ADMINISTRATION (1)
ADMINISTRATION (1)
1 Timothy 6:13 - 16;Psalm 33: 6 - 9; Genesis 1:1-5; Genesis 1:26-31; Genesis 2:1 - 3; Genesis 11:1 - 9
JTJr It has been suggested that we take up the subject of administration. In considering this subject we will have to take into account the different dispensations in which God has governed; therefore, it is a very wide subject. I thought we should begin with the One who is supreme in the administration of things. The use of the title Elohim in Genesis 1, brings in the idea of God’s supremacy. That is what is in mind at the beginning. And it was in Paul’s mind in writing to Timothy, that God is the blessed and only Ruler. We had the subject of the kingdom of God in our previous meetings. That connects with things down here at the present time in moral power by the Spirit, but what we have before us now will connect more with the centre of government or administration; the origin of it. There is no change in it all the way through. It is not, of course, recognised at the present time in this sense, nor is it seen publicly either, but Paul brings it before Timothy in this way in connection with “its own time”. He says in verse 15, “... which in its own time ...”; which would allude to the millennium. We will need to consider that, of course, later on, but we should have this chapter before us because it is to be in our souls that God is supreme. He has not given up the government of the earth, even though it may seem otherwise, so He is called “the blessed and only Ruler”, referring to the time when Christ shall be installed in His kingdom.
So that Genesis opens up to us the way God did things at the beginning. He was absolute. Elohim is His title [p. 261] of supremacy and everything flows out from that in the first chapter of Genesis.
RWS It says in verse 15, “... which in its own time the blessed and only Ruler shall shew”. Is your suggestion that that is future? The public showing of it is a future matter?
JTJr That is a future matter. It is a great matter, of course, for which we are looking, but the passage really is to bring before us the supremacy of God, that that thought should be in our minds at the present time.
CAM Do you think that by connecting these two scriptures. Genesis 1 and 1 Timothy 6, we get one thought — that God knows the end from the beginning? Do you not think it would be a marvellous thing in connection with all matters of administration if we realised that God knows what the great end is going to be?
JTJr Quite so. We are to know that too; we are to rest in the fact that God is supreme in the universe.
AR It is not in man’s hands.
JTJr It may appear to be, and we have that allusion in references to the god of this world and the prince of this world who may seem to be in charge, and in a certain sense it is so; yet it is only in the sense that God allows it.
JAP Is the truth of that a part of “the good confession” witnessed before Pilate? “Thou hadst no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above”, (John 19:11).
JTJr Yes; that the authority was from above. We need to see that, and we perhaps have learned something about it recently. The powers that be are ordained of God, yet God is not acting directly through them; it is an indirect matter.
APT “I enjoin thee before God who preserves all things in life”, verse 13. That is a wonderful statement! Is there some thought in it of how God administers [p. 262] things Himself?
JTJr I would think so. Great things were to be done at the beginning and as they took shape God’s infinite wisdom in doing things came out. But He preserves all things in life.
RWS When Paul says that “there are gods many, and lords many”, he adds, “yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him”, (1 Corinthians 8:6). Is He not thus the Originator of government and all else?
JTJr I think that is the view we should have of our subject at the beginning; that God is the great Centre from which all is being done, and nothing is happening without being allowed by Him.
AR Would you say something about Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. He administers in the heavens too.
JTJr We need to see that side also. Angels, for instance, evidently were created before man, and they ministered. They are part of the ways of God, in His ordering, and they had to do with things in relation to the earth. They had to do with the children of Israel. They form part of God’s administration. We know that Satan had a place, and that he was cast out, according to Ezekiel 28. That passage evidently alludes to him, so that this idea is very extensive as it takes in everything in creation.
WFK It says that God preserves all things in life. Does that mean that God will carry everything through in living conditions?
JTJr I suppose so. God has to say to the preservation of things. It is part of His administration. “The God who has made the world and all things which are in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is served by men’s hands as needing something, himself giving to all life and breath and all things; and has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined ordained times and the [p. 263] boundaries of their dwelling, that they may seek God; if indeed they might feel after him and find him, although he is not far from each one of us: for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said. For we are also his offspring”. (Acts 17:24 - 28).
CAM One mark of the present world administration is that there is no recognition that the heavens come first. The statement in (Psalm 33:6) is, “By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made”.
JTJr In that psalm there is an appeal to fear Jehovah: “Let all the earth fear Jehovah; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him”. It is a great matter to get into our souls that God is supreme in everything. The creation is alluded to in those verses.
AR It says in Luke 1:26 that Gabriel was sent of God.
JTJr The angelic side is very interesting to follow through, how God operated in that way and especially in the incoming of Christ; so that angelic ministry forms a great part of administration in divine things.
FHL In Revelation 12 Michael and his angels cast out the great dragon.
JTJr It is the end of Satan’s influence in heaven. The heavens are cleared by Michael and his angels. The idea of angelic ministry runs right through.
ABP The Lord Jesus, in teaching the disciples to pray, used the expression, “Let thy will be done as in heaven so upon the earth”, (Matthew 6:10). Does that imply that heaven is under divine control?
JTJr I would think so. The general bearing of it is that the angels did His will. We read of those who disobeyed and left their first estate. They were dealt with, being cast into “eternal chains under gloomy darkness”, (Jude 6). That forms part of the administration.
APT Angelic service is functioning now. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation?” (Hebrews [p. 264] 1:14)
That is part of the present administration?
JTJr I think it forms part of the divine way of carrying things through. We do not know much of that side of things but Scripture shows that angels are used of God for that purpose. There is a wide field for consideration in our subject, as we can see, and I suppose the greatest part will be when we consider Christ and the assembly. So that we need to see how God operated in the beginning and proceeded from one thing to another until He arrives at His masterpiece in administration in the assembly.
RWS God, in His infinite wisdom, has seen fit to allow another will than His to assert itself, first in heaven, and then on earth.
JTJr Well, there are the two lines; one, the mysterious operations of God’s dealings, what He permits; and the other, the side of responsibility. The responsible side is seen with the angels, and it comes in in relation to ourselves and man’s failure in relation to what God has required from man.
RWS That could not be a reflection against God’s administration. Does it not show how His government operates despite failure?
JTJr Quite so; and how He meets it.
JC God is said to be the only Ruler. Unless we administer under His hand, room is not made for the proper blessing and help.
JTJr We need to have that embedded fundamentally in our souls; that there is a supreme Ruler — “the blessed and only Ruler”. Paul’s soul is filled with it — there is none other.
ABP Would the word in Ephesians 4:6 link on with what is before us? The apostle speaks of “one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”.
JTJr That would correspond with what is before us, and our psalm would show how we are to be in fear [p. 265] of Him: to be in awe of such an One as He. Our passage says: “dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor is able to see”, (1 Timothy 6:16). That is to impress our souls with His greatness.
DP Nebuchadnezzar was brought, through discipline, to the thought that the heavens do rule.
JTJr Yes; he had to come to that. Later in our inquiry we may see how government was given to the gentiles. It is another aspect of what we are inquiring into, but it is quite a bit ahead of us. But, as you say, he had to learn that way.
CAM Does Matthew’s gospel, which deals so much with the King and administration and stresses the ordinances of the heavens, show that we must start with the creational realm of things to apprehend the true idea of administration?
JTJr I think so; we need to see things as they were in God’s mind at the beginning. Great matters were undertaken in creation and infinite wisdom entered into every detail that was carried out. It says, “For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”, (Psalm 33:9). You get the idea of supreme speaking and supreme commanding.
RWS So that if tonight we acquire a greater fear of God, which is said to be the beginning of wisdom, it would help to develop this beginning of our subject.
JTJr Exactly; the apostle thought of it in connection with the confession of Christ before Pilate. This great thought came into his soul, that God is the only Ruler, that He will see to it that things are judged properly, and that all will come out in its own time in Christ’s kingdom.
AR The Lord said, “let thy will be done as in heaven so upon the earth”. (Matthew 6:10). God rules both spheres.
JTJr We see in Genesis how immediately things [p. 266] came in to disturb, but God carries on in His thoughts. We can hardly understand all that is in mind in this relation in these early chapters of Genesis, but there is much to inquire into. In chapter 11 there is a scattering, that is in God’s government. In the preceding chapters we see how God came in and acted in relation to His own thoughts.
DP Is this great thought of the supremacy of God’s government seen in the beloved apostle’s testimony before Agrippa? He was in the knowledge of God as supreme.
JTJr I am sure that is so, and it is perhaps what filled the heart of many a young brother who has recently testified before the authorities; they have had some insight into the supremacy of God as affecting their own lives.
Question After God had spoken to Job in relation to creation, he said, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”, (Job 42:2). Would that be recognising the supremacy of God?
JTJr I think so. He learned it through discipline, the way most of us learn it, if we do. God is operating in His own interests in our souls.
AAT Paul enjoins Timothy to keep the commandment. Is that connected with this thought of administration?
JTJr It would be; in the sense in which we are to be obedient here. The idea of commandments is that we are to be subject to them. So that the blessed and only Ruler has subjects and those subjects are the saints at the present time.
WWM Would you say that God has in mind the blessing of men in relation to the scattering? It says in the psalm we read, “he maketh the thoughts of the peoples of none effect”, (Psalm 33:10). His scattering is to put man in a position where He can [p. 267] bless him.
JTJr I suppose the scattering in Genesis 11 was because of man’s evil intent, but God would be ready to bless in spite of that. It is remarkable that the idea of blessing comes in immediately after the creation of man in Genesis 1. It says, “And God blessed them”. That is one great administrative feature — blessing.
JS He scattered them in Jacob and gathered them in Judah: “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Judah — as to thee ... to him will be the obedience of peoples”. The scattering was in the wisdom of God and the gathering is in Christ.
RWS Is this administration connected with the heavens and the dwelling connected with unapproachable light?
JTJr In the sense in which we are speaking of it, heaven is God’s centre; the centre from which He is operating. Later on, of course. He will set up His throne here. That will come later in our consideration, but in Genesis, God is operating from His own sphere. So that we get the creation by the word of God. “For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”. That carries with it the administrative idea. The thing was done. Things must be done. “He spoke, and it was done”. Then it says, “he commanded, and it stood fast”. These are ideas connected with administration. Things which God has done will stand. With regard to man it says that He created them male and female. He blessed them, and He gave them dominion. That is delegated authority or administration. The idea is not opened up there in its real meaning. We get the indication that God’s idea is that there should be dominion committed to the man and the woman. That idea is there immediately.
ABP Do we learn this principle of speaking and commanding in an experimental way? Something is accomplished in our souls through the gospel — the speaking — but if it is to abide, there must be recognition [p. 268] of the commandment; we must come under the lordship of Christ and be obedient to the truth.
JTJr Yes; the world system today largely is carried on by speaking. Governments lay down policies and then commandments are enacted. How many there are! But think of it in connection with God. There is no idea of change with Him. There is supreme speaking and supreme commanding, and there is no change in it. It remains as over against all the governments of the present time and what they are doing.
WFK The passage we read speaks of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then goes on to the thought of the blessed and only Ruler.
JTJr I think the blessed and only Ruler refers to God. Of course, it applies to Christ too, in that we could not leave Him out of it. But in this setting it refers to God as supreme in bringing about Christ’s kingdom. The Lord awaits the time; it is the Father’s time, really.
TNW The King of the ages is referred to in chapter 1 — would you say a little as to that?
JTJr “Now to the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, honour and glory to the ages of ages. Amen”. As Paul’s soul is filled with the sense of the mercy shown him he breaks out in this doxology to God.
CFE “Let all the earth fear Jehovah”. Is that operative in our hearts today as coming to the truth?
JTJr I think it is to be seen in the saints; we fear Him; we stand in awe of Him. What a great thing it is that there are those who fear Jehovah and stand in awe of Him!
RWS Would this bear on our meetings for prayer? If things which are going wrong in the world might affect the testimony, can we not appeal to God, in the consciousness that He is the supreme Ruler, to change things for the sake of [p. 269] the assembly.
JTJr I think so. In the beginning God had a relation with the earth through government; that is, in Adam and Eve and then in Noah. There was a direct relation in the government of things here, but that did not continue.
AR Man and woman were given dominion over “the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every animal that moveth on the earth”.
JTJr God gave them complete dominion. He blessed them, it says: “God blessed them; and God said to them. Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every animal that moveth on the earth”. (Genesis 1:28). That is. God was in relation to them in the government of things here, and so it was with Noah. But that is not so today. We need to see when the position changed, if we can discern it in these chapters.
JAP At the first prayer meeting recorded in the Acts they “lifted up their voice with one accord to God” saying, “The kings of the earth were there, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For in truth against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou hadst anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations, and peoples of Israel, have been gathered together in this city to do whatever thy hand and thy counsel had determined before should come to pass”. (Acts 4:26 - 28). God had determined the whole matter. Does that support what has been said?
JTJr Yes; the title ‘Lord’ in verse 24 is ‘despot’; it means that God is supreme in everything. We need to see that in regard to what God is. The saints at the beginning were accepting what was being allowed by God.
APT Also the expression “thou art the God” in Acts 4 refers to the title Elohim which is used in Genesis 1. The footnote says, Elohim, the One who is God. It is wonderful how the truth comes to light in that [p. 270] chapter and how they feared God. It links with Genesis 1, for it was Elohim who made “the heavens and the earth and all their host”.
JTJr Yes, they were in the recognition of that. God is going to govern through the saints, but whilst it appears that He is allowing the worldly governments to go their way, the saints know that God’s counsel is behind it all. The idea comes out in Revelation, also. The souls under the altar say, “How long, O sovereign Ruler ...” chapter 6:10. They recognised God as the sovereign Ruler.
ABP In 1 Timothy the word is, “to whom be honour and eternal might”, chapter 6: 16. We are to be responsive in heart to that One in the consciousness of His despotic rule, would you say?
JTJr Quite so.
AAT The opening words in Genesis 1 are, “In the beginning God ...” The footnote says. God in the absolute.
JTJr That is the idea. He is supreme in everything, so we get the working out of things in the creation. Things were done. “Let there be light. And there was light”. A majestic statement! God spoke, but the thing was done. So it says, “For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”. It is a question of the working out of things. We learn from John 1 that the Son had to do with everything that was made.
AR It says in Genesis 2:1, “And the heavens and the earth and all their host were finished”.
JTJr The thing was finished, and it was all good. The administration was perfect in carrying everything out.
RWS Do you have in mind that a change in administration came in?
JTJr The idea of government comes into Genesis in relation to Adam and Eve. God gave them dominion. There was a relation between them and God in government.
[p. 271] And then, later. God found Noah alone righteous in all the wickedness, and He gave government into his hands. At that time capital punishment was introduced. And God changed the food for man, giving him flesh to eat. It was God’s direct government in these relations, but the matter changed after that.
AAT Is it not so that all animals are subject to man? God put man in administration over that sphere of things.
JTJr It would be so abstractly, I suppose, but it is not really so, because ferocious beasts are not subject to man, except they are tamed. Naturally it is not so because sin came in; something happened.
TEH It says of the Lord Jesus in Mark 1:13, that He was in the wilderness with the wild beasts. Evidently, in Him, there was control over the wild beasts.
JTJr They did not attack Him. No doubt they discerned that He was different.
ABP Would you say that although dominion was given to Noah, it hardly compared to what was given to Adam? Would the greater thought be seen in Adam?
JTJr Yes. Death was the penalty for disobedience. Man was driven out of the garden and the cherubim placed there; so that God’s government had to come in in judgment; and then the mark is put on Cain. Judgment comes in again in the flood. So we see God acting in that dispensation in that way.
CAM Dominion was given to Adam and Eve, primarily, looking forward to Christ and the assembly.
JTJr Quite so. We may consider that later. The idea of Christ and the assembly is one of the greatest parts of our subject. It is foreshadowed here to show it was in God’s mind and He comes to it later.
CAM That is a very establishing thing; the suggestion is initial.
GBL Does the book of Ruth show by contrast the [p. 272] solemnity of trifling with this principle? Elimelech’s name means, ‘Whose God is king’. The book shows declension from that but divine government coming in sovereignly and reaching through to David.
JTJr That is right. The reigns of David and Solomon are the answer to failure in administration in the Old Testament. Through that era God governed the earth directly through Israel.
AR Man had dominion before sin came in.
JTJr And God blessed them. It was God’s attitude. It is a great thought to get into our souls. The curse came in because of sin; it came upon Adam and Eve; they were driven out. And it came upon Cain; the mark was there. And it came upon the whole earth in the flood. God brought the flood upon the whole scene and closed it up in judgment.
AR Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoso sheddeth Man’s blood, by Man shall his blood be shed”.
JTJr Exactly. God tells Noah that He will require man’s blood from man. You get there one great principle of government. It has come down to our time. Where did capital punishment come from? It exists because of what God established at the beginning.
FHL If administration and government were established there would be rest. God rested on the seventh day.
JTJr It is very important that we come to that. The work had brought in rest. When you think of “all his work”, it means something had to be done. There must be skill; there must be energy. That is what came out in what was done. The whole creation is an expression of God’s eternal power and divinity.
CAM The one who pronounces capital punishment is doing it as a representative of God. In himself he is a man, but he represents God.
JTJr That is right; so that the powers that be are ordained [p. 273] of God.
JAP Was Adam doing things well in naming the creatures?
JTJr This idea of how things were done came out in Adam and Eve too. I suppose we should see that God did things in a glorious way so as to give character to anything we do. We should have in mind how God did things.
DP Was there breakdown on the part of Pilate in his administration of government?
JTJr There was. He had power to set the Lord free; he could have set Him free righteously. Government broke down in him.
AR In Genesis 1 it is said that God did things. In chapter 2 it is Jehovah Elohim.
JTJr Chapter 1 is God as supreme. That is what we need to get into our souls first in regard to this great subject — that there is One who is supreme — and Christ Himself comes in in relation to that as we shall see later.
ABP Is the thought of God’s supremacy suggested in Hebrews 1, where, in speaking of the Son, it says, “by whom also he made the worlds”, verse 2?
JTJr I think that is the force of it. It is “by whom”. It is instrumentality; the thing was done.
ABP The mind is carried through to God as supreme in relation to it?
JTJr Quite so.
WFK It says that God divided the light from the darkness. What part of the administration would that be?
JTJr I suppose it is a question of what was suitable in the realm of things in which God was going to operate. There is the darkness and the light; the night and the day. It is a question of God’s plan in creation — what the night and day mean. Certain things were worked out in these periods. The Lord said that there are twelve hours in the day. It was a question of His testimony, and of work to [p. 274] be done.
FSC Is God dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, really darkness to us until Christ comes into it?
JTJr I think that means it is inscrutable. We have no part in that at all, nor can have. It is God in the absolute.
WFK God separates, or distinguishes, between the children of light and children of darkness.
JTJr Moral darkness came in later in connection with evil. Men love darkness rather than light. It is a moral idea, but here it is God dividing the thing in a creational sense. We have our nights, and it is a question of what is worked out in the night with God — “And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day”. That is the way things operate in our souls.
CAM So that we look back to the first chapter of the Bible in faith. That is really how we understand it.
JTJr Quite so.
RDG In dividing the light from the darkness we have the sun, the moon and the stars, looking forward to Christ and the assembly.
JTJr It is a question of administration, whether through the sun in the day or the moon at night. We should get the thought of God as supreme in our minds in relation to rule; then delegated administration in the man and the woman, and then in Noah. Over against that we have evil coming in, and God acting in regard to it. The cherubim are set in the garden to guard the way of the tree of life, and the mark is put upon Cain, which is still apparent, even in our day. It is a governmental thing. Part of the administration is to mark off a man who slew his brother — the murderous element that slew Christ. It comes down in God’s administration even to the present time.
RWS It makes God more wonderful to us as we see the way in which He meets changing conditions — the age of innocence, and then the era of conscience, and [p. 275] the period of human government. He can meet conditions in each of these ages.
JTJr It is a question of discerning the dispensation in which we are and understanding the dispensations generally. We can hardly think of the period of the garden as a dispensation, but it was a separate and distinct time. God drove man out of it in His governmental dealings; then He had to take account of the evil which came in through Cain, in relation to a brother. This principle comes in early in the ways of God, as to what He thought about such a thing.
WCR Was the breakdown of Adam and Eve in that they did not maintain dominion over the created things?
JTJr The whole position broke down in that way, so you get no more reference to dominion in regard to them. The curse came in. It is on the ground; it is on persons; it is on Cain. But it is part of God’s administrative dealings in a world of wickedness ending in the flood.
CAM The question might come into the mind, Why did God allow the whole question of good and evil to exist? Why did not God, who is from eternity to eternity, remove it at its first showing? But is it not infinite wisdom on His part to work the thing out so that we might have an apprehension of His infinite grace in a way we could not have understood it otherwise?
JTJr I think so. When we come to Noah, it is a question of the world as it exists today, because it has come down from Noah. The flood came in and destroyed the world that then was. Noah therefore begins a new position, and government is on another line. In chapter 11, men planned to build a city and a tower. It is called Babel. It is confusion. God changed their language; and that has come down to us today. It was part of God’s governmental dealings; He changed the language [p. 276] of men and scattered them over all the earth. It is a definite change in the ways of God. He came in to check the evil through a change of language, and through scattering. We have another point of view from this chapter onward.
CFE Is chapter 11 a climax reached in the ways of God?
JTJr I think it is, in that it is not a question of direct government any longer. The god of this world has taken hold on the hearts of men, and has controlled their thoughts. That is really the present condition of the world today.
RWS It says that they journeyed from the east. Is it suggestive that man’s aspect is westward? He is scattered and his age is reduced sharply.
JTJr And the idea of great cities comes up — Babel, for example — and what man is doing in them. It seems to be an important point, that God has, you might say, given man over to his evil, and he is still going on in it today. God acts through governments, like Egypt, for instance. God checked that government. Yet, it was not His government. He was not directly ruling through Egypt or any such nation. He had given them up to a reprobate mind, it says in Romans. They were given up because of the evil.
ABP Is there another feature of God’s rule running through the era of which we have been speaking, which is seen in Enoch, and also in the ark? God asserts His right to discriminate and make a difference, so that, out of the confusion. God translates an Enoch and preserves eight souls in the ark.
JTJr Yes; I suppose the latter is figurative of what is going on now.
APT The words used by men here are identical with the words of God in chapter 1:26: “And God said, Let us make ...” Here it is, “Come on, let us build ...” It is like a counterfeit of proper administration.
JTJr [p. 277] I think it is. There is the idea of counsel, which is another important feature in administration, but here it is in relation to evil. This also is carried down, like the counsel of Ahithophel, and the gates of hades. It is counsel against what is of God.
APT The footnote to verse 2 says that they ‘pulled up their tent pegs’. How does the administrative side enter into man’s will against God?
JTJr Man’s will enters into the make-up of his city and his government, and yet God is behind it all. Man cannot go as far as he likes. We have seen that in recent times. Certain governments have not been permitted to go as far as they thought to go. God uses one against the other, but He is not ruling directly through any.
GBL The introduction of devastating weapons to check evil has inspired awe in nations. These things may seem to be over-severe, but does not God allow them in order to stop evil?
JTJr It is all part of the system. We see that, in principle, in Sodom and Gomorrah.
AR In chapter 11 God came down to see the city and tower.
JTJr It is a great matter in administration to get first-hand knowledge of things.
JHH God took them up on their own counsel. They said, “... lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth”, but it says later, “And Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth”.
JTJr That is remarkable. Moses speaks of it in Deuteronomy 32; “When the Most High assigned to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel”, verse 8. That evidently alludes to this chapter. He divided them in relation to the inheritance [p. 278] of Israel.
CN After the scattering of chapter 11 Abraham comes into view.
JTJr That is very important and I suppose we should consider the call of Abraham at our next reading. The call is a separate thought from government. It is an important change in the ways of God. He called Abraham out, but He left the world to go on its course. He was not governing directly through Abraham. He took on Abraham. He was calling out a people, and this carries through to David.
RDG On the day of Pentecost there were representatives of every nation under heaven at Jerusalem and God momentarily suspended the restraint so that all heard the testimony in their own language.