BLESSING

BLESSING

Luke 2: 27 - 28; Romans 9:5; Ephesians 1: 3; Genesis 22: 15 - 19

I am encouraged to feel that it is a matter of joy to our hearts to think of the Lord, ere He left the earth, being able to find here that which He could bless, that which He could speak well of. When we think of what else He found, particularly in Jerusalem, the city of the great King, His own city. As He beheld it, He wept over it — “If thou hadst known, even thou, the things that belong to thy peace!” Then, He found hatred in the hearts of men. The Lord could say at the end, “they have both seen and hated both me and my Father”; so that in the language of the Psalm, He says, “They hated me without a cause”. Touching words — without a cause. What cause was there? Could anyone suggest why Jesus should be hated? I wonder if I am speaking to one who hates Him? Render your cause, dear friend. Where is it? “Them that were my enemies wrongfully”. The Lord never gave occasion for anyone to be His enemy. Why are you His enemy, if you be here? As the Lord said to Saul of Tarsus, “Why persecutest thou me?” What could Saul say? There was never a reason. No one could give a reason for rejecting Christ and being His enemy. So that it is a great joy to think of the Lord, ere He left this scene, finding that which He could bless.

As He looked around on that company at Bethany, there was Martha; Jesus loved Martha — not compassionately merely, but complacently. As the Lord considered Martha He blessed. There is one that He could speak well of — a beloved woman that is prepared to serve Him. How Martha served! There is Mary. The Lord could bless as He thought of Mary. It was that Mary, the Spirit of God says, anxious that no one should confuse her with any other Mary — it was that Mary that anointed His feet with ointment and wiped them with the hairs of her head. That was the Mary that was at Bethany. And Lazarus. The Lord could bless as He thought of Lazarus. There was one that He could speak well of. Jesus loved Lazarus. “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus”. Our friend Lazarus, He said. The Lord loves His friends — He died for His friends. There is nothing He would not do for His friends. The disciples said, “the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?” The Lord was going to His friend. “I go that I may awake him out of sleep”. And Thomas says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him”. Thomas thought — He is going there to die, and we will go and die with Him — but He would die for His friends. The Lord finds such delight in His friends that He would die for them. Well these are the elements of Bethany. It was to that spot the Lord led His own, indicating that He would like them all to be there under the influence of those living features, but I trust the Lord might help us as to blessing on our side.

We love, of course, to think of what the Lord can bless here, but then there is the answer to this on our side. We have many and great themes for blessing, themes for eulogy, themes to speak well of, of which our hearts should never weary. There is nothing that we would care to say much about in this world. There is not that which you can speak of in the nature of blessing. Some build up their hopes on things in relation to this world, but these scriptures bring before us causes of blessing that we can look into without any hesitation.

The first is, that Simeon took the Child Jesus “up in his arms”. He received Him into his arms — He received Him. Evidently Mary instinctively recognised that Simeon was a suitable person into whose arms to place that blessed One. He received Him, and, as he did so, it says, he “blessed God.” As Simeon looked on that little Babe he blessed God — he spoke of God. In the light of that blessed Babe, God was so great to his heart that he could bless Him. He could speak of God in terms of eulogy. How rightly!

What did he see in that Babe? It says that “it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” I do not know whether that presents anything distinct to our hearts. I am sure it does to many believers, but it was revealed to him that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. What unfolded itself to Simeon’s heart in the thought of the Lord’s Christ? Christ, as we know, means anointed. God finds His delight in the Man that He has approved — the One in whom all the pleasure of God is expressed. Simeon saw Him at that moment. He saw the blessed One in whom everything that was in the mind of God to have in man found its living expression — the Lord’s Christ. Christ is a wonderful name. It says, “the head of every man is Christ”. You think of One great enough and worthy to be Head of every man. In that passage it is distinct from the woman. He is also the head of the body, the assembly — God wrought, it says, “in Christ when he raised him from the dead ... and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body”. Christ is such a glorious Man, of such excellence and worth that He can give character to all things. All this and more lies behind “the Lord’s Christ.”

Then Simeon continues developing what led him to bless God. He says, “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. He was looking at the salvation of God. No wonder He blessed! For God had brought in His salvation. There is nothing like unto God’s salvation. If God brings in salvation we know how perfect it must be. Men are trying to save themselves from the depression and the ruin that is rapidly spreading over the world, but they cannot find a saviour, but God has brought in a Man as salvation, and in the light of that Simeon blessed God. Then, to proceed, there is a light for the revelation of the gentiles. God has brought in a light in that blessed Babe that will bring to light the gentiles for God. Light no longer confined to one nation, but to bring out the gentiles for God, as it has done indeed, as most of us are the proof. So he blessed God as he thought of the gentiles being secured for God, and of Christ as the glory of God’s people Israel. The climax of Israel’s position as called of God is that Christ is “the glory of thy people Israel”. When we think of Israel we think of Christ. As Simeon looked at Jesus he blessed God.

How well God may be spoken of in the light of His Christ — His salvation — that brings to light the gentiles for God — the glory of Israel. You say, How did he come to see all that, for he was looking at a little Babe? How do you think we get light as to Christ in our souls, dear friend? Oh, say some, we go to the university and the theological colleges for that. Do you? Well, Simeon did not go there. Where do you go? Well, we study carefully all the ministry that comes out. Thank God if we do, but Simeon did not only do that.

I have no doubt he read all the ministry that was available, but it says “he came by the Spirit into the temple”. What does that mean? The Apostle says — “Walk in the Spirit.” That is what Simeon was doing — walking in the Spirit. What marks those who walk in the Spirit is that they do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. A man who walks in the Spirit walks in self-judgment and refuses the flesh — he refuses it. Oh, you say, I do not do any particular wrong. Well, I would like you to read Galatians carefully and you will find what are the works of the flesh. It says they are “manifest”. There is nothing mysterious about them — they are manifest; and remember, you may hinder the greatness of this great and glorious Person shining into your heart because you are allowing the flesh through heresies or schools of opinion. Oh, you say, I have got my opinion of course, and I try to get others to think as I do, and, therefore, you do not see the glory of Christ. We cannot possibly see it if we are walking in the flesh. To gather round an opinion, like a little school — that is the idea; it is just the same as murder and fornication — the works of the flesh. We may be envious of the place the Lord has given one and another amongst His people, or envious of their material prosperity, and, of course, we do not see Christ. His blessed glory does not open out to my heart while I am walking in the flesh; but Simeon was in the Spirit — not exactly by the Spirit but in the Spirit and the light of the glory of that blessed One was discerned by Him. He knew Him and he says “Lord, now thou lettest thy bondman go ... for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. He could bless God in the light of that. The more the eyes of our hearts can see Christ the more we bless God. The way that God gets His true portion in blessing from our hearts, is as we discern Christ, and the way we discern Christ is by walking in the Spirit. There is no other way — there is no other road.

Well, now a word or two as regards Romans 9. The Apostle brings that in there in a wonderful way. He is dwelling first of all upon how much has come through Israel, which I do not touch at the moment, but he comes down to Christ. It says, “of whom ... Christ came”. That blessed Man, for Christ is His name as Man — He is the anointed Man. Christ is the anointed Man and the Apostle is speaking of Him and thinking of Him as that — of whom Christ came, but then he turns aside and he says, “who is over all, God blessed for ever”. I believe, dear brethren, that is a ray of light from God by the Spirit as to how we will look at Christ for ever. We will know Him as a blessed Man. How we will delight in it. He has become a Man — the Man Christ Jesus. He has retained manhood in resurrection for He says, “a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have”. To all eternity He will be Man — the Son placed in subjection, in man’s place. Clearly man’s place is subjection to God and the Son is placed in subjection at the entrance of eternity. When the kingdom, the thousand years has run its course, there is not a lawless element left in God’s universe of bliss. Then the Son delivers up the kingdom. He delivers up the kingdom to Him who is God and Father, and then it says, “the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection”. He will retain man’s place. He will occupy man’s place for ever. Head — of course, and supreme. What other place could He have? But, nevertheless, He is a Man. But then, there is more than that and we shall eternally recognise it in worship and blessing. While He is the Christ, God’s Anointed, He is over all, “God blessed for ever”.

There is no question that while we shall be with Him and like Him and know Him in manhood, this will always be recognised in that blessed scene — that He is over all, God — and God known in such a way that He will be blessed for ever. The knowledge we have learned of God in Christ, will lead to the blessing of God for ever from the hearts of the redeemed. It is in the light of what God is as shining out in Christ that God gets the blessing — the eulogy of our hearts — not only as Creator (Romans brings that in earlier). The Creator is blessed for ever, and the Apostle says, Amen. He is with that, his mind and heart is in that, but now he is thinking of God made known in Christ, and in the light of that he says, “God blessed for ever”. I am sure that as we discern that, we bless God — as we discern God made known in Jesus.

The Apostle in Ephesians speaks of things that are too great for the natural mind, things which the heart of man cannot conceive. As he approaches the subject he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, having marked us out, for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” — “taken us into favour in the Beloved.” He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Think of what those words mean, and I am sure we take it in but little, that He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing! There is not a spiritual blessing of which we can think, but that He has blessed us with it.

I just wanted to come to this — He has taken us into favour in the Beloved. What a name for Jesus! It is one of His personal names — the Beloved — the One who is the object — the One who is supreme in the affections of God. My beloved Son — the One who had that supreme place in the heart of the Father — the Son of the Father, it says, in truth and in love. The Beloved — the Apostle says. He has taken us into favour in the Beloved — He has given us the place of sonship — He has given us the Spirit of His Son. As the Apostle thinks of that wonderful sphere of sonship and the blessings of it, he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God, in that character, should be eulogized for ever. So also He should, as Creator, as Redeemer. And He is the Father revealed in Christ, that blessed Man. What blessing will come from the hearts of His own for ever. What themes there are that produce the blessing! All those blessed names — we shall speak well of them for eternity. Creator, Redeemer, Father — that is how God is known and in each connection He is blessed by His own. The Creator — He is blessed for ever — God over all blessed for ever. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the language of the hearts of His own, and that for ever.

Just one more word. I desire to call attention to Abraham for a moment, because God looking down from heaven, says, I will bless Abraham. He had previously cursed the earth — cursed the ground. He had said, as He looked on Adam, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake”. Later on, as He looked down upon mankind He says, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years”. “The end of all flesh is come before me.” It grieved Him, it says, at His heart. God looks down again from heaven and sees Abraham. And God blesses Abraham. In blessing, He says, I will bless thee. It is not Abraham blessing God, but God blessing Abraham and God eulogizes Abraham — God speaks well of Abraham. We would like to be in that, would we not, dear believer, for God to look down and be able to speak well of us? How can He do that? If we have the features of Abraham. Abraham was prepared, as knowing God, to sacrifice the choicest object of his heart. He was prepared to lay on the altar all that he had, for I submit that Isaac represented in totality all that he had; everything else, his flocks, and his herds, and his silver, and his gold, and his man-servants, and his maid-servants were very much less than Isaac. Here is a man who is prepared to put on the altar all that he had, even Isaac, and God blesses him. God can speak well of a man to whom He is so great that that man sacrifices all. God says, “Thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.” God was more to Abraham’s heart than Isaac and all his flocks and herds and silver and gold. When God saw that, He said, “Abraham, Abraham”. Wonderful privilege to be named twice by God! Very few get it. “Abraham, Abraham.” A man that is particularly known in heaven — a man who sacrifices for God and God says, I will bless Abraham. He could speak about Abraham and say, Abraham my friend. You think of that — Abraham, my friend; and God has much that is good to say about Abraham all through scripture. He is the father of us all — faithful Abraham.

Is God so great to our hearts as known in Jesus that we are prepared to make sacrifices? I am sure what is called for at the present time is sacrifice on the part of the saints — not to talk about it but to do it — as God said to Abraham, “Because thou hast done this”; not because thou hast thought about it, but because thou hast done it — “In blessing I will bless thee.” The apostle Paul speaks to the Corinthians on the line of sacrifice and says, “Now therefore perform the doing of it” and thus God blesses. You say, What can I sacrifice? The more you know God the more you will sacrifice until a point is reached as with Abraham when he gave all. That was how things stood in the early church. Not one called anything he had his own — not one, houses, land, money, spiritual wealth — whatever they had. It says, not one called anything he had his own but all was held for sacrifice, all was offered in sacrifice and God blesses them. He blessed Abraham in the light of that.

The Lord is bringing back, as we have observed before, the features of the beginning. The Lord is looking for sacrifice for the support of divine interests, and if He sees it He will eulogize what He sees. God said to Abraham, “In blessing I will bless thee”. God will convey His own approval of those who sacrifice — who do it. There are many avenues to it, ways and means which each of us could find out by being in touch with God. God would have us do it, and as doing it, not merely thinking of it, we shall be blessed of God.

May the Lord encourage us to pursue this line that our hearts may be held for God to bless Him as the Creator, to bless Him as known in Christ, to bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for His Name’s sake.