EXTRACT

JJ Would you use Abimelelch as an illustration? He follows Gideon in Judges, chapter 9, and a kind of judgment-seat was made by Jotham.

JT Just so. I have no doubt he symbolises the kind of opposition that was current at Corinth when Paul wrote, that is, it was a question of being king. “Ye have reigned as kings without us”, it says. Abimelech had that in his mind. The trees took counsel as to who should rule over them, and the poor Corinthians were little better than the trees when they made proposal to have someone to rule over them. Although well qualified to rule, Gideon had refused, saying, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you—Jehovah will rule over you”. He established that principle, although he was well fitted, because his mother’s sons were all of them like him, and “each one resembled the sons of a king”. So Paul was well fitted to rule, but he declined and said, “I would that ye reigned, that we also might reign with you”. That enters into the servant’s exercise; he refuses to be made a king. It is one of the most insidious things to regard Christianity as a one-man affair. It is not. It is absolutely that in regard to Christ, but not in regard to anyone here on earth. “The locusts have no king”, it says; they represent Christians.

Ques. It says of the Lord that He hid Himself. Should that not be applicable to us as servants?

JT They would have made Him king, but He says, “My time is not yet come”. He was born king, but it was not for “this world”, and that is the principle—“The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands”. It is a greater thing to be governed by principles involving love for Christ than by external rule. The “bands” imply that we can come together in affection. Now, the poor Corinthians were very like the trees of which Jotham speaks, that would have a king to rule over them. The fig-tree said, No, I will not leave my sweetness to rule over you; the vine said it would not leave its function to make glad the heart of God and man; and then the olive tree would not leave its fatness wherewith it honoured God and man.

What precious ministries! This epistle corresponds; it is the honour the servant pays to God and to men. Well, am I going to leave that to become a king? No. These trees function profitably and consciously in regard of God and men, and they decline to rule over the trees.

J. Taylor (Vol. 29, pp.454, 455)

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