INTELLIGENCE AND SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE SERVICE OF GOD
[p. 393] INTELLIGENCE AND SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE SERVICE OF GOD
Revelation 4:1 - 11; Revelation 5:6 - 10
It is not my intention to speak of the prophetic import of these chapters, but rather of the combination of spiritual intelligence and spiritual life that they present, hoping that this combination may appear more amongst us, especially in our service in the assembly. The service of God in the assembly requires that these features should be combined in us, and they are not to be divorced. John’s ministry, including the Revelation, makes intelligence prominent, life indeed as combined with it being one of the main features throughout. At the end of his first epistle John speaks of an understanding which the Son of God has given to believers. He says, “we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding” (1 John 5:20). A very important statement! It may rightly be said to govern the gospel of John.
The first followers of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, called Him “Rabbi”. The Lord had been hitherto, from John’s point of view, in the attitude of standing. “There standeth one among you”, he says (John 1:26). As standing, there was no following; it was a waiting attitude. Although Son, He learned how to wait; as we read in Hebrews 5:8 “he learned obedience”; He was in the attitude of waiting; He was ready; He was standing, and John baptises Him and tells us that He who sent him to baptise said unto him, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit”. “And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33 - 34). The Lord had come in, in a lowly way. He was found in fashion as a man, as I may say, outwardly an ordinary man; I mean as to outward appearance, so much so that He had to [p. 394] be marked off. John the Baptist learned who He was by the sign given. “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him” (chapter 1:33); He was the Son of God. He was the One who should baptise with the Holy Spirit; “he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit”. And John says, “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God” (verse 34).
The next day, we are told, John stood. It was his time to stand, not that he did not stand earlier awaiting His showing to Israel, but spiritually it was his time to stand now that the Son of God had appeared. In John’s gospel, it will be known to most of us, the Lord did not wait for John to be cast into prison before undertaking His own personal service. He served before that. That is to say, He served in the right of His Person, in the liberty that was proper to Him as the Son of God; not bound by ordinary levitical rule. He was the Son of God, and so, I may say, John ceases; he is standing, for the greater had now come on the scene, and Jesus is seen walking. As thus moving, John looked upon Him. He looked upon Him now with intelligence; with an intelligence that he could not have had until he saw the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, and in his intelligence he was full of holy admiration. That gives the clue, dear brethren, to the understanding of this wonderful gospel by John. It is for persons capable of being affected, of being impressed; persons who can spiritually admire. It is a question of a Person, the Son of God. So that the first mention of Him in this respect is in verse 14 of chapter 1, “we have contemplated his glory”, says the writer, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. He came within their range in that delightful relation, so that their hearts might be raptured, and they were. It was long after that John wrote, “we have contemplated his glory”.
As John stands he speaks, and two of his disciples [p. 395] heard him speaking. He looked upon Jesus as He walked and said, “Behold the Lamb of God” (verse 36). That is all. These words are introductory to this fourth gospel; they are as it were the key to it. It is written for persons who are capable of admiration, of spiritual feelings. Two of John’s disciples, we are told, heard him speaking and they followed Jesus, and in following Him they address Him as “Rabbi” (verse 38). That is to say, these first followers felt the need of being taught. The Son of God had come and was about to give an understanding, and they had the instinct suitable for that, and so they address Him as “Rabbi”, inquiring where He abode.
Now another illustration in John’s gospel, of the passage in the epistle, is the woman of Samaria, a well-known figure, one of the best, thank God! I refer to it only because of the intelligence she reached in her conversation with the Lord. The conversation was begun by Him, but she joined in it, most ignorantly at first, thinking only in a material way, which is characteristic of most of us, and alas, for a long time after we are converted. No one can understand John’s gospel who thinks materially. God is a Spirit. We have to think spiritually. This woman began to think spiritually before she left the Lord. That ought to be the effect of every meeting of the saints, that we think more spiritually. She left her water pot; that is to say, she had done in that sense with the material; she understood that she was a vessel of living water.
The next great illustration of intelligence that I would bring forward is Mary of Bethany. The man in chapter 9, whose eyes had been opened, may be cited, but I just touch on the more salient illustrations of intelligence. Mary of Bethany is a striking one. That is to say, her intelligence rises beyond the mere thought of the vessel, for the ointment was not said [p. 396] to be in a vessel, it was in an alabaster box according to the synoptic gospels, but not in John. Attention is called, therefore, to the progress of intelligence, that she is beyond the thought of a vessel. The alabaster box was to preserve the contents, but there was no need for that with her, in John. We have to understand that the ointment, the pure nard, was spiritually herself.
There are those with whom all the furnishings are external, in what they call the worship of God, but there is nothing that you can bring externally that is not subject to corruption. All is to pass away. So that we must understand Mary, and what she did, in a spiritual sense. Martha spoke of corruption. On the fourth day Lazarus was corrupt, as she thought; “by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four days” (chapter 11:39). The Lord is the resurrection and the life; life is really incorruptible. There is no preservative like it. Mary understood the Lord. She was taught of the Lord. She was one of those who “love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption” (Ephesians 6:24). That is a great matter, for corrupt thoughts are apt to be carried along; for that reason we need the alabaster box; not so with Mary — she was the incorruptible. You will understand what I mean. I do not mean she was personally that; it is what is presented; there is no box; it is a measure of ointment, a pound; it is a question of amount.
Now the next great illustration that I would bring forward is Mary Magdalene in chapter 20, so as to bring out and amplify John’s statement that, “we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true” (1 John 5:20). She is the acme of the subject before us. She began with a measure of activity — not Martha-like, who had the energy without the intelligence — and it is in Mary that we get the combination of which I have been [p. 397] speaking, such as we see in Revelation. She had the energy; she corresponds with the living creatures; she was certainly a living creature herself. She was up early on the first day of the week. The Holy Spirit puts Mary Magdalene forward in the very centre of that wonderful picture. She went to the sepulchre, and finding the stone rolled away, she ran; she has energy; she is a rebuke to all laziness, to all inertness among the people of God. She ran. She is the hind of the morning; she represents spirituality in that sense. In Psalm 22 the hind is a feminine feature. The heading of that psalm, although it indirectly refers to Christ, really alludes to the result of His death femininely; that is to say, you have productivity and affection. This result was unmistakably in Mary. She ran, and she became a leader in running; she became a leader in intelligence, but she became a leader in the energy of life.
Now I may say here that the energy of life, in the divine order, precedes intelligence. They run together, as it is in ordinary things, with children, but I refer particularly to the first chapter of Genesis. Life is seen on the third day, vegetable life, in connection with which we cannot speak of intelligence, but it is nevertheless life. The earth was to bring forth. There was the energy of life. Then on the fifth day you have living creatures, living souls; and on the sixth day you have man, that is intelligence. The order, therefore, is life first and then the development of intelligence, and any other order in us is sure to be damaging, in fact, disastrous.
To aim at intelligence without suitable balance of affection in the energy of life will end disastrously. There must be balance. That is how the matter stands in John. So that Mary Magdalene has the love and the energy and so becomes a leader in it. It is a most interesting matter that she should be a leader, in fact, she actually led Peter and John! I am sure [p. 398] that if you had asked her at any time, if she was a leader amongst the brethren, she would have said, No. But she was a leader here. There are those who are unbalanced in their understanding of the word leader; but a leader is one who goes before, and one whom others follow. It involves following; it involves example, and she was a leader. She led the two great servants among the twelve, Peter and John. They also ran and the other disciple outran Peter. It is all a question of energy of affection. That would mean acquiring intelligence; they believed. They saw the linen clothes lying; they saw and believed; we must not make little of that; they acquired intelligence; they had faith as to the resurrection of Christ. They went to their own homes, it is true; that is not to their credit, but it is to their credit that they believed. It does not say that she believed, but it does say that she remained at the sepulchre, and she wept.
I pass on now to be as brief as possible. As possessing the energy of life, and affection, she gained intelligence far beyond what Peter and John acquired. She got an understanding from Christ. I would urge that on everyone here. He “has given us an understanding” (1 John 5:20). It is not as in Luke, the opening of our understandings that we might understand the Scriptures. It is the gift of an understanding; it is not development, but a gift. He “has given us an understanding”. He is the Son of God. He said to Mary, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father”. What intelligence is bound up with that remark, for her to meditate upon, but He says, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20:17). Now she knew more than all the apostles; she has what they had not; she has an understanding and she is perfectly in keeping with it. It says that she went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had told her these things. What [p. 399] intelligence! And the Lord comes into the company that was illuminated by His message to her; it was not sent through one who did not know — but by one who had intelligence. She had said to Him before she received the message, “Rabboni”, not “Rabbi” like the two in the first chapter, but “Rabboni”. I wonder how many here have said that to Jesus. It means “My teacher”. Thomas said to Him later, “My Lord and my God” (verse 28). The Lord loves to be appropriated — my Lord, my God. Mary says, “My Teacher”, not the Teacher, but my Teacher; she had appropriated Him. So may we, dear brethren; nor shall we be intelligent if we do not. If we are just general and talk about “the Teacher” we shall not come to it. We are too casual. It is the appropriating of the Lord in that way that shows intelligence; He gives it. It is not here the school of Tyrannus as in Acts 19. That is also important, for we must learn, but here it is the Son of God giving an understanding that we might know. I do not deny that there is a subjective faculty involved in it, but it is marked by intelligence; as the wise man said, “With all thy getting get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7).
To further illustrate this I go on to the chapters in Revelation; they are prophetic chapters; God is entering on a new relation, for the assembly period is over. What is presented is what shall be after that period on earth, but not without the assembly. No activities of God in the future, I may say, disregard the assembly. So here it is, but included in the four and twenty elders, a symbolic number, that is to say, persons who have intelligence, but not simply intelligence acquired as the result, as I may say, of reading, or even of instruction, but from experience; intelligence acquired by experience. They are elders. The word is symbolical; it denotes experience with God. Indeed the Lord Himself is symbolically presented to us in this very guise in [p. 400] Revelation 1; His head and hair white like wool, which denotes intelligence. He is called the Ancient of Days elsewhere, which refers to wonderful intelligence by experience. We must not shrink from the humanity of Christ; I mean, we must take it in, and follow the Spirit of God in it. The Spirit of God says, “though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). He says Himself, through the prophet, that His ear was opened morning by morning; He is our model in everything. Every one of us ought to remember that at the age of twelve the Lord was in the temple in the midst of the doctors, hearing and asking questions. That is a beautiful picture, a perfect model for us if we are to learn; hearing and asking questions, but He had answers, too, Himself. They were astonished at His understanding. That enters into this chapter.
The twenty-four elders are on twenty-four thrones, clothed with white garments and they have golden crowns; all these are symbolic things. The throne alludes to God resuming His relations with the creation — a very important matter for us. It refers back to the ninth chapter of Genesis, not the first; it refers back to God having entered into covenant with man and the beast of the field and the earth itself, and now the rainbow is round about this great throne, and the elders understand; they are sitting round and they cast their crowns before Him that sat upon it. In the fourth chapter the One sitting on the throne is God, in the fifth He is the Lamb. In the fourth He is the Creator, for Him all things were made. In the fifth He is Redeemer, the Lamb, but the same Person. We have to apprehend Him in the two lights, but He is the same Person. We do not see God in the form proper to the Deity presented in the throne, but Jesus; He is the One that took a body, the form that we can see. We cannot see the form of God. No one has seen it or can see it, but Jesus has come into a [p. 401] form that can be seen and understood, and so He is described in this fourth chapter as on the throne, and the elders are round about, with perfect intelligence. They are sitting, they are restful, they understand the holy environment that they are in.
Alongside these elders there are four living creatures. Four is symbolic of universality; it is not simply a part of the creation, but the whole realm or domain of creation brought back to God. You may say, that is all future. It is as to its setting here, but morally it exists today. James says that we are a first-fruits of God’s creatures. We have the first-fruits of the Spirit and we are the first-fruits of God’s creatures. We are sympathetic with God in feelings and sympathies and we are capable — I am speaking to christians — normally we are capable of action, of energy, and the whole scene in this sense is dominated by intelligence, and not intelligence only, but energy. The elders are not presented as energetic. That is not the sign; the energy is in the living creatures. So that we find that the first is like a lion, the second like a calf, the third has the face of a man, and the fourth is like a flying eagle. Put these things together and you have a wonderful array of energy, not only steady, calculated energy, but such energy as may be seen in the rapidity of the eagle; that when the mind of God is understood and known there is to be no delay, for the King’s business requires haste.
Well now, that is the position; and I mention the living creatures because in application now, it refers to the energy of the young men. “I have written to you, young men”, says John, “because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you” (1 John 2:14). You are capable of energy, and not only that but you have done something. That is an important matter for every young man who desires to serve. I would ask you, What have you done? What is your exploit? All the mighty men of David did exploits, and the apostle in sending [p. 402] his salutation to the saints at Rome mentions the exploits of many. If you are gifted for service, what have you done? How has the energy been used? “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong ... and ye have overcome the wicked one”. That is a great exploit but it belongs to the young men.
You see here what the living creatures did, and we are also told that they each had six wings, and they say day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty”. That is what they say. You see, beloved, the energy. They have eyes inside. They have discernment, and they are thinking of the holiness of God. That is the kind of energy; that is the kind of life; life in young people is apt to take on natural things and what corrupts. There must be not only the exploit to indicate the power, but the holiness, as the apostle says to his youthful confidant Timothy, “But youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). That is a word for young people. Flee youthful lusts, so that the energy should be uncontaminated, that we should be pure in our service, and able to say day and night, as it were, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty”.
Now I want to point out that the elders are watching all this. It is the combination of these things that I want to bring before you. When the living creatures “give glory and honour and thanksgiving to him that sits upon the throne”, the elders fall down before Him and they worship, and they tell us why they do it. That is a most important feature in the assembly in the worship of God: there is not only the energy of life and the holiness, but the intelligence that would give the reason for what is done, and those who are near will have respect to it, if they are normal. The elders tell us why they [p. 403] fall down and worship. They know, like the fathers in the epistle of John; he wrote to them, because they had “known him that is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13). Those who know Him from the beginning know how things should be done, every kind of thing, and they would observe how He did things, how He dealt with matters. Hence when an apostle is to be chosen Peter says that he must be one who had assembled with them during all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among them, from the baptism of John until He was taken up. That is the idea; it is the full ministry of Christ on earth. That is what makes an elder; he knows the why and wherefore of things.
Just to touch on the next chapter for a moment, you will observe that the position of the elders is transposed. The living creatures come first in the fifth chapter; I mean when they are seen together. One of the elders firstly tells John how the book should be opened, that the Lion of the tribe of Juda should do it; He has prevailed to do it. That would be an exploit. Then you see “in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as slain”. It is interesting and instructive, too, to notice the transposition, the living creatures first and the elders second. It is as if the elders take second place, which love will ever do when it is in service. No one is morally right who cannot take a second place. The Lord Jesus has taken a second place; He has led the way, and here the elders take a second place. It is in the interests of the service. We must always be ready, however experienced, however intelligent, when certain crises arise requiring energy rather than spiritual intelligence, to let the energetic ones be in front. It is energy here, with intelligence of course, for the living creatures understand, and the elders are second. It is a time of action. The fifth chapter is [p. 404] action. It is the Lion of the tribe of Juda doing things; He is going to open the book; He is going to open the seals, and as He opens each of the first four, a living creature is attending. That is action. Opening seals is a matter of energy, a matter of power, and that is what a living creature represents. So, beloved brethren, what is needed is energy, that living creatures should be present in the service of God.
These are important matters. They enter into our every-day relations, every-week relations, with the brethren in the assembly; the most instructed, the most intelligent, the most spiritual, the most experienced is to be ready to take second place if it be for the furtherance of the service of God. Then these living creatures with the elders each have golden bowls and harps. There is perfect unity, for I understand it refers to both the elders and the living creatures. The elders, though in a second place, could join in with the energetic ones, join in the celebration of the glory of Christ. They sing a new song. There is not the slightest want of harmony or symphony in their song. It is a new one. It evidently alludes to some new presentation of God in Christ, and they are ready for it. They are not stale old people that will not learn any more. Some old brethren think there is no more to come out and they keep on singing the old song. I am not discrediting any hymn; I am speaking of principles. All the brethren must learn to join in the new song. If you do not you will miss much.
Then there is the combination of the prayers of the saints. One feels sorry for those who live in the past times and say the former times were better than these. You are not singing the new song if you are saying that. There is a new song; in every work of God there is something fresh and a corresponding new song. You understand I am speaking of the principle. The living creatures and the elders join in [p. 405] it — a new song; and Christ is the theme of the new song, not as He is seen on the throne in the fourth chapter, but as He is seen in the fifth. He is in the midst, the Lamb as it had been slain, now ready to do exploits, now ready for action. So they sing a new song having every one of them “golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints”. It is very beautiful to see the old and the young joining in, in the result of the most recent gracious movement of God.
May God grant it to us, dear brethren, that we may go forward in energy and intelligence and in unity, in happy unity, with our harps and golden bowls full of incenses which are the prayers of the saints, and with our new song.