THE OUTGOINGS OF MORNING AND EVENING
THE OUTGOINGS OF MORNING AND EVENING
“Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.”
One has rejoiced to see that God always ends as He begins. It must be evident to all that this is right. If God sets out to do anything, it is done. The fact that God intends to do it, means it is done, for He reckons the things that be not as being. So that the beginning of anything that God does, indicates how He is going to end, because He is God.
The passage read indicates the same principle, found also in many other scriptures, that there is a correspondence between the morning and the evening, that the outgoings of the morning and the outgoings of the evening are alike — they are both marked by joy. “Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.” What comes out of the morning and what comes out of the evening are both alike in this character, that joy marks them. You can see that first of all in the material creation. What a wonderful thing the morning is! I sometimes think people are blind. The word says, “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not”. You take the morning, what a wonderful thing the morning is, to see the sun come up, is wonderful. To see the majesty and the glory of the sun come up over the horizon, dispelling the darkness with its mighty beams, in a power that makes man feel his own nothingness, is a wonderful sight.
What is man compared with the sun? Mere man I mean. Gather all the might of this world and ask them to delay the sun a second as his majesty arises. What could they do? The glory and the brilliance of it, the light and power of it, bring joy into our hearts as we look at it. The outgoings of the morning fill the pious heart with joy at the greatness of God, for it says, “he maketh his sun to rise”. Job was so occupied with himself, like men are today, that God said to him, “Hast thou commanded the morning?” Could he make the morning come? Of course he could not. If men would only open the eyes of their minds and hearts to see the wonders of God, it would keep them from the ever increasing tide of pride that will yet assume the place of God. But what I want to show is that the morning is marked by joy. “Joy cometh in the morning”, the joy of light and power, the new day approaching.
Then to come to the evening. What is there more wonderful than the evening? You stand and look, not at the east but at the west, and there is the same sun going down, shedding its closing beams upon the day in a beauty that ought to bow the heart in reverence to the Creator. So the evening and the morning correspond.
One is struck with the expression in the book of Genesis that God in setting those lights in the heavens made two great lights. It says, “the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night, and he made the stars also”. He said, “Let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years”. “Let them be for signs”. People recognise to some extent the seasons, because they cannot help it, and the days, for they have no control over them, they could not delay them for a second, and the years are not in their hands, but most people forget the signs, yet God puts them first. “Let them be for signs.” What do the signs mean? A sign is a finger-post pointing to something — it is a witness to what is coming. What is it that the sun is a witness to each morning, as you see it come up over the horizon? It goes its course, and goes down at the end of the day. God is calling attention to the place that Christ has in heaven. It is a sign as to the place that Christ has, that every morning He will shine into our hearts, and rule there and continue the whole day, thus His blessed beams would come down into our hearts and the night too would close with His shining: He should rule the day for us, each day, every day of our lives. That is why God has set that sign in the heavens, it is for us to see every day. He does not hide it, but sometimes we are blind and cannot see it.
Well, I just wanted to call attention, first of all, to the fact that the evening and the morning correspond in the physical creation. I do not know if anybody could tell which is the most beautiful, the most joyous, the morning or the evening, the sunrise or the sunset. Which is greatest? Which is the most blessed? Which beams are more desirable? No one can tell you — both are wondrous. Thus we see that what is true in the physical is but a picture of what is true in the spiritual, as always, for God intends the whole material creation to be a portrayal of the spiritual so that we can with our finite minds take in the greatness of that which is spiritual. Hence He displays first the material, to illustrate to us the greatness of the spiritual.
Now if you come to some of the features of what God has done elsewhere you will find that the morning and the evening correspond in glory. Take Israel’s history. What a morning they had. You see them coming out on that night which is to be much remembered throughout all their generations. As the morning comes they are there coming out of Egypt, not one feeble one in their tribes, keeping rank, coming out in power, leaving Egypt behind for ever. What marks them? Their hearts are filled with joy, at least those that God particularly had His eye on. God says, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown”. He was such to their heart that He drew them. “I drew them,” He says, “with cords of a man with bands of love,” and the people went out in the joy of the morning with God supreme in their hearts that is the outgoings of the morning for Israel, the Israel of God.
And so you come to their evening. What an evening — they had the evening in Malachi. God looked down again, He saw the evening like the morning. There were those amongst that crooked nation, as they were publicly, upon whom God looked and He saw a blessed evening like the morning. He saw those that feared the Lord, whose hearts were filled with holy reverence for His blessed name, speaking to one another, speaking often to one another, and it says, “they thought”, not only spoke,
they thought on His name; His great and holy and glorious Name was before them, and “a book of remembrance was written”. It was so blessed and so joyous that a book was written about it. God has many books, but one is added in connection with this evening of Israel’s history so it says “a book of remembrance was written”. First of all it says, “the Lord hearkened and heard”. His wondrous ear was bent, as it were, listening to the conversation, and indeed to the thoughts, for He knows the thoughts as well as the words. The thoughts of this company in the evening of Israel’s history, “He hearkened and heard”. “They shall be mine ... in that day when I make up my jewels”. He would have them specially for Himself. Just like the beginning, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth”, and here it is in the evening. They shall be mine when I make up my treasure. He would see them also in the beginning of Luke. There they are, living wholly for God. What a company! The elements that God recognised in the early chapters of Luke, are in quality perhaps even choicer than the beginning of Israel’s history.
You think of Anna, an aged widow, a great age, there she is. She served God night and day in the temple. Night and day, never a moment of her life but God was the supreme object of her heart, never a moment in her life that she could call her own, to use for herself, but wholly and entirely devoted, day and night, in the temple, in fasting and prayers, living exclusively for God. There was nothing better than that in Israel’s beginning. So that you see in regard to Israel’s history, while the public position, of course, was awful, the morning and the evening, the outgoings of them rejoice, because God made it so, “thou makest it.” God’s work would secure that in every dispensation, that the morning and the evening correspond.
Now I come to another period, to the morning of the life of Jesus, the morning of His sojourn on this earth. There was never a morning like that, not a cloud on the horizon. “Morning without clouds,” it says. What a wonderful morning. Zechariah knew it was coming in. He spoke by the Holy Spirit, and he said, “The dayspring from on high hath visited us”. The heavenly morning, the dayspring, the dawn of the new day had come, through the tender mercy of God, and what a blessed morning it was. What joy it brought. The outgoings of it brought joy into many hearts. The angel said, “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people”, and the shepherds returned with great joy, having seen the morning of the entrance of Jesus into this scene. Simeon could take Him up in his arms and he could delight in the morning. It says, “Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. He had seen the morning, the blessed morning of heaven. “A light,” he said, “for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel”. He was ready to go. And Anna came in the same hour, and she praised God, she gave praise to the Lord as she saw the morning expressed in the Person of Jesus. Every available heart was filled with joy. Who was there? The Son of the Highest. I do not know any title I like better than that. The One who brings right down here on earth into living expression, all that is in the Highest, all that marks the One that is the Highest. That is a great name for one to get hold of. And all the thoughts of the heart and mind of the Highest come into living expression, in the Babe that was laid in a manger. What a bringing down of the pride that wants to be big in this world, that the Son of the Highest is found laid in the manger.
So that the morning brings great joy into many hearts. One is struck with the word that “to you is born this day ... a Saviour which is Christ the Lord”. Unto you is born this day, it says, “a Saviour.” Do you say, Of course He would be a Saviour later on? No, it does not say that; the angels said the Saviour is there, that little Child is the Saviour, the Babe. There is in Him that which will save men from all that has come in, all the pride, self-importance, arrogance of this world. Today is the Saviour born. I know, of course, His work on the cross is essential for the salvation of our souls, for the foundation on which we shall stand for ever, but I would like to point out that it says, “unto you is born this day ... a Saviour”.
So the morning fills many a heart with gladness, many a heart, but what about the evening? It was a night of unutterable woe, a day of unfathomed sorrow, a day that broke the Lord’s heart. He said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death”. Such was the last day, but notwithstanding in another sense the evening, the outgoings of that evening rejoiced. The evening of the Lord’s life also corresponded with the morning, in that its outgoings bring joy and gladness into many hearts, for He never alters, blessed be His name. See Him on the last day. How wonderfully He acts. I would suggest particularly to young believers that they would find profound education in taking the four gospels and looking at the life and actions, and words of Jesus during the last day of His life. It would give you a sense of what days were His. Indeed, I do not think one would exaggerate to say that a thousand years of one man’s life would not equal what was in one day of the life of Jesus; if you took all that was of God in the life of Methuselah, who lived nearly a thousand years, and you measured it alongside one day of the life of Jesus, you would admit that the thousand years of Methuselah’s life was not equal to one day in the life of Jesus.
But to call attention to the evening, the joy that flows out of the evening of the life of Jesus here on earth. The darkness of man’s unfaithfulness may bring the sense of gloom to one’s heart, for it was the night in which He was betrayed, but the bright light of His faithful love turns the shadow of death into the morning. He took the water, the towel, and girded Himself and in that chapter it says, “having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end”. The evening, the outgoings of the evening, bring to us a sense of the faithful love of Christ to the end. The end, dear brethren, is the extremity to which love can go. It is the point beyond which there is nothing, not another step can love take, that is the end. In sacrifice,
in service, in devotedness, in faithfulness, in steadfastness, there is not another step that could be taken, that is the end, and He loved His own to the end. The love expressed on that night, the outgoings of that evening, has brought the joy of His faithful love into millions of hearts, corresponding in that way with the morning. You see the Lord as the day closes. Peter takes a sword and smites the ear of the servant of the high priest. What will the Lord do in the evening? He will put the ear back. Think of that. There they are in their hatred coming out with swords and staves to take the Prince of Peace, and one of His servants, one of the servants of Christ removes a man’s ear! But the Lord touches his ear and puts it back. That man’s heart, if he had a heart, would overflow with joy that in the presence of the hatred and malice of the human heart, the love and mercy of Christ was still shining in all its preciousness.
There is Peter. What an evening it has been to him. Warming himself by the fire, with oaths and curses denying that he ever knew the Lord, denying that he knew what the maid was speaking about. What an evening! But there also is the evening of the life of Jesus, the outgoings of that blessed evening, which conveyed to Peter’s heart that while Peter had been unfaithful, while Peter had denied the Lord, the Lord was not unfaithful. He cannot deny Himself and it says, “the Lord turned and looked upon Peter”. He conveyed to that erring disciple the unchanging love of His heart in that dark evening, and it filled Peter’s heart first with sorrow, but then with joy.
And there is the dying thief, in the evening, in the last few moments of the day, what are the outgoings of the evening there? That man, a witness of what man is in himself, of the hatred and darkness of his own heart, that could insult Christ in that evening; proves there in that evening the blessed grace of the heart of Jesus, as He says, “Father forgive them”. How he would be impressed with that. The Lord omitted none in His prayer. He did not say except Pilate, nor did He except those thieves that railed on Him. He said “them”, and the outgoings of the evening came into the heart of at least one, and filled him with eternal joy, fitting him for that scene of joy in heaven — the paradise of God. So that the evening and the morning corresponded in that solemn but blessed day of the sojourn of Christ on earth.
And now, a word about the church. What a morning the assembly had! One loves the beginning of the Acts because it tells about the dawn of the assembly. It is like standing towards the east and watching the sun come up; it gives you the same, sort of impression, beauty, majesty, splendour, the power of the sun — that is the beginning in the Acts. The Lord looked down from heaven, in Acts 9, upon one, Saul of Tarsus. He saw His own suffering in various parts of Judea and elsewhere, and He spoke to Saul indicating that that suffering company and Himself were one, not twain, but one. The Lord could see that on earth which was His body. “The church which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all”. He recognised it from heaven, and heaven never makes mistakes. Men make mistakes, what they said last year they find totally wrong this year, but heaven makes no mistakes, and the Lord’s voice from heaven said that the company Paul was persecuting was “Me”. It was His body, it expressed in life what He is. You look at the features of it. It was a heavenly company, it did not live on the earth morally, it lived in the upper room, above the atmosphere of this world, marked by wonderful variety, corresponding with all the work of God; for God never makes anything in a formal way, standardisation is not a part of God’s work, everything is marked by profound variety. There it was in the beginning united, which is always a feature of the work of God. The heart and soul of all the believers were one, not only one doctrinally but one in heart and soul. There they were in unity and, marked by sacrifice, corresponding with Christ, not one of them called anything he had his own. You think of a condition like that. There was not one in that beginning, in that morning, that reckoned anything he had as his own.
We all have bodies, they are not our own, and if we have some time, that is not our own, and if we have a house, that is not our own, and if we have money that is not our own: whatever we have, it is to be held for the Lord, every bit. There they were in the beginning, a most wonderful morning, and the Lord recognised it. He said to Saul, “Why persecutest thou ME?” I do not know anything more wonderful than that in scripture. The Lord stands identified and inseparable from His church, His body, long before the doctrine of the thing was ever known, but the living organism was there before the doctrine of the assembly was given. It says of the husband and wife they are no longer twain, they are not two any more they are one. Paul says “this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church”, and there it was in life in the morning of the assembly’s history.
What of the evening? Will it be different? Will the church be taken away because she has disgraced herself? We shall never have the rapture on such a line as that. Do you think God ever acts like that? Did He take Enoch because he was so disgraced that he was not fit to live? “He had this testimony that he pleased God”. And what about Elijah? Did Elijah go up because he was there under the juniper tree thinking he might as well die? God did not take him then. He took him when He would take him, because he was so delightful to Him, that He would have him and He would not leave him here any longer. He would take him because of his acceptability to God, and so, with the church at the end, the evening. It is going to end like it began with every moral feature of the beginning. The thing for you and me is to be in it, nothing else matters today. One would commend the word to all of us that nothing else matters today, but to be in the evening of the church’s history, to be in the outgoings of this blessed evening that the Lord is going to make, is making, thank God. The joy of the evening is going to be like the joy of the morning, but do not let any of us assume that we shall be inevitably in it. We shall be in it, if we are in it. So that what marks the evening is this, that the Spirit and the bride say “Come”.
One has been impressed lately with the remarkable character of a bride. I am speaking of the natural for the moment. If you think about it you will see it is a most remarkable thing. There is a woman, she loves her father and her mother, in any case that is what is normal, she loves her brothers and sisters each one, she loves her home and is quite happy in it, she loves her friends with whom she lives, in her surroundings she is quite happy, and yet when she is a bride this is what she says. “I have found an object for my heart: in the joy of which I am prepared to leave father and mother, to leave brothers and sisters, to leave home and friends, if necessary to leave the country, to be with the one I love”. It does not mean that she has ceased to love her kindred or her friends, but she says in being a bride, that she prefers her husband to them all. It may possibly be a sorrow to some of us to accept this, but that is the fact, that when she becomes a bride she says, “I prefer my husband to father, mother, brothers and sisters and friends”.
That is what the Spirit of God is seeking and is doing, that there should be on earth at the end, characteristically and livingly, those features. Christ has such a place that there is nothing else that holds the heart of the church.
That is what the Lord sees at the end. He saw that at the beginning did He not? I believe all the features of the upper room will come back. The desire to live really and truly in the sight of God above the moral elements of this world, in touch with heaven, the living unity of heart and soul being one, bound together in living affections all over the world, the readiness to sacrifice, so that anything we have is not our own: that is what the Lord is seeking, that is what He would do for all of us, if we would open our hearts to Him. That is the work of the Spirit to bring back livingly those features, that Christ should have such a place, that there is that on earth which corresponds with the bride, and indeed it is so. The Spirit and the bride say “Come”. The Spirit and the bride, standing together, the Spirit not ashamed of that which He has formed for Christ, but prepared to identify Himself with it definitely. The heart of the bride preferring Christ to everything that could be named, desiring to be His and for Him for ever. That is the evening, and the joy that the Lord would have marking it.
The outgoings of the evening rejoice. There is a joy springing up in many hearts, and the Lord wants to extend to each, His outgoings of the evening of the church’s history.
Well, just these few words as seeking to encourage our hearts to be in the evening that corresponds with the morning, in accordance with all the movements of God from the outset, for it must be so at the end of this dispensation as in the beginning.