THE LORD AS A MAN OF LEISURE
THE LORD AS A MAN OF LEISURE
Genesis 22: 19; Genesis 24: 61 - 65; Genesis 26: 7, 8; Genesis 43: 16; Deuteronomy 24: 5
JT The intent is to call attention to these scriptures to show how the Lord reserves a time for occupation with the assembly as His bride; this over against Joseph who is not a man of leisure, but a man of affairs, who would come in at noon in the midst of his work, and we have the reference therefore in Genesis 43 to his readiness to occupy himself with these brothers, including Benjamin, as they came down from Canaan. It is said that he should come home at noon, being occupied as a man of affairs. Verse 16 says “Joseph saw Benjamin with them, and said to the man who was over his house, Bring the men into the house, and slaughter cattle, and make ready; for the men shall eat with me at noon”. Now the verse of the first passage was read because it points to the Lord Jesus typically as having gone to heaven. Abraham and the young men who accompanied him went to Beer-sheba. It is said, “And Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba”. Because the verse does not note that Isaac came with his father to Beer-sheba, the type suggests that Christ has gone to heaven, and his relations with the assembly now are from heaven, and the verses in Genesis 24 speak of Isaac being at Beer-lahai-roi. “Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi; for he was dwelling in the south country”. That is, he is not engaged with anything special, and so he is preoccupied with Rebecca. It says, “Isaac had gone out to meditate in the fields toward the beginning of evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming”, meaning that [p. 2] he is occupied not so much with Rebecca as with the presence of the means by which she is carried, as if to remind us that the Lord is concerned as to whether we are being carried as part of the assembly or whether we are moving in relation to the power of nature, or according to human practice, or whether we are dependent on and separated by the Holy Spirit. The passage in chapter 26 only confirms this. Isaac is still seen at leisure, the word is ‘dallying’ with Rebecca, meaning that it is the time of affection, and the passage in Deuteronomy is to confirm further that the type requires that if a man takes a new wife he shall have a year of leisure. I hope these remarks will be intelligible.
JTW Have you in mind that this covers the whole period of the assembly, or is it the Lord’s particular service now?
JT I should say it is the Lord’s particular service now, while it is, typically, after the death of Israel. He is occupied with the assembly. This, of course, comes out in the period of the Lord’s supper, it does not go on constantly, but in the period when the Supper is celebrated, the first day of the week.
JTW As over against other interests He is occupied with?
JT Just so, in that it would be particularly worked out in a dispensational sense. He is not sitting on His own throne yet, He is sitting on the Father’s throne. He is not ruling the world, nor Israel yet, He is devoted to the assembly, and hence the leisure that is suggested in these passages. Not that the Lord is not occupied with work, other scriptures would show that, but this scripture shows what I am speaking of, and involves an important feature of the truth. It may be that the brethren have not noticed that Isaac did not return from the place of his offering up, in death typically, but it is a fact [p. 3] that it is not recorded that he returned with his father and the men to Beer-sheba.
TB What are we to understand by that, that Isaac does not return with Abraham?
JT Well, the reference would be to the ascension, as spoken of in Luke 24, and Acts 1 and in John 20, and in Mark. The testimony to the ascension is very full, and the assembly is supposed in the typical books and apostolic letters to be involved in the Lord’s ascension. She goes up with him. That is to be understood mysteriously, but it is a fact. According to Revelation the man child goes up to heaven and it is intelligible that the assembly goes, too, because she is not in the persecution, she is taken out of the way. He says in Revelation 3 that He will keep us from the great tribulation.
CEB Do we assemble ourselves together to break bread with the fact in mind that the Lord is in heaven?
JT The more accurate thought would be that He is rejected here. He is in heaven, it is true, but it is that He is rejected here that should be in our minds. “The stone which they that builded rejected, this has become the corner-stone”. (Matthew 21: 42; Mark 12: 10; Luke 20:17; see also Psalm 118: 22)
Ques Is it your thought that Rebecca is typical of the assembly in a peculiar way as ministering to the affections of Christ?
JT Just so.
Ques So that He is peculiarly engaged with her in a leisurely way?
JT That is a good way to put it, in a leisurely way; hence the word in Genesis 26 (in the Darby Translation) is “dallying” not ‘sporting’ (as used in the Authorised Version) It is hardly in keeping with the position; the word ‘sport’ is hardly suitable, but ‘dallying’ is quite intelligible.
CEB Does dallying convey the idea [p. 4] of union?
JT Just so, and perfect familiarity in the sense of union.
JCE Is this the assembly’s position as ascended with Christ or here?
JT As ascended with Christ. That is the idea. The position of the assembly now is ascension. We are not only raised with Christ but we are ascended. Colossians speaks of our being raised with Him through faith of the operation of God. That is, a person who is baptised not only goes into the water, but comes out of it, a figure of resurrection, but Ephesians gives you that, and tells us that we are raised up together, and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
Ques Had the Lord this in mind in His ministry to Mary Magdalene when He said, “I ascend to my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God”?
JT That is just the point. The fact of ascension is not stressed there, but it is simply He would ascend, or rather the truth “I ascend”. Not exactly the tense but the fact. It is a fact that He does ascend.
CEB Does the thought of “dallying” convey the idea of responsive affections between Christ and the assembly?
JT That is right, and all the liberty and latitude that belongs to the position.
Ques Should the quickening in Ephesians 2 give us the affections that would take advantage of this leisure time?
JT Well, the Philistine king saw this liberty that Isaac had with Rebecca, and that Rebecca had with him, and he discerned the fact she was his wife and not his sister. Now we are in a wealthy position. The word ‘spouse’ does involve the marital relation, but not all of it, and therefore when Isaac said she was his sister that was a denial of the truth. We are related to Christ in the sense of the wife. The [p. 5] marriage of the Lamb has come; the wife has made herself ready, it is a wifely time.
CEB Does this follow on chapter 24, “Isaac led her into his mother Sarah’s tent ... and she became his wife, and he loved her”?
JT That is just the fact. In chapter 26 he said she was his sister, whereas she was his wife. That is the important thing for us to understand; that is that we are united to Christ now as much as we shall ever be, and hence the possibilities of the assembly service at the present time.
Ques Is it necessary to understand what is involved in what is said that when the servant said “it is my master”, she took a veil and covered herself?
JT Well, that was becoming, as if she would say, ‘I do not want my beauty to be exposed to others’ — she reserved it for Isaac. That is our suitability. It is said constantly, as in such as Abigail she was a woman of great beauty and good understanding, and so was Rebecca. She is said to be of beauty, her personal appearance is involved.
Rem She would reserve that for Isaac alone.
JT That is what I understand, that is why she took a veil, but what is suggested is that we are not always carried by the Spirit, and that is why I believe the Lord here (Isaac) notes the fact that camels were coming. We might have thought that he saw Rebecca coming, she saw Isaac, but he saw the camels, meaning she was carried by the proper power. Hence all the systems of Christendom are shut out.
Ques Is it not in measure as we know what it is to be carried by the camels, that we know what it is to see Isaac, and we are prepared to spring off the camels?
JT Yet she is perfectly in keeping with the position in her movements and acts, which are in order and suitable and seemly, and the Lord is [p. 6] pleased with how she has been carried to Him. There are many who are not carried by the Spirit, but are carried along by creeds and religious systems. Every believer has Him as the gift of God, and should use Him in relation to our approach and journey to Christ.
Rem This great matter of taking a wife for Isaac began with the father, Abraham, and he made a provision, sending out the camels and so forth.
JT That is good, so what we find is the servant — the chief one of his house, he is not called Eliezer in this chapter, he is just the chief servant of Abraham, and Abraham does not tell him what to do, he takes the camels himself, and is in complete charge of all that his master has. The position is thus very full, and very free from any human reservation and restriction; it is a sphere of freedom, the freedom of the Spirit. The Spirit is typified in the servant, and the camels, and therefore it is a time of liberation. The Spirit is also typified in the well by which Rebecca watered the camels, and the men. The well at Beer-lahai-roi is also a type of the Spirit. It is a very full position of spiritual power, and we should avail ourselves of it, and not be struggling with human systems and money and the like.
AO Is it possible in accepting the light we are not carried by the Spirit?
JT That is true, sadly true, and so we may be found making the ordinary customs of the brethren just a means of carrying us along, and the power is not there. Paul said he had the power, and that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
Rem The Lord, speaking to the disciples of the Spirit coming, said, “He shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you”. Was that the same thing as what is said of the servant? He takes the camels, without having been told to do so.
JT I had been thinking that. There is a peculiar [p. 7] liberty that is attached to the position; the Spirit here to serve, He is sent down from heaven, yet He is a divine Person, and He has to be apprehended as a divine Person, and yet serving in obedience.
FAW In verse 61 it emphasises that “they rode upon the camels, and followed the man. And the servant took Rebecca”. Is that as being available to the Spirit He takes her on?
JT Just so. There is a remarkable amount of latitude in the fact that the man led her, and she followed him. The type carries so much that it suggests the Spirit, and the power of the Spirit to us.
CEB And as following the man she moves in a comely way, thinking of the way in which she springs from the camel and took a veil and veiled herself.
JT Like Abigail, who hasted and lighted off her ass. The power of the Spirit is a spring in our souls.
WJT That is contrary to what is found in Christendom.
JT That is just the point. We are to be set aside and be in the true light and liberty of this chapter. What is said about Joseph is also important. He came in at noon. He was a man of affairs. The Lord will be a man of affairs presently. God has fixed the day when He will rule the world. He will judge the world, and the Lord will take on the rule of the world, whose right it is. It is His right. The powers that be are of God, and in that position, but only provisionally. And the saints, the assembly, are to be with Him in that rule.
JMT In chapter 22 the suggestion is that Isaac is the ascended one, now in chapter 24 he is dwelling in the south country.
JT Well, that is another setting of the position. Although ascended into heaven we cannot say He is always stationary, for He tells us in John 14, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. That would be involved in what we said; He is not stationary.
[p. 8] He has gone into heaven, in fact beyond all heavens. There is, indeed, rule in the Lord’s present position.
WW Is that seen in the Song of Songs? “Behold, he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”. Does that suggest the time He has to spend?
JT Very good. “I am coming to you” is very full of meaning. He would not leave us dependent upon what the ordinary religious societies depend upon. He is coming for us, too. We have to distinguish between His coming to us as in assembly and at other times, too. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us of the many times in which the Lord appeared to His own, first to Cephas, then to the twelve, then He appeared to about five hundred brethren at once, then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and then to Paul, showing that the Lord has latitude at the present time in the activities of His love.
JTW Are you linking that up with the south country?
JT Yes, it is a favourable country, not like the north where things are adverse, everything is favourable in this chapter. You are impressed with the wealth. Abraham disappears and Isaac is called the master in the end. Isaac is all.
TG The expression in verse 63, “toward the beginning of evening”, is that suggestive of the anticipated time for leisure?
JT Yes, but we must not leave Rebecca out of it, as to activity, because verse 61 says, “and Rebecca arose, and her maids, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man”. That is to say the feminine side is stressed, not in Rebecca only, but her maids. We have the same thought in Abigail, she had maids, and so it is in the assembly’s approach to the Lord. The feminine side is stressed, and this has to be understood in assembly service. It is not [p. 9] simply that Rebecca arose, but her maids, and they rode upon the camels. That is to say they also were carried by spiritual power, and they followed the man. And then the servant took Rebecca and went away, meaning he is in charge. The Spirit of God is in charge in certain relations and circumstances. The Spirit Himself at times is supreme, and so in Acts 13 He says, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”. That is, the Spirit Himself is acting there, acting divinely, as God, “and having laid their hands on them, they let them go”, and they went. And so we have to understand that the Spirit Himself is moving, and is in charge of the position, and so it goes on “Isaac had just returned”. He is not doing anything very special. “Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi; for he was dwelling in the south country. And Isaac had gone out to meditate in the fields toward the beginning of evening”, showing the Lord has His own thoughts. He is a divine Person, but He has a mind to meditate in the field toward the beginning of evening, meaning the day had pretty well ended, and then “he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming”. It is simply camels, not the camels. The Lord is taking in all the power by which we are carried, and the power which Rebecca began with was ten camels, which the servant selected, and they were at her disposal.
Ques What is suggested in Isaac lifting up his eyes and Rebecca lifting up her eyes?
JT All that is to be said in that way is that he lifted up his eyes and saw camels; she lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac. The inference is he is occupied for the moment with the power by which she is carried, and she is occupied with him, which is suitable and seemly.
JOS Would that enter into the way we assemble together?
JT [p. 10] I think so. We begin with the Spirit. I think we begin with ourselves as a matter of fact. “We being assembled to break bread”, the scripture says. That is to say, the Lord leaves us, as it were, to meet, and in due course He joins us, but He would think of what we are, and what He has done for us, and made us, and what we are capable of, and He joins us. And so we must think of each other. How valuable we are in the Lord’s eyes! As if He would look down from heaven and see us in our way of meeting where we have love enough to be content with each other.
Ques What does Sarah’s tent convey to us?
JT It is Israel’s position which will be again occupied. At the beginning of the Christian period Sarah’s tent was occupied by the disciples. That is to say the Lord went up to heaven, and the disciples returned to Jerusalem, and they carried on for a considerable time. The breaking of bread is never said to be in the temple, but they did other things there. They disappeared, however, and the assembly took its own place. It is through Paul that the assembly claimed its full place, and Corinthians shows that the assembly takes the place of the temple, showing there is the metropolitan position — for a time the temple — and this in due course becoming the fixed position of the assembly on earth during the present dispensation.
Ques Is that in the mind of the Spirit in the expression “Israel of God”?
JT Yes, I think so, “our whole twelve tribes”. Paul used it, and it went on for a time, but in due course the assembly was recognised, and nothing else, among whom we also are builded together.
WN Would verse 65 suggest that the assembly is inquiring as to Christ on the journey?
JT Well, it would. “She had said to the servant”; that is what we are doing now; these Bible [p. 11] readings are inquiries. We all get instruction by inquiry. It says we are to inquire of the Lord. The Lord will give us understanding, and the Spirit does, He takes of the Lord’s things and shows them unto us. The servant here is a type of the Spirit.
SC Solomon says, “Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness?”
JT That is the millennial position, I think, in which the assembly fits in beautifully at times, as at the beginning of Acts, until Paul came into view, and he is formally recognised as the minister of the assembly; he has the light of it, and the ministry of reconciliation and the gospel, and he completed the word of God.
TG Is it understood that the Lord reserves a time to occupy Himself with the assembly (verse 67), and that the preceding verse suggests the detailed instruction leading up to it?
JT I would think so. The servant, as he is called, the Holy Spirit, instructs us, as in John’s gospel, it is he that speaks of the Comforter. The Spirit is an active Person to instruct us about Christ. In John 20 we are told the Lord breathed into the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. We have to understand that and compare it, and cause it to coincide with Acts 2. John 20 is a pattern of the thing. The Lord breathing into them is a more intimate thought than in Acts 2.
JCE Psalm 45 says, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him”. Does the thought of worship enter into this matter?
JT I would think so, as soon as Christ is recognised as the Master. He is called the master by the servant, “Who is the man that is walking in the fields to meet us? And the servant said, That is my master!” (verse 65). That is, Christ is God. He is [p. 12] a divine Person equal with the Father, and John’s gospel opens that up to us.
Ques Does that stress the importance of the marital side in the Supper?
JT That is what I was thinking, and what we have in chapter 26 enlarges on it, and in Deuteronomy, which perhaps the brethren may note. “When a man hath taken a new wife”. Isaac had just taken a wife. Christ has taken a wife. “He shall not go out with the army, neither shall any kind of business be imposed upon him; he shall be free for his house one year, and shall gladden his wife whom he hath taken”. Now I think what we have been saying is seen there. It is called a year, and no doubt it is what could be seen in the beginning, as the Spirit came down — no conflict, although that comes in in due time, but that is not stressed, it is what Christ has in the assembly after Israel (Sarah) had died.
WS You yourself said you linked this more particularly with the first day of the week, rather than the whole.
JT Well, it would be any time. The Lord is said to have appeared to the brethren five or six times in 1 Corinthians 15. We cannot say that this is the first day of the week. Some think that it may be mediatorial, that He comes by the Spirit, but that is not the truth, because facts maintained show that He came in a corporal sense in the time of the forty days and after it. We cannot restrict the Lord — a divine Person — He may come any time. He came to Paul even with the event recorded in Acts 9.
CEB Have you in mind that we should look for the Lord to come amongst us?
JT Well, I would hardly go so far as that. We can hardly expect what was at the beginning, miracles, etc., not in relation to the assembly but the gospel, and therefore the Lord would reserve to Himself His own liberty to come as it suited Him.
[p. 13] Ques You would say that He would appear to make His presence felt?
JT Yes, hence you would say, “It is the Lord”. David said to Abigail, “Blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou”.
TG What is your thought as to Deuteronomy 24? “He shall be free for his house one year, and shall gladden his wife whom he hath taken”. Why the house first?
JT Well, Christ is the Son over His house; Son over God’s house, but still it is His house, too, because the assembly is His. I would say it is the assembly as in the sense of Christ’s assembly. He is free for that, and I therefore understand that the Lord’s supper refers to Christ alone.
TG Would it be right to suggest that the Lord is doing His very best with the house for suitable circumstances for the wife?
JT Just so, to make it suitable for her, she has part in it.
WJT So the word in Genesis 24 is “Isaac was comforted”, and here the wife is gladdened.
JT The Lord is not now hampered with any thought of Israel, she is defunct, she is dead. The fact is she is dead for the moment. Paul formally separated himself from the Jews in Acts 19, and finally in Acts 28. “Be it known to you therefore, that this salvation of God has been sent to the nations; they also will hear it”, as if the Jews were given up. So that the Lord is devoted to His own house, and I think Joseph is a type of the Lord in that sense; Christ among the Gentiles. The epistle to the Colossians is another suggestion of what He has among the Gentiles.
FAW It is the Supper as given to Paul. Would “I received from the Lord”, bear on this point?
JT It does. It refers to Christ, it is the Lord’s supper, not the Father’s supper, it is the Lord’s supper, and all that stands related to it.
Ques Where would you suggest, in taking the Lord’s supper, this question of “dallying” would come between Christ and the assembly after the breaking of bread, or at the breaking of bread? Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything, “a time to embrace” and “a time to love”. (Ecclesiastes 3: 5, 8)
JT Yes, and so the Lord’s supper is a time of love, hence we have the Lord saying “my brethren”. “Go to my brethren”. The thought of the Father came in in due course, but let us give plenty of time for the dallying, for it is the Lord’s own part with the assembly, what she is to Him and what she is for ever. There is still a tendency to hasten on to the Father. What we are saying is needed, in some places very much, in others not so. The Lord has to have His rights in the assembly, and it is the first place. He is said to be called the master, and so it is that we are said to be priests of the Christ.
Ques If the Lord has His place in the way in which you are speaking, at the Supper, would we be led rightly to the Father, and there would not be the abruptness with which we sometimes turn?
JT Yes, I think that is good, and this question of priesthood implies intelligence in what we are doing. If we are abrupt in turning away from the Lord at the Supper we may do violence to the position. I am not saying it is so, but we may. The priests would correct all that. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and at his mouth they seek the law”, and as I have just remarked, we are said to be priests unto Christ as well as unto God.
JTW We are to give Him a greater place in the economy and in the service, that is Revelation 20.
JT It would do us all good to read it.
JTW “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath [p. 15] no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20: 6).
JT Well, these are facts. It gives the Messiah the full divine place in the service. Other scriptures corroborate that. “He is thy Lord”, for instance, “worship thou him”.
WW It is the same in Ephesians as to the wife reverencing her husband in all.
JT It is, and so “I speak as to Christ and as to the assembly”, as though Paul made much of the speaking. What he would be concerned about is Christ and the assembly.
Ques Would this matter of worship come out in the case of Abigail, as seen in the way in which she spoke to David; very much on the line of worship, and as “my lord”?
JT Quite so, and what is to be said in addition is that in 1 Samuel 25 which speaks of Abigail and David it contemplates not only Christ in relation with the assembly, but the elder brethren, those who rule in the assembly, and who may not be always right, because David drops from the level of the type of Christ in his behaviour towards Nabal. He has to change his mind about it. Although the types help us, sometimes they fail us, but we can discern where. The brethren may drop to the level of ordinary brethren, from the full level of the position of Christ as Head of the assembly. It is a remarkable thing that Abigail is chosen to bring that out, and she becomes quite settled in the matter, and David comes to her side, and recognises her discernment. “Blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou”. She was blessed in his eyes.
JOS Does love and intelligence enter into priesthood?
JT Well, I think so, and so priesthood in Exodus is not attributed to Aaron and his sons until love is displayed, is plainly shown. It shows that priesthood [p. 16] is dependent on love; love being the side emphasised, so that you do not get priesthood applied to Aaron and his sons until Exodus 28, after love has been displayed, plainly shown, by the Hebrew servant. Probably that is the explanation of so much hesitancy and slowness and confusion because love is not ready — the priests are not ready.
Ques Is that why you linked the thought of Joseph’s activities with his brethren and Isaac’s leisure with his wife?
JT Well, he was serving them. When we spoke of leisure we applied it entirely to Isaac. Joseph is not that. Joseph is a great server, we can see that in other settings, whereas Isaac is not seen in that sense at all in the beginning. It is a question of latitude and liberty with dallying between Christ and the assembly in this dispensation. Joseph is serving his brethren. Pharaoh is said to have given him a name by which he is intended to be a deliverer of the world. He is another type of a man of affairs, of great things.
JTW He could just come home at noon, whereas the Lord has plenty of time.
JT Exactly, He would afford enough time for his brethren.
TG It is the appreciation of Christ serving us in this way, the leisure, the restful, serene conditions.
JT Yes, I think so. We will never serve overtime to get the world’s esteem on a Lord’s day. If we are serving for money we will never get to the dallying point of which we have been speaking. The idea of a Sabbath is a prime idea in the scripture. The brethren so much need time in divine service, not to be in a hurry to get to it, but to be there leisurely. “In his shadow have I rapture and sit down”.
TG Would not that fill out the periods of silence with the holiness that becomes the house of God, as well as [p. 17] the power?
JT Yes, you see the time is so valuable that it must be rightly spent. The priests need time. Time is needed, and they know what to do. This is a great matter amongst us, to know what to do.
JOS Would a word early in the meeting help in this matter of leisure?
JT I think it does, it sets the minds of the brethren at rest. The Lord’s supper is a matter of the mind at first.
CEB Joseph would be a man of great activities in the famine periods, and he had a wife and children, that is the whole idea of what is marital and sonship is involved.
JT I think that is good, he has a wife and two children, and they got names that indicate that. That is seen in chapter 41. It says, “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-paaneah, and gave him as wife Asnath the daughter of Potipherah, the priest in On, and Joseph went out over the land of Egypt”. He was a man of affairs, and later on it says, “And to Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asnath the daughter of Potipherah the priest in On bore to him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh” — forgetting his toil — “and the name of the second he called Ephraim” — double fruitfulness, “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction”. That is most applicable to what we are saying. It indicates another side of Christ’s position amongst the Gentiles, what He is rendering amongst the Gentiles.
JOS Like John 4.
JT Just so. She reinforces the testimony of Christ as the Saviour of the world. Very good.