GOD CALLING ATTENTION TO HIS PEOPLE
[p. 137] GOD CALLING ATTENTION TO HIS PEOPLE
Matthew 3: 16, 17; Genesis 20: 7; Exodus 4: 22, 23
What I have to say will bear on the presence of the people of God on earth, not so much as having a heavenly destiny and being already heavenly, but what would bear on our position on earth; and how God calls the attention of the world to us, that is to christians. How He informs the world, or its representatives, of what His people are towards it and for the world’s benefit, and what they are as in the world towards God and for His benefit.
I read in Matthew so as to bring out the full divine thought in this respect, for we have to come to Christ for this, whatever may be in mind. We have to find it in Christ first. It is in Him God is pleased to set out all His thoughts, not only in principle, but in detail, in concrete detail. As here in flesh, the Lord Jesus is seen in the types, as anointed without dying — without blood, so that His service was not on the ground of redemption in regard to Himself — it was carried on on the ground of His own Person. He was announced on that ground, and so the voice from heaven is mentioned in Matthew 3: 17 saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. Not all My delight, it does not say that, but My delight, leaving room for a great extension of what is there. From whom the voice was is not stated here.
In Mark and Luke the voice was directly to the Lord Himself; saying, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. That was for Himself in view of His service; an important pattern, that those who serve are to serve in the sense of divine complacency — even delight. Thus the service is not only beneficial to those who hear, but [p. 138] also pleasing to God. That is what Mark and Luke have in mind. Matthew uses another pronoun: “This is my beloved Son”, showing that it was for other ears as well as for the Lord Jesus, and inasmuch as these ears are not specified it is obvious that the pronouncement bears universally. It is for all to hear. It resounds throughout the centuries, on earth and in heaven. It was intended for other ears, as I have said, as well as those of Jesus, but inasmuch as they are not specified or limited, obviously it has universal bearing. God has His own way of causing His words to travel. It may take time, but if He intends them for certain ears, these ears will hear. It says indeed elsewhere, “The Lord gives the word: great the host of the publishers” (Psalm 68: 11). I suppose the publishers have continued ever since. No doubt a goodly number heard, and the point is that the words are to be heard by human ears.
On the mount of transfiguration we have the same thought. Peter says in a feeling, worshipful way, “this voice we heard”. It was a voice from the excellent glory, and we heard it, he says, “when we were with him on the holy mount”. Then, according to this same evangelist, it is said, “Hear him”. The reference therefore on the mount is further and alludes obviously to the persons who were there. Persons represented in Peter who proposed to make three tabernacles there — one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elias — a very unintelligent proposal, showing that the speaker had not as yet seized, although he had great opportunity, the truth of the great Person who was there. He had just heard by revelation that this Person was no less than Christ, the Son of the living God, and yet he would place Moses and Elias on the same level with Jesus, and heaven’s voice was to correct that — to put Jesus alone in His personal dignity. Moses had been heard, Elias had been heard and [p. 139] are being heard, and the Lord Himself especially stresses that Moses should be heard, but the truth is brought out that the Moses that was to be heard got his message from this same Jesus — no other. The writer of the tables on the mount was this same Jesus — Jehovah; so that Peter was utterly at fault in placing Jesus on the level of Moses and Elias. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him” (Matthew 17: 5). That is the word to christians; persons already owned. There are many who are hearing others, and many drifting, on the line of placing others on the same level as Jesus. This is very dangerous — it is a very bad line — it is to be rebuked, for we are to have fixedly in our souls and in our minds this great Person. He has no equal — He is God. He who builds the house, Scripture says, “has more honour than the house ... he who has built all things is God” (Hebrews 3: 3, 4). Christ is the Builder of all things and He is God; the One to hear.
We are not told here that it was the Father who spoke, but who can say “my beloved Son” other than the Father? and He says His delight is there. What an object for the attention of the universe is this, and for ourselves now at this very moment! The Father says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”.
At this juncture He had come to the Jordan. The Lord never journeyed aimlessly; never took a holiday; never made the service of God a side line. All His journeys were taken with definiteness. He had journeyed from Galilee to the Jordan, we are told, with the express purpose of being baptised. Think of all that entered into His holy affections and mind at every step He took as He came to John! He had pleasure doubtless in seeing the people repentant and confessing their sins and being baptised by John. No one there would be more [p. 140] interested than He; but He had not come for that, He had come expressly to be baptised. It was a wonderful day, no day in John’s ministry like it. Not that anyone who had been there says anything about it, but the great baptiser himself; he tells us what he saw. He does not say that he heard these words I have spoken of, but he does say that he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and abiding on Jesus. John saw that, and he was full of it, according to John the evangelist’s account. Jesus had in mind to be baptised, and John questioned with Him and said, “I have need to be baptised of thee”. That is very suitable. One has the fullest sympathy with John on this point, he was full of his own insignificance in the presence of this great and glorious Person. Indeed, we are told by the evangelist that John bore witness and “cried” about this, a cry which expressed in this feeling way his littleness in the presence of the Son of God. He “cried saying, This was he of whom I said, He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me” (John 1: 15). None of us naturally wishes to talk of persons who are preferred before us, especially in service. The natural heart seeks the pre-eminence, but the heart affected by the Spirit of God, instead of making much of itself, makes much of Christ.
The significance of John’s remarks would be understood by those who knew the facts, for John was born before Jesus. He was older by some six months, so that reference is not to age in manhood, but to deity. He was before me, he says, twice or thrice. He says further, “the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose”. You can understand how genuine were John the baptist’s feelings when he expostulated with Christ, saying, “I have need to be baptised of thee”. The Lord says, “Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us” — not becometh [p. 141] Me. How beautiful that is! He links John with Himself. He says to Peter later in this gospel, “Give it to them for me and thee”. It is very affecting to be linked up by the Lord’s own lips with Himself. Here he says, “Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”. That word ALL is worthy of the largest capitals you can write it in, bringing out the Man, how that He was not only personally, on the ground of His deity, able to enter on this service, but He is equal to it morally and that is within the range of every one of us. All righteousness must be considered as attaching to a servant before he enters on his service, and indeed in every connection. “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness”, for one is not in salvation unless one is righteous. So John suffered Him, and He is baptised and He came up out of the water. Heaven’s delight in Him personally is expressed, but the moral element is evident in His remarks; as He came up out of the water, heaven is opened to Him and He is saluted on those lines. Heaven found for the first time in a servant what suited it infinitely and says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. That is God calling the attention, as I said, of the universe to what He now has in testimony. In Matthew 12: 18, quoted from Isaiah, it is said, “My servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul has found its delight”.
Well, what I have remarked I think will be intelligible to all, as indicating the great general position of the testimony, what God has and what stands. Christ has gone into heaven, but John says we know that the Son of God has come — not come and gone, morally there is no change in this position. The Lord says, “Behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”. Redemption accomplished, this is the great and glorious position, dear brethren, in which the testimony of God stands. The coming [p. 142] down of the Spirit brings us into it according to God and fills out the great thought, but this is the principle of the great position on which the testimony of God stands — what God has here.
Now I want to go on to Genesis, first to show how in those early days God calls attention to what He had. All, of course, is anticipative of what I have been saying. There could be no Genesis, there could be no Exodus, there could be no Old Testament without the prospective coming of the Son of God, the Incarnation; so that He is before all things, He is first in everything. The historical coming of the Lord cannot weaken the fact that He is “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things” (Colossians 1: 18). So what we get in this chapter is founded on what I have been saying. It is God here calling attention to one saint in obscurity and indeed in suffering; his position so weak that his wife is taken away from him and he cannot overcome the situation himself, but God can. What this chapter shows is God’s protection of His saints, and how He calls the attention of the representatives of the world to them. Here God calls the Philistine king’s attention to this man whose wife he had taken, He says “he is a prophet”. I am speaking, dear brethren, not merely to interest you in a historical matter of hundreds of years ago. The Scriptures are not written on that line at all; the Scriptures always speak to the persons who read them, or hear them read. That is, it is their present voice that God would impress upon us. We know that, above all persons, Abraham represents that, because we are told in Galatians that the Scriptures “announced beforehand the glad tidings to Abraham”.
Such is the service of the Scriptures; they always speak to the persons who read them, and therefore, as to Abraham, so also to the feeblest christian in [p. 143] this room, or a christian who may be isolated and feels his feebleness. It may have never entered into your mind that God is protecting you in that position. Here a great disaster was pending, but it did not happen; and every christian should look up to God in the sense that he can count on His protection. The disaster did not happen, not because Abraham had any power in himself to prevent it. He had not, but God had, and God spoke to this man, this king of the Philistines, whom we may regard as being representative of authorities, and this is a great matter in the present time. God has a way of speaking to those in authority, and if He does speak, He has no pleasure in speaking to them about anything, but about Christ and His people here. We are feeble and the more we realise that, the stronger we are, but that is not a mere theory, it is something to take up in faith, for the great principle of the dispensation is faith.
If I am speaking now to those here who may be placed in feeble positions, two or three or more, this word is for you. It is for each one of us: in our conscious weakness, God takes up matters for us. At times it may be unknown to us; God’s intervention was undoubtedly unknown to Abraham at the moment. See how God took up matters for Israel in the wilderness against the king of Moab. He works in an unseen way, but He also works governmentally in an outward way, and if He speaks at all, it is to call attention to what He has here representative of Himself. He says to Abimelech, this man that you are wronging is a prophet. He was very fair to the king, He said, I know your thoughts in this matter, but this man is a prophet. God is calling attention to this servant of His, Abraham, as a prophet, he represents Him, he is also a priest to Him; he is a prophet and he is a priest. Now what a great thing that is, God calling [p. 144] the attention of some great person or persons in this world to a few feeble christians and identifying Himself with them! He “is not ashamed of them, to be called their God”, and not only so but He ennobles Abraham in telling the king that he is a prophet. Now prophecy is not to minister to God, it is for men; and moreover Abraham was a priest. He “will pray for thee”, Jehovah says. One can picture how an intelligent man such as Abimelech would, in measure, be affected, that Jehovah Himself had called his attention to this man, and what he was; he was these two things. Whatever the king thought about him, and his thought of him was not enhanced by the fact that Abraham was not just courageous about his wife, he had denied her true relationship to him. Yet God says, I think much of him; he is representative of Me; he is a prophet.
What a thing it is that there should be a christian in any community who can convey the mind of God to men and who can pray for men! God would encourage us to take up that position; an assembly position, because that is the thought today; there is nothing less than that in principle while the dispensation continues. If there is one person like that, or “two of you”, as the Lord says, He will support them in whatever they undertake in faith. The support of heaven is there, but I am speaking now of God calling attention to the saints — that Abraham was a prophet and he would pray for Abimelech. And it was that he might live. Now you can understand that if Abraham was a vindictive man he would pray that he should die, should be crushed; but no, God says that he will pray for you, and pray for you that you might live. That is our position. The testimony today is that men might live and not die. The gospel announces that. God has no pleasure in the death of the [p. 145] wicked, He announces the gospel that all should come to the knowledge of the truth, that they might live. That is our position in relation to the world. We are feeble, but let us take up the position in faith. God loves us to take up what is accorded us. The Lord Himself says, “if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”. He goes on: “where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18: 19, 20). So you see how much heaven thinks of our position here. In the next chapter Abraham is able to face this same Abimelech in power, and to exhibit before him the spirit that he should have. He says, there are seven ewe lambs for you; and what does that mean? It means that Abraham has the spirit of the heavenly man — not the spirit of vengeance, but the spirit of Christ.
Now I go on to the well-known scripture in Exodus 4, to show you what is here for God; His portion. He says to Moses, “say to Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah: Israel is my son, my firstborn”. It is a different message from the word to Abimelech, and it is not direct, it is through Moses, because in Exodus you have what is ministerial; it is now Moses and Aaron. The message comes through Moses, but it is plain, and it is about Israel. He says, “Israel is my son, my firstborn ... Let my son go, that he may serve me”. That is the position in Exodus, and you can see how it is the counterpart of what I have been speaking of. Abraham was serving men, but Israel, as a son, was to serve God. You may say, serving man is serving God, because you carry out God’s wishes, but this use of the word ‘service’ refers, as indeed in the New Testament, too, to our attitude towards God; something that is very much omitted in christendom. There is the idea of serving man, but very little service Godward, which is based [p. 146] on sonship. Think of God condescending to tell the Egyptian monarch that He had a son, and as I said before, there can be no meaning to this word at all except in view of the Incarnation. In fact, this verse is set in relation to Christ, carried through Hosea to the second chapter of Matthew. Christ was God’s Son, and so He had to go to Egypt, and He is called out of Egypt. Thus it is really exemplified in the Lord Jesus, and exemplified now in those who are, through Him, sons. It involves sonship in Christ and sonship in men.
Now, dear brethren, we are on the plane of this great thought of God; He has been bringing it to our attention for years. It had, I may say, been lost to the church for centuries; now it has been restored, and it is one of the most attractive and liberating features of the truth. God is stressing it day and night amongst His people, and here in the beginning of Moses’ ministry the king of Egypt is told about it. The word today is that we might take it to heart that God calls the attention of others to the position of the saints in this sense. God says to Pharaoh, If you do not let My son go to serve Me, I will slay your son. God forgets nothing. There is not a nation on earth the records of which are not kept accurately with God, and what happens to the various nations is not by chance, it is the outcome of a long history in each case. God has His thought for His people, and those who have hindered His people from serving Him come in for His judicial dealings, and things become worse and worse with them. I am speaking now for ourselves, that we may take it home, this great privilege and responsibility conveyed in the word, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. That is the ground in Exodus, and what follows in Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and throughout all Scripture fills out this great thought, and it is for each of us to take [p. 147] it to ourselves; we are in sonship, and the divine intent of having sons here is that we might serve God. The idea of the service of God is a great thought. It formally begins here, and it is said by Paul in Philippians that “we are the circumcision, who worship (or serve) by the Spirit of God”. That is the position today: God is worshipped in the power of His Spirit, and we are to carry on what is called the public service of God. I mean public in the sense that anyone can see that there are those who love God, and reverence God, and who would gratify His heart; whose main business here is to do this; serving in a spiritual way, not in outward forms, but as those who worship by the Spirit of God, having no confidence in the flesh.
Now that is what this passage in Exodus teaches, and if you will look, at your leisure, at the chapters that follow, you will be impressed with how God keeps this thought before Pharaoh in all His messages to Pharaoh until the people are free. He keeps calling attention to it, nor does Moses ever fail to stress it — all resulting in this, that the very last word Pharaoh said to Moses in this book, was: “go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said”. God brought the world round to it, and they were compelled to let Israel go. This is very encouraging. “Go”, Pharaoh says, “serve Jehovah as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and go; and bless me also”. The service began at Sinai. Pharaoh said earlier, “Go, serve Jehovah; only, let your flocks and your herds remain”. But Moses said, “Our cattle also must go with us: there shall not a hoof be left behind; for we must take thereof to serve Jehovah our God”. Today we must have the children and cattle — everything we have is subservient to this great thought. Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is a wonderful testimony to the power of God on our behalf as we get on to right lines; as we see [p. 148] what His mind is and take up our position according to it: this is how it will be until the end. He will see us through as we move on the lines He indicates.
In this book He says, “ye shall serve God upon this mountain”. That is what God says to Moses, and what that implies, dear brethren, is that in getting to the mountain we get to the place of resource. We may think we have nothing and that we cannot go on, but as we reach the mountain of God we find resource. “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”, was said earlier, (Genesis 22: 14). Well, that is what I had in mind for this meeting. May God bless it!