THE LORD'S CARE FOR HIS SERVANTS
THE LORD’S CARE FOR HIS SERVANTS
JT This chapter contains peculiar instruction for those who serve. All the Lord’s people, of course, should serve in some sense; but there are skilled labourers and unskilled labourers, and this chapter is for those who are, or who should be, skilled — indeed it is so that we should be skilled. It occurred to me that it would be helpful for all, as well as those who serve in this way, to look into it, especially as the Lord’s attention to those who serve brings out results in His being better known. Indeed He is, as it were, everything. He has His own way of distinguishing His servants, putting them forward as He may need them in the front, but the more the servant is with Him, the more Jesus is everything; what is done is done by Him; and what is to be observed here is that, at the beginning of the chapter, that is in verses 1 - 6, He is thought but little of, despised indeed; and then in verses 7 - 13 we have the sending out of the servants, the apostles; and in verse 30, the account which they give of their service; but inserted is the solemn martyrdom of, up to that time, the greatest servant among men, that is, John the baptist. So that, in serving, this stands out, that martyrdom is to be expected; the more faithful the service, the more likely the martyrdom. What is in mind particularly is the Lord’s care for us, and what becomes incidental, the care of others, the feeding of the multitude, and how He becomes increasingly known through His care for His servants; they will be prominent as they are faithful, but the point is His prominence.
Rem Is that why the Lord told them to take [p. 233] nothing with them but a staff? He is to be prominent in His care for them.
JT There would be in every moment of their service the sense of dependence on Him.
PL “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me”, 2 Timothy 4:17. Does that show how the Lord’s care for His servant tends to make him great?
JT That is a beautiful statement covering the instruction here. He “stood with me”. We have the Lord standing over a certain one, but standing by is another matter, that is, we realise He can identify Himself fully with the servant; and then the strengthening him. “that by me ...” — the Lord would have that. Paul had a distinction that the Lord intended him to have, and he would have it, the Lord supported him so that he should have it — “that by me the preaching might be fully known”. 2 Timothy 4:17. Others would aspire to it, but the Lord saw to that — “by me the preaching might be fully known”. Is that in your mind?
PL Yes. I wondered whether the writer of this gospel himself witnessed to this principle in the care the Lord lavished upon him; his recovery resulted in his writing a gospel which has greatly extended the fame of Christ.
JT Yes, just so; the gospel finishes with, “they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following” Mark 16:26; that is, the Lord could identify Himself with them. We do not want to work save with this assurance. It is one thing to work for Him, but it is more touching to work with Him — that He should work with us.
Ques Should we be helped in that way by what the apostles did here?
JT I think that is right. They present their account in proper order, what they had done. That is how Luke presents the account of the Lord’s life,
the Lord’s ministry, what He “began both to do and to teach” Acts 1:1; the doing is put before the teaching. Teaching is doing, too, but the fact that it is mentioned separately would show that their walk and ways, how they did things in their service, is put first; because before we can take account of a man’s teaching, we must take account of himself, what he is; and he comes out in what he does.
AJG So that it is this gospel which records that it is said of Jesus, “He hath done all things well”. Mark 7:37.
JT That is peculiar to this gospel, is it not? I believe the man is seen in what he does.
AH Is it your thought that that gives colour and power to his ministry?
JT Yes, Paul speaks of his doctrine and manner of life. What a man is should really come before his teaching.
PL “Knowing of whom thou hast learned them”, 2 Timothy 3: 14.
JT Quite so. “Being such a one as Paul the aged”, Philemon 9.
Rem It is said of the disciples in the beginning of the Acts that “they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus”. Acts 4:13.
JT That is that they would take on of His ways, you mean. This proposal on the Lord’s part to rest is very touching — “Come ye yourselves apart ... and rest a little”. Some of us have been calculating the time spent by Israel in sabbath according to the types: it would average, in fifty years, thirty-eight per cent of their time. The Lord, I think, would remind us that for effective ministry there should be sabbath-keeping, and I think He has that in mind here. Not that the passage shows that they spent any time in the desert in leisure, — for it says, “they went away apart into a desert place by ship. And many saw them going, and recognised them, and ran together there on foot, out of all the cities, and got there before them”.
[p. 235] There was plenty to do as they reached the supposed resting-place; there is no suggestion that they went to shore and had a holiday — the “rest a little” must therefore be other than that; it must have a spiritual significance.
PL The demands of the service upon them were very exacting if they had not time so much as to eat. Would the Lord’s coming in, in the way He did, be to meet them? The labour was exacting.
JT Yes, the labour was exacting and they needed rest, but there is no evidence that it was a holiday they were going to get, nor does the Lord ever take a holiday, as far as we can see; yet He would not be without what was needed. You cannot conceive of the Lord being without what is needed in His service.
AJG Would you help us as to how we keep our sabbaths?
JT Well, I think it is in the service. He says, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place”. Of course, there is the suggestion that there is nothing for the flesh in the proposal, not even ordinary comfort; but elsewhere we are told that, in crossing the sea, He slept; that is, it was not a resting-place externally, it was not a matter of holiday, but there was ability to use a moment for what was needed. The servant acquires skill in securing what he needs in his service; the service does not stop.
AJG How would that apply spiritually, apart from what is connected with physical needs?
JT Well, it is not easy to say to people who are accustomed to holidays that we can rest otherwise, but I think that the Lord shows in His own experience that He did it. You will observe that there is no holiday attire about them; there is nothing to indicate that they were holiday people. It says, “And they went away apart into a desert place by ship. And many saw them going, and recognised them”. It is “them”, not ‘Him’, according to the best [p. 236] rendering.
That is, they are recognisable as servants, as attached to Jesus.
PL So that the camel’s hair clothing of John the baptist and the leathern girdle about his loins, would be the opposite of the holiday attire.
JT That is what I am thinking. If I am off on holiday with tennis or cricket equipment or seaside clothing, I am not recognisable from other holiday people, I just belong to the holiday set. These are recognised, those around recognise their identity with Jesus.
Ques Is it in the sense that “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”? John 5:17.
JT Yes, “I work”, not ‘I will work’; the thing goes on — “I work”. That is the idea, I think. Would you agree with that?
HFN Yes, indeed. Would the thought in Exodus, “in ploughing time and in harvest thou shalt rest” Exodus 34:21, be the same principle?
JT I think that is right. We would put in the word ‘toil’ there, I suppose, ordinarily; but “thou shalt rest”. The lines say, ‘Find in Thy service rest’. In this recognition of the Lord and the apostles, we ought to note that they are marked off, as they always were from the time of their entering into service — they are known. We do not want to be known otherwise; we do not want to be disguised. Of course, holiday-making is necessary, but I am afraid it sometimes entails a great deal of damage to our souls.
Ques Would it involve the question as to whether we are doing things well in what we are doing? The Lord did all things well, as you were saying. Would it be in keeping with what was in accord with heaven, that what we are doing is ministering in accord with the mind of heaven?
JT Yes, I believe the service never stops.
Ques The disciples were gathered to Jesus; would that be the antidote?
[p. 237] JT Yes. The record here suggests it was good so far. The disciples were gathered to Jesus — I suppose the form of the words would mean that it was characteristic — they are there, He is before them, and they tell Him what they had done and what they had taught, and now He proposes to rest a little.
PL Do you get this thought in the Lord Himself — the spirit of Christ in the psalmist going up with the festive throng to the house of God, and the Lord, in Luke, saying, “I must be about my Father’s business”? Luke 2:49.
JT Yes — “I must be”; that is characteristic, too, there is no relinquishment of that; and in that you are not disguised by holiday attire and other things that go with it. They “recognised them”, it says.
CH And in this proposal of the Lord to rest, are we to understand that we cannot constantly be giving out, we must also take in? Would that be connected with eating?
JT The Lord says, “Come ye yourselves apart” — the rest is, in that sense, I believe, with Him, and in that you are recognised. You cannot conceive of the Lord neglecting anything in His own service, in His own personal experience, that would be needed; and if we read nothing of holiday with Him, we should not reckon on it as to ourselves.
HS Had they the rest in going from one service to another?
JT Yes, I have no doubt they got rest on the boat. It is a good place, I suppose. Those of us who travel on the ocean are supposed to get rest on the boat, and there is no doubt opportunity for that, but it is not just as much as might be thought. The Lord, I think, led the way in this in that He slept as they were crossing at a later time. But going across the sea raises the question of whether those who do travel are affected by the world in such a passage, for [p. 238] nowhere is the world more condensed, and, I may say, more attractive, than it is on board ship; and those who do go down to the sea in ships, I believe, ought to learn from this scripture that they are to be recognisable as belonging to Jesus. And at the other side it says, “Jesus saw a great crowd, and he was moved with compassion for them” — there is no thought of a holiday at all, the need is too great; but then there must be what the Lord intended; you may be sure that neither He nor they missed what He proposed to them.
Rem It has often been remarked that in this gospel we get the word “immediately” so many times in relation to the Lord. It seems to suggest that with the Lord there was no waste of time, if one might say so reverently.
JT That is the thought — from one thing to another. Here we read He was moved with compassion as to what He found on the other side; He found the multitude and He was moved with compassion. That is a state in the servant that pleases God: God is compassionate — “My Father worketh hitherto”, the Lord says, “and I work”. John 5:17. The thing is going on.
Rem Do you suggest that cities and villages are the sphere of service, and the desert place for retirement, but even when you get there service is to be carried on?
JT Yes, you see the need, the need was there ahead of Him. And so it says, “because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things”. He was moved with compassion; that is the state which the servant should be in, there is the capability of being affected by need, whatever that may be.
FL So that we get the groaning and the sighing — the feelings of Christ — in Mark’s gospel.
JT Yes, more than anywhere else. It is to bring [p. 239] out what is needed, what should mark the servant. And then, as we were remarking, what comes out incidentally is the manner of the feeding, involving, as you might say, assembly organisation.
Ques Is it the heart of the shepherd and the significance of His hands? Is that why shepherds and teachers go together?
JT Just so. Then, if you have food to minister, the best way to minister it; so that the servant is concerned as to how the saints are set, what meetings there are and how many in the week and how large; and whether there cannot be more, and whether, if there are more, the food will not be better dispensed and more effective.
Ques You were speaking of assembly organisation; were you referring to verse 40 — “they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties”?
JT Yes, that is what I was thinking of. The Lord says, in verse 37, “Give ye them to eat”. Then He says, “How many loaves have ye? Go and see”. We have here a state in the servants that is not quite what it should be: “Go and see”. It is well, if we do not know, to go and see, but I think the Lord would imply that we should know what there is.
HFN Will you say a little more in regard of the thought of assembly organisation? How does that bear upon the thought of service?
JT I think it is the business part of the servant’s work to see to it that the saints get the most out of what he may have to minister, and, for that, he enquires as to meetings, what meetings are held, how many saints there are — you get to know here — and it is his business, under the Lord, to help as to that organisation, not only because order is needed, but that there should be the greatest effectiveness possible.
HFN Do you refer to the thought of the week-night meetings — the reading and so on?
JT Yes.
[p. 240] Ques In Luke is it more from the standpoint of the local setting of the saints, and here from the standpoint of service?
JT I think so. It is fifties and hundreds here; Luke confines us to fifties, and I think the Spirit of God there indicates the Lord’s mind imperatively; here the matter is more elastic.
Ques Would this chapter have what is local as a basis, but extended, as our meeting this afternoon, for instance?
JT Yes, they might have been more extended; but even as to them, a hundred is the limit here. I do not believe it is one occasion that is in mind; any number may be fed, but it is what is to characterise a locality.
Ques Are you suggesting that, if there were more than a hundred, you would be moved with compassion?
JT Yes, the large numbers arouse the Lord’s compassion; “they were as sheep”, it says, “not having a shepherd” — that is, they were not housed and cared for generally; and I think this implies that the servant is to see to that. The shepherd’s business is to see to the sheep, not only as to their food, but as to their general welfare and comfort. Therefore, enquiry as to the meetings and their size is a matter of great importance in the service, and that the saints should be helped in a general way, for it is a question of the general state of things, that they may get with greater effect what there is for them.
Ques Is not that the particular value of the care meetings?
JT Yes. This sort of thing ought to be adjusted there, but if not adjusted there, it is the business of the servant to bring it home to the conscience of all, so that it may be attended to.
Ques Is that why the Lord brings in teaching here? He immediately taught them many things.
JT That is right — “many things”. It is remarkable how many things come up all the time. You say, ‘That was taught years ago’; well, it is not learned yet.
PL Is it because the wilderness was not learnt? They are in the desert.
JT Quite so; it is really a desert position. The people are here because Jesus is here — that is a great matter.
PL Is not the acceptance of small gatherings bound up with the acceptance of wilderness conditions?
JT Yes, I think the big gatherings tend to minimise the wilderness conditions.
PL Do you mean we like a crowd?
JT Yes, we do naturally; there is something about a crowd that appeals to the flesh. In regard to the minister’s business — it is not only that things are said, but they are taught — “He began to teach them many things”. We also have the Lord saying things, but teaching is so important, that the thing is fixed in the minds of the saints in power; it is so, it must be so, it is the mind of God that it must be so — teaching enforces things in that way.
Ques In the Acts, a great man was amazed at the teaching of the Lord by the word of the servant. Is Paul, in that way, a typical servant, a skilled labourer, as you were saying?
JT That is what comes out in chapter 13, and it is there you get “Paul and his company” Acts 13:13 for the first time. Where you get teaching from the Lord, you need not be afraid of the company. That man is said to have been an intelligent man. There was authoritative teaching; we need not be afraid of that.
Rem There were five thousand men here; before, they were a crowd. Does this teaching of the Lord, particularly focussing itself in small meetings, go to produce men according to God?
JT [p. 242] I think that is good. You get the same thing in the Acts; there are men mentioned, not only persons, at a certain time in Jerusalem; that is when manhood was showing itself.
Ques Do you see any importance in the Lord’s remark here, “Go and see”? Are we not perhaps apt locally to overlook what we have?
JT A very important thing, I think. It is important in a district to enquire what is there, as David did of Abimelech in 1 Samuel 21:3. ‘How many loaves have ye?’; whatever you have can be used. They did not have much here, but it was important that what was there should be stated. The whole passage calls for thoughtfulness, attention, care; there are no loose ends contemplated at all. As it says of Lydia, she was a seller of purple, she was a business woman; business people are supposed to be attentive to things. I think that is the thought here, that things are known, enquired into, and if more can be done in the place — well, that is what is in mind, things should be done, things should not be allowed to rest — make the most of what we have.
Rem If there is matter there potentially, the Lord may use it and enlarge it.
JT Yes. If we use that word ‘organisation’ (for want of a better), it conveys the idea of things being ordered and regulated.
Ques Would it be like the men of Issachar who had understanding of the times and knew what Israel ought to do?
JT Quite so. That is what the Lord is aiming at, to make the most of what there is.
PL It is what it becomes in His hands.
JT Yes. Then there is not only the food but the people sitting in these companies. It is much more for persons with a business eye to see five thousand men sitting in companies than to see them sitting any [p. 243] way; in Israel in the wilderness with God this was what appeared — they were organised.
PL Otherwise would it be said that “they all ate and were satisfied”?
JT I think not — you would miss some. You can easily inspect a state of things like this; when they are sitting in fifties and hundreds no one is omitted, no one is neglected, there is an ordered state of things as there was in the wilderness; the book of Numbers brings this out.
PL So under David there were captains of thousands, and so on — is that the organisation?
JT Exactly.
AH All in view of the prosperity of the work of God in His people.
JT Yes, we are moving together. You know where people are and whether they are being cared for, and so on. In a crowd of five thousand it is not easy to see how they are getting on.
Rem The matter of organising devolved on those who were in the service.
JT Yes, the servant brings light in. He told the disciples to make them all sit down by companies on the green grass. He did not specify, as in Luke, how large the companies were to be — that is the part of the servant — the commandment is that they should be in companies.
Ques Do you mean to convey to us that the Lord credited His servants with intelligence to know what His mind was as having companied with Him?
JT Quite so; although in Luke I think He specifies, I suppose Luke has Paul’s company in mind. Here the matter is left open, and “they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties” — you could easily count them.
HFN In principle, would the disciples here whom the Lord compelled to go into the boat correspond with Paul’s [p. 244] company?
JT I think so; that company was recognised “Many saw them going” — the Lord was included — “and recognised them, and ran together there on foot, out of all the cities, and got there before them”. The company was in mind, I suppose. The Lord, in moving about Galilee, became known; Jesus and His disciples, they were a known company; I should not like to be unrecognisable as of that company.
HFN Would that always involve a fresh spiritual movement? “Let us go over to the other side”. Will the company, as the result of being in faith, always take up fresh ground spiritually?
JT I think they would. You can understand any movement of the Lord’s would imply that.
PL Would the two thoughts of obscurity and being recognised be blended? As in the word of Paul, “unknown, and yet well known”, 2 Corinthians 6:9.
JT I think so, he and his company would be known. The damsel who had the evil spirit said, “These men are the servants of the most high God” Acts 16:17 — that was to becloud the position; they were not that, that was not the position, Paul and his company were not that; they corresponded more with this, with what the Lord was here.
Ques Have you any thought as to what the five loaves and the two fishes represent?
JT What is small: the point is that whatever they had He would use. That is a question that comes up in the locality, ‘What is there?’ We are put to it to know what there is, and He uses that.
Ques Are the numbers significant — five and two?
JT I think so. Five would be a suggestion of what is small; two has often been noted as representing adequate testimony. The bread, of course, represents what is on the land; and the fish what is in the sea; the resources of God are implied, and, however little or much the Lord uses, what we have is of divine resources, divine provision. I suppose every [p. 245] little meeting has something; every brother and every sister has something; if he is characteristically a christian he has something, a divine provision. God would never send us out without provision, and the Lord uses that.
PL Five and two are what is found in the company.
JT Yes.
AJG It says “a few small fishes” in the next feeding. Mark 8:7.
JT Yes. I think this first feeding is more explicit, and outward order is more in mind; the second is what is spiritual, although the four thousand are mentioned and you have seven loaves; it is what is spiritual, the ranks are omitted. In other words, the first feeding is like 1 and 2 Corinthians, and the second like Colossians and Ephesians. Would you say that?
AJG I was going to ask if the first feeding is the economy in the divine system of the local assembly as over against the economy in the world as in Herod and his system; and the second as over against the religious world.
JT Yes, I think the second would be over against the religious world. Herod represents wicked opposition to what is of God; so 1 and 2 Corinthians, with other scriptures like them, treat of what is public, our public position. The second feeding in this book is in chapter 8, and it is spiritual, so you have larger results, too.
PL So that the giving of thanks by the Lord comes into the second, and hence in Colossians and Ephesians we often have the expression “Giving thanks”. Is that a spiritual thought?
JT Yes, you have more giving of thanks in Colossians and Ephesians than anywhere. “He looked up to heaven, and blessed”, it says here, in verse 41, but that is all; you get the blessing in [p. 246] 1 Corinthians, but in Colossians and Ephesians you get much more about that, the giving of thanks. So in the second feeding, in chapter 8, the Lord does not look up to heaven, for it is a question of the Spirit — of divine Persons here — a very great matter. But what we are concerned with now is the order, whether the Lord is getting all He should, and whether the saints are getting the best service in the present state of things.
AH Would you enlarge a little on the order — making the crowd sit down on the green grass?
JT Well, as we have been remarking, it is the authority of the Lord; it is like 1 and 2 Corinthians, how the saints should be ordered externally.
AH Does it show that part of the work of the servant is to produce a spirit of restfulness with the saints?
JT Yes. “He ordered them to make them all sit down by companies on the green grass”. I suppose green grass would be something very advantageous in the wilderness; that is, the position should in every way enhance what is being ministered; the saints’ comforts are provided for, there is an evidence of prosperity even in the wilderness.
PL Would the new covenant ministry in 2 Corinthians link up with the green grass, the green appearing in connection with the throne in Revelation?
JT I think so. I think the green grass would be 2 Corinthians; the covenant belongs to the wilderness and it evidences prosperity, it is like newness of life.
HFN In the second feeding of the multitude it says they sat on the ground. There would not be the same evidence of comfort in a spiritual setting.
JT No, it is not needed. In the public position you look for the evidences of divine care, God is concerned about it, it is His matter; it is “the assembly of God which is in Corinth” 1 Corinthians 1:2, 2 Corinthians 1:1; He is concerned about that and there should be nothing lacking [p. 247] in that respect. God would see to it that His people are cared for, hence the collection, for instance, is treated of in those two epistles, God would not have His people suffer physically; I suppose that would all enter into the “green grass” — the comfort of the saints. If it is God’s assembly, there should be nothing lacking in that way.
Ques Is that why the Spirit of God delights to record again and again that David brought in the recorders and the scribes? He speaks of David’s bringing in scribes, chroniclers, and captains — those who would see that there was nothing lacking.
JT That is right. God is committed to the public assembly, it is His matter, and that is, I think, why we get, “So also is the Christ” 1 Corinthians 12:12; it is an anointed matter, God is identified with it in the anointing, and He would have nothing omitted that the saints require, the comfort of the saints and all that goes with the public assembly should be present.
Ques Would not Psalm 23 show the green pastures?
JT Quite so. That psalm supports what we are saying, that the public assembly should be marked off as provided for by God, there should be nothing lacking, it is God’s assembly.
Rem We have the authority of the Lord as Son over God’s house; He ordered, He blessed, He broke, He compelled, He dismissed.
JT Yes, that is very beautiful; He is gradually rising till the end of the chapter when they are all running about to bring need to Him. Notice the word ‘recognised’ at the beginning of the passage and at the end. At the end they are recognising Him, not merely the saints, but Christ. But the saints should be recognised; it goes with the public assembly that we are recognisable as of God.
Ques Is it a little like what you spoke of at Surbiton, “This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness” Acts 7:38?
JT It is just exactly that, it is the Moses who is in the assembly in the wilderness; and how the Lord shines, as Moses indeed shone, too; he was a king in Jeshurun, as we are told; that is, he rose in distinction in the service.
PL So you get the words, “he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing”, Deuteronomy 2:7.
JT That is the thought exactly, I am glad you mentioned that. That is due to God if it is God’s host. David’s camp became “a great camp, like the camp of God” 1 Chronicles 12:22; so in the wilderness it was God’s assembly, and it is insisted on that He is there and that everything should comport with this passage; and God, being the God of compassion according to Romans, would omit nothing in His house that the saints require.
Ques Would that come out when David is in rejection in 2 Samuel 17, when he came to Mahanaim, and Shobi and Barzillai and the others met him with beds and basons and wheat and honey, etc.? Would that be a manifestation of the care and compassion of God?
JT Quite so. I think what we are saying is of very great practical importance as to the local position. It is God’s assembly, and there should be nothing out of keeping with God. He loves His people; He nursed them forty years in the desert, we are told; He bore with their manners. There is every evidence that God cared for His people, so that there should be nothing lacking in the local company for the comfort of the saints, that they should get the full result of what there may be from God.
Ques Is the principle seen in the end of Esther? It says of Mordecai. “seeking the welfare of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed”, Esther [p. 249] 10:3.
JT Quite so, seeking their welfare.
PL So you have the expression of the first-fruits of Achaia, the household of Stephanas, that “they have devoted themselves to the saints for service”; and then later, “because they have supplied what was lacking on your part”, 1 Corinthians 16:17. Would that fit in?
JT Quite so; what was needed was supplied. That is what God would have us to have before us, that there should be no lack amongst us.
HFN Would you say a little more in connection with the thought of the Lord being recognisable? It is the crux of the whole chapter, as you were saying.
JT I think it is worthy of comparison that in the early part of our scripture it says, they “recognised them” (verse 33), and then, “on their coming out of the ship, immediately recognising him, they ran through that whole country around, and began to carry about those that were ill on couches, where they heard that he was ... and as many as touched him were healed” (verses 54 - 56). You are impressed with the place He is acquiring through His attention to the servants, because that is what is in mind throughout the chapter, His attention to the servants — other things are incidental; and through His attention He becomes recognisable in His own personal majesty and greatness.
Ques Is that how He is recognised as the Son of God?
JT Yes, that is the thought, I think; He is everything now. Then another thing; before He joined them He was alone on the land and they were in the ship; that is a remarkable setting, and then He walks on the sea and would have passed them by (verse 48). I think that is a challenge; not that He intended really to pass them by but He takes that attitude, as much as to say, ‘Things are not just right’; He may go on somewhere else.
AH Is that seen in the statement Mark makes that “their heart was hardened”?
JT That is the secret of it; He knew what was going on in their hearts.
AJG Have you in mind that this recognition of the Lord is the result of the way He is apprehended and cherished in the local company?
JT I think so. He becomes prominent in His care of, and attention to, His servants. It is in the locality as they reached the land.
Ques May we have a word on the Lord’s dismissing them here? Is the sense of support in a public way and in assembly organisation? His absence tests them, and that is why He would pass them by, for their hearts were hardened. Is there anything in that, do you think?
JT It says, “immediately he compelled his disciples to go on board ship, and to go on before to the other side to Bethsaida, while he sends the crowd away. And, having dismissed them, he departed into the mountain to pray”. The disciples are to do something by themselves, not now sent out in power as in the early part of the chapter, but to go on before to the other side to Bethsaida. They are allowed to move by themselves under His direction to a certain place, and He dismisses the crowd, as if He would care for them to the utmost. Dismissing them is not simply letting them do as they wish; they would have a sense of His care in His dismissal of them.
Rem His dismissal would be different from the disciples’ sending them away, as they proposed earlier.
JT I think the Lord’s dismissal is a very beautiful thought; It is not that He is leaving them for good; He is away, but there would be something in His action to affect them, and the disciples are now without Him for the moment but under His direction;
[p. 251] and then He goes on high. It is a beautiful scene as denoting the present time, the Lord on high and we left under His orders. Now what will He do? The disciples would be expecting something after this, and what they get is that the Lord is walking on the water and would have passed them by. Surely there is rebuke in this! There is something wrong.
Ques Is it a similar thought to the two going to Emmaus, where the Lord would have gone further?
JT I think the point there is that He would go further if necessary; He was not tired of the journey, He was seeking their recovery. Here the point is that He would leave them with an impression. Why should He appear to pass them by? There is something wrong; things are not right — it is the state of their hearts. It is what is liable to happen when we are absent from the Lord. Even though under His direction, their hearts were not right, things were against them. If things are against us, well, why is it so? Why does He seek to pass us?
Ques Is that the suggestion in the Lord’s saying “it is I”?
JT Yes, there is very great significance in that.