PROTECTION
[p. 481] PROTECTION
What I had in view in reading this chapter is to call attention first to the principle of independency. The seven women spoken of represent an exercise under the government of God, as indicated in the previous chapter. The prophet speaks of a certain governmental condition that had come about. It is, as you will observe, marked by independency of God; women ruled over the people, children spoke disrespectfully of their elders, and the women were marked by extreme worldliness, so that we have a remarkable foreshadowing of our own times, and, I may add, particularly on this continent.
Not that man is any different, save that environment brings to light certain proclivities. But it would be an entire mistake to assume that man is at all different in one continent from what he is in another. Man is man! In John 2 there were those that believed on the Lord because of the signs, but He did not trust Himself to them. Nationality is not in view, but all men; for He knew what was in man. Certain environments may develop certain proclivities, but the Lord knew what was in man, and He trusted no man. He did not commit Himself to them.
But then certain environments promote particular features, and so we find in the history of man that he travelled; as it is said, toward the east. Now travel has an influence over man, and particularly promotes independency. A man who crosses the Atlantic assumes that he has accomplished something, and if he has crossed all the oceans he has accomplished more. And the more a man travels the more independent he is, for he feels he can look after himself. He can cut himself loose from old ties. Hence we [p. 482] read that as men travelled eastward they arrived at Shinar: “they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there”, Genesis 11:2.
You may be assured that this was the outcome of experience. They had travelled together and they had discovered that they could get along, that they could utilise the products of any territory, and so they made a common fund of their experience. They would establish a community, they would build a city and a tower, and the city would have the gain of the common experience of the whole race. It would be an unheard of thing and a new departure. It would make an epoch in the history of the human race, and be a beginning marked by centralisation. Centralisation involves a contrary power and independency of God.
And so this was the decision they arrived at: “Come on, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which may reach to the heavens; and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth”, Genesis 11:4. That was the resolution, and it was immediately put into effect. They obtained the material for the city and tower and set to work to establish it.
There is on every hand the evidence of independence of God. Men strive to go beyond divine limitations and to acquire what they intended to accomplish at Babel. The cities are increasing. The country is being deserted for the city, and this is not by chance. It is largely a result of a certain course, and Satan is at the bottom of it. An increase of population means an increase of sin and independency of God.
But then God intervenes, and comes down to see what they were doing. Do you think God is looking on without interest in what is occurring here? We read, “Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built” (Genesis 11:5), as if to show the intense interest He had in men. There was [p. 483] nothing in it all for Him, as far as the record goes. In fact, the epistle to the Romans would show that they decided they did not like to retain God in their knowledge; what was known of God had no place. God was deliberately shut out. But He says, I will come down. He would, as it were, impress upon them His interest. And so today, notwithstanding the awful wickedness in these cities, God is interested in them. He knows all about this city and every one in it.
One has been impressed of late that the Lord Jesus called out from heaven the name of a certain street in Damascus. We have no record of His ever having visited Damascus but He knew everything in that city. Such is the patient interest of God that He is interested in man. His long-suffering is salvation. He would apply a negative remedy to the situation. They would wish not to be dispersed. God said that is just what is going to happen. Decentralisation has been the order of the day ever since. That is a mercy of God.
You find islands of very small size far out in the Pacific, and yet they are inhabited. How did people get there? Genesis 11 tells us; God scattered men over the face of the whole earth. The Holy Spirit penned that chapter. He knew the earth was round; He knew all these continents. God is infinitely more particular about detail than we are wont to assume. Nothing happens without Him, and it is said of the Lord Jesus Christ that not one thing was made without Him. Not one thing. Such is God, beloved friends!
And so He says, I will scatter them abroad on the face of the whole earth. If man would centralise, God would decentralise, and scatter them abroad on the face of the earth, because He would reserve them for the gospel. It is easier to preach to a few than to the whole race centralised at Shinar. What [p. 484] would such care for the gospel? They had elected to leave God out of their knowledge, and God gave them up. The modern trend is to centralise again, and that is what is coming. Let us not be deceived, the evil principles that are at work in centralisation are going to be successful, but not until God permits it. But He is going to permit it, and men are going to set up a head in the Antichrist. In the meantime God is maintaining what He did in Genesis 11 and the Holy Spirit will not permit any successful effort at centralisation. In the Acts He begins by speaking in their own tongues, in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is said, “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the great things of God”, Acts 2:11.
Now in Isaiah 4 we find that there has been an exercise, and if there is no exercise the gospel will accomplish nothing. So that instead of the women of pride in chapter 3, we have seven in this chapter. In Scripture seven refers to the result of a direct exercise. Enoch was the seventh from Adam, the product of an exercise. “And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, Our own bread will we eat, and with our own garments will we be clothed; only let us be called by thy name”. Now that is the very opposite of independency. Modern women do not wish anything like this, but assume competency to get on under their own name. I am not speaking of women as such, but of women as representing the race in its subjective features. But these women have come back to the divine thought. When sin came into the world God said to Eve about Adam, “and he shall rule over thee” (Genesis 3:16); that is to say, the race will be subject. That is the divine thought, the principle of subjection, but in modern times the place that woman is acquiring means that this principle has been cast to the winds.
So that there is a return to Christ in these seven. He is that one Man. The point was that these women [p. 485] were conscious of being under reproach. There is nothing so hard to bear as reproach. Here I am under reproach, if I bear the name of Christ and go out into the world. But with God it is different, for if you come into the presence of God without Christ, you are under reproach, and every intelligence in heaven will look upon you with scorn. There is no place in heaven, there is no place in the house of God on earth, nor in the kingdom for you without Christ. These women say, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach”.
We read in verse 2, “in that day there shall be a sprout of Jehovah for beauty and glory”. “A sprout” suggests something that is young and fresh and attractive. As coming to Christ not only is reproach taken away, but you have come under the eye of God in relation to all that Christ is as beautiful and glorious. If you were to see what transpired in heaven when Jesus was born, you would have some knowledge of what this meant. The people on earth had gone into the towns and the cities so as to be enrolled, for Augustus had made a decree that the whole habitable earth was to be enrolled in the census. It was in that way very similar to what took place at Shinar. One and another came up to be enrolled in the census. Perhaps it never occurred to you that God keeps books in which not only the name but the doings of everybody are recorded.
Jesus was born while the census was being made, but there was no interest, beloved friends, in that Babe. The Spirit of God in Luke emphasises the neglect of the Babe. It was a very ordinary occurrence on earth, but it was wonderful to heaven. What was the Roman power to heaven? But the birth of Jesus brings out the angels. Shepherds keeping their flocks by night in the fields have a [p. 486] visitation from heaven. An angel is beside them announcing, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”, Luke 2:11. This was glad tidings to all people. Heaven was taking account of the race, for suddenly a multitude of the heavenly host were “praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, Luke 2:13,14. That was what was going on in heaven, and so heaven is interested now in men, assuredly it is.
And the Babe came under the eye of heaven as the sprout of the Lord for beauty and for glory, and the whole race of man is to come under Him. Not only is the reproach taken away by confessing the Lord’s name, the reproach in heaven and among the people of God, which is the most select society, in accord with heaven. Your reproach is taken away only by confessing Jesus as Lord, and just as soon as you do that from the heart. But then you want to be set up in beauty and ornament amongst them. Christ comes in as the crown of the saints; and so the epistle to the Romans develops the truth until you arrive at “in Christ”, Romans 8:1. Then we take on in the presence of God all His beauty and His glory; we are set up in His presence according to Christ.
Now there is another thing. “And the fruit of the earth for excellency and for ornament for those that are escaped of Israel”. Now you see you have escaped in taking on the Lord’s name and confessing it; you have escaped an awful disaster by believing on Christ, and as among those who have escaped you come in for the blessing and ornamentation of Christ.
There is still another thought here, and that is, we are now amongst the living in Jerusalem; we have arrived at a definite position. All outside is death without one pulsation towards God in any [p. 487] man or woman, but as a believer you are come amongst the living. How great a thing to be numbered amongst the living! “And it shall come to pass that he who remaineth in Zion, and he that is left in Jerusalem, shall be called holy”. It is the book of life in Jerusalem. The book of life is a permanent thing. Think of what it is to be written amongst the living in Jerusalem! You are amongst the living in the assembly and are holy. God has made Christ unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Are you going to take up your heritage? I would not want to be enrolled among the dead. You want to be sure you have got your name in the book of life, written among the living and in Jerusalem. It is written that the Lord added such as should be saved, Acts 2:47.
Now we come to the dwelling places and assemblies in Zion. Zion may be taken as representing a principle. And there are dwellings in it, and these dwellings come in for divine favour, as it says, “And Jehovah will create over every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and over its convocations, a cloud by day and a smoke, and the brightness of a flame of fire by night: for over all the glory shall be a covering” (verse 5). Now we have come to dwelling places and assemblies or convocations. There are both in Zion, and they are taken up in relation to the sovereign mercy of God. God blesses our households on the principle of sovereignty.
Every believer’s house is a household of Zion. The introduction of the gospel in Europe was in relation to households. Lydia said, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”, Acts 16:15. How characteristically she was a householder of Zion, for if we have been shown the sovereign goodness of God, the next thing is to be faithful. I believe if there had been more faithfulness in our houses there would have been a greater [p. 488] harvest. We need mercy in our houses, and God grants it; but then what about our faithfulness in them? I am responsible to bring my children to the Lord and hold them for the Lord. You may recall the incident of the colt that was tied at the cross-way. If you insist on the sovereign right given you by God in your house, God will stand by you. If you tie your colt at the cross-way the Lord will send and claim it, for the Lord has need of it, He has need of every one of our children.
Every household in mount Zion has a covering. It is the protection of God over our houses by day and by night. Here it is, as you will observe, “Jehovah will create over every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and over its convocations, a cloud by day and a smoke, and the brightness of a flame of fire by night”. Young men and young women who disregard parental authority, there it is, and that fire will have to say to you sooner or later. You may despise it, but there it is.
Then, too, as to our assemblies, there is the glory over them. Divine protection is there. “And there shall be a tabernacle for shade by day from the heat, and for a shelter and for a covert from storm and from rain”. His glory is in the assembly and in a measure His glory is in our dwelling places. We read the Scriptures in our houses, we pray, and it is as the smoke of Abraham’s sacrifice. In Noah’s case He smelled an odour of rest. You can count on His protection day and night; as we come together in the recognition of the Holy Spirit, we are delightful to God in our convocations. And as we speak together of the holy things of God it is pleasurable to Him. Surely He protects us. We have often seen the way the Lord comes in for the protection of His people and for the households of Zion.