CHILDREN GIVEN TO CHRIST
[p. 196] CHILDREN GIVEN TO CHRIST
Exodus 18: 2 - 4; Genesis 41: 50 - 52; Isaiah 8: 18
These scriptures speak of children given to Christ, Joseph and Moses being typical of Christ; and Isaiah speaking directly of Christ: all to bring to our attention the idea of children which God has given to Him. The bearing of these Scriptures is on ourselves; indeed, whenever the scripture is read the bearing is on him who reads or those present; as in the Lord’s case, starting out in His service He stood up to read in the synagogue at Nazareth, and as He read He said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears”; the bearing of it was on those present. It had been read before many times, and it has been read since, and whenever read, it was bearing on those who heard. So now these scriptures bear on us in this town today, and one might say they are fulfilled too, not only in our ears, but in our hearts, for in truth we belong to those children.
Moses represents the Lord in His strangership here. Joseph represents Him as among the gentiles, exclusively so; Isaiah 8 points to Him as in relation to the house of Jacob. God was hiding His face, he said, from the house of Jacob, and He gave Christ children.
Now the hope is that we should all be able to assimilate the teaching of these passages from the standpoint of which I have spoken, that is, that we have part in the children whom God gave to Christ, and the aim of the address will be to show how the traits indicated are to bear upon us where strangership is accepted first, that is in Gershom. We, as all believers having part in the fellowship, are very prone to be national, and to live largely in relation to national history and existence. We are most carefully [p. 197] and emphatically enjoined to be subject to the powers that be; nothing is plainer than that, and indeed we should show our sympathy with them because they have a mandate from God. Governments in themselves abstractly are not the world; they have to be distinguished from it: they are of God, “The powers that be are ordained”, we are told, not simply allowed, but “ordained of God”, so that it is imperative that we respect them and assist them too, but as fully maintaining the rights of God and Christ, for we must obey God rather than men, whoever they may be. They may demand from us more than they should, entrenching on the divine rights. We may all do that to one another; we may demand from each other beyond what we should, entrenching on the divine rights. But then there are obligations to our brethren, and obligations to our fellow-men as creatures of God, and there are obligations to the authorities from the king down. All these obligations enter into christian responsibility. I would specially refer to our obligations to our fellow-creatures; they have to be looked at abstractly, not exactly as the world, but like ourselves, as living and moving and having our being in God. So that speaking to them of God and of Christ on that ground, there is always a point of contact with men. The Lord sent His apostles into all the world but to preach the gospel to “every creature”. The world is the moral side, the creature or creation is itself of God and must be respected.
As brethren, of course, we are regarded as under obligations to one another. It is well to be balanced in this, because we are told “Every man shall bear his own burden”. Let him understand that, that he is to bear his own burden. No godly man will be a public charge or dependent even on his brethren; he will bear his own burden. But then we have obligations to one another which are most important if we [p. 198] are to maintain right relations and feelings. These obligations must be observed, and among other things, we must submit ourselves to the brethren. If there be no confidence underlying our public relations with one another, there is no moral effect at all. Confidence must underlie fellowship, and love is the basis of confidence. If I have confidence in the brethren I can submit myself to them.
Making due allowance for all these things one is to be a stranger here. The Lord Jesus took up that ground. Moses said, “I have been an alien in a strange land”, he felt it and we all feel strangership. Our next-door neighbours look askance at us as we take this ground. There is suffering attached to it. With persons who would favour you, distance sets in as soon as they discover you are taking this ground. So Moses felt it. We can enter into his position as he sat by the well in Midian having fled from Egypt, the land of his birth, though he was no Egyptian; he had already identified himself with his brethren in their slavery; he had committed himself to them. He went out, we are told, to look on his brethren; the children of Israel. They were slaves publicly, but they were his brethren. The reproach of Egypt indeed was just that, that he had accepted identification with his brethren although they were despised in Egypt. He had to flee the country, and he sat by the well. We can enter into his feelings of strangership! Egypt closed to him, though the Israelites were there, not in Canaan then. Egypt was closed to him and the wrath of the king was behind him; he had no friend in Midian, but was alone by the well. This is an experience we need to understand. We should covet to understand and appropriate that sense of strangership, even though but for a moment, it is not to be forgotten. His marriage with Zipporah did not cause his strangership to cease. His father-in-law was kind, but the sense of strangership remained and [p. 199] Gershom must express it. Each in his house must express it, for the head of the house is not alone to accept the strangership. The house is to accept it, too. There is to be the testimony to strangership, not only by the head or the parents, but by all in it. What is incompatible with strangership has no place in a believer’s house. Literature, ways and conversation, all is to denote strangership. Gershom represents what is prominent in the house every minute of the day, testifying to the strangership of Moses and of his house.
Then, dear brethren, in accepting the strangership we come in for divine help. It was not a new thought: it was a patriarchal thought. It began with Abraham; the word to him was, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house”, and we are told that Abraham confessed that he was a pilgrim and stranger on the earth. And then it is added, “God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared for them a city”, Hebrews 11: 16. So with Moses, he comes in for divine help. What can be greater than that! Eliezer — the help of God, “God is my help”, he says. The suffering will go on with the strangership; it is allied with the strangership. We cannot but suffer, in spirit at least, in the acceptance of strangership, but then we get God’s company and God’s help; so the second son in the house represents that. What a household! These two sons make the house; not simply Moses and Zipporah, but the whole house. Strangership and divine help mark the house at the same time. So Moses kept his father-in-law’s flock for forty years. Think of the wonderful patience of the man in that country of strangership! We never hear of any wages demanded or given, as with Jacob. Moses is the subject man; he represents the book of Exodus. He has learnt subjection, as another great servant said, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content”, Philippians 4: 11. Moses [p. 200] was like that, and in due course he was further helped of God. He speaks of “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush”. That word “good will” is a remarkable phrase, it is used in business; men include it in their accounts. Sometimes it is of very little value, but think of the value of the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, entering into one’s house, entering into one’s circumstances! Here, it is written in large letters on the family. Eliezer, God helps! it is “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush”. You can see, dear brethren, how independent we are of the world. There is the strangership and the suffering allied to it, but there is divine support every moment of the day and night, so that we are rendered independent as Moses was: he was delivered from Pharaoh, the greatest power at that time; Moses should prove this throughout all his days, and his children are to be witnesses to this. We are to be witnesses to strangership and divine help, subjection marking the whole position, just as with Moses in Midian during the forty years of his life there, feeding sheep. He led them to the backside of the desert, to the mount of God. We have already spoken of it; it is the place of divine resource; we shall never want, one can say that with assurance, we shall never want there, “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”, Genesis 22: 14. That is where Moses was when Jehovah appeared to him in the bush, where the good will was shown. It is very precious in a land of strangership with the suffering that goes with it, to come under the influence of good will in somebody. Even the world itself at times is changed towards us, for “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord”. That is the good will and there is nothing so comforting as the sense of favourable will towards you in a time of suffering — “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush”.
Well now, Joseph is another view of Christ, and one feels, in view of what we have had already, that what [p. 201] I am saying is of the greatest importance in a practical way. We are to be witnesses of Christ’s present position, rejected in this world, as a Stranger rejected, but He has these children. They are our very selves, dear brethren! Others have come and gone, but we are here today, and the onus is on us, as to strangership and the power of God; we are set up in strangership, but with divine support in the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush. Joseph is Christ as among the gentiles; he was in Egypt. We have to read every passage contextually. Joseph is in the very spot whence Moses had to flee. It is another position; earlier indeed, but in the order of the truth coming in later, for it is Christ as entirely among the gentiles. There is an occasional convert among the Jews today, but it is very exceptional. The apostle Paul sets out the position; no one loved Israel, aside from Christ, more than Paul did. He said he had wished to be accursed from Christ for them. No one clung to them more than Paul, but they were unaffected. They go away reasoning, and he has to say, “Lo, we turn to the Gentiles”, Acts 13: 46, “This salvation of God has been sent to the nations; they also will hear it”, Acts 28: 28. That is the position from that day to this; not that there were not many Jews at first in the assembly; there were, but the position was changed, it was no longer the Jew first, the Jew was left out altogether — “Lo, we turn to the Gentiles”. “The salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and ... they will hear it”. The Colossian epistle written from Rome sets it out, it is addressed to the gentile purely. It is said of Paul at Rome that he dwelt in his own hired house. He was independent in that sense; he was not an owner, he hired his house. He maintained strangership in the very heart of the nation in power in Rome. He wrote the epistle to the Colossians from that point of view. He wrote to the Ephesians, too, in which he included [p. 202] the Jews very strikingly (Ephesians 2: 11 - 22), but the characteristic gentile epistle from Rome is that to the Colossians.
Joseph says, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house”. It is what the Lord Jesus would say to us week by week, ‘I have forgotten all about the Jews, My relation with them, My toil with them’ — and, oh, how He toiled amongst them! “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house”. All the precious relations according to the promises to the fathers are forgotten. It is a remarkable thing, and the Lord would give us to understand, dear brethren, that He is entirely devoted to the gentiles now, and among them. “Ye also” being gentiles, “Ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, Ephesians 2: 22. Christ “among the gentiles” — “Christ in [or among] you the hope of glory”, Colossians 1: 27. Think of that in this town! Christ has for the moment given up His relationship with the Jews; He is perfectly content with us. “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house”. This is the firstborn Manasseh. That household is characterised by it; forgetting all Jewish claims and judaism. For the time being He is taken up with us entirely as taken out from among the nations.
Then there is Ephraim — double fruitfulness. Ephraim is doubly fruitful. First there is the sense of forgetfulness of one’s connections after the flesh. We have to learn everything from Christ. This matter of family links after the flesh, as entering into this position, is damaging everywhere, family links after the flesh influencing in the assembly of Christ. It is contrary to what this passage teaches. The Lord has forgotten all that, why not we? Why not learn to forget as we view the saints in assembly relations, to shut out of our minds mere natural links? They have their place, of course, as Israel has its place,
[p. 203] but for the moment the Lord is given up wholly to us, and so each one of us as in the assembly, for the moment, whilst recognising family links, is entirely free from them as having no place in the assembly. If this were taken home to our hearts, it would save us much sorrow. My father is to be no more to me in the assembly than another, nor my brother, nor my wife, nor my child. We are to learn to forget things. We need the Spirit for this. We are to forget the natural. By doing so we would save ourselves and others from many a sorrow, and from grieving the Holy Spirit in the service of God. The Lord Himself said to His mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” (John 2: 4), and again, when they say, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee”, He says, “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother”, Mark 3: 32 - 35. The natural is shut out in that way, dear brethren, for the good of the testimony, for the satisfaction of Christ, too, and the service of God. We are to be relieved of all that is natural. So in Psalm 45, one of the Maschil psalms, we read, “Forget thine own people and thy father’s house”, (verse 10). Learn to do it. You say, How can I forget? It is in the power of the Spirit that I can forget and shut out everything that is extraneous to a particular time. The Spirit is equal to it. We have to learn to forget. “Forget thine own people and thy father’s house; and the king will desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord”. That is brought in very significantly. Let us never think, dear brethren, for one instant that anything is optional, for in the things of God everything that God enjoins is imperative. What is privilege is privilege, but it becomes an imperative matter, “He is thy Lord”. It is worth while to forget mine own people and my father’s house if the Lord desires my beauty. The Lord says, ‘I am thy [p. 204] Lord and what I indicate is imperative’. It is sinful to go back to what the Lord enjoins me to forget. It is much more sinful than we often assume. We assume that things are optional. The definition of sin in Scripture is “lawlessness”.
Finally, in Isaiah we have this matter of signs. “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel” (chapter 8: 18). I am to be a sign, the public thing; not only in the house as in the case of these sons of Moses and Joseph, but these children that God gave Christ after hiding His face from the house of Jacob are for signs and wonders in Israel. It is another view. When the apostles were in Jerusalem after the Lord went up to heaven, they were outstanding men. We have to take the book of the Acts for this. Luke does not separate them from Israel, not even in the earlier chapters of the Acts, but there is from the outset a direct link with the assembly, and a direct separation from the Jewish position. They went back to it in grace, for testimony. They were to be for signs and wonders in Israel, but the position secretly was in the upper room. A rigid Pharisee might see these men going there; he may have said, Where are these men going? What are they doing there? That question might be asked in hundreds of places throughout this country with regard to our meeting-rooms. People do not understand, seeing motor cars standing round, sometimes in numbers, sometimes sumptuous enough, but where are the owners? What are these men about? Well, there it is. They go into that room sometimes by hundreds, sometimes by thousands. What are they doing? Why do they not go to the cathedral and other such buildings? They are quite large enough. Those that saw the Lord Jesus go up, according to the Acts, went to the upper room. What did they go for? That is the sign, that is the wonder. Let them wonder!
[p. 205] What was going on inside that room? Well, the Spirit of God just dwells on their names; they were all known in heaven, the handiwork of Christ. They are for signs and wonders in Israel. They do not build on the ordinary religious principles; no religious architecture at all attaches to their buildings. Why is that? Well, there it is; it is a sign, something to notice in Israel. You go inside, what do you see? It is not inopportune to remark that it is due to God that our meeting-rooms should be such as not to be a discredit to the testimony. They should not be prohibitive in any sense to the ordinary person. It should be perfectly plain that anyone may come there to hear what is said. Occasionally one may be convicted of sin inside; why should you keep him out by any objectionableness in the room? Why should the room not be such as should help, not hinder, such a person coming in? He may fall down, “convicted of all”, according to 1 Corinthians 14: 24.
In Acts 1 those persons who went into the upper room were staying there. They were not strangers there; they were staying there. They would let anyone go in; I am sure the door was not locked. The principle is that they were for signs and wonders in Israel. Let them ask; someone will go further than merely asking, and will find out. Peter will give a good account. That is what he did in his remarkable address. But while they were that, they were for “signs and wonders in Israel”; they were the children that God gave Christ, a sort of recompense, and we can understand how He loved coming among them, and that continues to this very day. He loves to come in among His children. It is only a figurative thought, it is not properly the assembly, but the expression “children” carries with it its own suggestion, that is, how a father loves his children, and I suppose it entered into all the Lord’s visitations, how He appeared to them. As risen from among the dead,
He would say “Children”. It is a parental thought of the tenderest kind, and that is how the Lord loves to come among us. He does not fail in love of any quality, and He loves us in a parental way. We see that as we make way for Him; as we wait upon Him He comes in. So it says, “He appeared to”, or “was seen of above five hundred brethren at once”. You can understand how He would look around on them with parental feeling. It is one of the features of our position, that the Lord comes in in this parental way. In a care meeting, or at any time, He would look at us and say “Children”. We are signs and wonders publicly, but secretly we come under the wings of Christ, and thus are rendered independent of this world.
That is what I had to say and I commit it to the Lord, dear brethren.