BLESSING IN THE WAYS OF GOD
[p. 245] BLESSING IN THE WAYS OF GOD
Genesis 27: 26, 27; Luke 24: 50 - 53
These scriptures have been selected, among other things, because of their brevity and conciseness, in view of the time at our disposal, and what is before us is to see the place blessing has in all the ways of God, but particularly in those ways of His that relate to His immediate family. The passage in Genesis is read to call attention to it, in the line of Abraham. Of Isaac it is said that he blessed both Jacob and Esau. What is in my mind now, however, is his blessing of Jacob, who is in the immediate line of blessing; Esau was in a more distant line, and ultimately lost the blessing, even the one he earnestly sought for and received, such as it was, but the line of blessing, the blessing of Abraham is very full and rich, I need not say, and it is continuous, even in our own times. The continuity of blessing obviously is seen amongst the brethren, it is unmistakable, and what is in mind now is that it should be continued and increased. Jacob’s position in the chapter read is significant in this respect, because the blessing he received at the hands of Isaac may be regarded by many as undeserved, and such thought gives rise to the need of calling attention to depth and how we may be mistaken by appearances and by superficial evidences in these matters, because Isaac was himself hardly (at the outset of the facts related) equal to blessing others. In truth it would seem that he needed to be blessed himself, which is often the case in persons whom God has called into His testimony, and hence mistakes may be made, if we judge superficially, because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. So here Isaac was the vessel of blessing, whatever the outward appearances were,
[p. 246] and whatever may be said about Rebecca and about Jacob himself, God is adhering to His own line of thought, His own purposes, and hence when the time arrived Isaac is able to smell, and smell aright; he is able to use his senses aright, which would mean that God helped him to bless his son Jacob. The time had come for it, and so after considerable thought he says, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son”. That is, the time had come for it, and whatever the appearances, the smell was not inaccurate, although superficial, but at the depth and root it was not, and so his father Isaac said unto him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed”. There is no doubt about it, the smell was there, the smell of potential blessing, the root was there, the root of promise was there, and so the blessing came, and hence, as I was remarking, the idea runs right through the family of Abraham, and by extension through the family of God.
We read that every family is blessed of the Father, “of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. They are all under His eye, only the one more immediately in view now is the assembly, and that is what now concerns us as to this matter of blessing, and so the Spirit of God keeps the current going in Jacob himself. We have to think of this in regard to the rulers of this world: they are in a plight now; I mean to say that in the government of God things are come to pass that are threatening, and we ourselves do well to be concerned and be more urgent in prayer. As to Jacob, we are told that he blessed Pharaoh. There could be no doubt that it was wider than the mere incident, that the Egyptian monarch should be blessed by Jacob. Presently Jacob is able to bless the twelve tribes, to bless them [p. 247] all one by one, although he did not talk about blessing at first, nor is it wise often to talk about blessing when we have to speak the truth which may not be pleasant, which may be needed, for the word of God is “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ... but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do”. It often is needful to have recourse to the word in that sense, the word of God, but blessing is behind it. And so in regard of all the services that the Lord has committed to us, to His people in this wonderful dispensation, because it is wonderful and has not changed, nor will it change until it is finished, and then it will become publicly known as wonderful. The name of the Lord Jesus will be known in the coming age as “Wonderful”. In all these services we may have recourse to the word of God in its searching power, and I might say retributive power, because there is such a thing as retribution even in this dispensation, for what a man sows he reaps. But then blessing is in mind, and we must never forget, that however apparent the opposite of blessing may be, yet blessing is in mind. And so it was with Jacob here, and so it was with Pharaoh, and so it was with the twelve tribes of Israel. But it was not blessing at the first, but “hearken unto Israel your father”, that is the first thing. So that if there be any question or any discipline, and there is much need for it, we must not hesitate to say, Hearken, as we say, not unto Israel your father, but Hearken to the assembly; the need of hearkening to the assembly is often to be expressed before the blessing, before the forgiveness, before the restoration. And so it was with Jacob, “Hearken unto Israel your father”. But then the beautiful wind up is this — the blessing wherewith he blessed them, every one of [p. 248] them had a blessing of his own. Every one of us, whatever his state or conduct or history, if he is a Christian he has his own blessing, and God has it in mind; however He wants to bless each and all of us, He wants to bless us together. And that is the greatest thing, to be blessed together, to be raised up together, to be set down together “in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, not individually; the less individual we are, in a sense, the better, although we have to be individual, and we have to be dealt with individually. But the great thought is together, they were all together in one place, we are told in Acts 2. At the end of the chapter it says they were all together, meaning they were together generally, and in effect always, it should be so that in no other sense are we together than together in heart.
And so as I said, the tribes had a blessing each, but then they were all blessed, too, “our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night” (Acts 26: 7), says the apostle Paul, “our whole twelve tribes”. God has nothing less than that in mind. And so they are to be gathered, for the Lord Jesus is the One that will gather Israel. At one time it is said, “though Israel be not gathered”, but they will be gathered, and not simply gathered but raised up. The whole twelve tribes of Israel will be raised up, clothed with sinews and skin, beautified with the beautification of the work of God, and designated “the whole house of Israel”, all Israel shall be saved, nothing less than that; Ezekiel 37. And so Moses in his time comes to the thought of blessing, and he begins with it, the Spirit of God begins with blessing through Moses in the first line of Deuteronomy 33. There is no discrepancy at all brought out, there is no complaint at all, there is nothing else but good; wonderful to think of it, that Israel may be called the Israel of God, a present application, but a prophetic application, too. And so the time had come,
and the word will be, “What hath God wrought!” “At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” So that we may be encouraged when we look back at chapter 30 of Genesis, the birth of the tribes and all the vicissitudes of those days, all the sorrow that lay across the history, that ultimately, the word would be as to Israel and Jacob, “What hath God wrought!” We are now in the time of God’s work, dear brethren, and it is proceeding, let nobody think it is not, for it is steadily proceeding.
And we come down to our own times, I mean to the New Testament times, and therefore I read from Luke. In one way Luke is the most encouraging of all because his thought in the gospel is to present grace, and to show that God goes on in spite of any wickedness that can be asserted, or sought to be proved. We must not be in a hurry or ill at ease to prove evil. So the Lord tells the disciples that repentance and remission of sins are to be preached “among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”, that is a wonderful thing in Luke, when you think of the wickedness of the race, right up to the present time, what wickedness, and how it is increasing, and yet these words stand, repentance and remission of sins preached to “all the nations beginning at Jerusalem”. So that we have much latitude in whatever we may be engaged in in our little meetings, our little preachings, on Sunday evenings, and our Bible readings in country places, big cities too, at times very feeble, yet the work of God goes on in power in them, we may be sure of that, because they are based on right principles. God has a great regard for principle, He will pass over much in a certain way in order to confirm and commend right principles. And so, as I said, Luke is more encouraging in one sense than any other of the evangelists, because he asserts grace and he asserts it in the sense of reigning: the idea [p. 250] of reigning is in the Scriptures, the reign of grace is emphatic, there is no thought of any modification at all. If we are to think of grace we ought to think of it and learn to bathe ourselves in it because it is grace, “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”, these are the wonderful words of Ephesians. And they fit now as they did at the beginning. And so Luke, as I said, would stress the idea of grace, “and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem”; these were the Lord’s own words. The very acme of the position in Luke is in chapter 15. We can never go too often to that chapter; and one might say, it should be a well-beaten track, the track of Luke 15, as we call it, to the prodigal. Sometimes we use the word ‘prodigality’, and no doubt it is in Luke 15, where we get the magnificence of grace, the magnanimity of it. How it fits wherever there is a poor sinner, one who has found it out what he is and, you might say, he knows it, for the work of God has brought him to it. I am not speaking now of the thought of forgiveness by the Father, I am speaking of the work of the Spirit in the new birth, one of the greatest things to keep in mind, the new birth, the underlying great fact that is current, souls being brought into being in the sense of the new birth, born again, born, we may say, throughout; it is a total matter, and hence is the foundation of the whole structure of Christianity. We are to learn to delight in that. It may not be the full thought, but I am speaking now of the idea that the Lord propounded to Nicodemus, a poor pupil indeed, although a master in Israel, the teacher in Israel, he was a very poor learner. It is hard to say much about such a man, but he was a long time, you know, coming to the truth. He and Joseph of Arimathaea came together. I would say that Joseph would have the lead, I [p. 251] would give him the lead, I would not give Nicodemus the lead, he was a slow learner. One deplores the idea of slow learning of what is so essential to our very being, to our very salvation, to our heavenly glory. I just abhor the thought in myself, of being slow in these matters. And I regard Nicodemus as a poor learner and there are a great many at the present time, and yet it is the time of learning, and the time — the learning time — is fast running out; we cannot afford to be slow about it, but look into the matter and get all the truth. The word is “He shall guide you into all the truth”, the blessed Spirit of God is here to do that for every one of us. And so John 3 comes into the lessons of the testimony in a peculiar way, it shines, and the Lord passes on to speak of His being in heaven Himself. Although He was here on earth talking to a slow learner in Israel, a Pharisee, and yet one born anew unquestionably, but how patient the Lord was with him, and we may say, Well, why did He say anything about being in heaven, if Nicodemus was not learning rapidly? Well, the Lord says, “the Son of man which is in heaven” as if He would give the whole idea to Nicodemus and let him take it home and think over it, the whole matter, “the Son of man which is in heaven”, that is what He says, as far as I can see, in the hearing of Nicodemus. Whether he ever came to it I cannot say, undoubtedly he did, I would say that. And Joseph of Arimathaea possibly, too; they are both seen together in John 19; Mary Magdalene comes in after them. Was she a slow learner? I do not think so. She was rather dense at the beginning, but she learns rapidly, as soon as the Lord said, “Mary”, the sound of His voice announcing her name, the name meaning much, she turned and said, “Rabboni”. Let us think of these things, dear brethren, and learn to say ‘Rabboni’ if we can say it truthfully. And what it means is that she [p. 252] had reached the right teacher, no doubt she had learned from others but she is now saying, All that I am learning is from this blessed Man. She had heard His voice, and He had called her “Mary” and she replied “Rabboni”. It is the very heart of John’s gospel as regards instruction. Mary is the idea, I would say, in a sister, in one that learns quickly, not slowly or carelessly or as if it were not urgent, but immediately, she learned immediately. The Lord was “Rabboni” to her, and He is the only one that should be Rabboni to any of us. How many have other teachers! And I have ventured to come down to the New Testament in the line of blessing, beginning with the superficiality of Jacob, because that is the truth as to him, and yet the root was there and Isaac knew it was there. He came to it, he came to it by his smell, “the smell of my son”, he says, but he also said, “Come near, now ... my son”. The Lord would say that to us, that we are not to be known at a distance in these matters, we are to be known nearby. It is the time for learning and the Lord is coming near to us and has come near to us all these years, I know it well; hundreds of times many of us here know that the Lord has been near to us at the teaching time, and we have gone out as it were at such times with a sense that we have learnt, as Paul himself said, “I have learned” — that is the idea — “in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content”; it is a great bit of learning that, to be content, but then if you learn that in nearness to Christ you will learn a lot more. And so it was that Paul said, “most gladly therefore”; he accepted his infirmity that the power of the Christ should rest upon him. He could see the Lord’s meaning in that extraordinary situation, he asked the Lord three times to remove the thorn, and he ceased, he did not ask Him four times. We have to learn from that, too; the Lord Jesus did not ask His Father four [p. 253] times to take away the cup, He asked Him three times, we are to learn that, to learn when to stop, that is to say, we discern that the thing must stand in the government of God, a certain thing must stand because we need it for education, lest something else might happen. God is meticulous and He is saying to us, do not ask Me a fourth time. He said to Moses once, Do not say anything to Me about that again; Jehovah said that to Moses. We have to learn to be restful when we have the clear intimation that the government of God requires certain conditions in any one of us, to bow to it and we become learners, otherwise we would fail in our education. And coming down to the New Testament in Luke, I ventured to limit myself to the verses read in the last chapter of Luke, because they present the Lord not on mount Olivet, but at Bethany, and that the Lord led them out as far as that, He was not working beyond that, He would presently move on, but He was not moving on yet, He is now going up to heaven, and He lifted up His hands and blessed the disciples, and He was separated from them. We may say, Well, “separated from them”, that does not look just good; well, that is as far as things have gone, we have to learn in part and we have to learn why the Lord led them out as far as to Bethany and was separated from them. We have to learn what that means. Why the separation; why the stopping at Bethany? Well, something has to be done yet, and it took a good time to inaugurate Christianity in the fullest sense, because you can hardly think of Christianity being fully inaugurated without Paul. I should not like to think of him eliminated from the inauguration, I should like to have him included, the Lord was carrying on, of course, carrying on Himself. He had gone to the right hand of God, Mark says, but still Paul was in His mind. And so He says, “he is an elect vessel unto me”. He met him on [p. 254] the way to Damascus, not in Palestine, there is much going on in Palestine now, it is the very centre of things, I might say, politically, but Syria used to have a great place and did in the beginning of Christianity, but Palestine is more in mind, and the Lord met Paul (Saul of Tarsus) on the way to Damascus; that is in Syria, and we have to see about that, see why the Lord waited till he came near Damascus, until He spoke to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me” He said that in Syria. And so the thought of Paul must not be eliminated from the inaugural time of Christianity. I am not saying that it is so now, I am also not saying that we cannot say that Christianity began at the second of Acts, because in a certain sense we can say it began there, with the coming of the Spirit. The Lord waited forty days, and then ten days, and then He sent the Spirit, we must learn something of those fifty days, why the Lord waited for those, but He did, and then the Spirit came.
But then there is more than that. And so I read from Luke because the Lord has in His mind that He should lead them out as far as Bethany. The idea of leading is not to be overlooked because it enters into Christianity, and especially in order that we may understand why Judaism was abandoned. The Lord led them out as far as to Bethany, and there is much added, “He lifted up his hands, and blessed them”, but “He was separated from them”. There must be something for us in that, because the dispensation involves more than that, it is not separation from Christ, it is union with Christ. Israel never came into union with Christ, and never will, it is the assembly that has that part. And therefore the great need of learning the truth of the assembly. And so the Lord blessed them, He lifted up His hands and blessed them, and was separated from them. The thought implied in those words extends back to all these points that I have already [p. 255] mentioned, but especially to Numbers 6, that is to say, where the Nazarite comes in, involving separation, not from Christ but from the world and all the like of it, which, alas, many of us perhaps have been very slow learning. So Numbers 6 tells us about the Nazarite, which speaks of Christ, of course, but at the same time is applicable to us, to the assembly. The word there in verse 23 is for the priest, not only Aaron but Aaron and his sons, meaning that the assembly or the persons who form it are in mind in Numbers 6: 50 that we know, or should know, the lesson of Nazariteship, and how to keep ourselves from the world. These thoughts run back to that, and the Lord undoubtedly conveyed to the disciples that they were to be blessers themselves, as we are to be now. We are all to be blessers, “bless, and curse not”, we are told. We are to learn how to bless, to eulogise the precious cup in which we drink to call to mind the Lord Jesus Who is absent from us; “the cup of blessing which we bless”. He is absent, they were to understand what He meant that they were to remain in Jerusalem, in Judaism; and God would show to us in this that He was wonderfully patient with the Jews. That time has ceased now, but it was once a great matter with God — His patience with the Jews. It was more than ever Paul could express and yet Paul says that he could have wished that he was accursed from Christ for his brethren’s sake. He said that he could have wished that, showing the depths of his feelings. One feels how little one realises what Israel was to God, and how He felt it having to give them up. He has given them up for ourselves, because God has now taken on the nations, the Gentiles, carrying on His thoughts in ourselves, a very great fact, and we are not slow, I can say, thank God, at least many are not slow to lay hold of what our privileges are. But then the Lord at that time,
[p. 256] in Luke 24, had in His mind the separation, the distance that would be maintained by God in His ways with His earthly people. And so there was a separation, He was separated from them, and then they went into the temple, they went to Jerusalem, and went to the temple, not to the upper room yet, meaning that God’s patience with the Jews is still maintained, it was a current matter. And so we are told that they went into the temple and they “were continually in the temple” (notice in the temple) “praising and blessing God”, but in the temple meant distance, but God is patient and ready to help in being near His people, according to His eternal counsels, He was ready to help for the moment. And He did, He waited for Paul to bring in all that had to be said about it, and the renunciation by God of the Jewish claims and the setting up of the assembly service, the service of God; the gospel and the service of God in a general way — the heavenly service of God, that has come in, it has come in through Paul. I am only touching it because the time has just gone. But I hope the brethren will just seize what I am seeking to say, that this matter of separation was tolerated by God, and the Lord Jesus was able to bless His people, in spite of that separation. But now union has come in, of course it had come in by the Spirit, at the same time the teaching of it had not come in, it required Paul, and that is what I have been saying, the importance of keeping in mind the truth involved in Paul, of whom the Lord says, “an elect vessel unto me”, to bring out all this wonderful truth about Christ and the assembly. And so the last chapter of Luke is the continuation of the blessing of Abraham, as it is called, that the blessing of Abraham should arrive at the Gentiles; it has arrived at us, and we have received the Spirit and are in union with Christ, all that is now available and has been. But the question is whether we have gone [p. 257] in for it and understand it, whether we understand union, because Paul is the one that the Lord was pleased to take up and to give him the ministry of the mystery of the assembly, and that involves union. And so I stop there, I only intended just to bring out the continuance of blessing, beginning, as I said, with the blessing of Abraham through Isaac descending on Jacob, and in the New Testament the blessing with which the Lord Jesus blessed His disciples and was parted from them ascending up to heaven, knowing that all is well. They could understand that all was well, nothing could fail, but still God is patient, it is one of the greatest things to keep in mind the patience and longsuffering of God, so that we may know Him through it, and learn through it. And thus I leave the matter, dear brethren, hoping that we will all come in to these matters that are so essential.