THE SERVICE OF CHRIST IN LEADERSHIP (5)

THE SERVICE OF CHRIST IN LEADERSHIP (5)

Ezekiel 34:11-16; Ezekiel 34:23-31; Revelation 7:13-17

SMcC It is thought fitting that we should conclude the enquiry that we have pursued together in relation to the thought of leadership, especially the side of administrative service in relation to the flock as linked with it, with these remarkable passages which speak of God and Christ in a distinctive way, and the flock. Ezekiel and John go together, and the brethren will perhaps see the link as we pursue this enquiry together now. While Revelation 7 is dealing dispensationally with another period of time and another class of people, nevertheless the principles that are involved in the teaching apply to us as believers; and it will be noted that the great result of divine leadership in these passages has in mind eternal conditions. As we come into these passages with the help of the Spirit, with the knowledge that we have in our dispensation, we can see that what is in mind is eternal conditions. And in the passage that we have read in Ezekiel 34, indeed in both passages, just the literal reading of the passages in themselves without any expatiation on them, is affecting to the soul; how God comes into the position, linking on with His sheep in the cloudy day, the cloudy and the dark day, and, reverently speaking, takes over Himself with a view to our being brought on to the high level of His own thoughts in the truth regarding us. And se the brethren will note in Ezekiel 34, the references to the mountains of Israel, “Their own land,” “the mountains of Israel,” “the water-courses,” “the habitable places of the country,” “a good pasture,” “the high mountains of Israel.” All that is to bring into our minds the elevated objective in the administrative service that we have been considering together in leadership in relation to the flock.

JC Has this resulted from the great revival of the last century, the saints brought back to the height of the truth?

SMcC Yes, undoubtedly it would enter into that. How God has come into the position. The chapter is dealing with the shepherds that feed themselves; that is, God has a word for the hierarchy around us that has stood in the way, the whole clerical principle standing in the way of the flock arriving at divine thoughts - what is the mind of God for us. After the word to the leaders of the hierarchy, God begins with this word, “Behold I, even I, will both search for my sheep, and tend them. As a shepherd tendeth his flock in the day that he is among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.”

HSD Do these words imply that God is not limited to instruments of leadership? Is there a sense in which He leads His people in a direct way?

SMcC Well, it throws into relief His own shepherd feelings in the matter; but of course it would be mediate in our time. He would use others, but it is to bring into our souls that it is God Who is in this matter, God Who is searching for His sheep and tending them, not so much the instrumentality.

PRP So that Revelation 21 says, “God Himself shall be with them.” Is that the great ultimate thought?

SMcC Yes, that is the end of all things, in eternal conditions.

ENJ The apostle Paul recognised the Lord’s shepherd care for him in the end of his writings in 2 Timothy, “I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth.”

SMcC Yes, a remarkable thing the way he was delivered; the Lord came in for him when everybody else had forsaken him. The Lord stood by him, and He delivered him in order that by him the preaching might be fully known.

CEJ Is it beautiful to see that in verse 12 it says of the shepherd that, “he is among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep”; indicating that the Lord never gives up His thoughts? Though the sheep may be scattered, yet He would take His place as among His scattered sheep.

SMcC That should be a great encouragement to us, as we think of the circumstances in which we are publicly, where all around us, we might say, it is the cloudy and dark day; but yet God has come into the position, effecting deliverance for us, so that we know His own personal care and interest in bringing us to His own thoughts.

PB In Ezekiel 1, we have the brightness round about the appearance of a man, “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain.” Does that suggest that God in His government, even though He has to exercise His governmental power, will be faithful to His love to Israel and to His people?

SMcC Faithful to the promises; a great thing to get into our souls. “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” It has been said the horizon of the believer is bounded by God.

DHB Would you say something as to verse 11? “Behold I, even I, will both search for my sheep, and tend them.” Would you say something as to the searching?

SMcC Well, I suppose that enters into the principle of all ministry and administrative service on this line, for God is searching for His sheep. He says in verse 7, “Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah: As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, verily because my sheep have been a prey, and my sheep have been meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds searched not for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock - therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; that the shepherds may feed themselves no more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.” That is, God is intervening in this condition the sheep have not been cared for, as we see around us on every hand in the public position.

JHH It says that the Lord must needs go through Samaria. I suppose you would say, seeking a sheep. Is it sobering, too, in view of what you are reading, that all the disciples had gone to buy bread?

SMcC Very good. It is very interesting that, because in John the Lord’s service takes on peculiarly this side of the truth, searching for His sheep. The same with the man in John 9, the Lord found him. He heard that he was cast out, and He sought him out, and found him. Remember the prophetic allusion of Caiaphas in John 11, when he prophesied as to the death of the Lord Jesus, that one man should die that the whole nation perish not, the comment that is made by the Spirit in John the evangelist, is that the Lord was to die to gather together the children of God scattered abroad; showing how much it is in mind in John’s gospel.

WJB-n Would Nathaniel’s reference, “Whence knowest thou me?” be in line with that? The Lord could say, “Before that Phillip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee”; as though he was known before he came to the Lord. The Lord was seeking him, had His eye on him.

SMcC Yes, and I think God would bring these exalted thoughts into our mind, because this does not come in at the end of the book of Ezekiel; it comes in an interesting section. The teaching of Ezekiel 33 bears on our individual responsibility. You will notice in chapter 33: 13, “When I say to the righteous that he shall certainly live, and he trusteth to his righteousness and doeth what is wrong, none of his righteous acts shall be remembered; but in his unrighteousness which he hath done, in it shall he die. And when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt certainly die, and he turneth from his sin, and doeth judgment and justice; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, doing nothing that is wrong; he shall certainly live, he shall not die. None of his sins which he hath committed shall be remembered against him.” Now these are striking statements, bearing on our individual responsibility. In regard to the first, verse 13, the righteous acts not being remembered, “but in his unrighteousness which he hath done, in it shall he die” - it shows the seriousness of godly persons doing what is wrong. Sometimes we mitigate the wrongness by drawing attention to their godliness, but it is important to remember what J.N.D. said in regard to Barnabas and his defection, that all the weight of a man’s godliness adds to his sin when he falls.

PB This was expressed in the Lord’s words to Zacchaeus was it? Was this carried out?

SMcC You mean how the Lord commenting on it says, “Today salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.” That is, the lineage of faith in Zacchaeus was expressed in what he did, the practical way he acted. Well that is chapter 33, it is our individual responsibility before God. In chapter 35, God deals with Edom, the inveterate hatred, the perpetual hatred of Edom. In chapter 36, Israel comes up again, the principle of new birth, the restoration and renewal of Israel on the principle of the new birth. In chapter 37, we have resurrection. And then in chapter 38 and 39, the great enemy of God is dealt with unsparingly, the terribleness of the carnage being referred to. Then from chapter 40 onwards we get the glory of the city and the house. But this chapter comes in at this juncture, as showing how God is entering into matters surrounded by His government and judgments and tending His sheep.

JD The great thought of recovery enters into this. Would you link on Luke’s ministry in connection with this? I was thinking of the Lord’s new service after His resurrection. They had all been scattered had they not? He appears to Peter, and the two going to Emmaus, and others.

SMcC Yes. As we read this, it would impregnate our minds and hearts and our souls with the great thought of recovery, that God is operating on the principle of recovery, and we are to be in full accord with Him on that line.

NBS You spoke of our having in view eternal conditions. Did you mean that they are to be entered into now?

SMcC Yes, because in the Spirit, the Spirit being here, there is the power in which we can enter by faith upon eternal conditions. Not that we go to heaven, but the Spirit being here, we can enter upon eternal conditions by faith now anticipatively.

PB So that it says, “I ... will bring them to their own land.”

SMcC A very precious thought. Our own land. That would be the truth in Ephesians, the heavenly light in Paul’s ministry in Ephesians shows us what our own land is. Heaven is our home.

CW Would you say, “where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them” shows that God moves first? Is that in line with what we have here in the sheep scattered, and in the thought of the shepherd?

SMcC Well, on the administrative side, Matthew would enter into it. “Behold I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age.” From that side the Lord is among His people all the way.

GWB Would you say a word as to the latter part of verse 13? “I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the water-courses.”

SMcC Well, the allusion is to the elevated side in the mountains of Israel; but the water-courses suggest the channels freely flowing, where the Spirit is unhindered, liberty in His services is known. It is a great matter that there should be the apprehension of this, and appreciation of it in our local gatherings.

GWB Would that be what is in mind in the habitable places?

SMcC Yes, “the habitable places of the country.” That is, it is a question of what is peopled, a question of population. “The habitable places of the country.”

ENJ Is the recovery here in Ezekiel really back to all the wealth that is set out in Deuteronomy - the good land?

SMcC Yes. For us it is Ephesians - sonship, recovery to God’s supreme thought for men - sonship. And that is what is conveyed here, that all His service and operations in recovery are in view as in Luke 15, that man might be brought into sonship.

JD Do we see God operating in grace? I was thinking of Ephesians 2. It says that, “ye are saved by grace,” and then that He is going to show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace.

SMcC The world to come will be a wonderful display of that. “The surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”

FW Is Luke 15 in a sense a working out of this, especially the second part - the woman sweeping, bringing to light, and bringing in recovery and restoration?

SMcC Luke 15 is a remarkable unfolding of what we have here. In the sheep in the first passage, the seeking; and the woman searching; and then the Father, the great thought of the best robe, and the shoes, the ring, and the fatted calf. It all brings into our minds what we have here, that God would have us recovered to the best. He does not want us to stop short of anything else than the best.

FW And in giving us the over-all kind of thought of Luke 15, is the point that you are especially aiming at this afternoon, the second part of that chapter - the present activity of the Holy Spirit to bring to light, and into the proper position, and into the recovered state?

SMcC And that we might be brought out, as it says in verse 13, “I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the water-courses.” I think we are to be impressed with divine activities, in the presence of the Spirit here, in relation to this great work of recovery.

JD So that we should have the best and the choicest thoughts before us in cases of recovery in our localities.

SMcC The more we read Luke 15 the more we will be impressed, along with what we have here in Ezekiel 34, with the great work of recovery. Think of what is done here in verse 16, “I will seek the lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up the broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong: I will feed them with judgment.” What a contrast, as we take account of that.

PB I was going to ask, what does Jehovah mean when He says, “And as for you, my flock, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the he-goats,” and “between the fat sheep and the lean sheep”? What has Jehovah in mind there? He is addressing the flock and His flock.

SMcC You are alluding to verses 17 and 20. It is most important to see that side of the truth from verse 17 to verse 22, which we did not read, because it represents what would put our feet into other paths, especially the rams and the he-goats. That is the male side, the side of responsibility. It says, in verse 18, “Is it too small a thing unto you to have eaten up the good pastures, but ye must tread down with your feet the best of your pastures; and to have drunk of the settled waters, but ye must foul the rest with your feet? And my sheep have to eat that which ye have trodden down with your feet, and to drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto them: Behold, it is I, and I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because ye thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the weak ones with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad - I will save my flock, that they may no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.” That is, God is reserving the right to come in in these matters to take care of His own sheep.

GWB Did you have in mind to say something further as to, “I will seek the lost”?

SMcC Just the great work of recovery that Luke would bring into our minds, the great administrative service, in relation to healing, seeking, and bringing, and binding up the broken, and strengthening. All these are the proper principles of the kingdom operating in relation to the work of recovery.

GWB You have said in other parts that the matter of going after those who have been withdrawn from, that are not available to us for the moment, was a matter of great importance.

SMcC Well, what was said, which we must keep clear, is that the priest has a service to render. That is,

that the priest would be concerned about such; just as the Lord went out to the cross, and linked on with the dying thief, dying for his sin; the Lord linked on with him in the position without the camp, outside the gate - a lesson for us to learn, the great thought of the priest, and the Lord links on with the thief in that way.

JC Would you exhort us to be more on the look-out for persons in whom there is a work of God, those not with us? Is there not a tendency with us to be more self-contained in our outlook?

SMcC Well, the more we are like God the broader our outlook will be, the more enlargement of heart there will be with us. Jeremiah says, “Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” But we should always be available to serve the lost, to serve what has been driven away, the broken, and to strengthen that which is sick. Think of the sick ones, how they need to be strengthened; young people that get spiritually sick. We need to get alongside of them in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Himself, and serve them.

JD So there are the compassions of God, the feelings that come out as He speaks of “my sheep,” would that not help us, in the sense in which we have been recovered in mercy?

SMcC So that the last thing we would seek to do is to withdraw from persons; the last resort that would be in our minds; the most extreme thing that we would think of. Our outlook is to save persons, save them by any possible means without sacrificing the truth.

JD And learning something of the value of what we are to God in that way as the result of redemption, do you think?

SMcC That is what they are - the sheep - purchased at such infinite cost. And therefore we are like God, we would go a long way to save a sheep. We must not use the assembly too readily to withdraw from persons; we must be concerned in this great administrative service as to how we can save persons. We may have to withdraw from them, as their sin may attach to them, and they go on in wilfulness, but it is a last resort; and even then it has in view their restoration and recovery.

JHH I was struck with your speaking about the Lord identifying Himself with a repentant thief at the end of His pathway here; but He began His public service that way did He not? He identified Himself with a repentant people in baptism.

SMcC It is touching how the Lord links on with different cases in Luke’s gospel. And we have to learn to think specially of young people who have drifted into the world, how can we serve them; how can we bring them back, without, of course, sacrificing the truth; but like God Himself, seeking the lost and bringing again that which has been driven away, and binding up the broken, and strengthening that which was sick.

PB Do you think that we have oftentimes failed in this principle of seeking the lost, because of disturbing conditions amongst ourselves? And is it not noticeable that it says, “I will myself feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord Jehovah.” That is, that He would have His saints in restful complacent conditions in relation to His love and His service; and would not the seeking the lost flow from such conditions in power?

SMcC Yes.

NBS Is this house-to-house work?

SMcC Well, it would involve that, as Paul says to the Ephesians in regard to the way that he had served them for the three years he was among them, and it is important that there should be this care. Not that we palliate evil or unrighteousness; if persons are unrighteous and we have to withdraw from them, we have to withdraw from them. What is uppermost in our minds is the salvation of persons, especially the young people where the world is making such a bid for them; and where there may be many that are sick, and the enemy is gaining an advantage over their souls; and we should know how to seek them out, and to strengthen that which is sick.

KAW Would not the alertness of David in relation to the lamb of which we were speaking this morning help much in this very matter?

SMcC Well, it would, even to the combating with the enemy himself over the matter. We might say, “Oh, well, they have gone too far,” but look how far that lamb had got; right in the mouth of the lion; and David rescued it out of the mouth of the lion. So that we can go a long way, as it were, to rescue even a piece of an ear, as Jehovah says in Amos, “Like as the shepherd rescueth ... a piece of an ear.” If we can only get a piece of an ear, it is something to work on.

JHH Just to be practical, do you think we should go round to visit occasionally one who has been withdrawn from, as a priest I am speaking now?

SMcC We must keep that clear, that it is a question of the priest in Leviticus acting in the matter; it is not a question of whether it would be nice, or it would be good to have a social contact, a visit. It is the priest as thinking for God, and acting for God, and concerned to find out what is transpiring.

NBS So we need to be concerned more to visit them before they are withdrawn from, if anyone is getting away.

SMcC Well that enters into it too; there is great need of this kind of administrative service in shepherd care, God giving us a lead in regard to it.

JGH I wondered if the Lord’s word in John 17 as to “those thou hast given me I have guarded,” would come into it?

SMcC Well, it does. It represents the Lord’s care. The Lord was the Comforter and the Paraclete to His disciples. He took care of all their matters; He stood by them. When they went through the cornfields, and the legal element challenged them as to what they were doing, who took care of them? The Lord took care of them.

PB Do we see the Lord’s shepherd care over the two going to the village of Emmaus, how He gained their ear, how they said, “Did not our heart burn within us,” and when He is made known to them, they immediately go back to the flock.

SMcC His service leads them back to the assembly, leads them back to Jerusalem. Such should be in our prayers all the time for their recovery.

GWB And did you not say that we can pray for them in a right way?

SMcC Yes, we should think of them in our different localities. Take the young people that we have lost, we should think of them and pray for them that they might be brought back, that God might bring them back.

BJG In James 5: 19 we read, “If anyone among you err from the truth, and one bring him back.” Is that the line?

SMcC The ability to convert persons. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to convert a person from the error of his ways. And then in verse 23 He says, “I will set up one shepherd over them,” now this is an important thing to notice, “and he shall feed them, even my servant, David: he shall feed them and he shall be their shepherd. And I, Jehovah, will be their God, and my servant David a prince in their midst: I Jehovah have spoken it.” We are to be impressed with this matter as to God and Christ in the type, in the position that They occupy amongst the flock.

FE Would that be borne out in the end of John’s Gospel, the Lord appearing to Mary, she saying, “Rabboni” - my teacher - and then He saying to her,

“my Father, and your Father,” “my God, and your God”?

SMcC That would be what the teaching is leading on to, in eternal conditions enjoyed by the flock in the light of John’s ministry. Then it says, “I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell in safety” - notice the recurrence of the word “safety” in this closing passage - “they shall dwell in safety in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” You will remember how in 2 Samuel the forest, the wood devoured more than the battle; but now here there is safety in the wilderness and they shall sleep in the woods. “And I will make them and the places round about my hill” - my hill would be the assembly - “a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.” All these things, as the fruit of all this leadership and administrative service, are to impress us with the wealth and abundance of what is in the divine mind.

PB Is this a little touch of John 10: 28 - 29? “And I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father.” Is this a little touch of that, do you think?

SMcC It is the conditions, the sphere of eternal life. That is what would be in mind in, “I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.” There is no stint in this matter.

GB I was wondering whether the thought of the enjoyment of eternal things could be linked with this matter of lying down, and in the fat pasture. David could speak of it, could he not? “He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” Is that going too far?

SMcC The good fold and a fat pasture. And “they shall feed upon the mountains of Israel.” While for Israel it would be millennial, for us it is eternal conditions entered upon, and that is what Ephesians has in mind. We are brought, in the teaching in Ephesians, to the very fringe of eternity, in the enjoyment in the power of the Spirit of eternal conditions.

WJB-n We would keep before us what is collective in this setting, verse 23 refers to the collective position especially.

SMcC That is the whole point in the chapter; the whole teaching of the chapter relates to the collective position.

LPJ Does it link in that way with John 10: 4 that we had in the first reading? “When he has put forth all his own” - the word “all” - “all his own, he goes before them.” The Lord would have everyone in mind.

SMcC And notice the reference to security in these passages: “They shall dwell in safety,” at the end of verse 25; and then verse 27, “And they shall be in safety in their land”; and then again in verse 28, “but they shall dwell in safety, and none shall make them afraid.” We are to be reminded of these proper conditions in the assembly, where we are in the enjoyment and the power of the Spirit in eternal conditions, that if there is any place that is secure, it is in this realm.

PB So the assembly here is likened to the tree of the field. “The tree,” not “trees.” “But the tree of the field shall yield its fruit.” Is that the fruitfulness of divine grace in the assembly?

SMcC As we would look at it now, that is how it would stand.

JC Did you have in mind holding on to this promise? It speaks of deliverance from our enemies, out of the hand of all who hate us, and He goes on to speak about being saved out of the hand of our enemies,

that we should serve Him without fear, and in piety and righteousness all our days.

SMcC Well, that is it. We are reminded of that here. It says, “And shall know that I am Jehovah when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those that kept them in servitude.” Christianity involves liberty, and we know how God in the great work of recovery and revival in our time has brought His people out from under this kind of thing, “broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those that kept them in servitude.” What a real matter it has been in these days of recovery, as God has moved to bring us to eternal conditions.

JD So that this matter of safety is an important one. Is not the position set out in such an attractive way? I was thinking of what you were saying in the earlier readings in regard to what was seen in Moses, and Joseph, and David, substantially. I was thinking of the features, how attractive they are and would not that help us in our localities, that we are attractive?

SMcC We should have a sense of security in this realm, the assembly being the great realm where God is known at the present time, and where we find our present home.

JD I was thinking, too, of the way the Lord answers the scribes and Pharisees because they murmured. He sets the thing out in a most attractive way, does He not? He says, “What man of you,” in reference to the sheep that went astray.

SMcC He is appealing to them; He is appealing to their commonsense, as we heard the other day, as to the matter in regard to man, the sheep.

Now we should have a word to close with on this passage in the Revelation. As we know, the chapter deals dispensationally with a day yet to come, and a class that is yet to come into view, coming out in the great tribulation, but the principles apply to ourselves in this time and day. It says, “One of the elders answered, saying to me, These who are clothed with white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I said to him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they who came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.” Now we are to notice that what leads into the eternal conditions that are suggested here in the closing verses, is this practical matter of washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb.

CEJ Open that up, please.

SMcC Well, washing has a great place in the book of the Revelation. We get those that wash their robes in chapter 22 to establish their right to go in by the gates into the city. That would be the water side, but it is not water here, it is blood. It is, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” As we have been taught, the water has to do with state and the blood has to do with guilt. The blood stands related to acts, to sins; the rudiments of the teaching of the gospel bring that before us. The blood in Romans 3 has to do with sins, acts.

PRP It is, “and have washed” here, whereas it is “wash” in chapter 22. What would you say as to that?

SMcC It is continuous in chapter 22, but it is historical here. It says, “And have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is the judicial side; the severe side; what it cost Christ, the shedding of His blood, that guilty acts, acts of sin, acts of lawlessness, might be met. That is the side here in washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb.

HSD In chapter 1, the Lord has done it, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins”; but in this chapter, we have done it. Would you comment on that?

SMcC Well, it is more severe here. It is the gracious act of the Lord in chapter 1 in His service towards us, washing us from our sins; but here it is persons coming out of the pressure, out of the difficulties, the awfulness of what the tribulation suggests, coming out of it, washing their robes, “and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is the judicial side, the severe side; the water side is not the severe side; the blood side is.

WJB What is the difference between washing their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and washing their robes with water?

SMcC The water has to do with our state, the actions that flow out of our state.

WJB So that the whole past history has been atoned for; it has been covered through the efficacy of the blood of Christ, is that the thought?

SMcC That is it. It is historical, not like Revelation 22, where the water side is mentioned where it is continuous; it is historical here, “and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is the great efficacious power linked with the blood of Christ as meeting every act of sin, every act of lawlessness, unrighteousness, giving complete clearance.

WJB So that Paul in reviewing his past history says in 1 Timothy 1, “Who before was an insolent overbearing man” that would cover his course in regard to the persecution of the saints; but he also says, “mercy was shown me”; that is to say the mercy would involve that his robes were washed in the blood of the Lamb, would it?

SMcC What a sense Paul had of complete clearance of the guilty acts he had perpetrated in persecuting the saints.

FW And is administration to be in the light of redemption’s work?

SMcC That is what is in the mind in the blood of the Lamb. It is our side. It is not God’s side in the matter, it is our side, what we come into on the judicial side, having a sense of a complete clearance in regard to the matters that have affected us.

FW They come out of the tribulation. Does it indicate that they come out of the tribulation having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb - all is now clear?

SMcC That is the point. So it says, “Therefore are they before the throne of God.” Now the throne of God is a great thought. It involves what is eternal. And this is to show us the line on which we are before the throne, in the sense of “not a cloud above, and not a spot within,” so that it leads right into eternal conditions in principle here.

FW So the position becomes then unchallengeable; and Israel’s restoration in a day to come will be as unchallengeable as our position. Is that right?

SMcC Yes. Not only as to their state, which the new birth will meet, and the sprinkling of the water in Ezekiel 36, but also the matter of their guilty acts in the slaying of their Messiah. It will be covered by the efficacy on the judicial side in connection with the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ meets every guilty act.

JD Would not this give us an increased appreciation of the One Who is spoken of as the Lamb - “the blood of the Lamb”?

SMcC The Sufferer. The Lamb is the great Sufferer.

JD And would it not show too what God will secure as the result of that? It is a great crowd which no one could number.

SMcC “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.” That is, there is absolute freedom with God, with divine Persons; not a cloud to mar the enjoyment, before the throne there. We know what the throne represents, we know what it stands for; and there is perfect liberty before it, serving day and night in His temple. And then it says, “And he that sits upon the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. They shall not hunger any more, neither shall they thirst any more, nor shall the sun at all fall on them, nor any burning heat; because the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them, and shall lead them to fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.” It is the effectiveness of this administrative service that gives a complete clearance, so that we enter upon and enjoy eternal conditions with God Himself and with Christ.

WHF “Ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6: 18.

SMcC We have an allusion to God spreading His tabernacle over them. Of course, this goes far beyond 2 Corinthians 6, which is dealing with the wilderness side. This leads into eternal conditions. “He ... shall spread his tabernacle over them.” It is not a question of man spreading his tabernacle over them, but God. What an influence to be under, God’s influence in this regard, so that we are delivered from man, as it were.

OVP Is verse 16 the sufferings which the saints go through? “They shall not hunger any more, neither shall they thirst any more, nor shall the sun at all fall on them, nor any burning heat; because the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them.”

SMcC It refers to the conditions that they passed through, the sufferings and the trials, the tribulations; and it says, “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them.” Remarkable touch, “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them, and shall lead them to fountains of waters of life.” You feel that the Fulness is here, all the Persons of the Godhead in the matter, whether directly or indirectly.

FW And is that what you were saying earlier as to discipline, that even if it has to be carried out, the discipline has in view the eventual recovery; and here in connection with Israel, all that they passed through eventually drives them, as it were, to see that their whole hope is in Christ and His work.

SMcC That is it.