have [p. 414] Bethuel and Laban, and the mother, whose name is not given, to know this wonderful testimony.
OJO Rebecca lighting off the camel and covering herself with a veil, would mean that the natural must go out of sight, that Isaac must be all?
JT I think the supreme point is reached now, in the presence of Isaac she veils herself. Affectionate respect for Isaac marks Rebecca. This should mark us in the assembly.
JAT Why should the servant need so many camels?
JT I suppose the number would indicate the wealth of his master. It says, “the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master”.
JAT Would it mean the power of the Spirit?
JT I suppose ten would suggest the element of responsibility.
LGM One camel would not be in keeping with Isaac’s position, with his resources and wealth.
JT The number denotes responsibility; power involving responsibility connected with the bringing back of the bride.
EGM In connection with the number ten, the mother and brother would have liked to detain Rebecca ten days. Is that the natural that would like to keep us back from what is connected with the heavenly man?
JT I think so. The ten camels denote adequate power, involving responsibility, because whilst down here we cannot eliminate the thought of responsibility. It must ever be fulfilled in connection with the ministry of the Spirit, there is adequate power.
JB There is ample provision for all the journey.
JT The camels, I believe, on the one hand, as our brother suggested, represent the wealth of Abraham. It was suitable, but then the number ten undoubtedly involves there was responsibility [p. 415] in the commission, and adequate power for the fulfilment of that responsibility.
BTF There were men also with the camels. I suppose strengthening the thought of responsibility.
JT Quite. Then it says at the end, “Rebecca arose, and her maids, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man”. There she acts of her own volition; then it says, “The servant took Rebecca, and went away”. There you have the will or disposition of the saints, having availed themselves of the power that is available, and on the other hand, the servant fulfilling his function in taking her; so that whilst we go, the Holy Spirit takes us, so to speak, and in that way you have, I think, the element of fulfilled responsibility. Paul’s faithfulness in his ministry is, I believe, the answer to it. Compare Acts 20.
EGM Then in Rebecca going, it is a complete surrender of herself.
JT Yes, she avails herself of what is available.
EGM She does not continue in her own power, but goes in what is provided.
JT She makes no suggestion as to taking one of her father’s camels, but rides on the camels the servant brought.
LGM Would you say she leaves her identity behind?
WB-t I think she took it with her.
JT Yes, so do I. One would not like to forgo the blessed fact that one is of the lineage of Christ. She belongs to that family and she retains it.
WB-t She left a great deal behind.
LGM She becomes identified with another. It is no more Rebecca as she was, she becomes identified with Isaac as his wife.
JT I think her veil would denote that. It denotes she is now henceforth merged in Isaac, but then she is a wonderful personage. We must never [p. 416] forget that the assembly is an entity by itself, having a lineage which qualifies her to be the companion of Christ.
JB John says, “he that has the bride is the bridegroom”.
SC Say a word on the gifts of gold and silver being given to Rebecca by the servant rather than by Isaac.
JT I think that is the service of the Spirit, He adorns the saints. We are quite unadorned in ourselves. The Holy Spirit adorns each of us with heavenly ornamentation, so that as reaching Christ, we are in suitability.
EGM When Isaac meets Rebecca he finds her adorned. It is His own beauty Christ finds in the assembly.
JT Some people who are of a good family think they can be as uncongenial and clothed as shabbily as they wish. They think their being of a good family makes up for all that. It is not what you get here, Rebecca belongs to the family, but she must have the adornment, family links are not enough. We must have the adornment, and it is brought to us from Isaac and put upon us.
GAT Is that the “best robe”?
JT It would involve that. It says, “And it came to pass when the camels had drunk enough, that the man took a gold ring, of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands, ten [shekels] weight of gold; and said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room [in] thy father’s house for us to lodge?” And further, “Laban ran out to the man, to the well. And it came to pass when he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s hand, and when he heard the words of Rebecca his sister, saying, Thus spoke the man to me” — he said to the servant, “Come in, blessed of Jehovah!” The bracelets were a [p. 417] testimony to Laban; and then after the servant’s speech it says, “And the servant brought forth silver articles, and gold articles, and clothing, and he gave [them] to Rebecca; and he gave to her brother and to her mother precious things”. Here you see he gave her clothing, so that would involve the best robe. The principal things, however, are the precious adornments.
LGM Would you say it was her wedding garments?
JT There is no wedding at all connected with Rebecca. That is a point to be noted. There is nothing at all said about nuptials or wedding garments. The point is she is brought privately and unostentatiously to Christ typically. The wedding is future and public. It is then that His wife is seen. “I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, Revelation 21:9. She is called His wife before marriage, which is unusual, and it is exceptional in this case, because we are already in the wife’s place, but it is marriage in a private sense, as they call it in the world, a private marriage.
EGM What type would give us the other, the wedding?
JT I am not sure there is one. There is no ostentation in any of the marriages in the Old Testament, no display, because it is all in the faith period. Display is when the Lord comes back and the assembly is prepared, and she comes down as the bride, the Lamb’s wife, from God out of heaven.
EGM Is it the thought that marriage is a private affair, for His heart now?
JT Quite. You have all the benefits and enjoyment of marriage, but the public display is future.
BTF You do not allude to the rapture, but I suppose you would say the Spirit is producing in the saints that which is suitable for it?
JT But that is not the point here. The point [p. 418] is that He produces what is suitable to our joining Christ now. We are to be brought, you see. There was no great show about Sarah’s tent, but when you come to Revelation 21, you have display. The assembly comes down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and shining like a most precious stone.
GAT Would you say there is encouragement for us in the jewellery and clothing? Eliezer fits her with what he has from Isaac. Then the camels are testimony to us that he has sufficient power to maintain us all the journey through?
JT The journey is really not very long. You will be surprised if you see how quickly the points in the scripture follow on. It says in verse 59, “They sent away Rebecca their sister, and her nurse”, and then in verses 61 and 62, “Rebecca arose, and her maids, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man. And the servant took Rebecca, and went away. And Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi; for he was dwelling in the south country”. There is no suggestion of any great distance or length of time. Directly she rides on the camels and the servant takes her, Isaac is in view.
WCR Directly she says “I will go”, she is there in spirit.
JT Yes. That is true spiritually now. It is not a wearying, prolonged journey. Directly you resolve in your soul to go to Christ you are there and He comes into view. There were but eleven days’ journey from Horeb to Kadesh-Barnea by way of mount Seir, Deuteronomy 1:2. I believe mount Seir refers to the brethren; compare Deuteronomy 2:4.
JB Is not the point that the Spirit of God has a great concern to satisfy the heart of Christ now?
JT That is the thought. He is comforted in view of Israel’s decease. We perhaps think but little of what the Lord found in the midst of Israel.
[p. 419] He found joys there, but they had all to be given up. He now has the assembly to comfort Him until Israel is reinstated.
AL In the epistle to the Romans the apostle says it was of Israel that Christ came, Romans 9:5. Is that Sarah’s tent?
JT I think the whole passage there would suggest it, all that Israel had in the way of testimony.
AL You spoke of the assembly following. Did Rebecca make the transference in her soul from Sarah’s tent to Isaac?
JT She was transferred from natural associations to Isaac, but Sarah’s tent is a spiritual thing, it is a question of the testimony. The word temple is spiritualised; it had been a material thing; the words house and nation conveyed material thoughts, whereas all these things in 1 Peter are spiritualised. We have these things in a spiritual, and so in a true, sense. In this way we have come into Sarah’s tent.
WB-t You spoke about the servant’s address to Rebecca and to the household of Bethuel. You have something on your mind about that.
JT It begins in verse 34, “And he said, I am Abraham’s servant”. That is the first thing, he announces himself. He is entitled to speak, being commissioned. The Holy Spirit is here in this sense, just as the Lord Jesus was. As He came commissioned of the Father, so the Holy Spirit has come. Then the servant says, “And Jehovah has blessed my master greatly; and he is become great; and he has given him sheep and cattle, and herds, and silver, and gold, and bondmen and bondwomen, and camels, and asses. And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master after she had grown old; and unto him has he given all that he has”. Now that is one part of the message, of the testimony. The Holy Spirit brings to the saints the tidings of what God is, and of what Christ is, and how all the [p. 420] wealth of God is given over into the hands of Christ. Then he says, “My master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanite, in whose land I am dwelling; but thou shalt by all means go to my father’s house and to my family, and take a wife for my son”. That is another feature of it. Isaac must have a wife, for it is a wife here, and she must be of Abraham’s family. That is the second point that he makes. All these points ought to be observed by us. The Holy Spirit would press them upon us, He will not connect you with Christ in the flesh, however great you may be. He will not use that in any sense at all in relation to Christ. It must be altogether what is after the family of Christ; it must be spiritual.
JB Is not that the thought in Paul saying, “To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, to announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of Christ”, Ephesians 3:8.
JT That is it exactly.
SC Would you say a word on Isaac meditating in the field and noticing the camels coming; and Rebecca being the first evidently to notice Isaac, because she calls attention to him.
JT I think it is brought in to show his loneliness, if one may use that expression. There is no one with him, although his father had plenty of servants. It is to show that the Lord Jesus before the assembly was brought to Him in this way was companionless. He needed the assembly.
BTF You would say that was shown in His words, when He said, “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone”, John 12:24.
HG You referred to the journey being short and to Rebecca arising with her damsels and riding on the camels. She followed the man. It is a very commonplace remark, but I am sure the difficulty [p. 421] with us all is that we are not spiritual, in regard to our natural relationships finding their proper place and in regard to divine movement along the line of the Spirit’s activities, and pursuing them. The whole thing hangs upon the question, Are we prepared to follow the man? Any difficulty amongst ourselves, whatever it is, can all be traced up to the simple and yet wonderful fact as to whether we are spiritual, whether we are listening to the voice of the Spirit and making room for Him. I know it is so myself, that if you find a person that is spiritual they learn, they move, they are easy to get along with amongst their brethren. Whatever it is, there is moral adjustment, and they become spiritual and heavenly; they learn what it is to be divested of elements which are earthly and fleshly and they become spiritual and heavenly. Do you not think so?
JT I do. That is just the lesson that I believe the Lord would press upon us in this meeting, the importance of being spiritual. The question is, Are we prepared to follow the man?
LGM You were speaking about losing our own lives, and I was thinking, How many of us are, in heart and soul, prepared to lay down our lives for the brethren.
JT The place the Holy Spirit has assumed in the ministry of Paul is a most interesting subject. It is in the ministry of Paul, I think, that the thought of the man here is seen, because there had to be movement. The ministry of the twelve had set up the saints and led them to a point, but there was to be a movement and the test comes as to whether we can follow the leading of the Spirit.
GAT What has been said does not mean we give up our family circle or our business circle, but we give up the influence of them. We do not allow them to influence us.
JT You have one thing before you, your relationship [p. 422] with Christ in heaven. That one thing, the uppermost thought in your mind, is the place God has given you in Christ. You cannot conceive of anything greater for the saint than that, and it gives character and colour to you. You are righteous, of course, and to be righteous you have to respect all that God has ordained in nature and in business, but I believe the difficulty is that the business and the family are more in the mind than Christ and the assembly.
Rem The ministry that went out from the twelve, went out from Jerusalem; but the ministry of Paul went out from Antioch, the apostle is given that which is set forth for us in the assembly.
JT You see how the Spirit is emphasised. “The Holy Spirit said, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul”, Acts 13:2. It is put there distinctly to call attention to the sovereign activity of the Spirit, and you must be prepared to follow that man, so to speak. The saints at Antioch, if some were Jewish believers from Jerusalem, would say, This is something we must think over. The Spirit said, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul”, without any reference to Jerusalem at all. He was acting and speaking in Antioch.
Rem We see the grace that is characteristic of Rebecca in the serving of the camels. “I will draw [water] for thy camels also”.
JT That is very interesting because it shows the grace that marked her. In verse 18 Rebecca said, “Drink, my lord! And she hasted and let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him to drink. And when she had given him enough to drink, she said, I will draw [water] for thy camels also, until they have drunk enough”. Enough — that is, it was not a matter of politeness simply, she supplied him with enough. That is Christian benevolence. We are to be cheerful [p. 423] givers.
WB-t It must have been a remarkable thing for a maiden to draw enough water for ten camels.
JT She gave the servant enough and then it says, when she had given him enough to drink she said, “I will draw [water] for thy camels also, until they have drunk enough”. I do not know how much a camel could drink, but there must have been a considerable amount of water for ten camels to drink enough. And then it says, “And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw [water], and she drew for all his camels”. That is, I think, an indication of Christian liberality. “She ran” it says, depicting the promptness and energy she showed in her service. Then it says, “the man was astonished at her, remaining silent, to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not”. He was looking for the marks and they were apparent; the spirit of liberality and kindness were in evidence.