Ephesians 4: 9, 10
2 Chronicles 9: 3-12
AM I thought we might take these two scriptures together, not necessarily sequentially. We had a very full time this morning, as I am sure many of the brethren enjoyed. We started with the thought of the love of the Lord expressed in the words:
The deepest depths were fathomed
In that great stoop of Thine.
(Hymn 263)
It seemed to me that, when we sing of ‘the deepest depths’ being fathomed by the Lord Jesus, it gives a peculiar character, in order that we should experience what is most elevated and glorious and precious. His stoop involved for Him ‘the deepest depths’. I just wondered whether we could, at the beginning of this reading, draw for a moment on that. In Ephesians He is referred to as “He that descended”, as if this were a particular glory, a particular character. It is almost like a title, “He that descended”. Brethren, we have enjoyed the company of the saints this weekend, and we have enjoyed the truth being worked out. We have enjoyed seeing older brothers who are rejoicing in the truth; all this is because of the fact that there was One who “descended into the lower parts of the earth”. What we have is most precious and it has not come without cost. It has come, beloved, at so great a cost:
The deepest depths were fathomed
In that great stoop …
How deep was that stoop! And so He is the One who has “descended into the lower parts of the earth”, but that One was morally qualified to ascend “up above all the heavens”. He has proved His worthiness, and He is able to ascend “up above all the heavens”.
Thinking further of the occasion this morning, Solomon came to mind. There was a whole order of things which was under his hand, and it was all to his glory; and this dear soul, the queen of Sheba, came, and she saw “the food of his table, and the deportment of his servants” and so on. And then she saw that there was something higher, something greater, something more elevated even than that, and “there was no more spirit in her”. Of course, in our day, what a wonderful blessing it is that God has given us the Spirit of His Son in our hearts so that we should have liberty in His presence!
But then as the passage goes on, she added to what was there. There was the gold, and then she gave the spices. She had seen “the food of his table” but then she gave spices. She gave something that would enrich the food of Solomon’s table that was already there. And then we have this touch as to the servants of Huram who brought sandal-wood: “And the king made of the sandal-wood stairs”. Again there is elevation, another movement upwards in the service of God, and in order that that service should proceed it says the king made harps and lutes so that there should be wealth in the divine service. I take it the instruments of praise are those here in this room today, formed by the hand of none other than the true Solomon. He made these harps and lutes, and there was nothing like it. It says, “And there were none such seen before”. Solomon did that and he is a type, but what we find in Ephesians is that Christ has been glorified and exalted above all things and the object is “that he might fill all things”. Solomon could not fill all things, but Christ does. He has “also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”.
JDG It says in Matthew 12, “thus shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights”, v 40. I was thinking, as you spoke, that time entered into that, time for contemplation.
AM That was a sign, “the sign of Jonas” (v 39), but for the Lord Jesus it was not a sign. It was the reality of it, “in the heart of the earth three days and three nights”. “Thus shall the Son of man be”, He says. Think of what was involved in that. We came together this morning, and there were the emblems of His love, the love that was proved and demonstrated to the extent that He went into death; and He was “in the heart of the earth three days and three nights”.
JTB The Psalm says, “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy cataracts”, Ps 42: 7. It is very affecting that the awful sound of the noise of the cataracts fell upon an ear that was accustomed to the sweet communications from His Father, do you think? It was an unaccustomed atmosphere.
AM That is very affecting. Death was totally foreign to Him. No wonder He recoiled from it. What can we say about it? Everything that death is was foreign to Jesus. We often remember that remark of Mr Darby: ‘For Him, death was death. Man’s utter weakness, Satan’s extreme power, and God’s just vengeance – and alone, without one sympathy …’ and so on, vol 7 p169.
JSp I was thinking of the blessings of Moses in Deuteronomy 33.
“And of Joseph he said,
Blessed of Jehovah be his land!
By the precious things of the heavens,
By the dew, and by the
deep that lieth beneath”, v 13.
I was thinking of these “precious things”. “The deep that lieth beneath” is really the moral foundation for everything, is it not?
AM Yes, that is good. Say some more.
JSp No, I could not say more than that. It is just a sense in the soul that everything God does has a very deep, moral basis and clears the way for us to enjoy “the precious things of the heavens”.
AM That is right; so the enjoyment of precious, divine things amongst the saints is not a light matter, is it? It is in the full appreciation of the One who has gone into the depths. Think of the Lord referring to Jonah in Matthew 12. Jonah says, “All thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me”, Jonah 2: 3. “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me for ever”, Jonah 2: 6. The Lord felt death in all its horror and its power. He felt it as none of us will ever feel it.
DCB I was thinking of Philippians 2 where you see His mind to descend. You said affectingly that “He that descended” is almost a title. You do not need to say who this is. You do not need the Name. We know this One, and that was the spirit, that was the mind, in which He operated.
AM Yes, you can understand that such a One with a mind to go down like that was so pleasing to God. I was thinking in the interval that man’s mind is to go up, is it not? The very first temptation in Genesis was “ye will be as God”, chap 3: 5. The history of man develops: “Come on, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which may reach to the heavens”, Gen 11: 4. Man’s mind is to go up, but there was One whose mind was to go down and He was the One that “descended into the lower parts of the earth”. Every sphere of creation has been entered into. It has been said that the Lord Jesus has manifested the love of God in every sphere of creation. How precious that is for us!
PJM Can you say something about the deliberateness of this: “he also descended”. Death did not overtake the Lord Jesus.
AM Oh, no; it had no claim upon Him. Death has a claim upon us, but it had no claim upon Him. He entered into its realm. Death recoiled from Him. Think of the Jordan going back as the ark went through in holy majesty, those descending steps, down and down and down, and death could not stand before Him.
APD I noticed a comment of Mr James Taylor’s that when the corn of wheat fell into the ground and the Lord Jesus was in the heart of the earth, there was never such latent power of fertility in the earth as at that time, vol 25 p251.
AM That is very precious. What that corn of wheat produced! How great the fruit! But it had to happen: “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone”, John 12: 24. When He was here, He abode alone.
CKR “The lower parts of the earth” must emphasise burial. I was thinking there was a touching reference in John 20 when Mary goes in: there is an angel "at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain”, v 12. That is a very touching matter to think of heavenly dignitaries even being there.
AM Do you have an impression as to the head and the feet?
CKR I wondered if it is suggests the cherubim. The angels are there protecting of that body, the uniqueness of it; and that leads Mary on to resurrection and the glory of restoration.
AM That is good, the uniqueness of it, and that was appreciated in measure by some. The Lord Jesus was anointed by the women in the gospels. He was anointed on the head and on the feet. He was appreciated, both as to His dignity, the dignity of the One who was there, and the way in which He was going. It was appreciated and it is almost as if those angels would guard the preciousness of what was found in that life here.
CKR Then you have Joseph of Arimathæa particularly shining and bringing out these characteristics that marked him as a secret disciple, prepared to embolden himself, to claim the body for burial, chap 19: 38.
AM Well, he did not remain secret, did he? He came out to be identified with a dead Christ, with One who had been rejected from this scene. He was going to be identified with Him, not only in His death, but in His burial.
RT You spoke about majesty entering into these movements. Would you say some more about that?
AM Well, is it not so? I was thinking of what our brother said, that death did not overtake Him, but He went that way. He was as the lion “which turneth not away for any”, Prov 30: 30. He went into the very realms of death itself. He went that way to break its power.
RT From another point of view, the Father exalted Him, but here it is His own distinct movements. It is like going to the Jordan: the waters went back “very far”, Josh 3: 16. The whole scene has to give way before the majesty of this Person in lowliness and manhood, but there is majesty there, and everything has to give way.
AM It speaks of “the feet of the priests”, Josh 3: 15. Think of those majestic footsteps of Jesus going down to death, and death had to give way before Him.
DBR It says, “I became dead” (Rev 1: 18), an act of His own, involving great majesty. What would you say about that expression, “I became dead”?
AM It is very affecting because that is in Revelation. I find it very affecting to think of the Lord Jesus, then in a glorious condition, looking back, bringing back to John the fact that He had been into death. He had entered into a condition He had never known before. He said, “I became dead”. He was the living One, intrinsically: “In him was life” (John 1: 4), and yet He said, “I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages”.
DBR I am thankful for what you say. I do not think I had ever thought of it in that way, but it was after He was out of death that He refers back to it for John’s sake, and for ours as well, do you think?
AM I think so. Do you think it is rather like when He gave the Supper to Paul? He was in the glory and it says, “in the night in which he was delivered up”, 1 Cor 11: 23. He was looking back. That would stir the affections of the one He was communicating to, and it would stir our affections too, for the One who is now in the glory is the One who went that way.
JDG The emblems on the table are a witness to the fact, “I became dead”.
AM Yes, they are, and we are brought back to that every week, the fact that the Man who is now in the glory who has “ascended up above all the heavens”, before He ascended, He became dead.
JAG Say something about “the travail of his soul”, Is 53: 11. All this must be involved in it, what it meant to Him to do that in love.
AM He recoiled from it. I think it is right to say that throughout the lifetime of the Lord Jesus the will of His Father was His joy; it sustained Him. But when it came to His final sufferings and death, He was still submissive to the will of His Father - there was never any question that He could not be - but it involved a horror; there was a travail. The sisters would understand that word better than us; it was an excruciating thing for Him, that He should actually have to face that, and the phrase “of his soul” brings out the depths of feeling, does it not? Say some more.
JAG I was just thinking of the depths of holiness that was in Him, and how He felt the awfulness of being made sin. We cannot really fathom the immensity of it.
AM Yes, that which was so abhorrent to Him, so foreign to Him.
RG-y Do you think that what we are speaking about now, and the glory connected with dealing with the moral question, would bring out also the need for the moral question in the first place?
AM You mean that had to be addressed? Go on.
RG-y The Lord said when He was here, “It cannot be but that offences come” (Luke 17: 1) and other remarks like that, but there was no way in which the wealth and the depth of divine love could be adequately expressed apart from this moral road, do you think?
AM Absolutely. So that there had to be that which was so awful that His holy soul would shrink and recoil from it, as a demonstration of the greatness of the love that would lead Him to take that path. I think that is very helpful.
RDP I was thinking of the expression “the lower parts of the earth”. In Colossians it refers to “the visible and the invisible”, chap 1: 16. All that comes under the sway of Christ. I was just thinking as we were speaking of “the travail of his soul”; to us there is what is perhaps “visible”, but “the invisible” was plumbed by Christ. He comes out in triumph and it all seems to be in view of His headship and the glory of His supremacy.
AM That is right. I appreciate your comment as to “the invisible” because really there is that which is beyond us, is there not, in “the lower parts of the earth”? We just have to stand in worship as we take account of Him that “descended into the lower parts of the earth”.
RDP There are areas man has gone to, both physically and morally, but these are areas that are invisible to man. It is what lay in relation even to the founding of the earth. He went that low. It is such an expressive word, “the lower parts of the earth”.
AM There is more depth there even than in Jonah’s expression, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains”. I think “the lower parts of the earth” involve even greater depths than that.
JCG Do you think the Lord’s feelings come out in the type in Joseph? In Psalm 105 he says, “his soul came into irons”, v 18. I was thinking of the depths of feelings the Lord had in relation to His having to die.
AM The Lord Himself refers to His soul: “My soul is very sorrowful even unto death”, Matt 26: 38. We are on holy ground, brethren, and we need to be careful, but consider the depth of feeling that He entered into, that He should go into “the lower parts of the earth”. As you say, with Joseph you get the suggestion of confinement as well: “his soul came into irons”. There would be restriction until resurrection. “How am I straitened”, the Lord says, Luke 12: 50.
DBR The psalmist speaks of what was “curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth”, Ps 139: 15. There is something wrought there. Would that mean that something was being accomplished, and this was the only way it could be accomplished?
AM I think so, and the psalmist refers to what God saw. Now there is what is invisible to us as we have been speaking about, but God saw it, what was “wrought in the lower parts of the earth”.
PAG Is it affecting that it is “He that descended is the same who has also ascended”? It is the same Person and the same love. That love has not been exhausted by this depth of suffering and sorrow. It remains exactly the same and the Person is the same.
AM The angel says, “This Jesus” (Acts 1: 11); it is the same blessed Person. In Luke’s gospel the Lord appeared in resurrection to His own and He went to great lengths to show them that He was the same Jesus, did He not, in order that their hearts should be steadied? It is the same One who is now “ascended up above all the heavens”.
JAG It is something to think about that He knew in Himself when the time was come that the work was finished, and the time was come for Him to deliver up His spirit and go into death, and the time was come when He should rise again. He was always in control.
AM Yes, indeed. He had power to do that and yet, as a Man, He exercised that authority in obedience. He said, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”, John 10: 18. You see the blessed perfection, the merging of the greatness of the power that was His and the authority that was His and the perfection of manhood that was there, that He had authority to lay down His life. He had authority to take it again, and yet He only exercised that in answer to the commandment of His Father.
JAG Now He says, “I … have the keys of death and of hades”, Rev 1: 18.
RG Would you say something about “having loosed the pains of death”, Acts 2: 24?
AM I do not know that I could. You say something, please.
RG I have often wondered about it, but “having loosed the pains of death” shows something of the depths of all that the Lord endured, does it not? And then at the point of resurrection He could not be held by it, but the loosing of the pains became manifested in the life that was coming out of death in the power of resurrection life.
AM “Having loosed”: I must admit I have not fully appreciated the expression: “having loosed the pains of death”. It is the liberty of resurrection life, the greatness of the power with which He came out. On one hand He was “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom 6: 4); on the other hand “it was not possible that he should be held by its power”, Acts 2: 24. Such was the One who was there in death, He could not be held. Death was a realm, totally foreign to Christ, as was said earlier. It was totally foreign to death to have One such as He enter it. He could not be held by it.
PJM Could you say something about dignity? We have the queen of Sheba observing the ascent, the dignity and the pomp, and all that surrounded Solomon as he went into the service of God; but the Lord Jesus had dignity as He went into death. There is nothing very dignified about crucifixion, nor usually death, but the Lord Jesus had a remarkable effect on those who witnessed the way that He died. Even Isaiah writes about it.
AM That is right. The Lord Jesus is never seen other than in dignity. All His movements are in dignity. “if therefore ye seek me, let these go away”, John 18: 8. What a dignified thing to say! When the Lord Jesus went in, He met every power. In the uprightness and dignity of His own Person, He met everything. We were reading in the house about his trial and how He was asked, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” and so on, Mark 14: 61. Think of the dignity that marked Him all that way, and the dignity of those downward movements. It says that He “endured the cross, having despised the shame”, Heb 12: 2. He did not accept the shame. He “endured the cross”; He went through in dignity. Every other man who had been crucified would have been affected by the shame of it, but the Lord Jesus “despised the shame”. He went through in dignity and ultimately it said “having bowed his head, he delivered up his spirit”, John 19: 30. That is dignity.
KM How is it that the queen of Sheba was used in this way? There was a good deal of credit attached to the queen of Sheba. "She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon”, Matt 12: 42. You can understand that that was a very creditable thing to do, but when you come to Jonah, it does not look very graceful in the way that Jonah moved, and yet it is used as a type as to him going to the bottoms of the mountains and the weeds wrapped about his head. Could you say something about the contrast between the two, and yet arriving in a similar way to what we are saying?
AM The Lord does not say that the queen of Sheba was a sign; He says Jonah was a sign (Matt 12: 39). The queen of Sheba actually saw the glory that was there. Jonah, personally, is not a type of Christ, but what he says is prophetic of Christ. He went through that experience because of his self-will; so he cannot be a type of Christ, but what he says there is prophetic of that which the Lord Jesus went through. It is remarkable that he recorded that for us that we can read such utterances with such depth of feeling, speaking of what the Lord Jesus had yet to go through.
JTB I was thinking of the references in Job: “hast thou walked in the recesses of the deep?” chap 38: 16. It suggests there was not that piece of death’s territory that was not traversed by the Lord Jesus. His triumph is total.
AM That is good. He experienced that fully. He went the whole way. There was no piece of it that was not traversed by Him so that the One who has been that way and is now “ascended up above all the heavens” is able to fill all things.
JTB I just thought “that he might fill all things” is the total contrast to “the recesses of the deep”.
AM Yes, that is good.
JS I was thinking of how His descending mind is portrayed to us in Philippians 2: He “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, v 8. Does it show that He did not shrink from going to the full extent?
AM We see at the cross the perfection of obedience. He became obedient. His obedience was to God. We may not all understand that scripture. He became “obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. He was not obedient to death. His obedience was to God. The extent of His obedience was “even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. That is how far the obedience would go.
JCG It is recorded, therefore, that in going that way, in descending, there was not only the dignity of who He was, but the power that was involved because the scripture speaks about Him annulling "him who has the might of death", Heb 2: 14. So that all the power of death and the power of Satan was totally vanquished and conquered at that point with His descent. Is that right to say that?
AM I think it is and so the psalmist is buoyant, is he not? He says, “What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back?”, Ps 114: 5. “What ailed thee …?” There was a power that had existed from the beginning of Genesis. I remember a brother saying that the great river Jordan started to flow in Genesis 3. You can understand that, that great river Jordan - speaking of death - started to flow in Genesis 3, and it has been flowing ever since, and the psalmist says, “What ailed thee … that thou turnedst back?”. There was One who was greater than the power of Jordan, who entered into it.
JM The fact that He was equal to the work did not in any sense detract from what He did. He still went through all that was involved. I remember we used to speak about ‘unfathomable depths’, but I think we were helped to see that He actually fathomed the depths. There was nowhere else. He met it all. The fact that He was equal to it does not in any sense minimise the fact that He had to face it all.
AM That is right; so no type is sufficient. You get one type that brings out the power of Jesus as going into death; you get another figure of the sufferings that were involved in that and the way in which His holy soul recoiled from it. You need them all. It all came together in Him. He had the power to meet it and He was prepared for the sufferings that that would involve.
JM The matter of the cross was a public matter; the matter of the grave was not so; and therefore we perhaps tend to overlook it. But He went through a great deal, a tremendous matter that He went through in going into the grave.
AM And the anticipation of it all we see in Gethsemane, do we not? We see what it cost Him there.
JM Exactly.
QAP In the Song of Songs we get the love that led Him that way: “Many waters cannot quench love, Neither do the floods drown it”, chap 8: 7. What do you say?
AM Well, that is right and you have to say it was love that took Him that way. It was obedience, but the motive behind it all was love.
PJW Perhaps you could say something as to His soul being in Sheol: “For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol”, Ps 16: 10.
AM I do not know that I could say much as to that. It brings out the depth of His feelings as to the awfulness of death. I want to be very careful here because we are dealing with a holy matter and we cannot be analytical, but the psalmist says that. The awfulness of Sheol was there, and His feelings were involved: “thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol”.
DBR Scripture is careful there in relation to what that verse in Psalm 16 raises. It says, “neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One …”: it was the Holy One that was there: so it is a holy area we are speaking about.
AM Yes, thank you. I feel very measured as to what I could say at all about it.
PJM Is there something answering to the Lord’s life in the descending movements of a man like David, who entered into deep suffering, and in a prophetic way he is able to allude to the Lord’s sufferings? Psalm 22, for instance, speaks of the downward steps of the Lord Jesus, who actually went into death. Then we have a contrast with Solomon who ascended? He was the one who had that incomparable reign. The Lord Jesus brings the two types together. He is more than the types of course, but He is the great antitype. Does it need those two kings to really show us what was encompassed in the Lord’s life and death?
AM That is very interesting, to bring in David in relation to Psalm 22. You wonder, of course, what experience David had in order to write that Psalm, and yet the Psalm, as you say, is prophetic. No experience could possibly have been entered into fully that gave expression to the sentiments in that Psalm. It awaited Another who was capable of bearing these sufferings and going into the lower parts of the earth.
DMC Could you help us as to the Lord’s burial, as to the necessity for it?
AM The Lord’s burial was an essential part of what took place, was it not? What was for God upon this earth when the Lord Jesus was in the tomb? It showed that the whole order of man has been put out of sight: “one died for all, then all have died”, 2 Cor 5: 14. It showed that we were all in that condition, and a new order of man out of death is what was in mind.
JDG Could you help us now as to the ascent: “who has also ascended”? Not only was He equal to descending, but He is equal to ascending.
AM He was able for that. The expression “into the lower parts of the earth” refers to the deepest part of creation, but His ascent is beyond the created sphere: He “has also ascended up above all the heavens”. Think of a Man, a glorious Man, who was able, and has proved His greatness and worthiness, to ascend above the created sphere altogether, “ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”.
NJH These glorious movements of Christ in this chapter are meant to benefit the assembly, which has been before us in these days together.
AM She is His ‘fulness’ (Eph 1: 23). She is the expression of such a One as that. It is wonderful to think about it.
JAG She came out of His death.
AM Yes, her origin was entirely from Himself.
CKR “Whom heaven indeed must receive” (Acts 3: 21): that is a touch of victory and glory and it becomes the core of the preaching. A Man has gone in, in the light of everything being completed, the One who descended now is presented as the One who is the Centre of another sphere.
AM That is right. He gives character to the whole sphere because He fills it. He fills heaven, but “he might fill all things”. His ascension is in order that He might fill all things. It is precious to think of it. Heaven must receive Him. That is the place where He belongs. He did not belong in the lower parts of the earth, but heaven must receive Him.
RT Part of the “mystery of piety” is that “God has been manifested in flesh”. It finishes up with “received up in glory”, 1 Tim: 3: 16. We see there everything had to give way. What a reception He received in going in!
AM That is right. We love to sing that hymn:
Received in glory bright up there,
The Father’s greetings, honours rare,
Are heaped upon His Son’s blest brow;
(Hymn 350).
What a reception He had! We spoke earlier this week-end about the fact that the Father was there, and the Holy Spirit was there too as a witness of Christ glorified. We think of the joy there must have been when Jesus was received up in glory.
RJC “That he might fill all things": He has gone beyond everything. He is at the highest point, and He is giving character to everything from that point, do you think?
AM Yes, and still the word is “that he might fill all things”; so there is a Man in heaven, and there are perhaps five hundred hearts here in this hall, and they are all able to be filled by Him, “that he might fill all things”, and the gospel goes out to that end, “that he might fill all things”.
JBI He is “head over all things to the assembly”. I was just thinking we have been engaged with the assembly, and she comes into the secret of how He is ascended above all things.
AM That is right. He “has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Eph 1: 22. The assembly is with Him in that; she has appreciation of Him in that sense, and she has a part with Him in His place of headship.
JAG “All things” is the whole range of new creation, new heavens and a new earth, and everything is characterised by what is of Christ. But the assembly is not one of the “things”.
AM She is not put under His feet. She is with Him.
APD Does the fact that He ascends above all heavens and fills all things from that uncreated sphere give every heart that He fills a sense of the greatness of the Person?
AM Indeed. “Who shall ascend to the heavens?” (Rom 10: 6), but He has gone beyond that. How great He is! And as we make room for the Lord Jesus in our heart, we are making room for One who fills all things. He fills the universe; He is sufficient for that; He fills the heart of God; He fills the Father’s heart with joy; He will be seen as filling the whole universe; He fills all things.
DCB Is worship the result of this? I was thinking of this woman: “there was no more spirit in her”. She sees this one in all his glory and his ascent. Should that have an effect upon us – I think it is having an effect upon us – leading to worship?
AM That is right. She saw “the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the food of his table, and the deportment of his servants, and the order of service of his attendants and their apparel, and his cupbearers and their apparel, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah”. You might say, she took it all in, did she not? She just absorbed one glory after another of the realm that was suited to Solomon, speaking of the One “whom heaven indeed must receive”, Acts 3: 21. She gets one feature after another, and her heart is just bowed.
RDP It is a remarkably touching thing that His descent is not said to be witnessed. He went down. But, as coming out of death, the first thing He does is He seeks out His brethren, and He says, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend”, John 20: 17. It is as if He would share that moment, and they saw Him go up; and then we are told that as He went up, that is how He will come, Acts 1: 11.
AM That is right. He was the One who, the prophet says, shall “be cut off, and shall have nothing”, Dan 9: 26. He comes out of death and says, “my brethren”. He has what is so precious to Him; and then He says they are to be associated with Him: “my Father and your Father … my God and your God”. He says, ’I am conducting you to another realm’, and that is where He is the Centre.
RDP When you think of what had been effected in His death, and when you think of what had been effected for God, involving the creation, involving “the lower parts of the earth”, involving everything that Scripture speaks about, yet His first thought out of death is “go to my brethren and say to them ...”. It is as if His first thought that was on this ascending way was for those that He loved, and we have that privilege, we may say, of being amongst His brethren.
AM Yes, indeed, and even as ascended, what are His first thoughts? “I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter”, John 14: 16. His first thoughts even in ascension were for those of His own down here. What love that is! He was not resting exactly in the glory that had been given to Him, or the triumph that He had achieved. He was not resting in that. It was “my brethren”.
JS She says, “Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee”. What a thing it is to be amongst those, in humanity, who have such a close link with this glorious Man!
AM Such a close link! We could have had no association with Him in His condition of flesh and blood. We could not have been associated with Him in that, but now we have such a close link with Him in His present position and in His glory, and here she saw Solomon in His glory. Isaiah says, “Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty”, chap 33: 17. It is a great thing to get a view of Christ in His glory.
EJM The gifts given in this scripture in Ephesians 4 show that the great truth of His Headship is to be opened up. He “has given gifts to men”, v 8. It is not only sharing the truth of the victory but the opening up of Paul’s ministry, the truth of His headship.
AM That is right, and they are given from an ascended Christ, are they not, from Him where He is? And the scripture tells us in the Old Testament (Ps 68:18) that the Lord Jesus as ascended up on high, received all the gifts, and from that point He distributed them. Think of One who has ascended up receiving from God all the gifts that are needed for the assembly and giving them from that ascended and exalted position in view of His headship being known by saints down here!
NJH Did the Holy Spirit bring these gifts down? It shows the whole operation of the economy for the benefit of the assembly.
AM That is right; divine Persons, all working together in order that the assembly should come short in nothing. People may say we do not have the apostles now; we do not have the miraculous gifts. The assembly has all that is needed and has always had all that is needed at any phase in its history.
HP In Revelation He speaks to John: “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”, Rev 1: 17, 18. I am affected by the power He has about this, “of death and of hades”.
AM Yes, every power has been given to Him. He has power over every authority.
HP He is “the living one”.
AM Well, what a comfort that is to us that there is One who has “the keys of death and of hades”. He is now on the other side. For us, if the Lord should leave us here a little longer, death will be a way through, a way through into bliss. What a comfort that is! For Him, He experienced it in all its fulness, but now He is in glory.
DBR You were going to tell us something about the spices. I do not want you to close before you tell us about the spices.
AM It just occurred to me as looking over the scripture: she saw the food of his table; she knew what he was feeding on and what he was giving his household to feed on; but she could supply something that would enrich that. There was something which was added. Can you say something? It had only just come to me.
DBR What do you think the particular matter of the spices would mean? I can understand the gold and these other things, but the spice, a certain savour. We have the emblems on the table and then as we proceed there is a savour comes upon our spirits. Is that the thought of the spices, do you think?
AM I think so, that which is suited to His taste. He says in the Song, “I am come into my garden … I have gathered … my spice”, chap 5: 1. There is something which is to His own taste and it is as if she had that intuition. She knew it. She knew this would be suitable for his taste.
DMC Would it be suggestive possibly of the part the sisters might have? There is a great wealth in what is coming from the sisters. It is inaudible but it is felt.
AM It certainly is. We are so thankful for the sisters, thankful for the prayers of the sisters. We do not know what is going on in secret, but it is adding to the richness of the service.
JCG Does that bear on the singers because the sisters have part with all of us in that? You had something in mind at the beginning about the ascent of the stairs and then the harps and the singers.
AM It just struck me that this whole passage was one that was leading us upward. She saw his ascent and then this sandal-wood was brought and he made stairs. You might say:
That way is upward still
(Hymn 12).
It is the service of God really that is in mind. These were Solomon’s dwelling conditions here, but what was in mind was the service of God. There are these instruments of praise too, for this upward movement. I suppose, apart from David, Solomon would have been the only instrument maker whose instruments were used for the service of God. David’s instruments were wrought out through circumstances of suffering and so on, but Solomon is producing instruments for the service of God which have been produced in glory in his own circumstances.
DHM Is there not something very attractive in that it is not only what she saw, but she saw the way things were done?
AM That is right. She knew about his wisdom and his wealth, but there was a whole order of things that was operating, and it was all operating according to his mind so his headship comes into that. It was all under his hand in view of this ascent to the house of God and the service of God being maintained.
RH Would all that has been spoken of be involved in the victory which has been given to us? I was just thinking in 1 Corinthians 15 there is the exclamation: “Where, O death, is thy sting? where, O death, thy victory?”, v 55. The sting of death has been taken away, and we have been given the victory.
AM Yes, and if that sting has been taken away, what remains? There is what is springing up for God, what is responsive to God. That is the triumph of it.
Edinburgh
23rd October 2011