THE BEGINNING OF ALL THAT SHALL BE FOR GOD'S REST
Revelation 3: 14
Colossians 1: 18
Genesis 8: 20-22; 9: 8-17
John 20: 17
AM Our brother in giving thanks for the emblems on Lord's day morning referred to the Lord Jesus as the one who is the Beginning and who maintained everything that is for God. The line of Mr A J Gardiner's hymn came to mind:
And now Thou are there, the Beginning
Of all that shall be for God's rest,
(Hymn 39).
I was just thinking about those words about the Lord Jesus -
…the Beginning
Of all that shall be for God's rest
- it must be so. You cannot make something good if the beginning is not good. The Lord Jesus is the beginning of all that shall be for God's rest. The Lord's address to Laodicea came to mind; he presents Himself here as “the beginning of the creation of God”. “These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”. You can see how these aspects in which the Lord Jesus presents Himself to this assembly are appropriate to the condition of things in the assembly. I would just add that when we speak about Laodicea we are not talking about a company as such that we can point a finger at today, but there is a state in Christendom that is marked by Laodicea and, dear brethren, we have had our part in it; there is no getting away from that. They say they have got everything - “I am rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing”, Rev 3: 17. They might have claimed to have had the truth. Somebody commented as to these assemblies, that as you go through them you see the conditions worsening generally, apart from Philadelphia, but it starts off with a right position. Ephesus closed the door to evil men; that was a right position, although their first love had been lost. But when you get to Laodicea they closed the door to Christ; they closed the door to Him. He presents Himself as the Beginning, the faithful and true Witness, what the church has failed to be. He is the faithful and true Witness; He is the Amen; everything is assured in Him. What has impressed me for this occasion is that He is the Beginning. Laodicea might have been nominally an ecclesiastical position for years - He is saying, ‘Get back to the beginning’; the beginning is Christ.
Strictly speaking, the expression “the creation of God” would cover everything that God has made; it would cover whatever has been done. Even in the physical creation you can see that the Lord Jesus was the beginning; He was the Creator. “All things received being through Him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being”, John 1: 3. He was the beginning even of a physical creation, and He puts His impress upon it. So there are suggestions of Christ even in the physical creation. You see that, do you not, in the Scriptures? Even the animals are taken up to bring in suggestions that speak of Christ. The believer takes account of the physical creation and sees the greatness of God, His eternal power and divinity expressed in it. But the believer is looking at something which is on the other side of death. Everything here is bounded by death and the believer is looking for something which is on the other side of death. And so we have the word in Colossians: “who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”, and the apostle says there is a reason for that, “that he might have the first place in all things”. That is the divine intent, that Christ should have the first place in all things.
I thought that in Genesis we have a figure of the resurrection scene. All that man was naturally had come under judgment; it has been dispensed with, a new world has emerged. What is the beginning of the new world? The beginning of the new world is that there is a burnt-offering. God delighting in the total devotion, even today, of the One who has brought it all to pass. And He says, ‘This is the foundation of my new world; this is not going to be destroyed by a flood’. And then He says, “I set my bow in the clouds”. The bow speaks of Christ. He says, ‘It is my bow’. We look at a rainbow, we see how beautiful and lovely it is, and we remember this chapter. God says, ‘It is my bow’: it is His Christ. He keeps Christ before Him. He has established the scene of which Christ is the beginning. He remains before God, whatever the circumstances. Even when He brings clouds upon the earth - and oh, how many clouds there have been - His bow remains there, and God looks upon it.
I read in John 20 as it brings in the saints as well. There is the actual resurrection morning and there is a new order of things set on, and the Lord Jesus says, “my brethren”; they are brought into relationship with “my Father”. That is an outline of what was in mind; I trust the brethren can make something of it.
AEM I think that is very helpful. The line of the hymn that prompted your exercise speaks of all that shall be for God's rest. Could you just say something about the expansiveness of that, because that might bring to our hearts just the thought of divine Persons finishing work, as in finishing what They had to do, but it extends far beyond that, does it not?
AM That is right. The rest of God is an initial thought, is it not? God laboured in order that He might have rest. There were six days of work but then what He saw on the sixth day was very good - the first five days what He saw was good, but on the sixth day it was very good, and then He rested. That was the object that God had before Him, and eternally He will rest in His love. He will secure it on the earth in a coming day. Israel will be brought in, and have part in that rest. We will not be here; we will have a more blessed position. God is going to secure rest in all that He has done. Think of the six thousand years of labour and toil, and yet God is going to secure rest out of it. You have more in mind, I am sure?
AEM No, that is very helpful. And for no instant of it, has He begun anywhere else other than Christ. Is that your thought?
AM Absolutely. What else could He start with? Everything else on the earth has been tainted by sin; it is abhorrent to God. Sin is abhorrent to God and everything has been tainted by it. What He has is Christ, and in Christ is everything; everything for God, and everything for us.
RDP I remember Mr Norman Meek once telling us that in that scripture in Genesis 9, just for a moment, God had the whole population of the earth round the altar of burnt-offering. That was the environment in which He says, ‘I will never destroy the earth again like that’. I just thought that for a moment the whole earth was in accord with the fact that Christ is the beginning.
AM It was, and what pleasure God must have found in that. Someone might say that it did not last; but it happened. The fact that it happened is the great thing. And God is going to secure - maybe just in smallness - some who have made their beginning in Christ, and have maintained that. The problem is that we all come to the Lord Jesus when we are in our need and in our sins, but we do not maintain it, do we? We do not maintain that position. We start introducing our own thoughts, but Christ is the beginning, and Christ is the end.
AJMcK Just to refer to that hymn again, it is presented with a capital 'B' as if it is a divine name. Do you think that is what the hymn writer had in mind?
AM I think it is, yes. The thought comes in in Colossians, does it not? “Who is the beginning”; you might say that is His title, ‘the Beginning’. The Lord presents Himself in different ways in Revelation: the First and the Last, and the Alpha and the Omega, and so on, but the Beginning suggests to me that there is something set on which is going to go on. It is going to go through.
AJMcK I feel very measured by it. We tend to be bound by time, and I wonder if this goes beyond that. Do you think the Beginning really takes us into the area of God’s purpose?
AM It does. The brethren will understand that there are many scriptures that have been going through my mind, one of which is Matthew 16. It says, “on this rock I will build my assembly” (v 18); that is the confession of the Son of the Living God. He was the Beginning. The assembly goes through to eternity, does it not? It is an eternal vessel of God’s glory but it begins with Him, “on this rock”.
MIW Naturally in ordinary things we tend to think of the beginning in relation to a process, the beginning being the start; but in relation to what is being said, is it helpful to see that the Beginning, because it relates to the Person, brings out the glory and beauty of the Person? That is what the title means, does it? As our brother said, it is like a title really.
AM Yes, and the passage of time - and much has come into time - does not affect that. It is the glory of the Person right through, and that will go through to the end. He is the Amen as well as the Beginning. The glory of the Person goes right through. He gives character to it all.
DJW Can you help us as to the idea of a creation in connection with the beginning. It is the creation of God. Is it linked with Ephesians 2: 10, “created in Christ Jesus”?
AM That is very suggestive. I like to think of divine Persons; they existed before time. We cannot go back before time began. There was what existed there, outside of time. We are limited in the use of language because we cannot use the word for time in speaking of eternity, but there came a moment when what had been established in purpose, and in counsel, began to be created, began to take effect. Divine Persons began to work; that affects me. It is a touch I got from Mr A J Gardiner (Piety and Other Addresses p58). The Lord refers to what was before the foundation of the world, and also “before the world was”. Mr Gardiner said, ‘"Before the world was", I believe, conveys simply the thought of absolute eternity before time began; but when it is said "before the foundation of the world", it has in view that God had formed a purpose, and that the world was founded with a view to working out that purpose’. That is a very precious thing to me. The whole of creation was wrought to bring about what was established in the mind and heart of God.
DJW Man speaks about creating things when he just takes material and builds something from it, but the creation in regard of God involves His making something out of nothing; it did not exist before: nothing was there materially.
AM Yes, that is right. He is able, and He “calls the things that be not as being”, Rom 4: 17. He is able to do that. The fundamental laws of men’s science are thrown into disarray by that. Men will tell you that matter can be neither created not destroyed, it can only change state. God can create things out of nothing.
IMcK You spoke earlier about the saints in Laodicea, who you said represent a state - and said that we have to get back to the beginning. How do we do that?
AM One thing that has helped me in relation to that question is that the beginning is the Person. Brethren, please do not misunderstand me: I appreciate the ministry. The brethren generally appreciate the ministry, and the ministry brings us to Christ; we have to read it as bringing us to Christ, but there is no substitute for the Person. There is no substitute for getting into His presence and learning from Him. It is the Person. We need to keep in close contact with the Person.
QAP The Lord counsels them about three things. He says, “I counsel thee to buy of me”, Rev 3: 18. These three things are only obtained personally from Christ, are they not?
AM Yes, that is right. One of the things that we may have read in the ministry is that He presents Himself as the Merchant. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold”, Rev 3: 18. What were they going to buy it with?
QAP I might have to give up some time to go into His presence, and pray about the matter.
AM Yes, I have to give up time, and I have to give up my self, to get into His presence. “Gold purified by fire” and “white garments” and “eye-salve” (Rev 3: 18) are in what He is offering them: wealth, and dignity, and clarity of vision.
AEM One other reason that we can have absolute confidence in this is that He is the faithful and true Witness, do you think? Deriving everything, as we have said earlier, from the One who was the faithful and true Witness to what He had seen and to what He had been instrumental in.
AM Yes, that is right. He was a witness in relation to God; He was a witness to men; He was a witness to His own and to men. He witnessed the good confession to Pontius Pilate. All that we read in John’s gospel about the whole question of witness, He brings it up. He was the faithful and true Witness. Nobody could ever go back to anything that the Lord Jesus said and say that was not right. It was absolutely perfect; faithful and true. He did not shrink from saying what was unpalatable, and He did not shrink from speaking the truth, the faithful and true Witness. Really the church should have been that. You read in early Acts of Peter standing up with the eleven - the faithful and true witness was there; but it declined. How quickly it declines, does it not?
AJMcK Does this faithful and true witness continue? This is presented as present tense, “These things says the Amen”.
AM Yes, and in the sense that He gathers up everything. Everything is secure in Him, is it not? Now the Holy Spirit is here, and there is a witness that is to be seen. Someone might ask where it was for hundreds of years. After the apostles’ day, where was the witness? But it was all maintained by the Lord, and the Holy Spirit was here. He did not depart; He was with believers all that time; the faithful and true witness remains. But it is up to us, is it not? The question was raised in our reading on Wednesday at home: how much do we leave things to the Lord and how much do we depend on ourselves? It seems to me that there is what is maintained that is true in the Lord - you might say that is something we can rely on, but then, am I really in it?
AJMcK I was thinking that - it is a very easy thing to say, is it not? To say that in order to hear His words we have to be in His presence, but that is quite a test practically, is it not?
AM You know it when you are in His presence. You experience something that you do not experience anywhere else. And what is more, when you come out, other people know it.
AJMcK That is right.
AM Well, in Colossians He is spoken of as “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things”. I suppose that is how the faithful and true witness is to be maintained, is it not? That He might have the first place in all things.
AEM What does this refer to, this beginning? This is not merely a title here, but something is beginning.
AM Do you have an impression?
AEM No.
AM I have the impression that the apostle uses the title - I think it is elsewhere too - to show that whatever there is to be for God, Christ is the beginning of it. There could be no other beginning; God could not start elsewhere. I would be glad to hear what the brethren have to say?
DJW It all hangs together - “the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead”; it was the beginning of a whole family for God.
AM Yes, that is right. Thank you for that. There is what is on resurrection ground - and we know in ascension too, what was established in resurrection, the beginning of a new order of things.
DJW Do you think it implies that, if He was the beginning, He gives character to everything that flows out from that?
AM Yes, the whole order of flesh and blood was closed in the death of Christ, was it not? The cross spelled the end of man. Jehovah said, “The end of all flesh is come before me”, Gen 6: 13; that was so at the cross. Now we have a Man out of death, a Man of another order, the object of the Father’s pleasure, so much so that He raised Him by His glory. He is the beginning of that order.
GJR It would be a happy thing if He was the starting point for us in all that we consider.
AM Yes, that would be right.
GJR Even aspects of the truth as you are going over today - you are showing them as set out in Himself.
AM Yes, we see the truth in the gospels, do we not? Now, we have to approach that through the epistles. We get the teaching of the truth in the epistles, but we see it in the gospels. We get pictures of it in the Old Testament. Scripture is all bound together but it is all set out in Him, in a Person. I think what you say is helpful, because we should, we must, start every question in relation to Him.
GJR How does this or that affect His honour at the present time?
AM Yes, indeed. Now, when we are children, I am sure we are often reminded of that. My dear mother used to say, ‘Well, what would the Lord think of that?’. Everything relates to Him, does it not? Whatever we say, whatever we do, relates to Him.
AJMcK This reference “all things” in connection with our brother’s comment is very broad – “the first place in all things”.
AM Yes; I like to think of the apostle Paul when he was there on the Damascus road - he heard the voice from the glory. He said, “What shall I do, Lord?”, Acts 22: 10. A simple question, “What shall I do, Lord?”. I like to think that he started every day after that with that question: “What shall I do, Lord?”. Have you got the directions at the beginning of the day? What shall I do?
GCB It is “that he might have the first place in all things” - can we look upon that as what God has determined first, and then, as under the impulse of divine love, we take it up? Is that a right way to look at it?
AM Yes, I think so. I am glad you pointed out what you refer to, because I might have looked on this as a divine decree that He must have the first place in all things and that of course would be true anyway. But it is not presented in that way - “that he might have the first place in all things”. It just raises the question for us: this is God’s intention; is it true of me? That He might have the first place in all things.
RDP I was thinking of this reference here to the head of the body, the assembly. It is spoken about: “by him were created all things”, Col 1: 16. I assume that was a backward look, but then it says “and he is”. I was thinking that the beginning of everything that was for God’s rest, everything that was part of the creation, did not all come out at once, did it? This reference here to “he is the head of the body, the assembly”, was that a distinct step? I wonder if this is not almost like an introduction here, “he is head of the body, the assembly”. And the way that God has opened up His way in Christ has not come all at once; it has come through the whole of time, really.
AM It has. There was darkness as to this through the whole of the Old Testament. God was not fully disclosed, even in the life on earth of the Lord Jesus. What it must have meant for the Lord to speak to His disciples and to give them parables and say, ‘I cannot explain this to you now; you are not able for it’. It awaited His death and resurrection; it awaited another time. And we are in that time. He is the beginning; He is the One who set it all on, and He gives character to it all.
AEM It is remarkable grace, is it not, that there should be this beginning from among the dead? It is a remarkable thing that Christ Himself should be One who began something for God from among the dead.
AM The expression “beginning, firstborn from among the dead” suggests that there are others to follow, does it not? The beginning means that; the very word suggests that there is something to follow. And what assurance this is to us. But “from among the dead” - His resurrection was distinctive. It is always referred to as, I think, “from among the dead”’. The resurrection of Jesus, though it made the way for our resurrection, the resurrection of all the saints, was distinctive; He was the beginning.
NCMcK Is there another order of creation? There is a physical order that has been created but consequent on the resurrection of Christ there is a new creation of God. All that is of God springs from that, the resurrection of Christ.
AM That is right. It is characterised by the expression “in Christ” or ”in Him”. He is the One; He is the beginning of the new order. “So if anyone be in Christ there is a new creation” (2 Cor 5: 17), not exactly a new creature, but a completely new creation, something that does not carry over what is of the old. It is a great thing to lay hold of that. There is a work of God in the believer, and the work of God was placed there sovereignly by God, and it is of the same order as the Lord Jesus Himself. It can never fail, it can never break down and it is perfect. Years ago if somebody had said to me that there was something in me that was perfect, I would have laughed at them, but there is. And that is not claiming anything, because it is all the work of God. The work of God is perfect; it is a new order of things and Christ is the beginning of it.
RB Is that brought out in the resurrection chapter in Corinthians where it says, “the first-fruits, Christ; then those that are the Christ’s at his coming”, 1 Cor 15: 23?
AM Yes; say some more. That is a wonderful chapter, is it not? I love that expression that you just quoted. Say some more.
RB I do not know that I can, but there is something distinctive in His resurrection, is there not - “the first-fruits, Christ”? Who were those first-fruits for? But then there is going to be those that are the Christ’s at His coming; they are divine property, are they not? They are part of the creation of God, the new creation that we have referred to.
AM Yes, that is right; so the scripture says, ”Blessed and holy he who has part in the first resurrection” (Rev 20: 6); I do not know that it speaks of a second resurrection - it speaks of the second death. It speaks of the first resurrection. Someone might say surely the first resurrection refers to the Lord; He was the beginning. We will have part in the first resurrection; even the saints who are martyred on the earth after we have gone - they will have part in the first resurrection - a different time, but it is still the first resurrection character, the same character; it all bears the same character of the resurrection of Jesus Himself. What a wonderfully uplifting thought!
RJF It is all in Christ. I was thinking of the same chapter in Corinthians, “The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit” (1 Cor 15: 45) and also in the same chapter, “thus also in the Christ all shall be made alive”, (v 22); it is all through Christ, is it not?
AM Yes, that actually links us with John 20, does it not? He is a life-giving spirit, “a quickening spirit”. He breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, John 20: 22. There He was, the last Adam, a quickening spirit, you might say fresh, out of death, no trace of death upon Him. He could not be held by it. The Father would not allow Him to remain there. There He was, out of death and He is giving life to His own.
I thought the passage in Genesis would perhaps show us something of God’s own feelings in relation to Him. The passage is so suggestive, is it not? There is a new earth in the sense in which we are speaking, and you have one who has gone through the waters of judgment; and he builds an altar and takes of every clean animal and he offers up burnt-offerings. How many types of Christ or references to Him are there in that verse? The richness of the passages is tremendous. “Jehovah smelled the sweet odour”, and it is that which is peculiarly for God; the burnt-offering is entirely for God; Jehovah smelled it, and said, ‘This is to remain’.
AJMcK The note says it is the ‘odour of rest’. That supports again that hymn -
… all that shall be for God’s rest.
We see that God’s rest is really in the One who is the Beginning; His rest is in Christ.
AM Yes, that is right. The odour of rest went up on this altar, and it was offered by one whose name means ‘repose’. All that had gone before, that dreadful wicked scene that had existed on the earth, had all gone, and God found one man in whom He could find His rest. And there was the offering, the odour of rest that went up to God. No wonder in the wilderness Jehovah said, ‘I am going to have a burnt-offering every morning and evening’. He said, ‘I am not going to be without that’.
RJF Every one of these burnt-offerings had passed through the flood. Had you any thought about that? It is very suggestive.
AM I had not before, but you say something; I would be glad to hear your thoughts.
RJF The flood, as we know, is a figure of baptism. I am feeling my way here, but it just seems that from these offerings every single thing had passed through that route of death before they were offered, but there was something that was particularly choice to God through it.
AM Yes, I think that is right. I think that is very suggestive. Nothing that will be consumed by death could be offered to God. It had all gone that way, had it not? That is because they are all figures of Christ, are they not? The offerer, the offering are figures of Christ; even the altar is. Death had come in, and there is what is gone through. Death removes everything else. All of nature is removed in death, but there is something that had gone right through, which is for the pleasure of God.
RB I was thinking earlier in relation to your first scripture, of what comes in in Exodus 31: 17 as to the seventh day there, “for in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed”, but here we have a thought of rest which seems in advance of that, although all to do with Christ as the beginning. Could you help further as to this thought of rest in this setting?
AM Yes; I take it that the seventh day really is the millennium, is it not? God will have rest on the earth - a wonderful day that will be. It seems to me that the beginning takes us to a new order of things. We are not going to be here in the millennium; our portion will be much more blessed; we will be with Him and like Him, in bodies of glory. What a blessed thing that is. In an order of things of which not only is He the beginning but He gives character to it all.
RB That is helpful. I wondered in connection with the scripture in Genesis as our brother has alluded to this sweet odour, for the odour of rest comes about as a result of an offering, as if there is something particularly pleasurable in that setting.
AM Yes, I think so, and it is a burnt-offering. Now there was no specification for burnt-offerings at this time, was there? When you get to Leviticus you find it was the first thing that was on God’s mind - a burnt-offering. It is the particular pleasure that God had in the One who is totally in accord with Himself and devoted to His will to the point of offering Himself in death. What special satisfaction God must have found in that, what pleasure. We often quote the word, do we not, ‘Never was He more perfect, never more acceptable to God, than on the cross’, JND Collected Writings vol 34 p379. Now that is a quotation that we should think about. You can see the truth of it in the burnt-offering, can you not? He actually offered Himself, laid down His life. Satan says, “all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2: 4), but the Lord Jesus laid down His life in obedience to the will of God.
IMcK Just linking with that question, this word “Henceforth” is interesting, is it not? It is not, speaking reverently, a relaxation or a pause, but there is a foundation that has been laid here and it is a reference point.
AM Well it is. I suppose this was a new dispensation starting ‘henceforth’. But what caused the new dispensation? It was not the flood; it was the offering. If there had been no offering the heart of man would have proved itself to be just as the same as before. God had come in and terminated that. What proved the new dispensation that God was going to come out in a new way for men, was that there was a burnt-offering that He could find His rest in.
NCMcK It links with what was just said. God could never rest in a scene of unrighteousness; it goes against everything that God is. So what you have is the burnt-offering: you have one Man who maintained God’s rights and righteousness inviolate and gave that life up for God. He was entirely vindicated and justified in Christ. He found a point of rest there in Christ and that offering established it forever.
AM In the beginning of Exodus 25, you find that God has indicated to His people that He was going to have a dwelling. He was going to rest. He says, “they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”, v 8. What sort of structure would it be - “And they shall make an ark”, v 10? Christ! One who would uphold everything. “Thou shalt put into the ark the testimony that I shall give thee”, v 16. The One who not only upheld, but treasured every divine thought in righteousness here, the mercy-seat was there, the blood was upon the mercy-seat, divine rights were maintained, everything was maintained by that One in order that God should have a dwelling place here. What a rich field that is.
QAP In Matthew 11 He is our rest as well. “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”, v 28.
AM Yes. If there is One who is able, capable of being the rest of God, He is surely able to give us rest, is He not? If God needs nothing outside of Christ, what do I need? We sometimes think of it when a soul is in extremity, and we are very glad when a soul who is in extremity shines with the fact that they are finding their joy and their rest in Christ; it is a great joy to us. But we do not have to be in extremity to find our rest in Him. It struck me as we sang that hymn,
Lord Jesus, then these hearts shall be
For ever be satisfied with thee
(No 368)
- and I thought, why do we have to wait until then?
QAP I have wondered about that, because Matthew’s gospel particularly presents Him as the King. In that section in Matthew 11: 29 He says, “I am meek and lowly in heart”.
AM They are features of a king, are they not? “Behold thy King cometh to thee, meek, and mounted upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”, Matt 21: 5.
DJW It is significant earlier in the chapter that it says “the waters were dried up from the earth” (Gen 8: 13); you could not build an altar on a wet earth. I was thinking of the Lord’s words, “It is finished”, John 19: 30; one order is finished; there is to be a new beginning.
AM Yes, that is good. The dove had come back with evidence of life on a new earth. That olive leaf was plucked off; it was not like a leaf found lying on the ground or floating on the water. It was plucked off; it was evidence that there was life. The earth was dry and there was life again on the earth and a new order of things altogether. And intelligent life comes out of the ark and God finds His joy in that.
DJW This rest could never be disturbed, could it?
AM No, that is right. I enjoy the words of the hymn - ‘whereon no grief encroaches’,
Safety - where no foe approaches,
Rest - where toil shall be no more
Joy - whereon no grief encroaches
Peace - where strife shall all be o’er’
(No 206).
You might have some joy in something but then something encroaches on it, dampens it, takes it away, does it not? Nothing can disturb this rest.
AEM There is that word as to the offering, “offered himself spotless to God”, Heb 9: 14. The moral quality and glory of the rest that God has, came from that blessed One, did it not?
AM Exactly, yes, and He was ever under divine scrutiny - spotless, “offered himself spotless to God”. It has often struck me, that word. The Israelite had to bring his offering and the priest would look at it. ‘Is there any blemish? Is there any flaw in his offering?’ What you find from Malachi was that there were plenty of blemishes and the priest would overlook them. They should not have overlooked any. Was there an offering without blemish? It might have been very difficult to find an animal without blemish. The Lord Jesus offered Himself, not to a priest for man’s scrutiny, but to God’s perfect scrutiny. He offered Himself without spot to God. The offering was, we might say, gladly accepted.
GJR And, another divine Person was involved: it was by the eternal Spirit.
AM Yes, indeed. The Holy Spirit had been with the Lord Jesus all that pathway, and was involved in every detail of that pathway, even to the offering of Himself to God.
AJMcK Give us a touch as to the bow, please. You spoke about God’s estimation of it. I wonder if that links with what you said as to the Lord offering Himself spotless. Is this God’s view?
AM Yes, well, I think it is. The bow here is presented as for God. We see a bow in the clouds sometimes, and it is a comforting thought; it reminds us of God’s covenant with men, and His faithfulness too. All the days of the earth, the seasons will be there, His covenant, that He will no more destroy all flesh. He sets the bow in the cloud but He says, “I set my bow”. No one can change that. The footnote says it could be, ’I have set my bow in the clouds’. When the clouds come we often look at the clouds. And if we do not look at them, we look down at the ground. God says, ‘I am looking at my bow; I have my Christ before me’.
AJMcK I think that is good. And He says, “I will look upon it’. Not ‘I may’ but “I will”. He takes account of the One in whom everything is for Him.
AM That is very fine; we tend to think of the ‘I wills’ of scripture as belonging to the New Testament; and the Old Testament being ‘Thou shalt’. And that is true, of course, of the covenant, but here we have before Sinai, the great ‘I will’ from God. “I will remember my covenant”. ’I have set my bow’, and “I will remember my covenant”: things that nothing can change.
RDP You referred to the fact that the bow is not exactly for us; the bow is for God. We know, even the children know, the nature of the bow is different colours; there is some suggestion of Christ in that, in the varying colours that were there. It says, “I will look upon it, that I may remember”.
AM Yes, that is right. The various glories you mean? We are taught in school in physics that the colours of the rainbow are the components of light; divine light shines. God can look at it in detail; He can treasure each detail of the glories of Christ and appreciate them, in a far greater way than we can.
RMB Might there be a link between the reference here to the bow and the way that John in his epistle says that “he is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, 1 John 2: 2?
AM Go on, that is very suggestive. I appreciate that link; say some more about it.
RMB Well, I noticed that it is the sign of the covenant that God made with every living soul, and it says there in John’s first epistle that not only is Jesus Christ the propitiation for our sins but also for the whole world. It has often impressed me that while, of course, it is based on His mighty work, it is what He is.
AM Yes, He is the propitiation, and it really is just this that God can look upon Him. If God looks upon man He looks upon Christ; He is the propitiation for our sins. It does not mean that everyone is clear of sins because they have to come to Him in faith. Repentance and faith are the essential ingredients for any blessing. If I give up myself in repentance and turn to the Lord Jesus in faith, I find that He is my beginning in that sense. But God has already established Him, and He has satisfied God. As to the whole matter of taking up man, God is propitiated in relation to the taking up of man.
RHB There is nobody else that could have propitiated God. I was thinking of your thought as to the beginning; that God has been propitiated is the beginning of everything, is it not? The outgoings of the gospel are on that basis. Often perhaps the need of the sinner and how that can be met is stressed, but if God had not been propitiated there would be nothing for the sinner or anyone else.
AM Yes, that is right. Although historically the Lord Jesus came here after many years, yet He is the beginning; God was propitiated in relation to what went before. He was propitiated in relation to the sin of Adam, Cain, all those men. The Lord Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and for the whole world, including all that went before, so that God was righteous in passing by the sins of those who had gone before.
RJF Are these chapters amplifying the passage in Corinthians that were referred to earlier, ‘the first-fruits, Christ’. It seems to me with the colours of the bow, and all of those animals there, the extraordinary multiplicity of glories give a picture of the first-fruits - the plural.
AM Yes, that is good. All that was here. Basically, everything was here. There was what had gone through the flood; there was what was established now. Christ is on high, and there is something down here which God can take account of, and it is all secured for His pleasure.
Perhaps we should just touch John 20. We are speaking about what is here for God’s pleasure, and the Lord Jesus in John, as out of death, associates His own with Himself as of that new order. He is the beginning but there are others who are brought in as his brethren: “all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Heb 2: 11. He says, “go to my brethren”. What a message this was on this morning.
AEM In terms of beginnings, help us; give us a touch as to “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended”.
AM The Lord Jesus is in a new condition. We could not have part with Him in His old condition because we, as in flesh and blood, are tainted, even if we knew Him after the flesh. “We henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, 2 Cor 5: 16. He is in a new condition in which we cannot in our physical state have part, but we await that.
AEM I find it very helpful, whenever I am tempted to bring anything of myself at all into this, just to remember this that He says to a woman who loved Him so much and mourned His loss, “Touch me not”. There was something further; there was another area altogether in which she was to know Him. I find that quite helpful.
AM Yes, I think so. There are no disappointments in Mary here; she is not saying, ‘Why can I not? I love you, Lord, so much; why can I not touch you?’. No, there is no disappointment. She had been given the light of another order of things altogether. I often think of Mary. A casual spectator might have watched Mary going past, one trembling poor soul, tearful, going to the tomb, coming back in great anxiety and fear, going back again with the two disciples, a fearful soul. What was going to happen? And then she returns; I think her feet were flying! She had got a new message, a new light in her soul. A Man of another order was filling her heart. It was the beginning of something completely new for Mary.
GCB Was this for her a happy adjustment? It was not a painful adjustment.
AM It was a very happy adjustment. Well, really all adjustments should be happy, should they not? They may be painful - I quite agree with you! But they should have happy endings anyway. But this was a matter of great joy.
GCB I was thinking it was a very significant episode in divine teaching. What a Teacher He was. What benefit we get from it too.
AM What a Teacher, He was, the Lord. What Mary did was to pass on a message. She did not teach the disciples; that would not have been comely at all. But she carried a message. There were those who believed Peter and John - they believed that Jesus was raised from among the dead, but Mary had the heart for Him. She had nothing here. Mary really is typical of a widow; she shows the widow character. She had nothing here upon the earth, because her Lord was not here. And then He comes and He says, ‘You have a new start now’.
AJMcK So, it says that she “comes bringing word”. Does that take us back to your first scripture, “These things says the Amen”? She was in the secret of what the One who was the beginning was saying.
AM Yes, she was. It was His word that she was bringing. “Bringing word to the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had said these things to her”: what a testimony that is. She had seen the Lord. There is a testimony in that.
IMcK His brethren could be found. I was looking at that reference where the Lord says in chapter 16, “the hour is coming, and has come, that ye shall be scattered” (v 32), but here has been a new beginning, has there not? The Lord is in resurrection. Mary could find those that belonged to the Lord, could she?
AM Yes, that is right. I suppose the eleven were there. We do not know who else. By Acts chapter 1, there were one hundred and twenty, v 15. Anyway, we do not know how many were in this room, but she could bring this word that she had seen the Lord. I expect that the mother of Jesus was there, but that was not the point; the link was not natural; the link was a holy, spiritual one. It was out of death.
RDP Do you think this line that we are speaking of is continued in the Holy Spirit? “He shall bear witness concerning me”, John 15: 26. “He shall not speak from himself”, John 16: 13. I was thinking of the One who is the Beginning and the End. There is nothing in man’s world that finishes its course the way it started, but with this, the end corresponds to the beginning. I was thinking of the importance at the present time of the testimony of the Holy Spirit, “He shall bear witness concerning me”.
AM That is absolutely right. That is critical, is it not? That is what marks the present day. The end has to correspond with the beginning. Mr Darby said if you build a house the object is to put a roof over you, but you start with the foundations, and the roof is the last thing, Collected Writings vol 28 p344. The end has to correspond with the beginning.
Witney
22nd September 2018
Key to initials:
R Brown, Grangemouth; R H Brown, East Finchley; R M Brown, Strood; G C Bywater, Buckhurst Hill; R J Flowerdew, Sunbury; A Martin, Buckhurst Hill; A J McKay, Witney; I McKay, Witney; N C McKay, Glasgow; A E Mutton, Witney; R D Plant, Birmingham; Q A Poore, Swanage; G J Richards, Malvern; M I Webster, Buckhurst Hill; D J Willetts, Birmingham